Dungeons of the Divine (Blue Phoenix Book 2) (2 page)

Hui Yue stood up but did not rush towards the exit to start searching for Wang Ju Long and Sha Yun. Instead, he quietly observed his surroundings with an alert expression on his face.

The cave was as barren as he had expected, but a few types of mushrooms grew in the darkest corners. As soon as Hui Yue activated a light stone, the mushrooms started to disintegrate as though sunlight was toxic.

The light stone was truthfully a low grade storage stone which contained a seed of light. The storage stone was of such poor quality that the interior was exposed, allowing for the rays of sunshine to illuminate everything around it.

The seed of light was not an actual plant. Instead, it was a small pearl refined from the sun’s rays of light. Creating one seed of light required more than a year, and the price was extravagant, as both plant and pearl were very important. Seeds of light were not something just anyone could buy.

That name was given because it could be planted in the ground and a tree of sunshine would grow. A tree would absorb the light shining down upon it, bearing fruit that contained more seeds of light.

Although this sounded like an easy process, it was important that the trees had a constant supply of sunshine so it could refine its seeds. If not, the trees would be unable to create seeds. Within the whole Taiyang Kingdom, only one place lived up to the harsh requirements needed for farming seeds of light.

Hui Yue only brought two seeds of light on this trip, yet both were with him. He could not help but feel worried about Wang Ju Long and Sha Yun, who were stuck in this dark maze with no light at hand.

The room that the stone lit up was dark and damp. It was completely closed off from the world with no windows and only one pathway they could follow, leaving behind all discussion about which direction to take.

Thinking the situation through, Hui Yue handed over the light stone to Deng Wu before he quickly sat down in meditational position.

Seeing this, Deng Wu furrowed his brows in confusion as he did not think now was the best time for cultivating, but he said nothing and just waited patiently for the younger man to finish whatever he was doing.

Hui Yue became merged with the Earth, but he had yet to reach the level that whole give full control over the surrounding earth. Even when perfectly merged, because the young boy still needed to hone his affinity, he was not able to command larger masses of earth.

Hui Yue was seated down in meditation, yet, unlike what Deng Wu thought, he was not cultivating; instead, he was manipulating his Earth elemental affinity to scan as much of the entire mountain as his ability would allow him to.

Hui Yue was one with the earth. One with the walls of the maze as they twisted and turned inside the mountain. Unfortunately, Hui Yue’s control over Earth only allowed for him to thoroughly scan up to a few kilometers away from his location, and no matter how he searched it was impossible for him to find any trace of Sha Yun and Wang Ju Long.

Frowning, Hui Yue opened his eyes and stood up, patting his robe to remove the dust that gathered while he was seated on the floor.

“I did not feel the presence of any living beings, nor signs that any had ever been here,” Hui Yue said aloud explaining what he had seen. “The maze continues on for much further than I am able to scan. It goes upwards and downwards, left and right, and has many different levels. It is quite complicated. I am sure that this maze fills up quite a significant amount of space, so our biggest question is which way we should walk to find those two.”

Deng Wu nodded. Although he was unable to sync with his element, he was still able to use it. He quickly found a carving knife after which he engraved an inscription at the front of room they ended up in.

This was a safety inscription which had multiple benefits. Deng Wu wrote it because he could leave behind a message in the inscription, and he would instantly know if any living being got close to it.

Should Sha Yun and Wang Ju Long happen to stumble upon the inscription, an illusionary Deng Wu would appear, telling them to stay within the room. At the same time, Deng Wu would be informed about the two’s arrival.

As an inscriber, there was no limit to how far away he could be to sense it. As long as the inscription was created by him, it would inform him even if he were to leave the plane. An inscription was something which one created by pouring their cultivation base into.

Seeing Deng Wu create an inscription, Hui Yue nodded in approval before he slowly started to make his way down the only path and Deng Wu following behind.

Although these roads were obviously millennia old, it was easy to see that they had been created with perfect attention to detail. The now moldy and damp stone walls had once been dry and were adorned with light stones every fifteenth meter. 

Such extravagance shocked Hui Yue deeply, as he had personally investigated the size of the maze and he knew how rare seeds of light were. These seeds had long since withered up, unfortunately, leaving no light on the now deserted hallways, causing Hui Yue to feel slight regret.

Walking through the maze was done in a world of darkness with only a little light from the light stones. It was impossible for the two men to keep track of the days. When they got hungry, they would sit down and eat some rations. When their energy was nearly depleted, they would sit down and cultivate.

….

