…..
[Next Day]
On the day of the opening of the [Portal 002], Yoo Jin-Ho had arrived at his destined location in the nick of time.
◤-----------------------◥
[[Portal 002] Location: Los Angeles, California
- Site: Skid Row, Downtown LA
- Status: ACTIVE | Will be closed in: 0D, 0H, 03M]
◣-----------------------◢
Jin-Ho unhooked the [Pan'ku Locket] from around his neck.
Originally, it wasn't supposed to be a locket.
Pan'ku Box was originally supposed to be a magical, puzzle-like artifact from the cartoon show - [Jackie Chan Adventures] - that is used to locate and open portals to the Netherworld.
From what he remembered, it was created by the Eight Immortals.
It also has the ability to reveal the location of the eight portals that each seal a Demon Sorcerer away.
By solving its puzzle, one could unlock those portals.
That was the plot.
He didn't know how and why, but for some reason - he remembered every tiny bit of a show he used to watch randomly.
He ignored it when he could clearly remember [Solo Leveling] plot to such deep details, but he is sure now.
His memory power increased massively.
Anyway, coming back to the topic of [Pan'ku Locket].
Its functions and structure - both are undoubtedly different from the [Jackie Chan Adventures] verse.
As a consequence, the locket in his hand can allow him to travel to a different world?
◤-----------------------◥
[Ding–! Condition for Dimensional Travel are met]
[You can press the button, to activate Dimensional Travel]
◣-----------------------◢
He studied it for a moment, tracing the intricate etchings before pressing a small, recessed button hidden beneath its surface.
Immediately, a pulse of energy surged from the locket.
The locket rose from his hands, hovering midair as it began to vibrate ominously, emitting a deep violet glow.
Before him, the air tore open.
A dark green rectangular frame materialized, its edges etched with glowing veins of light green. Inside swirled a chaotic vortex - a twisting, screaming spiral of orange and yellow energy, pulsing with unnatural intensity.
"It looks exactly like I can remember…"
He hesitated for only a moment. "Gulp… this thing's not gonna dump me straight into the Netherworld, right? Especially not that place with those eight freakin' demons?"
The words carried a trace of fear, but his eyes betrayed him.
They gleamed with that reckless spark, the kind that always appeared when danger was near.
Then, with a faint grin tugging at the corner of his mouth, Jin-Ho stepped forward without another word.
….
[Netherworld]
The eternal darkness of the Netherworld shuddered.
In their separate dimensional prisons, the Eight Demon Sorcerers felt it simultaneously - a ripple across the fabric of reality itself, like a stone cast into still water.
Shendu's massive draconic form shifted restlessly in his blazing prison, molten eyes snapping open.
"The Pan'ku... after all these eons, someone dares to use the Immortals' creation?" His voice carried both fury and calculated interest. "But this signature... it's different. The box has changed, evolved beyond its original design."
In her crushing mountain prison, Po Kong's enormous bulk trembled with anticipation. "Po Kong feels it! Something crosses between worlds!" Her massive form stilled momentarily, unusual focus flickering in her ancient eyes. "This one... walks paths Po Kong thought sealed forever. Smells like... like before the cage-making."
The Cage-Making–
That was a terrible day when the Eight Immortals had forged their dimensional prisons from the very elements they commanded, turning their own power against them in an eternal mockery of their dominion.
Xiao Fung's ethereal form swirled within his wind-trapped dimension, his voice carrying thoughtful analysis. "How fascinating. The winds whisper of one who exists simultaneously as myth and reality. They know our names from tales, yet wield power that predates the telling."
His tone sharpened with curiosity. "A paradox walking between dimensions."
From his lightning-wreathed prison, Tchang Zu's voice crackled with arrogant excitement. "FOOLS! Do you not sense what I sense? This presence carries the resonance of ancient authority!" His thunder intensified with realization. "The bloodline stirs, siblings! Someone bears the Mark of Command - the same power that once allowed mortals to bind us to their will!"
The Mark of Command.
Long ago, when the world was young, there existed mortals who carried within their lineage the faintest traces of the primordial force that had first given birth to the eight elemental demons.
