novelraw Chapter 286 : Just One Piece Left
Chapter 286 : Just One Piece Left
"I've discovered it! The monster's weakness is its mouth. Concentrate your sword intent to attack the mouth!"
The cold voice of the Primordial Soul-Chaser quickly resonated in her mind. Chu Sang's form moved, nimbly evading the all-encompassing attacks of the tentacles, charging alone towards the monster's gaping maw.
Simultaneously, Hong Niang released thousands of spider silk strands, entangling the wildly flailing tentacles in the air. Unfortunately, the difference in strength between the two was too great; Hong Niang's spider silk could only halt the tentacles in the air for a breath.
Chu Sang had to seize this brief moment to use her sword formation to slay it.
She could only succeed; failure was not an option.
She used her divine sense to conjure dozens of phantom bodies, creating a diversion. Her true body skillfully dodged the tentacles' attacks, forcefully thrusting her sword deep into the monster's bloody maw.
With a shrill, piercing cry, the monster's body disintegrated. The Pagoda Spirit shouted loudly, "Now's your chance! Run quickly! With your strength, you can't completely kill it. It will revive soon. Run!!!"
Chu Sang didn't think twice. She grabbed a handful of speed talismans and pasted them on her body, seizing the opportunity to run up along the passage. Sure enough, after just five breaths, the monster's damaged body reassembled into a whole. Dozens of tentacles leaped upward at a terrifying speed, almost managing to drag her down from mid-air!
Chu Sang held her breath tensely. At the moment a tentacle was about to touch her body, she took a large stride with one foot into the pagoda top. Then, her entire body tumbled heavily inside.
There was an impenetrable barrier between each floor. The tentacles were scorched by the barrier's power between the ninth and eighth floors. They violently retracted, and upon discovering they couldn't break through the barrier, all dozens of tentacles in the air withdrew, disappearing into the rolling magma without leaving a trace.
"Whew......"
Chu Sang half-collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. She wiped the sweat from her face with her hand. It took a long while before her body regained sensation and the ability to move.
She had escaped with her life, a false alarm.
She had finally reached the top of the pagoda.
She turned her head, supporting herself against the wall to stand up, patting her clothes. After carefully examining the scenery of the ninth floor and ensuring there were no safety hazards or lurking demon beasts, Chu Sang let out a big sigh of relief. She grabbed the nearby Pagoda Spirit and gave it a thorough shake, saying through gritted teeth, "Quick, tell me, where's the exit?"
"Woo woo, I only know there's an exit at the top of the pagoda, but I'm not sure where exactly the exit is," it said somewhat guiltily, weakly continuing, "The location of the exit is a secret passage set up in advance by the tool refiner when crafting the pagoda, to deal with special situations. There's a concealing spell hiding it, and I gained sentience as a spirit body long, long after that, so I'm not very clear about the exact location of the secret passage... But the space at the top of the pagoda isn't very large. You can look around; maybe you'll make an unexpected discovery!"
"Heh, coming here with you, nine lives wouldn't be enough to squander."
"Ahem, the process was arduous and dangerous, but it wasn't entirely without benefits. Hasn't your strength increased quite a bit?" Although it was a matter of life and death, forced to grow prematurely for the sake of survival, at least her strength had increased, right? In the outside world, after reaching the Divine Transformation stage, wanting to break through again would take at least decades or centuries. How could it be so easy for her to break through?
The Pagoda Spirit asserted confidently.
"Oh right, there's more good news to tell you... well, although I'm not sure if this news is good from your perspective, I should inform you anyway." It changed the subject, continuing, "After you passed through each level of the Demon-Locking Pagoda, the pagoda automatically left your divine sense mark. In the future, you can freely enter any level of the pagoda without having to break through level by level again."
"You think I'd come back to this wretched place?"
Chu Sang asked a soul-searching question. What relevance did this good news have for her?
The little Pagoda Spirit was habitually silenced by her, scratching its head in distress. Oh right, anyone with a normal brain definitely wouldn't come back.
The area of the ninth floor at the top of the pagoda was nearly half the size of the other floors. Due to not imprisoning all sorts of demon beasts, it still maintained its most primitive arrangement. There wasn't much clutter around, making it easy for her to search one by one.
Chu Sang thought for a moment and decided to release Xiao Bai. For tasks like finding things, of course, it should be left to a professional demon beast!
Xiao Bai was extremely sensitive to energy fluctuations within spaces. Soon, it discovered a place where the energy fluctuations were different from everywhere else, quite intense.
"Mama, here!"
After Chu Sang followed over, she found that the wall here was indeed unusual. She stepped forward and wiped away the dust on the wall surface.
Beneath the dust, rows of runes gradually appeared.
Deciphering runes wasn't much of a challenge for Chu Sang, but these runes differed from those she usually practiced, and she hadn't seen similar ones in the book collection tower. She needed to reanalyze them based on her existing knowledge of runes.
This meditation lasted nearly a month. After several failures, she finally succeeded in opening the restriction.
A secret passage appeared before her, not very long. After walking for a while, a central altar appeared with a box on top.
She first tentatively asked the Pagoda Spirit, then opened the box with a skeptical mind. Fortunately, nothing strange jumped out of the box. There were only two items: a broken scroll and an antique-looking lamp.
The lamp didn't look particularly special, and its significance wasn't immediately apparent. But appearing here, it was certainly no ordinary object. Chu Sang thought for a moment and put it into her Qiankun bag.
Then, her gaze fell on the fragment of the scroll map, her expression becoming slightly grave.
She was quite familiar with this piece of scroll fragment.
She took out three almost identical scroll fragments from her space, which could be pieced together perfectly.
These were all obtained by chance from secret realms or other places. She now had four pieces, and when combined, only the lower right corner was missing.
It seemed that with just the last scroll fragment, the entire scroll map could be restored.
...What exactly was this thing?
Chu Sang frowned slightly. It seemed as if some force was guiding her in the midst of fate. She had inadvertently collected this scroll, unknowingly gathering four pieces, with only the last piece needed to complete the entire scroll map.
It seemed that to solve the mystery of this scroll map, she would have to wait for the last fragment to appear.
Outside the pagoda, the traces of the soul explosion had long disappeared, along with the vengeful ghosts within the Ghost Gate being scattered to oblivion.
She flew out of the pagoda, searching for half a day but unable to find the exit of the Ghost Gate. She strongly suspected that the Ghost Gate outside had been closed.
Once the Ghost Gate was closed, it couldn't be opened except in special circumstances.
She had Buddha's light protecting her body, but it had a time limit and couldn't protect her indefinitely without a cooldown.
Just as Chu Sang was pondering how to pry open the Ghost Gate, it unexpectedly opened on its own.
"Quick, go!"
Facing her was Second Senior Brother with a solemn expression. Something seemed to have happened outside. Seeing her still alive and well, he let out a big sigh of relief. Without time to say more, he hurriedly pulled Chu Sang out of the Ghost Gate, then used a key-shaped ghost tool to close the Ghost Gate.