"I don't understand. What's the cause of the delay?" asked Phenius, an elder of the Ashur clan.
He was seated on an empty altar which had nothing but rune inscriptions all over it. Apart from that, it also had a stone tomb which was six meters long and three meters wide — and on that stone tomb was the body of a female silhouette, still and silent.
"Apologies for the delay, Elder Phenius.. We are having a lot of challenges securing the moonlight flower." replied the member of the Ashur clan he was addressing.
"Shira. What you're telling me is that for the past three days, since your daughter delivered Amelia to us on a silver platter... you haven't yet found the moonlight flower." Phenius retorted seriously.
"No! Elder.. We have found it already but it's guarded by a Grade 3 mechanical Tiger and we have lost a lot of manpower.." Shira replied with a shaky voice.
"Then secure more manpower.. If this ritual is successful and the eyes of the Trueblood are excavated and replaced with mine, the House of Ashur shall rise and there will be no one to stop our power in the whole of Chania city.." Phenius laughed out loud — even the liquid fire flowing gently between the wall cracks seemed to dance with him.
This terrain was different from the previous ones. It wasn't white nor covered with snow. It wasn't wide but cramped and filled with stone formations, exuding a crazy amount of heat energy with liquid rivers flowing against the cracks.
"Elder.. If I may ask.. What exactly is this eye about?" Shira asked.
"These eyes carry the touch of the Goddess of Time. Only someone with the bloodline of the Trueblood can awaken it.. Once awakened, with it you'll always be one minute ahead of others..." Elder Phenius stated as Shira stood there, still confused.
"Imagine being a minute ahead of others — not a second, not ten, but a full one minute — where a fight between cultivators can be decided in a matter of seconds. You're already 60 seconds ahead of everyone else..." Elder Phenius explained, and Shira's body shook heavily.
"And that's only the awakening... My grandfather told me when I was young that his friend, who was a Trueblood, never reached the Grandmaster realm — but at the Master realm, he was able to kill different Grandmasters because of his bloodline ability, which is these eyes. The awakening is only the first stage. My grandfather told me his friend cultivated these eyes to the mid stage and awakened a blood skill..."
"A blood skill?" Shira was shocked.
"Yes.. The Trueblood clan isn't just Trueblood by name.. It's so unfortunate that my grandfather's friend was set up and killed, his eyes were collected and the House of Trueblood was invaded.. Many of their powerful members were destroyed and the remaining ones that managed to escape are the Trueblood you see now.. It's so unfortunate that since then, no one had awakened their bloodline power...." Phenius licked his lips as he turned to Amelia who was laid on the altar.
"Except her of course.. And I am going to claim this power for myself and for the Ashur clan.. So go get me the moonflowers no matter what." Elder Phenius screamed out and Shira quickly bowed.
"I'll do exactly that, Elder Phenius." Shira replied, straightened his back, turned and dashed away.
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At another part of the Iceflame dungeon, Magnifiza was running tiredly when she bumped into someone that startled her and caused her to fall back with a loud scream.
"Magnifiza it's me.." Alyssa quickly called her attention so that she would stop screaming — and she did, after recognizing the person in front of her.
"You're alive.." Magnifiza breathed through her nose.
"I only managed to escape the chaos.." Alyssa rolled her eyes. "How about the others?"
"I don't know but.. But I saw Canli.. I saw Canli die before my eyes... Those seniors, they were chasing after someone and they didn't even take us into account." Magnifiza sobbed, her voice breaking on Canli's name.
"Did you say some seniors were chasing after someone?" A voice asked from behind.
Magnifiza shrieked and scrambled toward Alyssa — the two of them colliding and falling together onto the snow field, the cold rushing up against them.
The new silhouette was wrapped in a black robe, a white wrapped saber sitting across his back. He stood without moving, the dungeon quiet around him.
"Answer." He demanded — and the duo nodded.
"Describe the target."
"I didn't see him..." Alyssa stated, and the look on the man's face turned fierce.
"He has red hair." Magnifiza blurted out.
"Red hair.. It's him.. The Son of Trueblood.." The silhouette muttered — and then vanished out of sight as if he had never existed, the space where he had been standing completely empty.
The two girls' ears rang from the sudden shift in pressure. They turned to each other slowly.
"Trueblood? The brother of Amelia.."
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Grit..
Socrates dragged himself through the dark and rested his back against the mountain wall. It had been three days since he had been here — but he wasn't even aware of that. All he knew was that it had been long.
And he wasn't fine. His body was breaking down, his internal system seemingly collapsed while his outer body wasn't healing. The wounds he had sustained from the Foundation Establishment experts — the residual energy from their attacks — had overridden his physical body's natural power.
The combined pressure of it had reduced him to a state where his body could collapse at any moment.
'I'm weak... I'm still too weak..' Socrates shook his head, clutching his left rib which was almost exposed, the dried blood around it cracking faintly with the movement.
'To think I was considering whether I could stand a chance against Judas... He hadn't even revealed half of his strength.'
"No matter how hard I train... the gap between a cultivator and a non-cultivator can't just be bridged.. The gap is too immense.." Socrates sighed, his voice barely above a breath in the dark.
"I have to get my meridians fixed.. I have to become a cultivator." Socrates stated seriously as pain enveloped him.
Then he heard it.
Laughter — coming from somewhere behind him, echoing off the mountain walls. He turned quickly, looking up — and saw something he hadn't seen once in all the days he had been here.
In the middle of the mountain was a pair of large, Irish golden eyes belonging to a humanoid silhouette — and before it were the same red lines that had burned the Foundation Establishment experts to ash the moment they followed Socrates in. Socrates didn't know what it was, but he knew it was dangerous.
"I wonder how you managed to get past the energy restriction without being burned to ashes — but it seems like I know the answer now.." The golden-eyed silhouette stated.
"You're a broken cultivator that can't sense energy, so the restriction can't receive energy from you... But then — you see — this whole place has been restricted, and you've been trying to channel some kind of energy from your internal body.. This field noticed that and directly destroyed all that energy in your internal system."
"What?" Socrates exclaimed.
It was true — he had been trying to channel the Steam Burst. And now every single reserve of it was gone. 'That's why I'm not healing. That's why I feel this crazily weak.'
"Most parts of your body are already dead.. I'm truly surprised you managed to survive to this extent." The golden-eyed silhouette told him.
Socrates just sighed. Then something surfaced in his mind — sudden and urgent.
"Can a soul also count as energy?"
"Yes. The soul of a cultivator is a form of energy.. Any conscious soul that enters this place will be burned to ashes."
Socrates' eyes widened.
'Thank goodness Lady Achillia is still unconscious.. If not...' His body shook at the thought. 'But what if she wakes up?'
'I have to get out of here as soon as possible.. I can't risk anything..'
"How can I get out of here?" Socrates asked.
The golden eyes widened slightly.
"You're almost dead and your only concern is getting out of here..."
"I don't have time to waste — tell me if you know how.." Socrates replied, pushing himself to his feet, the effort drawing a sharp breath through his teeth.
"Release me and I'll take you out of here..." The golden-eyed silhouette stated.
Socrates finally stood upright — and his eyes settled fully on the creature for the first time.
It wasn't human as he had thought. It was a beast. An energy beast.
"An ape?" Socrates arched his brow.
"I'm a Monkey — you fool.. I'm The MONKEY KING."
The golden eyes blazed — and for one brief second the silhouette's entire body lit up with golden light, his majestic form revealed in full. Then the red lines flared up immediately, burning through his skin as his screams tore through the air and nearly split Socrates' eardrums open.
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*READERS.... A MILESTONE HAS BEEN ACHIEVED.*