Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Pattern on the Mysterious Stone Gate

A red beam of light burst from deep within the cavern dwelling, drawing everyone’s gaze. Its sudden appearance put an end to their thoughts of cultivating, and all of them were filled with curiosity about its source.

Zhenba said to Li Hao, “Young master, why don’t we go and take a look?”

Li Hao was just as curious, and so he agreed. “Be careful, everyone. Stay alert. Let’s go.”

The group proceeded cautiously toward the depths of the cavern. The beam of light had been stirred up by the thunderclap from before. The passages within were winding, yet their width remained fairly constant, enough for ten people to walk abreast. After advancing some thirty thousand feet, the six of them came upon a massive stone gate steeped in ancient solemnity.

The reddish glow was seeping from the gap in the gate. Li Hao and the others approached it. The gate, old and weathered, stood tightly shut. It was roughly as tall as two men and as wide as three standing shoulder to shoulder. Zhenba stepped forward and was about to push it open, but Li Hao caught his arm.

Seeing this, Zhenba asked in confusion, “What is it, Young Master?”

Li Hao cautioned him, “Brother Zhenba, be careful. Let’s not try to open it with our hands just yet.”

At his words, everyone understood what Li Hao meant: he intended to gather the power of heaven and earth and force the gate open.

Li Hao was the first to step before the stone gate. He gathered the laws of heaven and earth in both hands, directing them through his soul into the two doors, then pushed hard to either side. Strangely enough, no matter how much strength he used, the doors remained utterly unmoved, as though they were deliberately refusing him.

Seeing that Li Hao could not open it alone, Zhenba also gathered the laws of heaven and earth and helped him push. The gate still did not budge.

Kuihu saw this and stepped in to assist, yet the doors remained fixed as if stubbornly angry with them. Then Lizhan and Qin Zhen joined in as well, but still the gate did not move. Lu Yao, standing nearby, was just about to lend a hand when Lin Xueyou held her back.

Lu Yao asked in surprise, “What is it, Sister Xueyou? Why are you stopping me from helping Brother Li Hao and the others?”

Lin Xueyou explained, “Sister Yao, think about it. Even if each of them is using only their lowest strength, that still amounts to ten thousand jin or more per person. By now, the gate should already be bearing at least fifty thousand jin of force, yet it remains utterly still. Even if you add your own ten thousand jin of law power, I suspect this strange stone gate still will not move at all.”

Lu Yao felt that what Lin Xueyou said made sense. “Then what should we do, Sister Xueyou?”

“I do not know yet,” Lin Xueyou answered. “Still, when the cart reaches the mountain, a road will appear; when the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally straighten. Think carefully. There will always be a solution.”

While Lin Xueyou and Lu Yao were talking, Li Hao withdrew his power of heavenly laws. Seeing this, Zhenba, Kuihu, Lizhan, and Qin Zhen also withdrew theirs. Qin Zhen asked curiously, “Young Master, why give up?”

Zhenba, Kuihu, and Lizhan were equally eager to hear Li Hao’s answer.

Li Hao said, “I have not given up. I think that even with the five of us combined, we cannot open this stone gate. It probably cannot be forced open by strength alone. There is likely some special method required to unlock it.”

Hearing this, everyone immediately understood. Zhenba agreed, “With the five of us together, we are using at least fifty or sixty thousand jin of force, yet the gate has not moved at all. There must be something unusual about it.”

They examined the gate from every angle, but aside from the strange symbols carved upon it, they found no clues. After about a minute, Li Hao walked up to the stone gate and touched it here and there, knocked on it here and there, occasionally even kicked it, then pressed his ear to it to listen. The others watched his odd behavior, unable to tell what he was trying to discover.

After pondering for four or five minutes, Li Hao finally stepped back. Lin Xueyou asked in curiosity, “Did you find anything, little brother Li Hao?”

The others were just as eager to hear his answer. When they saw Li Hao helplessly shake his head, disappointment washed over them. They had entered only to be met with a wall, and leaving in such a disheartened state left them unwilling to accept it. Yet there was no good way to open the gate before them.

While everyone was lost in their own thoughts, Li Hao gathered the laws of heaven and earth into his eyes, and two beams of lawful light shot forth. His gaze swept repeatedly over the stone gate. By the third time, the patterns on the gate seemed to follow some sort of rule.

Shh.

Seeing that Li Hao had perhaps discovered something, Lin Xueyou quickly lifted a finger to her lips and motioned for silence to those beside her, so that Li Hao could focus on studying the method to open the gate.

Following the designs on the gate from top to bottom, Li Hao saw that the patterns differed in shape and size, yet they shared one thing in common: each had a central point of the same proportional size. Before he activated his law-seeing eyes, the patterns appeared as a chaotic jumble of assorted forms.

