Heavenly Dao Child

Although they had a bountiful harvest a good amount of the pearls were lost as there had been a split second delay which caused the plant to rot away immediately.

Su-Min stared forlornly at her harvest, they tried really hard but still, half of what was given out for her to deal with was lost, and now they others pooled from their share to make it even for them and she did not like it at all.

Ryuu looked at the surrounding as he spoke, "Well since we have already dealt with the flowers, I believe a quick search is in order."

"So how do we search for that something when we do not know its location, but most importantly we do not know what we are searching for?"

Ryuu looked at his surroundings for a moment before he spoke with a frown, "The wraiths would not leave it alone and move away from it as such I believe it has to be nearby, if I were to guess their movement pattern it should be somewhere in the middle of the garden, that is for sure."

Frost Flames bit her lips as she spoke, "Seeing the amount of snow in the area there is a chance that it might be buried under tonnes of ice."

True-Spear let out a groan as he spoke, "It would take ages to dig this amount of snow."

Only to receive a glare filled with disapproval courtesy of Frost Flames as she spoke, "Brother we are not mere mortals so quit your whining."

A few minutes later the snow from the entire valley had been removed, what greeted them was a large round iron door.

Ryuu reached the door as he studied it for a moment before he touched it as various array seemed to be formed over it.

'Hmm, these arrays are wrong why did they not explode upon activation, it should not be possible, but how?'

Su-Min looked at Ryuu who was floating above the door his face scrunched up with utmost concentration, but unfortunately for him, her patience was running fast as such she decided to approach him only to be stopped by both Frost Flames and Frozen Ocean.

Frozen Ocean simply shook her head as she spoke, "Ryuu is concentrating do not disturb him, he might make some form of mistake and injure himself badly."

Su-Min let out a tired sigh before she spoke with a frown, "But, it is taking so long."

Frost Flames shrugged at that as she spoke, "The door seemed to be booby-trapped and he is trying to disarm the trap so give him some s…."

Her words were cut short as Ryuu let out a shout of elation drawing everyone's attention towards himself.

"Ryuu are you alright?", as a concerned Frost Flames voice came to his ears, Ryuu towards her with a big smile on his face.

"This trap is so brilliant, this tiny bit of matrix added to the array had completely changed it, it scrambles the rest of the array making it discern the true purpose by those not the creator, I have seen an example of this but this is the first time I have seen a practical application."

He would have gone on and on about the array but was stopped by Zywia, "Ryuu can you get it off."

Ryuu simply pouted at that as he spoke, "Do I have to it….Okay okay, I am removing it."

He sweated under Zywia's glare, a glare so ferocious that it seemed it could turn anyone into ash.

Ryuu used his special pain to inscribe a few small arrays which soon dismantled the larger array that was inscribed on the door, he then swung the large iron door open as he spoke with a smirk, "Well everyone shall we venture forth."

A small smile blossomed on everyone's face as they eagerly followed after Ryuu.

The door opened into what seemed to be a few hundred meters drop, which was nothing for the group of cultivators, except that lower group went the gravity increase exponentially not to mention at the end were sharp spike, which Ryuu could bet was coated with venom, extremely potent venom.

Su-Min gritted her teeth as she spits out in anger, "Damn it the lower we go the pull is getting stronger and stronger."

"Whatever you do not get even a single scratch from those spikes, I bet they will be poisoned."

"There is nothing to bet about it Brother Ryuu, spikes like them are always coated with poison, it is a rather classic form of trap."

"So true, Brother True-Spear, so true, though I hope that there are n….STOP!!"

At his shout, the group came to a halt as Ryuu went and inspected a part of the wall as he smirked, "Clever clever, the array here would have scrambled our KI if we went beyond this point, and having a disruption in our KI in this situation with a gravitational pull that is increasing dramatically it is dangerous."

Another talisman later the array was gone, while Ryuu scowled inwardly, 'How many talismans do I have to use, I am getting tired of hiding my skills with an array, if only they were not with me.'

All of a sudden an idea formed in his head, 'Wait a minute, I am waving around the talisman and activating it, if I were to fold it properly when I use it, they might be able to see that something is written but not what is written and as such I can use it again and again as much as I want to, Ryuu you are a genius.', with a slight imaginary pat on his back he pressed forward.

At the end of the drop was a long dark corridor that stretched to the unknown, suddenly the group had a small flashback about the maze, the maze that had robbed them of their concept of time, that made spend an uncounted amount of time running around through empty and long corridors with shifting walls trapping them now and then.

