Chapter 130: The Seven Gates!
These two fools didn't stop to think: if the Zoldyck Family truly lacked strength, how could they occupy such a vast mountain range and turn it into their own backyard?
With expressions of disdain, the two burly men walked straight to an inconspicuous guardhouse at the base of the wall.
From time to time, such individuals would appear.
Sometimes they were unruly tourists, other times self-proclaimed clever bounty hunters. Just a few months ago, several people had died, and it hadn't been long since then.
One of the burly men, relying on his brute strength, ripped the guardhouse door right off its hinges, grabbed the old dozing guard inside, and hauled him out.
"Open the door, now."
The elderly gatekeeper wore a troubled expression and said, "This puts me in a difficult position. I'll be scolded by the master."
Another burly man brandished the large sword in his hand, a mysterious confidence on his face, and spoke up, "Don't worry. Your master will be dealt with by us anyway."
The elderly gatekeeper's expression grew intensely conflicted, and finally, with great reluctance, he pulled out a key he had prepared in advance from his pocket and handed it over.
The burly man snatched the key and roughly shoved the gatekeeper to the ground.
"That hurts..." the elderly gatekeeper groaned in pain.
Watching this scene, Mord couldn't help but find it amusing. Some people really do grow more cunning with age. This elderly gatekeeper was actually a servant of the assassination family, the Zoldyck Family, named Zebro.
On the surface, he was a guard at the gate, but in reality, he was responsible for cleaning up the invaders disposed of by Mike. When enemies tried to invade the Zoldyck Family, he would pretend to be threatened into handing over the key, allowing the invaders to enter and be eaten by Mike.
His combat skills were nothing special, but his acting was first-rate.
Other tourists, seeing that someone could enter, also wanted to follow and join in the excitement.
After all, the reputation of the Zoldyck Family was far too renowned, having become a household name.
"I advise you not to go over there. Curiosity killed the cat."
Hearing the voice from behind, the curious tourists turned to look. The speaker was a young man dressed in ancient dark robes, with long black hair (grown out from never cutting it) and a somewhat lazy demeanor.
He also carried a long sword at his waist.
The man pointed forward and said, "That's the main gate over there."
Everyone followed the direction he pointed, but there was no gate in sight.
Mord smiled and raised his finger, pointing upward.
The tourists looked up and finally noticed the gate Mord had mentioned. Below two lifelike dragon statues, from top to bottom and from outside to inside, there were six distinct dividing seams. It seemed as though the enormous city gate before them was nested together like seven layers of matryoshka dolls.
Judging by the seams, although the bottommost gate was tall, it wasn't unreasonably exaggerated.
Hearing Mord's explanation, some tourists grew interested. One burly man walked up to the gate.
But even when he exerted all his strength, the massive gate remained completely unmoving.
The burly man leaned against the gate with one hand, panting heavily.
"Are you making fun of us? I'm the weightlifting champion of our city, capable of lifting a thousand-pound barbell. Even if this gate were made of stone, I should be able to push it open."
A tour guide nearby also explained, "This city gate is likely fixed and just for decoration. We've never seen it open before."
"So that must be the real entrance over there. Let's hurry and follow them," the other tourists chimed in.
Just moments earlier, the two "bounty hunters" carrying swords and blades had already entered through the small gate next to the gatekeeper.
The elderly gatekeeper stood up, dusted off his clothes, and said helplessly, "Mike is going to eat meat other than his usual feed again."
Before his words faded, two agonizing screams echoed from the other side of the small gate.
The tourists instinctively froze in their tracks.
The gazes of everyone present turned toward that small door, eager to know what had just happened on the other side.
Creak—
The small door opened again.
A massive hand of an unidentified creature appeared before the crowd, holding two corpses that had long since turned into dried bones.
One skeleton had a shattered skull, while the other had all the ribs on its left chest missing.
The large hand loosened its grip.
The two skeletons in its hand fell to the ground, immediately scattering into a pile of dried bones.
"Ahhhhh!"
The sudden turn of events startled the tourists.
Screams erupted one after another.
Everyone ran toward the distant tour bus at the fastest speed of their lives.
The gatekeeper was all too familiar with this scene. He rubbed his head and muttered to himself, "Really, I explicitly told it not to eat outside of mealtimes. Mike, if you get fat, I won't take responsibility."
Just then, the gatekeeper's gaze sharpened. Amid the panicked, scattering crowd, only one person was moving against the flow, heading toward the main gate.
Soon, all the tourists had returned to the bus. The tour guide, showing some conscience, leaned out and shouted to Mord, "What are you doing? Hurry and get on the bus!"
Mord didn't turn back but raised his right hand and waved.
"You can go ahead. I'm staying here to wait for someone."
After receiving Mord's clear response, and urged by the tourists on the bus, the bus finally started up again and soon disappeared from the gatekeeper's sight.
"Young man, you said you're staying here to wait for someone?" the gatekeeper asked.
"Yes, for your family head's friend. Of course, it's only right not to make guests wait outside," Mord replied with a smile.
"Young man, you saw it just now, didn't you? That giant beast's arm. It's called Mike, the guard dog of the Zoldyck Family. It doesn't obey commands from anyone outside the family, nor does it show affection to strangers. To this day, it remains fiercely loyal to the order its master gave ten years ago..."
The gatekeeper spoke with a grave expression, "And that is to bite to death all intruders!"
"Since it's a guard dog, it should understand one thing: those who enter through the main gate are guests of the Zoldyck Family."
Rumble—
Before his words faded, a deafening roar echoed.
Under the gatekeeper's utterly shocked gaze, the true main gate of the Zoldyck Family swung open.
Not one gate, not two, not three, not four...
But a full seven gates!
In other words, the entire gate had been pushed open by the young man before him.
In the twenty years he had served as the gatekeeper for the Zoldyck Family, he had never seen anyone capable of pushing open the entire gate.
Was this truly something a human could accomplish?