THE TERRACOTTA VILLAGE
Xene brought out a magical key before placing it on the pillars around the closed Well. Suddenly, the force field around the Well disappeared and the Well became accessible to us.
"Let's go down there", Xene asked me.
There was a rope ladder chained to the top, that led into the abyss of the Well. We took the ladder and slowly climbed down into the abyss.
"It is so dark in here", Xene complained to me.
"Torchlight", I said.
Suddenly, a floating torchlight appeared before me that shone through the darkness.
"Are you sure you want me coming out together with the princess?" The Torchlight asked me to the shock of the princess.
"How can the Torchlight talk?" Xene asked me in surprise.
"His name is Ratatouille. He loves treasure hunting, so I brought him with us", I replied to her.
"They call me handsome too", the Torchlight said to Xene with a bow.
After a long climb, we reached the bottom of the well. Torchlight floated around us as his light illuminated every section of the bottom of the Well.
"Here there is a corridor", Ratatouille told us as he shone into a dark corridor.
We went into the dark corridor, going through a myriad of tunnels that was almost impossible to navigate.
"Are you sure you know your way around here? I thought you forgot about this place," Xene asked me.
"Ratatouille will find the way for us. That is why I brought him out", I replied to her.
Eventually, our navigation through the corridor ended in a large chamber under the ground. I took out a magical lamp and lit it. To my surprise the chamber once lit revealed a remarkable place.
-----
Hidden deep within the abyss of the Well lay a clandestine chamber, sheltering a quaint town crafted from clay and earth.
Despite the passage of centuries, the architectural marvels within remained remarkably pristine, betraying little evidence of decay.
Yet, the true marvel of this subterranean settlement lay not in its construction but in its inhabitants.
Life-sized figures, molded from clay and dried into the likeness of terracotta warriors, populated the town. An army of these stoic guardians encircled the village, their solemn vigilance hinting at a deeper purpose.
It wasn't long before we unearthed the enigmatic secret that the terracotta village and its multitude of warriors safeguarded. At the heart of the underground chamber stood a towering terracotta door, its imposing presence overshadowed by the throng of vigilant sentinels.
Upon the surface of the terracotta door, a dial adorned with the twelve animals of the Kunlun zodiac stood as a cryptic testament to the mysteries concealed within.
------
"What is this door? I can't remember any of these", Xene said to me.
The place surprised me.
Although Oriese, the boy of my alter-ego came here during his youth and forgot all about this place. I remember this place pretty well.
I've been to a place like this before in my previous life although my previous life has no connection whatsoever with the real Oriese. The memories of this place were my own.
Even the dials on the Terracotta door looked exactly the same as in my memories. This was the entrance into the Underworld of Sura, my mentor and teacher, Emperor Tian's tomb.
"How do we open this terracotta door?" Xene asked me.
"We turn the dials on the door in a certain way and order", I replied to her.
"How do we know how to turn the dials?" she asked me.
"A professional thief could listen to the mechanisms inside the dials while they turn it to find the combination", I replied to her.
"Where do we find a thief here?" she asked me.
Suddenly, the terracotta soldiers in the chamber were aroused from their slumber. The soldiers moved and raised their weapons. Their target was us before the Terracotta door.
"Oh no, the soldiers are going to attack us. Thousands of them. No wonder nobody has ever returned from an expedition into the Well", Xene asked me.
"I'll just need some time to turn the dials", I replied to her as I tried to recall from my memories how I first opened this door in my previous life.
"We have no time, we must run now", Xene screamed to me worriedly.
Suddenly, a dozen terracotta warriors leaped toward us.
"Oh, no", Xene complained to us as she cast a shield to block the leaping soldiers.
These Terracotta warriors were blocked by Xene's conjured shield but the force from their attack broke her shield, and she couldn't conjure another in a short time.
"These Terracotta are stronger in this world. Much stronger", I told Xene.
"What world? You found them in another world? Where?" Xene asked me.
In my previous life, I discovered this tomb in the magical space of Kunlun, one of the bonded magical spaces in the world of Ouamua, the world where my previous life lived in. The Terracotta warriors were much weaker there.
But the same Terracotta warriors here under the Well were much much stronger than those warriors in Kunlun.
"Yes, I got it", I told Xene when I heard a click when I turned the dial correctly.
"There are more warriors coming at us now. We will be dead before you can open the damn door", Xene told me.
As a hundred Terracotta warriors leaped toward us, to their surprise, they were blocked again, this time by another force shield.
But this wasn't the simple shield conjuration of Xene. This was a military formation shield that surrounded us with several layers of protection.
"This, isn't this the Thornheart Formation Shield?" Xene asked me.
"Yes, they are an enhanced version of it", I replied to her.
"Quiscent Formation Shield"
"How did you cast them, usually a formation like these requires dozens of conjurers and knights to cast", she said to me.
Then Xene realized there were indeed about a dozen shadowy figures around us who were casting the Quiscent Formation Shield.
These shadowy helpers were my Malevolent Slaves.