Chapter 15: Runic Script

Lance used this chance to test the average strength of the cultivators, he tried to maintain the same level of strength as his opponent. But his opponent grew more frantic at the stalemate as the rest of his sect members were getting slaughtered.

"Even if you are from the Destroying Spear sect, you cannot bully us like this! The Huzadan sect will have its revenge!", an ethereal flame burst around his body but it emitted no heat. It was like his body emitted vapours which were the fuel for the flame. The cultivator immediately burst out with an empowered attack, Lance tried to deflect but had to use nearly 80% percent of his strength to do so and even then, he was thrown back due to the force.

"Be careful, brother Lance! He is burning his vitality, his strength will increase manifold until his lifeforce runs out and he dies. Hold on!", shouted Gong Yu as he immediately used his skill.

His opponent knew he couldn't match the strength of a skill as he too started to combust his life force but it was too late. Gong Yu's flaming spear blew a hole through his chest, obliterating his heart and lungs. He slumped to the ground as Gong Yu pulled his spear out and immediately went to help Lance.

Lance was on the backfoot now, he could not find a chance to attack as his opponent attacked in a frenzy. He did not want to reveal his strength just yet as the Cloud had said to conceal a portion of his power and keep a few cards to his chest.

There was no suspense after Gong Yu came to help him out, but the opponent still held both of them at bay though barely. Gong Yu's skill seemed to need some time to be used again, so the both of them could only wait for the opponent's lifeforce to run out.

Not long after, the cultivators sat down to rest after making sure that all the enemies were dealt with. Gong Yu took all the belongings of the now dead cultivators, Lance felt that he should at least have been given the spatial artifacts of the ones he killed but let the matter be though the suspicions in his heart increased.

He sat down on the ground a little distance from the battlefield and absorbed the ambient essence energy to refill his reserves. He was soon full as he hadn't used much energy in the battle at all, he closed his eyes and focused his mind to get rid of the gory images of the cultivators he had killed in his mind.

He steadied his breathing and tried to feel the essence energy that entered his body with every breath. He could sense the turbulent essence energy in the air due to their battle, but he could see that most of it was due to Gong Yu's skill. The amount of fire attributed essence energy was relatively more than the others.

But he soon forgot about it as a rough image was conjured in his mind from the energy fluctuations he felt. He could sense the rest of the cultivators recuperating as essence energy entered their bodies.

He felt like he was seeing the world in a new way, the image he conjured in his mind was filled with different colours which seemed to indicate the different types of energy. It was akin to a new sense though very vague, the colours were so bright that he couldn't really see anything more than a few metres away from him.

It felt like seeing the world in a new way, as long as he managed to focus on the things he wanted instead of being blinded by the colours. 'It will take a lot of practise.', he thought to himself.

Soon they were all healed and ready to move forward. The cultivators gathered around the small crater in the ground where the Huzadan sect members were digging.

"Hmph, those Huzadan sect members were idiotic muscleheads. They simply ignored the runes which were supposed to be filled with energy to open the door."

Gong Yu jumped into the crater and took out a few spirit stones and placed them on a few innocuous lines on the rock. Lance saw them only after Gong Yu pointed them out, they simply didn't emit any fluctuations and appeared to be scratches formed normally.

The lines slowly lit up from where the spirit stones were placed, they spread around in a circle and formed a few runes. The runes were interconnected with each other, forming a circle inside the outer circle. Lance couldn't identify the runic script but he had read about it from one of the books given to him by his teacher. It was about the different paths of cultivation other than fighting and warfare.

Gong Yu jumped out as the circle which lit up started moving down while revolving revealing a staircase. Lance couldn't see the bottom due to the darkness but it didn't appear to be shallow. The cultivators looked at one another but started down the staircase without saying anything as abundant essence energy rushed out from the hole after opening.