Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 605
"Before the mission, I have asked you to study the multiple kinds of magical equipment that the ancient Cultivators utilized to store information. By my estimation, what you should be looking for is a 'Hidden Star Box', a 'Sky Storage Bottle', or any other ancient magical equipment that has a capacity hundreds of times larger than the jade chip!"
"Understood!"
Swirl and Elder Nether Spring discussed for a while longer and settled the details. They selected thirty soldiers of the Nether World Watch who were slender and adept at flying, and they asked ten captives to walk at the front.
"Aren't you the most loyal believers of Chaos? At the bottom of the shaft is the tomb of your God Chaos. Chances are that you will see the body of Chaos with your own eyes. What a glory it must be for you!"
Swirl grinned hideously. "If your god is really watching over you and we finish the exploration smoothly, you and your companions will all be spared.
"But if anybody hesitates or defects, hehe, not only will they be executed, we will also pick ten random captives from the remaining prisoners and kill them as sacrifices!
"If you don't want to get yourself and your companions killed, just prey to your God Chaos quietly and wish that he doesn't jump out or stir any trouble!"
Huala!
The shackles of ten captives of the Blade of Chaos were all unlocked. They were offered some strengthening drugs to recover their strength, and they were even given a protective suit of the same standard as the soldiers of the Nether World Watch.
It was not because the Nether World Watch cared about their lives. They actually would not mind at all if the captives were killed by poison. However, if the captives became insane monsters with infinite physical strength like the fluorescent fireflies did just now, it would be a major nuisance for them.
The ten captives of the Blade of Chaos looked at each other in bewilderment. Although they had regained their freedom for now, there was no much they could do under the suppression of the Nether World Watch. Besides, a lot of their companions were still locked in the upper level, including their leader, the Fire Ant King. They were not able to resist at all.
God Chaos, please watch over us!
The ten captives of the Blade of Chaos prayed silently. Threatened by the Nether World Watch, they jumped into the shaft one after the other.
The bottomless shaft seemed to lead to the core of the planet. The entire pathway was wreathed in vague black fog, and clusters of black cotton were drifting among them.
A feeble air current was blowing from below, holding them like a pair of invisible giant hands.
Both the captives from the Blade of Chaos and the elites of the Nether World Watch were adept at the swiftness skills. Besides, footholds that they could climb on had been embedded on the smooth wall. Therefore, it was not difficult for them to descend.
Every soldier of the Nether World Watch was surrounded by a lot of communication bugs. However, after they were more than six thousand meters below the ground, the communication bugs lost connection to the surface and could only be used for internal communication.
The deeper they went, the denser the black fog became. In the end, they could barely see their own fingers.
Although they carried a lot of searchlights and fluorescent fireflies with them, the best they could only vaguely see each other's outlines.
The exploration team went down for more than half an hour inside the shaft before they finally reached the bottom.
Humming sounds were echoing nearby nonstop. The brightness of the searchlights turned dim. When they aimed the searchlights at the source of sound, they found that the scouting insect-type demon beasts that were projected into the shaft earlier were all flying aimlessly like headless chickens.
Seeing the brightness of the search lights, a lot of the insects crashed toward the source of the light crazily, leaving a lot of scattered shadows behind them.
"The electromagnetic field here is extremely chaotic. It is impossible to tell the direction. No wonder all the demon beasts went out of control."
One of the soldier of the Nether World Watch was carrying a multipurpose compass produced by the Star Glory Federation. The pointer on the gadget was spinning fast like a fan.
"The air quality is acceptable. Although the percentage of oxygen is merely 2.5%, no constituents of fatal poisons have been detected."
Another soldier of the Nether World Watch was operating a crystal processor skillfully.
Wars were always the best means of communication between two civilizations. After years of battles against the Heaven's Origin Sector, a lot of magical equipment and technology of the Cultivators had been introduced into the Blood Demon Sector and become quite popular.
"Survey the terrain with the soundwave detectors first and then explore the area anticlockwise. It's extremely hazy here. Everybody, stick close to each other. Including the captives, have a headcount every five minutes so that nobody drops behind," Swirl commanded quickly.
There was nothing but darkness around them. The searchlights could only reach ten meters away before their brightness was consumed by the black fog. The fluorescent fireflies went out of control, too, and hovered around their heads without listening to commands.
Their glow fluctuated. Not only was it unhelpful in illuminating the place, it was also adding to the anxious vibe.
Bo! Bo! Bo!
Dull soundwaves echoed more than twenty thousand meters below the surface of the planet. Very soon, the environment nearby was outlined and fed back to the biochemical chips that the explorers wore on their eyeballs.
Judging from the result of the echolocation, they were now in a space about five hundred meters both in length and in width.
Compared with the magnificent and boundless underground temple above, it was simply not large at all.
The space was purely empty. There were no pillars. The only thing that could be seen was a high bump at the center, which looked like an enormous rock, a throne, or a huge coffin.
