Free Web NovelChapter 189: Chapter 187: Breaking the Gate
Ian opened his eyes and walked toward the faint fluctuation.
His steps were unhurried, his ears listening for any sound from all directions.
The auditory hallucinations in the Illusion Corridor persisted. One moment it was a woman crying, the next a child laughing.
He acted as if he heard nothing, his gaze fixed on the path beneath his feet.
After about half an hour, the reliefs on the walls changed.
The twisted human figures were gone, replaced by images of monsters—creatures with fish heads and human bodies, holding forks in their hands.
Light appeared ahead. It was the exit.
Ian quickened his pace. The moment he stepped out of the corridor, the viscous spiritual interference vanished.
He took a breath. The cloyingly sweet, rotten smell in the air had faded considerably.
It was replaced by a damp, watery vapor tinged with the faint smell of fish.
Before him was an open area paved with blue-black stone slabs. Dark green moss grew in the cracks between them.
In the distance, huge stone pillars could be seen propping up a gray, hazy ceiling of indiscernible height.
This was the inside of the Sleeping Underground Palace.
Ian didn’t stop, following the direction he’d sensed.
He kept to the edge of the stone path, his body half-shrouded in shadow.
The path was not peaceful.
First, the moss at his feet suddenly came alive, coiling around him like snakes.
Ian stomped his foot. A jade-like radiance flashed, and the moss was crushed into a pool of slime.
He hadn’t taken more than a few steps when a dark shadow dropped from a crevice in the ceiling.
It was a strange, palm-sized beetle with a shell as hard as iron. Its mandibles opened and closed with a CLICK.
Ian pointed a finger. A white flash from his Frost Ash Beam froze the beetle into a solid block of ice, which shattered with a CRACK.
Along the way, he also encountered other Wizards on two occasions.
The first was a gray-robed member of the Withered Council, squatting in a corner and muttering at some markings on the wall, his gaze vacant.
Seeing Ian approach, he hastily stood up, his expression wary and extremely tense.
Ian just wanted to get the Void Anchor Stone for now and had no desire for trouble, so he simply walked around him.
The gray-robed man seemed somewhat surprised that Ian had let him go so easily and lowered his head in thought.
Ian continued onward and soon encountered two people from the Deep Red Royal Court.
They were fighting a giant pitcher plant that spat poisonous stingers, the battle causing sparks to fly.
Ian ignored them as well, slipping past through the shadows several dozen meters behind them.
The two were so focused on dealing with the Magic Plant that they didn’t notice him at all.
The farther he went, the heavier the water vapor became, and the fishy smell in the air grew so thick it was acrid.
After navigating around a few fallen stone pillars, the area suddenly opened up to reveal a lake.
The lake water was an inky green, still and lifeless, without a single ripple.
The lake was vast, its far shore lost to sight.
Piles of ghastly white bones were stacked along the shore—some human, others from various monsters.
Just as Ian was about to go around it, the lake water began to bubble. GLUG GLUG GLUG.
SPLASH! SPLASH!
Dozens of dark figures shot out of the water, landing on the rocky shore.
’These... they must be Fishmen, right?’
They looked similar to the monsters from World of Warcraft in his past life—green-skinned, with bulging eyes and mouths full of sharp teeth.
But they were much larger, each over two meters tall. Their arms were thicker than Ian’s thighs, and they clutched crude bone forks or stone hammers.
The auras pulsating from their bodies were all at the level of a Level One Wizard Initial Stage.
"Gaga!" Gaga chirped softly from his sleeve, a hint of excitement in its voice.
"Gaga, you can come out later."
Ian had not wanted to bother with the Fishmen, but seeing them charge at him...
’Since you’re looking for death, I’ll grant your wish.’
The lead Fishman was the largest, with a string of skulls hanging around its neck.
It raised its Bone Fork and let out a piercing shriek.
Dozens of Fishmen shrieked "WARGLE WARGLE" and charged forward on their webbed feet, their steps making the ground THUD THUD.
Ian didn’t retreat. Instead, he took a step forward.
He raised his right hand, fingers splayed, and made a grasping motion toward the five or six Fishmen at the very front.
