Rihanna kept watching and waiting. Thankfully she was in her spirit body, or her limbs would have become stuck and frozen having to stay in a single position for so long. She could only watch as the lizard walked all around the pool, leisurely enjoying flicking the water with its tail, chasing some random insects which had strayed inside the room, rolling on the ground, trying to bite through the stalks of the purple flowers, eating some of the burning mushrooms, flying around the room and perching on random rocks and stones......basically playing by itself in a large and empty room. Wow! It must be so very lonely!
She had lost track of how much time had passed since she entered the tunnels, or for how long she had waited in this same position, waiting for the lizard to return back under the water. Rihanna could almost feel the moss growing over her body as she wondered how much longer this lizard was going to stay awake!
As her mind was wandering about through useless and pretty stupid thoughts, suddenly the half closed doors of the room shook, then slowly swung open.
The lizard, perched high up near the ceiling, turned and squinted, a loud and throaty hissing sound coming out from deep inside its mouth. Rihanna too squinted, and moved her head slightly to take a peek at who was so audacious as to disturb this great majesty's playtime sessions!
A tiny little boy, around her age, was standing at the door, looking around in confusion and nervousness. Even at this distance she could see his throat moving up and down as he kept gulping down his fear, his fingers clutching hard at the door knob even as they trembled. He seemed to be searching for the source of the hissing sound, and the lizard decided to be magnanimous as it jumped off its perch and swiftly flew around the room a few times, flapping its wings extra hard whenever it rushed past the boy.
This heightened the panic of the little boy, as he stood frozen stuck to his place, his face and arms turning more and more white till he looked like a dead corpse walking. The lizard on the other hand seemed to be enjoying flaunting its power and authority on the face of this new plaything, and screeched a few more times.
'The poor thing looks like his soul will scatter if this continues!'
'You bother about your own self first! Don't worry.....the lizard will not attack. If he wanted, he could have killed this boy in a single move. He is only playing around with it. This boy must belong to the group, the lizard seems to know him well.'
Lifting her eyebrows in surprised realization, Rihanna kept watching as the lizard finally grew tired as the novelty of this new game wore off. It grunted loudly, as if complaining, and slowly slithered back under the water.
The boy couldn't move even after the beast had disappeared, and kept hanging onto the doorknob for a long while. Finally heaving a deep breath of relief, he trembled once more as he let go of the door and started walking forward. Keeping as far away from the pool as possible, he actually took the path Rihanna herself was hidden in, passing her hiding spot at an arms distance.
Rihanna was following the boys movement with her eyes, wondering where he was going, when she realised that this boy might be going to the same place as she was.....but why was he going to Phantasm? Was he here to deliver her food?
Stepping out of the wall, she silently walked behind the boy. Good...this way, any aura leaking from her body would get covered by the strong smell of the boy's body, and that would keep the lizard off her back!
The boy had a very low level of cultivation, probably at initial level of Spiritual Qi-Gathering. He must be a sort of odd laborer in the group. As she followed, she wondered if he was born amongst the bandits, or he came here. And if he came here, did he come on his own....or was he too kidnapped?
After stumbling over the rocky walls and broken remnants on the floor, he reached the caged cavity, kneeling down to stare at the beasts lying inside. Rihanna followed closely and looked in as well.
It was indeed Phantasm inside the cave! She was lying at a corner, her body shaking from time to time, her half opened eyes dull and listless.
'I can feel Phantasm....I think the spiritual connection is stronger the more close we are to her! Can we go inside the cage?'
'Don't move! You absolutely cannot go inside the cage!'
'....?'
'Tsk.....The bars of this cage are made from Black Night Jade...it's a kind of stone found only in Magaderma Cave. It is also called the Soul-Sucking Jade. If anyone tries to go close to these bars, the jade will automatically start feeding on his or her soul. And it is far more dangerous for someone in their spirit body, like you. The jade can completely absorb your spirit consciousness, and you will never be able to return back to your body.'
'.....does that mean I will die?'
'.....no.....your body will be alive, but will never be able to regain its own consciousness or will. This jade is often used by Devil Puppet Masters. These empty, consciousness-less bodies are apt for being turned into puppets. The Puppet Master can insert their own spirit energy into these bodies, and make them follow his will.'
Rihanna's eyes grew wide, as she slowly moved backwards, staring at these bars in fear.