The entire space was drowned in water that almost reached their knees. There was no telling whether it was the underground water that flowed in through the cracks on the wall or it had remained in this place for forty thousand years.
After forty thousand years of vaporization and brewing, the water had already become liquid that was almost as thick as oil. After every step they made forward, they would drag a few more tiny, greasy threads with them.
However, except for the excessive bacteria inside, the water was not poisonous or corrosive.
"Five captives at the front, and five at the back. Start exploring!"
The exploration team gradually reached the edge of the space and moved anticlockwise. The wall of the area turned out to be enormous black stones that were piled up on which lines of dense characters the size of the head of a fly were engraved.
"What's this?"
Almost ten searchlights were aimed at the wall at the same time. They found that the wall of black rocks, which was almost fifty meters tall, had been occupied by characters, numbers, and runes the size of millet seeds.
Some of the words were written neatly, but some others were extremely casual and illegible. There were even some words that appeared to be random graffiti. Everybody felt that their head was dizzy after just a quick look.
However, judging from the font and the depth of the words on the rocks, it was doubtless that they had been written by the same individual.
"The content appears to be a certain technique, no, a method to make an unknown poison, no, a flowchart of the production of a certain piece of magical equipment?"
"I got it. It is a combination of many random marvelous skills and arts that are intermittent and messy, with a lot of traces of smearing and editing. It should be… a draft!"
"It seems that the secret chamber was indeed the training room and research room for Chaos, who regarded the wall as his scrap paper when he considered new techniques. Whenever he thought of something new, he would carve his thoughts on the wall!"
"Hurry up and scan on the markings on the wall. Let's move them back and ask the specialists to analyze them carefully. Hopefully, we will get a few useful techniques!"
A lot of ideas and thoughts were left on the walls all around them. But other than those, there were also a great number of animalistic claw marks that wiped out many words and formulas.
Some of the claw marks were several meters deep into the wall, as if they had been left by an extremely ferocious animal that was on a rampage.
Chapter 912: Don't Believe Him! |
"It's rather strange. Since this is the place where Chaos trained himself, and it is apparently heavily guarded, it is impossible that any animal could have broken into the room. Who was it that left the terrifying claw marks exactly?"
The enormous claw marks made the exploration team even more vigilant. It took them more than two hours for them to examine all four walls.
In the meantime, they sent two messengers back to the ground for communication and were reinforced by another ten tough soldiers of the Nether World Watch, who brought even more artifacts, magical equipment, and surveying tools with them.
Then, they marched toward the center of the tomb of Chaos.
Without the wall to guide them, they were caught in a black ocean after only ten meters. Every other direction was covered in the black fog that was not dispersing at all. The only thing that could be seen were the ripples that were spreading out on the water that was up to their knees.
Zi! Zi! Zi! Zi!
All the soldiers of the Nether World Watch activated the demon cores that were embedded in their bodies. Demonic energy, electric arcs, and flames were vaguely flowing inside the demon cores.
"Be careful. We're only two hundred meters away from the monolithic object at the center. There are no obstructions in front of us. Stay in a line and march forward at the lowest speed. Do not leave anybody behind!"
Swirl was an expert in mental attacks. The powder that was released from her body spread out like colorful airwaves. Everybody felt relatively relaxed.
At that moment…
Huala! Huala!
Weird noises suddenly echoed inside the water!
"There's something in the water!"
Along with an exclamation, dozens of mysterious, black shadows sprang out of the water and darted toward everybody like bolts of lightning!
They turned out to be the blood-sucking flying swords that Li Yao had met before!
The flying swords seemed to have never sucked any real blood in the past forty thousand years. Their veins were withered, out of shape, and dangled down from the body of the flying swords like dried earthworms.
It was exactly because of their hunger for blood that they were shrieking and attacking so furiously!
"Stop them!"
Swirl snapped her fingers. Dozens of streams of powder spurted out of her fingertips and turned into colorful rainbows in midair. From moving through the air at a high speed, the friction caused them to burst into flames!
The colorful flames interweaved into an impregnable web that went toward the incoming flying swords and trapped them!
The other soldiers of the Nether World Watch all showed their own skills, too. They slightly opened their fully-enclosed protective suits, revealing the demon cores on their bodies.
The demon cores were triggered, forming shields of spiritual energy and long sabers of flames near them. They slashed the blood-sucking flying swords with the hundreds of blade auras!
The blood-sucking flying swords, after forty thousand years of hibernation, were already running low on energy. Under the attack of the soldiers of the Nether World Watch, they all broke apart and fell back to the water helplessly.
Hissing sounds echoed within the water, as if it were boiling.
But one of the captives of the Blade of Chaos left the battle formation in panic and was scratched by one of the broken blood-sucking flying swords. A shallow wound was cut open on his arm.
The blood-sucking flying sword crawled into the body of the captive like a parasite. Very soon, half of the body was already dried up.
