Chapter 98: Entering Another World
Moving through the maze, Deng Wu and Hui Yue often stopped to scan the surrounding area, looking for Sha Yun and Wang Ju Long. Unfortunately, no matter how hard Hui Yue stretched himself he was still unable to pick up even the slightest trace of living beings.
On the seventh day, Hui Yue finally noticed something which caused him to feel great dread. He had been seated on the ground, merged with the earth of the maze and shock suddenly appeared on his face, as he felt how one stone wall after another was crumbling down as though they had been destroyed by an impact.
Hui Yue quickly left the trance-like meditation where he was one with the earth. The abrupt cancellation of his merger caused Hui Yue to spit out blood, as his being which previously had been earth now was forced back in shape.
The young boy had no time for surveying his injuries, instead he stumbled to his legs and gestured to Deng Wu that the two had to run. For someone to destroy the maze, one had to be at least as strong as the two of them, most likely stronger, to forcefully making their way through these walls.
Another option was that the one responsible for demolishing these walls had an affinity with Earth, yet looking at the ease with which it had been done, Hui Yue could easily see that the affinity was much better than Hui Yue’s, causing the teen to become extra cautious.
Hui Yue could not help but swear inwardly as Lan Feng ignored the events, acting as if it did not matter. The white-haired boy had decided to enter the Dungeons of the Divine for the sake of increasing his cultivation in a place where he would not be found. Yet the damned bird refused to give even one hint as to what this place was exactly.
Looking around, Hui Yue saw that there was some extravagance over the use of this many light stones. Although it looked extravagant, the walls were still simple stone walls and so far Hui Yue had seen nothing which he would consider divine.
He had previously picked some Shadow Mushrooms as Lan Feng said that they were valuable, yet after filling a whole storage stone with them, Hui Yue paid no more attention to the mushrooms which were as numerous as stars in the sky.
“This way!” Hui Yue barked as he ran through a side path, Deng Wu following right behind him. “Whatever it is, it seems to go a specific way. We better get out of the way, or we will most likely get crushed together with the wall.” Hui Yue was slightly flustered as Lan Feng was completely silent and his scanning had not shown him any life forms. This was making it hard for him to know what it could be that was after them.
Dashing through the side path, Hui Yue was certain that they could get out of the way, yet as soon as they had moved, whatever was smashing walls behind them also changed destinations. There was no longer any question about where it was headed, whatever was crashing through walls was aimed at them. Hui Yue gritted his teeth as he stood up again.
“Get ready,” He said as Black Blood appeared within his hand and a tint of red appeared within his ice-blue eyes. His demeanour changed and the air around him seemed to grow colder. So cold that even Deng Wu next to him started shivering.
Hui Yue allowed for his consciousness to enter the stone below and with that he could see everything that was happening, even on the other side of the walls.
Waiting patiently, Hui Yue quickly noticed that it was not just one person who was on their trail, it was in fact two. As the revelation dawned upon Hui Yue a smirk appeared on his meditating body and the frozen atmosphere quickly returned to being humid and stale like before.
Deng Wu was surprised to see that Hui Yue withdrew his senses from the stone floor and once more returned to his own body as he had expected the younger male to get ready for a fight. Instead he leisurely walked to the opposite wall and leaned against it.
Loud thunderous sounds could be heard and it felt as though the entire mountain was shaking, as walls were broken down, one by one, before finally only one wall separated the two groups.
Deng Wu was slightly nervous, yet he trusted Hui Yue completely and finally he moved next to the white-haired boy where he sat down on the chilled and moist stones, waiting to see what could explain those thunderous sounds.
Just as the sounds reached the final wall they stopped. Although there was now only one door between the two groups it was impossible to break them the same way as Sha Yun had done previously, as she was likely to injure her friends in the process.
Instead she sat down and began meditating, allowing for her tail to cut out a doorway within the wall, a doorway which allowed for the two groups to see each other again.
As soon as Deng Wu saw the culprits, relief flooded his senses and a big smile appeared on his face as he quickly assisted Sha Yun in removing the wall. Looking at the group, Hui Yue could not help but feel that they was slightly unbalanced.
First was Deng Wu who had managed to specialize within a very frowned upon road of cultivation as a necromancer, yet his abilities as an inscriber were truly astounding. Hui Yue saw how he could create almost anything as long as he had enough materials. Deng Wu was a metal affinity Master just like Hui Yue, yet Hui Yue had not spent much time on that particular element.
Sha Yun was someone who had the same elemental affinity as Hui Yue, yet she still managed to outshine him when it came to becoming one with the earth. In spite of that, Hui Yue’s future when it came to the Earth element was limitless, and he could already feel his power growing day by day, within this stone maze of a mountain.
