Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 420: The Labyrinth.

As Ozul was distracted by the confinement of his senses, Raven began to look around the platform suspended in the air.

Straight ahead, she noticed straight stairs that led down to what seemed to look like an island.

Before she stepped closer, however, the air around their platform swirled and harsh winds howled, momentarily making them cover their eyes.

But the winds stopped just as fast as they appeared and before them appeared an old man wearing only a black piece of clothing that covered his bottom half. His bare chest was covered with a few horrendous scars, but the old man didn’t bother to hide them.

"Welcome, children."

The old man spoke with a jovial smile as he spread both of his arms in the air.

"You’re not real either," Ozul suddenly muttered, catching the attention of everyone once again.

Squinting as hard as he could, Ozul scrutinized the old man from top to bottom but couldn’t make out how such a construct was possible.

To prove his point, he commanded a small blob of the Purity to hit the old man, but it passed right through him. The old man before them was somehow made entirely of Spiritual Essence!

"I must admit, this generation has lost some manners," the old man muttered in displeasure. "Have you probed enough? Should I introduce myself now or wait for you?"

Zier raised his eyebrows at the sassy remarks of the old man. He was arguing like an offended 5-year-old.

Sighing quietly, Ozul politely apologized, "Forgive me. You can introduce yourself, I won’t interrupt." His expressions remained stoic which prompted the old man to think that he wasn’t being sincere enough.

"Hmph! You better show me respect or I’ll throw you brats out of this Realm in an instant," the old man grunted before gathering his bearings.

Suddenly, he spread his arms in the air again and as if he had memorized a script, welcomed them again,

"Welcome, children." Again, a smile was now plastered on his face as if the earlier inconvenience had never occurred.

"I am The Bloody Sage of Illusions or to be more precise, I’m a specter of his will and the sole guardian of this Realm!"

He paused, expecting some exaggerated reaction from the four ’kids’ in front of him, but they continued to stare at him impatiently.

The old man coughed with one hand folded behind his back and continued, "From your reactions, it is evident that you don’t recognize my title. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised as I didn’t set up the gates in the central region of the continent."

"Anyway, I can’t waste your time any longer as I have to guide close to a hundred more kids. So I will keep this short and precise." He was referring to all the other people who also entered the gates and were in various other locations of this Realm.

"Behind me," the old man pointed at the few floating islands in the distance, one of which was connected by the stairs to their platform, "The original soul of mine left his whole legacy in this Realm and you all have the opportunity to receive a part of it."

"Only a part of it?" Raven questioned. Traditionally, she had only read about such legacies being handed over to a single lucky individual.

Nodding his head while keenly observing Raven, the old man replied, "During my life, I had amassed a lot of treasure. It is enough to even reward everyone without any trials, but I will decide based on your performance whether you are deserving of anything or not."

"All that aside, I will personally pass on the original legacy of The Bloody Sage of Illusions to the best among you all."

Before Ozul could ask what the trials were and how many people were participating, the old man continued speaking,

"Go down these stairs and you will come across your first trial: the ever-changing labyrinth. I will say no more and will see you around if you manage to get past it."

With those words stranded in the air, the old man disappeared from the platform as quickly as he had appeared. Ozul felt the disturbance in the Spiritual Essence before he spread his senses again to cover the entire area.

’There’s no use,’ he shook his head before focusing on the first island connected to their platform.

"Should we go?" Raven asked, seemingly eager to get into this labyrinth.

There was no point in staying on the platform. Even when he was just a specter of the original sage’s will, Ozul was somehow able to still feel his emotions. He didn’t know how it worked, but one thing was clear: the old man was hiding something. But since the old man apparently had the power to kick them out of the Realm on his whims, he didn’t want to go against his wishes for now.

He took the lead and just when everyone was on the stairs, the small platform they stood on before disappeared as well.

As they climbed down, the stairs behind them also began to vanish into thin air.

Blaze was weirded out by the whole thing.

"Is there a need for all this?" Someone with the title of The Bloody Sage of Illusions sure was desperate to appear mysterious in front of complete strangers.

Ozul didn’t comment but he had the same line of thinking.

