Walking by the Abyss on Thin Ice

Chapter 4 – The North Sea interrupts the Tianmen Gate

"Tianmen Town!"

Qiu Shuijing's mind was shaken, and he could hardly control himself.

As the mist dissipated, Tianmen Town seemed to return to reality from a ghostly illusion. When the mist dissipated, the buildings in the town were black and white, but gradually other colors appeared.

Qiu Shuijing's eyes twitched violently. Even with his heavenly eyes, he couldn't tell if this color change was real or an illusion imposed on his vision by someone's magic.

Tianmen Town was empty, except for the sound of the sea breeze and Su Yun's footsteps.

This town was deserted, with no one else but them.

After a moment, Qiu Shuijing stabilized his mind and planned to catch up with Su Yun.

"Legend has it that the houses in Tianmen Town were also built based on the courtyards in Tianmen Ghost Market."

He thought to himself, "It is said that the people who originally lived in Tianmen Town all had a background. There is a rumor that they were all sent here by the Emperor to study the Tianmen Ghost Market and seek the secret of immortality..."

Just then, the sky suddenly shook, and sunlight shone through a hole in the clouds, illuminating the ghost market in the sky.

In the sky, the Tianmen Ghost Market shook violently like a curtain in the wind and disappeared in the storm of sunlight!

The mysterious ghost market disappeared without a trace, and no one knew where it went!

Qiu Shuijing opened his heavenly eyes and saw various splendid lights falling from the sky into the tombs on the Tianmuyuan wasteland, disappearing without a trace.

Swish...

More than a hundred rays of light descended from the sky, turning into vivid figures behind the Tianmen Town archway and appearing on the empty streets.

They came and went, greeting each other, and it was quite lively.

Qiu Shuijing thought to himself, "There are no living people in Tianmen Town anymore. These are just manifested spirits."

Su Yun walked up to a large mansion and seemed to see an old man sweeping in front of the mansion. He bowed and said, "Good morning, Uncle Qu."

The old man stopped sweeping and said kindly, "Yun'er, back from the market? It's late. Rest early." He glanced at Qiu Shuijing and ignored him.

Qiu Shuijing's heavenly eyes turned, and he saw the mansion behind the old man constantly collapsing and reconstructing.

Su Yun continued to walk forward and came to another mansion. He bowed and said, "Good morning, Auntie Luo."

"Good child, you're back."

The woman stood in front of the door, busy shaking rice grains, and smiled kindly, "Come home early, have some food and rest, don't forget tomorrow's class."

Qiu Shuijing looked at the Luo mansion and saw it constantly collapsing and reconstructing silently.

Su Yun walked through Tianmen Town, seemingly unaware that there was no one else here except him, greeting the people in town.

"Good morning, Sister Fang!"

"Good morning, Uncle Xu!"

"Good morning, Grandma Le!"

...

Qiu Shuijing watched this scene and felt a sense of absurdity.

This scene made him think that Tianmen Town still existed and that the people in town were still alive!

Unfortunately, they were all dead, for six years already.

Su Yun came to the front of a courtyard, pushed open the door, and after a while, smoke rose from inside.

Qiu Shuijing stood outside the dilapidated courtyard and saw the blind boy busy making breakfast for himself. People were coming and going in Tianmen Town, and it was bustling, no different from an ordinary small town.

"He doesn't know he's the only human here."

Qiu Shuijing thought to himself, "He always thought that the people in town were still alive, and these spirits were hiding it from him."

He stood outside the courtyard, quietly watching the blind boy eating breakfast, and thought to himself, "Mr. Ye Hu was right. There are still living people in Tianmen Town, but unfortunately, there is only one left, and he is still a child. The strange thing happened six years ago, so his eyes should have been blinded during that strange incident, when he was still an innocent child."

After finishing breakfast, Su Yun cleaned up the dishes, went back to his room, and tried to recall the lessons taught by Mr. Ye Hu, practicing them before going to sleep.He worked hard all night, although he didn't earn much money, he was really tired.

Before long, he fell into a deep sleep.

As the sun rose, the bright sunshine appeared a bit gloomy in Tianmen Town, blocked by the haze over the town.

Qiu Shuijing stood outside the courtyard and saw the yellow bell in Su Yun's shabby room gradually becoming clear.

When people are asleep, their hearts are like a clean mirror, and their spiritual abilities will be more clear and powerful than during the day.

Qiu Shuijing stared at it and saw the bottom of the yellow bell spinning non-stop, and a two-inch tall figure sat upright and breathed below the bell.

That was Su Yun's spirit.

The yellow bell was formed by the thoughts of the spirit.

Qiu Shuijing silently watched for a long time and found that Su Yun's spirit was only practicing the basic "Master Confucius' Qi Cultivation" technique.

"Master Confucius' Qi Cultivation" only cultivates Qi and nourishes the essence, and does not contain any content on how to cultivate spiritual abilities.

So where did Su Yun learn his spiritual abilities?

"There is another possibility."

