A Gatekeeper & The Celestial Sovereign - Chapter 53

REALM 145, NEW YORK

In a downtown alleyway the dull, thudding sound of punches and kicks hitting a body could be heard.

A bunch of teenagers encircled a young man as they beat him up. One of the bullies with brown hair laughed, saying “That’s what you get you lame piece of shit!”

The other bullies laughed.

All the young man could do was groan in pain. His entire body ached.

“This is so boring now.” A boy with blue dyed hair and several piercings said, “Let’s go somewhere else.”

“Yeah kicking this retard is making me catch his retardedness, let’s bounce this joint before we all go stupid.” The brown-haired young man said.

All the other bullies nodded in agreement and before long they all wandered off, leaving the bleeding boy in the alleyway.

After a while Jake stood up. His glasses had been shattered, his hair was messy, and his clothes were torn.

Tears spilled from his eyes. Life wasn’t fair. “Why out of everyone am I the underdog? Why am I the one that everyone picks on? What did I do? Why do they all hate me so much?” He cried. Ugly tears falling down his face. “Is it because I’m poor or is it because I’m the nerd that gets the best grades…. I wish all these jack-asses would just die!”

“I can arrange that for you.”

“Huh!” Jake heard a voice coming from behind him. He rapidly turned around, looking left and right in confusion.

Yet there was nothing there.

“I said I can help you; I can help you kill them.” the cold voice said again.

Jake began to shiver. Was he so angry that he’d become delusional and began hearing things?

“Maybe I’m tired.” he muttered, “I need to get home.”

He found his bag on the ground and slung it over his shoulder.

“I’m serious I can help you.” said the voice again.

Jake felt tired and irritable and his body was in pain, so he snapped, “How can you help, what can you do? Kill them, ha, if you can you’re welcome to try. If you can make my life suck less, I’d give you anything.”

“Is that permission?” asked the cold voice.

“Huh?”

Jake was getting more and more freaked out by this voice and was about to run out of the alleyway when a white light flew into his mouth. His entire body went pale and his veins began to bulge. He screamed, “AHHHHHHH!” before collapsing.

Moments later a homeless person that had been sleeping on a pile of trash, ran out.

He’d been ignoring the entire incident. It wasn’t like it was the first time someone had been beaten up in his alleyway, but now that the kid had collapsed the situation was different.

“Are you okay kid, are you alright?” the homeless man asked with concern. He didn’t want someone dying in his alleyway.

Jake slowly stood up, a cold smile across his lips. “I’m perfectly fine. Do not worry.”

The homelessness man backed up, retreating a few steps, he didn’t like that look in that boys’ eyes.

“Say, old man, do you know where those teenagers that kicked this body went? I need to kill them.”

“What?”

“I said old man, I need to find those boys and kill them.” Jake’s eyes were dark and round, his voice cold. A cold chill emanated from him.

The homeless man slowly pointed in the direction he saw the boys walk off.

“Thank you.” Jake smiled, the Irregularity that had taken over his body laughed a bit, “It’s time to go hunting”

_________

XILING HOTEL RESTAURANT

The atmosphere was rather tense and awkward as they all sat together in silence.

Daniel Xu fidgeted under the table, his hands incessantly tapping against his knees, his eyes swivelling around the room.

He really wanted to leave.

“Maybe I should fake a phone call and tell them something urgent came up and then make my escape?” Daniel thought, he reached for his phone and was about to put that plan into action when he heard Lee Heri’s voice.

“Daniel are you ready to order yet, I want to signal the waiter, I’m getting hungry now.”

Daniel’s palms sweated as he responded, “Ah yes, I’m ready to order.”

On second thought, if he did make an excuse and tried to leave then he was certain Lee Heri would find out that he lied, and considering her family background and her reputation, becoming the guy that ditched her on a date would be a practical death sentence. At the very least he’d be unable to find a job ever again in Beijing, the very worst she might send someone to kill him.

Even if this situation was awkward it was better to just sit through it all and bear it.

_________

Mao Lu’s eyes widened slightly, he felt that feeling again. That uncomfortable feeling like someone had walked across his grave.

Compared to last time it was much fainter sensation, but he’d still felt it.

Mao Lu frowned as he scoured the Realm, he felt like he was close to finding the location of the Irregularity, but then just like that it disappeared. Where was the Irregularity? Had it left?