HUMMM!
The air distorted. A fist-sized dark sphere, its core faintly collapsing with light, instantly materialized in front of his palm.
The Gravity Collapse Ball. After grinding his Skill Level over the past two-plus months, he could now form the ball much faster.
’Go!’
The small black ball flew out silently, as fast as a shadow.
PFFT!
The chests of the five nearest Fishmen simultaneously exploded, leaving bowl-sized holes that went straight through.
Their forward momentum didn’t stop. They ran two more steps before looking down at their chests, then collapsed to the ground without a sound.
The flesh at the edges of the wounds was bizarrely twisted, as if wrung by an invisible force.
This was with Ian holding back its power. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have even been any spoils left.
The Fishmen behind them faltered for a moment, but their ferocity was ignited. They roared and continued their charge.
Ian waved his left hand, and thirty-six three-inch, sharp-angled, translucent crystals separated from his Crystal Energy Barrier.
They floated around him—the Floating Crystal Guards.
Following the transformation of his Realm and Spiritual Power, he could now control up to 72 of them.
"Scatter!"
The Crystal Guards flew out with a WHOOSH, swarming toward the Fishmen like a colony of agile bees.
They looked small, but their impact was immense, and their surfaces were extremely hard.
CRACK! SQUELCH! The sounds of cracking bones and tearing flesh rang out as several Fishmen had their bones shattered or their skin and muscle sliced open by the edges of the Crystal Guards.
Ian himself also moved.
He pushed off with his foot, and the blue-black stone slab cracked with a SNAP. He shot into the horde of Fishmen like a cannonball.
He didn’t use Witchcraft, only his fists.
He pushed his Furnace Body Tempering Skill to its limit, a Jade-like Radiance flowing beneath his skin.
He slammed a fist into a stone hammer raised by one of the Fishmen.
BANG!
The stone hammer shattered, and his fist continued unabated, printing itself on the Fishman’s scaly chest.
BOOM! A spray of blood mist erupted from the Fishman’s back, its eyeballs bulging.
It flew back a good seven or eight meters, ramrod straight, and knocked over two of its companions.
Ian twisted his body, dodging a thrusting Bone Fork, and jabbed his elbow backward into another Fishman’s ribs.
The crisp sound of breaking bones was clearly audible as the Fishman screamed and crumpled to the side.
He snatched the Bone Fork and, with a backhand throw, sent it WHOOSHING through the throat of a third Fishman that was about to pounce.
Gaga finally couldn’t hold back any longer.
It emerged from the shadow of Ian’s collar, its form flickering as it transformed into its battle state with a wingspan of over three meters.
With a flap of its wings, a dozen or so Wind Blades, so solid they appeared bluish, howled through the air, dicing two Fishmen who were trying to ambush Ian from the side.
Its Omen Eye activated at the same time, glaring at the most densely packed group of Fishmen.
The group of Fishmen froze in unison, their eyes glazing over with confusion.
A few of them even began to swing their weapons at their own companions.
Although the Fishmen were numerous, the battle was completely one-sided.
These Fishmen possessed the Power and aura of Tier One, but their fighting style was crude.
They had almost no Witchcraft abilities, relying entirely on their physical bodies and instincts.
In less than a minute, all thirty-odd Fishmen that had charged ashore were lying on the ground.
The rocky shore was littered with severed limbs and splatters of inky-green blood, the foul stench of which assaulted the nose.
Not a single drop of blood had splashed onto Ian.
He dusted off his hands, walked over to the Fishmen corpses, and squatted down to cast the Bloodline Purification Technique.
He placed his palm on a corpse, and an invisible suction force was generated.
The corpse rapidly withered as wisps of dark red blood energy were drawn out and coalesced in his palm.
He processed thirty-four corpses in a row, obtaining thirty-four soybean-sized, dark red Blood Essences.
"All Tier One Blood Essences. Not a bad haul."
Ian placed the Blood Essences into a Jade Bottle and put it away.
This stuff was a great supplement for Gaga, and it also had a slight auxiliary effect on his own Cultivation of the Furnace Body Tempering Skill.
