Book 11, Necropolis of the Gods – Chapter 13: True Awakening! The Impending Calamity!
What to do?
All of the Saints were pondering this question. The situation was clear. That black gas couldn’t be touched at all. Touching it meant death.
“Even Eddins wasn’t able to withstand it for even a moment. Perhaps even I wouldn’t be able to hold on for a second.” Linley knew very well that this divine beast, the ‘Ba-Serpent’, was a full God-level Deity. The gas it breathed out carried just the slightest hint of its power, but the power of a God, even just a hint of it...wasn’t something these Saints could withstand.
Suddenly...
Three people simultaneously charged towards the gateway to the second floor. Clearly, they wanted to return to the second floor.
“Gave up?” Linley glanced at them.
These people were returning to the second floor. Clearly, they were giving up this opportunity and preparing to stay on the second floor for the ten full years. After ten years, they would leave the Necropolis of the Gods.
“Giving up means giving up all of the treasures of the Necropolis of the Gods as well, but they will at least have their lives.” Linley wasn’t able to determine if these people made the right choice or the wrong choice, but Linley himself didn’t wish to give up. Until the last moment came, he wouldn’t give up.
Seeing the three leave, another five of the forty people present left as well, returning to the second floor.
Only thirty or so people were now left on the third floor.
“Swish.” A shadow flashed past, paying no mind to the black gas as it charged in. Clearly, this Saint was extremely nimble. He quite agilely dodged past the gas, and in the twinkling of an eye, ascended the stairs. Yet another expert had entered the fourth floor.
But the next person, his face grim, who had charged out was suddenly surrounded by that randomly flowing black gas.
“Whooosh.” The Ba-Serpent’s breathing continued unabated.
The middle-aged man was transformed into crumbled bits, not even his soul remaining.
All of the experts remaining had very solemn looks on their faces. They had a look of determination in their eyes. Yet another Saint charged down, but this one’s luck was very bad. It just so happened that several waves of black gas joined together and blocked off the entire passageway.
He could only watch as the black gas surrounded him. Yet another man had died.
“The longer we wait, the more black gas there will be in the passageway. There’s no pattern to the movements of the black gas. If I fly over just when the black gas is sealing off the gateway, then I’ll be finished.” Linley knew that this was no longer a matter of speed or agility. It was also a matter of luck.
Linley glanced the nearby Barker.
The two shared a look, then nodded.
It was time to prepare to go down.
“Whoooosh.” “Hisssss.”
The Ba-Serpent continued to snore, and that sound was a sound which seemed to ring throughout this third floor. The atmosphere surrounding of the thirty remaining Saints, by contrast, seemed extremely grim and terrible. If one was unlucky, one’s soul would be destroyed and wouldn’t even have the chance to become a departed spirit in the Netherworld.
“Swoosh!” The next person was that burly man Linley had sparred with, Clay. Clay moved like a bolt of lightning, going in an arced line towards the tunnel entrance. Clay was extremely lucky; he dodged all of the flows of black gas and strode onto the stairway.
Clay had a hint of a smile on his face. He glanced back at the other Saints, then went up.
“This is the moment.” Linley noticed that the black gas had revealed a fairly large opening, and immediately prepared to charge. But there was someone who was even faster than Linley, and charged down before Linley did, forcing Linley to come to a halt.
Indeed, because the opening was fairly large, that Saint had managed to seize the opportunity to charge through.
Just as that Saint was letting out a sigh of relief, he suddenly felt enormous pain. Lowering his head, he saw that an extremely thin current of black gas had wrapped around his right foot, and that his right foot had already transformed into powder.
At the same time...
Stretching up from his right foot, his entire right leg instantly disintegrated. By the time this Saint reacted to what was going on, his entire body below his chest had disintegrated.
The feeling of his soul suffering extreme anguish caused this Saint to let out an uncontrollable scream of pain.
“Ah!!!” A piercing, agonized howl pierced through the calm of the third floor.
