The two travelled down the stairs as runes lit the way down the passage. The runes glowed a dark blue as each step the duo took, a rune would light up in accordance.
The walls inside the downstairs passage seemed to be made of sandstone, with inscriptions of mystical runes that neither Dane nor Shen understood the meaning of.
To test the sturdiness of the wall, Shen gave it a punch, which caused the runes to flicker and a shock wave blew Shen back next to Dane.
"Shen, why did you do that?" Dane asked, as he couldn't understand Shen's reasoning for punching a wall randomly. In fact, in Dane's mind, Shen's action ruined his image of being powerful and invincible.
Shen continued going down the passage "I wanted to test the wall's material. I had to know if they were strong or weak and their properties." He calmly said, like he didn't just get pushed back.
Hearing Shen's answer, his image of Shane restored slightly in Dane's mind. 'So he was understanding his surroundings...I see.'
The two continued to walk down until they saw a smaller sized door leading into a room.
The moment the two entered inside…
*Rumble*
A small quake happened around them as the door behind them quickly closed. Noticing the door close, Dane ran to it and began banging the door in panic "Oh no! We're trapped, Shen!" He said in panic.
"Don't worry about it." Shen commented as he walked around the empty room. Unlike the passageway, the walls in the room looked to be made of sandstone, but instead of yellow, it was blue.
In the room, there was a large circular table at the centre, with a bunch of unique pieces arranged horizontally, vertically, and diagonally of different sizes.
Shen smirked, seeing the table filled with the disorganised pieces.
Dane walked over to Shen and saw the pieces "Are we supposed to do something with these pieces?"
Before Dane could say anything else, another quake ensued inside the room, shaking Dane, causing him to lose his balance while Shen stood perfectly still, as if there was no quake.
The quake ended after a few minutes, but before Dane could sigh in relief, the walls from two sides closed in on each other.
"Oh no! Shen! The walls are closing!" Dance squealed in fright.
Shen continued to observe the pieces "I'm aware." He answered simply.
The room got smaller and smaller every second.
"Um! Shen! What do we do?" Dane continued to ask, as he was panicking from their dire situation.
'Hm, the picture is meant to be a demon showing its chest and flexing his muscles and wings...but the one on the table looks nothing like it.' Shen inspected every single piece of the twenty on the table.
*Rumble*
*Rumble*
The walls that were closing in grew sand like spikes that Dane did not want to risk touching.
"Shen!" He called out again as he backed close to him.
'Got it' Shen smirked and tried to pick up a piece to arrange them in the correct order.
However, the piece was too heavy for Shen to lift!
'What the-' Shen used his Qi around his body to increase his strength as he was attempting to lift the one piece.
"Urgh!" Shen groaned as he used all his strength to lift the piece, yet it wouldn't lift a millimeter off the ground.
Dane noticed Shane struggled "Ill help you," He offered as he believed Shen had a solution. The moment Dane held the piece with Shen, it lifted "Oh, it's not that difficult '' Dane commented.
Shen looked shocked but quickly calmed down 'I think I get it' He let go of the piece
Seeing Shen let go off the piece, Dane panicked since he saw Shen having a hard time to lift it "Ah, Shen don't!"
But the unexpected happened. The piece was still in Dane's hand and he still found it very light. Noticing Dane's confused expression, Shen filled him in " It seems you're made for this inheritance ground, just like how you opened the inheritance ground in the first place, it seems you 're also the only one able to hold these pieces."
Dane nodded in understanding.
"Listen to me and move the pieces, as I say. We have little time."
Shen began ordering Dane to pick up the pieces and swap them out for the other pieces of different shapes.
However, Dane was still quite weak and slow, so it took him some time to register Shen's order and execute them properly, so he would usually place the pieces nervously.
The room got much smaller, where Shen had to be very close to Dane that their body were touching.
However, Shen was still calm as he continued to tell Dane where to arrange the pieces.
*Rumble*
*Rumble*
*Rumble*
*Clink*
A clink sound sounded when Dane placed the last piece.
The walls stopped closing in and the wall absorbed the sand spikes, completely disappearing.
Next, the walls were slowly moving back to their original pieces as Dane fell to his knees and breathing a sigh of relief.
He was so tense during the whole situation that being able to relax just made him lose all feelings in his legs.
"That was close, haha." Dane commented, trying to lighten the atmosphere.
Shen ignored him and looked at the table to see a massive demon roaring with his chest out and massive wings outstretched, creating a deep sense of pressure. Though it was just an image, Shen still felt pressured by the picture 'If I saw that in real life, would I be able to even run away?' He wondered.
Once the walls returned to their original place, the ground a few steps ahead opened up, showing a staircase leading further underground.
"We'll rest for an hour and head down, okay Dane?" Shen said as he sat by the wall.
"Alright Shen bro." Dane replied as he shut his eyes.
Shen smiled at Dane's comradeship.