CHAPTER 549: CHAPTER 65: THE YIHAI YEAR IN THE EYES OF THE GATE GOD

When the corpses on the surface of the Ancestor Court parted to reveal a path, a dilapidated wooden door came into view, its red paint weathered and faded over time.

Two blurry portraits were pasted on the door.

"Gate Gods?"

Li Mo frowned deeply, as uncontrollable Spiritual Power surged through his body.

According to the feedback from the Creation Book, Gate Gods were considered insignificant Little Immortals in the Upper Realms, tasked primarily with protecting mortals, warding off evil, and averting disasters.

Li Mo scanned the portraits, which depicted two Gate Gods.

There are two Gate Gods: one is Shen Tu, the other, Yu Lei. They oversee and resolve the harm caused by malicious ghosts among the living.

"Are there more than one immortal in the Ancestor Court? That would be a significant problem, especially since the legends suggest that the Gate Gods were once Evil Ghosts. If they’ve transformed into Deceitful Objects like Elder Yue, they’ll be even harder to deal with."

Li Mo pressed his temples in frustration.

He glanced back at the eight mountain ridges. The Golden Armor Sect had noticed his absence, but it hadn’t caused much of a commotion.

Li Mo studied how the various factions had laid out their plans around the Ancestor Court.

Any cultivator who managed to leave the Ancestor Court was severely mutated.

Their Spiritual Wisdom was shrouded, and they mumbled incoherently. They usually held several pieces of top-quality spiritual materials, and their skin was painted brightly with incomplete Magic Techniques.

The factions showed little interest in the spiritual materials; their focus lay in the incomplete Magic Techniques.

No matter how difficult and arcane these techniques may be, they contained profound mysteries from the Upper Realms, offering possible insights into the Taoist inheritance of False Immortals.

What set Li Mo on edge was the strange mutations that had afflicted these cultivators.

They had abandoned their physical bodies, dedicating themselves to cultivating their Dharma Bodies, making them indifferent to the uncontrollable state of their meat bodies.

For Li Mo, however, his robust foundation built upon his physical body signified its preeminence over the Dharma Body.

"Gate Gods..."

Li Mo pushed open the wooden door, revealing an unfathomable expanse of darkness behind it.

He stepped into the Ancestor Court. The moment the darkness swallowed him, the wooden door slammed shut, leaving behind only an infinite deathly silence.

A potent incense aroma filled Li Mo’s senses.

Soon after, a song rang out in the darkness, accompanied by the beating of gongs and drums, resembling a blind man’s auditory immersion in a theatrical performance.

"Wah ya ya ya."

"In today’s customs, every Winter Solstice and New Year’s Eve, peachwood figures are crafted, reed ropes are hung, tigers are painted on doors, lanterns are placed on either side to symbolize tiger eyes, all to ward off misfortune."

"Where are the Gate Gods?!!"

"Where are the Gate Gods, guarding you all, long enduring through the ages ahhh..."

As Li Mo pondered the song’s lyrics, he realized they outlined the steps for dispelling ominous forces and traced the evolution of the Gate Gods.

The chilling cries sent shivers down his spine.

With a creak, a sudden realization hit him—he now found himself in a humble residential house.

He glanced around; the residence was barren, yet a pair of candlesticks were deliberately placed to worship the two Gate Gods, with incense burning continuously.

The house lacked windows, and an abrupt wooden door was embedded in the wall.

That wooden door made creaking noises as if it might be blown open by a strong wind. From the hollowed-out doorframe, one could vaguely glimpse what seemed to be a bustling morning market outside.

The townsfolk hustling and bustling, mingled with the cries of street vendors.

In the distance, faintly visible mountain peaks stood tall, indicating the town was nestled among mountain ranges. Such towns were common in the central regions, where locals referred to themselves as mountain people.

Occasionally, sunlight fell on the wooden door, showing the weather’s fickleness.

Li Mo didn’t find this surprising.

He understood that although the Ancestor Court was a small world, it did not follow the conventional serene landscapes of green mountains and clear waters.

