River of Fate: Emerald Alchemist, page 30
Unlike the chasm surface, the walls of the tunnel were made of rippled obsidian that shone with internal heat. They gave off a dim light that was more than enough for him to see everything clearly.
There were some tracks on the ground from where cultivators had passed by, as well as chips and scuffs from impacts where weapons and elemental techniques had struck the walls. Beyond that, however, the interior was silent.
His map ended here, but the line of battle marks led deeper into the tunnels, where the cultivators must have tried to fight their way out. He glanced at the marks and then headed deeper, following the trail.
The tunnel wound around, heading inward and slightly down, and it doubled back across its own path more than once, creating a twisting and chaotic map. Now and then, another tunnel opening crossed his path, creating an intersection.
The walls of the chasm were honeycombed with pathways. Most of them looked like they’d been expanded by cultivators in their search for materials. There were many valuable things to find here, but you had to look for them. These tunnels were the result.
He kept a careful memory of the route, slowly building a map of how everything connected.
For all the cultivators who came here, there had only been one report of this beast, so he didn’t expect to run into it immediately. Instead, he continued to walk. He had his own way to flush it out when he wanted to find it.
If his guess was right, it preferred the depths.
For all the intersections in this tunnel, there was only one major path that led further down. The rest were all horizontal branches.
A couple of hours passed, and he finally stopped inside a wide cavern, one that only had one exit heading up and one down. It looked like it had been formed from a large bubble of magma. The walls were smoother than most of the tunnels and it was in the shape of a flattened disk.
The ceiling was thirty feet high and the chamber was about two hundred feet across. Compared to the depth of the cavern, it wasn’t that big, but it would work for what he had in mind.
There was no sign of the beast yet, but this should be as low as the cultivators dared to go, which meant it sometimes passed through here. The pressure of spiritual energy was already three times higher than at the entrance to the tunnel.
The marks of battle were sparse here, but there were still a few on the walls. It suggested the cultivators had fled almost as soon as they saw the creature. They had probably tried to fight defensively as they retreated.
Right now, the area was calm. There was no sign of the sect, but they were probably waiting a little way back up the tunnel. It was enough space that he didn’t worry about them seeing what he was about to do.
Although, there was no doubt they would hear it.
If the beast didn’t want to come out, he would encourage it. He didn’t feel like spending his time waiting. He let the emerald energy of his bloodline swirl around him as he drew in a deep breath.
Then he let out a commanding roar that resonated through the obsidian walls.
It was a wave of violent sound and spiritual pressure that rolled through the cavern, making the stone tremble. The obsidian shone brighter as the leaping flames on the surface were pressed down, like a bonfire bowing to a superior wind.
The roar thundered through the cavern and then down the connecting tunnels, and it sank through the stone of the floor like it was barely there as it headed lower.
It continued to travel for over a minute, making the entire area shake as it passed through everything. When it finally settled, there was silence in its wake.
Verse stood at the center of the cavern as he drew in another breath, but there was no need to roar again. He could feel the change in the energy of the area.
A fast-moving wave was heading directly toward him. He chuckled, but besides that all he did was fold back his sleeves and wait.
There was a distinct difference between a dragon’s roar and that of anything else. Dragons were the king of all beasts, and the signature of their bloodline was like a ruler’s scepter, commanding them all to bow.
But that prestige was based on power and beasts were an unruly group. If the beast thought it was strong enough, even if something about the roar terrified it, it might come to fight instead, especially if it was challenged on its own territory.
That was what was happening here.
It also depended on what the dragon said, and Verse had just roared the equivalent of “Get out here and die.”
He could feel the beast’s fury as it closed in. It had probably never been so insulted in its life.
He didn’t worry about the sect hearing the roar, since it wasn’t going to make them run away. Even if they thought it sounded like a dragon, dragons were mythical in the empire. No one would expect to encounter one.
A moment later, the obsidian wall at the far side of the cavern rippled like water as a massive beast charged through it, heading directly for Verse.
It was a giant black-scaled serpent with glaring red eyes.
Its mouth was open, revealing long white fangs and a bright sphere of flame deep in its throat. Its scales were a shiny black that matched the obsidian walls, and it was four feet wide and nearly fifty feet long.
It was a massive creature for these tunnels, but it moved through them like it was swimming through water. Instead of confining it, the stone parted around it, giving it full mobility to travel anywhere it pleased. That was how it had reached him so quickly.
It only took him a second to recognize what it was. It was a Dark Obsidian Serpent, one of the most feared denizens of the volcanic plains. For all that the race was well-known, he was surprised to see it here.
They were actually incredibly rare. Most of them lived far below the surface, at the border where magma and stone mixed, where it was pleasant for them. When they came to the surface, it was only to hunt for food.
Usually it was the juveniles like this one. They wanted to grow quickly by devouring the abundant prey near the surface. They were well known for their voraciousness.
It was a good thing he’d found it. If left to its own devices, this one would probably kill most of the cultivators that came down into the chasm, using it as its private hunting reserve.
