“There’s no need for confusion, you’ll find out soon enough.” Huangfu Nan explained when he saw the looks of confusion on their faces.
The first elder nodded his head as well, “Let them go in then.”
“Very well, in they shall go!” Kou Changkong stood up to face the two, “Follow me.”
Exiting the stone room, the group walked to the end of the cave where the giant stone gate was situated. Would they be going past this door?
Arriving at a door to the right of the gate, Kou Changkong held his right hand up, revealing a crimson tablet. It was about the size of his palm and was circular in shape with flame-like curves. It was almost life-like in how the curves were shaped, and from the looks of it, the tablet could almost be mistaken for a burning-red miniature sun.
Kou Changkong pressed the tablet against the right door, and to Bai Yunfei’s surprise, there was an indentation for the tablet to slide in perfectly.
Clearly, this tablet acted as a type of ‘key’ to this gate.
Upon the tablet being entered into the indentation, not a single sound followed after. Focusing for a moment, Kou Changkong took his hand just slightly away from the door.
Just faintly, Bai Yunfei could see a strand of elemental fire pulsate and move from Kou Changkong’s right palm to the tablet inserted in the door. In an instant, the tablet lit up with a bang.
At a more detailed glance, the shape of the flames was exactly matched the curves on the tablet!
Once more pressing against the ‘key’, Kou Changkong’s fire hands made contact with the tablet. The flames immediately separated themselves from the tablet and headed into the door.
Now with his right hand pressed against the stone tablet, he slowly rotated it with a bit of his soulforce flowing into it. Then, he pulled it out while still rotating it.
To his amazement, when Bai Yunfei looked at Kou Changkong, he could feel over a hundred pulses of his soulforce come leaking out from his body within seconds!
The red light from Kou Changkong’s palm began to spread out to create a series of ‘cracks’ on the gates. Starting from the right, the red lines made their way over to the left door with increasing speed and intensity. From far away, the door looked as if it was completely lit up with the red light spreading through it. With all of the elemental fire being dispersed here, even Bai Yunfei couldn’t help but take several steps from the intense ‘heat.
For someone to be able to release such an intense sensation like this so another would feel heat, it was only a testament to how adept they were in the elemental fire….
“Grmmmm….”
A deep echo resonated throughout the cave as the gigantic doors in front of them began to open up to reveal a crevice for the group to walk into. The entire interior behind the doors were filled with a resplendent red light that made the entire area beyond it very blurry.
Waving his hand to Bai Yunfei and Ye Zhiqiu, the first elder spoke, “Go in!”
Then he said no more.
Kou Changkong looked as if he was dedicating his entire will to operating the movement of the doors, and Huangfu Nan and Song Lin both stood behind the first elder without a word either.
“Uh…” Bai Yunfei was confused; “I have to go in there? No explanations? No nothing? Shouldn’t you be explaining anything we need to know?!”
They said we’d have a chance to forge a soulbound armament, but couldn’t you at least explain a little more about it….”
“Well?!” The first elder spoke again as if demanding an explanation for their hesitance.
Ye Zhiqiu gave Bai Yunfei a look before nodding his head to go in first. As soon as he walked past the gates, the hazy red light engulfed his entire figure.
Bai Yunfei looked to Song Lin, but when the male only gave him an encouraging look, Bai Yunfei knew that he’d gain no more information from anyone else. This was most likely some sort of ‘test’. He was displeased that the elders were wanting him to go into this place practically blind, but that was all he could really do right now.
Stepping into the crevice beyond the gates, Bai Yunfei came to realize that when he was only just about to step into the red light; there was nothing more to say beyond that. He would be without visibility here.
Pausing briefly for a mere second at that realization, Bai Yunfei had no other choice. Gritting his teeth, he dashed into the red fog like an arrow let loose from a bow.
No sooner did Bai Yunfei step across the gates and get himself acquainted with his surroundings when a feeling of dread washed over his body!
With his hairs jettisoning upright from the sensation, Bai Yunfei immediately brought out his Fire-tipped Spear. Without hesitation, he swung it to his right, only to feel nothing but air.
