"It's Xie Mo!" A man shouts. He is with 3 other cultivators wearing the same uniform.
More people who heard that came into view. "Let's have a truce, eliminating Xie Mo takes priority!" They say.
"Courting death!" Xie Mo shouts when all of the cultivators jump in.
Xiang Hou takes that chance to get Li Xing and escape.
Three arrows fly at Xiang Hou, he deflects all of them.
Another person attacks Xiang Hou but Xiang Hou parries the sword attack and kicks him away.
"Shit! We are 3 stages apart yet he can hold up against us! Wasn't the Heavenly Divine Dragon sect the weakest?"
"Fuck! Such embarrassment! He is protecting that injured lady while fighting."
On the left of Xiang Hou is Li Xing supporting on his shoulder. She is limping her body as Xiang Hou attempts to move.
"Just leave me..." Says Li Xing.
"Shut up! Damn it!" Exclaims Xiang Hou when he realises they've reached a dead end.
Xiang Hou places Li Xing against the wall.
"We are not the same as before." Xiang Hou says. His body glows in a subtle yellow as he glares at the two attackers.
!
"T-Trash! Y-You are seeking death!!"
One pulls back his bowstring while the other charge forward.
The arrow rips through the air to Xiang Hou, but he tilts his head slightly to avoid it.
?!
Swords clash between Xiang Hou and the man as Xiang Hou easily overpowers him and diverts his sword away, pushing the attacker back.
!!!!
"W-What?!"
"What do we...?"
"Haha! Are the two of your struggling against that lousy sect?" Says a bystander.
"Shut your mouth! How about you try?"
Xiang Hou continues to glare at everyone as he raises his sword. "Come!" He shouts.
"Hehe, thanks for the free kill." Says the bystander. He uses a menacing halberd that emits a purple flame. "My name is Jun Lou from the Eight Trigrams sect! Be honoured to die to my technique!"
Two translucent purple halberds appear beside the original weapon as the man swings the halberd from above to Xiang Hou.
However, Xiang Hou stabilises his breathing and simply did a diagonal slash that dissipates and cuts the halberds into two.
"H-Huh- why is my head tilted?"
Jun Lou touches his neck which is split open. "N-No, impossible!"
His body disappears into dissipating blue particles.
!!!!
"A disciple of the Eight Trigrams sect lost to a disciple of the weakest sect?!" The spectators exclaim.
"Come at me. I will fight everyone fair and square." Says Xiang Hou.
----------------------------
I take the spear for a swing. It slashes through the walls like butter and applies a cryo aftermath.
Impressive.
Although it is tempting to keep it for myself, feeding Azrim blood can eventually get him to this level and beyond.
I take a look at the map again.
Now, where's the next-
!
I notice a combined route of yellow and red. As if the yellow and red parts are leading to a place.
Scrolling across the map, I realise the yellow and red routes of the map lead to exclamations and finally, one red route leads to another treasure.
The green, safe, routes lead to dead-ends or act as a detour for yellow routes.
In addition, I realised that my cultivation base has been steadily increasing in the tomb. This is the reason why people participate.
The event has a time limit of 5 days but any attempt to sleep or rest will send the participant out of the tomb. It is the primary reason why the last few artifacts remain.
Leaving the room, I realise that the yellow corridor leading to the treasure turned green. No wonder there are so few red and yellow routes, only a few artifacts remain in the tomb.
A red route is near and I walk to it. More arrays are laid all over the corridor.
What the?
A ridiculously big array that covers the entire corridor?
I step on the array before retreating.
...
Do I have to step further?
This time, I walk until one-third of the array before it starts to glow.
It's too far for me to escape!
System! Buy barrier of fate from Xie Mo!
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!*
...
*huff* *huff*
The entire corridor is charred from the explosion but remains intact.
I managed to erect an orange barrier in time, the barrier of fate.
------------------
Barrier of Fate
A barrier that goes against destiny and crafts its fate.
It can block 5 singular attacks from the nascent soul realm and below before breaking.
Barrier cooldown: 50 seconds.
------------------
Singular attacks?
I crash my body against the wall 4 more times and the barrier breaks.
So any instantaneous attack no matter how wide is considered a singular attack.
This...should be able to get me through the red traps.