'Then.....i shall try to connect to Phantasm again. Since the bond is stronger here, maybe I will be able to get through the barriers placed in her mind?'
Rihanna moved off a bit and settled down in a depression in the wall, crossed her legs and closed her eyes, focusing on reconnecting with Phantasm.
All of a sudden, a layer of dark clouds rose from the ground, and quickly submerged her own senses.
'Wha....What is going on?!'
'Don't be distracted. This is probably the mental barrier placed by the drugs around Phantasm's spiritual sense. You will have to find a way through this to reconnect with her spiritual consciousness. But be careful. The mental barrier is also like an illusion. Though it will not hurt you physically, they are generally formed from all kinds of negative feelings and nightmares of the creatures mind. You will have to successfully destroy all of Phantasms mental obstacles to get through.'
For a moment Rihanna wondered if she could press an escape button somewhere and exit from this unattractive game! Now she even had to kill mental demons while wandering in the mind of her own contract beast!! She didn't remember this clause in their contract!
Closing her inner spirit eyes, she sighed inwardly, then opened then once again looked at the black fog hanging all around as she carefully started walking through it. Since there was no way to tell east from west, she might as well just walk forward. After all.....all roads lead to Rome, huh?!
Walking....walking....walking. She lost track of how long she had been walking in this wide expanse of endless darkness. When she finally saw the tiny dot of light far ahead, peeking through the inky cloak, she gave up walking and started running to get out of this morbid gloominess.
The tiny hole turned bigger and bigger till she ran out of the darkness. Taking a deep breath and heaving a long sigh, she turned around expectantly to take a look around.....and was left speechless.
'Why am I back in the inner regions of the Chen Clan?....I made so much of mess there and finally left....and now am dragged back into it....that too in Phantasms dream?'
'Not a dream....most probably a nightmare. Shall we take a look around and check?'
Rihanna nodded, then geared herself up mentally before striding off to inspect the place. She walked past the familiar looking buildings and gardens and hills and flower valleys. She even went about peeking through the rooms in the different houses and buildings.
'I can't find anything amiss anywhere! How is this supposed to be a nightmare?'
'Hmmm.....this won't do.....why not stop for a bit and try sensing what is in this place. Maybe you can sense something different from the original Chen Clan.'
Nodding, Rihanna stopped in the middle of a grassy plain surrounding some quaint wooden houses with small courtyards and a large lake. She looked at the glittering clear surface of the lake water, as she tried sending out her sensory perceptions around the place.
Houses....courtyards, lake.....more houses....hills, plains, flowers.....trees...the large floating pyramid building...more hills and grasslands.....more gardens and houses...wait! What was that thing at the edge of the dirty pool?!
Rihanna abruptly cut off her senses, then rushed towards the last place she had just sensed. As she came closer, she noticed a dirty pool, filled with algae and lichen, floating in clumps above the murky blacking water.
But what caught her eyes was the dark, weather beaten, dilapidated tiny wooden shack, almost hanging over the edge of the pool. But that was not what caught her interest. Instead it was the steady streaming of black gas, slowly seeping out from underneath the half-broken door, and spreading out towards the pool before merging in with the dirty water.
'The demon must be inside that shack.....what is my action plan?'
'Obviously you have to go in.....or how else are you going to kill the demon?'
'But....what if the demon kills me instead? I can't even tell how strong it is!....or what it originated from!'
Still disputing with Little Purple in her mind, she nevertheless stepped towards the broken door and slowly swung it open. The hinges creaked like there was real rust on this imaginative door-hinge, effectively creating a real aura of eeriness and gloom. Rihanna gulped, then raised her foot to cross over the thresh-hold of the shack.
The shack was as old and battered inside as it was on the outside, and the stark emptiness of the crumbling walls and cracked floor tiles stared back at her. She looked around, then followed the faint trace of the dark smoke to the back of the inner room. The smoke was bubbling out from underneath the floor boards.
'There seems to be a trap door underneath here. I'll take a look.'
Taking a deep breath to soothe the nervousness building up inside her, then relaxed her body as it slowly merged with the door and moved to the other side. A long and dark flight of steps greeted her, the dim light filtering in through the cracks in the floor boards above disappearing into the deep darkness below. Rihanna hesitated, then decisively started walking down the steps into inky blackness.