Chapter Ninety-Six: The Eerie Passage

Passing through the same place as before, the group arrived before that door, only to fall into confusion: the door was already open.

Ye Shuang said, "How is this door open? Could someone have gotten here ahead of us?"

"I think so," I said. "So once we go in, we absolutely cannot let our guard down."

As everyone drew near, the door suddenly burst forth with an immense radiance, then contracted violently, sweeping up the people inside like a projection. The white blaze and everyone within it seemed to pass straight through the light and vanish before the door.

Then the door disappeared, and everything returned to silence, as though nothing had ever happened.

Those wrapped in the light all felt their vision go black at once. A buzzing rang through their minds, and they could see nothing at all. But it lasted only two seconds before the darkness slowly receded. With their keen eyesight, they gradually adjusted to the surroundings and could barely make them out.

What kept the place from being utterly swallowed by darkness was a corridor. It was not long, and one could plainly see a closed iron door ahead. A foul stench of rot hung in the air, and everywhere lay decaying debris, among it many bone fragments, some human, some animal. Few though they were, they lined both sides of the passage.

The group reached the great door. Ye Shuang stepped forward and pushed and pulled at the iron slab, trying to open it, but after tugging for a long time it still did not move an inch.

"Damn it! What kind of cursed iron door is this? It is so hard, you cannot even budge it!" Shi Qiangjian shouted.

"Move aside. I will try magic!" Long Xin lightly raised her staff and muttered a spell. Then she hurled out an explosive fireball. With a thunderous bang, it struck the iron door head-on.

A mage's single-target attack spell was naturally terrifyingly powerful, but when it hit that door, it did not even leave the faintest mark. Feng Xiaoyue gripped the Soul Devouring Sword, cried out sharply, and slashed down with all his strength. At once there came a ringing clang, and Feng Xiaoyue was actually knocked back several steps. Yet the iron door remained utterly unmoved.

"What is going on? If the iron door will not open, are we supposed to break through the wall? We cannot just be trapped in this bizarre corridor forever," Xiao Ai said.

Everyone hammered away for a while longer, but after several minutes all of them wore looks of frustration.

"We have tried everything. The walls on all sides are just like this door. No matter how much force we use, they do not suffer even the slightest damage." Ye Shuang sat down, panting from exhaustion.

I slammed the Ruyi Staff around for a while, but there was still no reaction, and I cursed, "What a damn stupid quest."

Xiao Xi said, "Brother Long, do not panic. Since this is a quest, there must be some way to solve it. There must be a way out of here. We just have not found it yet."

Ye Shuang walked up and kicked the door a few times, then said, "This cursed door does not even have a keyhole."

As he spoke, he accidentally stepped back and crushed a broken bone. Yet that careless motion triggered something.

"Malicious intruders, surrender at once! Why do you delay?"

A cold, merciless voice rang out. The broken bones on the floor immediately floated into the air, then assembled into a human shape, draped in a black cloak. A black scythe appeared before it, gripped tightly in a pair of skeleton hands.

Everyone instantly formed a circle, because the number of enemies that had appeared was not one, but four.

These strange figures cried out and rushed forward like four black bolts of lightning, scythes in hand.

Feng Xiaoyue immediately met one of the black-robed figures. His Soul Devouring Sword came crashing down, and at once there was a sharp crack. The black-robed figure seemed to be struck by some violent, overwhelming force and was sent flying backward.

"How dare you, insolent human!"

The other three black-robed figures let out furious howls.

Everyone rushed in to engage them. I came up on the left side of one black-robed figure, raised my left hand, and fired Grab-and-Burst Cannon, thrusting it into the creature's body. A tremendous explosive blast followed at once, blowing apart the black robe and cloak around the figure and exposing a skeleton composed entirely of bones.

But in that instant, I faltered. A heavy blow struck me from behind, instantly tearing away two thousand points of health. I drew a sharp breath and turned my head, only to see that four more black-robed figures had somehow appeared behind me and were charging in. At the same time, the one I had just knocked flying had also hurled its black scythe aside and lunged at me, mouth open as though it meant to seize me and tear into me.

