He let out a long heave.
Tu Syaoran laid flat on the hard, cold, stone floor. Closing his eyes, he began going through the memories.
Although he had assimilated with the orb of memory, he still needed to go through all the memories and experience it; similar to downloading a file, then opening it to go through its content.
In his mind, the assimilated orb was split into nine panels that were showing the content of the memories.
Chronologically, his conscious went for the first panel.
Suddenly, there was a white flash. As the white flash disappeared, his eyes were welcomed with the sight of an azure sky - clear and pristine.
For an instance, he thought he had escaped! However, he was woken up by reality when he saw his illusory hands. As he floated around in the air, his surrounding distorted. Before he knew it, he arrived at a forest. Simultaneously, the name of the forest had popped up inside his mind.
It was called the Death Forest. Its name was not for show as most cultivator became missing after entering the forest. The forest occupied a vast land, making it seem never-ending. Combined with the threat of wild beast, the mortality rate was very high.
Despite this, he wasn't alone. There was a man, who looked slightly older than Tu Syaoran, running through the forest. Looking at the way the man was moving about, it seemed he knew the area quite well. In fact, upon taking a closer look, Tu Syaoran felt as if the man was searching for something.
What Tu Syaoran felt strange was the fact he couldn't see the man's face; it was blurry and hazy.
As the man continued traversing the forest, turning right and left a couple time, the man had eventually arrived at a small cave protruding from the earth. Its inconspicuous entrance made one not want to enter it.
Despite that, the man laid on the ground and crawled his way in. The entrance of the cave could barely accommodate the man.
Luckily for Tu Syaoran, his illusory body allowed him to phase through the wall. Soon the world around him had returned to the darkness that he was familiar with.
The only thing Tu Syaoran could see was the man who crawled, then climbed and then walked. The space around them had finally widen up - enough to allow the man to walk freely.
As Tu Syaoran followed the man, he felt as if he had lost himself again; both direction and time.
Relentlessly, the man continued forward. Step by step, the man proceeded into what seemed like a never-ending darkness. With each step that the man took, Tu Syaoran had gotten more anxious. Anxious, about his main body that was vulnerable to danger but also to starvation.
It didn't take long until the sound of the man walking as interrupted. Tu Syaoran, was slightly relief; he thought that the man must be close to what he was looking for.
What surprised Tu Syaoran was that the noise seemed to ring a bell. He was sure he had heard it somewhere before.
However, he couldn't recall it as his mind felt hazy. But, as he followed the man, his mind seemed to clear up. Before he knew it, they had arrived at a large river. A large river that Tu Syaoran was very familiar with it.
He even recognised the azure crystal that was by the side of the river. His hazy mind seemed to have completely been cleared.
Contrasting to reality, there were hundreds of azure crystals of all size illuminating the area revealing the grand river.
As he had expected, it was vast. The man walked to the edge of the river and stopped. He reached into his robe.
In his hand was a spherical orb that had a cerulean shine that grew larger as the man poured his essence into it.
Similarly to before, information about the spherical orb appeared in his mind. It seemed as if these information were the important part of the memory.
The spherical orb was named the 'Water Repellent Orb'. Its main function was to allow the user to create a sphere of space where water can't enter.
Its structure composed of a nucleus, a backbone. The nucleus was a core symbol called 'Water Bubble', which was a 3-sided core that helped trapped enemies. The backbone was made out of the 'Water Rocks', which were actually the azure crystals.
The downside is that it is a one-use item. Once used, the core symbol will breakdown and dissipate. However, the sphere of space can be maintained up to three hours which was enough for the man to get across the river.
As the cerulean barrier surrounded the man, he slowly entered the water with his feet first then his leg and then his whole body. The man also took out a core symbol, 'Flash', and began pouring is essence into it. The more essence that was consumed, the more faster he became.
After twenty minute, the man stopped using 'Flash' as he stored it inside his core. He had finally arrived at the other side of the river.
Likewise, there were also a plethora of water rocks (azure crystals) scattered near the river. The roof of the cave here was a lot larger than before.
Once again, the man reached into his robe and took out what looked like a badge. On the badge was the word 'Blood' engraved on both side. The badge was shaped like a pentagon.
An ominous aura surrounded the badge. Every minute it would glowed crimson-red; it would become more intense depending on the direction the man was walking to. It didn't take long for the badge to be pulsing intensely like a heartbeat.
Even Tu Syaoran felt pressured under the intense pulses.
Eventually, the man had arrived in front of a stone wall. The wall is rough and uneven like any other wall in this vast cave. The only difference was that the badge was pulsing uncontrollably here.
The man sealed the badge and placed it back into his robe. Next he took out multiple core symbols which actually formed a core combo.
Core combo are rarely found for three-sided combos and four-side combos.
Note that core combos are different to chain combos as the latter is weaker.
Core combos are core symbols that form resonance with each other making it so there is a slight increase in strength as well as a small decrease in consumption. On the other hand, chain combos are core symbols that complement each other extremely well, allowing their skill to fuse and create a stronger skill. This fusion wasn't just as simple as 1+1=2.
The man had taken out three core symbols that formed a resonance. Once again there are three level to resonance: Basic, Strong and Perfect.
His core symbols had form a basic resonance with each other; 'Fire Blast', 'Heat Explosion', 'Flame Rocket'.
As he activated each core symbol, they glowed a fiery orange as their resonance increased their power of destruction.
Once the core symbols were saturated, a barrage of attacks destroyed the walls in front of the man: a rapid fireball blasted the wall forming cracks, as a hot explosion occurred right after causing the wall to scream in pain. The wall was one step away from collapsing, in which happened soon after as an arrow made of fire smashed into the wall devastating it whilst leaving a long trail of flame.
Large rocks fell and shattered as clouds of dust constantly rose up. A loud rumble echoed throughout the cave as broken rocks crashed onto the uneven floor.
The man had already backed off from the explosion and therefore he was unharmed.
As the cloud of dust settled down, a small passage way was revealed. The narrow passage could barely fit a person.
Due to this, Tu Syaoran could only follow behind the man - he could phase through the wall but he wouldn't be able to see anything.
After travelling around 100m, the narrow passage expanded twice it size. However, the interior design had also changed. They were no longer walking on the stone floor but a wooden floor and there were blood-red torches hanging on the walls.
However, these torch were arranged weirdly as every 50m the torch would be on the opposite sides, for example the first 50m they had travelled the torch was on the right side, then the next 50m, the torch was on the left side.
Tu Syaoran didn't know if was were due to poor design or intentional but the torches only lit up to 30m. This meant for the next 20m they were walking in complete darkness.
Tu Syaoran began feeling crept out. The passage stretched 500m long as when the man reached the tenth torch, there was a stone about the size of the man sitting on the floor. On it was an engraved message:
'Power is life, life is blood, death is the path, is killing wrong? what is wrath... in the eyes of the strong. Life are sacrifices, for this way is success. Absorb, Kill, Live the cycle begins, either one dies or one wins. At the end, the orthodoxies triumph, but blood is always there, for they shall be nutrients for eternity!'
The man looked at the engraving and stood still on the spot for a few second. After contemplating the man proudly exclaimed "evil is life, blood is power, to kill is to absorb. The decease are sacrifices, evil triumphs as long as blood run through the veins!"