The pain he felt was so great that it was worse than being cut by ten million knives. The Saint didn’t want to make any noise, but he simply couldn’t endure it. He had never suffered pain like this before...
The faces of all the Saints present instantly changed. No blood could be seen in their faces.
They were finished!
“Flee!” Someone let out a sudden, angry roar. By now, it no longer made a difference if they made any noise at all.
The thirty-plus Saints were like a flock of terrified sheep as they wildly began to flee at their maximum speed.
But with a terrifying rumbling sound, the ten-kilometer long body of the Ba-Serpent suddenly began to move, and as it did, the massive, tough iceberg mountain exploded into tiny pieces.
The entire iceberg mountain shattered apart, revealing the passageway that had been hidden within it. The exit of that passageway....was like a little window hanging in mid-air.
The exploding iceberg mountain carried with it an irresistible amount of force in the shards it sprayed everywhere. Many of the Saints were struck by the ice and knocked flying backwards while they vomited blood. Each piece of ice contained within it a terrifying amount of force.
“Terrible.” Linley felt that he was like a soldier who was dodging an endless rain of arrows. Large pieces of crushed ice transformed into countless streaks of light, blasting in each directions.
“Barker.” Linley’s face suddenly changed greatly.
Barker’s dodging abilities weren’t comparable to Linley’s. He finally was struck by a large piece of ice.
The ice itself wasn’t frightening. What was frightening was the enormous power with which it had been hurled out.
“Bang.” The piece of ice shattered apart, knocking Barker backwards. Barker spat out a large mouthful of blood. “Lord, flee, hurry!” A weak voice escaped from Barker’s mouth.
The apocalypse had descended upon the third floor.
The previously slumbering Ba-Serpent’s metallic eyelids opened. His dark, enormous eyes which had a hint of blue in them swept the surrounding area with a glance.
The Ba-Serpent had awoken!
Just a casual movement of its body had contained such terrifying force. If the Ba-Serpent had truly been trying to kill these Saints just then, would any of them have been able to flee?
“You want to go in?” The Ba-Serpent raised its head, staring at entrance to the fourth floor which was located above it.
At this moment, someone was charging towards the entrance at high speed. Clearly...this person was trying to enter the fourth floor. If Linley raised his head to look, he would have seen that this was the Prodigy Sword Saint, Olivier. But he had been noticed by the Ba-Serpent.
“Swish!”
The Ba-Serpent’s eyes emitted two rays of dark blue light. Given the speed of these two rays of dark light, Olivier definitely would die.
But suddenly, Olivier’s body was surrounded on one side by a cover of black battle-qi, and on the other side by a cover of white battle-qi. His speed suddenly tripled, and with a ‘hiss’ sound, his two severed legs fell down from the sky.
But Olivier himself flew into the fourth floor.
Those two rays of dark light originally should have pierced into Olivier’s chest, but Olivier’s sudden increase in speed caused these two rays of dark light to only strike his legs. Two holes had appeared in his legs, which had quickly began to grow at an appalling speed.
But Olivier was very decisive.
He had cut off his own two legs!
If that Saint who had his foot brushed by black gas had known how powerful the black gas was and had immediately severed his leg, he might have been able to preserve his life.
“None of you will escape.” The Ba-Serpent rose up, staring around itself.
Right now, there were two Saints who had already reached the exit to the second floor, but just as they were about to enter, for no reason whatsoever, their bodies suddenly turned into ice, and then, like cracked ice, suddenly shattered into dozens of pieces.
The other experts on the third floor now felt true despair.
“That bastard dragged our entire group down.” Linley felt his heart tremble.
Terror!
Right, Linley was currently terrified!
The Ba-Serpent hadn’t even moved, but two Saints who had already reached the entrance to the second floor had suddenly died. What technique had the Ba-Serpent used? Linley didn’t know. And this not knowing was what was so terrifying.
“Perhaps in the next instant, I will be suddenly frozen as well.”
“I don’t even know where Barker is right now.” Linley’s heart was filled with bitterness.
