The experience of seeing through khan"s eyes were a bit disorienting, Alex couldn"t exert control on the spirit, so he could only go along for the ride as Khan completed the mission that Alex had given to him. As opposed to the first time Khan had hatched and the ensuing days after, the Kamaitachi had grown in maturity quite a bit, of course he was still a bit playful, but now he could actually focus on his tasks and get things done. It was completely by accident Alex had discovered that he and Khan could share each other"s senses. He could see, hear, smell and sometimes even taste the things Khan could, and vice versa. Nezha didn"t tell Alex about such a technique as it couldn"t be taught, but rather discovered by spirits bonded to each other or to a spirit king. Alex had woken up one night to find himself digging through a mound for giant ants; this was back in the underground cavern when they were making the raft. Alex had spent most of that day running around scared out of his mind, both Nezha and Ebie had chosen to say nothing about what was happening, so it was left to Alex to slowly discover and master this new ability by himself.
Eventually he pa.s.sed out, as the strain of being connected through minds with Khan was a bit too much. The next day, every few hours, it was rinse and repeat situation until Alex finally got a handle on the ability. This ability is what the mantle is for spirits like Nezha and Ebie; it gave Alex access and full mastery to their powers, using his own body and energy to amplify their abilities and his by an insane amount. Bonding with other spirits on the other hand would require you to master this ability, which was basically strengthening the bond between you and them. In the end you won"t just be using their senses and them using yours, you would use their energy, abilities and powers and they yours.
Khan moved out from the room where someone was currently being tortured, his master might be human just like the person in pain; however he was under no obligation to try saving said person. Besides there wasn"t much he could do, it was already hard enough as it is maintaining a physical form, which was why he was currently invisible and out of sight of other people. None the less he had to find his master"s storage ring, and while that might be hard given how expansive this cave system he now finds himself in is, he could still smell Alex.
And if he can smell his master from this far away, chances are that he would be able to find other traces of him somewhere else, all he had to do was float around a bit. Khan moved with leisurely att.i.tude, going past a few hallways until he came to a set of ma.s.sive double doors tightly shut together, this would have meant that there was no way in, but things like this wouldn"t stop Khan. The Kamaitachi was in his full spirit form; however he was also partly alive, which means in some way or another he had a physical form that could be felt, but this was where it got tricky.
Spirits like the Kamaitachi had two physical forms, especially when said spirit was also an elemental spirit. Right now Khan was in a secondary physical form, which was actually a simple gust of wind, and such a form was actually quite good for slipping through cracks, like the one that appeared under this ma.s.sive iron door. Khan dived down, moving slowly as his body seeped through the cracks, there was a slow release of air as Khan moved his body through the cracks, the room beyond was brightly lit, but calling it a room would be a huge disservice.
The first he noticed was the intense stench of blood; it was so strong that Khan could actually see it. And then there came the brightly lit torches of red flames flickering as they casted a shadow over the ma.s.sive bloodstained platform, Khan felt at home with the aura of death and agony hanging over this place, so many have died, and so many more will die in here too. Surrounding the bloodied arena was a demarcation line made from a chain linked fence that sparkled and sizzled with electricity, and it was a lot of it. Khan in his wind form moved towards the middle of the Arena before he caught a whiff of the scent he was looking for; Sylphs and Alex, which also meant the direction his storage ring was taken, and it was coming from below the arena.
Khan moved around a bit, trying to get a definite whiff of that divine scent as his body slowly acclimated and got comfortable within the arena. The platform itself seemed to be made from hu8ndreds of reinforced chains linked together, and while it seemed somewhat watertight, it was not air tight. Alex"s storage ring had not just his scent, but also the scent of the sylph wings in it, and to Khan, those wings were such a delicacy that it was almost impossible for him to forget6 what they smelled like, which was why he was able to find the trap door located on the edge of the arena. It was equally covered with chains and connected to the whole arena that given enough force could double as a trampoline, a rather painful one though, but one good enough to bounce.
Either way the trapdoor was left out in plain sight, but if Khan hadn"t been relying on his nose, then it would have been absolutely impossible for him to have found its location. Khan quickly got to work burrowing his incorporeal body through the cracks in the chain links, how they were able to make a chain link fence behave like a typical door was a bit baffling, but the universe was filled with too many wondrous things, so this shouldn"t be too hard to comprehend. Khan slipped through the cracks, slowly floating into a wide room, it was dark, but Khan didn"t need light to see.
At first glanced this place looked like a trash heap of miscellaneous items, however it was obviously a treasure trove as there were ores, minerals, vials of unknown potions, gold, silver, weapons, clothes, books, scrolls, and storage rings by the hundreds if not thousands. It seems this was the place where they dumped the belongings of their captives, and judging from sheer amount of dust most of these objects have been for a very long time, so much so that just with Khan"s presence in the room, some of the papers and fabrics turned to dust and crumbled away like they were never there in the first place.
There was a lot to process, but sometimes Khan can be so one track minded that we wouldn"t care to pay attention to anything else. He made his way to a nondescript corner where a pile of items were kept, as opposed to everything else here. These piles of items were fairly new and Khan was heading for a silver ring on top of this pile of items. All of his attention was placed on it as he dove into the ring, before ending up in a small s.p.a.ce were hundreds of dragon fly like wings could be seen floating about, he ignored the imposing double edge long swords that floated past him and opened his mouth to sample the delicacy that was the sylph wings, after all he already found his master"s ring; a reward was in order.
"Hey! New guys! It"s time for you to meet your makers, or at the very least send someone else to go meet their makers, so get on your feet!"
A voice brought Alex"s awareness back into his body, he looked up at Yun Fao who was still cradling his wounded right hand from when he saved them from the sirens and then Louis who had a little bit of a confused expression on his face as they all looked at the man in front of them.
"Say isn"t that?" Alex began to ask before Yun Fao completed it for him.
"The guy who saved, or at least made a lousy attempt to save us from the Nagas?"
It was him all right, and that seemed to put a lot of things in perspective for them seeing as he was here; and they were on the other side of a cell door. If they had successfully followed after him during their escape from the Nagas and a burning forest, they would have ended up here a whole lot earlier, and who knew, they might even be dead by now. Guess you can"t trust any random guy you meet in a burning forest claiming to help.
"It"s good to see you guys survived the bottomless pit; however you guys would have wished that you died there instead. None the less let me wish all three of you luck in your upcoming matches, you"re going to need it."
The boys had no idea what was going on, or rather Alex had an idea of just what they were about to face, and while he was a little apprehensive, he wasn"t really scared. The wudang sect had changed to the point where disciples would actually battle and even kill themselves for a prize, this wasn"t any different from that and because of that the disciples had a stronger stomach than most. Which seemed to explain why most of the disciples even though they looked haggard still had a bit of fire in their eyes, Lu Wan was the only one who looked like living breathing piece of s.h.i.t, at least even more than usual.
Alex, Louis and Yun Fao were led out of the cell, to a fate that wasn"t known to them; and their only hope of escape was in a storage ring stuffing himself full of sylph wings, making it impossible for Alex to contact him after the connection was first cut.....Alex prayed for all of their sakes that Khan doesn"t decide he needs a nap after eating, if not; then they"re ma.s.sively screwed.