In another room, days before, Sha Yun and Wang Ju Long had woken up, just as Hui Yue and Deng Wu had done, only to find that they were separated from their friends.

Unlike the calm and collected Hui Yue, Sha Yun instantly panicked. She was about to charge out of the stone chamber to look for her master, only to be forcefully held back by Wang Ju Long.

The two women were of quite similar strength, yet currently, Wang Ju Long had the advantage. She only needed to use her full strength and Sha Yun would have to give up.

“What do you expect us to do then?” The snake-woman hissed at the girl she was stuck with, hate evident within her eyes. Sha Yun had been unhappy when Wang Ju Long followed along on the trip, but since it was Hui Yue’s wish she would not oppose his decision. It was, however, quite certain Sha Yun would do anything in her power to ensure that the other knew she was unwelcome.

Wang Ju Long was an aloof kind of person. She was the complete opposite of Sha Yun, and although she did feel that Hui Yue was special, she never once paired that emotion with love. Not even when her face flushed red and her heart beat rapidly. Wang Ju Long was only capable of seeing these symptoms as a sign of lacking food or rest.

Currently, within the room, Sha Yun was fuming with rage because she was held back by Wang Ju Long, who was searching through her different storage stones only to finally break into a smile. She fished out two light stones, tossing one to the snake-woman.

Wang Ju Long’s elemental affinity was that of Wood. She had a special connection with the seed of light because she used it while practicing her elemental affinity. Due to this, a dazzling light emanated out from within the transparent memory stone.

Looking at the moist stone which was surrounding them a frown could be seen on Wang Ju Long’s usually very tranquil face before she turned around, looking at Sha Yun for a moment, clearly deep in thought.

Sha Yun could not help but cross her arms when she noticed Wang Ju Long staring at her, and she backed away slightly. She had no idea what the other was thinking, but it seemed to have something to do with her, and that alone caused her to be cautious.

An eerie silence was slowly creeping up on Sha Yun, causing the snake-woman to involuntary shiver. Her eyes flickering between the contemplating Wang Ju Long and the black world outside the cave.

Finally, just as Sha Yun thought that she could not take the silence anymore, Wang Ju Long opened her mouth, a friendly voice sounding out. “Your affinity is Earth, right?”

Sha Yun was startled, yet listening to the question she nodded her head. She did indeed have an affinity for Earth. An affinity she had since birth that she had honed to the best of her ability.

Looking at Sha Yun and Hui Yue, both of them had an Earth elemental affinity, but, even so, their abilities were quite far from each other. While Hui Yue could merge with the earthen element, he was still improving. Although he was now capable of becoming one with the earth, it was limited. After all, he could currently only fuse with the earth so much.

Since Sha Yun was born with her Earth affinity she had a much stronger relationship with Earth, making her attacks more powerful and allowing her to control a much larger mass of earth.

However, even though Sha Yun was born with the affinity, she was not truly able to become one with earth. If a magical beast, or human cultivator, truly became one with the earth or any other element for that matter then they would lose their original bodies and it would afterwards be impossible for them to return to their former state. Due to this phenomena, the beast core set a limit to how much a magical beast could merge with their element.

This was a limit not present in humans and gave them the chance to constantly increase their affinity. That being said, trying to increase one’s affinity as a human was no easy task. Generally, only one out of ten thousand would have the talent to increase it to the point where they could completely become one with their element.

“Let’s try and scan the area,” Wang Ju Long said with a sigh as she gently knocked on the stone wall in front of them, and Sha Yun nodded her head.

Sha Yun sat down and allowed for her body to become one with the earth. Within the silence of the room, creaking sounds could be heard as the stones around Sha Yun seemed to come alive.

The small gravel on the ground started climbing up her, and within a few moments, her entire tail was covered by stone. Beneath the gravel, Wang Ju Long saw how the body itself had turned to stone.

Suddenly, Sha Yun opened her eyes causing Wang Ju Long to become startled as she looked at the snake-woman.

“Those idiots,” She hissed as she shattered the layer of stone that had condensed on top of her tail before a yellow hue reappeared on her body. She then started to break every single wall between her and her unknown destination.

Wang Ju Long raised an eyebrow at her sudden action but said nothing as she quickly followed the swearing snake-woman.

“Those idiots... Why would they move AWAY from us!” Sha Yun grumbled, as she upped her speed and crashed straight through the maze. An option which Deng Wu and Hui Yue had never even considered.

Moving through the maze, Deng Wu and Hui Yue often stopped to scan the surrounding area, looking for Sha Yun and Wang Ju Long. Unfortunately, no matter how hard Hui Yue stretched himself he was still unable to pick up even the slightest trace of living beings.

