The night was dark and quiet. The single yellow moon in the sky held a dim halo around itself, showering a gloomy aura to the entire night sky. And in the silence, a lone spirit glanced at the zillions of star-speckled sky, looking like a silver-beaded inky cloth shrouded over the planet.
Rihanna's spirit consciousness went around the second hill and directly targeted the third hill.....that was where the strange chaotic aura was coming from. She had no idea what the illusion really looked like, but surely there were killer traps within to eliminate all who entered the illusion barrier. Little purple had let a small part of his energy to merge with Rihanna, giving her a bit more confidence in the mission.
The nearer she went, the more sounds she could hear. Soft growling and grunts came from all directions, confusing the senses. Crouching low, she climbed up the jagged sides of the third hill, which was much larger than the first and second hills, and hid behind some loose boulders before peering down.
This must be the inner part of the barrier. It was set in a wide arc, and a large number of varied beasts were moving about. Rihanna increased her sight and hearing senses to get a clearer idea of the layout.
The beasts were mostly mid-grade demonic beasts, with two high-grade beasts at the back. They were all large, and looked to be of the ferocious variety. All of them had a strange glowing green rope tied to their neck and hind limbs.
'Those are Element Binding Chains'. They are made from a special type of green metal ore found in Abarone-Tengai. If you see closely, you'll notice a sharp green glow in their forehead. A sharp and long needle is attached to the chain, which is pierced through the glabella of the beast to bind its energy core. Once the green needle pierces the core, the beast will be completely under your control, and you can control when it can use its energy and how much t can use at a time.'
Rihanna squinted to look at the glowing dot in each of the beasts forehead.
'Special Ore from Abarone-Tengai?.....Then it must not be very cheap! To be able to make so many binding chains and use them this casually....looks like the Dormions are quite rich! But....aren't the Dormions a small group?....Or have they been giving out false information about themselves?!'
'What does it matter to you....you are not from the government. Just keep your eyes and ears open, and run at the first sense of trouble!'
Rihanna sighed. Little Purple was all dry and serious....like an old man. Not at all gossipy and chatty!
Maintaining a distance between the beasts and herself, she navigated through the scattered groups and made way towards the high-grade beasts. It was not because she wanted to go there....but rather that seemed to be where the entrance of the whole place lay!
Just behind the High-Grade beasts, was a large circular land, which was, shockingly, filled with colorful flowers, all growing close to each other.
Rihanna stopped a little far from the beasts, wondering how the entrance actually opened, since she could feel many auras through the middle of the flower patch.
'The entrance is below the ground. That is the third layer of the Illusion Barrier. There is a large elemental web right underneath the flowers. Whoever enters the flower patch, will immediately be caught by the trap and cut up into pieces.'
Rihanna couldn't help shivering after hearing this. For a moment she forgot that she was a spirit right now. still....she went around the two beasts, and then headed for the flower patch.
Little Purple let out a bit of his energy, enhancing the aura hiding powers of the jade, and also tearing a gap in the protective and defensive barrier placed beneath the flower field. And being a spirit, Rihanna had no problem dunking down her head, and re-emerging in the tiny chamber just below the ground.
The floor of the chamber was filled with sharp and shining metal long daggers, crisscrossing each other. She could even see the holes dug out into the walls, filled with fire, ice and poison energy. If some poor fellow dropped down to this chamber, there was full arrangements for his death-wish!
Rihanna checked out her surroundings, and quickly left the room behind. The passage leading out of the chamber suddenly split out into seven different passages, going off in different directions.
'This must be to confuse the people who manage to get out of the chamber alive I guess...Little Purple....can you sense which of the passages have strong auras?'
Strong auras meant there were people in that direction right now. Little Purple sent out a thin stream of his energy, then Rihanna settled down behind a rough jagged rocky part, jutting out of the passage wall.
Little Purple returned , finding that there was vibrant energy in the first, third, fifth and sixth passages. Deciding to check each of them out, Rihanna stepped into the first passage. It was not very long, and soon she came to the end - a large and long and pitch-black room. Thankfully her sensory perception allowed her to see and sense everything around even in very dim light, but what she senses made her confused.
'Why are there so many beasts in this place? Are they making a beast army? Or are they selling them off illegally?'
'Most probably the latter. These beasts might not be wild beasts. So many people have gone missing in the past few weeks, haven't you wondered what might happened to their tamed demonic beasts? I can sense the remnant energy of contracts coming from many of these beasts here. They'll probably cut up these beasts and sell off their meat to the market, and other parts to the underworld.'
Rihanna suddenly thought of Phantasm and couldn't help shuddering at the thought of what might happen to her if she did not rescue her!
There was nothing beyond this room, so Rihanna turned back to return and then entered the third passage.
This passage was long, and soon she came across many doors on both sides of the passage. Stopping at one, she crept near and tried to sense what was beyond the door. Slowly, she heard the sound of snoring and low grunting. Seems like these were the quarters of the members of the group! Moving back, she moved forward, retracting all her energy and keeping her senses to the minimum.
As she moved forward, she felt like she could hear grunts and screams from somewhere far ahead. Rihanna scrunched up her brows, unable to understand what she was about to see. Was there a torture chamber or something ahead? Was she going to see something brutal and tormenting if she kept moving forward? She was still debating in her mind, and hers steps were gradually slowing down.
'What's wrong? If you keep slowing down, it will take too long to cover all the passages. Your spirit will not be able to maintain itself for so long outside of your body.'
Rihanna tried to shake off all worries, and willed herself to move forward again. At most, she could just turn away her head and not look!
The grunts and screams became louder and louder, and amidst these sounds she could make out the sharp swishing of something like a whip. She hesitated again before moving on. But....wait....was that a moaning?! Rihanna almost tripped on her own steps, and would have definitely fallen flat on her face had she been in her physical form. There!....There it was again!
Her thoughts and imaginations were growing in a knot as she moved forward, and finally stopped outside a large chamber at the end of the tunnel.
The door was closed, and after some deliberation, she decided to just poke her head through the door and take a quick peek inside.
And then she wished she could find a barrel of water to jump into and wash her eyes! Oh.....her eyes were so tainted!
Well...she did find something useful, after entirely corrupting her little mind...the leader of this Dormions group was a female...a sexy, seductive, dominating woman, who loved to whip her men for entertainment and.....ahem!
Without giving Little Purple the time to retort back, she swiftly turned and ran back as if a wild beasts was chasing her. She really wished there was some pill to make her forget these obscene visuals which would be haunting her for life!
This time she took the fifth passage, and hoped she wouldn't have to face nothing of the same sort again.
This passage too had doors on both sides. Probably more chambers for the members. As she kept moving forward, she reached the end of the passage, facing a barricaded door set in the mountain wall.
Rihanna checked around, then slowly let her spirit self merge in through the door to enter the other side. Surprisingly, there was a protective and offensive barrier around this door! With Little Purple's help, she moved through both, and entered a rather dark and shabby room, not very large, but stinking to the high heavens!
Rihanna quickly blocked her nose, even her spirit choking over the foul stench, looking around attentively. There were bundles of something's thrown about the room! Wondering what these things were, she moved closer and increased her sight level.
There were people tied up into dumplings and thrown all around this room! And from the looks on their faces and body, it didn't seem like they had anything to eat or drink in quite a while.....and it seems like they had not even been allowed to go and relieve themselves outside this room! This was so utterly inhumane!
Rihanna was feeling disgusted as she moved even closer, trying to check if these people were still alive and what was the conditions of their body.
This.....!! This face looks familiar...isn't this that man whom I met in Poison Swamp.....this is Ye Luo!!!