"Say little sword, why were you in this secret chamber?" asked Duan Li as he leaped off the platform.Duan Li had decided to call the sword not by its name Duergar, but instead "Little sword". This was to establish a dominant relationship between the two of them in case the sword acted up with its split-personality once more.
"That is.. from time immemorial, after this dimension was created, I happened to be placed here by the Grand Immortal himself. As to why, even I am not sure.." the sword replied.
The Grand Immortal again?
That figure really had a lot of means at his disposal. To think that even a spirit sword with such an eccentric personality was made to wait countless of eras just to find the one with affinity to get it.
It was fortunate that I chose to break that wall. Otherwise, who knows if there would be any Qi condensation realm student able to break through such a tough barrier!
Clank!
Just as Duan Li was thinking along those line, his right foot had stepped onto some sort of a pedestal that seemed to activate a certain mechanism.
Brrrr!
Sounds of metal chains could be heard resounding through the secret chamber. The sword platform earlier on then rose higher and higher to eventually crash onto the ceiling and destroyed itself.
This... it self-destructed?
Duan Li"s mouth was wide opened as he watched this scene.
How savage this Grand Immortal was! To think that after the platform had served its purpose, he would make it kill itself!
"Ah! No wonder I felt the platform to be quite different from the last time! Actually, if someone were to enter the secret chamber, the opened secret door would act as the counter-weight and will push the platform up from the ground to become a tower! The person will then have to enter the tower and face the trials within to eventually reach the top floor. Naturally by then, they will be able to obtain me, if they have the affinity that is."
Hearing this, Duan Li"s eyebrows twitched.
"However... judging by that crumbled entrance of the secret chamber, with no counter-weight to stop the platform from being shoved upwards continuously, it had crashed to the ceiling instead..." continued the sword.
"T-this... Then how are we supposed to enter? I tried to find the lever or b.u.t.tons to open the entrance but I couldn"t find any..." said Duan Li as if he was being wronged by the explanation from the sword.
"Actually... the entrance has to be opened with your spiritual Qi. As long as your potential isn"t too bad, it will open without a problem!" explained the sword.
"Pu!" Duan Li choked on himself
What? I just have to inject my spiritual Qi onto it?
That Grand Immortal or something should have put an instruction manual on the walls and not make the life of others difficult!
Now that I had destroyed it, the Lord Guardian would definitely make me accountable for this in the future!
Gritting his teeth together in annoyance, Duan Li asked, "It"s that simple? Then what about this pedestal here? Why does it triggered the contraptions again?"
The sword sighed inwardly, seemed like this young master of his was a little bit too green with secret chambers.
"Naturally, it was to open the entrance for the tower... but since the young master had destroyed the counter-weight, as this pedestal relies on the same mechanism, an error occurred with its weight distribution and caused what we are seeing right now..."
Seriously! This maze was meant for trials to anyone that entered it! Surely the maze here wasn"t that really difficult and would just require a little bit of logical thinking?
If it were too simple, how could it be considered as the Eternal maze?
That would just be a waste of such a domineering and scary name it has!
Crumble!
The ceiling began to crack open as they started to fall off. Noticing this, Duan Li made a run for it. Even if he had the body at the pinnacle stage of the Foundation establishment realm right now, those big pieces of rocks crashing down would still be able to kill him if it hits!
BOOM!
The secret chamber has now completely collapsed. Back in the tunnel, Duan Li exhaled in relief.
"That was close!"
He dusted off his clothes as he made his way back to choose another path and scratched the back of his head, feeling a little bit troubled.
"Hopefully, the Lord Guardian wouldn"t mind I crashed that secret chamber... After all, now that I had took the sword, they no longer has any purpose too..."
...
Meanwhile, in the deep recesses of an underground cave, there existed a hot boiling pool of lava that encompa.s.sed a single skeleton within it.
This skeleton was about two metres tall and radiated out an exceptionally dangerous air about it. All four of its limbs were each clamped by two black chains, with one on its neck.
However, the weird thing about this skeleton was, even though its whole body that was made up of extremely withered bones were dipped into that pool of hot glowing lava, they did not show a sign of being burnt by it, not even the slightest!
Right at this moment, the seemingly lifeless skeleton jolted slightly, as a dim glow of hazy red light could be seen to flash in its empty eye sockets.