The Ancestor Court lay on the boundary of the Immortal and Mortal Realms, said to be teeming with the prayers of countless mortals, resulting in an environment where rules were profoundly chaotic and disordered.

The Ancestor Court fragments in the Northwest also housed Immortals in hiding, inevitably influenced by the Gate Gods.

According to Qu Ai’s explanation, the Immortals within the Ancestor Court were in slumber, and this environment he now found himself in was likely part of the Gate Gods’ dream.

Li Mo’s thoughts stirred, and his Spirit Root Worm transformed into a Magic Robe that enveloped his body.

Dreams and illusions had distinct differences, but the Spirit Root Worm, as an Immortal Artifact, could still help him avoid losing himself in the Ancestor Court.

"Hmm..."

Li Mo noticed the jade stone in his possession growing warm and instinctively took it out.

New cracks had appeared on the jade stone, but the inscriptions were still legible, revealing that his Eleventh Senior Sister was closely monitoring Li Mo’s condition.

[March 17th]

[Do not open the door]

[If a scholar drenched in rain knocks, absolutely open the door]

[We will meet in April...]

Crack, crack, crack.

The cracks on the jade expanded, and the fourth piece of information dimmed before completing its message, leaving Li Mo thoroughly baffled by the implications.

"On one hand, don’t open the door? On the other hand, why open it for a rain-soaked scholar?"

"And what on earth is March 17th?"

Li Mo frowned tightly, speculating that Qu Ai and the others were similarly trapped somewhere in the Ancestor Court, only able to communicate through cryptic, brief messages.

He didn’t panic because of this. After all, with the Three Immortal Body blessing him, his survival skills were maximized.

If worst came to worst, Li Mo planned to construct an Array and forcefully relocate to the True Void Hometown, although it might alarm the Gate Gods.

He carefully began inspecting the room.

Li Mo suddenly recalled the Side Room Tomb, but sadly, the rules between the two locations were worlds apart. The Ancestor Court was far more perilous than the Tomb.

He discovered that all the furniture was made of spiritual materials, which immediately put his mind at ease.

For most cultivators entering the Ancestor Court, staying inside these houses seemed to gradually expel them from the small world, only causing minor mutations at worst.

Li Mo had yet to detect any symptoms of mutation, except for the distinct lack of Spiritual Energy within the Ancestor Court. He decided to directly tap into the Spirit Vein of the Corpse Mountain Mini World to cultivate instead.

Finding no need for spiritual materials, he avoided touching the furniture altogether.

"Oh? Is this a calendar?"

"No wonder Senior Sister made a point of mentioning specific dates; it must have something to do with this calendar."

The calendar was specifically for recording dates, thick and stacked, placed on a small table. Usually, one tore off a page each passing day.

Li Mo examined the calendar, his pupils involuntarily contracting.

"Yihai Year?"

Li Mo let out a bitter laugh. Whether it was falling into the Copper Mirror at the Fire Spirit Hall or Bishui True Monarch’s Dragon King Festival, those events had all occurred during the Yihai Year.

If there were no surprises, the Great Changes of Heaven and Earth would descend that very year.

At one corner of the calendar, there was a government seal and the characters for "Luo Zhou."

Li Mo processed the sudden surge of memories from the Creation Book, confirming that Luo Zhou Town was an insignificant mountain town ten thousand years ago.

It was said that Gate God Yu Lei, before transforming into an Evil Ghost, had once been the County Magistrate of Luo Zhou Town.

"Hmm, the Upper Realm seems to refer to Immortals such as Gate Gods as ’Incense Fire Immortals.’ They don’t follow the conventional path of cultivation to become Immortals."

"Incense Fire Immortals are Ghost Immortals who failed to cross their Tribulations. By spreading faith in the mortal world, they leverage incense offerings to ascend as gods."

"Elder Yue, as a deity governing Heavenly Dao-linked marriages, holds a prestigious status in the Upper Realm. Gate Gods, at most, are like contract workers."

If their incense offerings were cut off, Gate Gods would dissipate entirely.

"Hold on."

