Blue-green water, from the east. Fiery red water, from the south. Raging whitewater, from the west. Inky black water, from the north. All 4 became 1 at the center of Ocean 2, where a gargantuan pillar of black metal stood, rooted to the ground. This was the tomb of the Dragon King, the ancestor of the Watersnakes, and the Spiritseed of the 4-in-1 Mathematical Spirit!
To destroy a Sector, it must be destroyed down to its very roots! Otherwise, a Sector’s top experts, dead or alive, would assist it into perpetuity as long as the tombs stood!
The Watersnakes had controlled all of Ocean 2 ever since the Dragon King’s reign millions of years ago. His death in the last planar war 3,000,000 years ago had been hedged by the creation of his tomb! Even with the his death, the Watersnake clan stood strong!
This was the enduring power of an expert!
“Today is the 3,000,000th anniversary of the death of the Dragon King!” The Patriarch of the Watersnake clan, the Golden Dragon, roared towards the mass of sea serpents.
He was over 100 meters long, a giant behemoth and one of the eight mathematical lifeforms in the Weakest Plane! Like all other watersnakes, he had a scaled snake’s body, but with short limbs and claws that seemed to serve no practical purpose whatsoever, and ridiculously long whiskers.
“As the 3,000,000th year of his death, this entire year will be a celebration of his death!” His booming voice reverberated through the waters. “After all, the death of our Grand Ancestor was the best thing that happened to us since waterproof bread!”
The millions of watersnakes in attendance hissed in excitement. One even wrenched open a bag of waterproof bread and began devouring it.
The Sphinx snorted. “These unfilial watersnakes. Even though their ancestor promoted a patriarchy, they should still be giving him face. Instead, they celebrate his death!”
Shuxue shrugged as he spoke through the respirator. “Whatever, who care about that? Rather, what a crazy coincidence that we just made it in time for their 3,000,000th anniversary! It seems almost too lucky.”
Zhujiao laughed. “Luck is literally skill, big bro! It’s because we’re super skilled that we’re lucky!”
The Golden Dragon’s voice shook the waters again. “Thus, we have invited the Sphinx, an esteemed Spirit and mathematical expert, to host an unsecluded meditation for this entire year!”
The Sphinx put on his lightglasses and rose into the water, laughing loudly.
“Glad I could make it to host this historic event, my friends!” The Sphinx bowed to the north, the west, the south, and the east. “May I present the unsecluded meditation grounds!”
Right on cue, Zhujiao pulled out the Sphinx’s Spiritseed, the huge towers that resembled tornados. It landed with a resounding thud onto the seafloor, crushing several thousand watersnakes to death and destroying several buildings.
“Whoooaaaaa.” The gasping of the millions of watersnakes present sent mini whirlpools flowing through the jade green waters. Even though the tornado towers were a mere speck compared to the Pillar, it was still immense.
“You’re so cool, Sphinx!” A female watersnake batted her eyelashes at him.
“Even though you just destroyed my house, causing my entire family to die, that was pretty awesome!” Another watersnake called out.
The Sphinx smiled smugly, sweeping the waters with his paws. “The unsecluded meditation starts now!”
Pills began flying through the waters, forming into a huge cloud as they dissolved into the waters.
“Oh, shit. I totally forgot pills dissolved in water.” The Sphinx cursed, using a voice which only Zhujiao and Shuxue was close enough to hear. “I told you we should’ve held some actual underwater unsecluded meditations as test runs, Shuxue. That way, I would’ve known to take this into consideration. You motherfucker.”
Shuxue was indignant. “If you have someone to blame, you can only blame yourself for being an idiot! How am I supposed to gain enlightenment while submerged in water? Don’t be ridiculous!”
The Sphinx glared at Shuxue. “No, if I have someone to blame, I can only blame you for being so stupid that you can’t even gain enlightenment while submerged in water!”
“You dare question my skills? Of course I can gain enlightenment while submer-”
“Shut up!” Zhujiao yelled. “They’re still absorbing the pills from the water, it’s all good!”
Indeed, the watersnakes were breathing in the dissolved pills. They rolled over in ecstasy and even shed the mortal filth.
