Chapter 143: Closing the Gate

"Not only that, but the others suddenly vanished." Jiang Yu did not specify who they were, because she saw two more cultivators behind the gate, wearing the ritual robes of the Dongzhou Demon Moon Sect.

"Senior Sister Xia, how many people are still behind? How many of our Tianyuan cultivators have fallen into the desert?" She whispered only after no one entered from outside any longer and everyone together kept the great gate wide open.

Xia Bing gestured, and Deng Yuanwu walked over: "There are about thirty people on the Tianyuan side, and roughly forty on the Dongzhou Continent.

Among them, from our Grand Void Sect—including you and me—there are three in total."

She knew that Jiang Yu and Deng Yuanwu's master, Ye Zhenren, had some friction, so she said, "Exploring is safer if we form a team of our own people."

Jiang Yu neither confirmed nor denied, merely gave Deng Yuanwu a slight nod as a greeting: "Earlier, I saw two Dragon Emperor Island cultivators discover a city brick beneath the sand, but after being drawn into the gray mist here, I haven't seen them again.

"Senior Sister, how did you discover this place?" she wondered, suspecting that the Dragon Emperor Island cultivators had triggered something that made the whole city appear in the desert.

She watched dozens of people scattered along both sides of the street, some even running to the open shop doors to peek inside.

But more people formed groups of three or five, cautiously defending.

Each side also sent one person toward her, saying, "Daoist Xia, could the Daoist who entered earlier please explain the details of this place?"

After exchanging a glance, Xia Bing and Deng Yuanwu looked at Jiang Yu and said, "We have been wandering the desert for a long time, during which we were surrounded by demonic beasts several times.

Later, the numbers grew, nearly sparking a fight with Dongzhou cultivators, but after cooperating, we still couldn't locate the desert's edge.

Then we met Guo Jue, a Daoist of the Great Awakening Temple, who told us there is another way out of the desert: find an ancient city and pass through it to reach elsewhere.

Now everyone is cooperating, hoping to locate where spirit herbs grow, or to enter the innermost circle to search for treasure.

"I haven't been inside long either; at first we were fighting because we didn't recognize each other, and then during the skirmish we discovered…" Jiang Yu, of course, could not claim she killed any demonic cultivators, and only roughly mentioned the few people who had just fallen in and the peculiarity of the crossroads.

"They were all teleported away; why are you still here?

And those Dragon Emperor Island cultivators—how did you determine that?" Min Wu's clan junior, Min Chi Yuan, asked Jiang Yu in the Dongzhou dialect, deliberately avoiding the Tianyuan tongue.

Jiang Yu glanced at him, and as Senior Sister Xia turned to face him, she preemptively spoke in Tianyuan speech: "I don't know; even if I did, I wouldn't be here.

Moreover, I'm not a criminal. Daoist Min, why are you questioning me like this?"

As soon as she finished speaking, a cultivator peeking into a shop shouted, "Someone's here!"

"Swoosh swoosh swoosh," dozens of people rushed to the doorway of the tea‑house‑signed shop, where two half‑sleeved cultivators descended from the second floor.

In the ground‑floor hall, both floor and tables were spotless, each table holding a pristine teapot.

The two, upon seeing dozens of people clamoring around, swiftly raised their implements to defend.

"Senior Sister Xia, shall we follow everyone to see?" Deng Yuanwu, who despised that feeling of his spiritual consciousness being pressed to the limit, said.

His spiritual perception could not extend far now; with the wall blocking, he couldn't immediately see the true state of the tea house.

Before Xia Bing could answer, a voice in the Dongzhou dialect blurted out, "Dragon Emperor Island—they are Dragon Emperor Island cultivators."

"Jiang Yu, come see what we saw earlier—are they those?" Young monk Guo Jue ran over.

Jiang Yu sighed; at Senior Sister's signal, she followed to the shop's entrance, where everyone slightly dispersed to give her a path.

She looked at the two cultivators intending to retreat upstairs and said, "They are them. I once heard a Daoist from Dongzhou Danxia Mountain say he also met Dragon Emperor Island cultivators in the desert, but I'm not sure if they're the same."

At that moment, a white‑robed cultivator in the late Foundation Establishment stage stood at the doorway, bowing to the two inside: "Fellow Daoists, we are cultivators from the Dongzhou and Tianyuan continents. Our meeting today is fate; shall we form a team to explore this city together?"

Jiang Yu immediately stepped back a few paces, thinking, "It's better they didn't speak; once they do, those two will surely flee."

Sure enough, as soon as the white‑robed cultivator finished speaking in the Dragon Emperor Island dialect, the two cultivators instantly retreated back to the second floor and vanished.

"Daoist Sha, you shouldn't have…," someone shouted, accusing the white‑robed cultivator, while the bold and skilled leapt into the tea house.

Several people, seeing that the first entrant was unharmed, also rushed into the shop, heading toward the second floor.

Jiang Yu, pulling Xia Bing, kept retreating, and many clear‑headed people on both sides also fell back.

"Senior Sister, this place is quite strange; I want to go out the city gate and take a look." In truth, seeing so many people, Jiang Yu already felt like charging against a fire‑ant swarm to break out of the desert.

But Senior Sister Xia said they also couldn't find an exit, so she wanted to leave the city to view its full layout before making plans.

Xia Bing nodded; just as she transmitted a word for Deng Yuanwu to exit the city, two booming sounds rang out.

The crowd outside the shop abruptly turned toward the source of the noise, then each sprinted at top speed toward the partially opened, about‑to‑merge city gate.

Jiang Yu was among them, but before they could reach it, the gate slammed shut with another bang.

At that moment, the cultivator who had been sprinting ahead tried to grab and pull the gate open, but it was already futile.

Guo Jue, immediately surrounded, asked, "The ancient city you mentioned for crossing—why is it now sealed?"

Beside Guo Jue stood only a mid‑stage Foundation Establishment Buddhist cultivator, yet the two seemed unafraid of being surrounded by late Foundation Establishment cultivators, saying, "Entering the city is one thing; crossing means walking from this side to the other side to exit."

"Do cultivators usually have only a single market gate for entry and exit?"

"Everyone stay calm; entering the city was our own choice, now we must work together…" The persuader was cut off by a loud shout, "Don't touch that!"

Then, those surrounding Guo Jue, including his two monk companions, were swept up by a suddenly appearing gray mist.

"Jiang Yu, help!" the voice of the young monk Guo Jue cried from within the mist; he was only among his fellow sect brothers.

Jiang Yu quickly cast a spirit net, aiming to ensnare the two monks within that circle, but she was once again blasted by the gray mist.

"Jiang Yu!" Xia Bing lunged to rescue, while Deng Yuanwu stood motionless where he was.

As Jiang Yu was thrust toward the roof, she was suddenly flung away again.

Moreover, this time, the gray mist that hurled her spun, wrapped around her, tugged and pulled, causing Jiang Yu to pass by the diving Xia Bing.

Jiang Yu felt a gray haze all around, unable to muster even a speck of Qi, and transmitted, "Jiang Tu, can you see what's happening?"

"Just fog," Jiang Tu replied, and as soon as his words ended, Jiang Yu's body became weightless, flung like a sack.

Falling hundreds of zhang in weightlessness, it tried to flash a Dragon Pearl to catch Jiang Yu, but the attempt failed.