“Gates another one just popped up” He said mentally.

“Another what?” Gates replied, confused.

“An Irregularity, did you not sense it?”

“Like I told you before, my senses aren’t as sharp as yours.” Gates reminded “but did you find it, is it another big one?”

“No… I couldn’t, it was like it was there one minute but then gone the next. It’s hiding from me.” Mao Lu was worried.

“Don’t fret about it, Irregularities are very tricky creatures and are very good at hiding. The one you defeated with Chàng Bo is probably just one of the many in this Realm right now. You can’t sense them until they make a move. Ever since you defeated the last one, they probably got even more cautious and are trying even harder to hide themselves from you. Don’t worry they’ll slip up eventually and you’ll find them and get rid of them.” Gates reassured.

Mao Lu couldn’t help but frown more, “You sound too relaxed Gates, who knows how many people will die or how big that thing will grow by the time I find it and defeat it. There must be a better way to locate these things and destroy them.”

Gates sighed, “Mao Lu Irregularities are not that simple. They are distortions of reality; they originate from the Realm itself. The Realm is sick, and the Irregularities are that sickness, they’re like germs and bacteria.

The Irregularities are natural, the wind has the potential to turn into an Irregularity, a tree in a park can become an irregularity, or a person’s emotions can be taken over and changed into an Irregularity. It is not something which is easy to locate.

Remember the key was originally apart of the weapon named Judgement which had the potential to destroy the 400 Realms. When Chàng Bo used the key it created a ripple, a disturbance in this Realm that is creating a bunch of these Irregularities.

They have all kinds of forms and different levels of intelligence and power.

What I’m trying to say is that if you can’t find them using Sense of the Realm then just have patience and wait for them to reveal themselves. They will eventually.”

Mao Lu didn’t like this. He’d thought that if he achieved Sense of the Realm then he could locate all these creatures very easily and destroy them and then bring everything back to the way it was. But it seemed like things wouldn’t be that simple.

_________

“Now that you mention it, I’m also hungry, we should all order now.” Zhao Detong said as he raised his hand up. Instantly a waiter came.

They all began ordering dishes.

Chàng Bo leaned against Mao Lu as he whispered in his ear in the star language, “You order for me, I don’t know what’s good, I’ve never eaten any dishes from this realm before other than what you’ve given me.”

Mao Lu felt himself about to blush and tried to prevent it, instinctively replying back to Chàng Bo in star language, “Okay, I’ll order you some super yummy dishes, don’t worry about it.” he smiled brightly at Chàng Bo.

Lee Heri raised an eyebrow, “What language is that, and why are you speaking it, is there something you two don’t want to share.” She said all this while looking only at Mao Lu, she didn’t dare stare at Chàng Bo.

“Is that any of your business Heri.” Mao Lu replied coldly, then he ignored her as he told the waiter his and Chàng Bo’s order.

“Who is Chàng Bo exactly?” thought Zhao Detong, his eyes squinting, as he watched Chàng Bo whisper into Mao Lu’s ear using that foreign language.

Was that language even Nepalese? Zhao Detong had researched more about Nepal out of curiosity and had seen that there were a lot of dialects in the language. But when he watched a video on Bilibili showing different Nepalese languages, he realised that not one of them sounded similar to the language Chàng Bo used.

When he’d mentioned this to Fei Bing Bing, she told him he was over thinking things, that a random video from the Internet didn’t show every language in Nepal.

And Fei Bing Bing wasn’t wrong, random videos from the Internet weren’t always accurate, but if he combined this doubt with the new doubts that had just been presented about Chàng Bo. Then overall it was all very suspicious.

Zhao Detong was inclined to believe Mao Lu because he trusted him, but he knew that Mao Lu could lie and that he did keep secrets. What if he knew Chàng Bo form a very bad place, and got involved with him due to something very sinister?

Was Mao Lu in some kind of trouble? What was the relationship between them?

If Chàng Bo was bad news Zhao Detong didn’t want him being around his best friend. He felt worried.

Lee Heri frowned; she didn’t like being told that something wasn’t her business, but she didn’t argue with Mao Lu. She didn’t want Chàng Bo to do something to her.

Being the heiress of the Hong group, she obviously had many guards and high security. Even now, many of her people were disguised as waiters or guests and were peppered around the room.

When Chàng Bo had threatened her earlier, they would have pulled out their guns if she hadn’t signalled them to stop.