“Heh! Turn up, motherfuckers!” The Sphinx swam into his tomb, hordes of watersnakes on his tail. Their hungry eyes revealed their lust for the Sphinx’s pills.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“All right, let’s go!” Shuxue and Zhujiao instantly teleported into the first floor of the pillar, stripping off their respirators and storing them in Zhujiao’s forehead. Streams of still water hung suspended in the air of the tomb. Rather than fall down onto the ground, these streams were like a stagnant pool, unmoving and calm. Watersnakes used these streams to quickly traverse the tomb, while Shuxue and Zhujiao could walk and swim their way through the tomb.
“All right, why the fuck didn’t you teleport us directly into the library?” Shuxue demanded.
Zhujiao shrugged. “For Plot.”
Shuxue was beside himself with rage, but he held himself back.
“Forget it.” He muttered. “We have an entire year before this festival ends, and 3 months before the planar war starts. No hurry, Shuxue. No hurry.”
The Golden Dragon had not allowed them to host the unsecluded meditation in the building Shuxue had selected beforehand, citing a lack of emergency exits. Shuxue had been irked, but the matter was resolved when the Sphinx volunteered to use his Spiritseed as the main venue.
“The library should start on the 420th floor, and end on the 1000th floor.” Shuxue said as he read the directory. “Let’s be real snappy, Zhujiao.”
As there were no stairs, Shuxue and Zhujiao were forced to fight off the monsters spawning around them. As there were no stairs they leaped into a stream of stillwater, and swim their way up to the 420th floor. After sticking his head out of the side of the stream several times, Shuxue took the respirator back out of Zhujiao’s forehead and put it on.
On the 28th floor, a watersnake spotted them. Right before he could raise the alarm, Shuxue punched out, and a quadratics dragon tore the watersnake apart.
On the 29th floor, lasers pierced holes through the water streams, walling off any further advance. After throwing the watersnake’s corpse into the lasers, Shuxue confirmed that these lasers were not alarms, but rather dangerous weapons. Zhujiao smashed through the lasers with his forehead and they proceeded to the next floor.
On the 30th floor, a gigantic 243,429,535,190 monster leered at them. They swam past it to the 31st floor, but then swam back down to take all 243,429,535 Arithmetic pearls the monster was worth. The battle lasted several hours, but Shuxue was able to grind it down with his hyperbola techniques.
Zhujiao insisted on swiping the enormous pyramid of Algebra pearls on the 31st floor, so they spent several hours clearing out all the mechanisms, Shuxue impatiently complaining all the while.
The 32nd floor had some interesting monsters, so Shuxue spent an entire week there annihilating them, Zhujiao impatiently complaining all the while.
The 33rd floor had a legion of watersnakes, but Zhujiao bribed them with some pills.
A month later, after countless trials and tribulations, Shuxue and Zhujiao discovered the elevator, a flowing stream of water that carried its riders up the tomb, unharassed by the countless mechanisms, monsters, and guards in place. Zhujiao complained about Plot, but was overriden by Shuxue, and they took the elevator from the 80th floor to the 420th floor.
“Gahahaha!” Shuxue roared with laughter as he threw one jade slip after another into Zhujiao’s forehead. “I’m a genius, Zhujiao! They’ll never notice a few jade slips missing!”
Zhujiao looked behind him at the barren jade slip shelves. “I don’t know about that, big bro. I think you’re taking a bit too many.”
“Don’t be an idiot, there’s no possible way anything could go wrong.” Shuxue leaned onto a ransacked shelf triumphantly. Then, his smug expression immediately disappeared as the shelf tipped over.
“Ohhhhhhhh, you just messed up.” Zhujiao gasped, watching as the shelf toppled another shelf, which toppled the next shelf, which toppled the next shelf, which toppled two shelves, each of which toppled another shelf…
Booming noises sounded all over the pillar as one jade slip shelf fell after another on the 420th floor. Shuxue’s face drained of blood.
“But… but I’m a genius…” Shuxue whispered hoarsely.
“WHO JUST DID THAT!” The guttural bellow of an archaic beast rolled through the entire tomb. Instantly, the still streams of water began to rotate and thrash around as if they were sentient tentacles. Within seconds, the water turned into jetstreams that began to shoot downwards. Every single living being inside the tomb was caught up in the streams and spat out by the jet streams.
One absorbed Shuxue and Zhujiao, blasting them down all 420 floors. They were spat out into a raging underwater whirlpool, at the center of a circle of several million watersnakes and the Golden Dragon.