As Fang Cai and the other spoke, they arrived before a massive circular gate. Coiled atop it was a huge, many-limbed divine creature, its body curled into a spiral.
She stepped forward and lightly knocked on it. The creature's limbs slowly wriggled, then its entire body contracted inward into a ball, revealing the doorway it had been blocking.
She had the young soldier wait outside, then crossed the crystalline door that rippled like water and entered the inner hall.
Inside, a handsome young man in a pale gold robe stood waiting for her. He wore a winged crown, and emblems adorned even his collar clasp.
Behind him stood a middle-aged attendant, a woman in light makeup with her lips pressed tightly together, and two cultivators with long beards and utterly expressionless faces.
Fang Cai walked up and said, "Protector Zhu, I've brought him."
Protector Zhu said, "Auntie, the army has its own orders. Even if he is one of our own, I cannot show favoritism. This matter originally had nothing to do with you, but if you intervene, you must bear the consequences of failure."
Fang Cai stubbornly replied, "I know all that. Right now, I only want you to hurry up. Don't delay my treatment of my comrades."
Protector Zhu gave a soft sigh. "It is good that you understand the consequences." He said to the attendant beside him, "Go invite him in."
After a while, Zhang Yu entered from outside. Protector Zhu showed a trace of surprise upon seeing him, and his stern expression eased somewhat. Yet he did not speak to Zhang Yu. Instead, he gave a signal, and one of the cultivators behind him stepped forward, performed a Daoist salute, then moved aside and said, "Please, Mister Tao."
Over the past few days, Zhang Yu had