Fujia Bay. The Mechanist Arts R&D Company, Xiahou Aotian's CEO office.
Wearing a silver mask and a flamboyant pink suit, Mr. President leaned his full weight against the chair back, resting his crossed legs on the desk.
"In a moment, I will send you into the Secrets of the Five Elements dungeon. Before you go in, let me go over a few precautions." Despite his ostentatious posture, Mr. President's tone was very solemn. "You are interlopers, not Spirit Realm walkers entering a dungeon through normal channels. To the Spirit Realm, you are bugs, viruses, factors disrupting its operation. When it detects you, it will choose to expel you from the dungeon or obliterate you on the spot.
"Therefore, keep the following rules firmly in mind: First, do not tamper with items inside the dungeon, particularly materials and props. Second, do not clash with NPCs inside the dungeon. Third, do not unleash power of a high rank."
*Uh, looks like Uncle paid a price when he helped me retrieve parts of the Thunder God Set from dungeons... Both were Dominator-stage dungeons, but he dared take the Thunder Spear and didn't dare bring Zhai Cai out. That shows interfering with an active, running dungeon comes at an even higher cost...* Zhang Yuanqing furrowed his brows.
"However, I don't know whether taking out the waist token of the Commander of the Buliangren will trigger a drastic upheaval."
And the Commander of the Buliangren was most likely a demigod; when such a figure was involved, it was impossible to use Stargazing or astromancy to pry into the process and outcome.
In other words, he could not divine whether this journey would bring fortune or calamity.
"There's no helping that." Mr. President spread his hands. "Don't worry, though. If you encounter danger, crush the jade talisman I gave you, and yours truly will descend from the heavens to whisk you both out of harm's way."
Mr. President did not intend to enter the Secrets of the Five Elements dungeon himself, fearing that it might provoke an extreme reaction from the Commander of the Buliangren. If that happened, the Spirit Realm would detect the anomalous fluctuations first and hand down punishment.
Second, if a clash broke out, communicating with the Commander of the Buliangren would become very difficult.
The Secrets of the Five Elements was indeed a level 7 dungeon. Lian Sanyue and Brother Bing had encountered it not long after advancing to Dominator. Out of six Dominators, only the two of them had survived...
Zhang Yuanqing said, "I'm ready. We can enter the dungeon at any time."
Xiahou Aotian tilted his chin up. "I don't need to prepare, because the protagonist is always prepared."
Mr. President sized him up and chuckled. "You're quite an amusing kid."
He raised his hand and snapped his fingers with a crisp, loud click. "Exile!"
In an instant, the two felt a colossal force shove against their chests. Yet it was not their bodies that moved backward, but the entire world. They felt as though they had been cast out by the space itself, the surrounding scenery rapidly receding from them.
The next second, the receding scenery halted.
A murky, gray sky came into view. Heavy, dark clouds hung motionless overhead, with a torrential downpour hovering on the verge of breaking loose.
In the distance stood a volcano that had just erupted, crimson, scorching magma spilling from the crater and surging toward a cluster of buildings at the foot of the mountain.
The buildings were few in number, but immense in scale—every single one was a majestic palace.
"What a suffocating atmosphere..." Xiahou Aotian looked around and frowned. "I feel like the spiritual power inside me is being suppressed. It's turned thick like paste."
Zhang Yuanqing hastily concentrated to sense it. He found that Stars and Taiyin had indeed become extremely sluggish, but the divine power of the sun flowed freely and naturally, completely unaffected.
A mental pulse from the Qin dynasty fangshi came from the black iron thumb ring:
"When the Five Elements combine into one, all things return to chaos, with only the divine power of the sun remaining transcendent.
"This place is filled with the powers of the Five Elements, blending and suppressing one another. You two actually have it easy. If Spirit Realm walkers of the metal, wood, water, fire, or earth classes were matched into this dungeon, that would truly be hell mode."
"Oh," Xiahou Aotian said, understanding somewhat. "As expected of an S-rank dungeon. The entire environment is a debuff formation."
He turned to look at Yuanshi Tianzun and asked, "Where do we go to meet the First Emperor?"