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, Li Mo muttered to himself, "So, during the Great Changes of Heaven and Earth in the mortal realm, Incense Fire Immortals would undoubtedly intervene to protect their own lives."

"The dream within the Ancestor Court must be a recounting of the Gate Gods’ experiences during that cataclysm."

Li Mo displayed a faint trace of pity; if even Elder Yue had turned into an indescribable being, how could Gate Gods, who had far closer ties to the mortal realm, escape unscathed?

He began to doubt the mental state of the Gate Gods.

"Much of the calendar has already been torn away. It’s currently February 15th, with the New Year just recently passed and the Great Changes not yet fully unfolded."

"There’s likely to be a calamity on March 17th; Senior Sister has explicitly warned me to be cautious."

"In April, there’s an eighty percent chance the three of us can regroup. The question is whether to leave this room or wait it out."

Li Mo stared at the door, and as he pondered, the sun had climbed to its zenith.

A few children clad in cotton-padded jackets were playing noisily not far from the door, while a destitute actor, dressed as a Gate God, was singing on the street. The voice Li Mo had previously heard in the darkness had come from him.

Li Mo seized the opportunity to heal his injuries.

The wounds caused by the Soul Worm didn’t just target his physical body; they required deliberate, sustained effort to repair, likely taking two to three years to fully heal.

A month... I’ll start with restoring my cultivation base.

If I cautiously utilize my Dharma Body, it shouldn’t harm my foundational base. After all, with the Spirit Root Worm in hand, many dangers can be avoided.

"Gou Zhu Bro, what’s that house sealed off with talismans?"

One of the children, wiping his runny nose, pointed at the wooden door of Li Mo’s house, his tone brimming with curiosity as he asked the older boy beside him.

Gou Zhu scratched his head. "Little San, a few days ago, I was playing with Qing behind the courtyard of that house. It looks like an empty building, but our parents don’t let us near it."

"Hehe, they even sealed the door with the Gate God’s portraits. Could there really be demons or ghosts inside?"

The little girl sniffled, then raised her wooden stick high and declared, "What demons or ghosts? My dad said it’s the... some Disaster Beast from the Beishan Festival."

"Oh..."

The children didn’t quite understand but still took the little girl’s father seriously as he was a constable in the town.

Li Mo opened his eyes.

"Beishan... Festival. That must be the Beishan Sect’s Mountain Gate Festival, right?"

Villagers would craft paper figures called "Disaster Beasts" using yellow paper, which would then be soaked in the blood of three sacrificial animals before being hung to dry atop Beishan Peak for ten days.

During that time, townsfolk who had suffered misfortune could go to Beishan Peak.

There, they would curse at the paper figures, projecting their personal calamities onto the Disaster Beasts. Some even flogged the figures with fine braids woven from willow branches.

After the New Year, the Disaster Beasts would be locked in an unused vacant house.

They’d stay locked away for an entire year, symbolizing the Gate Gods driving away misfortune, only to be burned during the next Beishan Sect Mountain Gate Festival.

"I’m going to take a look!"

Little San shook off Gou Zhu’s hand and quickly ran to the wooden door of Li Mo’s house, standing on his tiptoes to poke a small hole through the hollowed-out paper.

The other curious children didn’t stop him and crowded around the door.

"There’s no Disaster Beast in there—just empty space."

"Let me see, let me see."

"It’s really empty. Could the Disaster Beast have snuck out?"

"I’ll go tell my dad!"

The children were in an uproar, pressing themselves against the wooden door and peering inside. The Gate God portraits stuck to the door began to show signs of tearing.

Li Mo signaled the Ghost Tiger to extend its aura toward the door to prevent it from being inadvertently opened.

"Back away."

With his height and reach, Gou Zhu pushed the other children aside effortlessly. His curious eyes darted around the room, completely ignoring Li Mo’s presence.

Suddenly, his gaze landed on the rooftop beam, and the curiosity in his eyes turned into terror.

"M-m-m-monster! There’s a Disaster Beast!!!"

Gou Zhu let out a blood-curdling scream and scrambled away on all fours, his commotion quickly drawing the attention of passersby and even attracting two constables who hurried toward the scene.