Condemning the Heavens

Standard weapons would long since have turned into nothingness, rusted to the point where only dust would remain.

However, the weapons they came across were far from ordinary weapons. Although they had not evolved into spirits yet, and although they did not have a consciousness, they contained so much energy which had accumulated over the years, making them the best of the best weapons one could find.

Xue Wei did not stand on ceremony and picked up all the weapons. He stored them in his storage treasure before taking out a thin sword.

This sword was very different from most swords. The blade only had a width of two fingers, and it was immensely thin. When moving, one could feel the flexibility of this sword. It was fast as the wind and could strike at astonishing speeds.

This sword had no name, but Xue Wei had taken a liking to it. The silver shine that the blade gave off was gentle, but the aura of the sword was tyrannical.

Although the sword seemed gentle at first, Xue Wei did not doubt that it had seen its fair share of blood.

He was not keeping the other weapons because he was stingy, but none of them fit his friends.

Lin Xiao already had a weapon of the best quality, and it was also a weapon that was like a right arm to him. It was the staff he needed if he wanted to tame beasts.

Luoluo did not use weapons at all, and giving her one would just hinder her fighting more than help it.

Bai Tianyi was in the same situation. As a weapon spirit himself, he would become a joke if he was seen wielding another weapon.

Then was Hei Gou, but Hei Gou was also using a rather unique weapon as he was using long claws that were attached to his hands.

Finding new claws would depend on luck, and so far, they had not come across any.

They found a wide variety of resources within the underground building. Some were placed there by the one who had built the place, others, especially herbs, had appeared because of the long time in the world underground.

The place was damp and dark and cold, perfect for many specific herbs to grow.

These herbs were of different ages; some were only a few hundred years old; others were thousands of years old.

From this, it was clear to see that this underground world had been untouched for thousands of years already.

As to why it had suddenly appeared, he was not sure of, but this was a chance for him, and he was not going just to ignore it.

So far, they had not encountered anything seriously dangerous. Although the illusion had been frustrating, it produced no harm to them, and the rooms they had entered did not even have a trap.

Continuing down the corridor, they eventually reached the end. Here they had entered every door on the way and emptied multiple treasure rooms. However, all of them were treated as nothing, not even guarding them with traps.

This made Xue Wei believe that there were even greater treasures inside the underground world. He was just certain that he had to figure out what this underground world was first.

When they continued forward, they found a door at the end of the corridor.

All the doors leading into the rooms previously had been made by wood. They had been easy to open, but now they were standing and looking at a massive door made from stone. It would require quite a bit to open this door.

Xue Wei placed his hand onto the door, and when he was about to rotate his Qi in his meridians in an attempt to open the door, a strange heat rushed to his hand, and it was suddenly impossible for him to withdraw his hand.

Frowning, Xue Wei used a bit more strength, but no matter how much he tried to pull back, his hand was stuck onto the door!

The heat that he had felt at the beginning had been comfortable, but now it was getting more and more intense, it felt as if he was holding a scalding hot piece of iron.

Gritting his teeth, he said nothing but sweat started to ooze out of his forehead, his eyes were narrowed dangerously.

Seeing the situation of Xue Wei, the others did not advance, but all of them were ready to step in at any moment, it would be unbearable for Xue Wei to touch the door.

Each second felt as if it took an eternity. The heat was increasing drastically, but Xue Wei was still gritting his teeth and enduring the pain. He felt that something was odd about this phenomenon.

Whoever had built this underground world would be able to kill him with but a thought. Making a mechanism that burnt off one's hand was quite wasteful.

As such, it proved that there was another reason for this mechanism, and only by enduring would he know what this purpose was.

Time ticked by slowly, the heat climbed and climbed. The stone door had originally been dark grey like most other stones, not black like the rest of the walls of this underground world, but now that the heat was permeating through the door, it started first to have a hue of red, before it turned crimson, and steam began to be released from the door.

As the heat was increasing, it also started creaking and trembling. It was as if the door was on the verge of turning into molten stone.

Time continued to flow like water in a stream, the friends' faces turned more and more solemn the more they saw, and their brows were furrowed in worry.

Finally, when they could no longer handle watching Xue Wei in pain like this, a resounding bang rang through the entire corridor.

Life Scale Shield!

Xue Wei had not restored much of his wood elemental Qi yet, but at that moment, he used what he had to raise a faintly glowing green shield around his friends.