But... I want to experiment with something.
I take the spear and stab it into the wall. With one swift pull, I managed to carve out a part of the wall.
!
Ah. Nevermind. This method is much more efficient.
--------------
An array below Tian Long and his fellow disciples lights up.
*PZZT!!*
A barrage of electricity shocks the entire corridor but they remain unscratched.
"The protection relic given to us by the elder is very effective!" One of them says.
"Haha! Insignificant trash must be struggling very hard right now-"
"Sh!" Tian Long silenced the people behind.
They've approached a large space after the endless corridors.
"Be careful." Says Tian Long as he draws his weapon, others follow.
They slowly walk into the room to be greeted with a sword and shield rooted into the soft dirt in the middle of the room. Both weapons are glamouring golden in colour with their pommel or grip decorated with an alluring blue mineral.
Once the weapon senses their presence, two tremendous auras pressured the group to their knees.
"Arck!"
"Ughh...HAH!" Tian Long shouts and dissipated the aura.
"I-Its gone! As expected of our Saint." Says a disciple.
Tian Long walks to the sword and grips it tightly. He grabs the handle of the shield and clashes both sword and shield together.
"YIELD!"
The golden aura of the sword and shield engulfs Tian Long.
*BOOM!*
Suddenly a small part of the wall collapsed and I show up.
!??!!!
"Oh? Am I too late?" I ask.
"I-It's Patriarch Wang!!" A disciple exclaims.
"He is breaking the walls!?"
"Insolence!" Tian Long shouts. "How dare you mess up the tomb of the revered emperor!!"
Tian Long seems like he wants to stop me but cannot move from the weapons.
I smirk. "What are you going to do about it?"
"Kill him!"
The disciples slash at me and create multiple crescent fires dive as I summon a thousand sword qi in the air.
?!
The sword qi rains on the disciple and pushes everyone back, dissipating the fire energy.
"Argh!!!"
"You!! You are courting death!! Cease it immediately!" Tian Long is stuck in a dilemma. If he lets go of the weapons, the inheritance may fail. But he cannot abandon his fellow disciples either.
"You are having slight trouble there aren't you? Let me help you." I throw several swords qi at him and the disciples defended Tian Long.
"Hang in there! Once I complete the inheritance he is dead!" Says Tian Long.
I'm not dumb to leave him be.
A crack is formed in the space behind them as a void appears.
?!
"S-Something is sucking me...?!! What is that!"
"A blue hole!? Argh!! I-Its pulling me in!!"
I continue to throw sword Qis at the disciples and prevent retaliation. The suction accelerated my attack power and they have to constantly defend themselves while trying to avoid getting sucked into the void.
Finally, I summon one giant sword in the air. "Here's my final present!"
"N-No!!!"
"Fuck!!" Tian Long force himself to let go of the weapon and gather Qi around his sword. He jumps at me as a large fire dragon materializes behind his facade and slashes down.
But it is futile. The aftermath of his attack only affected his disciples.
"Shit! Stop with this cowardice and face me properly!"
I smile. "I'm not stupid."
"ARGHHH!!! MY LEGS!!!!" The void tears apart the disciple's body like a grinder. One by one, the disciples die in the void until Tian Long is left.
"How can a mere foundation establishment execute such a profound technique?! Is he really someone from the upper realms?" Tian Long thought.
"S-Stop this! Do you know which family I belong to!! My entire sect will exterminate yours! You may survive but what about your disciples?!"
I ignore his warning. The giant sword Qi flies toward Tian Long as his eyes widen.
*BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!*
The surrounding structure gives in and breaks.
"ARGHHH!!!" Tian Long screams in pain as his body is twisted and squeezed into the void.
I close the void and heave a sigh of relief.
"Hah. It's useless to threaten a person with trash he doesn't care about."
--------------
Tian Long materializes outside of the tomb. Its doors are now shut tight.
"T-Tian Long!? He was eliminated?!"
"How can this happen? Who did it?"
Tian Long grits his teeth in anger as his face contorts inwards.
"S-Saint." Says the elder of his sect. "What happened inside-"
"Shut up. Spread the word. If any Heavenly Divine Dragon sect members come out, capture them and cripple all of them!" Says Tian Long.