As the stone door closed, Linley's vision suddenly went black, then suddenly brightened again. After regaining his footing, he found himself in a completely different place than before.
This is the Necropolis of the Gods.
After calming himself down, Linley looked around. Above him was a vast, boundless sky, and beneath his feet was a gray, dusty earth. In the distance were some collapsed stone pillars, like the ruins of an ancient city buried for tens of thousands of years. The air was filled with an ancient and oppressive atmosphere, and beneath every inch of the land were traces left by many powerful figures.
Just as he was about to take a step, ripples appeared on the gray, desolate ground beneath his feet. Slowly emerging from the ground was a puppet cast from a strange black metal, about two zhang tall, with a pair of blood-red eyes staring intently at the intruder.
"Ancient puppet!"
Linley had no time to think before the puppet threw a punch. The punch was powerful, tearing Linley's clothes off. He didn't dare to meet it head-on, so he slipped and dodged, his Purple Blood Soft Sword shooting out and piercing the puppet's joint.
A man and a puppet were fighting in a desolate place. The puppet was very strong, but its joints were not flexible. Linley used the Wind-Earth Fusion Harmony technique to dodge the opponent's heavy, almost unstoppable punches time and time again, attacking with his sword when there were gaps. After fighting for a long time, the puppet's movements gradually slowed down, and Linley seized an opening and plunged his sword into the chest amidst the blood.
The puppet shattered into pieces after falling to the ground.
The first level was a deep stone hall. As Linley entered, many black, shadowy magical beasts emerged and charged at them with shrill cries. After Linley slashed down a few of the leading beasts, he saw even more surging in from all directions, seemingly endless. So he unleashed the power of Wind-Earth Fusion, a Hundredfold Waves swept across the sky, and in the brief moment of respite, he and Bebe rushed out the door.
The second level is a maze.
The walls, made of gray and brown stones, crisscrossed and seemed endless. Linley and Bebe wandered around inside for a long time, encountering many monsters and traps hidden in the shadows. The monsters on this level were much stronger than those on the first level. Linley needed to Dragonform to barely get through.
" The Necropolis of the Gods is indeed very dangerous." Linley leaned against the wall, panting heavily, his forehead covered in sweat. "I was in Dragonform the whole time on the second level."
The third layer.
Linley stepped forward slowly.
It was a very deep cave, with a dark red light seeping from the cracks in the walls. As soon as you entered, you could smell a sweet, fishy odor. From inside the cave came sounds like ropes scraping against the ground, as if something very large was slowly awakening.
Linley's steps suddenly stopped.
"Oh no, this smells like Ba-Serpent!"
As soon as the words were spoken, a gigantic figure slowly rose from the darkness within the cave. It was a massive python, its entire body a deep, dark blue, so thick it could coil around the entire cavern. Its ruby-like eyes looked down at the two intruders. A faint, blue light swirled around it, capable of obliterating everything with a mere sweep.
The Midgod- level magical beast Ba-Serpent.
Linley felt a chill creep from his scalp to his toes. He couldn't withstand it in a single exchange. As the azure light swept over him, the Purple Blood Soft Sword in his hand seemed to sense it and suddenly emitted a warm glow, blocking the azure light that could have engulfed Midgod.
"Run!"
Linley screamed inwardly, without the slightest hesitation. After the Purple Blood Soft Sword blocked his attack, he immediately turned and fled. He ran desperately towards the cave exit, with the eerie blue light following closely behind, smashing the cave walls to pieces. Linley stumbled and staggered his way out of the cave, retreating to the fourth level. His legs gave way, and he collapsed onto a rock, his chest heaving, cold sweat soaking his clothes.
"So what is it?" he asked, panting, his heart pounding.
" The Ba-Serpent." A voice came from the darkness. It was a middle-aged man, equally disheveled. " Midgod magical beast. Like you, I was almost eaten by it. You were lucky to escape its jaws."
Clay claimed to be a Saint Realm expert and a person with many followers in the Necropolis of the Gods. After chatting with him for a while, Linley learned that the first five levels of the Necropolis of the Gods were called "Level One," which were manageable; however, the third level, with the Ba-Serpent, was far more dangerous than Level One.
"That guy's fine when he's sleeping, but if you wake him up, you're dead meat. We only made it to the third floor and we ran into him. We were just incredibly unlucky," Clay warned.
Linley nodded, but he felt a growing sense of apprehension about the dangers of the cemetery.
The fourth level is a world of ice and snow.
Linley and Clay were walking together when they nearly stumbled upon the territory of magical beasts as they rounded a snowfield. A group of large, fluffy, pure white cats were lurking in the snow. Clay stopped Linley from a distance and whispered, "Those are Snowfield Panda Clan. They're very aggressive. Don't provoke them. Go around them."
As instructed, Linley and Clay walked together on the path at the edge of the snowfield and finally escaped major losses. The fourth level was even more dangerous than the first three, but with Clay, a local veteran, leading the way, Linley had a better understanding of the situation and did not take any more risks.
After walking for a while, the two rested behind a rock that offered shelter from the wind and rain. Linley, recalling how Desri, the War God, and other powerful figures had acted independently when they entered the tomb earlier, and how they had been wandering through the layers of forbidden areas these past few days, couldn't help but ask in a low voice, " Clay, how deep do you think this tomb is? We've already encountered the Midgod, the Ba-Serpent, on the fourth level. What will it be like deeper inside..."
"The dangerous part starts after the sixth level," Clay interrupted him, then said to Linley, "I suggest you build a solid foundation in the first five levels and don't rush in. Otherwise, you might get in alive, but you might not come out alive."
Linley gripped the hilt of his sword, remaining silent. He looked up at the snow-covered path leading to the fifth level, his eyes gradually calming down.
He believed the Necropolis of the Gods was a relic of opportunity left by ancient powerful beings. But after passing through these layers, he realized that there was much more to be found beneath every inch of land than he had imagined. He had relied on the Purple Blood Soft Sword and his Dragonform to sustain himself all the way, but what allowed him to go further and become more stable was never these external things.
That is his own level of attainment.
"Then let's start from here," Linley said. "I'm not in a hurry to run to the finish line in one go. Now that I can get in, I want to steadily make my way through the first five levels before thinking about the sixth."
After sheathing his Purple Blood Soft Sword, he, along with Clay and Bebe, headed towards the fifth level. The desolate land beneath their feet, covered in snow and broken stone carvings, gradually revealed to them the secrets hidden deep within the Necropolis of the Gods.