"I'll go up and take a bird's-eye view." Zhang Yuanqing pointed toward the sky and rode the wind straight up. Soon, he reached an altitude of a thousand meters, taking in the vast, desolate land in its entirety.
The plain stretched to the edge of his vision, devoid of oases or forests. Across the dark soil lay only gravel and boulders, thoroughly bleak.
The center of this world was that cluster of buildings. Looking down from high above, he realized they were actually five enormous palaces; because they were so close together, they had looked like an entire complex.
The five palaces were arranged in a circle, with an open clearing at the center.
Their architectural styles were completely different from one another. One was built primarily of brick, tile, and wood, planted with lush green grass and trees, resembling the halls of an ancient imperial palace.
Another used white stone as its primary material, built with grand magnificence while exuding the sharp, stern presence of solitary, jagged cliffs.
A third palace was stacked from pure limestone and granite, ancient in style, carrying the ponderous weight of a pyramid.
A fourth was constructed from a vast amount of black wood, its eaves and pillars glistening wet, as though freshly soaked by rain. Outside the hall were many pools of varying sizes, looking like water-collecting hollows from above.
The final palace used crimson cobblestones to form its walls and pillars; even its roof was assembled from crimson stones piece by piece.
All of these palaces shared a single trait: they were colossal. They were not built for humans at all, looking more like the dwellings of legendary six-meter-tall giants.
Zhang Yuanqing continued to ascend. Before long, he finally spotted the end of the horizon—a blurry spatial barrier.
He estimated in his mind that the dungeon's total area was only about six to seven hundred square kilometers.
*Lian Sanyue said that after defeating the boss, they saw an abyss, and the aura inside made even Dominators tremble...* Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a moment, then dissolved into starlight.
Finding the abyss came first.
After more than a dozen consecutive Star Escapes, he arrived at the world's edge without spotting any abyss.
Zhang Yuanqing used Star Escape to return and said, "Let's search along the perimeter of the world first. But this dungeon is quite large; exploring the entire boundary will take some time."
Xiahou Aotian gave a smirk.
"This is where the protagonist steps in."
He opened his inventory and hauled out a square metal box measuring two meters tall and two meters wide.
*Click!*
The box opened, and palm-sized drones flew out of the slots—sixty in total—hovering above their heads.
Xiahou Aotian pressed a button on the side of the box, and two neural interface cables popped out from circular ports, automatically attaching to his temples.
He immediately closed his eyes.
*Buzz, buzz...*
The sixty drones sprang into action, scattering in all directions.
Zhang Yuanqing waited quietly beside him.
After about half an hour, Xiahou Aotian opened his eyes and shook his head. "No abyss found."
Zhang Yuanqing rubbed his chin in thought. After a moment, he said, "A friend of mine told me they discovered the abyss after clearing the Secrets of the Five Elements dungeon. Since we haven't found it, there must be a trigger condition to enter it."
Xiahou Aotian was dumbfounded on the spot. "We have to clear the dungeon? But we're stowaways. If we fight in the dungeon, we'll be obliterated by the Spirit Realm!"
The corner of Zhang Yuanqing's mouth twitched. "Even if the Spirit Realm doesn't obliterate us, an S-rank dungeon can still kill us."
"Then what do we do now?" Xiahou Aotian gave him a sidelong glance. "How about we just leave?"
Zhang Yuanqing and the old man in the ring spoke in unison: "No!"
Xiahou Aotian started, muttering, "Fine, no is no. Why yell so loud?"
Zhang Yuanqing thought for a moment, pulled out Little Red Riding Hood, and shook out an Extraordinary yin corpse. "The abyss must be in the palaces. I'll send a yin corpse to scout ahead."
"Take it easy," Xiahou Aotian said in alarm. "If it gets into a conflict with the dungeon monsters, it'll drag us down and get us obliterated by the Spirit Realm."
"Don't worry. This is a Dominator-stage S-rank dungeon. An Extraordinary yin corpse is like an ant. An ant won't cause any impact on the dungeon, so the chances of the Spirit Realm detecting it are slim." Zhang Yuanqing was full of confidence.
