The eastern sector of the First Floor is far different from the other parts of the Dungeon teeming with life, thriving in lush green environments and cool breezes.
The eastern sector is barrenly remote.
It's full of sand.
Harsh sunlight and arid air.
Instead of lush green plants, it has tumbleweeds. The winding dunes of sand with its sky were always so clear blue during the day.
A place where only a few can survive.
In one particular location, the sand moved not from the gust of scorching hot wind but from some type of conspicuous animal slowly emerging from the sand.
It had eight legs, mites, and ticks. Equipped with a pair of pincers, a thin tail that curves over its back, and a pair of black wings.
It's grotesque.
At first look, it's the same size as the hand of a mature human, but when a couple of good-looking cultivators appeared behind the curious-looking animal, its height is at least 30 meters.
"It's a scorpion! I never knew a scorpion this size existed!"
The amused voice of the woman alerted the animal called the scorpion.
"Yikes!"
The alluring woman wearing a lush green Hanfu with eye-catching ornaments immediately backs off, her body trembling due to disgust.
"Hey! Why did you run? Kill it!" The man with a halberd on his back irritably exclaimed. "Be careful, though. I couldn't sense its cultivation realm."
The Scorpion beast immediately used its nimble legs to shorten the distance between them and used its pincer to attack them.
That attack contained a very small hint of Law. Simple yet overly dangerous.
They were utterly surprised by its agile movements and prowess.
The Sword Cultivator panicked. "This is crazy! This beast is different. It can utilize the Law! How crazy is that?!"
The alluring cultivator recovered from disgust and removed one of her hair ornaments filled with Spiritual Qi.
The Hairpin emitted light before a partial intangible wave materialized and surged toward the Scorpion Beast.
The attack between the two immaterialized upon contact. There was no explosion just a turbulence of leftover Spiritual Qi.
"Tsk. If only our power were not restraint." The alluring cultivator tap her toe multiple times on the sand.
The sword cultivator gritted his teeth and scoffed at her. "Junior Disciple! Don't just stand there! Quick! Burn this beast!"
The alluring cultivator rolled her eyes before musing her slender hands in a circular motion, triggering the Spiritual Qi around her to fluctuate.
"Die!"
The Scorpion didn't bother to evade and engross itself in the scorching fire!
To cultivators' dismay, it only stunned the Scorpion Beast momentarily before it began to flap its wings causing the fire to snuff out.
It creates a tiny sandstorm that engulfs the two cultivators.
The cultivators immediately formed a barrier to protect themselves using their treasures.
The sword and the hairpin emitted a light, heightening the durability of the translucent barrier.
Alas, due to the cultivation realm difference, a crack began to form like a glass about to shutter as their treasures shook and its light fainting.
"This is surreal! Even if we are not restrained we won't be able to defeat this beast! It's probably on a Late Stage Core Formation Realm!"
The alluring cultivator panicked. "Senior, what do we do?"
The sword cultivator remained silent. His brain is currently trying to think of ways to escape from their predicament.
"Senior!"
"Silence! I shouldn't have paired with you, to begin with! Why do I need to monitor you?!"
The alluring cultivator was rendered speechless.
She gritted her teeth but dared not retort. She lacked the power and authority to reprimand him.
The crack stretched and the barrier began to tear apart.
"Put more Spiritual Qi on your treasure!"
"I-I can't anymore. It's already taking all that I have!"
"Tsk. Useless! We don't have a choice. I had to do this!"
The sword cultivator closed his eyes and suddenly his Spiritual Qi erupted!
The translucent barrier on the brink of collapse regained its durability. The beast driven by mindless instinct was triggered and it increased the pressure weighing down the cultivators by flapping its wings rapidly.
The beast is adamant to take them down.
Due to a sudden increase in power attacking them, the sword cultivator vomited a mouthful of blood dyed black.
Orifices on his face are no exception.
His eyes were wide, reddened yet firmed.
But the adamant beast proved to be a challenge that goes beyond their capability.
"S-Senior! Hang in there!"
Seeing the sword cultivator bridging his life to retain the barrier, she glared at the grotesque beast.
Her Hanfu flutters wildly in the wind induced by her turbulent Spiritual Qi.
The barrier shrunk and expanded repeatedly.
However, their uninterrupted spending of Spiritual Qi depleted them to the point where they were robbed of the strength to keep standing.
They fell on the sand, facing each other. They cannot utter a single word.
The only thing that keeps the barrier firm is they left their Dantian open to continue the supply of Spiritual Qi.
Infuriated. Remorseful. Waiting for their inevitable demise yet hope still lingers in their clouded mind.
Unfortunately, the deafening of the shuttered barrier and sandstorm wind cutting their skin dumped their hope.
Amid the utter devastating power and their demise approaches, they heard a familiar beguiling voice.
"Disintegrate!"
The wind cutting their skin ceased.
The pressure of Spiritual Qi with a hint of Law halted.
"Good job, the both of you."
Her bearing displays elegance. Captivating the hearts of men in every different walk of life.
Fairy Xi Niu flicked her hand and a couple of Pills made from Elixir materialized, glowing under the light from the scorching sun.
The cultivator behind her immediately took the elixir and made the two cultivators consume it.
Fairy Xi Niu turned her head from the cultivator gradually regaining their natural color to where the beast was before she snuffed it out from existence.
