Chapter 1147: Section 1148 The Hall Behind the Wall Light
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However, when his spiritual power had risen to a certain extent, a sudden sense of crisis overwhelmed him.
Angel instinctively withdrew his spiritual power, but even so, a trace was left behind, unable to be retracted in time. The intense pain threw his mind into chaos.
When he had slightly recovered and reflected on the experience, he realized that the outside was permeated with brutal and chaotic energy. His spiritual power had encountered this energy earlier, resulting in an accident.
This energy closely resembled the chaotic energy unleashed during the battle between Fafnir and Komodo, but it was even more frenzied than before.
“Could it be that Fafnir and Komodo have really started fighting in earnest, causing the energy to erupt?” Angel speculated in the dark.
Although he didn’t know the specific reason, it now appeared that leaving through this method was likely not feasible for the time being. Angel had to temporarily abandon the idea.
His current concern was whether the spreading energy, following the collapse of the underground tunnels, would seep into the ground.
If it did seep underground, then he would truly have no way out.
Angel glanced at the heaps of sand and rubble in front of him, not daring to make any rash moves, and could only shake his head in resignation.
Angel turned around, planning to take another look at the door’s location; he couldn’t just stay trapped here indefinitely.
As Angel turned his head back, he suddenly felt something was off.
But he couldn’t quite put his finger on what exactly was amiss. He had the nagging feeling that he had overlooked a crucial detail.
He walked toward the end of the tunnel, step by step. His pace was light and slow, relaxed but scattered, and yet it still kicked up the dust that remained on the ground.
The dust fluttered up and down in the lustrous glow.
“The glow…” Angel’s brows furrowed, and after a moment he exclaimed, “The light, something is wrong with the light!”
Angel quickly put the fluorite into his bracelet. According to the previous situation, without a light source, the area should have plunged into absolute darkness.
However, it didn’t.
A very faint light was seeping through a crack in the wall.
Though the light was weak, it stood out like a beacon in the pitch-black underground tunnel, its presence incredibly strong.
Previously, because he had been holding the fluorite the whole time, its light had completely suppressed this faint glow, which is why Angel hadn’t noticed it at first. Later, when he reached the site of the collapse and looked back, the visibility from the fluorite was not enough to illuminate the deep recesses of the tunnel and the door within, leading Angel to discover the anomaly.
If there was a light source, and it wasn’t emanating from a luminous substance, then it could mean an exit.
Angel made his way to the source of the glow to take a closer look.
Even though the area where he was stationed hadn’t collapsed, the collapse of the underground tunnels had still affected this place—to wit, the long fissure in the ceiling, and the crack where he now stood.
After careful observation, Angel confirmed that there was no luminous substance at the site of the crack.
That left only one possibility: There must be a light source behind the wall!
Moreover, since this part of the wall was thinner and had developed a crack, the light from behind it was able to shine through.
Upon reaching this conclusion, Angel’s expression turned complex. If there was a light source behind the wall, it also meant there could be a passage or a room behind it.
This crack was close to the door; maybe, just maybe, behind the wall lay the room that the door led to.
Angel had not considered breaking through before because the walls appeared to be monolithically sturdy, but now a crack had appeared; breaching it would be much easier.
Angel hesitated for a moment but then thought that staying put wasn’t a solution either. After weighing his options, he decided to stretch out his hand and push forcefully against the wall.
As rumbling sounds filled the air, soil and stone tumbled down. The wall, already weakened by the crack, broke open, revealing a hole at its center.
At the same time, a dim yellow light shone through from the other end of the hole.
…
On the other side of the hole was a vast hall.
It was splendidly constructed but seemed empty and desolate, with broken stones littering the floor. The only noteworthy feature was a huge statue at the center of the hall.
However, at that moment, the statue had its back turned to Angel; he couldn’t see its full splendor.
Angel cautiously stepped into the hall. Though he hadn’t moved yet, he could already tell that this hall was out of the ordinary.
Take the walls, for example.
Angel initially thought the walls here were thin and weak, and that was why the previous tunnel collapse had caused a light-penetrating fissure. But after arriving on this side, he realized the walls were actually incredibly thick and were made of a material that was hard to damage.
The reason the wall he had come through was so thin and transparent wasn’t due to the wall itself but because there was a huge hole in it.
It looked as if it had been smashed out in one fell swoop, with a forceful impact.
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From the claw marks and pinch marks at the edge of the wall, it was clear that a battle might have taken place here, and one of them was slammed against this wall with a strong and powerful attack, creating a deep pit. This had caused the wall to become weakened.
