Beginning Of Multiverse Saga

Chapter 177: Gained Hoppervine

Meanwhile, in the desert, Zhao Ruizhi group had continued into the desert while fighting against the evil black scorpion spirits, and they had accidentally fallen into a quicksand whirlpool.

With Zhao Ruizhi’s cultivation, he obviously wouldn’t be caught by some trifling sand. However, while King George Manor’s soldiers were struggling, they ended up exposing some city walls in the sand. That made him realize there were ancient city remains buried under the sand.

The endless sand had finally become a bit different. He had a feeling that this place had what he needed. He thus brought everyone into the underground city’s remains.

However, they encountered trouble as soon as they entered. A sea of flames rushed out when the scouts opened the city gates. Fortunately, Zhao Ruizhi quickly extinguished the flames, but the two scouts had already been burned to ashes.

Afterward, the survivors raised their vigilance to a hundred and twenty percent.

They encountered all sorts of traps and mechanisms in the ruins afterward. However, these people had been well trained soldiers to begin with. Together with Zhao Ruizhi overseeing things, they were able to pass by more frightened than hurt.

Their group ultimately entered a spacious hall and found some things, but those things were useless to Zhao Ruizhi. When he realized they had failed to find any clues related to immortality, he became vexed.

As such, he sent out a palm strike above him. It blasted a shining green stone slab to pieces, and sand rushed into the room. The group quickly moved out of the way.

Just then, someone suddenly shouted, "Come quick, there’s a stele here!"

Zhao Ruizhi also noticed that a massive stele had fallen together with the quicksand. His figure flickered, and he appeared right next to the stele. The quicksand falling above him was blocked by a wave of invisible ki. He gave He Li a look, saying, "Go plug up that hole." The entire palace could be flooded by sand if nothing were done about it.

He Li sulked. You were the one who made that hole, but you want me to fix it. Why am I so unlucky... But he didn’t dare voice any complaints and quickly flew up, pressing his back against the hole. He grabbed the sides of the ceiling with his arms, using his body to block the quicksand.

Endless sand poured down. The tremendous pressure was difficult to withstand even for a peak stage ninth rank cultivator like him. He could only hope that the emperor would finish up quickly, then bring everyone out of here.

Zhao Ruizhi looked at the stele in front of him. He didn’t recognize its material. It was entirely green in color. Many of the characters on it were already illegible, and only a few sentences were left.

The characters were extremely strange. However, Zhao Ruizhi was incredibly well-studied. He had seen similar characters from some ancient records. He slowly read to himself, "Harnessing time’s power grants the illusion, and perhaps the reality. Those who understand shall receive eternal life. But they need to follow the Alioth..."

"Eternal life!" His breathing quickly became hurried when he read the last two words.

Zhao Ruizhi had been starting to lose hope after what had happened with the fake peach trees. However, now that he saw another path, he immediately felt energetic again.

He quickly reviewed what he had just read. ’Harnessing time’s power grants the illusion, and perhaps the reality.’

But how in the world people can harness the time powers. And how, those who understand shall receive eternal life’ mean? And what about Alioth and the constitution?

The Emperor vaguely recalled an ancient record mentioning the term ’Alioth’; it seemed to be the name of a star. Even though he didn’t really understand what was going on, he could tell that a certain astronomical phenomenon was being described. Did certain celestial patterns have to align for him to obtain eternal life?

Zhao Ruizhi’s expression changed several times. He had believed that he was unmatched in this world, that there was nothing too hard for him. He had remained calm even when the world itself was being destroyed previously. But now, he really was starting to feel a bit of despair.

If a certain celestial pattern was needed, how was he supposed to influence the stars above? According to what he knew, many of these celestial patterns only happened once in a long time. The shortest intervals took a few decades, while the longer ones took thousands or even tens of thousands of years. They were definitely not things human strength could control.

He Li felt a wave of berserk energy ripple out while blocking that hole in the ceiling. The emperor’s mood had clearly become a bit unstable. He was alarmed, but his mind moved quickly and he said, "Congratulations, your majesty!"

Zhao Ruizhi gave him a cold look. "There’s nothing worth celebrating."

When Zhao Ruizhi’s eyes passed over He Li, He Li felt as if his entire body had frozen over. He didn’t doubt for a second that if he couldn’t show his value, the other party would immediately eliminate him.

He gulped, and then quickly said, "This dungeon in the academy’s rear mountain hasn’t changed at all in so many years, and yet the entire world flipped when your majesty entered and a new dungeon appeared. It’s clearly because your majesty is the one this new dungeon is destined for!"

"Isn’t the illusion describing what we just experienced? Since the preceding words have already been confirmed, the celestial phenomena will most likely be confirmed soon as well. Your majesty, you came at the perfect time; this dao of eternal life was waiting for you!"

He heard what Zhao Ruizhi had read earlier. As someone at the peak of the ninth rank, he wasn’t stupid. He could deduce the rough meanings of the characters after a simple analysis. Even though he couldn’t completely decipher those words, it was more than enough for flattery.

