Chapter 509: Old Haunts

We continued forward, searching for a way out in this snow valley. Finally, we discovered a climbable spot buried and hidden by snow. I scraped the snow away with my ice axe, found footholds on the rock bit by bit, and climbed up. At night we rested against the cliff wall. It wasn't until noon the next day that we climbed up the thirty-meter-high cliff.

We continued trudging onward: I followed Poker-face. By dusk, we had probably traveled no more than twenty kilometers, but we noticed signs of melting snow around us. Poker-face listened with his ears, feeling his way bit by bit, and finally found the crevice buried by snow.

After dark, the temperature dropped much lower than expected. We entered the crevice and arrived at the hot spring where we had rested before. We made a fire there to warm ourselves and boiled some soup.

I had no appetite and didn't eat much, but Poker-face seemed to not want to eat anything at all. After resting at the crevice entrance for a while, we continued inward. By then I understood very clearly where Poker-face was going. He was heading to the Bronze Door. That place had completely overturned my outlook on life. I really, truly did not want to see that place even once more.

But obviously, Poker-face's destination was exactly that place. From this crevice, going inward all the way, we would soon reach that place without needing to go around the entire Cloud Summit Palace.

I thought about those human-faced birds, wondering what situation they were in now. That night I had a dream. I dreamed that Poker-face and I arrived before the Bronze Door. Poker-face said goodbye to me, then went inside, leaving me alone at the entrance. When I turned around, countless human-faced birds stared at me, which woke me with a start. After waking up, I saw that Poker-face wasn't sleeping but was sorting through all his belongings.

I asked him what he was doing. He said, "I'm checking. I'll leave you whatever you can use. You might need them on your way back."

"What about you?" I asked in surprise.

"Here, even if I were a newborn baby, it wouldn't matter. I'm already very close to my destination," he said. "You don't need to go in anymore. It's too dangerous inside."

To my astonishment, Poker-face actually took out two Ghost Jade Seals from his pack. He hesitated for a moment, then handed one of them to me.

"Since you came here, I think you should know some things," he said. "Take this Ghost Jade Seal back with you. I only need one."

"Where did you get the other one?"

"Old Madam Huo gave it to me," Poker-face said. "When you all didn't know."

"What is this thing used for?" I cut to the chase. I was no longer interested in knowing what was behind all this.

Poker-face said, "To open the door."

I took the Ghost Jade Seal, and he said, "If you bring this thing to the Bronze Door, the door will open. Ten years from now, if you still remember me, you can bring this thing and open that Bronze Door. You might still see me inside."

"Then what place is behind the door?" I asked Poker-face. "Why do you have to go in?"

"I cannot tell you what kind of place that is," Poker-face said. "I can only tell you about an agreement. Many years ago, I carried a secret and found your so-called Old Nine Gates of that time. In the Zhang family's ancestral teachings, survival had always been the greatest goal. The entire development of the Zhang family was to hope that in any chaotic era, the Zhang family could survive, thereby preserving the mass burial of the Zhang family ancient tower. From the information I received, only the clan leader could know a huge secret. The Zhang family had obtained this huge secret from the very beginning. This secret operated throughout Chinese history, and no one knew what it was. We only knew that this secret itself existed, and the secret had a critical time node. That node has now arrived. After the last hope of the Zhang family's survival was shattered, I found the Old Nine Gates of that time, hoping to borrow their strength to help the Zhang family and jointly undertake this obligation, so that this secret would not be discovered. But not a single person among the Old Nine Gates kept their promise.

"The core of this secret that I must guard is behind this Bronze Door. Guarding this secret takes time. I will enter the Bronze Door for ten years, waiting for the next successor."

"Why do you say none of them fulfilled their promise?" "Because for the past nearly a hundred years, all the people who guarded this secret were from the Zhang family, and thus the Zhang family's strength was weakened. In the promise before us, people from the Old Nine Gates had to take turns guarding this secret."

"Not a single person went?"

Poker-face nodded: "I am the last Zhang Qiling of the Zhang family. From now on, all the days must be guarded by me. However, since you came here, I'll still tell you: ten years from now, if you still remember me, you can open this great bronze door to take my place."

"Wait." I digested this and then asked, "You mean the Old Nine Gates were supposed to take turns. Your Zhang family has already taken turns for several generations?"

Poker-face nodded. I then asked him, "If it weren't for this situation, according to the promise, who would it be the Old Nine Gates' turn to send now?"

"You," Poker-face said.

Me? I was stunned. "You mean, originally, I was supposed to go behind this Bronze Door and stay for ten years?"

Poker-face nodded. I was about to say "Explain clearly," but Poker-face suddenly reached out and pressed behind my neck, and I immediately lost consciousness.

That was the last time I saw Poker-face. After I woke up, except for the Ghost Jade Seal he left for me, everything of his had vanished.

I went looking for him like crazy, squeezing deeper into the crevice, only to find that there was no path there at all. The road we had come out from before was actually sealed.

I remembered that when Poker-face was crawling inside earlier, he had disappeared from my sight for a moment. Could it be that he had activated something then, which created the path we later took?

I stayed there for three days. It wasn't until the blizzard gradually subsided that I completely gave up hope.

The journey passed without further conversation.

Finally, I returned to Hangzhou. As I walked by West Lake, a fine drizzle fell from the sky. I recalled everything I had been through, thought of everyone's ending, and suddenly felt so, so tired.

For some reason, tears started flowing down my face. I returned to my own shop, as if I had gone back to those early days when nothing had yet happened.

I had originally thought that after finishing all this, there would be something left. I never expected that nothing at all would remain.

But I realized I couldn't stop yet. I still had to keep going, because there was still a ten-year period ahead.