A faint glow flashed in Angel’s eyes.
This was a small trick—True Sight. This trick could see through appearances to behold the most genuine things. At the Wizard Level, True Sight could even retrospect scenes.
Angel used this trick to examine temporal traces.
When he arrived, he had roughly deduced from the degree of dust on the ground that the pit had only appeared recently. To confirm this guess, he used True Sight to inspect it.
The result was astonishing—the pit on the wall had occurred within the last hour.
Moreover, to have created such a large pit without any blood stains suggested another inference: the creature that was hit possessed a very powerful body.
In other words, within the last hour at least two mighty creatures, one with a formidable physique, had fought here… No, that wasn’t quite right. Angel surveyed the surroundings and realized there weren’t many battle traces left behind. Could it mean that the battle hadn’t actually begun?
After making a rough deduction, Angel turned back to look at the size of the pit on the wall, as the silhouette of a figure flashed through his mind.
Yadasai.
He had known before that Yadasai was in the Void Tower. Whether Yadasai’s physique was strong, Angel did not know. Still, he was certain that Yadasai’s bone armor was definitely very hard.
Looking at the imprint on the wall, it was almost certain that this was caused by Yadasai.
And Yadasai’s opponent, who had appeared within the hour, could only be one entity in Angel’s mind—the unknown intruder.
Thinking of this, Angel recalled what Komodo had mentioned before, that the intruder had reached the underground of the Void Tower and had shut down the Inscriptive Central Hub… And this place was precisely the underground of the Void Tower.
Could it be such a coincidence?
Suddenly, Angel had a strong desire to step back, feeling that staying here was very dangerous.
But retreating would only mean sitting like a duck waiting for doom, especially since he saw no immediate danger in this hall.
Angel decided to explore this place a little.
Before moving forward, he nervously swallowed. After all, this was the Void Tower, a place where countless demons of Lassudral could not enter. He, an Apprentice wandering aimlessly here, would likely meet instant death if he triggered any mechanism.
The hall was very silent; Angel could even hear his own heartbeat.
After walking two steps along the edge, Angel saw the doors of the great hall. There were two of them: one was the door that Angel had been unable to open before, and the other was directly opposite to him, facing the direction of the central statue. However, that door had already been damaged, and Angel could vaguely make out that behind the door, there seemed to be…
“Stairs?!” Angel’s eyes brightened. If there were stairs, did it mean this place had access to the upper levels?
If he remembered correctly, the first floor of the Void Tower had a big door; maybe he could ascend the stairs to the upper level and leave through it!
With that thought, Angel decided to make his way to the door on the opposite side.
Angel walked along the wall without encountering any danger or the traps he had imagined. He pondered that it made sense since traps were always designed to deter petty thieves, but the Void Tower itself was constructed by a Demon God and always had a great demon stationed here; the power of traps and mechanisms was nothing compared to the whims of a great demon. Furthermore, before the Central Hub had been damaged, this place had been protected by a multitude of inscriptions, rendering traps unnecessary.
With this thought, Angel quickened his pace.
When Angel reached the other end of the hall, he finally saw the true form of the statue, a peculiar creature wrapped in its wings. Since its head and body were curled within its wings, Angel could not discern what the creature looked like.
The statue itself did not seem to have anything strange about it, but Angel saw what seemed to be a demon collapsed beneath the statue.
However, the demon appeared lifeless and as emaciated as if starved to death.
“It must be dead, right?” Angel whispered to himself yet dared not confirm it, nor did he dare to probe with spirit tentacles.
No matter what, it was best to keep moving.
Without looking back, Angel ran towards the direction of the door. The door was within reach, but at that moment, Angel heard a “clack clack” sound from behind him.
A lump formed in his chest, but he did not look back, instead, he ran even faster. No matter what happened behind him, running was the right choice!
As he ran, Angel also silently recited the Secret Soul Chants, preparing for astral projection and using the Gravity Meridian to escape.
But before he could finish reciting the chants, a terrifying pressure suddenly descended.
It locked directly onto Angel’s figure.
Angel stumbled and, after rolling over, crouched unable to move.
The level of oppression was beyond Angel’s imagination. Even the escaping pressure made his skin begin to bleed.
As blood streamed out of his body, Angel distinctly felt the oppressive force lessening.
The pressure on his body diminished as well, and to some extent, he was able to move slightly.
However, Angel knew that moving significantly at this moment was akin to provocation, so he did not make any grand movements. Instead, he slowly lifted his head, wanting to see exactly what had happened…