The shadow in the mist moved.
It came incredibly fast. The ground no longer trembled once every seven breaths, but continuously, pounding against my chest like drumbeats. The spiritual energy in my palm had yet to disperse when my body reacted first, rolling to the right. A gust of force grazed my left shoulder, and the sound of air tearing apart exploded beside my ear.
Claws.
I did not dare look up. Using the momentum, I pushed myself off the ground, then shoved the spirit beast aside with my left hand. It understood immediately, sliding three zhang along the ground. Its horns scraped over the stone, producing a piercing screech.
I steadied myself and faced forward.
A gap split open in the thick fog, and a gigantic beast stepped out. It was mountain-sized, its black scales gleaming, every one seemingly forged from iron. When its four hooves struck the ground, the stone steps sank slightly, cracks spreading from beneath its feet. Its eyes were crimson as it stared fixedly at me.
This was the guardian beast.
It let out a low growl, thunderous syllables rumbling from its throat. It raised its forelimb and slammed it down. I leaped backward and summoned my spiritual sense at the same time. The instant it extended two zhang, a force bounced it back. Pain stabbed between my brows, as if I had crashed into a wall.
The system sounded at that moment: [High-level demonic beast aura detected. Extremely high defense. Weakness located at the spiritual core in the tail vertebra.]
The information flashed past.
I knew how to fight it.
Keep it occupied, I ordered the spirit beast inwardly.
It did not respond, but charged forward the next instant. Rather than confronting it head-on, it circled to the left and used its horns to strike at the joints of its hind leg. The guardian beast turned to pursue it, moving far faster than it appeared capable of. The spirit beast nearly got swept aside, and the blast from the beast's tail sent it tumbling to the ground.
But it did not stop. It immediately climbed back up and closed in again.
I took the chance to retreat to the edge of the stone steps, my back against the rock wall. The space here was narrower and could limit the range of its turns. Closing my eyes, I condensed my remaining spiritual sense into threads and extended them along the ground. I could only probe within five zhang, but that was enough to judge its movement rhythm.
Before its third pounce, it paused for half a breath.
I remembered it.
The guardian beast turned toward the spirit beast again and opened its mouth, spitting out a shockwave. The airflow spread outward in a ring, making the ground tremble. The spirit beast leaped away, but the aftershock still struck it, causing it to stagger when it landed.
Now.
I mobilized every scrap of spiritual energy in my body, condensing it into a spiraling current in my palms. This was not some advanced technique, merely a basic spirit-control skill I had obtained from answering questions earlier, called Whirlwind Force. The principle was simple—do not take the opponent's force head-on. Instead, guide it along its own direction and make it recoil upon itself.
I waited for it to release another shockwave.
Here it came.
The instant the blast surged toward me, I thrust out both hands. A vortex of spiritual energy met the impact. At the moment of contact, I felt immense resistance, nearly enough to crush me. But I gritted my teeth and maintained the rotation, gradually redirecting the airflow.
Part of the energy was guided downward and slammed heavily into the guardian beast's own left hind leg.
It let out a muffled groan, its knee bending slightly as its movements slowed for an instant.
Opportunity!
I kicked off the ground and leaped up, rushing straight behind it. The spirit beast moved at the same time, leaping into the air and smashing its horns into the ground with all its strength. With a boom, the vibrations overlapped. The guardian beast lost its balance, and its right leg gave way.
Suspended in midair, I gathered my last trace of spiritual energy at my fingertips and drove it straight into the weak point at its tail vertebra.
One scale there was slightly lighter in color, with broken runes surrounding it. It was exactly where the system had indicated the spiritual core was located.
The instant my fingers pierced through, I felt a mixture of hardness and softness. Then came a violent convulsion. The beast's entire body abruptly tensed before toppling to one side. Its massive body crashed to the ground, shattering the stone steps and sending dust billowing up.
I landed unsteadily, dropping to one knee as I panted.
The spirit beast walked over and stood beside me, white vapor puffing from its nostrils. It lowered its head and rubbed against my shoulder, as though checking whether I was injured.
I did not move. My eyes remained fixed on the fallen guardian beast.
It was still breathing, its chest rising and falling slowly, its tail twitching from time to time. Dark fluid seeped from the wound at its tail vertebra and flowed into the cracks in the ground. I did not finish it off. The system had not indicated that it was dead, which meant it might only be unconscious, or perhaps the rules of the mystic realm did not allow killing.
I slowly sat down and leaned against the stone steps to regulate my breathing.
Less than thirty percent of my spiritual energy remained. My meridians felt hot, carrying the exhaustion of prolonged use. I tried to guide a strand of spiritual energy through my body and found that it circulated far more slowly than outside. This place still suppressed a cultivator's power. We could not stay long.
The spirit beast lay at my feet, its ears twitching occasionally as it watched the thick mist ahead vigilantly.
I reached for my storage pouch and confirmed that the jade slip was still there. That detector had already been used up, so I could only rely on myself from now on. But recovering was the most important thing at the moment. That battle had consumed too much. If we encountered another trap or mechanism, I might not be able to endure it.
