Establishment of the New Mystic Nine

The new Nine Gates was a loose organization headed by the Iron Triangle that had gradually become known among the people.

The key figure was the Iron Triangle’s Fatty Wang.

Unlike the old Nine Gates back in the day, the new Nine Gates consisted of thieves in the top three gates, adventurers in the middle three gates, and officials in the bottom three gates.

The upper three gates didn’t really recognize the validity of the new Nine Gates, but it was talked about so much that they gradually began to stop rejecting this arrangement. There were even rumors in the underworld that the source of this legend had been deliberately planned by Fatty Wang.

The first clan was still the Zhang family, which was led by Zhang Qiling, commonly known as Mute Zhang. In order to correlate with the old Nine Gates, he was given the title of Zhang Da Yanwang (1).

Since these gates were divided by age, the second clan was led by Fatty Wang, who was known as Fat Prince in the underworld. He was relatively enthusiastic about the new Nine Gates and wanted to establish it as a formal organization but was later banned by the Lake District’s Sub-District Office.

In Fatty Wang’s great scheme, the areas to the north and south of the Yangtze River would be divided into the new Nine Gates. With the Iron Triangle at its core, there would be the Five Big Pankou Faction, the Sixteen Villains Faction, the Three Zhang Clans Faction, and so on. But they were all banned in the end.

Since Wu Xie was the youngest one, he was ranked third. He was nicknamed Little Master Three, but he was also a descendant of the old Nine Gate’s Wu family, so he was also called Lord Wu or Ancient Boss Three. At the peak of Little Master Three’s prosperity, there were more nicknames, but there are too many to mention here.

The upper three gates were led by the Iron Triangle.

The middle three gates consisted of adventurers, but they were really just the brokers and bosses of the institutions that served the whole system. They were also known as the Fan Triangle. (The middle three gates all expressed their disapproval of this).

Among them, the fourth clan was led by Bai Haotian, who also worked at Warehouse Eleven. She was commonly known as Little Bai, the fourth sister. Fatty accepted Bai Haotian as the fourth clan mainly because he wanted to take advantage of Warehouse Eleven’s influence. In the new Nine Gate’s territory, Warehouse Eleven’s storage and logistics capabilities had always been the main focus of Fatty’s hope for an alliance.

Since Wu Xie had a high position in Warehouse Eleven and Bai Haotian was their inside man, Fatty felt that Warehouse Eleven should exist as the new Nine Gates’ back garden.

The fifth clan was led by Liu Sang, who was also known as Sang Bi, Sang Beng, and Sang Five (2). He was a real master who had learned the greatest technique in the thunder-listening faction. Although he wasn’t good at fighting, he had powerful ears that could listen to thunder to determine where things were located underground. Liu Sang was a follower of Zhang Qiling and later followed Wu Xie. Fatty thought that he was a rebellious person, but he didn’t think that Liu Sang’s ability should fall into the enemy’s hands, so he made an exception and ranked Liu Sang as the fifth gate. Since Zhang Qiling was the leader and Liu Sang was the fifth, Liu Sang said that he was ok with this position. It was probably because it correlated with the legendary inheritance between the first and fifth clans of the old Nine Gates.

The sixth clan was led by Ah Tou, who was commonly known as Sixth Sister. She was a master of make-up and disguises. Since she belonged to Xie Yuchen’s faction and was also a fan of someone like the other two were, Fatty decided to call the three middle gates the Fan Triangle. Ah Tou was very good at appraising antiques and could identify and forge fake antiques. Fatty was hoping that Ah Tou would deter any counterfeiters in the new Nine Gates.

The lower three gates consisted of officials who actually worked for museums and formal systems. Since they had all experienced an adventure in the sand sea, they were called the Sand Triangle.

Among them, the seventh clan was led by Li Cu. He now worked for the Mountain Forest Rescue Center, specializing in special rescue work such as cave collapses and missing relics. Li Cu was very resistant to being called the new Nine Gates and insisted on drawing a clear line since he was very famous in the rescue system. There were a lot of very expensive commissions for the protection and excavation of cultural relics and the income was very high. He had also participated in the excavation of the Seven Star Lu Palace and the restoration and re-excavation of the sand sea tomb. This work was basically the opposite of what Wu Xie did.

Su Wan was the leader of the eighth clan. He was now a graduate student of ophthalmology and had devoted himself to the study of a few eye diseases. While acting as the medical consultant of a famous expedition team in Southeast Asia, he also studied philosophy. A newly-discovered species was even named after him. He and Li Cu were still good friends, and he became a very attractive person after growing up, which led to constant luck with the ladies.

The ninth clan was led by Yang Hao. In terms of age, Yang Hao was the first in the Sand Triangle, but Fatty despised him so much that he put him at the end. Yang Hao’s current situation was unknown, but he had been active in Southeast Asia for the past few years and had multiple identities in Cambodia. There were several surveillance videos showing that he was very strong. In fact, his strength far surpassed those in the middle and lower gates.

It wasn’t clear why Fatty had designated the Sand Triangle as part of the new Nine Gates.

Xie Yuchen and Black Glasses both said that they were allergic to the words “Nine Gates” and were unwilling to make such jokes, but Fatty designated them as part of the Five Big Pankou Faction anyways. The Iron Triangle made up the remaining three.

The Three Zhang Clans Faction consisted of Zhang Haike’s Zhang family, Zhang Haiyan’s Zhang family, and Zhang Qishan’s Old Nine Gates family. The Sixteen Villains Faction consisted of eight villains in the Wu family (3) and so on and so forth. But there will be time to elaborate on that later.

<Weibo Extra: Coca-Cola><Table of Contents><Extra: The Zombie Turtle>

****

TN Notes:

(1) Yangwang= Yama, King of Hell

(2) Bi (逼)=pressure/force/extort. Beng (崩)= collapse/fall into ruins/demise. Wu (五)=five

(3) Per Tiffany: The author came up with the term “eight villains in the Wu family” in one of his extras (I’m assuming it’s the Coca-Cola one). It basically means Wu Xie’s eight famous employees, but he didn’t specify all eight people’s names. The ones we’re definitely sure of are Kan Jian, Baishe, and Wang Meng.

****

Here’s a link to “Looking for the Dead in the Sea of Lights” Chapter 0 if you all just want to jump straight into it.