Chapter 833: Gravekeeper

Yan Buji couldn't think it over; a pain struck his forehead, and his body swayed, about to collapse.

"Run!" the girl tugged Yan Buji and leapt toward the nearest gear. They fled through the tangled mechanical structure, a giant relentlessly pursuing behind them. At one point Yan Buji looked back and saw, in the vortex on the giant's chest, a battlefield scene flash by—the clash of the Five Domains' humans and demons!

"I get it..." Yan Buji gasped while running, "The so‑called 'Nurturing Sky Pearl' is a key forged from battlefield dead souls. The Nine Heavens cultivators are using war to gather the energy that opens a certain seal!"

The girl suddenly slammed on the brakes. Ahead a massive chasm like a cliff yawned, the gear structure broken there, and opposite the gap a still starry sky. Floating in the sky were twelve bronze coffins, each extending chains that together bound a humanoid black shadow.

"Is that... the Heavenly Star Coffin?" the girl's voice trembled, "Legend says it's used to seal..."

Before she could finish, the pursuing Dao Fruit guards suddenly froze en masse. The vortex on their chests peeled away, turning into blood streams that flew toward the black shadow in the sky. The shadow, fed with blood, thrashed violently, and the chains moaned under the strain.

"Not good!" Yan Buji grabbed the girl and leapt toward the gap. Almost simultaneously, the gear they had stood on was shattered by the shadow from a distance. Using gravity's acceleration, the two barely landed on the nearest bronze coffin.

"Crack!"

The coffin lid suddenly split open with a fissure. Pale fingers slowly emerged, their tips gathering space‑warping power. The remaining chain on the girl's wrist suddenly tightened, resonating with the fingers extending from the coffin!

"So that's it..." a hoarse whisper came from the coffin, "You are this generation's 'Key Keeper'..."

The shadow's thrashing grew more intense. More chains snapped, and the starry sky began to show spider‑web‑like fissures. Yan Buji's left eye suddenly bled, and a mutated Dao Mark spontaneously formed a shield; a being beyond comprehension was awakening.

The finger inside the coffin suddenly pointed at the girl's brow: "Since the key is already rusted, perhaps it should return to its original owner."

A torrent of information instantly flooded the girl's mind sea. She curled up in pain, runes identical to the bronze chains appearing beneath her skin. Yan Buji tried to pull her away, but the backlash split his palm.

"Go..." the girl, blood streaming from her seven orifices, showed a resolute expression, "Take this to the Return Ruins at the far east of the Five Domains..." She tore a glowing bone fragment from her chest and handed it to Yan Buji, "Tell the Gravekeeper... the Bronze Gate is about to open..."

The coffin exploded with a roar. In the shockwave, Yan Buji saw the girl turn into a flash of light that merged with the chains, and from the coffin emerged a skeleton clad in a star map! As the skeleton raised its hand to suppress the black shadow, it used its last strength to hurl Yan Buji toward a rift in the starry sky.

During the fall, the last thing Yan Buji saw was: half a fragment of the Bronze Gate protruding from the skeleton's star‑cloaked robe, engraved with the ancient characters "Return Ruins"; and after the black shadow broke all the chains, it revealed a face identical to that of a Nine Heavens Cultivator Elder...

"Bang!"

Yan Buji crashed onto a stretch of beach. A salty, briny sea breeze hit his face, and in the distance a mottled stone tablet stood, inscribed with the four characters "Return Ruins Forbidden Zone". He struggled to rise and found the bone fragment in his hand resonating with the tablet, glowing.

Even more chilling, when the tide receded, countless bronze shards lay exposed on the sand. On each shard a tormented human face was frozen.

Yan Buji staggered to his feet, the bone fragment in his hand emitting a faint blue glow that echoed the ancient runes on the tablet. As the tide fell, more bronze shards appeared on the beach, each seeming to wail silently. He crouched, and as his fingertip brushed one, countless shattered memories flashed before his eyes.

