Chapter 242: Eternal Rest (II)
Although Long Haochen was still hesitating, Haoyue’s suggestion immediately rose the flames of desire in his heart. At least for the moment, Haoyue was able to suppress the specters residing around the outside of the tower. Just taking a glance at the situation of this tower shouldn’t be too dangerous right?
“Alright, let’s take a look then.”
“Hou, hou, hou.” Three bellows were simultaneously produced from Haoyue’s three heads, and charging at a great speed, he carried Long Haochen toward the direction of the tower.
As the radiance released from Haoyue’s soul approached them, the great amount of specters in his path scattered, and not a single one dared come into contact. Haoyue held his head high, swiping his glance all around without restraint. The distance of a several hundred meters was covered in a split second with Haoyue’s charge. The entrance of the tower could not be seen at all from the place where Long Haochen was previously standing, but as they ran to its base, a three meters high gate appeared in front of the man and the beast.
Seeing that gate, the first impression Long Haochen had was that it was a construction built by humans.
The gate was ash-gray in color and wasn’t decorated in any carving or design, so it couldn’t be related to the higher elven tribes, and furthermore, on the upper part of the gate were words written on a wide stone.
These words were written in a language that was very similar to the current human tongue, only, the structure of the letters was more complex. Nevertheless, Long Haochen managed to vaguely recognize them. The words written on it were ‘Eternal Rest’.
Although this gate was simple and not very tall, while standing in front of it, its imposing presence directly assaulted their senses.
Haoyue’s six eyes let out a dazzling brilliance. Advancing to the side, he didn’t head to the gate’s location but instead, ran to its side. Little Green opened his mouth wide, letting out a powerful tornado that pushed the gate open before charging at it to open it completely.
“Pop.” The gate opened quite easily: against all expectation, this mere gust of wind was enough to open it noiselessly.
However, in the instant it opened, a rich dark-grey-colored aura spread in the air, covering the entire room with an extremely pure energy; it was an energy that no living creature would be willing to come into contact, one that carried the essence of death.
As if they saw a most terrifying existence, the surrounding specters frantically scattered in all direction, and the hissing sounds that were not supposed to break out at this timing suddenly erupted.
Long Haochen made haste to release a Holy Mantle, enveloping Haoyue and himself inside, and putting his whole strength into resisting the sound waves carried by the terrible hissing sounds.
The dark-grey aura spread to the outside of the tower, rapidly dispersing in the air. Out of the dozens of surrounding specters that were nearest to the tower, the slowest ones were engulfed by it, immediately turning into nothingness as they left grey ashes on the ground. Clearly, that pure aura of death was something these specters absolutely could not resist. The aura of this tower in itself had an enticing power they were unable to resist.
As Long Haochen’s brain was working at a high speed in analyzing the situation of the surroundings, Haoyue already resumed moving, and in a flash, he entered the tower.
An eerie scene happened: in the instant Haoyue stepped into the tower, the hissing sounds outside unexpectedly came to an end and stopped hindering Long Haochen. However, what followed was an indescribable scene, causing Long Haochen to feel a deathly stillness down to his pores.
A large hall appeared before his eyes, but it didn’t carry the dark image he expected. The hall that appeared in his view was entirely ash-gray-colored and was far wider than what the tower seemed to look like from the outside.
In all directions, large pillars were supporting a thirty meters high dome, and many ash-gray-colored lights had appeared before their views, twisting in the air, and Long Haochen was unable to clearly see in front of him because of this colorful background. On the sides, eighty-four pillars stood erect in a straight line, whereas in front of them was an indistinct something.
The purple soul energy surrounding Haoyue’s body vanished rapidly and he slowly stepped forward. It was clear that he was extremely cautious..
Long Haochen firmly held his Holy Spirit Sword, which was a bit drenched in sweat. After entering in this world filled with a deathly atmosphere, he felt great changes in his body. First, the recovery of the spiritual energy in his body had unexpectedly increased severalfold compared to the time they were outside of the tower. That was to say, the elemental energy in this tower was a lot richer than outside. And strangely, the Light Elemental Fairy Yating didn’t dare to come out of Long Haochen’s body, as if this place contained an extremely dangerous existence…
“Welcome to the ‘Eternal Rest’.”
Just as Long Haochen was examining the tower, an aged voice suddenly rang in the empty space of the tower.
Long Haochen instantly shivered in surprise, and Haoyue suddenly stopped advancing.
The voice was transmitting from all direction, “The fact that you managed to reach my Tower of Eternity is proof that you are an outstanding necromancer with a strength at the sixth step or above. Kid, you are very lucky to have made it into my world of deathly arts.
