Jiangshan Fengwuzhi

Chapter 351 Door

Gu Jingnian tried his best to stay conscious, but his head was always dizzy.

His thoughts seemed to fly away from his body, to a place he had never been before. He looked up and saw an ancient temple.

He had a strong urge to sacrifice himself in this temple...

"Gu Jingnian, wake up."

Pei Nian's voice came again. Gu Jingnian turned around, but he couldn't see Pei Nian anywhere. Only a gray mist shrouded his eyes.

He looked up and searched for a while, then gradually drifted back into a daze.

Suddenly, I felt a pain in my neck.

He looked down and finally saw Pei Nian leaning there, gently biting his neck.

Then he remembered that he and Pei Nian were trying to find a way to break the deadlock and leave.

“Wake up, I’ve got it,” Pei Nian said. “I know where the skeletons came from.”

"How did you get here?" Gu Jingnian asked.

"It was left behind by your mother."

"My mother?" Gu Jingnian shook his head, finally regaining some clarity.

Pei Nian said, "All the strange people and beasts that were refined here have turned to ashes. There are so many bones, so they must have been left by mortals, but I can clearly see that there are bones of strange beasts among them."

"Then... they were already dead before they were refined."

“She was murdered,” Pei Nian said. “But who could have killed her? Only your mother ever left this place alive.”

She recounted the story she had heard from Xun Yan to Gu Jingnian.

If Gu Jingnian were lucid at this moment, he might have some insights, but he was in a daze and only murmured "Mother" to Wen Fang, his tone somewhat blank.

Pei Nian said, "I'm not sure if it's what I think, but I have no other clues, so I can only speculate that your mother killed some of the strange people and beasts to interrogate them about the gap, which is why she left those bones behind."

The only unusual thing in the entire furnace was the pile of white bones. She could only use it to look for clues to the gap, so she asked Gu Jingnian, "Do you think those strange people and beasts might know something that your mother needs to interrogate them about?"

"What can we possibly know?" Gu Jing muttered to himself, "The entrances and exits to the realm are all teleportation points."

"But your mother will not leave a shadow when she leaves this furnace."

"Is that... the Obsidian Gate?"

"No, there are only bones there."

"let me see."

Gu Jingnian shook his head, trying to stay awake.

He began to recall each time he crossed the boundary line.

"When I first entered the realm, the gate was on the lake. It was a bridge. I thought the palace of the Womin people was in the lake, and what was on the water was just its reflection... Later, I learned to project my image, and I learned to make my shadow move while I myself remained still."

"why?"

"Because the boundary is a shadow of the Yihai in the Central Plains."

Gu Jingnian paused for a moment before using these words to explain his understanding of boundaries and the technique of transmitting images.

"film."

Pei Nian felt that she had grasped a key point and was very close to the truth, but she was still a little short.

"If the realm is entered and exited by shadows, but shadows cannot be transmitted right now, and your mother doesn't know how either, then... where can we find shadows?"

Looking down, Pei Nian saw her own shadow, short and thin.

She looked up and noticed that the light in the stove was concentrated in the center, and the shadows were longer the closer to the edge.

"I see!"

Pei Nian suddenly realized, looked at Gu Jingnian, and said, "I found the door, it's..."

"Shadow Gate?" Gu Jingnian quickly realized what Pei Nian meant by his actions and expression.

“It’s a shadow gate,” Pei Nian said. “Those bones were used to build the gate. No, they’re not bones, they’re corpses.”

As she spoke, she seemed to see those days again.

The entire furnace was filled with strange people and beasts, and Qiu Funan was among them. She was a woman, but she had an extremely strong will to survive. She killed so many that blood flowed like a river in the furnace. Then she piled up the corpses to form the shape of a door. After that, light shone down from above and illuminated the ground, revealing a door.

Covered in blood, Qiu Funan walked through the door formed by shadows and entered Jusai City, where he once again caused a bloodbath.

Thinking of this, Pei Nian felt her heart surge with emotion, feeling that this was how a woman should be born.