Linley suddenly gritted his teeth.
No time to worry about anything else. Even if he died, he’d die trying.
Linley’s hands were currently wielding Bloodviolet and the adamantine heavy sword. Linley raised his head to stare at the entrance up high. At this moment, Linley was only a few thousand meters away from the entrance to the fourth floor. This sort of distance, Linley could cross in the blink of an eye.
“Swish!” A human form shot towards the entrance to the fourth floor at high speed.
But in mid-air, the Ba-Serpent’s eyes once more shot out with those two rays of dark light, piercing through the man’s head. Yet another Saint died.
“Everyone, together...” A Saint didn’t even have the chance to finish his words before, just like that, he died.
The Ba-Serpent’s eyes stared with amusement at the dead person. The Ba-Serpent wasn’t in a hurry to kill those people. He had just taken a long nap. Now that he was awakened, it would be somewhat diverting for him to play with these ants in front of him.
“Swish!” “Swish!”
Several human forms charged towards the skies. One of them was the Dragonformed Linley.
From the Ba-Serpent’s eyes, each eye shot out four rays of dark light in succession. A total of eight rays of dark light suddenly shot out at the eight people, Linley included. The others were unable to do what Olivier had done and suddenly triple their speed.
One human figure after another died in mid-air.
One of the rays of blue light was striking towards Linley’s head. Linley felt a sort of dread in his heart. Without question...once he was struck by the blue light, he would definitely die. In the last instant, Linley suddenly brandished Bloodviolet.
“Clang!” Linley moved like a flash of lightning, scurrying into the fourth floor’s entrance.
Of the eight people present, seven died, one survived.
“Eh?” The Ba-Serpent raised his head in a surprise glance, and then murmured softly, “Intriguing. I didn’t expect to find so many wonderful surprises amongst this group of humans. One of them was capable of simultaneously using the Laws of Darkness and Light, while this one...actually has such an incredibly precious divine artifact.”
......
This was a world of snow, endless snow.
Linley stood in the middle of the blizzard, panting. Even now, his heart was still gripped by fear. Just then...Linley had seen the cold, remorseless eyes of the Ba-Serpent as it had shot out those rays of dark light. The little bit of power he had gained from his understanding of the Laws, in front of such an attack, was nothing but a joke!
What to do?
“It saved my life.” Linley looked at the Bloodviolet sword in his hands. This was truly a divine artifact.
Although the adamantine heavy sword was very tough, it still couldn’t be described as a divine artifact. Thus, in the last moment, Linley had chosen to use Bloodviolet to block that ray of dark light. Bloodviolet hadn’t disappointed Linley. When that ray of dark blue light had struck Bloodviolet, it only made Bloodviolet tremble once; it didn’t damage Bloodviolet at all.
“The ray of dark blue light didn’t possess any impact force. What it only had was a strange devouring force.”
Linley stared carefully at Bloodviolet. It was the same as it had always been. Linley knew that Bloodviolet was no ordinary weapon...because from that day when he had first activated its baleful aura, Linley had discovered those large amounts of corpses, many of which emanated an aura that surpassed that of living Saint-level magical beasts.
This was the weapon of a Deity. As to whether Bloodviolet’s former owner was a Demigod, a full God, or a Highgod, Linley had no idea.
But Linley believed that for this divine artifact shouldn’t be damaged so easily by the God-level Ba-Serpent’s attack.
Linley had bet his life on it, and he had betted correctly. He had survived.
“But Barker...” Linley looked back at the nearby entrance. Below the entrance was the third floor, and Barker was still there. Linley, however, wasn’t able to do anything. In front of the Ba-Serpent, he had no ability resist whatsoever.
“I didn’t expect that you would survive as well.” A cold voice rang out from nearby.
Linley turned to look.
Olivier was currently sitting on the snowy ground, his twin leg stumps surrounded by an aura of white light. At the same time, they were quickly regrowing. By now, they had already regenerated to the knees.