Chapter 411. The Murim's Poison Master (2)

The plains rumbled; the tremors spread far and wide.

"Hurry up and run away!" Tang Mingren roared urgently, but by then, it was too late. The next moment, hell unfolded in the real world.

BOOM!

"

Aaaah!

"

It all started with stone pillars shooting out from the surface. Although not as humongous as giant ancient trees, they were still thick enough to rival most trees and covered an impressive amount of ground. These pillars ruthlessly slammed into the bewildered Seven Stars Division soldiers from below and sent them flying away.

BANG! BOOM! KA-BOOM!

The previously flat plain was no longer flat or wide-open. Stone pillars shattered the surface like angry geysers as if humans had carelessly provoked an underground water vein. The spectators could have held this marvelous sight in reverence had it unfolded much more slowly, but they also didn't have the luxury to do that right now.

These pillars were no different from natural calamities.

It was as if the Dark Heavens Association warriors were getting struck by lightning coming from below!

"Dodge!"

"

Ah!!

"

"Get away from there!"

The Seven Stars Division warriors couldn't do anything to defend themselves. Even if they wanted to counterattack, who would they attack when there were no enemies around? All they could do was yell desperately and run around like headless chickens. Unfortunately for them, however, they weren't even allowed to do that.

"What are you doing?! Why did you stop?!"

"What's the meaning of this?!"

On the outskirts of the Dark Heavens Association army, the fleeing rearguard was stopped by the unmoving crowd of vanguards.

"Don't push us! We can't go forward even if we want to!"

"Look! There's a wall!"

Aaaaah!

They weren't near any seas, yet a tsunami wave was rising up before their eyes. The grounds of sand, pebbles, grass, and flowers split open as the soil underneath rose to devour the surroundings and flip everything.

The waves of dirt devouring and sweeping aside lifeforms caught in its wake were one thing, but what truly blocked the Dark Heavens Association warriors from leaving was a massive wall.

Its sheer size meant it took much longer to rise from the ground compared to the stone pillars, but the warriors couldn't easily leap over it. They couldn't get even close thanks to the soil tsunami spreading around with enough momentum to swallow up a small village in one go.

In the end, all they could do was stand back and watch as a wall around four to five

zhang

tall blocked their path.[1]

"Dammit! Let's go elsewhere! Run where there are no walls!"

"No! Bloody hell! The damn wall is everywhere!"

Rumble!

Even as humans' screams and shouts rang out in the air, the wall resolutely continued to rise higher and higher. The Seven Stars Division warriors shuddered in dread at the imposing sight of the wall.

They wanted to flee, but they couldn't do it. Getting hit by the stone pillars and flying through the air wasn't enough to leap over the wall, either. Then again, even if they could leap over it, the force capable of propelling a human body that far would fatally injure them, anyway.

"

Huh-uh

..."

The Righteous and Evil Alliance warriors watched in stupefaction, their jaws agape. That also included the ones who had already heard about this plan in advance.

"Goodness me!" the Milky Way Sage muttered, unable to hide his shock.

Even the one who had activated the mechanism, Tang Hui, was the same. In fact, she was already beyond "shock" and was firmly in "disbelief" now.

The Northern Upper Army watched as walls rose up in all four cardinal directions to box its victims in. The length of each wall was around five hundred meters.

Rather than a trap mechanism, what appeared was a fortress instead!

"Noonim. I'm envious of you," the Beggar Dragon Chai Lia muttered hollowly.

"Envious of me? Why?" Duan Lihua asked, her gaze still glued to the spectacle ahead of her.

"Yes, I am. Because you don't have to worry about people comparing you to the Sword Dragon or the Mechanism Dragon, after all! I'm so tempted to return my ‘

Dragon

' title right now."

While the Sword Dragon, Zhou Xuchuan, was one of the Six Empyrean Overlords, the Knowledge Dragon, Zhuge Xiang, was the chief strategist for the Righteous and Evil Alliance.

As for the Mechanism Dragon, he also had entered the realm of absurd monsters like those two.

Of course, it wasn't as if the Boundless Dragon, Nangong Shanxu, and the Beggar Dragon, Chai Lia, were weaklings. The Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes were at the top of the younger generation, after all.

However, compared to those three, the rest were like fireflies buzzing around next to the blazing sun. It was no longer on the level of whether they could compete against that trio or not.

Duan Lihua reflexively nodded in agreement at Chai Lia's dejection.

"Ha..."

"Heck, should I just join the Zhuge family's collateral line?"

"He really is Zhuge Liang's descendant, isn't he?"

"What a heavenly genius he is! No, the heavenly calamity!"