Unreal. Late Stage Core Formation Realm beast had a grasp of Law. Even if it's a tiny bit, a Law is still a Law. What is this place? A nascent soul realm cultivator had no hope of utilizing the Law without a catalyst. This goes beyond our expectations and perhaps, imagination.
Fairy Xi Niu was terrified of the thought of a Nascent Soul Realm beast emerging from this Dungeon.
Won't the outside world fall into chaos? This Dungeon defies the logic in this Earth Realm.
She was meditating earlier when she felt the restraining power she induced on a couple of disciples was severed.
Immediately, she departed, afraid it would bring displeasure to the mysterious cultivator.
Her train of thought halted when she noticed a faint spark from the previous location of the beast.
She flew over and descended gracefully.
Later on, her furrowed brows turned to astonishment and surprise.
"Spirit Grade Elixir?! N-No, it's different... It's packed with pure Spiritual Qi surpassing the Spirit Grade Elixir."
She prompted her divine senses and to her disbelief, she gasped.
"N-No way…!"
Fairy Xi Niu immediately confiscates the Elixir.
The primary goal for the disciples is to expand their battle experience without the interference of Elders and nurture their Spiritual Qi by consuming all the elixir they obtained.
Her action goes against the primary goal.
She saw the conflicted look of the disciples.
"This Elixir far surpassed the common elixir the beast left behind. We'll bring this to the Sect Master later. Now disperse and don't wander too deeply in this area."
Left alone, Fairy Xi Niu hesitates to wander around, hoping to encounter the same beast. Besides, it's useless for her to wait for the same beast to respawn in this area. They are randomly spawned around the dungeon, depending on their habitat.
She sighed afterward and meditated.
She didn't have to worry about the sun blasting its heat toward the desert.
Her body was not affected by the arid air and extreme temperatures of the desert.
She is in a realm that defies the basic logic of nature.
But her meditation was interrupted when one of her main disciples entered the extent of her divine senses.
She didn't want her disciple to travel the long winding dunes to reach her so she talked to her through her mind.
"What is it?"
"Ah? M-Master. We were notified by the outer disciples that the beasts in the eastern sector except from the desert were annihilated. How should we proceed?"
"Meditate and wait for the beasts to revived. Continue the cycle until it's time for our departure."
"Ha?"
Fairy Xi Niu sensed the confusion from the disciple.
"Just do what you were told."
She then severs the connection and glances upon the location where she felt the vibration of the pack-dense Spiritual Qi, waiting to let loose and erupt from isolation.
"Sect Master Jin Boqin is fortunate. It appears what he said is true. He was fated to be here and ascend to his next realm."
She felt the rough yet fluffy texture of the Elixir emitting a faint glow from her hand.
"This will be our saving grace in case the Sect Master fails to pass the Insight Interrogation."
She softly mumbled and resumed her meditation, trying to be oblivious to the formation barrier fabricated by Grand Elder Meng Buyan to isolate the turbulent fluctuation of Spiritual Qi on account of Insight Interrogation.
Avoiding to incur the wrath of the mysterious cultivator is their main goal.
Meanwhile, Akira was genuinely lethargic apropos to cultivators' performance.
He saw different types of miracles they beget accompanied by different known natural elements.
Scintillating and ostentatiously impressive.
That should be the case.
Except for him.
Aside from his main purpose to gain Qi Points, these cultivators' training through fighting the beast should be entertainment for him.
In boredom, he opted for a technique that caught his eye exhibited by cultivators and read the cultivation manual.
Lethargic, he prompted the system to show him how Jin Boqin was faring.
He was curious why an old man named Grand Elder Meng Buyan induced, no…fabricated barrier formation.
Barrier formation is normally used to defend oneself from any type of attack. Both tactile and intangible. Except for Spiritual Qi that is capable of passing through the barriers.
He learned the difference when the system was able to project the peculiar events between the barrier formation, the Spiritual Qi outside the barrier formation, and the turbulent Spiritual Qi inside.
What should be crossable for Spiritual Qi was altered to trick the turbulent Spiritual Qi inside, isolating them completely from erupting. In which case different from the situation outside the barrier formation.
Strangely enough, the barrier formation let the Spiritual Qi cross, hence Jin Boqin's constant progress in Insight Interrogation.
Akira concluded that different types of high-tier treasures he deemed do the trick. As for how it was accomplished, he had no idea.
"It's reasonable enough considering the System doesn't have a feature about treasures."
He then switched the tab now projecting Fairy Xi Niu's meditation in the middle of a desert.
Akira noticed she was fondling something.
"Ah, now it comes to me…It was called Kiwi."
The first performance he saw was the one-sided battle in the eastern sector. If not for Fairy Xi Niu, the two cultivators might perish.
Separately, he noticed the sudden subtle look of surprise on Fairy Xi Niu's face.
Courtesy of the System. It didn't escape the System's prying eyes.
He doesn't have any idea the difference between the common elixir beasts' dropped but her reaction is enough to judge the elixir is extraordinary.
Akira arched his left brow when she noticed her glance over the barrier formation after a last glimpse before she kept the elixir.
He saw Jin Boqin and Fairy Xi Niu in a new light.
Jin Boqin is lucky enough to have Fairy Xi Niu in his Sect. Tantalized enough to consume but decided not to.
"Remarkable." He utters before he closes his eyes and darkness descends upon his world.