Beginning Of Multiverse Saga

Chapter 176: Temple Of Time

"Damn it all!" Zhao Ruizhi harrumphed. He unleashed his power and every inch of his skin surged with golden light. The three skull-like flowers screamed miserably, and the roots twisted about frantically. They released black energy to fight back. However, what kind of cultivation did the emperor have? They only managed to persist for a few seconds before they were burned away by the golden light.

Then, Zhao Ruizhi beckoned toward the deathsworn soldiers, dragging them out from the lake. He used true speech and commanded, "Wake up!" These guys still had their use in a strange dungeon like this. At the very least, he could use them to test things out first.

The soldiers trembled all over, feeling as if there were a huge bell ringing in their ears. The trembling in their souls made their entire bodies shiver, as all of them woke up one after another.

"What happened?"

"I think I was about to achieve immortality just now!"

"Huh? Why did the lake turn black?"

"What the hell is this thing?"

Many people saw that they were holding skull-shaped fruits, and tossed them away in fright. What was scarier than holding a skull-shaped fruit, however? Holding half of one...

He Li saw that the remaining half of the skeleton fruit in his hands had many familiar teeth marks. His stomach churned and he quickly began to vomit. Unfortunately, what could he even throw up at that point?

Zhao Ruizhi spoke. "We were trapped in an illusion earlier. The lake and peach trees were all fake. I’ve already woken you up, so you’re fine now."

"Thank you, your majesty!" The warriors all shed tears of gratitude. At the same time, they cursed the illusions.

But He Li was gloomy instead. With his cultivation, he had already examined his condition. He saw that there was an ugly skull-like flower inside of him, and its growth was only temporarily stopped by a streak of golden light. And the suppression was just temporary.

He tried to force the flower out on his own, but he failed no matter what he tried. This flower seemed to have already merged with his very flesh and blood. Unless he discarded this body, there would be no way of eliminating this flower.

He Li quickly understood the emperor’s plans, yet he didn’t dare expose him. He could only look at his excited companions sullenly. Sometimes, ignorance really was bliss.

Zhao Ruizhi walked over to the lake. He pressed his palm downward emotionlessly and a golden palm appeared in the skies. The lake water instantly boiled, and soon afterward, it evaporated into steam and revealed what was at the lake bottom.

It was full of withered bones, some human, some belonging to all sorts of beasts. Some of the skeletons had strange smiles of both satisfaction and suffering, similar to what King George Manor’s soldiers had had on their faces before.

Chills ran down their backs; even Zhao Ruizhi was no exception. If not because he had just happened to turn around, by the time he reacted to what was going on, those strange flowers might have already finished maturing in his body. Eliminating them then would be even more difficult.

He quickly spread out his divine awareness, and his brows immediately furrowed. Normally, his divine senses could surround the entire capital whenever he wished, but now, it only reached a few dozen meters out. He was clearly being suppressed by this world’s special laws.

"We’ll advance and continue with our search!" Zhao Ruizhi didn’t sense the existence of any mysterious creatures nearby, so he gave up on searching the place.

The top priority right now was the highest sacred mountain. There was a grand palace that was obviously the centerpiece of these three sacred mountains. If there were any secret treasures, that was most likely where they would be.

But after experiencing everything that had happened here, his previous high spirits were now shrouded in sullen gloom. It seemed this place might not have any medicines of immortality. If he’d known that this would be the case, he would have gotten rid of that little bastard Sharky first!

He was enraged. It was all these strange peach trees’ fault. With a brush of his sleeves, a strand of golden light flew out. The strange peach trees immediately began to burn fiercely, and all manner of strange ghost faces screamed miserably. The others turned pale with fright as they watched.

The peach forest looked dense, but for Zhao Ruizhi, destroying it was extremely easy. The entire place was burned to ashes in just a few seconds. He harrumphed, then turned around to walk in the direction Sharky had fled toward. King George Manor’s people quickly followed behind him.

But they stopped soon afterward. The flourishing scenery was nowhere to be seen, having been replaced with a desert that stretched out endlessly.

"Could it be another illusion?" He Li asked with a gulp.

Zhao Ruizhi shook his head. "I sensed some intense ki vibrations in the air just now. The space here has just undergone a transformation, so what’s in front of us isn’t an illusion, but a real desert."

He frowned inwardly. If this really were the case, the place Sharky had gone to might not even be the same space he had entered. Hunting down that kid was going to be troublesome.

"Let’s head toward that palace at the very top first." Zhao Ruizhi quickly made his decision. They were all on an island anyway, so Sharky had no way of escaping. Once he finished investigating this dungeon and obtained its inheritance, he would then slowly find that little bastard.

———

Sharky and Catherine were looking around, "Huh? There seems to be some weird temple up ahead," Catherine said.