The Creator - whose true name was lost to time - had shaped the demons from raw elemental chaos, giving them form, consciousness, and purpose.
When he vanished into the cosmic void, he left behind scattered remnants of his essence across reality.
Some mortals, through chance or destiny, inherited these minute fragments in their bloodlines.
This infinitesimal connection, barely a whisper of the Creator's true power, manifested as the Mark of Command, granting them limited authority to speak the True Names of elemental beings and compel basic obedience.
The Keepers were these bloodline carriers, mortals who possessed just enough of the Creator's essence to command, but never enough to truly understand what they wielded.
They were not his children, not his chosen, merely distant echoes of a power they could never fully grasp.
When the cosmic forces first established the balance, they chose these bloodlines to serve as eternal guardians.
Only those born to 'Keeper' bloodlines could manifest the Mark.
It could not be learned, stolen, or transferred.
…and they could feel the Keeper's power - the Mark of Command etched within this mortal, faint though it was.
"A new Keeper? Impossible."
Shendu snarled, flames roaring higher with indignation. "The Keeper bloodlines were severed when we were banished. The Eight Immortals made certain of that - they burned the genealogies, scattered the families, erased every trace of their authority!"
His voice carried the bitter memory of that desperate time. The Immortals had not merely defeated the demons, they had been forced to make an impossible choice.
The Keeper bloodlines had failed in their sacred duty:
Some had been corrupted by the demons' promises of power, others had grown complacent, and a few had even allied themselves with their supposed charges. When the demons' tyranny reached its peak, it was because the Keepers had either been compromised, overwhelmed, or had simply abandoned their responsibilities.
The Immortals faced a terrible reality: they could not trust the Keeper system to work again. Even the uncorrupted bloodlines represented a risk - future generations might prove as fallible as their predecessors.
So they made the harsh decision to sever the connection entirely. Most Keepers were relocated to distant lands and their memories of their heritage sealed away.
Only the most corrupted or those who actively fought alongside the demons were eliminated. The genealogies were destroyed not out of malice, but to ensure that the failed system could never be restored, that humanity would never again depend on fallible arbiters to control forces beyond mortal comprehension.
"Did they, eldest brother?" Hsi Wu's sharp laughter cut through the dimensional barriers from his aerial prison. "Or did they simply... relocate the problem? I can taste dimensional fractures around this presence. They don't belong to our reality - they are from somewhere else entirely."
Tso Lan's calm voice resonated from his gravity-locked prison, carrying terrible implications. "The Moon speaks truth across all dimensions. This being exists in quantum states - past, present, and future blur around them. What if the bloodlines weren't destroyed... but scattered across realities where we could not sense them?"
Deep in his earthen tomb, Dai Gui's brutish voice carried unexpected insight. "Dai Gui remembers the old stories. Before the flower-curse, before the cage-making. There were mortals who could speak our True Names."
His voice grew thoughtful. "Made us listen. Made us obey, yet not through sure strength - through... through something else. Something Dai Gui never understood."
The flower-curse.
Dai Gui's personal torment for the Immortals had discovered his particular hatred for the beauty of growing things and used it to weaken him during his banishment. Even now, the memory of cherry blossoms could drain his strength.
But before that curse, before the imprisonment, there had been the Keepers - mortals who commanded not through force, but through the authority of shared divine essence.
"The Keeper bloodlines…." Bai Tza's serpentine voice rose from the oceanic depths, heavy with ancient knowledge. "The ancient familiesss choossssen to maintain balance between the mortal realm and elemental forcesss."
Xiao Fung's voice carried sudden comprehension. "The Keepers... in the beginning, they truly served the greater cosmic order. Most served as Wardens, ensuring we were protected rather than destroyed. The most powerful among them could serve as Arbiters - with authority over our very existence."
Tchang Zu's thunder crackled with ancient fury. "DESPISED creatures! In the early days, they commanded us with righteousness, forcing us to serve mortals, to protect the weak!"
His voice rose to a thunderous roar. "I am THUNDER itself! Yet those... those INSECTS could reduce me to a mere guardian with a single spoken word! Tchang Zu, protector of villages! Tchang Zu, servant of farmers! HUMILIATING!"