I took out a Spirit Replenishing Pill from the pouch and tossed it into my mouth. Its medicinal effect was gentle, slowly dissolving and replenishing my depleted spiritual energy. It was not as fast as absorbing energy outside, but it was better than wasting away.
After ten breaths, I could feel the flow within my meridians becoming smoother.
I took two more pills, stopping only once my spiritual energy had recovered to around fifty percent. Taking any more would create a sluggish sensation and affect my condition instead.
"How are you?" I asked the spirit beast, looking down.
It raised its head, its eyes clear. A golden pattern flashed across the tip of its horn. It had also suffered some shock during the battle, but it seemed to have awakened some sort of potential. The golden lines emerging across its body had yet to fade.
It stood up and gently bumped my arm, indicating that it could continue.
I nodded and was about to rise when the system suddenly issued another prompt in my mind: [A stable path has been detected within thirty zhang ahead. It is recommended to proceed along the right wall.]
There was no question, merely simple guidance.
It seemed the previous battle had allowed it to gather more data.
Supporting myself against the stone steps, I stood and stretched my limbs. My knees were still somewhat sore, but it did not affect my movement. The spirit beast followed on my right, keeping half a step away and ready to deal with any sudden danger.
We slowly advanced along the right wall.
The fog remained dense, limiting visibility to less than three steps. I had my spiritual sense cling to the wall to scout ahead, releasing it one inch at a time and taking another step only after confirming it was safe. It was slow, but steady.
After around twenty steps, the ground beneath our feet changed.
It was no longer stone slabs, but some kind of grayish-white bone material that gave slightly beneath our feet. I crouched down to inspect it and discovered that these "floorboards" were actually pieced together from the ribs of some enormous beast. Fine patterns covered their surfaces, seemingly part of sealing runes.
The spirit beast suddenly stopped and pressed its nose close to the ground, sniffing.
I sensed the anomaly too.
A new smell had appeared in the air. It was neither bloody nor rotten, but something like the scent of cooled metal. It was faint, yet persistent.
I held my breath and listened carefully.
There was wind ahead.
Not the natural kind, but airflow leaking from some crevice, accompanied by a faint humming. That meant there was more than open ground ahead. There might be an enclosed space or a mechanism chamber.
We edged forward a few more steps.
Suddenly, the spirit beast pulled me to the left.
I reacted quickly, immediately rolling sideways. Almost at the same moment, a sharp whistling sound came from overhead. A bone spike shot out of the fog and embedded itself in the opposite wall, sinking three inches deep.
The trap had activated.
I looked up and realized that grooves had appeared in the walls on both sides at some point. There was one every few steps, and the outlines of more bone spikes could vaguely be seen within them.
Had we taken another half-step forward, we would have triggered a chain volley.
Cold sweat broke out on my back.
This mechanism was not random. It should activate only when it sensed living creatures approaching. Moreover, that strike had been precise, which meant an array controlled its trajectory.
"We can't go any farther," I said.
The spirit beast nodded and retreated to my side.
I sat cross-legged and began considering how to get through. Forcing our way through was out of the question. My spiritual sense was suppressed, so I could not scan the entire area in advance. The only option was to find the controlling array node.
I closed my eyes and divided my spiritual sense into fine threads, slowly spreading them across the bone floor. Although the range was limited, I could focus on detecting the source of vibrations. If the mechanism was driven by a core, there should be energy fluctuations.
After probing three times, I finally sensed something unusual beneath the seventh rib on the right. The temperature there was slightly higher, and an extremely faint vibration frequency matched the rhythm of the bone spikes that had fired earlier.
That was the array node.
I opened my eyes and took out a stone fragment from my storage pouch. It was an ordinary stone I had casually picked up before entering. It contained no spiritual energy and would not trigger an alarm. With a flick of my finger, I sent the stone flying. It landed directly above the array node.
Bzz—
The mechanism activated.
Six bone spikes shot out from both walls at once, all concentrated around where the stone had landed. When the last spike embedded itself, the system prompted: [The mechanism has entered its cooldown period. Interval: twelve breaths.]
I noted the time.
At the tenth breath, I grabbed the spirit beast and rushed forward. Our steps were light and quick as we avoided every groove. Just before the end of the eleventh breath, we made it through safely.
The moment we landed, the mechanism behind us hummed again, and a fresh wave of bone spikes fired out.
We did not stop and continued onward.
The mist gradually thinned, and a faint glow appeared ahead, as if shining up from underground. I could feel the space widening, no longer confined to the narrow passage.
The spirit beast suddenly raised its head and looked diagonally ahead.
I saw it too.
A silhouette.
It was not large, but distinct, standing in the distance. It looked like a stone stele, yet also like a doorframe.
We headed toward it.
Halfway there, the ground trembled slightly.
It was not a mechanism, nor had the guardian beast awakened.
It felt more like... something was sinking.