Sharky raised his head and saw a giant temple a hundred zhang out. But the temple was rather strange in architecture. It wasn’t like any other temple he had ever seen. It lacked the slightest trace of holiness and solemnity, but instead looked like a resting monster.

"This temple looks like a weird fish." After looking at it for a while, Catherine couldn’t help but ask, "But are there really fish that big in this world?"

"There are," Sharky looked at the strange temple. He felt it was larger than even the blue whales. He was looking towards it, when Catherine suddenly cried out in alarm. A zombie-like arm had shot out of the ground and gripped her ankle!

However, Catherine did have six levels of cultivation. She quickly sliced it off after her initial alarm. At almost the same time, more hands reached out to grab at her feet. Furthermore, the ground around them became viscous like a swamp. Her center of gravity became unsteady and she began to fall.

Fortunately, Sharky’s reactions were fast. He picked her up and chopped off the hands around her feet before leaping back to solid ground.

"What in the world was that?" Catherine’s heart was still pounding as she stared at where they had just been.

The ground had become incredibly muddy. It turned out not to be solid ground at all, but rather a swamp! Countless arms reached out from the swamp and grabbed frantically toward the air, as if they wanted to drag anything living into the abyss.

"I don’t know; they look like moving corpses," Sharky said with a grim look.

Catherine was about to say something else when she suddenly frowned. She bent down and clutched her calf, breaking out into a cold sweat. Sharky squatted down next to her.

He raised her dress slightly and saw that her smooth and fair calf had several scorched black handprints on them.

"These were caused by the evil ki of the world. This evil ki devours living things. Even just a touch can cause great harm." Sharky explained to her.

"Ah! Then how are we going to cross over?" Catherine was alarmed. This swamp would have been hard to cross to begin with. How were they going to get to the other side with so many vengeful spirits there?

She wasn’t too worried about the marks that were on her body, because the harm wasn’t too great and she could hold on. But right now, they couldn’t proceed, and yet they couldn’t go back either. If the emperor caught up, the only thing waiting for the two of them would be death.

Sharky reached down toward her ankle. Then a warm current brushed past her ankle. The stinging pain instantly disappeared, and even the black handprint was gone.

"How did you do that?" Catherine was shocked and happy.

Sharky chuckled and didn’t answer her question. "Let’s hurry and keep moving." After saying so, he brought her toward the marsh.

Catherine was frightened. "There are vengeful spirits..." But she froze up midway through her sentence. She was shocked to discover that the vengeful spirits’ arms wanted to reach toward the two of them, yet for some reason, they suddenly shrank back in fear and stayed far away. It was almost as if they were the ones who had seen a ghost and were frightened instead...

Whenever Sharky took a step, all of the mushy swamp land within a few meters of him was covered in a layer of ice, making it as if they were walking on solid ground.

Sharky had a relaxed smile on his face. How many times had he entered such dungeons already? He was already a master of dealing with these departed spirits. Once he had activated the Frankenstrike powers, he had gained the ability to oppress all sinister deceased existences. The vengeful spirits underneath felt an instinctive threat, so they naturally wanted to stay as far away as possible.

Soon afterward, the two of them crossed that swamp and arrived in front of the strange temple. It was already quite worn down. There were no signboards, and even one of the double doors was missing. The one that remained had been pushed slightly inward, its surface covered in cobwebs. It looked as if it might fall apart at a moment’s notice.

There were two vague lines carved on the sides of the door. He read out, "The essence of time is a mystery, with hidden depths waiting to be explored, so it was mine after all."

"What is the meaning, what is yours?" Catherine asked him, she didn’t understand what he was saying.

"You will understand in a few minutes," Sharky replied, then he started looking towards the front of the temple, and he understood, this temple was made using that weird fish’s bones.

While Sharky was thinking about his alien, "Hurry and come over to look! What are these sculptures?" Catherine trembled as she looked at two rows of dark sculptures. The place was extremely strange.

The lighting in the temple was too dark, so Sharky used his Flame Blade to light some nearby torches and candles. Surprisingly, they lit up even after so much time had passed. The temple brightened up. The two of them could finally see the interior clearly. There were eight sculptures in total on either side.

Their appearance features a humanoid form with a clock face head, intricate chest gears, mechanical limbs, and a polished bronze finish, standing on a sundial-like base.

"This temple seems to worship alien gods." Catherine felt a chill run down her back. She subconsciously leaned toward Sharky.

"No this is not an alien god, but an alien himself," Sharky muttered, as he was looking at the statue.

He then looked towards the sculpture that was double the size of the others.

"Hm? There seem to be words carved into the base." Catherine frowned. She was quite well-read, but she didn’t recognize any of these characters.

Sharky recognized them as lesser seals, a form of conversation in his world. He wiped off the dust and read out, "Time is a vast ocean, with hidden treasures lying beneath its surface..."