Chapter 237: No Way Out
The essence of the Beast Spirit Codex lay in using both ocular cognition and telepathy together, achieving the ultimate goal of controlling animals through methods like deterrence, subjugation, temptation, and domination.
Of course, there were other uses for the Beast Spirit Codex beyond the control of beasts and animals, such as what Xia Fei was doing now, using his ocular cognition technique to do a thorough inspection of his surroundings.
A bright glow exploded from Xia Fei’s black pupils the moment he lifted his eyelids. This was already the most powerful execution of the Beast Spirit Codex’s ocular cognition, allowing him to penetrate through the thick walls wherever he looked.
After some time, Xia Fei stopped his inspection and panted hard on the ground, supporting himself with two hands. Using ocular cognition to such a degree ate up plenty of his mental energy and could easily harm his eyes, especially since he was attempting to detect any ent.i.ties around him like a radar.
Everything had its pros and cons, so while ocular cognition was a powerful ability, it was also an increased burden Xia Fei had to bear. However, in order for him to locate an exit, he had no choice but to ignore this. After all, the air in this secret chamber was slowly getting used up as the oxygen levels in the chamber gradually thinned.
If Xia Fei was still unable to find a way out of this secret chamber as time pa.s.sed, he would most likely experience chest tightness, dizziness, tinnitus, and other symptoms of hypoxia until he ran out of oxygen in totality and suffocated to death.
“How is it?” Phantom asked anxiously.
Xia Fei smiled slightly while shaking his head. “Still nothing. I’m already using ocular cognition to probe through three meters thick of the walls around us, yet all I see are compact rocks with hardly any fissure in sight, so there’s no need to mention any pa.s.sageway of sort.”
Phantom was silent. A three-meter depth was substantial, and if Xia Fei still found nothing within these three meters, then it just meant that this secret chamber had no connecting pa.s.sage at all, which just highlighted how severe their present predicament was.
“Do we continue to increase the power another time?” Phantom asked.
His eyes trailed over to Xia Fei’s already very bloodshot eyes. He knew that increasing the power of ocular cognition would be extremely dangerous, maybe even costing the latter his sight in the process, but being trapped in here was no solution, either. He needed to give it a shot.
Xia Fei waved his hand and slightly closed his eyes. Once his breathing returned to normal, he went into another state of composure.
“Think. Let’s not panic and carefully consider this,” Xia Fei softly said.
“Think, your a.s.s. Quickly use your most powerful combat technique and blast this secret chamber already; an exit will surely reveal itself. Don’t you still have that Bloodthirsty Screech? You’re sure to find an exit if you attack with that sword,” Phantom urged.
Xia Fei remained unmoved with his two eyes shut. Phantom sighed in disappointment. The calmness that Xia Fei was demonstrating at this juncture simply frightened him. Any average human being would already be vexed to the point of frustration, and few would be able to face this with relative aplomb, yet they, too, would never reach Xia Fei’s degree of self-possession.
Seconds and minutes pa.s.sed while Xia Fei remained in deep thought, though the speed at which his brain worked gradually began to slow as less oxygen remained in the chamber.
The humidity of the chamber rose, while Phantom kept pacing, becoming more and more worried as time ticked by.
All of a sudden, Xia Fei opened his eyes and leaped to his feet. His face was mildly abuzz with excitement.
“I think I got it,” Xia Fei declared.
“What did you get?” Phantom anxiously asked.
Xia Fei stood in the center of the secret chamber and looked all around him. “What’s the first thing you think of when you look around this secret chamber?”
Phantom followed Xia Fei’s finger and looked about. The secret chamber was bullet shaped, with a hemispherical dome and barrel-like walls.
“Just what are you getting at? I’m almost dying from my anxiety here,” Phantom impatiently whined.
Xia Fei smiled. “Don’t you think that this secret chamber seems like an escape pod?”
Phantom was abruptly shocked. There were numerous escape pods for every wars.h.i.+p, and these airtight metal compartments could be ejected by the wars.h.i.+p during moments of crisis, allowing the people hiding within to avoid the fate of going down with the wars.h.i.+p.
Most escape pods were bullet- or spherical-shaped, and this secret chamber they were in was indeed an enlarged version of one.
More importantly, there were plenty of metal-support beams around this chamber, making its structure one complete whole. If it was merely a room, it would be quite a bit of waste having so many metal pillars. Phantom believed that even without two thirds of the metallic structure, this secret chamber would still be able to exist.
“I think I somewhat get it as well. The structure of this secret chamber is indeed very strange, very similar to that of an escape pod, but what has that got to do with helping us escape?” Phantom asked in a deep voice.
Xia Fei chuckled, his eyes suddenly turning a lot brighter. With a decisive voice, he called, “Slaughtershadow… I’ve only thought you to be a cra.s.s person. I never would’ve thought you’re actually also detail-oriented.”
“There’s absolutely no escape route from this secret chamber.”
Phantom was extremely disappointed hearing that. “If there’s no way to escape, doesn’t it mean that we are bound to be trapped here until we die? Why would the ex-sect master Slaughtershadow do this? Just why exactly would he still have you trapped to death after giving you four top-rate items?”
Xia Fei smiled confidently as he softly said, “The reason why this secret chamber has no way of escape is that there’s no need for it at all. Have you forgotten what’s the use of an escape pod?”
“Escape?” Phantom hesitantly answered.
“That’s right.” Xia Fei laughed out loud. “Escape is the answer. It has been designed to give us plenty of misconceptions that we need to find some pa.s.sageway to escape from this place, when the fact is that the secret chamber itself is an escape pod; we need to drive this secret chamber in order to escape.”
