Chapter 8: Chapter Eight: The Night of the Gatekeeper

Luo Shan had never intended to conceal his strength from the beginning, or rather, he knew that even if he could deceive the gatekeeper La Bi Ke, Qin Yan's father would eventually see through it. Since that was the case, it would be better to be frank. 'Uncle La Bi Ke, my strength may be at the Person Master level, but please believe me, I have no ill intent.' He said candidly. 'No ill intent? I would like to believe you, but there's one thing I find strange: why does Miss Qin Yan so wholeheartedly protect you? How long have you known each other?' La Bi Ke also hesitated a little. 'We only met today.' Luo Shan answered honestly. 'Qin Yan treats me as a friend, and I treat her as a friend; there's really nothing else.'

Qin Yan... Qin Yan...' La Bi Ke muttered the name twice, his sallow face suddenly showing a strange smile. 'Miss Qin Yan really is, to say her given name to someone she just met, so lacking in caution; the Viscount not letting her go out is indeed correct.' He muttered to himself, and the staff in his hand drooped. 'Kid.' He looked at Luo Shan. 'I believe you're not a bad person, but whether the Viscount will tolerate you, I dare not guess. Well then, you'll spend the night here with me. After tonight, my shift for this month will be over, and tomorrow morning I can finally get a good sleep. But...' His expression suddenly turned stern. 'If you harbor any ill intent, I will strike you down immediately.'

'Thank you, Uncle La Bi Ke.' Luo Shan smiled. 'I will of course be completely honest and obey all your orders.'

'Good.' La Bi Ke nodded. 'Then you wait with me at the gate for a while; dinner will be in about an hour, and I will arrange food for you. After dinner, follow us to the watchmen's hut to rest. But remember, you must not leave my side even a step, or else the other guards will see you and attack you.'

'Understood.' Luo Shan nodded. 'I'll follow you.'

'Very obedient.' La Bi Ke laughed.

The gatekeeping duty was simple and tedious, yet unnoticed, the sun had already approached the time of setting. A new batch of guards arrived to change shifts, and La Bi Ke led Luo Shan to the watchmen's hut not far away. Dinner had long been prepared; the barbecue pit blazed with fire, and the aroma of venison and rabbit meat could be smelled from afar. Luo Shan, having been hungry all day, couldn't help but feel his appetite stir at the scent. Seeing his salivating expression, La Bi Ke couldn't help but smile slightly, and his earlier doubts lessened a bit. 'There's a portion for you, don't rush.' He smiled, turned to the other guards, and said, 'Come on, everyone, dinner is ready. Hey, Xia Er, did you bring the wine?'

'I brought it, I brought it.' A slender youth raised his head from beside the fire and answered loudly. 'This wine is something else, Uncle La Bi Ke—guess what it is.'

'Could it be whiskey?' La Bi Ke laughed heartily, taking a quick step to stand before Xia Er. 'I haven't had whiskey in ages; these days I've only been drinking fruit wine, I'm practically turning into a monkey.' 'It's not whiskey, guess again.' However, Xia Er stepped back, shielding the wooden barrel holding the wine. 'If you can't guess, you won't get any of today's wine.'

'Haha, Xia Er, you little rascal, trying to show off your wine in front of me—do you think I still have to listen to you?' La Bi Ke laughed, stretched out his nose and took a strong sniff. 'Fragrant, fragrant—although mixed with the barbecue smell, I can still detect it... Yes, this isn't whiskey, nor is it those weak, eerie fruit wines; this aroma... Ah, Xia Er, you little rascal, this is the Viscount's own honey wine, isn't it? How rare—to be able to drink the Viscount's brew, my luck today really isn't bad.'

As soon as he finished speaking, the several guards nearby burst out laughing. 'Xia Er, you silly kid, showing off your wine in front of Uncle La Bi Ke—you're overestimating yourself.' 'Uncle La Bi Ke's nose is so sharp, you know that, and besides, the barrel holds fragrant wine.' 'Today we actually get to drink the Viscount's own honey wine—how rare. The Viscount must have encountered some great fortune, otherwise he wouldn't have brought out his cellar's fine wine for us gatekeepers to drink.'

Luo Shan felt a slight pang in his heart, then recalled what Qin Yan had said on the way to the manor: how wonderful her father's honey wine was, and how she had invited him to taste it together. He immediately realized this barrel of wine had been specially sent for him by Qin Yan. A sudden, inexplicable sweetness welled up inside him. Unintentionally, La Bi Ke turned his head and saw Luo Shan's smiling expression; he seemed to understand something, shook his head, and turned away. 'Everyone.' He raised the cup in his hand, shaking the golden, mellow liquid inside. 'For the Viscount's health, for Lovegood Manor, for this sweet, pure honey wine—let's all drink a cup, okay?'

