Page 79: Parasite, Guardian, and Poison

"Arggh! This shitty restriction pisses me off! "

Cuifen was trying hard to hurry his footsteps but to no avail, the tomb's array was just too strong to be defied by someone who's at the body tempering stage. Yusheng was just behind him trying to give pressure on Cuifen.

As Cuifen reached the first junction, he looked back and saw that Yusheng seemed to be trying to hurry. This led Cuifen to walk on the 1 meter wide platform that leads to the first chamber. When he reached the entrance of the first chamber, he tried to check behind but was surprised that Yusheng wasn't following him but instead he was still walking on the stairs that led downstairs.

"Cuifen, enjoy that first chamber, I'll proceed to the second chamber. See yah!"

"Yusheng.. you."

Cuifen knew he was duped but it was already late. If he will try to return to the main stairs, he won't be able to catch up and most likely that he will be left with nothing. His only choice is now to continue to the chamber in front of him. Together with his juniors, they entered the first chamber and saw something that was amazing.

The interior was spacious with simple design. At the center of the room, a golden cup was being displayed while it is being surrounded by what it looked like mud human dolls. The first thing he approached was the golden cup while leaving his juniors to do their thing. Inside the room, the golden cup seems to be the only thing with value.

"Senior Cuifen, look! It looks like an army of servants. These really look amazing. The outline and the contour of the shape is superbly detailed."

One of Cuifen's curious junior approached one of the seemingly statues of people standing in a well, organized manner. With so much curiosity, he tried touching the surface and felt something like a powdery texture from it. After a little while of fiddling with the more than 20 statues, he accidentally pushed one the statues.

Crack!

The statue that fell caused a domino effect and simultaneously damaged the other statues. Cuifen who was seeing all of this did not care at first but when a nearby statue fell near his feet, he saw something horrendous.

The statues are not entirely made of mud but actually contains real human body that was covered in dried mud. The dried mud coating on each body peeled as they fell to the floor exposing a rotting body that was still capable of absorbing little amount of essence which caused the body to still have some flesh. This was a bizzare case for Cuifen since he learned that bodies that can withstand thousand years of time after death are the ones that have reached the pinnacle of immortal realm. Contrary to that, the bodies that are moving but with rotting flesh seemed to be just ordinary people. There were no signs of practicing cultivation and yet why does it seemed to have a small amount of essence inside them. Cuifen tried to sense the essence inside the bodies and noticed that the network at which the essence pass through was like a network of intertwined roots. It was different from what it was supposed to be. The face of the person that Cuifen saw had its eyes already gone but the flesh was still rotting. On the other side where his juniors were starred to scream.

"What is this? Why is it moving? Ahhh"

Cuifen saw everything but then noticed that they were just moving slowly. All the bodies were moving towards one direction and that's going to the junior alchemist who was screaming.

"Senior Cuifen, I think I know what is happening." The youngest of the apprentices exclaimed.

"Tell me!"

"Senior, first, we need to move quietly away from these things. Although they look so slow, what we need to be wary is the spores coming from them. If you come in contact with a considerable amount of spores, that's what will happen." The youngest pointed out the 2nd apprentice who was having difficulty moving.

He isn't being taken down by the other corpses but instead, his movements became stiff as if his body became not his. Minutes later, the loud screams stopped but the 2nd apprentice was still conscious. It was like he entered a state of paralysis where except his eyes can't move at all.

"Senior, we must have encountered a kind of parasitic shroom. According to what I read, this is called the life- binding cordyceps which invades the skin, enters the essence veins and takes over the person's body by growing its spores inside the brain. It is a good thing we did not touch anything since we entered this place. Senior, we must exit this place or else the spores will find its way into our body. I bet that the golden cup's surface must have spored all over it."

The two quietly and slowly exited the room to prevent any spores to be attached to their clothes and other parts. Meanwhile, Yusheng's group just reached the entrance of the second chamber.

Yusheng thought that he should enter the second chamber instead of going to the deepest one since there were two people who came earlier. He wasn't able to identify who were the two but since they can open the array, he thought that they might have some life saving tricks and powerful items with them in order to be this capable.

After a short contemplation, he ordered his juniors to enter the chamber together. Inside, they were greeted by a huge statue sitting on a throne while on the sides of the room were smaller statues of soldiers raising different kinds of weapon and musical instruments. Good thing, the restrictive force they felt outside was not present inside the chamber. This allowed them to move freely and check things.

One big statue sitting on a throne accompanied by eight smaller statue each one holding a sword, a trumpet, a spear, a harp, an axe, a flute, a mace, and a pair of cymbals respectively. On the middle of the room is a ling table laid with golden utensils, while the table cloth was made of woven golden silk. The chairs were adorned with glittering and precious gems while the entire structure of each furniture were made of precious metals. For an alchemists, except the gems, the materials like the metals are important for making their own furnace.

While they are checking out some stuff, Yusheng's attention shifted to a stone tablet on the right corner of the giant statue. There he read the text saying:

Come forth!

