Chapter 914
Chapter 914 The Dragon of Arcusstone
Everything really was just as what Li Mu had guessed.
The jail cells of the third level of the dungeons each housed a Class X champion although Li Mu knew none of them. Once powerful and proud champions who were living legends of the Northern Steppes, they have now been reduced to demented lunatics raving incessantly, forever trapped in an endless delirium that none of them could hear nor see nor speak anymore. Save one. One of them sensed Li Mu’s approach and he desperately tried to communicate by croaking hoarsely using his ruptured vocal cords. It took quite some time before Li Mu finally understood what he was trying to say: “Kill me.”
The long years of endless torture had corroded any will to live on.
Li Mu was no saint. He knew very well that the amount of damage and injury inflicted on the poor man was beyond cure and salvation. Hence, he did what he needed to do by ending his life cleanly to stop the torment.
As Li Mu exited the cells of the third level, even he could barely hide his anguish at witnessing such barbarity.
Shen Jia on the other hand was quiet. He could not comprehend just how powerful those captives once were, but he was still terrified beyond words as well.
They arrived at the topmost level.
There were only three jail cells there.
There was no point in guessing how powerful a champion that was once being dragged here against his own will and trapped here for years, decades, or even centuries.
Shen Jia’s face had lost all color by now. Li Mu paused, thought, and said at last, “Here’s another mental discipline. Recite it and channel its powers. This would help to prevent any corruption to your mental state.”
He then taught Shen Jia the same simplified version of the Xiantian Skill discipline that he imparted to Hua Xiangrong, Qing Feng, and Ming Yue before.
The Divine Tranquility was but only an ordinary mental discipline used by the Creed of Divinity. It was only due to Li Mu’s own immense powers and skillful mastery that he could use utilize it to great efficacy. Ordinary warriors would need more than ten years of training to reach that level. But today’s ordeal was such a huge blow to Shen Jia that the Divine Tranquility could no longer prevent any scars, prompting Li Mu to teach him the simplified version of the Xiantian Skill discipline.
In other words, this was also Li Mu’s way of acknowledging Shen Jia as his student.
Being transported here for the world of the Ziwei Star Zone, Li Mu still found it surrealistic to be here, but he did not want to return without leaving some roots.
The gifted Shen Jia only needed a few rounds of advice from Li Mu before he could finally channel the Xiantian Skill’s effects himself.
With their minds now adequately protected, they continued their search.
Li Mu came before an iron-plated door that numbered “Three”.
“Oh? This one’s unlocked.”
The fine iron-studded door was thicker and sturdier than the rest of the cell doors of the third, second, and fourth levels, but it was oddly left unlocked.
Li Mu gave the door a gentle push.
Creak.
The door swung inward.
Unlike the rest of the cells in the lower levels, the inside of this chamber was surprisingly fresher. The atmosphere did not seem like a jail cell that hasn’t been attended to for a long time.
Li Mu stepped inside. What ensued was a three-meter-long passage that opened up into a vast chamber hewn from stone. The chamber was lit by a wide shaft high in the far wall at the end that slanted up to the sky outside. The shaft of light shone into the room furnished neatly and cleanly with a table and stools furnished from granite, which was a stark juxtaposition from everything else in the room. The light would have provided a welcoming warmth if not for the macabre sight that the teacher and student duo spotted as soon as they came in.
An elderly man clothed in white was sitting on a cushion where the shaft of light hit the ground.
Gaunt and malnourished, with a long-flowing white beard and hair hanging loosely down his shoulders, the elderly man looked ancient yet mildly divine with his eyes closed like a god slumbering peacefully. One could almost hear his heart beating and the blood coursing in his veins vigorously like the lapping waves of the sea.
Whoever this was, this elderly man exuded the presence of a figure that feared nothing. Not even an enemy with the might of Class X could daunt him.
“Is he Class XI?” Li Mu thought.
“You’re here. At last. ”
The old man’s eyes opened abruptly, gleaming with electricity.
“Who is this old man?” Li Mu thought at once. “Is he the creator of this depraved dungeon or is he just another prisoner here?”
“At last?” Li Mu paced towards him slowly, “You’ve been waiting for me?”
The old man surveyed his guest closely, first with surprise in his gaze before it turned into one of disappointment, “I’ve sensed you since you’ve stepped inside the main audience hall. But I didn’t expect you to be so young.”
“Who are you?” Li Mu asked directly without beating around the bush, “I’m looking for a girl called Shen Xiaoyue. Do you know where is she?”
“A girl? Is she your sweetheart?” A strange expression wiped across the elderly man’s wrinkled face as if what Li Mu just said had invoked some sweet memories from his past. A respite in this moment of agony. He wearily shook his head. “I can see that you’re powerful, young man. That you’re able to get past the assassins in the audience hall is proof enough. You’re at least Class X, no? That’s remarkable for your age. Still, you should not have come here. Leave while you still can.”
“Is it dangerous here?” Li Mu asked.
“Very. Very dangerous. Undescribably dangerous.”
“Well, if it’s really that dangerous,” said Li Mu, “I daresay it’s too late to escape now.”
“Leave now and you might still have a chance to survive. Stay and you’ll be suffering a worse fate than me.”
“Really? You don’t look like you’re suffering to me.”
Compared to what he saw in the levels below; the fates that had befallen the Class X champions in the lower levels, what this elderly man was in seemed like a relative paradise.
“Wait till you look at my back,” croaked the old man weakly.
Moved by his curiosity, Li Mu strode to the back of the old man where what he found there left him astonished beyond belief.