'Okay!' The guards echoed in unison, each raising their cups. 'Cheers!' 'Long live the Viscount!' Cheers rang out continuously. Luo Shan took a sip of the honey wine in his cup; it was indeed sweet beyond words, completely lacking any bitterness. Just that sip of wine made Qin Yan's beautiful face flash through his mind, leaving him a little dazed; he quickly downed the rest of the wine, lest anyone notice his distraction.

Qin Yan... she should be fine now, right?

She should have safely returned home, shouldn't she? Otherwise, she wouldn't have entrusted this whole barrel of honey wine to someone else to deliver. Hmm... the entire Lovegood Manor is her home; what's there to worry about 'safely returning home'? Thinking of this, Luo Shan couldn't help but let a faint smile appear at the corner of his mouth.

I only hope she won't be scolded by her father.

It seems these gatekeepers, including the mage La Bi Ke, all fear the 'Viscount' they speak of. Then, what kind of person is Qin Yan's father, exactly?

Luo Shan continued to ponder these thoughts until everyone had fallen asleep. The guards took turns keeping watch; the first to go on duty was La Bi Ke, while the others gathered in the watchmen's hut, simply wrapped themselves in a mat, and slept right there.

Unnoticed, the night had grown very deep.

Outside the hut came the hooting of owls, as if many unknown birds were also responding, their calls rising and falling, followed shortly by the sound of a large flock of birds flapping their wings in unison over the roof. In the utterly silent night, this added a touch of eeriness. The entrance to Lovegood Manor was originally rather desolate, and now Luo Shan felt even more an indescribable sense within that desolation, like magical power permeating the air. Perhaps La Bi Ke and the others had released some kind of barrier while on watch, Luo Shan thought dazedly.

Just then, the hut's door opened, and La Bi Ke's slender figure slipped inside. 'Old Three.' He shook a guard's shoulder. 'Your turn.' 'So soon, I just fell asleep.' That guard mumbled a few words, lifted the blanket, and got up to fetch his weapon. 'Hurry up.' La Bi Ke glanced at him, then turned to Luo Shan's side, took the blanket, and lay down. 'Kid.' His voice carried a deep meaning. 'Sleeping on this cold hard ground must be uncomfortable, right?'

'It's fine.' Luo Shan replied. Although this hard wooden floor was worlds apart from the soft duck-down bedding at home, after experiencing this series of events, he no longer cared about such things. After all, who could be more terrifying than having been to the Nine Abysses?

'Not bad, not bad, you kid, not bad.' La Bi Ke gave a dry, heh-heh laugh, closed his eyes. 'Kid, honestly tell Uncle, what's your background? Your parents? Other relatives? Where's your hometown, how did you get to know Miss Qin Yan? Don't misunderstand, I'm not interrogating you, just curious. At least, in Nofugood Manor, Miss Qin Yan's friends can't be people with obscure backgrounds, right? You agree, don't you?'

I am...' Luo Shan was about to speak, but suddenly realized that revealing his angelic lineage would bring endless pursuit, so he hastily changed his words. 'I am the son of a mage from Amidot Town; the Spirit God Hall captured my parents for some unknown reason. I have no other relatives; I myself was hunted by the Spirit God Hall, and later Qin Yan—oh no, Miss Qin Yan—by chance saved my life and invited me to Nofugood Manor. That's my story, Uncle La Bi Ke; if you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do.'

La Bi Ke closed his eyes, his expression inscrutable. 'Good, good.' He simply repeated those words a few times, then suddenly shuddered, flung his eyes open, and sprang to his feet. 'There's a magical aura in the air—no, wait, wrong... Old Three?' He suddenly shouted, grabbed the staff beside him, and rushed straight out the door. The other guards were startled awake by his shout, instinctively seized their helmets and weapons, and swarmed out. Luo Shan didn't react in time; only when the sound of metal clashing came from outside did he suddenly realize that the magical force he had sensed earlier was not from La Bi Ke, but from an external enemy.

He couldn't help but blame himself for reacting too slowly, with no precaution at all. Knowing his magical strength far surpassed La Bi Ke's, if he had sensed the incoming magic and shouted a warning at the outset, at least the guards wouldn't be so helpless. But now it's too late to say anything; he could only throw off the blanket and rush out through the opened door.