Withdrawing his spear, Bai Yunfei began to carefully study his surroundings for anything that moved.
But the peculiar thing about this situation was that this feeling of danger had only been for a brief instance. It had been so quick that Bai Yunfei nearly doubted that it had actually happened. But he couldn’t afford to be careless either. Circulating his soulforce so that it would cover the area around him, Bai Yunfei began to inspect the area.
Within the crimson s.p.a.ce, not even the stone floors and walls could be seen due to the hue. A red fog pervaded the entire area so much that even the five meters radius around Bai Yunfei was a blurry haze. Bai Yunfei felt as if he had been walked into a furnace. Even his skin felt hot to the touch, and just slightly, Bai Yunfei could feel that this ‘red fog’ was essentially condensed elemental fire. With how condensed it was, Bai Yunfei never would’ve imagined that such an extent was possible.
“Zhiqiu….Zhiqiu!!”
With several seconds going by without a single thing to be felt, Bai Yunfei suddenly thought about Ye Zhiqiu who came into the cave before him.
But his shout went unheard.
Even with his soulsense being scattered to a few ten meters ahead, Bai Yunfei’s search was fruitless.
“How in the….he walked through the gates just a few steps before I did!”
Just as he prepared himself to extend his soulforce even farther away, Bai Yunfei’s face suddenly registered a look of shock before he swung himself to the right without hesitation.
“Whoos.h.!.+”
There was a faint sound followed by a dart of fire three inches long and one finger in width come flying through the mist and towards him.
“Who’s there!”
Even as he whirled around towards the source, Bai Yunfei could feel absolutely no trace of his ‘mysterious a.s.sailant’.
“Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+”
In three short bursts of sound, three fist-sized fireb.a.l.l.s suddenly materialized in the empty s.p.a.ce in the cave and shredded through the air towards Bai Yunfei!
Pupils contracting in surprise, Bai Yunfei nearly doubted his eyes at the sight in front of him. The three fireb.a.l.l.s coming at him were completely filled with elemental fire!
But time wasn’t on his side, so no more thought could be put into this sight. Throwing himself to side, he managed to dodge the three fireb.a.l.l.s just barely; leading the fireb.a.l.l.s to crash into the ground and quake the earth.
No sooner did he stabilize his footing when another three blades of fire came striking from his left side!
“d.a.m.nit! What is going on here?!” Bai Yunfei had nearly screamed out in frustration. Activating the Wave Treading Steps, he slid away to dodge the next three strikes.
Again and again, another volley of attack would follow with each successful dodge!
Fireb.a.l.l.s, fire darts, fire blades….all sorts of strange and bizarre forms of attacks came materializing out from the mysterious s.p.a.ce around them before flying towards Bai Yunfei to strike him down.
From the very start, Bai Yunfei had no other choice but to dodge again and again. As time went on, Bai Yunfei realized that the more concentration these attacks became. Each time he dodged a volley, the attacks would only come flying back at him from the opposite direction. With such a situation, there was no way for Bai Yunfei to fight back.
“Bang!!”
The Fire-tipped Spear swung to the side and clipped a fireball from the right, smas.h.i.+ng it into pieces!
Noticing the aftermath of his strike, Bai Yunfei let loose a relieved sigh to himself. Now that he knew what to do, Bai Yunfei’s spear smashed apart all of the incoming attacks right afterwards.
“Boom!!”
One by one, the fireb.a.l.l.s, fire darts, and fire blades were smashed apart by the Fire-tipped Spear. Any of the remaining fireb.a.l.l.s soon crumbled away into a flurry of sparks.
Reaching a pause in the attacks, Bai Yunfei propped his spear onto the ground and inhaled a deep breath of air.
His entire forehead was slick with sweat.
“Wh–whew…Is that it?” Bai Yunfei looked around himself. The red light was still around him, and even now, he was completely unable to feel a thing.
The only difference now was that Bai Yunfei felt something was slightly off now. He just couldn’t put his finger on it….