Phantom was completely stunned. This was indeed a bold and crazy supposition on Xia Fei’s part. Phantom had never once considered that this secret chamber itself was an escape pod. This was not to say that Xia Fei’s theory was unrealistic but that such a matter went well beyond the limits of Phantom’s imagination, instead, and it was something that he simply could not have imagined.
“If this secret chamber itself is an escape pod, then where is the control console and where will it lead us?” Phantom was puzzled.
Xia Fei slowly stepped away, only to reveal an inconspicuous gap right under his feet.
Xia Fei had already examined this gap when he inspected the chamber with his ocular cognition; it was approximately twenty centimeters deep, and underneath were some rocks and metal alloy brackets.
“You’d better sit tightly because we’re about to shoot out from here right away.” Xia Fei laughed.
Phantom’s eyes were filled with skepticism. He did not understand just what that shallow gap could be used for.
*Ching!*
Xia Fei took out Bloodthirsty Screech and flourished it in the air for a few rounds, then with two hands grasping the handle tightly, he slotted the sword right into that gap.
The gap was of the exact same width as Bloodthirsty Screech’s blade, but it was not deep enough, only allowing the tip of the blade to bury into the gap.
Taking two deep breaths, Xia Fei adjusted his heart rate accordingly and promptly applied strength to his two arms.
Xia Fei used all his strength to stab that blade deeper into the ground.
Almost instantly, that blade broke the rocks and the metal alloy bracket, as the two-meter-length blade disappeared entirely into the ground.
Something completely unexpected next happened to Phantom.
The entire secret chamber rumbled as if there was a huge train pa.s.sing by the top of the chamber.
As it turned out, this secret chamber was built atop a vertical shaft that was being supported by several metal alloy beams.
Xia Fei’s blade just so happened to cleave the support beams holding up this secret chamber into two. The other support beams, thus, bore greater pressure, causing some of the relatively weaker alloy brackets to break, too.
Everything had been designed for such an outcome; the core support beams in the center of the secret chamber were supposed to create a chain reaction upon breaking, and the weight of the secret chamber began to go beyond the bearing limit of the support beams, turning it shaky.
As a series of metal breaking sounded, the secret chamber began accelerating downward like an elevator.
Due to the lack of a traction system, this descent was completely that of a free fall straight down.
…
Craneshadow, Silvershadow, Darkshadow, and Moon Shadow were presently seated in a.s.sa.s.sin Sect’s guest hall on the tenth level opposite their uninvited guests, the master-disciple pair Tongtian and Fangyuan. The atmosphere in the hall was fairly heavy.
…
In accordance with the a.s.sa.s.sin Sect’s etiquette for receiving distinguished guests, Tongtian was in a position only second to Craneshadow, while his disciple and his entourage stood a distance away.
The table was laden with fresh fruits, while the tea served was also the best available in the sect. It was hardly difficult for anyone to tell that Tongtian’s position was unusual, judging by the hospitality the a.s.sa.s.sin Sect was showing him.
Craneshadow, who was sitting at the head of the hall, smiled as he gazed at the disciple-master pair. His eyebrows slightly arched as he spoke. “Sect Master Tong is in high spirits today; why did you not inform this old man earlier so that I could better receive you?”
Tongtian waved his hand dismissively. “I wouldn’t dare. Senior Craneshadow is the formidable sect master of the a.s.sa.s.sin Sect; how could you so simply receive a sect master from the lowly Sky Eradicator Sect?”
Craneshadow frowned inwardly. He could easily smell the gunpowder in Tongtian’s words and got worried that this man might not have come with the best intentions at heart.
After a simple exchange of cordiality, Craneshadow did not beat around the bush. “Sect Master Tongtian, may I know what’s the reason for coming to my Nameless Mountain in such fanfare this time?”
Tongtian laughed uproariously. “Both the a.s.sa.s.sin Sect and Sky Eradicators Sect are members of the Hitman Syndicate, so it is only natural for there to be back and forth between us. Men, bring the gift I’ve prepared for Senior Craneshadow.”
With that said, that chubby disciple of his brushed his spatial ring, took out a beautifully decorated pouch, and brought it right in front of Craneshadow.
Craneshadow smiled as he took the gift and placed it on his table, softly saying, “It’s been a long time since the a.s.sa.s.sin Sect stepped away from the Hitman Syndicate, making us all the more clueless on the internal ongoings of the said syndicate, but since our ancestral elders both originated from the same sect, it’s only natural for us to forge closer ties with each other. Indeed, we ought to have more back and forth between us, and it is I who have neglected my part.”
Tong Tian suddenly flashed a sinister smile. “Senior Craneshadow, while it’s true that the a.s.sa.s.sin Sect did step away from the Hitman Syndicate, there’s still something that you’ve been privately keeping. Since you’re no longer part of the syndicate, don’t you think you ought to return that thing?”
The color on Craneshadow’s face suddenly turned very ugly. He, of course, knew what Tongtian was referring to but merely chuckled and asked, “I wonder what is this sect master referring to? If it’s something that the a.s.sa.s.sin Sect isn’t fit to hold onto, it will only be natural for us to pa.s.s it back.”
Tongtian answered without any change in his expression, “I heard that there’s a plaque on the summit of Nameless Mountain given to this sect by the Hitman Syndicate that year. There’s only six words on the said plaque: ‘Number-one Killers in the Universe’.”
The short-tempered Moonshadow instantly stood up, his face flushed.
The a.s.sa.s.sin Sect had been recognized as the number-one hitman organization by the Hitman Syndicate. With Tongtian coming here to take the plaque which symbolized the glory of their sect, this was clearly not a cordial visit but rather an outright challenge!