A low growl escaped my lips as I charged forward. Smash Strike and Assault erupted at once, sending the skeleton monster that had pounced on me flying backward with a brutal impact. Then I threw out the Ruyi Staff and activated its new skill, Shape-Shifting Mastery. In an instant, the nearly two-meter staff transformed into a pillar five meters thick, pinning the monster that had just been hurled back deep into the ground. At the same time, Energy Explosion activated, and a surging torrent of power blasted the creature to pieces until not even slag remained.

Just after I had dealt with one monster, two more came whirling in with their scythes. I dodged, snatched back the Ruyi Staff, and immediately met their twin strikes. I triggered Feint, using my shield to absorb both attacks so that I took no damage myself.

Another black-robed figure came to flank me, so I simply used false and true movements to slip past their attacks. Then I slammed both hands into the ground.

Lightning Storm erupted.

The three black-robed figures enveloped by Lightning Storm shrieked sharply, their robes torn apart to reveal skeletal bodies beneath.

Before Lightning Storm had even ended, I lunged forward. Smash Strike slammed heavily into the chest of one of the monsters with a crack, and an entire row of bones was blasted out through its back. Then I sprang a kick that sent the creature flying hard into the wall, where it shattered into pieces.

At that moment, another black-robed monster opened its mouth with a roar and came charging in with its scythe. I blocked the blade with the Ruyi Staff and forced back the attack, then activated Holy Fist Combo, knocking it flying. Behind it, Feng Xiaoyue and Ye Shuang brought down Thousand-Edge Slash and Moonlight Slash in concert, slicing the creature's body apart. The head that remained let out a sinister, grinning laugh.

"Death... hahaha... Enter this place and there will be no return... You will... you will die!"

The word death was pronounced with a piercing shout, and then a strange light suddenly flashed from the center of the creature's brow. In the next instant, it exploded.

We leapt back at once to avoid being caught in the blast.

After we had finished off those black-robed figures, the door suddenly shone with a strange white light. Then a pale shape, which could only be called a spirit, faintly took form. It appeared to be a middle-aged man. Smiling, he looked at us and spoke in a drifting, ethereal voice:

"Thank you, brave human warriors. You have freed my soul. I was once a resident of Giant Demon Fortress. After Shat Emperor killed me, my soul was sealed within this door. Many souls of the city’s inhabitants were bound here as well. The malice left behind by the dead was twisted by Shat Emperor into monsters to imprison us, so that we would never find release in death or rebirth. Thank you for destroying those terrible creatures and allowing our souls to finally rest in peace..."

As he spoke, many white figures appeared upon the door, more than a dozen of them, men and women, young and old alike. They smiled at us, then slowly faded into the air.

Xiao Ai immediately cried out, "Hey, do not ascend so fast! Tell us how to get out of here before you go reincarnating, will you? Hey..."

But before she could finish, everyone felt that something was wrong. The walls all around the corridor had begun to split with creaking sounds, opening crack after crack, swaying back and forth. Clearly, the whole place was about to collapse.

"Get out of here!" I shouted, and at the same time slammed the Ruyi Staff against the iron door. This time, the door shattered under the blow and fell apart in fragments across the floor.

No one cared about anything else now. One after another, they rushed outside. Just as I was the last to run out, a thunderous boom rang out, shaking the heavens. The corridor we had just left finally collapsed completely, becoming nothing but a heap of rubble.

Yet after we left the passage and entered the space beyond, we found ourselves in a vast square chamber. It was over a hundred meters long and wide, and nearly ten meters high.

Within this enormous square space, there were tunnels in all four directions, east, south, west, and north. We had escaped through the southern passage, and the passages on the south and west sides were now showing signs of collapse as well.

Only the northern passage remained open. The group was just about to head over when a terrifying crash sounded from within the tunnel, and one hideous monster after another appeared.