On the seventh day, Hui Yue finally noticed something which caused him to feel great dread. He had been seated on the ground merged with the earth of the maze as shock suddenly appeared on his face. He felt how one stone wall after another was crumbling down as though they were destroyed by an impact.

Hui Yue quickly left his trance-like meditation. The abrupt cancellation of his merger caused Hui Yue to spit out blood, as his being which previously had been earth now was forced back in shape.

The young boy had no time for surveying his injuries; instead, he stumbled to his legs and gestured to Deng Wu that the two had to run. For someone to destroy the maze, one had to be at least as strong as the two of them, most likely stronger to forcefully making their way through these walls.

Another option was that the one responsible for demolishing these walls had an affinity with Earth, yet looking at the ease with which it was done Hui Yue could easily see that their affinity was much higher than his own. This caused the teen to become extra cautious.

Hui Yue could not help but swear inwardly as Lan Feng ignored these events, acting as if it did not matter. The white-haired boy decided to enter the Dungeons of the Divine for the sake of increasing his cultivation in a place where he would not be found. Yet the damned bird refused to give even one hint as to what this place was exactly.

Looking around, Hui Yue saw that there was some extravagance over the use of this many light stones. Although it looked extravagant, the walls were, in the end, just regular stone and so far Hui Yue had seen nothing which he would consider divine.

He previously picked some Shadow Mushrooms because Lan Feng said that they were valuable, yet after filling a whole storage stone with them Hui Yue paid no more attention to the mushrooms which were as numerous as stars in the sky.

“This way!” Hui Yue barked as he ran through a side path, Deng Wu following right behind him. “Whatever it is, it seems to go a specific way. We better get out of the way, or we will most likely get crushed together with the wall.” Hui Yue was slightly flustered as Lan Feng was completely silent and his scanning had not shown him any life forms. This was making it hard for him to know what it could be that was after them.

Dashing through the side path, Hui Yue was certain that they could get out of the way, yet as soon as they moved whatever was smashing walls behind them also changed destinations. There was no longer any question about where it was headed, whatever was crashing through walls was aimed at them. Hui Yue gritted his teeth as he stood up again.

“Get ready,” He said as Black Blood appeared within his hand along with a tint of red within his ice-blue eyes. His demeanor changed and the air around him seemed to grow colder. So cold that even Deng Wu next to him started shivering.

Hui Yue allowed for his consciousness to enter the stone below and with that he could see everything that was happening, even on the other side of the walls.

Waiting patiently, Hui Yue quickly noticed that it was not just one person who was on their trail; it was, in fact, two.  As the revelation dawned upon Hui Yue, a smirk appeared on his meditating face, and the frozen atmosphere quickly returned to being humid and stale like before.

Deng Wu was surprised to see that Hui Yue withdrew his senses from the stone floor and once more returned to his body as he had expected the younger male to get ready for a fight. Instead, he leisurely walked to the opposite wall and leaned against it.

Loud thunderous sounds could be heard, and it felt as though the entire mountain was shaking, as walls were broken down, one by one before finally only one wall separated the two groups.

Deng Wu was slightly nervous, yet he trusted Hui Yue completely. After a moment he moved next to the white-haired boy where he sat down on the chilled, moist stones, waiting to see what could explain these thunderous sounds.

Just as the sounds reached the final wall, they stopped. Although there was now only one door between the two groups, it was impossible to break them the same way as Sha Yun had done previously, as she was likely to injure her friends in the process.

Instead, she sat down and began meditating, allowing for her tail to cut out a doorway within the wall, a doorway which allowed for the two groups to see each other again.

As soon as Deng Wu saw the culprits, relief flooded his senses, and a big smile appeared on his face as he quickly assisted Sha Yun in removing the wall. Looking at the group, Hui Yue could not help but feel that they were slightly unbalanced.

First was Deng Wu, who managed to specialize within a very frowned upon road of cultivation as a necromancer, yet his abilities as an inscriber were truly astounding. Hui Yue saw how he could create almost anything as long as he had enough materials. Deng Wu was a Metal affinity Master just like Hui Yue, yet Hui Yue had not spent much time on that specific element.

Sha Yun was someone who had the same elemental affinity as Hui Yue, yet she still managed to outshine him when it came to merging with the earth. In spite of that, Hui Yue’s future when it came to the Earth element was limitless, and he could already feel his power growing day by day, within this stone maze.