The jaws moved as if forming an expression of a sneer, before a hoa.r.s.e voice that was filled with extreme malevolent intent spoke out.
"Ke..ke..ke.. one.. seal.. was.. undone.. eight.. more.. to.. go.. ke..ke..ke.."
PANG!
The chain on its neck exploded out.
"Ahh.. my.. neck.. felt.. a.. little.. bit.. sore.." said the skeleton as it twisted its neck left and right with that "crack" sounds.
"That.. feels.. good.. ke..ke..ke.."
...
"Now, which path should I choose next?" said Duan Li as he cupped his chin, looking at the remaining 5 routes.
"Arrff! Arrff!" the cub pointed out onto another direction.
"Eh? You want to go there?" said Duan Li as he raised his brows, interested in what lays beyond the path choosen by the cub.
This was because the cub had uncovered the secret chamber previously. Thus, he wondered what they would find next.
"Ohh? My senses could detect several foolish lifeforms huddling together by the end of this path... seems to be the nesting grounds of some inferior creatures!" said the sword in disdain.
Lifeforms? Creatures?
A thought struck Duan Li at this moment.
The Unenlagias!
"Little sword, do you know of any ways we can extract their monster cores without killing them? This here is the monster." asked Duan Li as he flipped the pages of the monster book to the one that contained the depiction of the Unenlagias.
He really needed the monster cores to satiate his curiosity of what would happen if he keeps on cultivating them. However at the same time, he didn"t feel good about killing them en ma.s.se either.
Hearing this question, the sword replied, "Well, that position of the monster cores inside their body is quite troublesome for most, but its nothing for the great me! If young master could knock them out cold, I would extract their monster cores for you!"
"Is that so? Knocking them out wouldn"t be a problem! Let"s go then!"
Duan Li then swiftly made his way to the path towards the nest of the Unenlagias.
...
Tap! Tap!
"Hey guys! I am back!" greeted Duan Li as soon as he emerged into their nesting grounds.
Grrrr!
The Unenlagias had long sensed that this scary human was coming for them, thus they huddled together in large numbers to pummel at him all at once!
"I could detect about.. 40 of them in here!" exclaimed Duan Li in excitement as he clenched his fist.
BAM!
He punched towards the exit from whence he came, as the rubbles collapsed to block the exit. Now, there was no way out for them.
Both parties were now silent to the point that a single drop of pin would be heard. They gazed at each other intently. With a dash, they commenced the fight!
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
Duan Li threw out rapid punches towards the Unenlagias from all direction as he was surrounded in the middle. With each punch that connected, an Unenlagia would inevitably soar through the air before crashing on the wall, knocking them out instantly.
Meanwhile, the sword would zig zag through the crowd to approach the unconscious Unenlagias and pierced through their body, right at where their monster cores were located.
The sword was extremely efficient in its method as each only took it one breath to extract out one monster core.
BAM!
BAM!
BAM!
...
After a while, the one-sided pummeling has finally been concluded with all 40 Unenlagias knocked out cold, some of their teeths were smashed, and their monster cores stolen.
The fire attribute monster cores were now piled up in front of Duan Li as the latter then sat down cross-legged.
Cultivate!
Shiingg!
All the monster cores were swallowed whole and took only one breath for them to disappear. Witnessing this, the sword shuddered for a moment.
What extreme cultivation speed!
Currently, inside Duan Li"s lower dantian, all the Fire attribute monster cores had coalesced to form a single monster core the shape of an egg. It was a little bit bigger than the Earth attribute monster core floating besides it.
However right now, other than getting bigger, there seemed to be nothing else going on with them right now.
At the sight of this, Duan Li"s curiosity only grew deeper as he pondered what the eventual outcome would be like.
"Its only a matter of time.."
He stood up as he punched through the blocked exit to clear the rubbles away.
BAM!
Looking at the tragic sight of the knocked out Unenlagias, Duan Li asked the sword.
"Would they be fine without their monster cores?"
The sword then replied, "En! It would take at most a few years for them to form another monster core, but other than that, they would be able to live normally. Albeit they wouldn"t be able to use any of their skills for the time being."
Hearing the sword"s answer, Duan Li nodded in relief.
"Well, at least I didn"t amputate any of their body parts like I did with the Ankylosaurus" tails before... So I guess this should be fine!"
He then palmed both of his hands together towards the fallen Unenlagias as he turned his back to exit and pick another route.
...