Without hesitation, she immediately moved the bones to Gu Jingnian's vicinity and began building a door. She used two thick leg bones as pillars, a huge fish bone as a beam, and then added the other bones little by little.

This is a difficult task, even for her.

Throughout the process, she kept thinking about how Qiu Funan, who was in an even worse situation back then, managed to do it.
As she pondered, she came to an answer—perhaps Qiu Funan wanted to see her child, and for the sake of her child, a mother unleashed extraordinary energy.

Coincidentally, Qiu Funan did it for Gu Jingnian back then, and Pei Nian does it for Gu Jingnian today.

What Qiu Funan can do, she can do too.

Another bone was placed on top, and Pei Nian was careful not to let go, afraid that she would knock down the door she had worked so hard to build.

The light was still shining on the door she had built, casting a shadow on the ground.

But there were no strange changes.

Pei Nian was somewhat disappointed and kicked the location of the shadow door. Below it was still a solid furnace bottom, made of some unknown material.

She stood there, stunned.

At this point, she was at a loss.

Gu Jingnian, who was in a daze, vaguely sensed Pei Nian's disappointment.

He cared about this, so he came to his senses again, looked at Pei Nian's back, and said, "When transmitting a shadow, the most crucial point is that you must completely believe that the shadow is real."

Pei Nian turned around and was overjoyed to see that Gu Jingnian had finally recovered.

She smiled and asked, "How can I completely trust you?"

"We walked over there naturally."

As Gu Jingnian spoke, he extended his hand, and Pei Nian naturally took it.

"Just follow me," Gu Jingnian said.

"it is good."

Gu Jingnian was enveloped by the light and landed on the ground with some difficulty, his expression showing even more pain.

He didn't want Pei Nian to worry, so he tried his best to appear nonchalant.

He walked with a relaxed stride, talking to Pei Nian as he went, seemingly unconcerned about whether the path was passable.

Pei Nian sensed that "natural" state from him, so she relaxed and let him hold her arm, turning her head to look at his profile.

The two strolled through the door made of bones, the bright light behind them and the door's shadow in front of them. Gu Jingnian was asking about the details of Qiu Funan's matter, and he slightly turned his body to avoid touching the shadow on the ground.

It was as if the shadow could actually bump into him.

More importantly, his movements were very casual; he simply walked through a door as if nothing was wrong.

"Be careful."

Gu Jingnian tightened his grip on Pei Nian, but didn't stop walking. He slightly bent his knees and stepped down.

The steps appeared out of nowhere; they were just blurry shadows that were hard to spot if you weren't paying attention. Even if someone did notice them, they would probably bend down to examine them closely.

Pei Nian should have asked Gu Jingnian how he saw it, but she was focused on talking and let Gu Jingnian lead her forward, naturally following his steps down the steps.

He stepped on the bottom of the furnace, but missed the target, and then stepped onto the solid steps.

Gu Jingnian was not surprised at all and went down another level. Pei Nian simply didn't think about anything and followed him down.

Step by step, light and shadow intertwined and shifted in front of him. When Gu Jingnian took another step, the light that had been wrapped around him suddenly broke off, and the scene in front of him suddenly changed.

It's still a furnace, and even the interior hasn't changed much, just much smaller.

The difference is that the original furnace was filled with all sorts of strange beasts, while this place is filled with people, densely packed with people.

Many people were bound by the light and floated in the furnace, while a few landed at the bottom of the furnace, surrounding one person and talking all at once.

"Look, what does it say on it?"

"Tell me, what does it say?"

The person surrounded stood in the very center of the furnace, surrounded by light, but he didn't seem to care. Just standing there, he exuded a sense of profound stillness and imposing presence.

In his hand was an old, tattered wooden plaque. He murmured softly, reading the words on the plaque aloud.

"The slanting sunlight shines through the window, painting the empty pillars, its light and shadow locking in the heavy city."

He read it twice, but the man was still puzzled.

It wasn't until he turned his head and saw Pei Nian and Gu Jingnian who had suddenly appeared that he realized what had happened and muttered to himself, "Qiu Funan, so this is how you broke the deadlock."

(End of this chapter)