The trio walked with more confidence than ever before. After unshackling their souls and attaining soul manifestation, they even thought they could deal with an Origin cultivator with their combined strengths. Though Ozul begged to differ; they clearly hadn’t felt how hard an Origin cultivator hit yet.

On the floating island, there was only a giant castle that spanned over the whole place, barely leaving any space for someone to walk on the sides. At least, that’s how it appeared to them.

Standing in front of the gate whose entrance had a veil of purplish hue that blocked their vision.

"I doubt we will be challenged in a group. It’s a labyrinth, in case we are separated, just focus on doing your best. Don’t do anything unnecessary," Ozul warned them, hinting at their main task to get the Mind’s Eye.

There were erratic waves of Spiritual Essence all over this Realm, so he couldn’t be sure if that old man might be listening at all times. Hence, he didn’t say it openly.

The trio nodded their heads as they one by one stepped into the castle’s giant gate.

The first thing that Ozul noticed when he entered was the disappearance of the trio. At the same time, he was transported to a different location. With his senses, he could tell he wasn’t on the same island now.

Now he stood surrounded by moss-covered concrete walls with barely any light to see for a meter. To his sides and back were walls and the only path was ahead.

"He said it’s a labyrinth... There should be monsters?" He muttered confusedly as he couldn’t sense any life around him.

A labyrinth was different from a maze. A maze had many branching paths connecting to the exit, but a labyrinth only had a single path that would eventually lead you to the exit. The difficult part was the traps and monsters on the path.

He calmly walked ahead when suddenly there was a junction. He could either go left or right.

"Could the old man be confused himself?" Ozul muttered in annoyance. Since there was a choice to either go left or right, it seemed to be a maze instead.

Just as he was about to choose the left side, he remembered the exact words that the old man had used: the ever-changing labyrinth.

"Alright... let’s wait then."

Using the Purity to create a leaning chair, he sat down and rested his head under his arms.

Sure enough, soon the walls of the labyrinth shook as if there was an earthquake.

*ZZZ*

Right in front of him, a wall suddenly emerged from the ground and slowly covered the left pathway!

’Huh?’ Ozul squinted his eyes at this occurrence since he knew for a fact that the path to the right was still blocked ahead after moving in a few circles.

But it didn’t take a genius to understand what was happening as a few moments later, the walls rumbled again.

*ZZZ*

And the wall that blocked the left side slowly receded into the ground again.

"That’s going to be annoying for everyone," he muttered before shrugging his shoulders. With his inhumane senses which let him cover a large radius and sense everything within, this labyrinth wasn’t much different than taking a walk.

And so he started his leisure stroll through the place while others like him suffered from various traps whenever they chose the wrong direction and got stuck.

Whenever there was a junction, he just needed to spread his senses in both directions to know which one wasn’t blocked.

In just about half an hour, he was already at the exit as bright light shone from the opposite end of the murky corridor.

As he stepped outside before his eyes could adjust to the light, he felt the disturbance in the Spiritual Essence and there appeared the old man like a ghost,

"That sure was a surprise. Especially coming from a rude brat like you," he spoke while stroking his beard.

"I never thought someone would come out this early..." the old man’s eyes shone as he eyed Ozul, "Are your eyes special, boy?"

"Does it matter?" Ozul replied, not wanting to give the old man any hints.

"Hmph! I forgot you never learned manners."

Since he didn’t divulge anything, the old man continued, "The next trial will be simple. You will just have to kill a beast."

Looking at Ozul who was squinting at him, he relented and revealed,

"It’s the trial of strength. You will not be able to wield the Spiritual Essence in the fight."

’Oh well...’ Ozul was delighted at the thought. He never needed the Spiritual Essence anyway.

Looking at the boy who had gone quiet, the old man shook his head and asked, "If you wish to not participate, tell me now. I will see you out of this Realm with an appropriate reward. But heed this, the more you progress, the better rewards you will receive."

"How many trails are there?" Ozul knew that most of the participants should still be stuck inside the labyrinth, so the old man probably had time to answer his questions.

"Two more if you somehow survive." The old man grunted; he didn’t have much hope for the boy as his lean build painted a bleak picture of his physical strength.

’It shouldn’t take much time then...’ Ozul mused before turning to the old man,

"Alright, take me to the beast."