The next morning, we woke up in the comfortable beds in the rooms of the inn we were staying in. After a light breakfast consisting of congee/porridge, we then departed. The staff and chauffeur were allowed to take a break, doing whatever they wanted. Explore the city, have fun, whatever.
Not that there was much fun to be had when West Gate City was currently in this predicament.
So the usual party – Hong Yao Yao, Lan Bei Er, Chi Yan, He Shan Jie and I – proceeded out the gates and along the road that trade convoys usually took. We traveled swiftly across it until we reached the path leading directly to Mount Sunset.
At this time of the day, there weren't any convoys heading toward or away from West Gate City, which was a small mercy.
"The spirit beast hasn't left its lair yet," Hong Yao Yao surmised thoughtfully. She nodded in the direction of Mount Sunset, which stood tall over all of its brethren in the mountain range. "Most likely we'll end up encountering it the moment we set foot in the ruin that it made its lair."
"Exactly what I wanted," Chi Yan said, cracking his knuckles gleefully. "No beating about the bush. Just straight to business and kicking its ass as sooon as possible!"
"Do you think the spirit beast got as strong as it did because it benefited from the treasures and resources from the ruin?" He Shan Jie asked.
"It's possible," Hong Yao Yao replied with a nod of her head. "In fact, it's very likely that this spirit beast wandered into the ruin, killed the guardian, and then absorbed whatever qi it could from the resources within to grow into the monster that it currently is. That's why it can leave the ruin freely and attack humans…and even West Gate City. Unlike actual guardians, it's not actually bound to the ruin."
"Um, I'm actually disturbed that it had the strength to slay a ruin guardian even before it absorbed all that power from the ruin," I muttered under my breath.
"That's actually a good point," Hong Yao Yao said darkly. "Whatever this spirit beast is, it must be very powerful. No wonder ordinary Innate Realm cultivators are no match for it."
"What should we do?" Lan Bei Er asked, visibly shaken. I placed a comforting arm around her shoulders, but it was Hong Yao Yao who answered her question with a confident smile.
"Fortunately, we aren't ordinary Innate Realm cultivators, right?"
I wondered where she got the confidence from. The more we learned, the more uncomfortable I became. There was something not right about this mission…something not right about the spirit beast. Now that I thought about it, it clearly exhibited intelligence – otherwise why would it learn that attacking the city walls and barrier was futile and it stopped, choosing instead to raid less protected convoys?
No, I was giving spirit beasts far too little credit. Normal beasts were cunning and intelligent – of course they would learn. Rats learned from other rats not to fall into traps and avoided them. Raccoons learned how to scavenge human habitats for food and how to avoid getting caught by us. Wolves learned how to hunt in packs and changed their tactics according to the prey. Why wouldn't a high level spirit beast have the intelligence to figure that out?
Even so, there was something about this particular spirit beast that sent alarm bells ringing in my mind. Call it a gut feeling.
Whatever the case, I would only find out for sure when I actually confronted the spirit beast for real. I would deal with it when the time came. There was no point worrying unnecessarily at the moment. I could only face front and move forward.
Mount Sunset wasn't too far away from the main road. It took us another couple of hours to traverse the mountainous path and climb through it. By the time we reached the foot of the mountain, it was already midday. Fortunately, most of the harsh sunlight was blocked by trees and the shade that Mount Sunset itself provided.
Despite the sun shining directly from above, the mountain was so huge that its shadow was enough to engulf us while we moved about at the bottom. Not to mention, we didn't have to remain out in the open for too much longer.
"There's the entrance to the ruin in Mount Sunset."
As always, Hong Yao Yao knew a lot more than what was normal. I knew her identity wasn't simple, but her breadth of knowledge never failed to amaze me. Just who was she, really?
Then again, whoever she was, it was none of my business. If Hong Yao Yao didn't want to tell me, then I wouldn't pry. If she wanted to reveal her identity one day, I would be all for listening to her. She was on my side. For now, that was all I needed to know.
The ruin was surprisingly empty. It was a vast cavern with flickering lights, fire-type spirit stones illuminating the interior. I couldn't help but frown at just how…desserted the place was.
There was a sense of artficiality too the place – though it was a huge cave, I could see manmade walls. The ground was clearly paved from marble and granite, too clean and smooth to be a natural cave floor. There were a few statues here and there but the majority of them had been broken, their shattered parts lying scattered across the floor.
"Where are the spirit beasts or formations guarding the place?" Chi Yan asked, unnerved. He had been spoiling for a fight, his black ruler already unsealed as a broadsword in his hands, but he had nothing to slash with it.
But he raised a valid point. Normally ruins wuld be crawling with spirit beasts or riddled with traps to discourage cultivators from waltzing right int them. There was no sign of either at the moment, even as we ventured deeper into the ruin.
This made no sense. Unless…
"The spirit beast already killed all the other spirit beasts dwelling in here, as well as destroyed the traps and formations guarding this place."
Everyone turned to stare at me. He Shan Jie nodded slowly and calmly.