Zhao Ruizhi became happy when he heard what He Li said. He roared with laughter. "Indeed, indeed! The astrological signs these characters describe are most likely talking about the present! Ha ha ha..."

He Li, who was still up on the ceiling, smiled as well. But inside, he was cold and ruthless. Even though the celestial pattern has been confirmed, it’s hard to say who’s going to receive this opportunity! After all, many of us came into this dungeon together...

Zhao Ruizhi became excited. "Since we’ve already explored all of the secrets of this place, we’re moving on!" They left the ancient city’s remains afterward, returning to the desert. He wondered what Sharky and Catherine were doing right now. Hmph, they were probably done in by those vengeful spirits or traps. They should be grateful that they were able to die so painlessly.

———

Meanwhile, Sharky was searching for the Watchhard DNA. Since he has already recognised everything here, he was searching for the Watchhard DNA.

Catherine didn’t understand what he was searching for, since he didn’t tell her.

He suddenly took Catherine into the air, breaking open a hole in the roof and flying out. Horrifying sounds of ghostly weeping surrounded them again.

"Why are we outside?" After breathing in the fresh air and hearing Sharky’s ferocious roar, Catherine trembled. A bit of confusion appeared in her eyes.

"I was searching for something," He replied, but didn’t explain to her.

Suddenly, the ghostly whimpering became louder and louder. They could even vaguely make out human voices.

"Dead... They’re all dead... Too cruel, cruel, cruel, cruel..." The voice was rough and crude, as if it had been many years since it had last spoken to anyone. Its pronunciation was also a bit strange. If not for Sharky’s quick reactions, he wouldn’t have been able to understand it at all.

When the voice spoke, the weeds on the ground grew even taller. They had only been as tall as a person before, and yet they reached the top of the temple in just a few moments. They reached toward Sharky and Catherine like countless tentacles.

"What the hell?" Sharky kicked outward, quickly bringing Catherine aside to evade the round of crazily growing weeds. But there were weeds everywhere, and the weeds were still growing. The two of them had nowhere to escape to at all.

Catherine drew her sword and slashed at the weeds as well. A sword fit for a crown princess was naturally exceptionally sharp, quickly chopping through the many weeds. However, it didn’t stop their growth at all. They were growing way too fast, so fast that they were outpacing the rate at which they were being cut!

Catherine’s attacks became slower and slower as she faced the endless weeds. Eventually, two weeds from one side wrapped around her wrist. She slowed down further, and during that delay, her other arm and both legs were bound by more weeds.

"Release her," Sharky shouted, and using the Immortal Phoenix powers, he created a blade of flame. Then using a Flame Blade, he slashed outward, severing the weeds that wrapped around Catherine. The flames continued to eat the weeds, instantly burning away all of the weeds tangled around her body.

These weeds weren’t actually living things and shouldn’t have feared flames, but his flames had been created with the Fire Phoenix’ powers. How could they possibly withstand the power of pure phoenix flames?

Miserable screams filled the air, as if the weeds were in scorching pain. Their crazy growth paused for a moment, then they quickly withdrew into the ground.

Catherine dropped from above. Sharky kicked off the ground and flew over to catch her. "Are you okay?"

"I’m... okay." Catherine nodded.

Sharky had already turned around to look in a different direction. "I’ll deal with those monsters that bullied you in revenge!"

A giant flame blade appeared in his palm and cleaved outward as he finished speaking. He had already noticed that the weeds were shrinking back in a single direction. With a loud explosion, the massive flame blade blasted open a huge groove in the ground! A dark figure leaped out from underneath, patting away the embers on its body.

"An elf? A dryad?" Sharky exclaimed, shocked. He saw that the creature resembled a human.

It was hard to call it a humanoid creature. Its entire body was covered in green fur, and he could only barely make out a torso and four limbs.

"Huff huff huff..." After it put out the flames on its body, it gave Sharky a look of resentment.

But Sharky feels that the creature has some relation with him.

"Hoppervine?" Sharky muttered. And just as he muttered it, the tree, which resembles the humanoid creature, started melting and going inside the body of Sharky.

"Sharky, are you ok?" Catherine asked with confusion, she didn’t understand what happened.

"Yes, I am ok," Sharky nodded, but he didn’t tell her. He was feeling more comfortable than ever, like, his powers had appeared inside him back again.

Right at that moment, rumbling sounds of collapse suddenly came from the temple. They quickly went inside to take a look and saw that many of the sculptures had been knocked over, and the master position where the biggest statue should have been now had a huge hole in its place. The statue had fallen straight through.

Suddenly, Catherine cried out in alarm. "There’s a stele over here!"

Sharky turned around. Sure enough, they saw a stone stele in the corner. Some written characters could vaguely be made out on its surface.

Sharky also walked over to the stele, but many of the characters were impossible to read. He could only make out a single line: "...left, Azure Dragon First Monarch, right, White Tiger War General, up, Vermilion Bird Light of Tombs, down, Black Tortoise Holder of Wisdom, the noble lunar moon at the center..."

"Huh? What does this mean?" Catherine asked, she didn’t understand anything.