Seeing that Xiahou Aotian had no further objections, he manipulated the yin corpse to advance cautiously into the palace grounds.
He first headed toward the lush green palace and stepped into the courtyard overgrown with vegetation and grass. Instantly, Zhang Yuanqing saw the trees sway gently, as if coming to life.
The next second, Zhang Yuanqing lost the yin corpse's vision, and his consciousness snapped back to his main body. The final sight he saw was vines growing wildly and roots bursting through the soil to entangle it.
He opened his eyes and looked at Xiahou Aotian. "There's good news and bad news."
Xiahou Aotian tilted his chin up. "Good news first."
"The good news is that the Extraordinary yin corpse really was an ant, and it didn't trigger the Spirit Realm's obliteration mechanism."
"And the bad news?"
"The bad news is that the Extraordinary yin corpse really was an ant."
"..."
The two stared at each other in silence.
Amidst the quiet, a mental pulse came from the old man in the ring, reminding them:
"Don't you have a waist token of the Commander of the Buliangren?
"A waist token is a credential of identity, the equivalent of a modern pass."
Enlightenment struck.
Zhang Yuanqing's eyes lit up. He opened his inventory and took out that multicolored bronze waist token.
The moment this token—carved with patterns along its rim and bearing the relief carving of "Buliangren" on its face—appeared, the entire Spirit Realm trembled gently.
The waist token projected a multicolored beam of light, shining into the palace grounds.
The five massive palaces were bathed in multicolored halos one by one. Promptly, they each shot a beam of energy toward the central area: red, white, black, yellow, and cyan.
The five beams collided fiercely, their five colors blending together before turning into a hazy, grayish hue of chaos.
*Rumble...*
The central area between the five palaces collapsed and sank, revealing a bottomless abyss.
A powerful chill surged out of the pitch-black abyss, pale mist curling gracefully upward and drifting into the sky.
An aura that froze everything and sealed everything, the very abyss Lian Sanyue had described... Zhang Yuanqing was overjoyed.
"This is the abyss. It's right down there."
Inside Xiahou Aotian's ring, an intense mental ripple surged, only to subside quickly, returning to stillness like ancient well water.
The protagonist looked down and said, "Old fellow, you seem pretty excited?"
The old fellow ignored him.
To be safe, Zhang Yuanqing summoned another yin corpse and had it hold the waist token as it walked toward the lush green palace.
Stepping into the courtyard overgrown with vegetation and grass, the previous yin corpse was nowhere to be seen, likely devoured by the plants.
Zhang Yuanqing made the yin corpse stop, remaining vigilant in place.
The surrounding trees and grass were dead silent, showing no signs of coming to life.
The two breathed a complete sigh of relief and quickened their pace, heading toward the central clearing enclosed by the five palaces.
Passing through courtyards with rockeries, pavilions, and gazebos, and skirting around the main hall that stood dozens of meters tall, Zhang Yuanqing and Xiahou Aotian reached the mouth of the abyss, peering down into the rift.
Waves of biting chill rushed at them. In just a few seconds, both felt their faces stiffen, their spiritual power turn sluggish, and the activity of their cells begin to decline.
Faintly, the two heard what seemed like an elusive, indistinct breathing coming from deep within the abyss.
Xiahou Aotian looked down into the pitch-black, bottomless depths and swallowed quietly.
"How about I give you the ring, and you take the old fellow down?"
Before Zhang Yuanqing could reply, the old man in the ring spoke first:
"Heh, since ancient times, cowards have always been side characters."
Xiahou Aotian's cheek twitched. "This is called 'a gentleman does not stand beneath a crumbling wall.' What does this dungeon have to do with me anyway? I'm not going down to take risks."
"There won't be any danger," Zhang Yuanqing said. "The chill doesn't freeze spiritual power and the body very quickly. As long as we come out within ten minutes, we'll be fine."
Xiahou Aotian looked at Yuanshi Tianzun in surprise, feeling that the other's tone was far too certain, almost as if he had been here before.
Just as he was about to ask, he saw Yuanshi Tianzun leap straight into the abyss.
Chapter 889