Uncountable capillaries of hairline thickness hung from the back of the elderly man, stretching a short distance before conjoining into a thick scarlet tube the size of a bowl that burrowed deep into a wall. That mutilation would have left a permanent disfigurement on the surface of the old man’s back.
The tiny strand-like tubes bloated and contracted in rhythmic pulses, drawing something from inside the elderly man’s body and funneling it into the larger duct.
“For a hundred years, I’ve sat here. Immobilized and crippled. Move but slightly and I will incur a pain so great as if a million ants are gnawing at my flesh. This accursed contraption will sap my strength and vigor even more strongly. At times, I had hoped if only they had just rendered me deaf, blind, and mute just like the others. Perhaps, I might become insane too. But no. Here I am. Sane and still conscious, as I watched my former students, my lover, my friends, and those that I consider as the family being subjected to such suffering and torment…”
The elderly man glanced at Li Mu strenuously. “Do you think there’s pain greater than what I’m enduring now?”
“The torture of the spirit is indeed greater than that of the flesh,” agreed Li Mu.
“That girl that you seek… If she’s taken by the men in black… Then perhaps you’ve come to the right place…” said the old man, “But you’ll never succeed in saving her…”
“Where do you think she’d be at?”
“Here… Or maybe next door… Or… Maybe the magical force field downstairs…”
The possibility of Shen Xiaoyue being so near filled Shen Jia with joy that he spun on his heels and was about to bolt for the door.
“Hold up.”
Li Mu stopped him at once.
“Why don’t I save you and we go find Ms. Shen together, sir?” Li Mu asked the elderly man.
“You can’t. I’d be dead the moment the capillaries on my back are severed. Unless… Unless you’re able to find that monster and kill it first… But save it, young man… Heed this old man’s advice and leave… Perish the thought of saving that girl… With your talents, in a century or maybe two, you might be able to do what we’ve failed to… Maybe you’ll be able to avenge your sweetheart just yet… At any rate, that’s a better fate than having you both throwing away your lives here…”
“Wait. Monster? What monster? Where is this monster right now?”
The elderly man did not answer the question. Instead, he just said, “When I was taken back then… I was Class XI…”
That was his way of telling Li Mu that even with his Class-XI might, he could not prevail against his captors, hence Li Mu should retreat and now lose his life for the sake of nothing.
“Class XI? Are you Nie Renlong? Grand Master of Arcusstone? The one they call the Pinnacle of Warriorship of the Northern Steppes?! You had an epithet, the Dragon of Arcustone!” Shen Jia gasped with shock.
For centuries, the Northern Steppes had seen only one champion who managed to make the ascension into Class XI, the Grand Master of Arcusstone himself, Nie Renlong.
“What a surprise indeed… I didn’t think that they would still be anyone who could still remember my name… But all that are just figments of a past long gone…” The ancient Nie Renlong exhaled gravely.
Shen Jia could only stare at the incapacitated Nie Renlong with bewildered disbelief.
“How could this be… The Northern Steppe’s paragon of invincibility… Now… Bound here like a sheep ready to be slaughtered?!”
“What really happened?!” Shen Jia couldn’t help asking, his voice trembling as if the very foundations of his belief system wobbled on the brink of collapse.
“We can talk later,” interjected Li Mu, “So if Ms. Shen is not held next door, then where can I find this underground magical force field that you spoke of? Is it beneath this dungeon?”
“If you insist, young man. Go next door… But be careful. Even I am unaware of what lies next door… But if you failed to find what you seek in the next two chambers… Then try going to the deepest levels below. As to how would you find ingress, I’m afraid that I don’t know the answer to that as well. This dungeon is no ordinary location. It is not by chance that Arcusstone chose this place to build its stronghold. Under the ground rests a monster so evil and heinous that it has been sealed there for a long, long time. This monster was what caused the doom of Arcusstone…”
“Very well, sir. I shall find the girl, then I’ll be back for you.”
Li Mu saluted before taking Shen Jia with him.
“Um, Teacher,” asked Shen Jia meekly when they got out of the chamber, “Did I say anything wrong?”
“No,” answered his mentor, “But the fact remains that we’re in need of haste.”
They came to the next room and pushed the door open.
The first thing they encountered was the sweet and delicious aroma of food assaulting their nostrils.
Li Mu was stunned.
“What in Heaven’s name?!”
After the short stone passage, what waited for them was a brightly-lit chamber with a granite table laid full of dishes of sumptuous food. A young man almost Li Mu’s age was there, enjoying the food while a middle-aged man toting a sword stood dutifully beside him like a bodyguard.
For one brief moment, Li Mu wondered if he had found himself back inside the Cloud Nine Lodge again.
“You…” Li Mu uttered.
Li Mu knew who it was. The servant-like man whom he had fought against during the destruction of the Priory of the Four Seas. The very same who had employed the seven-time Dewdrop Strike which had managed to force himself to stagger backward. Li Mu had ultimately triumphed in that battle but this man had vanished. This was the last place he expected to meet him.
The first servant gave Li Mu a deadpan stare as if he had barely recognized anything at all.
The man in white finished savoring every ounce of flesh on his drumstick before he wiped his hands clean with a white napkin. He reached for the wine flask and had a gulp of wine directly from the spout. Before he swallowed the vintage, he broke into a satisfied and delighted grin. Then he exhaled heavily and regarded Li Mu wryly, “So, had a good talk with that old senile next door? Honestly, I thought you’d be here sooner.”
“The son of the Lion and the heir to the Priory of the Four Seas, I presume?”
“You’re a sharp one, aren’t you? I guess that’s worth my coming all the way here to send you off myself,” said the young man in white who slowly rose from his chair.