Chapter 72 - Under the Volcano
“Incredible treasures are hidden within the volcano in the undergrounds; however, it is also the prohibited area of our Gu Xia City. There are Qi Practitioners guarding each floor and the entrance into the undergrounds are sealed off, making it impossible to be infiltrated by ordinary Qi Practitioners.”
The seneschal said, “In this battle between the human and monster young generation, those who are qualified to observe the battles are the honorable elders and disciples of the nobles. However, since Mr. Long is a descendant of the dragons, exemptions will be made and he may be allowed to enter the arena, whereas for the four of you….”
He looked at Hu Wensheng, Bai Xiushi and the others before he shook his head, suggesting that the four Qi Practitioners’ positions were simply not high enough for them to observe the battles.
What the seneschal said was very true as the territory of Hu Wensheng and the others were located at the periphery of Gu Xia City. The status of those that occupied and ruled the periphery lands was inferior to those that occupied the mountains due to their barrenness.
Those monster Qi Practitioners who held high positions were all congregated in the mountains that surrounded the Gu Xia City – a location that had long since become synonymous with the upper echelons of their society.
An idea then struck Zhong Yue and he said, “Senior, could you please make an exemption this time for me?”
For a moment, the seneschal was reluctant to bring them into the arena but he then laughed and replied, “I too want to observe the battle… Hmm… Fine, I could give face to Mr.Long by taking them with me. Let’s go, follow me.”
Bai Xiushi and the others immediately felt thankful and as the seneschal clapped his hands, a monster Qi Practitioner walked in from the outside. The seneschal then laughed and said, “You, guard this place, I’ll take them down into the volcano.”
The Qi Practitioner nodded and then got into his position.
“Mr.Long, please follow me.”
Zhong Yue immediately followed and not long after, the seneschal led them to the lake in the center of the city. The lake was not very big as it appeared to be about the radius of two or three miles.
The lake was already dried up and cracked when they reached there. There was a crack in the middle of the lake that demarcated it into two parts, exposing a ravine that extended down under the lake floor. The lake was also heavily guarded as they could see a few hundred Qi Practitioner sentries standing at their positions all around the lake which was even protected by the statue of the beast god that was placed beside the lake!
All this ado suggested that their purpose was not merely limited to preventing monster Qi Practitioners from intruding the prohibited areas, but also the prevention of the four aces of Swords Gate from infiltrating the volcano.
There are seals all over the lake and they appear to be different from the seals in the Devil Soul Forbidden Land. The seals here are merely for the purpose of sealing off the entrance into the volcano.
Zhong Yue followed the seneschal down the stairs and he kept on measuring the surroundings. What appeared in his sight were tall walls and which when looked at closely, one could see some water elemental totem carvings all around these walls. The expertise of both the humans and monsters, regarding water elemental totem carvings, were similarly advanced but divergently accomplished.
Other than those totem carvings, there were also huge totem pillars that were plunged deep into the bottom of the lake like stakes in order to strengthen and consolidate the effect of the seals.
Contrary to their expectations, the ambient temperature grew cooler the deeper they delved into the volcano., which was actually very wonderful. It must be the result of the arrays and the teleportation portal established by Xing Huo that was constantly siphoning away the heat of the volcano.
After entering deeper underground, the surroundings became more and more spacious and there was even a huge empty area with volcanic columns erected throughout. These columns were supporting the rocks on top of them and the lava formed volcanic lakes.one after another, which emitted intense heat.
Zhong Yue and the others, however, did not feel any heat as the scorching heat energy was absorbed away by an unknown source.
“Mr. Long may be a descendant of the dragons and also a member of the nobility, but I assume that you have not seen such a scene before, am I right?”
The seneschal expression suffused in pride as he and said, “This is just the fringes of the forbidden area, the gods’ treasures are located a few hundred miles deeper underneath, protected by a countless number of seals that are so strong that they have drained away the surrounding lava! Such rarity of such arrays cannot be overestimated. Just imagine how precious the treasures would be judging from the arrays that were set up just for protection by the god before he died!”
Zhong Yue could only continue nodding his head while he felt a little bit awkward, They wouldn't ever know that Xing Huo went through all this trouble just to send me to the moon to sense the spirits and become a Qi Practitioner… Gosh, Xing Huo you fool, how many monster Qi Practitioners lost their lives because of you?
In his psyche ocean, the little fiery figure felt very smug and a flaming tail grew out from his butt, just like a little fire demon.
As they went even deeper, the surroundings became even spacious. Inside the volcano, the walls stretched outwards, making them look like gigantic mushrooms between which, were black rocky bridges that connected them together. These bridges were often a few miles long and one could continuously walk towards the bottom level of the volcano if they followed the bridge.
“Be careful of your top, there are killing arrays hidden everywhere above.”
The seneschal pointed towards the top and said, “The god who built everything here was a sly and cunning god. Everything would still be fine if you walked on these bridges properly, but if you tried to fly, the killing arrays will be triggered and you will be killed instantly.”
In his psyche ocean, Xing Huo’s tail raised up high and he showed a “quickly praise me” expression.
As time passed, they had gotten a hundred miles deep into the underground where there was lava flowing all over the walls like cascading waterfalls. Torrid lava flowed down from the steep walls to somewhere unknown. However, the temperature around was still very cooling and so they felt no heat from the lavas.
Zhong Yue looked up in amazement and thought, Such wealth spent on the teleportation portal Xing Huo left behind in order to foster the growth of the Xing Huo inheritors!
The distance they had traveled into the underground would lead one to believe that the width of the underpass might have exceeded the volcano.
All around them were lakes filled with lava and volcanic columns stood highly on the ground. Some of the columns located in the lakes slowly moved as the lava flowed.
