Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 783: Final Floor

The pressure on this floor had moved beyond uncomfortable and caused real pain and subtle damage to his body. He was still able to endure it, especially since he had long ago mastered a method to isolate himself from his own pain. Anything over a certain threshold was routed to that compartmentalized part of his mind. Even so, he didnt want to stay down here for too long as the damage to his body would continue to increase.

Not willing to give up before hed even made any gains he pressed on and passed through the most well preserved rooms hed seen so far. Unfortunately, he didnt find anything of value. The rooms he passed through were filled with plain and simple furniture. There werent even any small personal items to be had, which led him to believe this place was abandoned before the Violent Sun Sect met its end, or perhaps the strange pressure destroyed everything with the passage of time. If the place was merely looted, the aggressors probably wouldnt have cared about things like clothing or simple decorations. Then again, perhaps everyone who lived down here in the past kept all of their belongings in Storage Treasures and there was nothing here to begin with.

He walked down a long wide hallway and passed by dozens of small chambers as well as many large training rooms. Then, he came to the end of the hallway and found himself facing off with a huge circular door. There were some old array symbols carved into its surface, but most of them had been damaged, either by a deep groove caused by some sort of cutting tool, or had been smashed out by something like a hammer. With so much damage the formations that must have defended this door were long gone. Sage stepped forward and pushed upon the door, causing the huge stone disc to swing inward on a set of hinges to the side.

Stepping inside, his eyes widened as he found himself inside an immense chamber. The whole room was in the shape of a huge sphere and he found himself standing at the halfway point of that sphere. If he were to step off the path hed find himself sliding down the curved side of that sphere to a spot a thousand feet down. From the doorway, there was a twenty foot wide path extending out towards the center of the sphere. On the sides of the path, there were tall beams shooting back towards the wall on either side of the door which meant that this was not just a walkway, but a sort of suspension bridge.

The thousand foot wide spherical chamber was not empty. After progressing a few hundred feet, there was another sphere, except this one was formed of glowing energy. Lines of power crisscrossed through the air, forming a huge net in the shape of a large ball. What was even more unusual was that nothing was propping this sphere of energy in the air from below or hanging it from above. It was floating perfectly in the air, and the only contact it made was with an arched doorway that extended upwards from the end of the suspended bridge.

If there was any weight to this huge energy sphere, then he did not think this little suspension bridge would be able to hold it up. Sage actually felt that the large spherical chamber was far more than met the eye and he suspected the walls were made out of some sort of special material and utilized a very unusual Formation Array to achieve this extraordinary effect. He walked across this long bridge and stepped in front of the arched doorway that blocked the way to the center of the energy net. Unlike the outer door, this one seemed quite intact. None of the arrays upon it were damaged in the slightest and he took a few minutes to record every detail in front of him.

He could only recognize bits and pieces of this formation, but that made it even more valuable for him to carefully analyze. After just a few minutes of careful study, hed gained all he could and moved to activate the formation. This formation was far simpler than the one outside, as it was not made in any way that might obscure its purpose. It was very obviously intended for others to easily use it and the door swung open in front of him.

Stepping inside, he was suddenly faced with a stiff gust of wind. The step forward hed taken was instantly reversed and he took a dozen steps back, fleeing the danger that he hadnt been able to predict with his foresight. He was struck by the wind, but it wasnt pushing him backwards with its physical force. The effect upon his body was actually quite small, little more than a strong breeze, but the wind carried a different sort of power. There was something in the wind that gave him a terrible sense of danger. Neither his Spirit Sense or Foresight registered what it was that was assaulting him, and it was only when he resonated with the laws that he finally put up a resistance against the terror that was sweeping towards him.

Just as immediately as hed felt threatened he was suddenly free and unfettered once more. Hed felt as if an invisible presence was threatening him, howling sounds had come from one side and then another, creating the illusion that something was everywhere yet nowhere. An invisible stalker. It had called up an ancient fear, something that primitive man would be terrified of, one of many natural phenomena that inspired people to create deities to assuage their fears. The greatest fear is the unknown, and creating an explanation, even a supernatural one, could help to face those fears. If I believe that thunder is the sound of battle among the gods, at least I know it is not a beast coming to eat me. We would learn to stay inside to avoid the stray arrows of the gods, lightning, but we would not fear for the end of the world.

That wind had carried its own primal terror that he had no resistance against. That slight contact had already caused his mental cultivation to shake. The Infinite Immaterial Palace that built a castle-like structure in his Spiritual Sea had rumbled from that touch. It was something akin to an earthquake, doing no harm yet, but if the scale continued to rise then it would eventually reach a point where his mind would crumble to bits.

What the hell was that?

Sage had retreated back through the doorway, and was pleased to see that even with the door wide open, whatever it was that was inside could not escape. He took a closer look at the area inside the door and the pathway continued forward for a few hundred feet without any further suspension. Then it ended at a round platform with a short railing around it. From his place he walked from one edge of the path to the other, changing the angle he could see into the energy net and see more of the spherical area inside. Unfortunately, even after giving it such a thorough examination with his eyes, and Foresight, he didnt see anything out of place.

Even so, he still felt that something was terribly wrong and didnt dare to step inside again until he had a better idea of what it was. After just an instant a symbol flared to life on his forehead and Sages eyes took on a very strange look. They bugged out slightly and seemed to split into three parts. His eyes took on a compound look, with three horizontal lines separating 3 pseudo pupils. The compound division of his eyes made them look much like they were drawn with pointillism, but with very large dots used to create the effect.

Just as his eyes were in the process of shifting, the doorway in front of him suddenly flashed with light and there was a loud boom.