A Gatekeeper & The Celestial Sovereign

Chàng Bo stood on top of Chun Mountain. His wild long black hair hanging loosely down his back, fluttering enigmatically in the spring breeze, as two large suns rose from the east.

They illuminated the horizon with golden rays. Under the dawn, Chàng Bo's unblemished milky skin seemed to shimmer, his blue eyes contained the stars. It was as if the heavens themselves were blessing him.

Underneath Chàng Bo various floating valleys made of rivers and rock formations were on display, the clouds were within his reach, and the birds flew by.

Chàng Bo stretched out his arms as if he were embracing the world. The rampant spiritual essence energy running wildly on the land halted and rushed towards him frantically. He felt it seep into his blood and refreshing his spirit, his qi increased in volume and quickly shrank again as it was filtered and purified within his Dantian.

"I've finally broken through into the Dao stage!" he laughed jubilantly. He was proud of himself. At a mere 100 years of age he had surpassed all his peers and in record speed had attained the Dao. He could finally be considered a true Celestial practitioner.

As Chàng Bo smugly grinned to himself and felt as if the world was truly his oyster, he heard a rather annoying voice yell "YOUR TIME IS UP!"

Chàng Bo's brows furrowed in irritation. He chose to ignore it.

Yet a second later, "No longer will we be under your evil tyranny, be prepared to head to the afterlife!" another annoying voice shouted.

"Die Chàng Bo!"

"Face the punishment for your crimes!"

Soon several annoying voices were calling out to him.

"Be quiet." Chàng Bo said, he spoke softly but his words still echoed like thunder across the valleys. Causing the clouds underneath to part, the birds to scatter and the earth to quake.

His words spread to the hordes of practitioners behind him, making some of the weaker one's shriek as their ears began to bleed.

Chàng Bo slowly turned and was slightly startled at the sight of over two hundred practitioners. He raised a perfect eyebrow in surprise. It was not just some lowly weak peasants. Amongst them he also saw some powerful practitioners at the Dao stage, Ascendance stage, and Allfather stage.

What had he done to get such powerful figures here? He doubted they came to congratulate him on breaking through to the Dao.

"What is this about?" Chàng Bo asked with a frown.

"The Supreme Lord of Stars has decided that you have become an eyesore Chàng Bo." A sneaky and silky voice announced.

The host of the voice was a woman with silver hair that shone like strands of moonlight. She was extremely stunning, a flower, but Chàng Bo wasn't captured by her beauty. Instead his frown only deepened. "Why is this witch, Fu Hau, here?" was all he could think.

"What is the meaning of this? Why would my Father call me an eyesore exactly?" Chàng Bo glared at her. Under his starry blue gaze, she felt her breath hitch and her qi become disrupted.

She quickly took a step back and averted her eyes. "He's broken through to the Dao stage!?" Fu Hau realised, "How was that possible?" Chàng Bo was only 100 years old and yet he'd already surpassed her and was able to make her qi disrupt just from his aura.

She'd known that he was a heaven defying talent, but this was too much. Even for the most peerless talents of the past it would take at least 1,000 years to reach the Dao stage. How was this possible...unless he'd had some type of legendary encounter?

"You've overstepped your boundaries, Chàng Bo." she squeezed out, sweat dripping from her forehead, "You've gone too far this time."

Chàng Bo was honestly confused. Too far... with what exactly?

"First you slaughtered the Hong clan in cold blood." Fu Hau announced.

Chàng Bo rolled his eyes, "So what. I am the son of the Supreme Lord of the stars, heir to the star realm. The Hong clan insulted me; therefore, they insulted this realm, they deserved their punishment. Getting rid of small pests such as them is by no means significant."

Fu Hau's hand twitched in rage. This boy was so overbearingly arrogant.

"You then slaughtered the righteous Jie clan! Although they were a mid-tier group, they have been fighting to protect the star realm for hundreds of thousands of years!"

"They were a bunch of self-entitled hypocrites, that used their righteous title to commit all kinds of heinous crimes. I was doing the realm a favour." Chàng Bo retorted.

"Then!" screamed Fu Hau, "you killed Lee Jingyi and stole the static artefact of Void Master Ju Juan from the Domain of Deities. Do you have an excuse for that one?!"

