Chapter 161 : Chapter 161
Chapter 161: Woman Sings, Man Dies
Not long ago—Planet Number 9611451469's corresponding civilization.
Inside the Mage Tower of the Gate of Truth.
“Knock knock knock!”
“Master, Master Leonard!”
A man wearing an exquisitely made mage robe urgently knocked on the ornate door before him.
This was the meditation chamber of the founder of the Gate of Truth, the renowned Grand Spatial Mage, Master Leonard.
“What is it?”
The door automatically opened, releasing a faint scent of rotting wood. At the center of the room, Master Leonard looked toward the man before him with clear displeasure.
He silently examined the man’s collar.
One star.
That meant the other was a mage apprentice.
But judging by the finely tailored mage robes, he was likely some noble's child sent here through connections for a gilded title.
Leonard let out a faint sigh, suppressing his rising irritation, while letting the room’s shadows conceal his expression.
No helping it—his family had paid him off.
“What’s the rush? As a mage, you should know how rude it is to interrupt someone during meditation!”
“Master… um… the… the ‘Ki—’…”
The man leaned against the wall, panting heavily, as if he had just climbed up from the bottom of the mage tower.
Before he could finish, Leonard cut him off.
“Calm down!”
Master Leonard cleared his throat twice, visibly dissatisfied with the apprentice's frantic behavior.
Young mages these days lacked the composed mindset he had once prided himself on.
“As a refined mage, you should maintain your poise at all times. Don’t go around showing panicked expressions so casually.”
After lecturing the apprentice, Master Leonard gracefully picked up a cup of tea, calmly sipped it, and waved at the man.
“Speak. Why have you come to find me?”
“The Gate of Kir has opened…”
The apprentice struggled to catch his breath as he reported.
The Gate of Kir.
A phenomenon that began appearing inexplicably over a decade ago.
It frequently opened spatial gates across the Janteboar Continent, randomly ejecting various objects.
Extremely powerful and strangely effective artifacts, incomprehensible and unusable materials, unfamiliar foods—or just plain garbage.
The ignorant masses below worshipped these events as divine miracles. The Church of the Great God Kir, built upon these phenomena, grew rapidly and had now become the most powerful religion on the Janteboar Continent. Churches, big and small, dotted over half the land.
However, as one of the foremost spatial mages on the continent—and one of the rare intellectuals—Master Leonard had a different opinion about the so-called Gate of Kir.
He believed it was some sort of space portal opened by someone or something else. The items that fell out were transmitted through it from some unknown location. If they could study the Gate of Kir and reach the other side of the portal, they might uncover knowledge and wealth beyond imagination.
Driven by this idea, Master Leonard had built his mage tower—the Gate of Truth.
Of course, he didn’t deny that part of it was also because he had been struck by a pile of garbage during a marriage proposal back then.
Because of that wretched event, he was still unmarried!
Yet, ever since the Gate of Truth was founded, all they had managed was to trace the location where the Gate of Kir opened—nothing more.
The reason was simple: the Gate of Kir opened and closed too quickly. Before they could even cast a spell, the portal was gone.
Master Leonard sighed helplessly.
What kind of training did these new hires receive?
The Gate of Kir appeared almost daily—why bother him over such a trivial matter?
All they ever thought about was slacking off.
Master Leonard silently vowed to fix the slackening discipline within the mage tower.
“So it opened. Whatever. Just record the location like always and go back to your duties.”
He waved off the apprentice once more, intending to close the door and return to his meditation.
“N-no, wait…”
The apprentice quickly stepped forward and held the door, finally managing to finish his sentence.
“This time, the Gate of Kir hasn’t closed! It’s been open for over a minute now! All the other masters have already gone to the sensing chamber to monitor it—they’re only waiting for you, Master Leonard!”
“WHAT?!”
Upon hearing that, Master Leonard jumped to his feet.
He no longer cared about maintaining his elegance and immediately grabbed the apprentice by the shoulders, shaking him forcefully.
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?!”
“I tried, but you—”
Before the apprentice could finish, Master Leonard pulled out his staff and, with a grand wave, used spatial magic to teleport directly to the sensing chamber.
The apprentice left behind stared blankly at where Leonard had been standing.
This mage tower is ridiculously tall—Master, couldn’t you have taken me with you?
My family pays a hefty donation to the tower every month, you know!
He glanced at the stairs behind him, opened his mouth, swallowed his words, and sighed helplessly. He then turned and began climbing toward the sensing chamber.
…
“Master Leonard…”
When Master Leonard arrived in the sensing chamber via spatial magic, several men in luxurious mage robes hurriedly greeted him, eager to explain the situation.
“That’s enough. I already understand the general idea. Let me sense the spatial fluctuations myself.”
Not wanting to hear any more chatter, Master Leonard brushed past the crowd and headed straight to the center of the room.
The others had no choice but to gesture for the crowd to make way.
Leonard stepped through the path they cleared and approached the central magic crystal, closed his eyes, and placed his hand on it.
As expected—it was the spatial fluctuation from the Gate of Kir!
He opened his eyes in excitement and immediately began tracing the spatial coordinates leading to the other side of the gate.
Everyone in the room held their breath, afraid to disrupt Leonard and potentially go down in history as the ones who sabotaged the Gate of Truth’s ultimate goal.
As expected of the continent’s most famous spatial mage.
Within a few breaths, Leonard opened his eyes and announced that he had successfully retrieved the coordinates to the other side.
“Ohhh—”
Cheers erupted throughout the chamber.
The goal they had established upon founding the Gate of Truth was now within reach—how could they not be excited?
After several tens of seconds, Leonard raised his hand to quiet the room.
“Everyone! The goal we set upon establishing the Gate of Truth is about to be realized…”
He gave a stirring speech to the gathered mages and then declared that he would open a spatial gate immediately to lead them all into the fabled divine realm!
Master Leonard closed his eyes, grasped his staff, selected the coordinates he had retrieved, and began channeling magic to open the gate.
But in the next moment, his eyes flew open in terror.
In just an instant of casting, his entire magical power was drained.
Due to the interruption, the space spell backfired immediately. A mouthful of old blood burst from his lips.
With a loud “thud”, the once-glorious Master Leonard collapsed to the ground, his left hand curled slightly forward, unmoving.
Meanwhile, in Yi Ning’s laboratory, on the other side of the spatial spell—
Sensing the spatial instability caused by the incomplete spell, the computer managing the space gate automatically shut it down to maintain the lab’s spatial integrity.
After all, it was just a trash bin meant for throwing things away. Once the trash was tossed, the gate closed—no one would be foolish enough to program it to keep the gate open indefinitely.