The Devil’s Cage

”What’s that?!”

Just as Oaker’s cry of surprise sounded, it was suppressed by a long neigh that could shake the heavens.

A gigantic figure leaped up from the lake on the left side and dived back into the right.

That wide and long figure leaped across the shuttle cart and it struck Kieran with the feeling of the sky was being enveloped.

A tenacious presence seemingly came from that gigantic figure, it even made Kieran feel tiny at times.

He was like a single grain of sand on the beach, being baffled by the raging tide.

The raging tide rose up to the sky, crashing before him like a myriad of soldiers and horses, crushing him with enormous power like pulling off a twig from a dead stump.

HMPH!

Kieran grunted coldly.

Even without a glance, he could tell that the system was spamming him with Fear notifications. If it was one of the enemy’s methods of attacking, it was the most useless against him.

The Fear effect that could disrupt one’s mental state ranked high on top, yet Kieran already has SSS+ Spirit attribute. He had an exceptional resistance beyond a common man’s imagination against any Spirit related negative effect.

Kieran was off the Fear effect within an instant. The metaphoric raging tide before him has turned into nothing.

That figure appeared once more out of the waters before this eyes.

Although from Kieran’s perspective, that figure was still gigantic enough to envelop the sky, it lacked the initial Fear effect and the terrorizing, breathtaking feel.

Kieran knew very well what was he at the estate for: to calmly evaluated the fiend before his eyes.

He even started to paint pictures of him confronting the fiend in his mind and quickly formed up countermeasures to deal with the fiend.

The chief security, however, saw how Kieran reacted to the scene through the back mirror.

Obviously, the chief security knew nothing about what was crossing Kieran’s mind but judging from how Kieran reacted to the scene as if it was nothing, it made the chief panicked beyond his mind.

Being the one who drove countless visitors to his employers, none of the other visitors could do what Kieran just did. He was the one and only who reacted to the monstrous figure as if it was nothing.

Even the other famous big figures would suffer some minor delays or be frozen for a while.

Though most of the lesser known figures or those who fish for fame and credit had gotten scared beyond reason, pissing and sh*ting their pants.

”What a person…”

The chief security glanced over the inspector who was still in shock. Doubts started to fill his heart but he didn’t act further.

His task was to deliver the two people behind him to the designated location.

As for the rest, there will be others who will take care of it.

Besides, the chief security was confident that neither Kieran or Oaker could cause any ruckus within Artitelgar estate, let alone bringing up a storm.

He didn’t feel contempt for the visitors but it was just a confident thought from his longtime experience working there.

Kieran too caught the gaze from the chief security. He tapped on Oaker’s shoulder lightly, bringing him back to his senses. Kieran then closed his eyes for a catnap.

He was not afraid of any battle that lied ahead as he was born prepared.

BANG!

That wide, long figure finally went back into the lake on the right side. The moment it jumped back into the waters felt like a ton of explosives went off together, bursting out splashes of water in all directions.

The water splashes poured down on the right side of the shuttle cart, making it look like it was raining outside.

Yet it didn’t stop the shuttle cart from moving forward, in fact, the shuttle cart accelerated even faster from a certain aspect.

Vrrroooooom!

The shuttle cart dashed through the faint water mist and reached the other end of the bridge without knowing.

The chief of security drove off the bridge and went along the wiggling route, turning left and right.

Right after the many turns, two huge red pillars stood tall before them and on top of the pillars was a green tiled roof, golden brick structure.

The structure looked like a paifang but without the name plate. All it had was the delicately carved patterns on the pillars and arches.

Layer after layer of carving patterns were all over the structure, similar to a dougong bracket interlocking point where the pillar and arch beam intertwined.

Through the gaps and seams, a couple of white sparrows stuck their heads out at Kieran and Oaker who got off the cart.

”Please follow me!”

A man wearing a robe with the lapel tucked from the left to the right and hair tied up into a bun walked out from behind the pillars.

He didn’t even look at the chief or the inspector and talked to Kieran straight away.

Kieran signaled the inspector to hold on and followed the specially dressed man up the stairs.

Looking at the man’s back, a familiar feeling struck Kieran.

The stairs before him were divided into nine sections, each section contained 108 flight of stairs and each stair was 33 millimeters tall. It was made entirely out of bricks and some pictures were carved on them, even Kieran couldn’t tell what they were.

He tilted his head down, staring at the carvings. He felt like he had seen this before somewhere but his memories were blurred out.

”Where did I see this before?” Kieran thought.

However, the man in front spoke, ”Follow where I step, please don’t get on the wrong path.”

Just as his words subsided, the man’s average walking speed has hastened up into a nimble, agile dash. A quick leap from him would bring him up a dozen flights of stairs, another dozen more with another forward jump. The man was like an ape shuttling through the jungles.

Kieran?

He wasn’t sure whether the man did this on purpose to make things difficult for him or whether there would really be any traps. So he approached it in a more direct way.

The feather embedded ring on his finger shone, lifting Kieran’s feet slightly off the ground and allowed him to float in mid-air.

He wasn’t high up in the sky by any means, only around half a meter above ground but it was enough for Kieran to treat the stairs like flat ground.

[Floating Ring]!

The guide in front seemingly noticed Kieran had floated, his agile leaping body couldn’t help but suffer a slowdown. However, he returned to normal soon but he didn’t leap forward with the energetic manner from before.

5 minutes later, before [Floating Ring]’s effect wore off, Kieran reached the end of the stairs which was the main building group of the Artitelgar estate or in a more appropriate manner…

A palace!

Red bricks green tiles, carved beams and painted pillars, the brilliant radiance shone all over the place in a ceaseless way.

Kieran was standing on his spot that would only allow him to see the tip of the palace but he already could imagine how majestic the building groups would be.

”A palace of this caliber…” Kieran speculated in his heart.

Even though he did read through a lot of books last night, he never understood the history of the current dungeon world. However, an eastern style structure, more precisely a palace appearing within a modernized city, Kieran couldn’t help but wonder.

At the same time, his curiosity in his heart was at an all-time high.

”Please follow me.”

Another guide with the similar dressing appeared but compared to the previous guide, the new guide had some brilliant silver linings near his front garment.

”Ranks?” Kieran thought in his heart but his steps weren’t slowed down.

He followed behind the new guide through many long corridors and finally stopped before a courtyard.

The guide didn’t utter anything other than posing a please gesture, signaling Kieran to move forward.

Kieran stepped in.

The courtyard was like a garden of sorts, with brilliant green grass parterre and an artificial fountain of a mountain, plus even a waterside pavilion.

A man who looked slim from his back was standing inside the pavilion with his hands cross at his back.

When he heard Kieran’s steps approaching, he didn’t turn around but instead he opened his mouth and said, ”You want to know what happened?”

Kieran raised a brow.

Just when he wanted to say something, the land suddenly tremble.

Earthquake!

Plus, the terrifying presence of the beast appeared once again!

TL Note

Paifang: Traditional style of Chinese architecture or a gateway structure.

Dougong bracket: A unique structural element of interlocking wooden brackets of traditional Chinese architecture.