"I hope we do not get trapped like the maze."

Su-Min gained a constipated look on her face as she spoke, "Please do not remind me of that place Zywia, it was so horrible, at least you all had each other, I was separated along with a womanizing idiot that continued to hit on me, and I was this close to snapping and gutting him."

Zywia simply giggled at that but did not say anything more.

The group slowly moved through a couple of corridors and Ryuu was continuously working hard to remove any all traces of arrays that had been used as a means place various traps that could easily cause grievous harm even death.

"It is just like the maze but this time we have something to do instead of following never-ending corridors."

"Brother Ryuu, you are the only one who has something to do but not us."

~Khuwaaq~

A sound came to their ears making them tense as it was followed by more and more similar sounds.

"Enemy up ahead!", Was all that True-Spear was able to shout out when a large column of fire came towards them.

Ryuu and Frost Flames stepped forward as they raised their hands, the fire slammed on to them before extinguishing it completely.

Closely following the flames was a group of undead that looked as if they had been completely mummified, True-Spear engaged them with his spear as others soon joined them.

"They are Jiangshi, do not get scratched or bitten they are poisonous, make sure not to breathe anything they might exhale,", Ryuu managed to bark out as he crouched to let the sword strike pass over his head before he bisected it into two.

The Jiangshis that had attacked them were bizarre, it looked as if their various body parts from various creatures, including some weapons had been used to create the body, it made them not only look intimidating but revolting as well.

It did not take much time for them to deal with them, the Jiangshis might be extremely strong but at the same time incredibly slow but most importantly lacked any means of tactics or skills, all they knew was to swing, scratch, and bite and nothing more.

Unlike the corpses of the Preta realm cultivators which were currently buried under the tonnes of snow, the Jiangshis had nothing that they could offer, even their weapon and armour were rusted to the point that the group had to keep an eye out from any broken weapon shrapnel every time they clashed.

"Let us move on forward who knows what we might find next", after the relatively easy battle they decided to heed Frozen Ocean's words as they moved forward.

At next turn something unexpected happens, the ceiling to the front and back collapsed taking the shape of a ramp, when all of sudden the cry of an infant filled the place, they were so loud that it was deafening.

The group stood back to back when all of a sudden the enemy attacked, with a loud wail they pounced towards Ryuu and his group.

A couple of talismans flew towards the wraiths stopping them as if they had run into an invisible wall, Ryuu made a slashing motion with his hand, and it seemed as if the invisible wall suddenly wrapped around the wraiths, herding and trapping the wraiths together into narrow space, another slashing motion later the wailing was no longer heard, the, raised his right hand as the wraiths were consumed by scorching hot bluish flame.

"The wraiths have been dealt with let us move."

True-Spear looked sceptical at that as he spoke, "Are you sure about that, I can see them, they are still moving."

Ryuu waved off his concern as he spoke, "Of course they are dead they just do not know it yet, now let us move we have the rest of this place left to explore."

The group merely gawked at Ryuu as he slowly began to move, with a smirking Zywia following after him.

Su-Min could not wrap her head at what she saw, the Preta realm cultivators had difficulty in dealing with them, it was also true that they had poked their nose and supported the wraiths against them as such they had failed, but even then their performance was nothing spectacular, and now they saw Ryuu easily deal with them, it was not only a learning experience for her but also mind-boggling as well.

"Move fast we have to return as well, and the last thing I want is for some idiots to muck everything up for us."

They knew whom Ryuu was referring to and they did not make any attempt to correct him, as they felt the same way about him so they quietly followed after him without asking or speaking anything.

After some gruelling hours of hard work, lots of traps, and enemies later they found themselves standing in front of what seemed to be a large door, so large that even an a.d.u.l.t dragon can easily pass through it.

Once again Ryuu began to work his magic on the door, as multiple arrays appeared which were soon disassembled and broken.

Ryuu pushed the door but it did not budge, he pushed it with all his might, if he were not covered with warm clothes everyone could his seen the veins of his arms pulsing, and his face had taken an interesting shade of red.

But alas the door was too heavy and as such, every one of them decided to help Ryuu by pushing the door to open it, and with great difficulty, they managed to make it budge and it opened enough for a couple to squeeze through side by side.

As they entered the room their eyes were open wide as Frozen Ocean could not help but speak out loud, "What is this.....?"