The Tower of Eternity is the crystallization of the knowledge I gathered throughout my thousand years of life. As long as you can keep going forward, passing one test after another, and finally reach the top, you will inherit my legacy, and the deathly arts will once again arise in this world, granting death to the hypocrites of the Radiant Church.
Step forward, brave man, my child. You are the first necromancer to have ever stepped into the Tower of Eternity, and also my only successor. You will have to face trials and dangers, but your life won’t be threatened. Of course, this is on the premise that you manage to pass my first trial, otherwise, I will consider that you don’t have the qualifications to carry on my legacy. As long as you pass this trial, this route will be wide open to you, and I will guard you by your side forever, until the time you finally manage to reach my side that is.
Everything you have just heard was the last recording I left before my death. When you leave, the ‘Eternal Rest’ as well as all the legacy I left behind will be closed to everyone, and only with my keepsake will you be able to enter again. I will be in the tower, waiting for your arrival, for when you will be ready to learn the Saint Deathly Magic Arts and become the disciple of this Slumbering Calamity, Elux.”
Outside of the Desolate Hissing Cavern.
Having watched Haoyue’s disappearance helplessly, the members of the two Demon Hunt Squads couldn’t help but be in a state of panic.
Li Xin declared, astounded, “How is it that Haochen didn’t come back, but it was instead Haoyue that disappeared?”, voicing out the concern everyone had.
Ever since they entered in the demon territory, Long Haochen was the entire team’s pillar and currently, the group wasn’t in good shape. After Haoyue disappeared, these youths from the Temple Alliance’s elite younger generation were panic-stricken.
Lin Xin tightened his eyebrows, “Haochen said that he would be able to teleport back at Haoyue’s side in times of danger, but now, if Haoyue was the one teleported, there can be only one explanation. That is he encountered some danger, and it was danger that didn’t even allow him to have the time to teleport back.
This won’t do, we have to immediately go rescue Captain.” As he said so, he planned on heading in the direction of the cavern. It wasn’t only him, but Wang Yuanyuan and Sima Xian had the same reaction.
But at this time, a figure appeared, blocking the entrance of the cave.
“Don’t lose your head. None of you shall go.” Cai’er’s cold voice sounded out, causing everyone else to look blank.
If this action was from someone else, they would probably get beaten from the members of the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad immediately, but if this person was Cai’er, the situation was completely different. Who was Cai’er? She was simply the closest person to Long Haochen! If Long Haochen met with danger, how could she not feel anxious?
Cai’er coldly glanced at the panicked group, calmly declaring, “From now onwards, I will temporarily take over Haochen’s role of captain. Before he returns, everything shall be done accordingly to my orders. Any objection?”
Luc Xi reacted sternly, “Cai’er, now is not the time to argue about who will command, but about Haochen’s safety. Don’t tell me we shouldn’t head out to save him?” During their journey, he had been in total admiration for Long Haochen, and he also knew clearly that if there was one person in the team that could lead everyone back safe and sound, that person was Long Haochen.
Cai’er coldly swept her glance over him, “Seeing that I’m not panicking, what are you panicking for? Haochen and Haoyue share a blood contract, and this contract makes the two of them the same as one. Even if Haochen lost the ability to come back, in the case he felt that Long Haochen was in a dangerous situation, Haoyue would have been able to teleport him back from his end. But Haoyue didn’t do that, and instead chose to teleport to him. Do you know what that means? It means that Haoyue believed that the danger Haochen was put in was something in his scope of control, that he was enough to help him handle it.
More importantly, the fact that the hissing sounds suddenly became irregular only a few hours after Haochen entered, implies that he already arrived in the core region of the Desolate Hissing Cavern. If he took such a long time to manage this, how long do you think we’d need to join his side? If something happened to any of us on the way, won’t the situation become even worse when he comes back? What we should do now is to calm ourselves, not to head out in disorder. Therefore, let’s keep resting here, until he gets back. Since he’s our captain, we should trust him and believe that he will be able to come back safe and sound no matter what.”
It could be said that this explanation from Cai’er immediately calmed down the whole team.
Until now, Long Haochen had been the whole team’s dominant figure, the brain as well as the core of the team. At the moment that he wasn’t there, Cai’er spoke up as the one who understood him the most. Though, she appeared even more imposing and intimidating than Long Haochen. Her cold voice gave her words an image of absolute confidence.
As top-rate talents, Long Haochen and Cai’er both had an inherent commanding stature. It was only that Cai’er had willingly chosen to serve as a prop for Long Haochen that she went unnoticed.
Luc Xi immediately looked at Sima Xian, revealing heartfelt admiration. At this time, his only thought was that it would have been great if the priest who belonged to this team with two pillars was him.