If Chàng Bo was some type of expert like she thought he was, then she was certain that he had noticed her security already, yet he had still threatened her earlier. And he had still shown intent to kill her. It showed that this man was particularly ruthless. If she went too far with teasing Mao Lu, he really could kill her.

The atmosphere continued to be tense and awkward, everyone being rather silent until the food came. When Chàng Bo saw all these gorgeous dishes being put down in front of him he practically drooled, nothing back home smelled this good. He swallowed audibly.

Mao Lu laughed, “I guess you’re really hungry.” he said in Chinese.

“The food just smells really good.” Chàng Bo replied as he stared at all the dishes, he already had his chopsticks in hand as he stared at all the food ravenously.

As they began to eat Zhao Detong asked, “So you’re originally from Nepal right, what’s it like being in China, do you find it very different?”

Chàng Bo glanced up at Zhao Detong with his sparkling blue eyes, “It is very different from home, but I absolutely love China. I’ve seen so many exotic places since I came here, the people are very friendly, and the food is great.” he smiled.

His smile was like a warm and radiant sun, in combination with his handsome face, Fei Bing Bing, Lee Heri and Mao Lu couldn’t help but blush.

Zhao Detong was unfazed, “What do you do for a living?” he interrogated, “I wouldn’t usually listen to anything Heri says but you seem to have some skill.”

“Skill?” Chàng Bo laughed, “All I did was look at her, is it my fault that she nearly peed herself like a frightened little hatchling? She just can’t take intimidation. I have no skill there’s nothing special about me.” Chàng Bo said confidently.

“He’s telling the truth Zhao Detong, Lee Heri was saying nonsense earlier.” Mao Lu spoke up.

“Hmm speak for yourself!” Lee Heri yelled, “Don’t say I’m speaking bullshit Mao Lu, I don’t know what you’re both playing at but don’t call me a liar Mao Lu.”

Mao Lu glared at her.

“Hahaha are you angry.” Lee Heri sniggered.

Chàng Bo was infuriated, to him, due to where he was raised, Mortals were usually lower life forms. Chàng Bo could socialise with them and be friendly with them, but it was in his nature to demand respect from those around him. Especially from Mortals. And Mao Lu was the Gatekeeper of this realm, regardless of whether this girl knew it or not. She didn’t have the right to speak to him that way. Why was Mao Lu so tolerant? In the Celestial Realm even a patient practitioner would kill another who severely disrespected them.

This impertinent girl how dare she speak to Mao Lu this way. She deserves death.

Chàng Bo could kill her as easily as blinking, but he stopped himself. Mao Lu was a new Gatekeeper and he was connected to these mortals; he obviously had some type of past with this girl. Even if it was a bad past, Chàng Bo had learnt already that Mao Lu was very forgiving and soft. He wasn’t the type to hurt others if he could help it.

If Chàng Bo killed her right now it would strain his relationship with these mortals, and Mao Lu probably wouldn’t forgive him.

“But we’re going to become Fate companions anyways and if he’s hopelessly in love with me he won’t mind.” yet just as Chàng Bo thought that, he felt wrong. Even if Mao Lu was hopelessly in love with him, wouldn’t he be abusing that love if he just overlooked his feelings and did something that would intentionally hurt him.

Usually Chàng Bo would have shamelessly done what he wanted without considering the feelings of others, but when it came to Mao Lu, he found himself hesitating.

In the end he sat back and only glared at her.

Lee Heri felt the heat from his gaze on her neck, but she refused to look in his direction or be frightened by him. Even if he wanted to kill her, he wouldn’t do it in a public restaurant like this right?

Zhao Detong looked at Mao Lu hard. “Are you in some type of trouble?”

“No… god no Zhao Detong there’s nothing like that, you’re over thinking things. And since when did you start listening to Lee Heri?”

“Yeah Zhao Detong, since when did you start listening to Heri and I didn’t see Chàng Bo do anything to her. All he did was look at her right? And he stood up for Mao Lu right now.” Fei Bing Bing said, “We should be siding with Chàng Bo not going against him. That bitch is the one we should be interrogating and kicking off our damn table.”

Zhao Detong sighed Fei Bing Bing wasn’t wrong but Detong couldn’t shake the odd feeling he had about Chàng Bo.. And he could feel that Mao Lu was lying to him and he wanted to get to the bottom of this.