Afterward, the sounds of explosions resounded in the corridor as stones of varying sizes continued to collide with the shield.

Xue Wei, who had been in the midst of the exploding door, was completely unharmed. The only thing that betrayed the painful experience he had encountered was the sweat on his forehead alongside his palm being slightly red.

Looking at his palm, he suddenly saw a strange energy rune had been carved into his skin. It was not deep and resembled a scar, but when he put his spiritual energy into it, he could sense that it was not that simple. All his energy was like throwing a stone down a deep hole; it vanished without a trace or ripple.

Xue Wei pondered for a moment what this rune could possibly mean, but he did not understand it. It looked somewhat like a flame, but not really. It was bizarre.

Deciding that he could not do anything about it and that it was likely to prove of some importance later, he did not care too much. Instead, he smiled slightly. He felt as if he had passed a trial - the door had at last successfully opened for him.

When the dust fell, Xue Wei turned around to confirm that his shield had protected his friends, and after ensuring that no one was injured, his eyes glanced at the rubble lying all over the corridor before he finally moved his eyes towards what was inside the door.

What he saw shocked him. Everything he had encountered so far had been dark and damp, cold, and grim. Now they were looking at a magnificent hall. It was very different from before, pillars plated with gold were holding up the ceiling, which resembled the morning sky, shining light down on the entire hall.

There were statues at the edges, standing five meters tall, all of them wearing armor made from gold and weapons made from some unknown materials.

Xue Wei entered hesitatingly. Although there was gold everywhere, and there were many magnificent sights, there did not seem to be any treasures within this hall apart from the hall itself.

There were no doors to either side, nor were there any herbs that had grown in the corners like they had in the previous corridor.

Walking inside, he and his friends began examining the area. Xue Wei had no intention of taking the gold plating on the statues and the pillars. Although he was greedy, he was not that poor; gold really wasn't worth much to him any longer.

However, his eyes were continually landing on the weapons in the hands of the statues. These weapons were made from unknown materials, but they seemed very powerful.

Contemplating if he should take them, Xue Wei finally decided against it.

Although it was tempting, he was not sure what the material was, so getting it would be quite useless. Not to mention, he had already gotten his hands on quite a number of good weapons already, so these were not too useful for him.

After reaching a decision, Xue Wei did not waste any more time in the hall and walked further and further into the depths of the hall.

There was truly nothing of interest, and they soon reached the end. Here they had expected another big stone door, but instead, they encountered a big platform with a throne in the middle and two small wooden doors, one on each side of the throne.

Since he saw these two doors, Xue Wei was unaware of whether or not to pick one or the other. Looking around, he found a sign on top of the two doors.

"Life and death let fate decide."

Instantly, Xue Wei understood that one door leads to death while the other led to life. However, there were no more leads, no more help to tell them where exactly they should go.

Frowning, Xue Wei looked at the two doors. They were completely identical.

"You guys, go back the way we came from and catch up with the people from the Demon Phoenix Continent," Xue Wei finally said after thinking for some time, "I am going to gamble with my life, but I can't risk yours as well."

Hearing this, they were stunned as their eyes widened, and they were filled with horror.

"No," Luoluo shook her head. "If I leave now, I will regret it. I have no idea what will happen, but you guys are my family. If I live, but you die, I will never forgive myself for not being by your side in the final moments. If we die, let us all end together."

"I have nothing apart from you guys," Lin Xiao agreed with a slight smile.

"Yeah, we will gamble together!" Hei Gou grinned.

"I can't die anyway; I might just lose a couple of thousand years, so let's go!" Bai Tianyi would never say anything cheesy, so instead, he acted tough, but hearing his words, the others laughed.

"Okay then," Xue Wei paused and looked at the two doors. "We are taking the right door," he finally said.

"Right door? Sure." The others did not mind; to them, any door was fine; they did not even ask him why he had decided on this door.

Xue Wei reached out his right hand, the hand with the strange rune, and pushed open the door. Darkness flooded out, but he did not hesitate and stepped inside, closely followed by the others.

The darkness lasted for a long time, they kept walking forward, but there was no sound, no visibility, no scent. Nothing.

Xue Wei continued stumbling forward in the darkness. He called out but could not even hear his own voice. The others seemed to have vanished from behind him as well.