On his third look, Li Hao discovered that each design on the gate had a circular point at its center. From top to bottom, they gradually diminished in size, then, after reaching a certain point, began to grow again. Looking from bottom to top, it was the same: larger to smaller, then after a certain point, smaller to larger. He looked from left to right, and it was again the same—large to small, then at the final position, small to large. From right to left, likewise.

He studied it over and over for a long while. Gradually, Li Hao sensed that the very center seemed to be missing something. He stared at the middle of the stone gate for a long time, yet still could not work out what was absent. In the end, he said to the others, “Activate your law-seeing eyes and look at the very center of the gate. See if anything is missing there.”

Hearing this, Lin Xueyou and the others gathered the laws of heaven and earth in their eyes and looked carefully, but after a long while, they still found nothing.

Everyone said in confusion, “Young Master, we found nothing!”

Lin Xueyou asked, “Yes, little brother Li Hao, I don’t see any problem either.”

Lu Yao knew Li Hao must have discovered something, or else he would not have gone to the trouble of asking such a question. So she asked, “Brother Li Hao, did you find something? Yao’er still can’t see what’s wrong.”

Li Hao had not intended to reveal his conclusion at once. He merely wanted to confirm whether what others saw matched what he had seen. He had deliberately withheld the pattern he had noticed, simply to test the thought forming in his mind. Now, hearing Lu Yao ask, he could only remind them, “Look from left to right, then right to left, then top to bottom, and then bottom to top. See whether you notice anything.”

Everyone followed his instructions, but they still failed to catch the key point. They merely glanced about in random fashion, left to right, right to left, top to bottom, bottom to top, without any real focus.

Seeing that they had looked several times and still found nothing, Li Hao reminded them again, “The very center of these patterns has a point that is different. Look and see if that is true.”

Once more, everyone followed his instructions. This time they truly saw it: each pattern had a point at its center, and the size of that point did indeed differ. Having discovered the central points within the gate’s patterns, they then looked again from left to right and from top to bottom in cycles. After a few more passes, Lin Xueyou seemed to be the first to grasp the issue.

“Little brother Li Hao,” she said, “have you discovered that something seems to be missing at the very center of this stone gate?”

Li Hao answered, “Yes. Sister Xueyou, you saw it too?”

The others, who had not yet found the crucial point, heard the exchange between Lin Xueyou and Li Hao and all turned their eyes to the very center. Connecting this with the varying sizes of the points at the centers of the patterns, they realized that the middle of the gate seemed to be missing a point.

Everyone had now identified the problem. Zhenba exclaimed, “Young Master is truly meticulous, able to notice such a subtle detail. If not for your reminder, we might have stared at it much longer and still never found the key.”

“Yes, yes...”

Li Hao said modestly, “There is no need to praise me so. I was only lucky. Still, think carefully about what that missing point might be. I suspect it has a great deal to do with opening this stone gate.”

Lin Xueyou said, “Li Hao is right. Everyone, think about it. That place seems to be missing a point, yet it also does not seem to be a point. Try to figure out what it really is.”

After hearing Li Hao and Lin Xueyou, everyone once again brought forth their law-seeing eyes and studied the gate carefully for a while.

Suddenly, Lu Yao said, “Brother Li Hao, look at that missing place. Doesn’t it look like an especially huge fist?”

Hearing this, everyone clenched their own fists and compared them. The more they compared, the more it seemed that the missing place indeed resembled an enormous fist.

Li Hao murmured to himself, “Yes, but a human fist could never be that large...”

Hearing his mutter, Lin Xueyou thought for a moment before saying, “There is only one possibility if the fist is truly that big for a normal person.”

At her words, everyone seemed to understand. Li Hao asked uncertainly, “Do you mean the fist-shaped manifestation of a law-body formed by gathering the laws of heaven and earth?”

Lin Xueyou nodded firmly. “Exactly. A manifested fist.”

Li Hao said, “That makes sense. Everyone, step back to a safe place. I’ll try to see whether a manifested fist can blast these two doors open.”

Once everyone had retreated to safety, Li Hao condensed a law-body manifestation. With a thought, that manifested body drove a single punch into the center of the stone gate, precisely where the fist mark should be.

The instant the manifested fist struck the gate, its lawful power spread outward in a flash. The patterns carved upon the stone gate seemed to shift.

Rumble...

The designs on the gate rotated slightly and emitted a deep, thunderous rumble. Then, in an instant, the two doors parted.

“It opened! It opened! It opened!”

Everyone was still caught in the exhilaration of having succeeded, when the sudden change in the gate poured a bucket of cold water over their excitement. Just as the doors had opened one-third of the way, they slowly began to close again.