He glanced at the inky-green lake. More dark figures seemed to be lurking in its depths, but none came ashore.
He turned, left the rocky shore, and continued toward the fluctuation of the Void Anchor Stone.
Leaving the lake area, the terrain began to ascend.
The ground beneath his feet changed to a dark red soil that was slightly soft to the tread.
The smell in the air changed again, a mixture of the loamy scent of soil and the faint, strange fragrance of medicinal herbs.
After walking for about an hour and crossing a low slope, a garden appeared ahead.
To call it a garden wasn’t quite accurate.
It was more like an area enclosed by a twisted fence, which was covered in withered vines.
At the entrance stood two massive, rust-spotted metal doors.
The doors were covered in dim Runes, which were currently glowing faintly, forming a translucent film of light.
More than twenty people had already gathered in front of the doors.
Hogan and Catherine from the Shadow Moon Tower, both at the Peak of Liquidation, were present.
From the Deep Red Royal Court were Phoenix and another Liquidation Wizard.
Five or six gray-robed members from the Withered Council were also there, along with several Wizards from other mid-sized organizations.
Everyone stood scattered about, keeping a distance of about ten meters from each other. No one spoke.
All of them were staring at the great doors and the runic film of light upon them.
Ian’s arrival attracted some attention. Several gazes fell upon him, filled with curiosity and scrutiny.
There was also undisguised malice, like that from the Deep Red members.
Hogan gave him a slight nod.
Ian walked over to the group from Shadow Moon, stopped, and also looked at the doors.
’There seems to be something good inside. I’ll blend in and check it out first.’
"This defensive formation is not simple," Hogan said in a low voice, as if talking to himself, yet also for those nearby to hear.
"One or two people won’t be able to break it in a short amount of time. If we try to force our way in, triggering a counterattack would be even more troublesome."
"So what do we do? Just wait?" a member of the Withered Council asked, his voice hoarse.
"There’s no need to wait. Let’s work together."
Catherine, a Witch with a cold expression, stared at the doors.
"There must be something good behind them, or they wouldn’t have such a strong defense. I can feel many life signatures inside, and... a very strong energy reaction."
"Then let’s join forces and blast this shell open first."
Phoenix’s shrill voice cut in, a fake smile on his face.
"Everyone, now is not the time to hold back. Let’s open the door first and talk later. As for what’s inside... it’s every man for himself. How about it?"
No one objected. If they started fighting amongst themselves now, no one would get in.
"I’ll count to three. We all attack the center of the doors together," Hogan said in a deep voice.
Everyone nodded and began their preparations.
Ian also raised his hand, a frosty white chill gathering in his palm.
"One!"
"Two!"
"Three!"
BOOM!!!
More than twenty energy attacks, all different in form but each powerful enough to shatter mountains and split stone, slammed into the runic film of light in the center of the doors at almost the same instant.
Fireballs, Ice Cones, Wind Blades, Corrosive Rays, death shockwaves...
A kaleidoscope of colors exploded, and a deafening blast rang out, making the very ground beneath their feet tremble.
The translucent film of light flickered violently, its glow unstable. One by one, the Runes upon it dimmed and shattered.
KRAKA... RUMBLE!
It held for less than five seconds before the film of light completely shattered, dissolving into motes of light.
The two rusted metal doors let out a groan as if under immense strain.
They slowly swung inward, opening a gap just wide enough for a person to pass through.
From behind the doors, a peculiar medicinal aroma, now more than ten times stronger, washed over them, mixed with the stench of rot and cloying sweetness.
The moment the doors opened, no one moved.
They all looked at each other, their eyes filled with wariness.
The standoff lasted for a few seconds before one of the members from the Deep Red Royal Court couldn’t hold back any longer and broke into a grin.
"I’ll be taking the first step!" With that, a bloody light erupted from his body as he dashed through the opening.
With someone taking the lead, the others could no longer restrain themselves.
Figure after figure followed close behind, flashing through the doorway.
Ian followed behind the few from Shadow Moon and also stepped over the threshold.
The moment he entered, the scene before him made his brow furrow.