Everything remained calm as they ventured onwards but from here on out, the countless arrays set up by Xing Huo finally showed their ferocious side. Huge vibrations could be felt and when Zhong Yue looked towards the direction from which they came from, the volcanic columns consecutively transformed into seals and slaughtering arrays while lava formed countless totem carvings all over the columns.
These totem carvings moved as the lava flowed and they were formed in an oddly strange way, hiding away the secrets of the totem carvings, making them impossible to be deciphered.
As the volcanic columns moved, roars could be heard in tandem with the vigorous surging of the lava flowing in the lakes. Suddenly, countless huge lava giants and lava monsters ascended from the lava lakes and they walked on the lakes imperiously!
These lava creatures had totem carvings densely covering the entire surface of their bodies. Some of them had lasers shooting out from their eyes, some spat fireballs as they opened their mouths, and some had flaming tails that emitted extreme heatwaves!
Other than that, Zhong Yue even saw the walls around the volcano remold themselves to have various types of alluring carvings which appeared to be totem carvings!
Xing Huo had literally transformed this place into a world of totem carvings replete with all sorts of slaughtering arrays. If one wished to enter the center of the volcano, they would have to survive these slaughtering arrays first!
And if not careful enough, that particular person will definitely have a bad ending.
“This is just the first layer, but seems like someone has found a safe passage to the entrance.”
Xing Huo looked at the outside through Zhong Yue’s vision and he showed a surprised expression while saying, “I’ve left behind a total of nine layers of array formations and each of these array formations contained one hundred and eight arrays. It is really surprising to me as someone managed to see through my formation and enter the second array formation.”
The seneschal led everyone into the arrays with extreme caution and as they passed through one after another array, they could see a path that was amassed with bones. The seneschal then explained, “In the past years, we finally managed to decipher the first layer of array formation at the cost of the lives of countless magnate monsters and this path that we are walking on is made with their bodies! Various totem carvings were carved onto the bones of these magnate monsters and their purpose is to counterbalance the power of the totem carvings on the volcanic columns. With that, their descendants finally managed to enter the second array formation.”
Hu Wensheng and the other monster Qi Practitioners had not experience situations like that in their lives, making them stick tightly behind the seneschal in fear that they would make an unforgivable mistake. The four Qi Practitioners’ faces were extremely pale and they dared not even breathe heavily.
The seneschal looked at Zhong Yue and when he saw Zhong Yue remained calm while he walked rhythmically, the seneschal could not help but to praise Zhong Yue in his mind, ‘He has lived up the names of his almighty and honorable dragon race, he must be very experienced and it is normal that the first layer of array formation would not scare him off.’
Little did he know that the main reason Zhong Yue remained so calm was that of the creator of these array formations now residing in his psyche ocean. It would be entering these arrays was as easy as entering his home.
As they entered the second array formation, the surroundings became even harsher as the lakes were now floating all over in the air while totem carvings could be seen filling the air. The totem carvings now came in various sizes and they appeared to be disorganized, The only path through these arrays was just a path made of dark ice.
The dark ice path had frozen up the lava around it and formed a safe passage that could lead them out safely.
“This dark ice road was brought in from the arctic lands. During the ancient times, the pinnacle figures of our monster race used a few tens of years to carve out all sorts of totem carvings into the dark ice in order to consolidate its frigidity so as to prevent it from being melted away by the lava,” explained the seneschal.
In Zhong Yue’s psyche ocean, Xing Huo’s little tail dangled down as he appeared to be less complacent and grumbled, “I never thought that there was actually someone smart among the monsters who actually knew how to neutralize my array formations.”
In the third layer of array formation, innumerable soul weapons were interlinked together, forming a long bridge that was made of thousands upon thousands of soul weapons that passed through the third layer of array formation!
On the fourth layer, the huge totem pillars made with thunderstruck wood, that were plunged into the lava lakes in order to resist the heat waves, helped them to get through the lava lakes safely.
The fifth layer was filled with fiery crows with sharp beaks and large wingspans of over ten feet. These crows were extremely dangerous as they were strong and aggressive. Judging by the scene of slews of huge skeletons strewn across the lava, Zhong Yue could imagine the heavy losses suffered by the monsters in order to break through this layer.
“Many of them died here….”
The seneschal lamented and said, “Among them were Linghu Zhaixing, the strongest among the entire monster race, the one who almost transcended to become a god. That skeleton over there belonged to him.”
Zhong Yue looked at the direction pointed at by the seneschal and saw a huge nine tailed fox’s skeleton standing in solitude in the lava.
“Many strong ones have sacrificed themselves just to decipher this layer of array formation. This path could be considered as a path built atop the corpses of many,” lamented the seneschal while leading Zhong Yue and the others onto the ropeway attached in between the skeletons.
This ropeway was chained onto the skeletons and it allowed people to safely enter the array formation.
Xing Huo’s little tail that was raised up in hubris dropped down again as he was visibly peeved. This little flame’s confidence was struck as the first five layers of his array formations were already deciphered.
“The sixth array formation crumbled on its own.”
As they progressed to the sixth layer, all they saw were just ruins where the volcanic columns shattered into pieces and lava flowed meanderingly. The seneschal laughed and said, “We assumed that the ancient god did some minor mistake in his calculations and after all these years, the hitherto minor problems devolved into major problems, thus, making this initially unstable array formation layer crumble on its own.”
The little flame’s tail flopped onto the ground completely and he appeared to be very distressed from the way things had transpired.
Zhong Yue tried to console him by saying, “The monsters used countless years and sacrificed a huge number of their people just to breakthrough six layers of your array formation, it is fine if you made some mistakes.”
Xing Huo went down into a fetal position in his psyche ocean and sobbed dejectedly, “You don’t have to comfort me, I just want to be left alone….”