Wang Ju Long was the only one, apart from Hui Yue, who had a dual elemental affinity. Though her second affinity was limited so, for now, she focused solely on the Wood element.

Wang Ju Long was the kind of girl who wished to perfect whatever she was working on, and she had decided to walk two paths at the same time. Her first wish was to become a healer and her abilities as such were astonishing, yet her healing abilities were further developed into weapons of destruction. Wang Ju Long was the perfect assassin, and her training caused her to entwine the two roads of cultivation she chose to walk.

Her second elemental affinity was Water, yet her affinity was so low that she had almost no contact with the element. This caused her to focus her entire attention on the Wood element. Once she managed to reach the pinnacle then she would start her arduous training in Water.

Hui Yue was the one with the most affinities. Both his Metal and Earth elements were used by Sha Yun and Deng Wu, and both of them were superior to him in regards to their usage. That was, however, only because they had gotten a head start. Hui Yue was perfectly well aware that he would soon catch up to them.

One thing Hui Yue had which the others did not was an affinity with Fire, which was the most destructive of all affinities.

Deng Wu finally managed to create a perfect opening from where Wang Ju Long and Sha Yun appeared. Both looked miserable with dirty skin and clothes. Hui Yue could not help but laugh, yet after looking at himself, the laughter increased as he saw how he too looked like something the cat dragged in. There were nothing clean on him at all.

“We are almost out of the maze,” Sha Yun commented, and Hui Yue allowed for her to take the lead while all four friends chatted about what happened the last few days together, along with their expectations of these messy dungeons.

“I would like to know how soon is almost,” Deng Wu complained after having walked for another half day, but as soon as the words escaped his lips, a heavy door appeared in front of them.

Unlike the rest of the maze, this door was created from gold and had carvings of only dragons. Some big and others small yet in the middle was a gigantic dragon. Its eyes were emeralds and its body was filled with thousands upon thousands of scales carved from sapphires.

‘Welcome to the entrance of the Dungeons of the Divine,’ Lan Feng said softly from within Hui Yue’s dantian and the white-haired boy quickly shared the information with everyone.

“So this is the entrance?” Deng Wu asked, astonished. “I guess this has something to do with the Azure Dragon?” Once again neither Little Dragon nor Lan Feng answered any of their questions. Hui Yue could not help but feel slightly confused as to why that was.

Sighing over Lan Feng’s sudden change in character, Hui Yue moved towards the heavy door where he slowly used his entire strength to open the door just enough for the four of them to enter together.

Entering into the world beyond the gate all four youngsters stopped in their tracks as their jaws almost fell to the ground. The sight which awaited them was nothing compared to what they had expected, and shock was evident on all faces, even the usually calm Wang Ju Long.

The four of them felt as though they had been dropped into another world as they saw a sun shining high above them, yet above this sun was neither a sky or clouds, instead, there was a stone roof.

The entire ground which was opened up to them was full of beautiful green lush grass, and only a few hundred meters away was the outskirts of a forest.

In front of the four youths was a lake, yet this lake was not made from simple water; instead, it undulated greatly from fluctuations of spiritual energy which gave the water a slight silvery color.

Looking at this lake, Hui Yue instantly went towards it, and he felt how his cultivation technique was working at a speed he had never experienced before. The essence in the surroundings was being absorbed into Hui Yue’s body, and he gladly accepted it all.

Gesturing to his friends to join him, Hui Yue quickly stripped off all his clothes before he slowly made his way into the water.

Deng Wu and Sha Yun followed not many seconds behind, both stripping completely as they rushed into the water only to feel a sudden tranquillity envelope them. The lake made them completely relaxed, as they laid down in the water and allowed for their bodies to soak in the spiritual energy which their cultivation techniques worked hard to refine.

After awhile of consideration, Wang Ju Long followed suit and also jumped into the water. Her face was as red as a boiled lobster, and she quickly hid underneath the silvery water, yet even she could not let go of such an immense treasure.

‘Ah this spiritual spring has far more spiritual energy stored than I remembered.’ Lan Feng commented from within the dantian, a satisfied, happy expression was present on his face. ‘You four should stay here until there is no more spiritual energy left within the lake. After that, we will visit the nearby village.’

‘Village?’ Hui Yue was shocked upon hearing that there was an actual village living here in the underground, and he had a hard time understanding how they would ever go out. Before Hui Yue had time to think it all through, he felt the calming waters submerge his confusion and he once more focused entirely on cultivating.

‘Welcome to a whole new world.’ Lan Feng smiled, as he leaned back and attentively observed how the Qi swirl within the dantian cave was circling with a speed never before seen.