24 Trapped

Shen Xue and Xia Tian both looked at each other in surprise they did not even notice that their training time is over. They both smiled at each other.

It is like a long dream for Xia Tian, he never ever thought before that he will experience anything like this. He still remember the amount of fear he had when he first entered the training field, the coward him who fled from his first battle, he smiled to himself thinking about his first moments in the training field, Now, his attitude towards life completely changed after three years of life and death training, now he is not some sloppy teenager who is thinking about how to live peaceful by depending on wealth or on others.

Now he has full confidence in himself that he can face any situation that life offers him, he is not timid anymore with others. This training will be the most important part of his life as it changed him completely. He doesn't know how many years would have taken for him to change his nature in the real world. The once weakling returned with power that he never dreamed of before. but he doesn't

he has to face and will face many typical situations in this life and he has just started on the path, while it is a journey where he can not see the end.

"Shen Xue, thank you very much for bringing me on this mission along with you, without you supporting me, I won't be able to arrive till here and may not be able to survive in that life and death training," Xian Tian said to Shen Xue with full of gratitude.

Shen Xue gently smiled and said, "its all your credit that we entered that training field, I also gained hugely by bringing you on this trip I jumped over a realm because of you, no need to think about past matters."

Xia Tian also smiled and asked, "what we are going to do now?"

"Don't say to anyone about this place, as it may lead to unnecessary complications. Let's go to the meeting place at the periphery of the city, that we decided at the beginning with the other team members," said Shen Xue to Xia Tian.

"I don't think they will be waiting there till now, they would have left this place after a month of searching for Red moon Lily."

"I also know it is highly possible for them to have left this place but we go once to there to check if they have left us any messages and leave this city after that"

Xia Tian nodded his head and they started walking towards the exit. From the middle of the pyramid they able to look all over the city, there are many twinkling lights on the city compared to before indicating there are still a large number of people who are searching the ancient ruins, he is not able to understand why even after three months there these many people still searching for treasures.

He suddenly remembered that this is training artifact is ownerless and a contract can be formed with it, if he has sufficient blood essence.

The artifact spirit Chi Mu informed that for a fulfillment realm cultivator, it almost requires fifty drops of blood essence to form a contract with it. Xia Tian after two years of refining and condensing the blood formed ten golden drops of blood essence which are floating in his dantian.

The ten drops of blood essence are glittering in golden color, he doesn't know if he can form the contract with ten blood drops of his, but he wanted to try, out of his curiosity. Even if he lost the blood essence there is nothing to lose as he can refine them again in two years of time. Xia Tian thinking like this, as he doesn't know the importance of his blood essence which can be used in emergencies like in critical battles to power up their strength instantly by burning their blood essence. cultivators can also improve the power of their techniques and weapons power by using blood essence, and they can only be able to condense five drops of blood essence every year, after coming out of the pyramid, Xia Tian slashed his finger and forced his blood essence to come out of the wound and began to drop his blood essence on the pyramid.

Seeing this scene Shen Xue got shocked and persuaded him by saying, "Xia Tian don't waste your blood essence on this artifact, even fulfillment level warriors require a lot of blood essence in order to form a contract with a spirit artifact. Your blood essence will be very useful in difficult battles."

But Xia Tian smiled and said, "I am just trying, let's see if I can form a contract with it."

"Are you mad, didn't you listen that I am saying it is impossible for even fulfillment level cultivators why are you wasting your blood essence on this artifact."

By then five drops of blood essence are already dropped on the pyramid and the pyramid started to glow brightly illuminating all the surroundings and suddenly it transformed into a small pyramid of finger size and entered into the dantian of Xia Tain.

Shen Xue is shocked to see this scene, a moment before she is persuading Xia Tian not use his blood essence on this artifact but now the artifact recognized Xia Tian as its owner. Even Xia Tian got shocked after the artifact entered his dantian, whats more surprising is that he just used five drops of his blood essence.

Seeing the stunned Xia Tian, Shen Xue quickly grabbed his hand and disappeared into the darkness, due to the bright light released by the artifact, so many people are rushing towards this region, so she rushed towards the periphery of the city pulling Xia Tian. After running for some time they stopped in a dark alleyway.

Shen Xue looked questioningly at Xia Tian waiting for his explanation. Xia Shrugged his shoulders and gave his usual reply that he did not know, he tried to contact Spirit artifact but he did not get any reply from it. While he is trying seriously to contact the spirit he felt a powerful punch on his stomach. He clutched his stomach and saw Shen Xue menacingly looking at him "this is what you get for performing absurd actions and not giving any explanations" she huffed and began walking towards the periphery of the city.