Battlefields, blood sacrifices, the bronze colossal gate...

"These fragments... are the 'Gate's' wreckage?" Yan Buji's pupils narrowed, his heart shocked.

Return Ruins, the legendary end of all things. Yet now it seemed more like a massive cemetery for a 'Gate'.

"You've finally come."

A hoarse voice came from behind. Yan Buji whirled around and saw an old man clad in a straw raincoat, wearing a bamboo hat, standing not far away, holding a bronze antique lamp whose flame was an eerie black.

"Gravekeeper?" Yan Buji tightened his grip on the bone fragment, eyes watchful.

The old man gave no answer, only raised his gaunt finger and pointed toward the depths of Return Ruins: "The thing in your hand is a fragment of the 'Key'."

"Key?"

"The key that opens the 'Heavenly Stars Gate'." The old man walked closer; under the black flame, his face kept shifting, sometimes aged, sometimes youthful, as if time had lost meaning on him.

Yan Buji squinted: "The Nine Heavens cultivators are gathering Dao Fruit, feeding something... what is that black shadow?"

"The spirit of the Great Dao," the Gravekeeper whispered, "or, rather, a 'Gate Spirit' that has been corrupted."

"Gate Spirit?"

"The Heavenly Stars Gate is not an inanimate object; it has its own will," the old man said, raising the lamp; the black flame suddenly surged, forming an illusory scene.

In the vast sea of stars, a bronze colossal gate spanning the stellar realm slowly opened, darkness stretching beyond it. Countless civilizations knelt before the gate, offering Dao Fruit, praying for the 'Gate's' blessings.

"In ancient times, cultivators discovered that the 'Gate' could Devour Dao Fruit, Evolution the Heavenly Dao's laws, so they sacrificed madly, even sparking wars among all races," the old man's voice was low, "but they did not know the 'Gate' could also be corrupted."

Yan Buji's mutated Dao Mark in his left eye suddenly throbbed violently, as if confirming the old man's words.

"The Nine Heavens cultivators think they are mending the Heavenly Dao, but in fact they are feeding the monster behind the 'Gate'," the old man sneered, "They believe they control the 'Gate', yet the 'Gate' has long been Devouring them."

Yan Buji was silent for a moment, then asked, "Who was that girl?"

"The last generation of 'Key Keepers'," the old man sighed, "Her purpose is to stop the 'Gate' from opening."

"But she was Devoured."

"No, she voluntarily merged into the chains," the old man shook his head, "The 'Gate's' seal requires a Key Keeper's blood sacrifice; she chose to sacrifice herself."

Yan Buji clenched his fists, an inexplicable anger rising within him.

"So you just watch it happen?"

"Us?" the old man laughed, his smile tinged with sorrow, "We 'Gravekeepers' are merely prisoners of the 'Gate', unable even to die."

Before the words finished, a thunderous roar erupted from deep within Return Ruins, the entire sea violently shaking, water swirling back, revealing the outline of a massive bronze gate deep on the seabed!

"Damn!" the old man's complexion changed abruptly, "The 'Gate' is about to open early!"

Yan Buji looked up and saw the gate slowly opening, thick black mist seeping through the crack, countless pale arms reaching out, frantically clawing at everything.

"We must stop it!" the old man seized Yan Buji's arm, "Your mutated Dao Mark can briefly disrupt the 'Gate's' rules!"

"What should I do?"

"Enter the gate, find the core of the 'Gate Spirit', and use this key—" the old man drew a rust‑stained bronze short sword from his coat, "pierce it!"

Yan Buji took the short sword, and the moment his hand touched it, the mutated Dao Mark in his left eye boiled wildly, as if cheering.

"Remember, you have only the time of a single incense stick," the old man said gravely, "If you exceed that, you will be Assimilated by the 'Gate' and become part of it."

Yan Buji grinned, "Enough."

He no longer hesitated, leapt forward, and charged at the bronze colossal gate as it opened!

But in the blink of an eye, Yan Buji drove a blade into his own chest!