Han Xuhan felt apoplectic upon witnessing the flow of events that had led his minions to jump into an abyssal pit in an unknown world full of terrifying creatures chasing them.
His anger was mostly directed toward the minions, of course. How retarded did one have to be to even conceive that there might be a safe environment down where they were headed?
But he couldn't exactly blame them for the decision either. After all, the other three directions were blocked by now with walls of fire. Had they noticed the approaching danger sooner instead of exploring mindlessly in the ruins, they could've found a better way to escape, perhaps.
Bygones are bygones. Han Xuhan shook those thoughts from his head and focused on their present circumstance.
The floor Zhanxian stood on was metallic, seemingly purposely designed with a rough texture and countless sharp protrusions that could probably tear off human skin. Han Xuhan could not tell its purpose, but it would be a good fit for one of those magic shows where the magician lies on a bed of nails.
Zhanxian's bony feet had some trouble balancing on top of the protrusions, slowing down his speed to almost zero. Tun Shi Tian, flying dozens of feet overhead, did not suffer from any such issue.
The pit they had dropped into contained a remarkably vast canyon-like structure inside, they had found out soon enough despite the lack of light in here. The walls of the canyon were at least a hundred feet high. But that was not a problem for Tun Shi Tian either, who had flown up above the walls, scouted ahead, and discovered a way out of the maze.
Han Xuhan felt proud seeing how useful his foresight was turning out to be. Choosing an owl as his second minion had been an excellent move. Even where Zhanxian was blinded, stranded, and slowed down, they were still proceeding on the right track, never completely defeated.
With Tun Shi Tian guiding the way, Zhanxian stumbled his way forward, passing each fork, twist and turn inside the canyon without any hesitation. Soon enough, Han Xuhan could feel the surroundings becoming brighter. Sight adjusting to the low light, he took in the details around him properly for the first time.
The walls were not bare, rather, endless slashes crisscrossed across their surface. Zhanxian touched a wall for support as he stumbled again for the umpteenth time, which gave Han Xuhan an opportunity to closely examine the gashes nearby.
The gashes were not smooth and had no patterns to them, so far as he could perceive, which ruled out the possibility that these were a part of the eccentric design of the structures here as well...but that was not enough to stop Han Xuhan from feeling a wave of deja vu.
This sight reminded him strongly of the Holy Land of Laws where he had to pass through an obstacle course just like this. In the end, he had realized that the obstacles were not only meant to keep people out, but also to detain someone inside.
Could this be something similar...?
Oh no no no no.....
But he could not warn the minions, not inside a memory. Back then, Zhanxian had accompanied him for a while inside the Land of Laws. But the stupid minion didn't seem to notice the uncanny resemblance and trudged forward bravely.
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"Just past the bend ahead!" Tun Shi Tian announced loudly from above, swooping forward toward the source of the light illuminating their surroundings.
Han Xuhan could only wait in trepidation as Zhanxian hurriedly followed the owl.
Right as the skeleton was about to step into the rays of light coming from the other side of the curved wall, it hesitated. Han Xuhan could feel Zhanxian's body suddenly turning rigid. And then, Zhanxian's teeth started clattering, limbs began to quiver, steps faltered.
"This seems a bit familiar..." the skeleton muttered, washing Han Xuhan's heart with relief.
"Uhh, big bro Xian? Oi, Zhanxian!" Tun Shi Tian's voice suddenly shook the skeleton. The owl flew back and landed in front of him, appearing completely normal.
"What's wrong? Why did you stop?"
"Are you sure there's a way out and it's ahead?" Zhanxian whispered.
"Yeah! Right there, you'll see it as soon as you walk out of that dark corner! Come on!" The owl emphasized.
Don't trust him! Don't trust him! Don't do it!
Han Xuhan internally yelled. Unfortunately, the yells did not reach Zhanxian, who followed Tun Shi Tian past the wall after a brief moment of contemplation.
Whoa!
"Wow!"
"Told ya!"
Han Xuhan was as dumbstruck as Zhanxian, staring at what lay in front of them.
A huge cavern illuminated by thousands of burning lotus flowers drifting in the air greeted their sight. The flowers didn't wither, for some reason, continuously radiating light like moving airborne lamps.
With a diameter exceeding half a kilometer, Han Xuhan could still make out the cuts and slashes on the wall on the other side of the cavern. However, his vision overhead didn't reach very high. Let alone seeing the smokey sky, here he couldn't even see how high the walls reached. A mass of darkness barred the way above not too far away.
These, however, were secondary details. The main attraction in the cavern was the enormous signboard at the center, standing on top of an enormous stone column, sporting letters written in English. It said-
"Want to leave? This way!"
Zhanxian read it aloud, his voice tinged with disbelief.
"Tun Shi Tian...I...you..."
The skeleton was lost for words, and rightly so. Even Han Xuhan didn't quite know how to react to this 'wonderful' discovery.
"Oh, no need to thank me! I'm just doing my job, brother!" Tun Shi Tian said, his tone not appearing as modest as his words suggested. The owl rubbed its bony wings together and flew forward, unsuspecting of any potential threat here.
Zhanxian's jaw opened up to yell something, but the skeleton decided otherwise and watched the owl's actions cautiously.
It took Tun Shi Tian nearly a minute to reach the signboard. The owl circled around it, examining the surroundings before landing on a corner of the board.
Han Xuhan watched with rapt attention as it bent forward, eyes glued to the ground on which the stone column stood. It seemed to have found something interesting there.
"Oi, Zhanxian! Looks like we've found something interesting. This shouldn't be a coincidence! Come over and see this!"
Zhanxian hesitated for a moment before hobbling over.
On the way, Han Xuhan desperately took in every detail of the surroundings. The ground still sported the design they'd seen inside the canyon-- narrow, sharp, tiny units of metallic mosaics that made it hard to walk on. However, now that he had enough light to examine the design properly, he realized soon that the mosaics weren't randomly placed. It was just that the patterns created by the mosaics were too large to be detected unless one observed from an open space like this.
Although much more colorful, the patterns these mosaics formed bore some similarities to the language of laws in terms of appearance. From different angles, the patterns looked different, often even giving the impression that the patterns were the ones moving and Zhanxian was standing still.
The more he observed, the more he felt the 'life' inside these patterns. At some point, he lost track of his current body, too deeply engrossed in the movement of this colorful world of shifting, rotating, growing, shrinking, many-faced patterns. It was Tun Shi Tian's loud screech that brought his consciousness back to clarity.
"Stop there! Look at the ground in front of you!"
With a mental shudder, Han Xuhan felt his consciousness being released from a strange influence, his thoughts suddenly clear and free from the obsessive attraction towards the patterns.
Looking ahead, he realized that Zhanxian had already reached the center of the cavern, just a few yards away from the enormous signboard where Tun Shi Tian was sitting.
He had crossed nearly half a kilometer without being conscious of it! Zhanxian's speed of walking was very slow here due to the disturbing design of the ground.
How long had it been? Ten minutes? Twenty?
Perhaps more!
The phenomenon induced nothing but terror in his heart now that he could think clearly. Even inside a memory, his consciousness had been affected like that!
What would happen if his real body was here?!
And why didn't these constructs affect his minions?
There was no time to pursue the answers to these questions, because Zhanxian's discovery was right before his eyes as well. Tun Shi Tian hooted from above.
"Hoh! You're in luck! You get to go first, big brother!"