Chàng Bo froze. What? He had never done that. Why would she claim he'd done such a thing?

The Domain of Deities was a sacred burial ground for epic heroes of the past who formed the worlds and shaped the eras. Stealing from that domain was beyond criminal it was practically sacrilege and punishable with death.

And Lee Jingyi! Wasn't she the daughter of his Father's rival, the Supreme Lord of Demons? Had Lee Jingyi died? That didn't make any sense he'd seen her at the Eternal lotus festival only yesterday. If she died and he killed her, that wasn't even funny as a joke. Both the Star and its neighbouring Demon celestial realm had only cooperated peace together a few millennia ago, it was still a fragile agreement.

Lee Jingyi being killed by him would prompt another bloody war. He would never do such a thing. He was reckless and arrogant, a trait he would admit to, but he wasn't stupid. Someone was framing him!

"I wouldn't dare do something like that. I am obviously being falsely accused" Chàng Bo pushed past Fu Hau, "Move aside I must have an audience with my Father."

"Falsely accused?" Fu Hau laughed, "Is that what your excuse is? There were several witnesses who saw you together with Lee Jingyi at the Eternal Lotus Festival yesterday before she died. Also, the stolen static artefact was found in your quarters only this morning!

What excuse do you have against all this evidence!?"

Evidence? Chàng Bo's eyes narrowed. In what way was that evidence, that was the most pitiful excuse for evidence he'd ever heard.

Anyone that agreed to this so-called evidence had to be blind. This wasn't credible proof at all.

If he'd really stolen the artefact why would he blatantly leave it in his quarters for anyone to find, and so what if he was with Lee Jingyi yesterday. It didn't mean he killed her.

But as Chàng Bo saw the outraged look on Fu Hau's face and saw the cold expressions of everyone present, he realised that it didn't matter what evidence she gave, they were all set on framing him. Were they all in on this, or was some mastermind plotting against him? Whichever it was, such accusations could start another war between the realms. He couldn't let that happen, he had to prove his innocence.

Where was his Father? There was no way his Father would let him be framed for such outrageous crimes.

Immediately he summoned his flying sword Celestial sun, and jumped on its back, preparing to fly straight to the imperial castle.

Celestial Sun was a tier 1 immortal artefact, and its scorching aura blew many of the weaker cultivators aside.

Yet as he hovered above the crowd, he suddenly felt his qi disrupt and he threw up a mouthful of blood. Immediately he lost control of Celestial Sun and fell back first onto the ground. The crowd surrounding him.

Blood oozed from every orifice. Poison? When, how? He couldn't move. The poison seemed to have been lying dormant in his body for quite some time and only at this moment had it been activated.

Searing pain ran through him, he felt the poison eating and sucking up his star energy, wrapping itself around his Dantian like a snake, trying to crush it. If his Dantian was crushed, he wouldn't be able to separate his soul from his body and revive at a later date.

"Am I going to die!" Chàng Bo couldn't help but think. "I, the chosen son of the stars. The next in throne to the grandest realm, being poisoned to death…. No, I will not go down like this."

Chàng Bo weakly clutched his chest and grabbed on to a necklace. It was a lifesaving treasure called 'five star five lives', it only had five uses and could save its host from near death. As he activated it, he felt the poison stop moving in his veins. Five Star Five Lives temporarily held it back, but it wasn't capable of healing wounds, if someone wanted to finish him off right now, he wouldn't be able to resist.

He scowled at Fu Hau who was staring blankly at him. He spat blood in her direction as he activated his emergency escape treasure. A rare ancient tool, dating back from the Dawning ages. There were only 8 of its kind known to exist.

It was a Gatekeepers key.

In every world there is a Gatekeeper, the gatekeepers are a mysterious and powerful group that control the border of realms and worlds. No one can go in or out without attaining the permission of a Gatekeeper first. The Gatekeepers key is the only exception, allowing one to go to any realm immediately without needing prior permission.

It could only be used once.

The drawback being that there was no control over the destination, and one could end up anywhere. Even in a realm where powerful monsters lurked and there was guaranteed death.

The key was also a forbidden item, if he used it, he would probably get into a lot of trouble.

But Chàng Bo had no other choice.

As his body faded away, he hissed “Whoever is behind this. I know you're here! I will be back!”