Death… And Me

Chapter 3573: Sounds Like a Plan

”Ahem...” Rean caught her attention. ”So... what you have been looking for was your master?”

Elsie took a deep breath, nodded at him. ”Sorry for not telling you before. Everyone enters the Celestial Supreme Palace in search of treasures or a way to break through into the Celestial Realm. I was afraid that if I had told you the truth, you would have just left me behind, and I knew I would be safer with you guys, especially after seeing your power in this place. That’s why I have my medallion and a little bit of extra inside knowledge, which were given to me by my master.”

Roan couldn’t detect a lie there. ”So be it. With you and your master down there, perhaps we will gain more than we lost by dragging you along. But we will want a better explanation later.”

Elsie faintly smiled and turned back to the deep hole. ”Master, what’s your condition? Should we go down and try to pull you back up?”

”No! Don’t do that! You will get yourself trapped, just like me! Also, down here is extremely dangerous. There is a type of gas fuelled by laws that pretty much no barrier can block. I can’t drive it away either,” her master explained.

”Hey, you down there,” Roan spoke.

”Uh?” The man got puzzled. ”Elsie, is someone up there with you?”

”Yes, Master,” Elsie confirmed. ”Don’t worry, you can trust them. Just answer their questions.”

Roan continued. ”Give us an explanation of the environment down there, and why exactly haven’t you climbed back up. I’m guessing you are also in the Divinity Realm, so I don’t see why you haven’t tried to make your way back up.”

The Spirit went silent for a moment and finally started to explain. It wasn’t like it had a better choice anyway. ”The surroundings are just like I said, filled with a gas. It doesn’t matter what you do; this gas can’t be pushed away. I can feel laws in them, and it’s a Major Law.”

”You were right. I’m at the Diviniy Realm, Peak Stage, to be more precise. I did try to climb back up, but there is a barrier that only allows one to enter it. It doesn’t let you come out. In fact, it is even worse now. I’m guessing the palace has just opened, right?”

”Yes,” Roan and the others confirmed.

”So that’s how it is. My cultivation got suppressed around ten years ago, which is obviously one of the limitations of the Palace that changes every time it opens. I already wasn’t able to leave this place with full access to my cultivation back when I fell into it.”

”So that’s what it is right now,” the Spirit finished. ”I’m trapped, with some kind of poisonous gas all around me, which has been here for the last hundred thousand years and something. If I move as much as a centimeter, my protection will come down, and then I’m done for. Believe me, I’ve seen what happened with the other guys who fell down this hole with me.”

”Did the poisonous gas appear straight away, or did it appear only after the palace closed?” Roan asked again.

”After,” the Spirit answered. ”At first, we were twelve, and the palace stayed open for ten years. For ten years, we couldn’t go anywhere, and trust me when I say we definitely tried. I believe this gas is here to make sure anyone trapped in this hole dies after the palace closes, since there is never any survivor between those who stay behind in the Celestial Supreme Palace once it closes.”

”How did you survive?” Rean was more curious about that.

Elsie answered that. ”I know. Master, did you use the Rock Shell?”

”Aren’t you a smart one?” The Spirit answered with a question.

Looking at Elsie, she explained. ”Our Zuhure Race has a special ability I haven’t told you before. It’s the Rock Shell Manifestation. Simply put, it is an ultimate defensive innate ability that completely closes us out of the outside world, creating a layer of Earth Laws around our core. Only at the Space-Time Realm or above can we use it. As you can imagine, it has many limitations.”

”First, when we use it, we must stay completely still, or the Rock Shell disappears. Second, we can’t do almost anything about the outside world, which means anyone could simply pick us up and bring us home if they felt like it. Third, our Core will become very fragile for the next twenty years once the Rock Shell Manifestation is released, and that has a direct impact in our strength, which drastically falls during this recovery time.”

”All we can do during the time we have the Rock Shell active is manipulate a tiny bit of Divine Energy, and even that is risky since the Rock Shell truly makes it hard to interact with the outside world. That’s the only reason my master was even able to answer my voice.”

Roan narrowed his eyes. They can’t fly, they can’t see the bottom of this trench with their Divine Senses, and the twins’ Divine Senses go all the way down to twelve kilometers, so it is even deeper. The Spirit Elsie wishes to save is down there, but they don’t have a way to go down.

”Wait, I have a question,” Celis said, taking the front. ”The gas appeared to make sure you would die since the palace can’t have survivors. Now, the palace is open again, and this place is open once again as well. Shouldn’t the poisonous gas have disappeared since new adventurers were coming through?”

”Your question makes sense,” the Spirit answered. ”But I can guarantee it is still around, so don’t try your luck. I might be enclosed in my Rock Shell Manifestation, but I can definitely feel the Major Laws of this gas all around me.”

Rifindio guessed something. ”Perhaps because this senior down there was from the previous batch, the Palace is still trying to kill him. That’s why the poisonous gas is still active after the Palace opened.”

Everyone nodded. Rifindio’s words made a lot of sense. Of course, perhaps this trap was made in a way that the gas would never disappear, regardless of whether someone was alive down there or not.

Elsie looked at the conflicted expressions on the twins’ group’s faces. They obviously didn’t see a way to go down there and help her master. ”I said it before, we can separate at any point, and I believe this point is now. Just go ahead and do what you have to do. I’ll stay here and think about a way to rescue my master. That’s the only reason for me to be here, so I’m not leaving.”

Roan nodded. ”Sounds like a plan.”