However, before the blood-sucking flying sword darted out again, dozens of blade auras had already arrived overwhelmingly, slashing both the captive and the sword into pieces!
"It appears that your God Chaos rather cares about you!" Swirl mocked.
But another abrupt change already took place. In the water near everybody, a few giants that looked like iron towers suddenly sat straight. Under the searchlights, they appeared to be metal puppets that were made of bronze and carved with dense spiritual stripes on their bodies!
The puppet giants had been shattered, their upper halves were separated from their lower halves, and they were soaked deep inside the water. That was why they had not been detected earlier.
Even without their lower halves, they were still more than two meters tall, and their arms were almost ten meters long when stretched out. Countless weapons and pieces of magical equipment were hidden inside their cylindric, black arms.
The puppet giants were driven by the crystals that were embedded to their chests and their joints. They had probably been woken up from the hibernation state because they sensed the scent of living creatures just like the blood-sucking flying sword did.
They were roaring deeply and twisting their rusted joints hard. Opening their coldly blinking hands, they lunged toward the soldiers of the Nether World Watch.
"Don't panic. Attack their crystals!" Swirl bellowed quickly. The speed of her fingers increased significantly, transforming the powder into dancing butterflies that danced around the puppet giants and eventually stopped on the shining crystals.
The powder butterflies leaked into the crystals immediately. The shining crystals seemed to have been mixed with a lot of impurities and lost their brilliance, turning dirty and obscure.
The broken puppet giants stopped functioning again. The last hollow sigh echoed inside their body that had almost been fully corroded.
The other few puppet giants were cut into pieces by the soldiers of the Nether World Watch, too.
Except for one heavily wounded soldier, most of the teammates were safe and sound.
After examining the multiple kinds of magical equipment hidden in the body of the puppet giants, Swirl concluded, "Those beast puppets do not look like designated guards. They are more like… servants and acolytes of Chaos."
Most of the magical equipment was not aggressive but designed to dissect, refine, maintain objects, and run experiments.
The episodes did not interrupt their exploration. After a moment of rest, the exploration team continued to move forward while they paid close attention to the water on their way. They did not meet much trouble on the rest of the way. Instead, they collected a lot of debris of jade chips and magical equipment from the water.
Fifteen minutes later, they finally reached the huge 'coffin' at the center of the space!
Both the soldiers of the Nether World Watch and the captives of the Blade of Chaos held their breath and aimed their searchlights at the object.
Outside their expectations, what appeared in front of them was not a splendid throne, not a creepy coffin, but a facility that look like a 'pool'.
The 'pool' was made of the purest and most flawless crystals. It was about three meters above the ground and almost ten meters in length and width. Dense, elegant spiritual stripes had been carved on the object, forming what appeared to be an extremely complicated rune array whose purpose nobody was aware of.
Above the 'pool', there was a cover that was made of the same material. It was connected to the 'pool' with tracks so that the 'pool' could be closed with the minimal strength.
After it was closed, the pool and the cover were fully integrated without the tiniest gap.
Around the crystal pool were a lot of huge tanks, some of which were directly linked to the crystal pool while some others were docked to the crystal pool through soft tubes.
After such a long time, the soft tubes made of the stomachs of demon beasts had all decayed.
At first glance, the crystal pool was very similar to the biochemical culture slots that were popular among the demons. But it was purely empty. Except for the transparent liquids, there was absolutely nothing, not even any bones, much less the intact body of Chaos.
"This is rather uncanny. All the evidence suggests that this is the place of Chaos' death. Why are there no bones at all?" Swirl frowned. "Where will the 'thing' that Elder demanded be put if the body does not exist?"
Right then, illuminated by one of the searchlights, Swirl discovered something resembling an agate glimmering inside the crystal pool.
"What is that?"
Swirl was interested and moved closer, observing the item against the edge of the pool.
Right then, a miserable scream echoed behind Swirl. A captive of the Blade of Chaos seemed to have been possessed by a devil, and his wrists and ankles twisted unnaturally as he suddenly jerked up!
…
Out of the bronze gate, Despot had been pacing back and forth anxiously for several hours.
"There's no need to be nervous, Despot. I've asked Swirl to send a messenger back every ten minutes. Everything was still on track ten minutes ago."
Elder Nether Spring was rather at ease. He was even in the mood of a cup of good tea while he sat and talked with Chu Zhengqing, the specialist of the studies of Chaos.
Right then, a weird shriek suddenly echoed deep below the ground!
The shriek made the color drain from everyone's face. Despot almost could not wait to jump into the shaft now.
"Wait!" Elder Nether Spring shouted to stop him. "The situation is still unclear. Don't go inside recklessly!"
Very soon, the weird shriek was clearer and more disordered, like the jibber-jabber of someone crazy who had been scared witless.
A shadow gradually appeared from the shaft.
The horns on Despot's head were surrounded by dazzling electric arcs again, which spread down along the wall of the shaft.