It was true that the Zhuge clan had always been excellent strategists, but they had never been this heaven-defying. This generation was just oddly more excellent than their predecessors. After all, this generation of the Zhuge clan had produced a strategist capable of leading the Martial Alliance warriors, a tactician who'd follow in his footsteps, and a monster who revived the lost art of mechanisms to create calamities.

A genius like that could appear once in an era, yet strangely enough, this particular generation ended up producing three such geniuses.

"

W-whoa

..."

"Just what did the young master create this time?"

"That's insane."

The warriors affiliated with the Gold Will Sword Sect were left speechless as well.

"Just what is all this?" The Milky Way Sage asked Tang Hui.

"It's the trap mechanism, Underground Labyrinth," Tang Hui explained, "Once activated, the walls and stone pillars hidden underground will emerge to create a labyrinth. It creates a fortress, or in this case, a labyrinth to trap the enemy inside."

Even Tang Hui had to doubt her hearing when she heard the outline of this trap from Zhuge Shengji. She couldn't help but wonder if such a trap could even be constructed by human hands, too. In fact, she thought that anyone who naively believed in the feasibility of this plan had to be a lunatic.

"But that's not all," said Tang Hui.

"What? There's more?"

Everyone around her looked dismayed by that revelation. It was already shocking to see dozens of stone pillars rising up and tall walls trapping the enemy, after all!

"The interior of that labyrinth is as confusing as a maze, thanks to countless pillars blocking off the enemy's line of sight. And the considerable thickness of the pillars leaves little gaps between them, making it much harder for the enemy to move past them."

"I see. But wouldn't they just climb over the pillars to escape?"

An escort warrior from the Tang Family couldn't hold himself back and asked Tang Hui. An ordinary person wouldn't be able to climb those pillars, but martial artists could certainly do that with the help of lightness and footwork arts.

"Of course. If they can climb it, that is."

A reply loaded with hidden meanings came from Tang Hui next.

"

Uwaaahk

!"

"Damn! Don't touch the pillars! It's a trap!"

"

Keh-heck

!"

Screams came from the Underground Labyrinth at the perfect timing. If the interior were visible, the Tang Family warrior would receive his answer without asking the question in the first place.

The idea of climbing up the pillars was a sound one. Unfortunately, hidden traps were activated when would-be climbers reached the halfway point of the pillars.

Pshoot!

Shwik!

"

Ah!

"

A Seven Stars Division warrior tried to climb up by holding on to small gaps in the pillar, only to feel this burning pain in his abdomen. He looked down and saw a skewer poking out like a thorn, puncturing a hole in his gut. Then, it retracted as if saying that its job was done.

"Do not climb the pillars!"

"The walls! Head toward the walls!"

"Dammit! I'm poisoned! I need an antidote!"

All sorts of trap mechanisms filled the Underground Labyrinth. Stone pillars and walls weren't the only problems they had to contend with. Poison fogs gushed out and spears flew out whenever they stepped on the wrong areas.

Despite all that, the Dark Heavens Association warriors still evaded the traps and stepped over their comrades' corpses to reach the walls.

"We're at the wall!"

"I'll be the first to...

Ku-ahhhk

!"

...And then, another catastrophe unfolded.

"W-what the hell is this?!"

"Damn you, the Mechanism Dragon! You son of a b*tch!"

Once certain parts of the wall were touched, blades jutted out of the surface like sharks' fins emerging from the ocean. The blades resembled half moons, and they spun menacingly with the energy transmitted by the mechanisms inside the walls.

It wasn't only one blade either, but hundreds of them! These deadly weapons covered practically every inch of the wall. Not only was its height imposing, but traps covered it everywhere too, as if to convey the designer's malice toward his enemies.

However, the situation wasn't despair-inducing just yet. The Dark Heavens Association warriors still had hope.

"Look! It's a door!"

"An exit! We can escape!"

They found a ray of light in the endless darkness. The elation they felt when they discovered a dark door at the far corner of the wall was impossible to describe in mere words. They instantly charged toward this supposed exit.

Of course! There has to be a doorway in this place!

For the purpose of installation, repairs, and maintenance, a way to enter this labyrinth had to exist. As a matter of fact, an exit-less labyrinth as a concept simply made no sense!

Like a school of fish finding water, hundreds of Seven Stars Division warriors charged toward the exit.

"Get out of the way! I'm going to destroy it!"

An expert belonging to the Warped Valor Star thrust his spear at the door with everything he had. As befitting a man from the division that served as the muscle of the organization, his spear contained vajra qi. He had no doubt that his attack would twist and crumple the doorway.

