Sundering Nature-Volume 9 Chapter 5

Original and most updated translations are from volare. Please don't read elsewhere and stop supporting theft.

TL: Zhao

Editing: Krisaia

"Something wrong…" Bai Ze remarked with a frown, just as the seal was halfway through completion. "This gate is too weak…"

"Too weak?" Fu Bo gulped down a mouthful of saliva. His face was pale from all the horror that he was witnessing.

"There are ten thousand years worth of evil sealed within this gate… This is way too weak…" Bai Ze said worriedly.

"They're coming from below!" Tian Yan exclaimed.

"I'll stop them." Ying Mei said. Her body morphed into a shadow, branching off underground as she began her work.

"Sis Ying?" Being the only one familiar with Ying Mei, Tian Yan noticed a change in her demeanor. Instead of the signs of physical strain that she was used to seeing, Ying Mei was showing signs of eagerness.

"It's nothing." Ying Mei quickly adjusted her composure. She wrapped her arms around her own body and sank her fingers into the back of her skull, multiplying the shadows that she created.

"Don't push yourself." Li Yiming turned around.

"Bai Ze's right. We haven't seen the worst of it yet, so you should preserve your strength until then." Ying Mei said as her attacks became more and more frantic.

Ying Mei had noticed that she was able to consume the ghosts to gain strength. With this golden opportunity, she could not help but show eagerness.

"Give me your hand!" Bai Ze turned around and said to Tian Yan.

"Let me see through your eyes." A tiger's silhouette took form on top of Bai Ze's head.

Tian Yan was taken aback from Bai Ze's sudden request but she knew that she could trust Bai Ze. Her eyes started to glow like lanterns and projected two beams of silver light toward the mass of black mist.

Ying Mei slowed down her attacks as the beams of light radiated the area, afraid that Bai Ze would notice what was going on beneath the ground.

"There's nothing in there… What's going on?" Bai Ze mumbled as she began to look around using Tian Yan's eyes.

"Wait! Shit! I should've known!" Bai Ze suddenly exclaimed as she let Tian Yan go.

"What is it?" Fu Bo said worriedly, still feeling guilty about his mistake, which ultimately led to the opening of the gates.

"Four gates have been opened. This is only one of them! There's one gate in each cardinal!" Tian Yan said.

"What?" Li Yiming exclaimed.

"This is the weakest gate of the four since there have been very few people living here. The Eastern Gate, however, feeds on the evil desires of all the millions of people who inhabit the coastline…" Bai Ze pointed.

"Sai Gao, we need to hurry!" Li Yiming urged.

Sai Gao accelerated his work on tracing the runic glyphs essential for the completion of the sealing ritual.

Ying Mei put even more force into her fingers and accelerated her onslaught of the ghosts.

Li Yiming started to grow irritated at the ever-increasing number of specters that surrounded him. He clasped his hands together, creating a net of bright purple light in between them.

"Ten Thousand Thunder!" Li Yiming roared as he unleashed his attack toward the center of the gate. It was a powerful attack he had devised that was inspired by Thunderous Strike. Although it was not as powerful, it did not completely drain him.

As the giant lightning hit at the center of the black smog, a blinding flash of light came. For a brief moment, the black smoke was cleared, allowing the harrowing stone gates to be seen clearly. Without interference from the specters and the black smoke, Sai Gao was able to speed up the sealing process.

Ying Mei continued to put more force onto the back of her head, and a small shadow shot out from her feet into the ground.

"There's someone inside!" Fu Bo opened his eyes, still somewhat blinded by the flashing light, and saw a silhouette within the gates.

It was a woman who stood stall and possessed attractive curves.

"Liu Meng!" Li Yiming leaped forward, but the black smoke gathered once again, and the emergence of ghosts resumed.

"Don't be rash!" Bai Ze pulled Li Yiming back.

"Let me go." Li Yiming said coldly. He was confident that he saw Liu Meng and was not about to back down.

"These gates lead to the realm of ghosts…" Tian Yan said with a frown. The time frame was much too short for her to make out who the person was. She then turned her head towards Ying Mei, continued sending out wave after wave of shadows.

"I have to go. As long as there's even a sliver of hope…" Li Yiming said to Bai Ze.

"Think about it, if you go now…"

"I need to."

"Have you thought about the consequences?" Bai Ze yelled in frustration.

"Let go of me." Li Yiming said with a glacial tone — his inability to control his emotions was showing.

Bai Ze let go of Li Yiming's hand with a frustrated expression. He disappeared with a flash of light and appeared a second later in the tenebrous ocean of ghosts.

"Get out of my way!" Li Yiming roared and his body began to glow with a purple light, pushing back the ghosts, and vanished within the horde of specters.

At the same time, the gate was inundated in golden light as Sai Gao had finally completed his seal. He caught Chen Quan and Wu Jia before they landed on the ground. Tian Yan stared at Ying Mei's back hesitantly as the latter continued to clear out the ghosts, only stopping briefly to let out a discreet, satisfied smile.

"Idiot!" Bai Ze suddenly let out a cry of frustration, sending out the shadow of a giant paw crushing the stone gates into dust and smashing through the mountain. The underground was now exposed through a large gaping hole through which sunlight shone. Bai Ze basked in the warm, fuzzy light, showing a lonely expression.

"He's always been lucky. He'll make it through. We have our own fight." Sai Gao said before returning to his beast form.

"Let's go. The three other gates are being held, but they need Shao Xian to seal the gate off completely. We should hurry," Tian Yan pressed on.

"Go." Bai Ze snorted in frustration as she closed her eyes to locate Li Yiming, only to find out that their connection had been severed. She gave up soon after and the entire group hopped onto Sai Gao's back.

"We have good news and bad news." Pan Junwei's tired voice came. The president sat waiting with bloodshot eyes. For a person that was usually quite attentive to appearances, it could only signify that something terrible had happened.

"Good news first." The president stared at the nine screens in front of him, each of which was broadcasting emergency news. 'We won't be able to hide it for much longer…'

"The gate at Mount Mu has been sealed off," Pan Junwei sounded somewhat relieved.

"What?" The president quickly switched to the satellite feed of the location in question and saw the black smoke clearing away.

"Li Yiming found a way to seal off the gate completely. Fang Shui'er just relayed to us that they were headed South to take care of the gate over there."

"Good!" The president smashed the table upon hearing the news — it was the first piece of information that he had since yesterday that pleased him.

However, as he noticed Pan Junwei did not show any similar emotions, the president asked in a grave voice, "What about the bad news?"

"We can't hold it any longer…"