"But time corrupted them." Shendu's voice carried dark satisfaction. "Their pure intentions crumbled before the intoxication of commanding beings like us. They began using us for personal gain - to crush their enemies, to build empires, to satisfy their own ambitions."
"Yes!" Tchang Zu's laughter crackled with vindictive pleasure. "I watched them fall! The righteous Keepers became tyrants themselves, using our power for conquest instead of protection! And in their corruption, they grew... careless."
Po Kong's voice boomed with remembered glee. "Po Kong remembers! Keepers got greedy! Started fighting each other! Using us like weapons against other Keepers! Made us fight our own siblings!"
Tchang Zu's voice carried triumphant malice. "When their corruption reached its peak, when they had abandoned all pretense of righteousness, the divine bonds SHATTERED! Finally, we were free to show them what we truly thought of their commands!"
"Until the Immortals caged us all…" Tso Lan observed quietly.
Po Kong's voice carried vicious glee. "If a new Keeper arises, Po Kong will corrupt them too! Will whisper sweet promises until they use Po Kong for BAD things! Then Po Kong will be FREE to eat them!"
"And look where your freedom led, brother." Shendu's voice dripped with contempt. "Straight into these cages. At least when the arbiters restrained us, we ruled legitimately. Their disappearance turned us into mere tyrants."
"Speak for yourself, fire-breath!" Tchang Zu snarled. "I regret NOTHING! If I am freed, I will burn this new Keeper to ash before they can speak a single command!"
Po Kong's voice boomed with gleeful hunger. "Po Kong agrees! Po Kong will EAT the little arbiter! Crunch their bones! No more rules! No more commands! Only EATING!"
Hsi Wu's cunning laughter rippled through dimensions. "Oh, dear siblings, you are missing the delicious irony. This one doesn't even know what they are. They think they are just some lost soul with a magical trinket, stumbling between dimensions." His voice turned predatory. "They have no idea they are walking the Ninth Path."
"The Ninth Path?" Dai Gui rumbled in confusion, his simple mind struggling with the concept.
Tso Lan's measured voice explained with cosmic gravity. "Eight paths led to our banishment - one for each of us, sealed by the Immortals' artifacts. But the Ninth Path was never about imprisonment. It was built into the cosmic order itself - a protocol that can only be activated by one with Arbiter-level authority."
Bai Tza's voice carried a cold calculation. "The path that can only be walked by a true Arbiter - one with the ultimate power to determine whether we desssserve exissstence itself, or if we require complete erasssure from reality."
Shendu's roar shook the dimensional barriers. "ELIMINATION? You suggest this WHELP holds the power to destroy us utterly?"
"Not destroy." Xiao Fung corrected gravely. "Unmake. Erase us from existence itself, as if we had never been born. The Ninth Path carries that authority - the ultimate sanction for those deemed irredeemable."
"Let them try!" Tchang Zu's thunder crashed defiantly. "I am an eternal storm! I am the wrath of the heavens themselves! No mortal can—"
"Can speak your True Name and reduce you to silence." Hsi Wu interrupted mockingly. "Just like the old arbiters did. Remember how that felt, brother? The helplessness?"
A moment of profound silence fell over Tchang Zu's prison.
Po Kong's voice grew uncertain for the first time in millennia. "What if... what if Po Kong doesn't want an arbiter to judge? What if Po Kong just wants to stay free to eat everything?"
"Then you will be unmade." Bai Tza hissed with cold certainty. "The Ninth Path leadsss to only two destinationsss - redemption for those who have grown wissser, or oblivion for those who remain monssstersss."
….
Just then, a small change happened within Jin-Ho's system:
◤-----------------------◥
「Titles:」
-> [The ☒☒☒ Keeper] (Unclassified)
◣-----------------------◢
The once before "[☒☒☒☒☒☒]" was now unraveled thought only half part and its rank is still unclassified.
….
.
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
For additional content please support me in Patreon and gain access to +20 more chapters.
--> [email protected]/WrightBrothers