The Record of Unusual Creatures

With White Flame leading the way, they went into the Stellar Spire. Surrounding the entrance to the shaft was a circle of floating black rocks. On each rock was a deadpan-looking demon hunter. While they passed by these floating stones, White Flame whispered, “They are the Nightwatch of the Stellar Spire, sentinels who guard the entrance of the spire forever. If someday the citadel falls, they will activate the magic stones under their feet and blow the spire into the distorted dimension to prevent outsiders from breaking into the sacred land of Coldpath. But, we never knew that the threat would come from within Coldpath. Now, they are ready to blow up the gate on this side so that the Council of Elders will not be able to make it out of the sacred land.”

Lily’s ears flickered. She saluted the sentinels who stood on the magic stones. “They have to stand on these stones all their lives, and they’re not allowed to get down? My goodness! That requires an extraordinarily strong will,” she exclaimed.

White Flame was now even more surprised than Lily. “How can they not come down? They work in a three-shift rotation,” she said.

Even Hao Ren was stunned this time. “Did you not say that they would have to guard the entrance of the spire forever?” he said.

White Flame’s brows were knitted together. “It just means that they’re not allowed to transfer to other posts. These are precision magic stones, and to prevent accidents from happening, the wavelength of the magic stones and the Nightwatch must be in-sync and harmonious. What’s more, it’s tough to train a qualified guard. So, job transfers aren’t allowed. Why are you always thinking so strangely?”

Hao Ren was speechless. Knowing that White Flame had a potion-overdosed father and that the vendetta-seeking guards were working in shifts, his worldview was almost shattered. Forget Vigilant Sentinel, Battlesown Warriors, Destiny’s Call and the like. All that he once believed in were out of the windows. “Girl, can you be more illogical than that?” he said.

White Flame looked at them wryly before she then turned around and went ahead. “What I’ve told you is just common sense. You guys are the ones who have so many distorted understandings of the demon hunters.”

Hao Ren and Lily looked at each other before they simultaneously said, “You should watch less TV!”

They entered the massive shaft, which seemed to lead to the bottom. After going down the staircase and descending a distance, Hao Ren finally began to feel like he was in a spire. Just that, they were not climbing up but down. Initially, the walls of the shaft were still made of ice, but as they descended further, it was all black rocks.

Some moments later, Hao Ren looked up. The entrance was far above him now and appeared to be the size of a fingernail. In his field of vision, the shaft looked like a hollow pipe that shot straight up into the sky. Looking at the spiraling staircase and crisscrossing beams made him dizzy.

“Have we gone that far?” Nangong Wudi asked, glancing up and finding it weird. “I feel like we have only walked for less than 10 minutes.”

“The dimensional rules of the Stellar Spire defy common sense. Don’t trust your instinct and eyes,” White Flame said. “Also, don’t always look back at the way you came. Sometimes, the dimension behind you is distorted, you could miss a step and fall down the shaft if you make the wrong visual judgment,” she warned.

Lily stuck her tongue out in fear. The weird shaft was giving her goosebumps.

They continued to descend via the seemingly never-ending spiral staircase. At this point, the structural materials had changed entirely from ice to black stone and cold steel. The walls, which possessed thousands of years of history were carved with ancient and mysterious reliefs. After walking further down, there were scallop-shaped platforms connected to the staircase at intervals, and each scallop-shaped platform had a window.

Lily curiously ran to one of the narrow windows. She peeked from behind the window, which had a layer of translucent barrier, and found that they were underwater.

“We are under the Arctic Ocean. That means we’ve passed through the ice layers?” The pointed ears on the husky maiden’s head flickered. “Does this spire lead to the bottom of the ocean?” she asked.

White Flame did not reply but continued to move forward. The female demon hunter was tense, and she had no mood to talk to anyone.

Meanwhile, Lily happily went up to every window and looked out at the underwater scenery, seemingly looking forward to reaching the bottom. But after walking past several platforms, she suddenly exclaimed, “Mr-Mr. Landlord, stars! There are stars out there!”

Hao Ren was startled initially. He then went up and looked out; his jaw dropped.

A sea of stars was shining outside the spire.

It was only a while ago that the deep-sea was outside the window, but as they continued to descend roughly a dozen meters, they had reached a starry sky!

Hao Ren was amazed. A sense of incongruence rose within him. He glanced at the steps under his feet, and suddenly he found that he was not walking down but up the staircase!

Space had reversed its dimensions without them realizing. Gravity had also changed its direction. It was just before the window where they saw the starry sky. That was the boundary between the Coldpath dimension and the real world. Just as White Flame said, the spire was pointing down at the beginning, but after a certain depth, it inverted.

A vague roar was heard coming from the front. Hao Ren looked in that direction, which had initially been the bottom of the spire but had now become the top. He saw stars shining in the distance and a broken structure floating hundreds of meters away.

They sped up and climbed to the top. The top of the spire consisted of megalithic walls and a staircase that had broken off. They were floating in the air as if there was no gravity. Looking up and out, the group saw a large cluster of a mysterious yet splendid galaxy.

Lily could not help but exclaim in awe. “So, the top section was blown away?”

“No, this is how the Stellar Spire looks like,” White Flame finally spoke. “The spire is alright. It is just that Coldpath’s unique dimensional phenomenon makes the spire appear as if it has been torn apart. Keep up, we’ll go out through the front exit,” she said.

They followed White Flame and finally left the strange spire through the exit. As soon as they stepped out of the building, they found themselves standing on a huge rock platform. Apparently, this platform was floating at the top of the spire.

White Flame took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Welcome to Coldpath,” she said.

No one responded to her, because the strange yet beautiful scenery out there had captured their eyes and mind.

Coldpath looked like it was floating in the middle of the universe. It was a boundlessly dark, chaotic space where there were no visible stars or vast lands in sight. Looking into the distance, all Hao Ren could see were fragments of ancient buildings and spires floating in the void. In the background of all these structures were shining stars and all kinds of mysterious dancing lights, which seemed like blazing flames, or sometimes, lightning bolts between the stars. He looked back at the spire where they emerged; he finally confirmed that it was a spire. The towering spire stood upright in the void, and a layer of chaotic, lavender-colored electric light covered its lower half, while a series of rock platforms floated above the spire. The platform where they were standing on was just one of the many.

“Now you know why we insist on calling this building the Stellar Spire,” White Flame said faintly, glancing at Nangong Sanba. “It is named after its state in Coldpath.”

The space around the Stellar Spire seemed to be safe. However, if they looked far enough, they would discover many abnormal light spots between the buildings in the distance. Obviously, those were flames. The battle in that space was in a stalemate.

Their presence had attracted the guards around the Stellar Spire. A small group of demon hunters teleported and emerged like ghosts before them. A demon hunter called out to White Flame, “Mistress White Flame! You’re finally back, safe and sound!”

White Flame quickly walked up to the guards and said, “I’ve brought reinforcements. They’ll arrive shortly. What’s the situation now?”

“Master Teuton has evacuated the frontline. We’ve lost two energy nodes. The Council of Elders…”

While the demon hunters were exchanging their frontline battle progress reports nervously, Hao Ren had unknowingly fallen into deep thought. As he stared at the broken palace floating in the air, a sense of déjàvu rose within him.

Likewise, Lily had also stretched her neck out, silently staring into the distance. For a moment, a thoughtful look appeared on the face of this carefree husky maiden.