Wang Ju Long was the only one, apart from Hui Yue who had a dual elemental affinity, yet her second affinity was limited so for now she focused solely on the Wood element.
Wang Ju Long was the kind of girl who wished to perfect whatever she was working on, and she had decided to walk two paths at the same time. Her first wish was to become a healer and her abilities as such were astonishing, yet her healing abilities were further developed into weapons of destruction. Wang Ju Long was the perfect assassin, and her training had caused her to entwine the two roads of cultivation she had chosen to walk on.
Her second elemental affinity was Water, yet her affinity was so low that she had almost no contact with the element, causing her to focus her entire attention onto the Wood element. Once when she managed to reach the pinnacle, only then would she start her hard work with Water.
Hui Yue was the one with the most affinities, yet both his Metal and Earth element was already in use by Sha Yun and Deng Wu, and both of them were superior to him in their usage of those elements. That was, however, only because they had gotten a head-start and Hui Yue was perfectly well aware that he would soon catch up to them.
One thing Hui Yue had which the others did not was a affinity with Fire which was the most destructive of all affinities.
Deng Wu had finally managed to create a perfect opening from where Wang Ju Long and Sha Yun appeared, both looking miserable with dirty clothes and skin. Hui Yue could not help but laugh, yet after looking at himself the laughter increased as he saw how he too looked like something the cat dragged in. There were nothing clean on him at all.
“We are almost out of the maze,” Sha Yun commented, and Hui Yue allowed for her to take the lead while all four friends were chatting about what had happened the last few days together, along with their expectations of these messy dungeons.
“I would like to know how soon is almost,” Deng Wu complained after having walked for another half day, but as soon as the words escaped his lips a heavy door appeared in front of them.
Unlike the rest of the maze, this door was created from gold and the carvings were all dragons. Some big and others small yet in the middle a gigantic dragon was placed, it’s eyes were emeralds and the body was filled with thousands upon thousands of scales carved from sapphires.
‘Welcome to the entrance into the Dungeons of the Divine,’ Lan Feng said quietly from within Hui Yue’s dantian and the white-haired boy quickly shared the information with the others.
“So this is the entrance?” Deng Wu asked, astonished. “I guess this has something to do with the Azure Dragon?” Once again neither Little Dragon nor Lan Feng answered any of their questions, and Hui Yue could not help but feel slightly confused as to why that was.
Sighing over the sudden change in character with Lan Feng, Hui Yue moved towards the heavy door where he slowly used his entire strength to open the door just enough for the four of them to enter together.
Entering into the world beyond the gate all four youngsters stopped in their tracks as their jaws almost fell to the ground. The sight which awaited them was nothing compared to what they had expected and shock was evident on all faces, even the usually calm Wang Ju Long.
The four of them felt as though they had been dropped into another world as they saw the sun shining high above them, yet above the sun was no sky nor clouds, instead there was a stone roof.
The entire ground which they had arrived on was beautiful green lush grass, and only a few hundred metres away was the outskirts of a forest.
In front of the four youths was a lake, yet this lake was not made from simple water, instead it undulated great fluctuations of spiritual energy, giving the water a slight silvery colour.
Looking at this lake, Hui Yue instantly went towards it, and he felt how his cultivation technique was working at a speed he had never experienced before. The essence in the surroundings were sucked into Hui Yue’s body and he gladly accepted it all.
Gesturing to his friends to come join him, Hui Yue quickly stripped of all his clothes before he slowly made his way into the water.
Deng Wu and Sha Yun were not many seconds to follow Hui Yue, both stripping completely as they rushed into the water only to feel a sudden tranquillity envelope them, making them all completely relaxed, as they laid down in the water and allowed for their bodies to soak in the spiritual energy which their cultivation techniques were working hard to refine.
After a few thoughts of consideration, Wang Ju Long followed suit and also jumped into the water, her face red as a boiled lobster and she quickly hid underneath the silvery water, yet even she could not let go of such an immense treasure.
‘Ah this spiritual spring has far more spiritual energy stored than I remembered.’ Lan Feng commented from within the dantian, a satisfied and happy expression on his face. ‘You four should stay here until there is no more spiritual energy within the lake. After that we will go visit the nearby village.’
‘Village?’ Hui Yue was shocked upon hearing that there was an actual village living here in the underground, and he had a hard time understanding how they would ever go out. Yet before Hui Yue had the time to think it all through, he felt the calming waters submerge his confusion and he once more focused fully on cultivating.
‘Welcome to a whole new world.’ Lan Feng smiled, as he leaned back and attentively observed how the Qi swirl within the dantian cave was circling with a speed never before seen.