"Normally, I would say that sounds implausible, but considering what we're looking at right now…"
"You've got to be kidding me!" Chi Yan spluttered incredulously. "Just what kind of spirit beast is intelligent enough to eliminate all the others, as well as blow through cultivator designed formations and traps?!"
"A high-level spirit beast is certainly cunning and smart enough to do it," Hong Yao Yao said softly and nodded at me. "I think you are right."
"A high-level spirit beast?" Lan Bei Er repeated, glancing around at the strangely empty ruin. "Like a dragon, maybe?"
"It's possible," Hong Yao Yao said thoughtfully. "But not necessarily. There are many spirit beasts in this world that exceeds the human imagination." She then winked at me. "It could be a monkey king, for all we know."
"Monkey king?" Chi Yan and Lan Bei Er stared at the pink-haired girl in disbelief. Hong Yao Yao shrugged noncommittedly.
"Just saying."
While they bickered, I closed my eyes and extended my qi sense. Using the qi detection method unique to Heaven and Earth Formula, I spread my senses as far as I could, trying to scout out what was ahead of us. I frowned when I detected some qi…not exactly qi belonging to a living thing, but the sheer quantity being emanated told me that it wasn't from a natural source.
"That way," I suggested and pointed down one of the corridors. It was the largest corridor, which meant we were most likely going down that way anyway, but at least I had provided a reason as to why we shouldn't split up. "I sense something that way…but I didn't pick up anything from the rest of the corridors. I think we should check that one out first."
"I concur," He Shan Jie said. He smiled. "If brother Hei Ye has reason to believe that there's something there, then I trust him."
"I see no reason to object," Hong Yao Yao said with a shrug.
"I'll follow my husband wherever he goes," Lan Bei Er said. I sighed. She needed to learn to have a mind of her own instead of always following me around. She was not a doll or automaton. She was her own person. And I wasn't always going to be beside her. She had to learn to be independent.
As if she read my mind, Lan Bei Er turned to me.
"I'm aware that you have specific skills that allows you to sense what's ahead of us. Different skillsets for different situations."
"Oh…right," I said, caught off guard. That made more sense than Lan Bei Er blindly obeying my every word. So she did have a mind of her own.
"What are we waiting for then?" Chi Yan asked, stomping toward the corridor I pointed them toward. "Let's go!"
We didn't get very far when we entered a colossal chamber at the end of the corridor – one that was filled with…dragon-shaped statues. I was suddenly reminded of the trial that Yun Che participated in Against the Gods, where he had to fight a bunch of armed dragon statues in order to inherit the Dragon God's bloodline from the Primordial Azure Dragon and save a harem member's life. What was her name? Chu Yue Chan or something…he had so many women in his harem that I couldn't remember all of them.
Thank the heavens I only have one wife.
"That's quite the honor guard to welcome us," Chi Yan remarked sarcastically, glaring at the dragon-shaped statues. Then he glanced at me. "Seems like you're right. This is the correct way."
"Be careful," He Shan Jie warned, intently studying the dragon statues with a frown. "There's something odd about these dragon statues. I can sense qi inside them."
As expected of a cultivator who specialized in the earth element. Given that the dragon statues seemed sculpted out of stone and earth, it made sense that He Shan Jie noticed something strange about them, given the affinity he had with the material used to carve them.
He Shan Jie turned to me. "Brother Hei Ye, is that what you sensed? These dragon statues?"
"That's right," I admitted, closing my eyes briefly and confirming that the qi emanating from these dragon statues was the same as the one I picked up earlier. Opening my eyes, I examined the dragon statues. They weren't moving for now, but that didn't stop me from being cautious.
The dragon statues, as I said, resembled the ones that Yun Che faced in Against the Gods. They were dressed in full body armor, ribbed plates layering over their chests and shoulders. Even though I called them dragon statues, the only parts of them that were dragons were their heads and hands. They had otherwise humanoid bodies, and while their bare hands were talons – dragon claws that gripped weapons – their feet were concealed in boots.
Other than their heads, the statues could have almost passed off for humans. Besides their claws for hands, anyway.
The front row was mostly armed with spears, but as my eyes scanned the rows behind them, I saw dragon statues equipped with axes and sabers. Further back, in the last row, were dragon statues wielding bows and arrows.
The ranks of dragon statues appeared to be guarding a set of gigantic double doors at the back of the chamber. My party exchanged glances with each other before cautiously taking the path in the center that was supposed to lead to the doors. While we did so, we kept a wary eye on the rows and rows of dragon statues. There had to be over a hundred of them.
I wondered why anyone would bother sculpting so many of them. Then again, who could tell what the ancients thought?
We froze when we heard a creaking sound the moment we reached the front row. It was a good thing we kept our eyes on the dragon statues, for we could react in time the moment they moved.
And they were moving. As one, the hundred or so dragon statues came to life, twirling their weapons about and whirling around to face us. Despite their dragon faces made entirely out of stone, I could see the murderous intent shining in their carved eyes.