The more they ate, the faster they grew. Given that size and cultivation, this one must’ve just come up to the surface.
An adult obsidian serpent could even reach the Inspired Aura stage. They were a ferocious race. Despite that, there was a reason they weren’t frequently seen.
Long ago, they’d been hunted almost to extinction. Their ability to pass through stone like it was water was part of their nature and, unlike some racial techniques, it was imbued into their beast core.
With the right inscriptions, that ability could be preserved as part of the core and turned into a Stone-aligned treasure that was very useful to cultivators.
He’d wondered what was hunting the cultivators, but he hadn’t expected it would be this fellow. It was no wonder they’d had trouble escaping from it. At the same cultivation level and in these tunnels, the serpent’s mobility gave it a massive advantage.
Despite his surprise, however, it didn’t change anything.
As the serpent appeared, spiritual energy gathered around Verse, making the bands of soul talismans on his arms flare. He’d spent some time on the way here making them, in preparation both for this fight and the one with the sect that would follow.
Right now, however, he didn’t plan to use them. Instead, he moved into a fluid fighting stance and raised his hands, his smile increasing.
The serpent’s rage at the intruder in its tunnels was apparent, and its giant head was almost as wide across as Verse’s entire body, but when it struck across the distance toward him, it met a fist coming the opposite way.
The strike ripped across the serpent’s face and hurled it away, making its body double over as it bent back unnaturally. Its entire length followed, coiling in the air like a broken spring.
Fifty feet of serpent flew across the cavern and slammed into the far wall, too stunned to phase through it. It slid down the surface and coiled frantically, trying to gather itself.
It was a peak Aligned-realm beast, but Verse was already a realm stronger. The result was obvious.
The serpent’s hiss of rage rattled across the room like a steel blade as it gathered itself and shot toward him again. Obsidian serpents were known to have a bad temper, and this one was proving it.
After that one blow to test his strength, he turned to long-distance attacks. He had originally intended to use them alone, but once he saw the serpent, he realized it wouldn’t be possible to kill it that way unless he activated his bloodline.
Obsidian serpents were too fast and too durable, and his cultivation was only at the peak of Essence Condensation. But that made it an excellent practice target.
For the next twenty minutes, he tested out every battle technique he had, from Crimson Sunset Strikes, to Crimson Sunset’s Piercing Rain, the shield that was Ice Dragon Scales, his old Wind Blade and Pressure Wave attacks, and more.
He even tested out Stone Fist, Lightning Wings, and other things he hadn’t used in ages. Most of them glanced off the serpent’s scales, repelled by its defense and the strength that infused it, but it gave him the opportunity to see how his bloodline altered his strength.
The first meridian hummed with energy as he moved. He could feel it there, waiting to be called on. It was strengthening his attacks and speeding up his qi regeneration, although not anywhere near as much as when he activated it.
The serpent did its best to get close to him, but whenever it broke through a technique and closed in, he hurled it away again.
The cavern was filled with the boom of explosions, techniques colliding with scale and stone, and the crash of the serpent landing against the walls. To anyone listening from a distance, it undoubtedly sounded like a dangerous battle was being fought here.
In reality, Verse stood calmly at the center of the cavern, his position as stable as the sun.
The serpent was too stubborn to retreat, and his attacks weren’t hurting it that much, just making it angrier. It continued to attack him until he finally decided it was enough.
By now, the sect should think that he was exhausted and be waiting to close in.
As for the serpent, if it were more intelligent he would tell it to disappear and find a new nest, but its nature was to be a violent killing machine. If he left it here, it would just eat more cultivators in the future.
When the serpent coiled up and launched itself at him again, it was time. Emerald flames covered his right hand with a dragon’s claw that burned with a brilliant light. The serpent’s head shot toward him as he stepped to the side and slashed down.
A moment later, the obsidian head and its bared fangs continued on alone across the cavern. The serpent’s massive body twisted wildly, thrashing against the stone floor with thunderous and chaotic strikes as it fell to the side, where it eventually turned still.
Verse’s meridians were humming with power and his bloodline was surging, but his face was calm. He let out a slow breath as he let his energy recover.
The battle hadn’t been too difficult, but he had pushed himself to use his techniques against the serpent. He could feel a new familiarity with them and he had some insights to meditate on, mostly ways to combine his bloodline with his attacks.
The battle had also given him a chance to grow accustomed to his new strength and helped to familiarize him with the changes. His physique was massively improved compared to before.
It was too bad he couldn’t keep the serpent around as a sparring partner for longer, but the sect was probably growing impatient by now and wondering if he’d died.
They should be here to investigate soon.
A quick gesture brought the serpent’s head flying back toward him and he retrieved the beast core, which was a shiny obsidian sphere lit from within by red flames. It was about two inches across and it radiated a strong sense of Fire and Stone, as if it wanted to melt through the world.
“That’s a good beast core,” the shrine said approvingly. “If you inscribe it correctly, it’ll give you the ability to walk through stone without using much energy. You’ll have to get better at inscribing first though, or hire someone else to do it. It would be a shame to ruin it.”
