A Cultivation Tale: The Godly Punisher

Once the voice said they could enter into the hole, all the student here dashed towards the hole farther in the distance.

Since there were fifty ultivehicles here and in each came eight to nine students. Then that meant there were more than four hundred students here for the competition.

When they got to where the hole was, they didn't jump in as hesitation shone in their eyes. Their hesitations surfaced because they saw how the hole looked like.

Although large, it was dark and it gave a feeling that it was very deep. Then they thought how they would land without breaking their leg bones. They couldn't fly and land softly to the ground. So, this made them hesitant to jump in.

"Jump in. Don't be scared. Since you can't fly, a force will help you land gently to the bottom"

Since they were assured by the voice, they jumped into it.

The voice wasn't lying to them. When they jumped in, they suddenly felt a gentle force encompass all of them. Then they slowly floated towards the bottom of the hole.

This force was generated by a gravity-dampening array. So the force produced by the array made them levitate slowly to the ground.

Few hours later, they got to the bottom of the hole. But it wasn't really a hole. It was a tunnel to another land below the surface of the earth which was vast in size. It was a subsurface land with great dimensions. This land was hundreds of kilometers wide and long.

When the students were still floating towards the bottom, they felt that the place must be really dark and that they would need to use the radiance of their energies to see.

But they were wrong. The vast subsurface land was illuminated by a light from a distance. This light came from an object that floated high in the air in this place. It was so bright that it gave the feeling it was a fraction of the sun that was here. It was when they got nearer to the bottom they saw the intense lighting.

Then the voice that spoke earlier to them said "Now, this land isn't all solid earth. There are static and flowing bodies of water here and there in this place. And these, I mean by pools, streams and rivers. I mentioned this because the artifacts could also be hidden in these bodies of water. And there are many water bodies in this place. That's why you are going to spend two months searching for them. Also, there are a few hills and mountains scattered here and there in the far distance. Look in them too. They could also have the artifacts in them. You can start now. Good luck to all you"

Every one of them inhaled deeply. They knew that whoever saw the treasure would have to keep mute about it or one would have to self-withstand hundreds of attacks from many of their competitors.

But how wrong they were.

"Should we split up?" Jake asked Alex.

"No we can't. Let's try looking for the artifacts together" Alex said.

His team members were surprised by what he said.

"But we would waste time like that. We wouldn't be able to to cover much places to search for the artifacts." Elena said.

"Yea. Elena's right. If we split up, we would be able to cover more ground and any one of us may have a chance at finding the artifacts" Draco said.

"No. I am certain it's not as easy as that. There are hundreds of us here who are looking for the treasure-artifacts. If any one of us fortunately finds an artifact, am certain that the artifact once it is unearthed would produce a large pillar of colorful light that would signal everyone here about it discovery. Everyone would dash towards that person and force to him surrender the artifact. It is that stage the real competition starts. Terrible life-threatening battles might ensue from there. So one person can't do this alone. If we search as a team, we would have each other's back. Even probably against the hundred of competitors in here." Alex said.

"Hmm. You may be right Alex. But, since this wasn't mentioned by that voice, then it certainly wouldn't happen. I say we search individually. We would be able to cover more grounds like that. Look at the others. They have all gone to search for the artifacts individually." Jake said looking around. He could see everyone go find the artifacts themselves. It was more like an individual thing than a group thing.

Alex shook his head.

"Alright. We would search for the artifacts individually. But be careful. In case you find one of them and the numbers of competitors that would gather around you are overwhelming. Don't be stubborn thinking you can escape or fight your way through, just surrender it." Alex said.

They all nodded. Then Draco and Jake set out to random places to go search for the buried artifacts. Only Elena remained behind.

With a smile that made the radiance of the moon pale in comparison, she came towards Alex and gave him a kiss on the lips. She stroke his long, straight, womanly hair and said "You be careful too"

Alex nodded with a smile.

Then he reciprocated her intimate action. He moved his head closer to hers and gently clasping it, he gave her a deep kiss. His tongue reached deep into her mouth and began to roam about her mouth's interior where their saliva mixed.

A few minutes later. He stopped. He removed his lips from hers and said "You should come with me. I don't want you to be hurt. I am afraid of these guys. If they see a pretty girl alone, they could gang up against her and do terrible things to her. I don't want such evil to befall you."

Elena gave a beautiful, radiant smile.

"My knight in shiny armor. Thanks for thinking deeply about my safety. I know such can happen. So I would try to be careful. But we have to win this competition. So I would have to set out too and search myself. Don't be worried about me. Nothing will happen" she said while cradling Alex's face.

"Okay. But please remember to be very careful. If in case you ever run into any form of trouble, just shout out my name." Alex said.

Elena was taken aback. Then she nodded.

She would do anything the boy in her heart instructed her to do. She then left to go search for the buried supreme-grade artifacts.