Pathway

Chapter 93: Death Keep [8]

"The Mystical Order?"

The Plane-Drifter asked while glowering expressionlessly at Ju Feng. The mortal child sought the stone of mystical order. One of the strangest treasure on the Lumence dimensional plane or any other plane. The item had to be used before the formation of a soul core. Whereas, all demigods were born with a bronze core. Hence, the stone had no relevance in their world, yet it was placed there. Although it could be a great item for any young cultivator before the formation of a bronze core, the stone could be drastic for any young mortal. Nevertheless, it was what the child wanted.

He shook his head before shrugging.

"I'll point you in the right direction, and the rest will be on you. Do You understand?"

"Yes, senior."

Thus, in return for the services rendered, the Plane drifter gave Ju Feng the direction to find the mystical order. He had to continue walking forward, and he would come to a place of boiling yellow liquid. He must keep going forward until he would come to a path of three. He had to remember to take the one in the middle which would lead him to a place of mist. There, he would search for a shadow cave. What he was seeking was inside the cave.

Jufeng cupped his hands and bowed deeply.

"Thank you, senior."

He really wanted to ask the plane-drifter more information on the mystical order. But he could be stamped to death or disintegrated for being an irritant.

"En."

The plane-drifter glanced at him as if he had enough of people for theof the tunnel before vanishing. Ju Feng heaved a sigh of relie the moment he became alonef. He stared at the tunnel in front of him, before turning to look at the place he was coming from. Going back wasnt an option for him. Just like he had known after falling down the hole, forward was the only choice he now had. Although, the silence in the tunnel was disturbing, he entertained the notion of not facing a death-eater in the tunnels behind him.

Since the tunnel was still in the Plane drifter's space, he knew the tunnel would indeed be quiet. But for it to be extremely long? He didn't factored that one in. However, he continued walking for many meters. He was cautiously using flashsteps as he neared the large opening indicated by the plane-drifter. While almost out of the tunnel, Ju Feng could hear the sounds of hard battles, coming from the open area. 

As he slowly exited the tunnel, he could see different battles going on between demigods and death-eaters. And, not too distant from where he was standing, he saw two other tunnels leading to the large opened area. But what really caught his eyes was the landscape of the area.

There were different areas on the ground bubbling with the hot yellow liquid. Areas like that were located at intervals throughout the area. The whole place would've been a plain of bubbling yellow liquid, if not for the huge shafts sparsely covering the area. Palladium rocks. They were in the form of large shafts which protruded out of the ground. Each of those shafts were like massive boulders of pillars.

Despite the place looking colossal and strangely weird, the yellow boiling liquid really looked scary. It had to be corrosive from its appearance. He must be exceedingly cautious of falling inside one, medicinal pills or not. He didn't even have any medicinal pills anyway.

Ju Feng, who was lost in the reverie of the landscape, quickly snapped out of it as the two battles intensified. On one side, two demigods were battling one death-eater, while on the other side, another two demigids were battling another death-eater.

The two battles were of epic proportions.

But, the two demigods on the other side, were battling a much bigger and different death-eater. Ju Feng was transfixed on that specific battle as he watched the incredible moves in wonder. One of the two demigods, the one covered in thick twirling vines, was sent sprawling on the ground as she held her injured side. She quickly took out a pill from her spatial sac and crushed it in her mouth. Ju Feng could only sigh. That was one of the big differences between him and the demigods. They had access to pills which could repair and replenish their bodies.

Regaining his thoughts, Ju Feng saw that the other demigod was still fighting the death-eater. He was covered in light black metal armor and was holding a black largesword. Although, his armor was withstanding the battle, he was slowly loosing his ground. As the death-eater was pressing its advantage, the demigod raised his largesword and slammed it on the floor. A large black round metal enclosed the death-eater in a cocoon. And instantly, the cocoon began to shrink. It appeared as if it would continue to shrink but, then, suddenly stopped and exploded outwards. 

The death-eater emerged from the from the roiling energy in anger. Its whole body was giving off a raging dark energy.

The other demigod, who was still laying down, had now rejoined the battle. Ju Feng suspected her to be a flora or wood demigod. After taking the pill, she appeared to have totally recovered. She was holding a powerful dark brown staff. As she fought, the staff was constanly changing shape and radiated a green-gold light. She engaged the death-eater in close combat at the same time as the metal armored demigod.

It was a fierce battle. They exchanged hundreds of blows in minutes as they all blurred into apparitions. They couldn't do much damage to the death-eater due to the colossal scales covering it. It was a powerfully strange defense mechanism. The likes Ju Feng had never seen before.

After a moment of continous exchange, the demigods withdrew backwards for a few yards and launched their mystical arts. It seemed their martial arts wasn't going anywhere, and in turn, decided to use their mystical arts.

The flora or wood demigod made her most powerful move as she hit hee staff's base on the floor creating a chimera-like creature of great power made of flora element. A Flora Curiosa. That was a creature of pure essence of flora. Surely now, Ju Feng was convinced she was a flora demigod. 

At the same time, the metal armored demigod made his own attack move. He had been holding the metal energy inside his sword for few seconds, and now slashed his sword forward, diagonally. It created a giant Nether-Blade.

Both the Curiosa and Nether-Blade, attacked the death-eater simultaneously. 

Running out of essential energy, trickles of blood could be seen on them as they strained to hold their own. The shadowy dark energy on the body of the death-eater had turned to a raging storm. If they could hold on, maybe, they could surpress the dark energy enough to attack its head. The only weak area on its body.

The flora demigod was the first one to run out of essential energy. The reverse effect of the counter-reaction, threw her backwards in collision with a protruded palladium shaft. She was trying to take another essential pill from her spatial sac when she saw a frightning dark energy of shadow, coming in her direction. She looked at the other demigod in a sorrowful manner before activating her teleportation seal. And in a flash, she disappeared making the shadow attack hit an empty space.

The metal elemental demigod noticed a window of opportunity when the death-eater shifted its attention to the other demigod. Quickly, he took out a seal and put it on his largesword, before launching it at the death-eater. The move would completely destroy the sword, and have adverse effect on him, but he was ready to do it. There was no other option left for him.

The largesword made a mourning sound while speeding towards the death-eater. The size of the sword became enormous as its core moved to its pointed tip. Seeing the danger coming its way, the death-eater's black eyes suddenly turned bright. Dark shadowy light started emitting from its eyes like luminence obsidian. Then, it raised its massive claws, and mammoth shadows of claws formed a defensive barriers around him.

The impact was enormous.

Since a weapon with a core would be connected to the soul of the owner, the repercussion knocked him against of the protruded shaft, making him spat out some blood. Although, It was a bone-cracking collision, his body wasn't affected much. The real injury was sustained by his soul. The soul was everything to any mortal or immortal cultivator. Inside the dantian, the soul connected the life-force to the body.

Even with the gods who could form different avatars and images, it was a single soul that controlled all of them. Although with the necessary materials, a certain godly ritual would allow the gods to create threads of souls for their avatars and images. The ritual was called, the Threading of The Parallel Souls. But, everything came with a price. If any of the avatars or images suffered destruction, the real gods would suffer greatly from the repercussion.