Chapter 48: Walking through the ‘Simple Path’
“Disable all the traps inside this Hall!”
“...”
Although the lady on sky blue dress said, it would be useless, Shen still tried his luck. And as expected, his was only met with silence.
“Kitty, do you think you can absorb the treasure energy of this place?” Shen brought his hand over Kaidi’s head, caressing her soft hair.
“I can, but the energy here is extremely pure and high in density. The quantity is huge too. I don’t know what might happen if I fail to slow down the absorption process.” Kaidi looked dejected. It was rare to obtain some good treasure but this was her first time encountering something so domineering.
Shen patted her head, “Alright, it’s not a bad thing. If you can’t use it right away, you will be able to use it after some breakthrough. That means we already have reassurance for your future cultivation.”
Kaidi’s face brightened a little, “Umm,”
“Alright, stay put inside the Realm. I’ll be done in a jiffy.” Shen forced out a smile to reassure her. If possible he didn’t want to step inside the simple path, especially when he was still hurt but the reality was cruel. One can’t run away just because they don’t like it. Whether he wants or not, he had to step inside it. And if he wants to get out, he better walks through it.
A look of reluctance appeared on her face but she nodded. A moment later, she disappeared from her position. Shen sighed in relief. Although, he could try clearing the path after his full recovery, which would take at most 3-5 days, more than a month inside the Absolute Realm. But he had a plan. If it worked, he might have a chance to clear it. Not to mention he had to meet with this woman who claimed to know his Master.
Activating the Absolute Vision, he moved to 130th path with ease. He didn’t move to the next 14 paths, maintaining his distance. Shen closed his eyes, in deep concentration. Suddenly, he opened his eyes, a black fish of three feet appeared on his hands. He was very careful handling with the fish. Letting it fall would same as sending himself to death door.
He smirked if the traps didn't react to any non-living items. It will surely react to something that's alive and kicking. Grabbing the fish by its tail, he threw it towards the podium. Obviously, he threw it hard enough so it will bypass the podium, that would if the traps didn’t mince it to pieces.
Shuak shuak shuak...
Shuak shuak shuak...
Shuak shuak shuak...
The sounds of twig piercing through the air brought a smile to his face but very soon his smile froze. Before it could even go half-way through the podium, the fish was completely riddled with bamboo twigs and hardly recognizable. This also caused him to sigh internally, if he mindlessly jumped toward the podium, the only result he could achieve would be, simple death.
“Ahahah,” Shen dryly laughed. “Thanks for your sacrifice and sorry to all those that will be sacrificed from now on.” He silently prayed. He took out another fish from the realm as he picked up his research.
...
The research so far showed him that there was indeed spaces without trap but he couldn’t figure out the trap. It was impossible to decide every step with his almighty fishes and he refused to take chance on something that’s impossible. There was once when a fish jumped mid-air and fell near Shen, almost piercing him with arrows.
From the research, he understood this much: This trial or simple path consisted of three regions. The inner region, which was probably the most dangerous and worst part of this simple path. The second or the middle region where he almost lost his life, and the outer region, also the safest of all and also where he currently stood.
Shen used twenty-five black fishes from the realm to check out the trap, this was his last experiment before he decides back to the Absolute Realm. This time, his choice of fish was extremely a small one. To be more precise, the smallest one that was left. He used small fishes in his tries but the result was the same. His try now was a little different, he didn’t want to figure out the algorithm right now. But rather to see what this gold skeleton fell to.
Shen threw out the fish at a low position, hoping it will bypass the twigs,
Shuak shuak shuak...
Shuak shuak shuak...
The fish failed to bypass the twigs and pierced by one, but in the end it was able to enter the inner part. As soon as the fish fell inside the inner part, space froze, just after a moment the fish turned into nothing but bloody paste.
Shen was already prepared, or more like numbed so he didn’t feel much surprise. “Ah, I guess it’s time to ret...urn?” Shen’s thought out loud as he noticed something peculiar which turned decision to a question.
He noticed wherever there was blood, he could see another layer of blue pattern below those drops of blood. This discovery caused him to check all the places where the fishes died. And indeed, he could see them all the places. Now it made sense to him, why when stepping on these triggers didn’t cause any traps to trigger, it was because they were not triggers in the first place. It was a big enchantment array for alchemy! The trap was completely hidden by onlookers. Even his Absolute Vision couldn’t pierce through the real trap but it was understandable if this palace or treasure was truly built by the one who created the Absolute Strengthening Technique.
But another question popped up on Shen’s head, was blood a requirement to see this trap? Or any liquid would have the same effect? To test this out Shen spilled a good amount of water on the floor, sure that his action won’t trigger any traps.
As he expected, he couldn’t see the blue pattern on the floor. The blood seemed like a requirement to see the path. Taking out a dagger from the realm, he slashed on his left palm with it. Blood tinged the crystal clear water which enabled Shen to see the traps. Just a few drops of water enabled him to see the trigger lines. Preparing himself inwardly, he took a step. Not any jump but a simple step, but he was prepared to jump back any second.
Step... step... step
‘This method will work,’ thought Shen. This also brought a smile on his face. He repeated the process of taking out water from the realm and dropping his blood on it and walking again. He was already inside the middle region of the trap, where he could die at any given moment. But now he was extremely calm. Step by step, he neared the podium. He was only thirty meters away from reaching his goal and also the hardest.
Using the same tactic, he stared at the traps on the last region. The inner region of the trap created a huge suction force and turns everything into bloody paste. As for the golden skeleton still being in a single piece showed it’s higher cultivation and bone frames specialty.
Swiftly collecting the bone frame inside the realm, Shen stepped inside the inner region. The inner region was different from the middle region in two way. First, the space for stepping was much smaller and secondly, it was constantly moving reverse-clockwise at a slow pace.
If someone used a similar method to Shen’s first method and figured out the algorithm which didn’t even exist, they already perished. The outer and middle region was extremely easy compared to the inner region. The continuous rotation of the triggers not only made it complex and hard to bypass but it also constantly triggered traps as long as anything alive stepped on it. Someone with extremely high cultivation and defense might be able to force their way through to the outer and middle region, but they would have been stopped by the force of the inner region. They couldn’t go back and forth either. If their defense was pitiful, they would become meat paste in a matter of second.
Finally, Shen stood on the podium. The inner circle was only twenty-four meters. He wanted nothing else than to jump directly to the podium, but he knew it will only cost his life. He spent 2 minutes to pass this twenty-four meters and every second he felt his heart near his throat. Shen’s inner arrogance and pride as reincarnator or as talented genius or even as a human, everything washed due to this event.
After five seconds, the whole Hall was filled with blinding golden light, the triggers on the floor disappeared one by one. The qi strands released by the beast statues also stopped at the same time. The Four Symbol’s eyes lit up as four different auras flew toward Shen as they entered his body. The four energy started to fight over themselves as if trying to decide over something but the fight inside his dantian caused Shen to feel sharp pain on his meridians.
Summoning his Absolute Qi, he conjured Chaos and attacked all four auras. Much to his surprise they were easily pierced through and integrated with his Absolute Qi. He didn’t think much of it but right after four illusory figure appeared above Shen, and he himself could feel the pressure.
“Interesting,” muttered Shen as he appeared inside a much bigger Hall which was easily ten to twenty kilometers wide and a few hundred meters wide. In front of him appeared the women in a sky-blue dress.