CLAAANG!

"H-how can this be?!" His wrinkled face distorted hideously. His grayish beard conveyed his agitation, trembling noticeably.

The exit remained unscathed. The expert's attack neither dented it nor broke it down. The qi-laden spear did scratch its surface, but that was about it.

"C-cold iron?!"

"What? Just how much money did they sink into this place?!"

They could hardly believe their eyes. To think the Mechanism Dragon would use valuable cold iron to make some doorway... what an extravagant show of wealth. And to top it all off, there were only a handful of master craftsmen capable of handling cold iron, too!

"Nooo! It can't end this way!"

The Dark Heavens Association warriors cried out in despair.

"

Ah!

No, it can't be!"

A pandemonium of screams rang out from the hell unfolding in reality. There was no exit, while traps were activating endlessly all around them. With such intense mental pressure, some warriors even lost their sense of direction.

Trying to climb the pillars led to skewers stabbing them before retracting. Hugging the walls only rewarded them with spinning blades cutting through their flesh.

The exit made of cold iron turned their hope and anticipation into pure despair. And then, a rain of arrows coming from somewhere worsened the situation. What terrified the warriors even more was the fact that the creator of this hell, Zhuge Shengji, wasn't even around!

That man only taught others how to use this trap. He didn't even activate it personally!

‘I didn't think it'd be on this level.'

Even Zhou Xuchuan had to marvel at the sight.

However, this can never be attempted again.

The Underground Labyrinth was the greatest and easily the worst weapon of war.

It's a good thing that we have a common enemy called the Dark Heavens Association. Knowing the general attitude of the murim, a contraption like this will raise a lot of opposition. No, before all that. This trap really is at the zenith of inefficiency, isn't it?

Society's unfavorable perception was one thing, but the real issue was with the manpower and the astronomical funds required to set up a trap like this.

Even if it's the Gold Will Merchant, a large-scale trap mechanism like this is simply too expensive to set up. Even if one has been installed, luring the target into it and activating it afterward will still be tricky. Since this investment wasn't made with profit in mind, that money-hungry man must be shuddering in dread right about now.

Zhou Xuchuan could picture Li Yicai shuddering uncontrollably while looking at the list of expenditure for this mechanism.

"Still, you did well, Shengji," said Zhou Xuchuan, a grin spreading on his face. "Thanks to you, we can win now without suffering too many losses."

Starting from Guizhou, Hefei, Mount Hua, and to this Underground Labyrinth, Zhuge Shengji's mechanisms ensured that the losses to Zhou Xuchuan's side would be minimal while the damage to the enemies would be substantial.

The best way to describe it was a display of divine majesty.

"Once the chaos dies down," Zhou Xuchuan addressed the others. "I'd like a few people to follow me. We're entering the labyrinth."

"Everyone inside must be dead, so why?" Duan Lihua asked in confusion.

"Tang Mingren... The Avaricious Wolf isn't someone who will die that easily," Zhou Xuchuan replied, his expression stiff. "Without confirming his death, it's dangerous to think he might be dead or is already dead."

Zhou Xuchuan would never let his guard down while dealing with the Dark Heavens Association. In fact, he'd not put anything past them and would never be confident until the end. Results were the only things that mattered to him.

Only by confirming the truth with his own two eyes would he stop being anxious.

***

"

Cough!

"

Wu Qu vomited out a mouthful of blood. He had to support himself by stabbing a qi sword into the ground. His meridians were a mess, while blood leaked out from all over his body. His muscles had been torn apart some time ago, while his vision was clouded.

His heart still pounded loudly away, however. As for the sword that he used to grip in his right hand... it shattered quite a while ago.

"I..." Wu Qu muttered, his expression dyed in shock rather than fatigue. "...didn't think you'd be this strong."

He was genuinely stunned. That was the only emotion in his heart right now.

"How unfortunate!" The Dark Heavens Association Lord muttered while looking down on Wu Qu. "If only I had discovered you sooner! I could have made you my right hand before Zhou Xuchuan could have gotten to you."

He wasn't paying lip service here. The Association Lord was being genuine. He was truly impressed by Wu Qu's martial prowess.

"You have... transcended the realm of humans." Wu Qu barely managed to squeeze those words out.

"It seems you've noticed it."

A deep smirk spread on the Association Lord's lips.

"It's... Opposing Heaven, is it not?"

"Excellent. As your reward, I shall be merciful."

The Association Lord leisurely raised his sword higher.

"Be grateful that I am going to end your life without making you suffer any further."

1. A "zhang" is roughly equal to 3.2 meters. ☜