The heavy weight bearing down on them made their ascent extremely burdensome to their mind and body, to the extent that it even caused them to lose consciousness almost instantly.
It was only about three hours later that someone within the group woke up; strangely, it was Daniel; he had been awoken by the familiar tug he had been feeling for the last six days.
The moment he arose, Daniel did a quick check-up on the unconscious demigods and when he realized that they were simply still recuperating, he let out a relieved sigh.
'They would probably need more time to recover since they had most likely forgotten how it feels to be weak and helpless.' Daniel thought to himself as he watched the three demigods doze off without any care in the world.
"So, this realm has the ability to make even demigods this helpless, unh?" He muttered whilst scanning the area around them.
Daniel's eyes then glanced past the entrance of the palace where he saw two five-meter-tall statues that were standing guard at the door.
The moment his attention landed on these statues; Daniel felt his heart skip a beat as the menacing expression on the statues' faces caused the hairs on his neck to stand on end.
One of the statues was of a hulky figure that had three heads and six arms, with each of the arms wielding six different weapons; furthermore, its three heads were positioned in a manner that made sure it had no blind spots.
The second statue was almost the opposite of the hulky one, and it was of a lithe, sensuous feminine figure that had six wings spreading majestically out of its back; it also had two horns protruding out of her temples with an upward curve, and a vertical eye sitting between its brows.
Even after assuring himself that they were statues, Daniel still couldn't shake off the sensation that told him that the statues were actually alive; Daniel almost felt like they were simply slumbering and could be easily awakened by even the slightest irregular breath.
This feeling made Daniel really queasy and could feel himself getting goosebumps despite being without a physical body, and he was about to retreat when his gaze caught sight of something that was of a very contrasting size to the two statues that frightened the crap out of him.
Daniel's gaze narrowed as he focused on the figure that had caught his attention; it seemed to belong to the remains of a human who was seated in a meditative posture and gazing directly at him.
The moment Daniel's eyes met the empty eye sockets of the skeletal being, he felt something give his soul a very intense tug, causing his eyes to widen in surprise.
The tugging feeling was very familiar to Daniel since it had been accompanying him for the last six days, but what surprised Daniel was the fact that he had always thought the source would be an artifact within the palace.
He scrutinized the skeleton that seemed to belong to a monk and began to gradually approach it whilst keeping a lookout for any form of hidden traps that might be present in and around the palace entrance.
When Daniel arrived in front of the monk, he noticed that the monk wasn't killed but it seemed he had been trapped within this realm till he died of old age, and from what he could sense, the monk wasn't much of a powerful individual; he was neither an immortal or a demigod or God.
He had three things in his bosom; the first was an old, tattered book that was about ten inches thick, a mala necklace with one hundred and eight beads, and lastly, a wooden compass that strangely had the images of the five beasts on the jade-white gate engraved on it.
The moment he squatted to get a closer look; the monk's bones began to glow with faint golden light that gathered over his head to form the image of what the monk might have looked like when he was alive.
Daniel was startled and immediately backed off a few steps, but as someone who had killed a lot of people in his past life, Daniel was very sensitive to killing intent, and none of such vibes was being emitted from the monk, rather the monk seemed to be staring at him with a look of surprise and an amiable smile.
Then the monk spoke; "Little friend, for you to be here means you must have been destined to carry on the legacy of the Ancient Temple of Shangri La."
Daniel kept staring at the man with a bewildered expression as he couldn't understand anything that was coming out of the old monk's mouth.
Then just as he was about to seek clarification, he heard several grunts float into his ears, and the moment the monk also heard it, an anxious expression appeared on his face as he looked towards Daniel and hurriedly asked.
"Little one, are you ready to take the worst gamble of your life?" He asked as Daniel frowned at the question.
"The worst gamble of my life?" Daniel muttered as if asking no one in particular.
"This is only a fragment of my soul, and it doesn't have enough energy to sustain itself, but if you can allow me to reside within your soul, I will give you these three treasures and tell you how to use them when we have enough time to talk in private." The monk said in a tone that told Daniel to make a quick decision.
But whilst Daniel was still pondering this decision, the monk urged him further.
"Don't worry, I'm currently the fragment of a soul and can do you no harm whatsoever, but you just have to trust me."
Daniel briefly glanced behind him and noticed that the monk seemed to be worried about the three demigods that were just waking up from their unconscious state.
But after thinking about his current situation a bit, he simply nodded at the monk in ascent.
The monk's illusory form wrapped itself around the three objects on its lap, causing them to vanish from sight, before floating into Daniel's soul body and then masking its presence with Daniel's aura.
The moment the process ended, Daniel felt a hand grab onto his shoulder, he initially shivered in fright before realizing that the hand belonged to Valpak who looked and felt somewhat stronger than before.
Yama and Sun soon joined them as they stared at the old bones of the monk in front of Daniel.
"You seem to be a careful individual; I was initially worried that you would have entered the palace before we woke up.
But it seems like your curiosity, though endless, can still be kept in check, otherwise, I don't know what we would do if you were to be caught by a trap within the palace or died." Yama said with an approving smile.
'It seems they haven't noticed my interaction with the old monk.' Daniel thought to himself.
'The suppressing power of the Hall of All Beginnings renders every form of ability useless, as long as one resides within this realm, so they can't notice anything even if they tried.' The monk whispered within Daniel's mind.
After understanding the situation, Daniel nodded at Yama before rising to his feet.
"It seems this monk was wise enough to hide within the Palace's vicinity, otherwise, with the presence of the immortals, demigods, gods, and elder gods who flood into this realm to obtain Chaos treasures, he would have most likely died a gruesome death." Valpak sighed whilst gazing at the monk's remains.
"Well, it was already good enough that he could live his life in peace within this area, but it seems to have been robbed of his treasures; what a great loss." Sun added with a helpless sigh.
"Oh? What do you mean?" Daniel asked as the group walked towards the giant double door of the palace.
"I have noticed that since all powers and abilities within this palace area are being suppressed, then even an elder god would be forced to live the life of a mortal; this includes a mortal's limited lifespan." Yama speculated whilst Valpak nodded in agreement.
"I second that thought; otherwise, even if the trial of ascending the stairs was a million times harder than what we faced, it wouldn't have been enough to knock us unconscious."
"So, you're saying anyone who enters this palace area would be no different than a mortal who has never cultivated in their entire life?" Daniel asked in an amazed tone as Yama simply nodded before gesturing Daniel to open the palace doors.
"So, are you still getting the tugging sensation?" Sun asked as Daniel shook his head.
"The sensation seems to end at this door." He lied as he quickly left the group to go open the palace's huge double door.