Stepping out of the hut, facing the boundless darkness, he saw a bloody scene. The guard who had been on watch, called Old Three, now lay collapsed beside a tree, his chest and neck black with blood—clearly struck by dark magic, already dead. Not far from Old Three's corpse, La Bi Ke and another mage were straining to maintain a barrier, protecting the nearby guards; outside the barrier, three black-robed mages waved their staffs, black mist continually spewing from the tips, coalescing into blade-like shapes that relentlessly slammed into La Bi Ke's barrier, which, under the incessant impacts, teetered on the verge of collapse. Luo Shan recognized this as the 'Black Arrow' dark magic; he had seen it once when confronting the Underworld King with Xiao Yu Shan, though the power of these three mages now cannot compare to that of the Underworld King, the Black Arrow's potency remains astonishing. Seeing La Bi Ke's barrier about to shatter, Luo Shan had no choice; he raised his right hand, and a beam of light shot forth, striking exactly the magical light the opponents had released. He already possessed Person Master strength; this casual strike, though lacking a staff's aid or prior chant, was far from trivial—the opponents' Black Arrow was deflected, La Bi Ke's pressure eased suddenly, and the barrier's light flared up again.

The three mages were startled; they hadn't expected that such an unremarkable-looking youth could unleash such power with a casual strike. They hadn't expected that, as a member of the angelic clan, Luo Shan had studied light magic since childhood, but due to his bloodline and Makas, his power mostly leaned toward darkness. Since light and dark powers conflict, using dark power to drive light magic reduces its effectiveness from the start. Otherwise, with his Person Master level, a full-force move could easily floor these three intermediate Person Apprentice mages. Originally La Bi Ke was a high-level Person Apprentice, but the other mage was too weak, so he was essentially fighting three against one, naturally no match. Now, bolstered by Luo Shan's aid, his spirit lifted, the magical power at his staff's tip began to gush forth like a spring, gradually shifting from defense to offense.

Luo Shan found the fight increasingly smooth; the light between his fingers darted back and forth, then suddenly he struck hard, actually piercing the opponents' dark beams and directly hitting one mage's staff, instantly snapping it in two. That mage was the strongest of the three; with his staff destroyed, the dark arrow's light dissipated at once. La Bi Ke seized the moment, shooting a white beam from within the barrier through the gap in the enemies' magical power, piercing straight into that mage's chest, passing through his heart, and flesh and blood sprayed everywhere. The remaining two mages panicked, wanting to flee, but dared not drop their magic, fearing that if their power waned even slightly, La Bi Ke's beam would pursue them like a shadow and take their lives just as before.

At this point, even Luo Shan, who hardly had any combat experience, could see that victory was in their grasp. La Bi Ke's thin face was filled with elation. Luo Shan glanced at the two remaining mages; seeing their dark faces full of panic, like lambs awaiting slaughter, he felt reluctant to harm them. He waved both hands, employing the 'Binding Technique' his mother had taught him at age ten; two slightly grayish light beams shot forth like flood dragons, straight into the enemies' dark magical beams, winding around the two mages several times, instantly turning into ropes that bound them tightly. The two staffs clattered to the ground, and the magical beams dissipated into smoke.

'Uncle La Bi Ke.' Luo Shan called out. 'Please don't kill these two yet.'

Seeing Luo Shan's strike succeed, La Bi Ke felt as if a great weight had lifted from his chest; he lowered his staff, his whole body suddenly went limp, and a mouthful of blood involuntarily spurted out. In the brief few minutes of combat, because the enemy's strength was truly overwhelming and our side needed to protect many who couldn't use magic, he had nearly exhausted all his strength to sustain the protective barrier, his own magic almost completely drained. If Luo Shan had arrived a step later, he would have run out of fuel.

'I would like to kill them... but I have no strength left.' He gave a wry smile. 'Kid, you saved Uncle's life; Uncle owes you. Cough, cough... Xia Er, Xia Er, you're quick on your feet—now go to the manor and tell the Viscount we've been attacked, and beg him to take precautions.'

'Yes.' Xia Er, who had been unharmed in the previous round of fighting thanks to the barrier's protection, upon hearing La Bi Ke's command, replied affirmatively, stood up, and went to fetch a horse.

'Kid, you've set the binding spell; don't let it lapse...' La Bi Ke coughed. 'These two fellows are steeped in dark magic aura—absolutely not good people. We... we must take them back to see the Viscount... cough, cough... too bad I now have no strength at all, otherwise...'

'No need. I'll stay here.'

Just then, a long, resonant howl suddenly reached everyone's ears. The sound seemed distant, yet also right beside each person's ear, though in the darkness no silhouette could be seen.

Luo Shan frowned slightly, but La Bi Ke's expression had already turned to ecstatic delight; he gazed at the black night sky, his lips twitching faintly.

'The Viscount... it's the Viscount.'

In the night sky, from far to near, several points of fire gradually appeared. Faintly, the sound of horses neighing came through the air. A carriage rolled along the winding gravel road and appeared before everyone's eyes.

Viscount Raffi Lovegood has arrived.