Rejoice with the great King!

When the feast begins,

The Feast shall be filled with blood!

Join the immortals sing as the warriors

dance in carnage!

After Yusheng read the text, he had a sudden bad feeling. Looking at his two juniors, one of them has already approached the table and took a golden cup. A second later, there was a rumble. The ground was not shaking bit instead, the small statues with weapons have started moving.

Clang!

The statue with the spear which was closest to the 3rd apprentice was attacked. Although he managed to dodge, he received some damage from the ricocheting rocks due to the spear hitting the floor. One by one, the four statues moved towards the closest living person it can detect. While Yusheng is watching what was going on, he noticed that the entire room was rigged with an array. It was huge that the entire room was axtually the medium of the inscriptions.

"Run towards the door!" Yusheng yelled to the two juniors but another surprising thing happened. The soldier statue holding a mace, which was the closest to the entrance blocked the way. The three were now stranded inside. Yusheng was trying to think of a solution but the only thing he could think of is to destroy the statues.

"I need assistance. Help me destroy one of them."

Yusheng started to execute a skill while the two were trying to provide a support. Before the skill could be sent off, the remaining three statues came attacking smashing their weapons on the their direction.

Clang! Ting! Boom!

At the same time, the three humongous weapons came down striking them. Yusheng and company didn't have a choice but to dodge. Although the statues were not that fast, their sturdy composition made it difficult to handle. Three minutes have already passed and the three were still dodging and occasionally trying to hit the statues with their skills.

"Huf! Huf! Hif! Senior Yusheng, the statues just keep repairing themselves every time we manage to make a small damage on it. Is this even possible? Is this where we will finally die?"

"You! Quiet there! I thinking. Just keep yourself safe while I'm thinking of a solution." Yusheng yelled while contemplating about the words on the tablet.

"Ahhh! Help me! I'm hurt. No.. no.. please... ahh!!"

Chop!

The 3rd disciple's body was split into two and blood splashed anywhere. The room that was well organized has become into a mess. The 2nd apprentice was already screaming in panic as he saw his companion sliced in two. Because of the horrid scene, he kept on running around like a freak in the wide room while being chased by two statues. Yusheng on the other hand just realized something after seeing the blood that splashed everywhere.

"Wait, when the feast begins, the blood will spill... What's next? Join the immortals sing? ..Urgh.. This statue is too persistent.. Join the immortals.. join.. join.."

While running away from the statue that was aiming at his life, he saw the other four statues that were still on their original positions. Looking at the instruments on their hands, he had received an epiphany. Immediately, he ran towards the statue with a trumpet on his hand. Just when he stepped on the base of the statue, the statue that was going after him stopped and switched its attention to the other person who was still running around.

"Go to the statues with instruments! You'll be safe there!"

Yusheng was screaming with all his might but even with his loudest voice, it seemed to have not reached his junior's ears. That moment, he felt helpless for his junior who seemed to have become crazy with all the things that happened.

Whack!

After an exhausting cat and mouse game between the three statues, the last junior apprentice was finally impaled by the spear wielding statue. Yusheng who was left standing watched everything with a guilty heart. It was his first time experiencing a helpless situation and just watch things happen.

After the last kill, the warrior statues went back to their original positions. Even the statue that blocked the door moved back to its previous position. Seeing the development, Yusheng did not waste time any longer and dashed out of the chamber.

While a lot of things has already happened on the upper chambers, Long Bai and Zhang Li just reached the lowest chamber. Being at the deepest region of the tomb, the two were enduring the force that was pushing down on them. Add the restriction from the array, their movement became even more difficult.

At the entrance of the deepest chamber, just before they can enter, Long Bai was alerted by the system.

[System alert: Potent corrosive poison detected. User is strongly advised to use the <Five Elemental Conversion> to convert the poison into your own essence.]

"Wait senior Li, there's a potent poison coming from the chamber. If you continue, you will eventually die."

Zhang Li was startled by Long Bai's words. At first, she was skeptic about it but when she saw the dark green mist coming from the chamber, she felt her skin crawl and the hair on her body stand. It was the heaviest poison miasma she has seen as an alchemist.

"(sigh), so this is the end of our adventure? I was really hoping for a lifetime treasure but this inevitable thing happened. Let's go back then. Even if we return empty handed, at least we are still alive."

"Senior Li, no matter what happens next, please don't do anything and just stay here until things will get clear. Will you do that for me, senior sister Li?"

Zhang Li was puzzled with Long Bai's words. Looking at his eyes straight, it seemed that he was really serious.

"What will you do?"

She watch Long Bai close his eyes and after a few seconds, she felt something different from him. It was as if there was something different with his aura.

"Senior sister, I'll go inside and remove the poison mist. Please wait for me to call you before you enter."

Long Bai continued revolving his green sphere in his essence core region as he entered the chamber.

"Junior Bai! What are you doing!"