Xia Tin kept all his grievances in his heart, gave up on contacting with the Chi Mu and started following Shen Xue. They both noticed that there is distress among the people who are present in the ruins. In order not to cause any doubt they did not interact with any of them as they don't know about the situation completely. They just listened to the conversations of the passers-by to get an idea about the present situation.

"those bastards blocked the one and the only exit, if it continues like this for another ten days we will run out of food and we should die here fighting with each other"

"Luckily there is one large pond in the city, otherwise we will be fighting with each other already for water."

"after the red wolf bandits blocked the entrance, no one came to our rescue, what do you think happening outside?"

"I too don't know, if they release me without killing me, I am willing to give all my belongings to them."

"do not dream, red wolf bandits are most cruel in the surrounding area, they will definitely take our lives once they find the right time, be ready to fight with them"

After hearing all the conversations on their way to the periphery of the city Shen Xue and Xia Tian got the basic knowledge of what is happening in here, it seems that red wolf bandits blocked the entrance trapping all the people who entered the ancient ruins. They probably want to loot all these people or purposefully blocking all the information here from leaking out waiting for someone.

Whatever be the case they will definitely kill all the people inside once their target is achieved.

They reached the room, where they first held the meeting with their team. To their surprise, all their team members along with a few others are present in the room. They are all sitting dispiritedly without speaking. When Shen Xue and Xia Tian entered they took some time to recognize them.

Niu Ming shouted loudly "little brother Xia Tian, what happened how did you come back here, did you not left this place?"

Ting Hu also became excited after seeing Shen Xue and spoke excitedly " Shen Xue how did you guys get into the ancient ruins again, did you find a secret way to enter here."

Shen Xue spoke in a serious expression, "we spent three months in secluded cultivation in the ruins due to some unexpected circumstances, we don't know what is happening here in this three months, can anybody of you explain what is happening here?"

The people in the room lost their interest in them after hearing that they won't able to get out of this place, Niu Bing answered Shen Xue question "Its all because of Red wolf bandits, they blasted the entrance to the ancient ruins one month ago and trapped all of us here, we don't know their intentions and they did not contact us afterward. There are also so many red wolf members trapped here. Soon a fighting may break out for food resources."

Shen Xue did not get any new information from Niu Bing, she just nodded her head and began to think of a solution to the problem.

Xia Tian also tried sometimes to find the solution and after that began to observe his dantian where there are five golden drops of blood essence and a small version of the pyramid floating peacefully there.

He tried his soul consciousness in order to get into contact with Chi Mu, but he did not get any response from it, when he is about exit his soul consciousness from the dantain, he heard a voice in his head " hello, new master, thank you for waking me up."

"Chi Mu, is that you, what do you mean by waking you up?"

"yes, I am Chi Mu, I can only have my consciousness in awakened sate when I have a master, the Chi Mu you have interacted does not have an intelligence and cannot think on his own, he only performs his predefined duties, I only woke up after you have made a contract with me and it took me some time to organize my memories from one million years ago."

"Do you know what happened one million years ago?"

"I can only know what my master informs me, and what I hear from the participants in the training field and the collection of books in my library."

"okay I will ask about that details later, do you know anything about this city"

"This city is established one and a half million years ago by my thirty-third master, he is a loner and the most talkative one among all of my previous masters, he informed a lot about the construction of this place and I know passcodes to enter many of the secret places here."

"that's great, did this city have any tunnel or hidden passages to go out?"

"Sorry, he didn't design any hidden passages when constructing the city, but why are you looking for something like that, you should ask me about where the treasures in the city are or something like that. My new master is a weirdo!!!"

"stop your chattering, the city you have established with your previous master became ruins and submerged into the underground, now we are trapped in the city by some bandits without any way of escaping, if you have any idea how to escape from here, then you can freely provide your suggestions." Xia Tian spoke furiously as he was called weirdo by his new artifact spirit.

In the meantime, Shen Xue is discussing with her teammates to come with an affordable plan, seeing that Xia Tian is daydreaming when she is discussing seriously, she became furious and kicked him hard on his leg.

With sudden pain transmitting from his leg, Xia Tian cut off his connection with Chi Mu and focused on what is happening in the room, his eyes first met with glaring eyes of Shen Xue and he did not understand what he did this time to earn her wrath. But as he experienced three years in the training field, he did not voice out his opinions.

Shen Xue after glaring at Xia Tian signaled the remaining team members in the room to walk outside to talk with them privately as there are so many other people in the room which made her somewhat uncomfortable to direct her team.