Qiu Shuijing's eyes flickered, thinking to himself, "He may have imagined a yellow bell in his mind to keep time, and he kept thinking about it day and night, even his spirit was imagining this yellow bell at night. Over time, imagination turned into visualization, and thus he cultivated his spiritual abilities. If that's the case, his talent is too good..."

He hesitated a bit. It is extremely rare for a spiritual master to cultivate spiritual abilities without the guidance of a master.

Su Yun's ability to do so shows that his talent is excellent.

Such a person is buried in the countryside, hanging out with foxes, which is a waste of his talent.

But Su Yun is also blind, and it would be difficult to teach him complex cultivation knowledge. Even if he learned it, as a spiritual master, he would not be able to use his abilities without sight.

"He's a good seedling, but it's a pity after all."

Qiu Shuijing sighed inwardly, withdrew his gaze, and walked around Tianmen Town, carefully examining the mansions where ghosts and gods were hiding and observing their owners.

Tianmen Town was filled with a faint mist, and six years had made this small town far from what it appeared on the surface. He could see through the essence of Tianmen Town.

Qiu Shuijing had also heard of the strange incident six years ago.

It was said that six years ago, on a certain day, there was an anomaly in the sky above Tian Shiyuan, and another world suddenly appeared, shrouding the North Sea.

It was an extremely magnificent world, like a poem and a painting. The sky was like a round dome, as if a palace of immortals was floating in the sky, making people daydream.

There were rumors that it was a world of immortals, a world of longevity!

The gravitational force coming from that world caused the sea water in the North Sea to flow backwards, and a water column of more than thirty miles thick appeared on the sea surface. The water column was tens of thousands of miles long, connecting the two worlds and forming a passage between them.

The masters near Tian Shiyuan rushed to the North Sea, trying to enter that world of paradise.

And where they landed was Tianmen Town.

One night, lightning and thunder suddenly flashed in the sky above the North Sea. The thunder lasted all night, and the next day, a great flood fell from the sky, causing the sea level to rise sharply, and the tsunami swept up the coast for dozens of miles, drowning countless people in Tian Shiyuan.

The next day, the survivors discovered that the strange world in the sky had disappeared without a trace, and the sea bridge connecting the two worlds had also disappeared.

People found Tianmen Town at the center of the flood, and strangely, everyone in Tianmen Town, including those masters from the Kingdom of Yuan, had disappeared, leaving only their spirits!

Since then, Tianmen Town has become an ominous place, rarely visited by people, and even if someone actively seeks it out, they may not be able to find it.

As for what happened that night, no one knows. Qiu Shuijing had heard of this rumor, and he had always thought that everyone in Tianmen Town had died in that accident, but he didn't expect that someone had survived.

"At that time, Su Yun was too young and probably didn't know what had happened."He silently thought to himself, "This mystery is still unsolved and there's no way to crack it."

After waking up, Su Yun tidied up his bedding, washed up, and reviewed his studies in silence to confirm that he hadn't forgotten anything before going to cook.

After he finished getting ready, he pushed open the firewood door, walked out of the courtyard, and turned to close the door.

Just then, a deep and gentle voice came from behind him, "Little friend Yun, can I take a look at your eyes?"

Su Yun recognized the voice and turned around, opening his eyes blankly and asking, "Is it the teacher from the city?"

Qiu Shuijing walked up to him, bowed his head to carefully examine his eyes, and said, "Yes, it's me. My name is Qiu Shuijing, and you can call me Mr. Shuijing."

Curiously, Su Yun asked, "How long has Mr. Shuijing been here? I didn't hear the sound of your footsteps."

"Four hours. You were sleeping, and I was waiting outside," Qiu Shuijing's pupils contracted as he discovered a clue in Su Yun's eyes.

He saw that Su Yun's eyes weren't completely without pupils, but rather that his pupils seemed to have been stimulated by bright light, gathering into an extremely fine point that was blocked off, preventing any light from entering.

Qiu Shuijing had strong eyesight, but he could only vaguely see a faint chill in Su Yun's pupils, like needles.

Qiu Shuijing's heart skipped a beat and he suddenly raised his finger, gently flicking it in front of Su Yun's eyes.

Swish—

A bright light shone from Su Yun's pupils!

Qiu Shuijing's vision turned completely white for a moment before slowly recovering. He saw a beam of light shining from Su Yun's eyes and projecting into the sky above Tianmen Town.

Qiu Shuijing turned around and looked up.

He saw the sparkling North Sea, with a huge water column on the surface of the sea. On the water column were many ships, setting sail and heading towards the sky.

At the end of the water column was another world.

The paradise world where the so-called immortal lived!

"But the incident should have happened at night. What made the night sky so bright?" Qiu Shuijing looked towards the source of the light, where a flying sword was floating in the sky, flying out from another world.

The sword was fifty feet long and nine feet wide, shimmering with dazzling light and dragging a light flame several miles long.

And directly below this long sword was Tianmen Town!