“Vesana might know someone trustworthy in Boreas,” he said as he tucked it away into his ring.
It might be useful in the future if he had a chance to turn it into an artifact. If not, it was still a potent source of spiritual energy to absorb.
He turned toward the entrance to the tunnel that he’d taken down here and waited, his arms folded. He could feel the disturbance in the flow of Fire energy around the cavern as cultivators approached.
They were being stealthy, but it was difficult for them to hide their auras when everything here was attuned to Fire and Stone, and none of them were. From the sense of them, one was attuned to Water, one to Wind, and the third to a ghost dao of some type.
That last one was the strongest, far more than the other two.
His aura held a sense of screaming spirits and some type of cold suction that was directly opposed to the Fire here. It didn’t seem to be weakened by it. Instead, it was eating away at the energy in the walls, consuming it for its own benefit and leaving a cold void behind.
It felt a bit similar to the talismans that the two assassins brought to his courtyard, suggesting it was a dao of ghosts or something similar.
Ghosts liked the quiet of the earth and some didn’t mind earth flames, which was probably why they weren’t hindered here.
Before long, three forms faded into sight at the entrance to the tunnel.
One was leading and the other two were standing at his shoulders like attendants. They were dressed more normally than he’d expected, in casual grey robes with a crimson face imprinted on the chest, making it clear where their allegiance lay.
Apparently, they weren’t afraid of being discovered.
The two at the back were at the late Aligned realm, which was a solid level of strength for the area, but their daos of Water and Wind paled in comparison to the man in front of them, like flickering candles that were about to go out, drowned in a cold wind.
The aura of that one was a powerful and dense oppression that weighed down on the area, making the flames running across the walls seem dim. Even the dark gloss of the obsidian looked pale where it touched them, turning to a grey color that lost all sense of life.
It looked like a gravestone.
The sound of shrieking voices was just barely visible in a wind that never stopped flowing around him, releasing a pressure of violent death and cold, grasping fingers.
From the aura alone, it was clear he was at the early stage of the Primal Spirit realm, marking him as one of the stronger cultivators around Boreas. With the sect’s resources behind him, he was also much more dangerous than the average Primal Spirit cultivator.
It wasn’t clear what techniques he had, but it was obvious that he didn’t feel a need to be stealthy. The two behind him were probably sect assassins, but there was no doubt in Verse’s mind that this was an elder of the Crimson Shade Sect.
Chapter twenty-two
Elder Corpsewind
Screaming faces appeared in the cold wind around the sect elder, howling with fury as his attention fell on Verse. The aura made the entire cavern feel like it had turned into a graveyard. It suppressed other spiritual energy and shadows warped where it passed, giving rise to the image of tombstones that grew from the earth like grey branching fingers.
Shadows elongated on the walls, stretching away as the grey wind continued to blow and bringing an eerie feeling of cold death and crumbling stone. The shadows crawled along the walls with grasping tendrils like a dead man’s hair.
The elder’s dao was one of gravestones or something like the grasp of a corpse. It was unpleasant and Verse’s flames rushed to the surface of his skin in response, leaping outward to keep it from touching him.
His nature demanded that he burn away the cold aura around him, but under the suppression of the aura, his flames couldn’t go any farther than the surface of his skin. All he could do was keep it from touching him. The elder’s aura was a heavy weight pressing down on the area.
Despite that, Verse’s expression was calm as he looked at the elder and the two assassins, waiting for them to act. This wasn’t going to be easy, but he’d prepared for it.
Two peak Aligned realm assassins was more than he’d hoped would accompany the Primal Spirit cultivator, but it was still within his calculations. It just meant it was going to be more difficult than he wanted. The sect was trying to guarantee his death.
This was probably the peak force the sect could send against him without mobilizing their entire organization. It was almost an honor. The thought sent an amused glint across his eyes.
He had prepared a lot of things for this fight.
It was time to see if they were enough.
This was the strongest array of enemies he’d encountered so far, basically a two-on-one fight if he counted each of those assassins as a half. The sect elder was a full Primal Spirit cultivator, which meant his techniques would be on the same level as Verse’s physique and able to injure him.
The elder wasn’t in a rush as he looked around, taking in everything in the cavern. Arrogance rolled off him, showing that he thought everything was in the palm of his hand.
He studied Verse for a moment without any expression. He didn’t look impressed, nor was he trying to hide his killing intent. It filled the cold wind that came from him with jagged blades.
Instead of speaking, his attention settled on the serpent’s corpse. He spent a minute or so studying it, both the giant body and the head that was lying off to the side. Then he raised an eyebrow.
“A Dark Obsidian Serpent,” he said. His voice was the complete opposite of his aura. It was strong and vigorous, full of confidence. “I didn’t expect to see that here. Is this what finally lured you out of town, knight? As they say, birds die for food and men die for wealth. Perhaps this trip will not be such a waste after all.”
