Pathway

Chapter 86: Death Keep [1]

'I'm the beginning of eternity,

The end of time and space,

The beginning of every end,

And the end of every place.

What am I?'."

The beginning of eternity and the end of time and space? It could only be one thing. The Void. The beginning of every existence. Everybody knew that. Could the answer be that simple? Jufeng was musing very hard in thoughts as he tried to resolve the riddle. He came to the conclusion that it had to be the void.

"The Void?"

"That is a wrong answer, young one. Do you want to give it another try?"

Huh? Wrong answer? If it wasn't the void, what else could it be? Could it be the Alpheron then? That was the beginning of everything in the universe. He had to be careful especially now that he only had one more wrong answer left. After thinking hard for what seemed to be an eternity, he cleared his throat as he drew the attention of the elderly scholar.

"The Alpheron?"

He had just said those words when something flashed through his mind and it instantly dawned on him that he gave a wrong answer. But before he could make adjustment, the elderly scholar gave his remarks.

"Wrong again, young one. You know what that means. Five Irrium gold coins. Then you'll decide whether you want to leave or continue."

Ju Feng sighed deeply as he removed the five Irrium gold coins and gave them to the elderly scholar. He felt a huge relief knowing he would have another chance at the riddles. But heavens tears, now that he had used the precious Irrium gold coins, he had no substitute left. Only, if he had waited a bit longer. It didn't matter anymore. With a bitter smile, he answered.

"I want to continue, senior. You are 'E', letter E!."

"Don't be too hard on yourself. Though it took you time and missed chances, you are still wiser for your age. You should take pride in that. Just one more riddle for you to help me with. Here it is."

The scholar responded before continuing.

"Three men are standing, each is holding a box. In only one of the boxes there is a treasure, the other two are containing evil. The men know what is in their respective boxes. Each man will say only one sentence. Only one of them is telling the truth about the treasure and the other two are lying.

The first person says: The treasure is not in my box!

The second person says: The treasure is in third person's box!

The third person says: The treasure is not in my box!

In whose box is the treasure?"."

Ju Feng closed his eyes as he pondered on the riddle. It was a difficult riddle. How would he answer this one when he couldn't tell from their responses? After thinking for some time, he opened his eyes only to discover that the elderly scholar, the table, the chair and the shelf, are all gone. The room had grew darker and the only source of faint light was the runes on the walls. At  the center of the house were three boxes labelled from first to third.

Why did he had the alarming feeling that it was related to the third riddle of the elderly scholar? It would mean that one of these boxes was containing the script he was looking for while the remaining two contained stark evil. Who knew what kind of evil would be inside them? What was the possibility of him surviving any of the evil, anyway? Which one of them was even telling the truth? First one said plainly that it wasn't in his box. Second one indicated that it was in third one's box. The third one straightly denied that it wasn't in his box.

As he continued to think about the riddle, a scene which happened back then on the sect's premises, flashed in his mind. The more he compared the two, the more he could see the similarities. Moments later, he stepped forward and slowly opened the first box with great caution. He held his breath as he raised the lid cover of the box and inside it were the sealed bamboo scripts. Three of them.

The Scripts of Sentience.

Joyful relief washed over him as he took the scripts from the box and turned them over in his hand, revelling in their acquisitions. He put them in his spatial sac before looking around the room. The closed door had opened again. Seeing that, he wondered what could've happened if he had been wrong about the first box. Shaking his head, he made his way to the door while keeping an eye on the remaining two boxes.

He left the house and walked back through the passage while avoiding making contact with the walls. He stepped out of the dream and into the frosty plain. How lovely was it to be in the open again? He decided to take his time to relax. He brought out some turtle meat and preserved goat milk. He was having another adventure inside the original adventure. The thought of it was frightening enough. It would be better not to delibrate on it.

Ah, the wonder of the magical turtle meat and finest homely made goat milk. He smiled happily as he finished up with the tasty delicacies.  After considering the next place he was heading to, he stood up and patted his robe. The next place would be him entering a real illusion to acquire the first treasure he had chosen, the Mystic Order. He couldn't help but wonder what that meant. According to the grey tree, reality is but an illusion and illusion is nothing but reality inside the Accula divinis.

Ju Feng followed the directions he was given and he came to an area where the snow appeared to be gravitating upward. He was told to use his spiritual sight to examine the area. He would see a particular place containing a single line of bigger levitating snow. That was where he would have to enter the illusion. After locating the place, he put another dream crystal in his mouth and enter the levitating snow field.

He nearly stepped into the path of a passing blade-light which would have split him into two. He quickly sidestepped and dodged behind a huge fallen statue.

What situation did he just walked himself into?

He raised his head to take a peek, and saw battles of powerful nature, going on at every corner. Although some of the battling cultivators were around his age while others were a little bit older, their powers were immense. He quickly dodged back after confirming he was in the right illusion.

Did he even come at the right time? It looked as if he had just walked into a battle arena where a fierce battle was going on.

That called for a careful observation. As he slowly raised his head a second time to take a look, a flaming arrow which was blazing like a meteorite, streaked past his head, prompting him to duck again. From the powerful aura of the arrow, he knew the shooter was definitely more than a premier cultivator. A cored cultivator. Which meant the people fighting were cored cultivators. Could they even be demigods just like the tree told him?

The route he needed to take was through the left side of the battle into the valley of mountains, scattered in broken chains. The mountain he was looking for, had a white patterns on it. He had to enter the mountain through a hidden opening on its side. At the heart of the mountain was the Mystic Order. He slowly took out his sword, but he wasn't really sure of how effective an iron sword could fare against powerful attacks. Anyway, he had no choice. It was all the weapon he had on him. He was just leaving his position behind the fallen statue using flashsteps when the statue exploded into ashes. 

The impact of the explosion knocked him forward, but he didn't stop. Instead, he used the momentum of the impact to increase his speed. He knew he had to leave that battlefield if he didn't want to be turned into ashes. He was almost out of the battle area when an alarm sounded in his head. It was of an incoming mortal danger from the right sdie of the battlefield. Without much thought, he pushed all the Chi he could muster into his body. He raised his sword in a blocking position and turned towards the direction of the approaching danger. 

In a lightning speed, a battle axe appeared right in front of him and collided with his raised sword. The impact broke his right hand. And his arm was almost torn off his shoulder's socket while his left hand was awkwardly twisted. The iron sword he was carrying, was shattered into fragments, lacing his body. As he laid on the floor, semi-consciously, he could sense the hand of death as the light of the axe reflected into his eyes. The descending axe was about to remove his head, when a hand suddenly thrust into the arena and pulled him out.

"Thank you."

Ju Feng managed to say before drifting into uncosciousness. He was carried off to a reasonable distance before he was placed on the floor. A couple of hours had passed when he finally regained full consciousness. He was looking around to see where he was when his gaze fell on the boy, few feet away from him. The boy was sitting in a lotus position, watching him without making any sound.