The disciples of the Jade Phoenix Alliance and Ku clan Led by Ku Nam and Lady Mai jumped down from the east side of the bridge. The moment they stepped off the bridge and descended from their location, they felt a wave of heat in the air.
"Even from this distance," Lady Mai gasped.
"This is not hot air. Release your shield now!" Ku Nam instructed the disciples and they all released their shields, guarding themselves against the wind. From that far, they looked towards the tomb and saw as Ed free fell towards it till an apparition of a fist punched him back.
"Reckless. The tomb will be warded,"
"Not by the owner. Other cultivators just don't want anyone getting there before them," Ku Nam said.
"What now?" Lady Mai asked. Ku Nam was only interested in watching how Ed was going to solve this problem. No one had seen him fight before. No one has seen what he could do in a fight. Those who have had all died. The moment this thought came into his head, his eyes shrunk as he looked toward Ed's companion. The energy manipulator was looking intently at Ed pulling a sword and returning for the dive. Ku Nam saw the distracted look in his eyes the moment that sword was pulled out, causing him to stare at Ed too. There is something we do not know. At that moment, as Ed tore through the wards easily, Ku Nam set his eyes on that sword. He stretched his mind as though to touch it from afar. At that moment, he froze. The energy manipulator was staring right at him. He looked back at him and noticed as his eyes casually drifted past them, to those far away. This caused his hair to rise. He was noting all that was here. Why?
Ignoring the bad feeling he had at this moment, he glanced at the rest following him.
"He actually succeeded," Lady Mai said in shock.
"Watch your feet, everyone," Ku Nam reminded as they all landed on the sand bed. The ground was sandy but the sand was so compressed, that it had become flat sandstone.
"Do not move recklessly," Ku Nam said, just in time for a scream to ring into the air. They all followed the sound. One of the cultivators from other powers had followed them and stepped on a ward.
"Even this far away people still set upwards," Lady Mai said, "How do we move?" she glanced at Ku Nam.
"Eastward,"
"That is away from the tomb," Lady Mai said.
"That is where the Ku clan will go," he said and nodded to those of his clan.
"We will move towards the tomb then," Lady Mai turned with her alliance and started to move away.
"Collective shield," Ku Nam ordered and His clansmen turned and merged their shields into one as they formed a hexagon formation and moved east.
"My lady should we not have followed them?" one asked Lady Mai.
"They move away from the tomb. The tomb is our goal," she said and the alliance members grimaced. They wanted to open her head and see what was inside. There is no way the Ku clan is not interested in the tomb. There must be another entrance. That is why their alliance matriarch made this alliance between the two powers.
"You object?" Lady Mai glanced at their expressions coldly.
"My lady, the Ku clan has probably found another entrance. That is why Matriarch said we follow them and arranged an alliance to the tomb. Going our separate ways right now is breaking the alliance. When we meet again, we have no right to ask that we join them, as we are the ones who left," someone said. Lady Mai glanced at him coldly.
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"You object to my decisions all the time, Ikan De. No matter how much you want to be heir, hold your personal grudges till we do the clan's task," she sneered and turned away. To this, Ikan De smiled slightly and followed behind her.
Nti Anem watched the tomb with unrivalled sharp eyes, he saw Ed rise to full height from inside the dust for a second, before the energy completely enveloped him. He remained in his position looking out for other cultivators. He could see a bunch of them camped far from the site staring down at the scene and other cultivators descending far away from the tomb, unlucky the ones who followed them or jumped too close as they had all reached the Nether's gate by now. He knew quite a lot of people had seen him enter successfully and even stand inside the tomb before their sight was blocked. This caused him to sigh.
"Well, that is quite a lot of people to kill," he said.
Inside the tomb, Ed Felt a thick familiar smell seep into his nose, then into his being. The tomb hummed a sound that resonated with his being. This bothered him greatly. Who was buried here?
He looked around the many wardings carved into the tomb walls. The energy hugging him seemed to be coming from below. Strolling around, he explored the tomb. But warding spells that seemed meant to keep contain the energy seeping from the tomb, there was nothing blocking his path. There was nothing set to defend this tomb. To this, he frowned greatly.
He descended lower into the tomb. As he descended spiral stone stairs that seemed to descend deep into the core of the word itself, he realised that the walls were ethereal ores, their purity getting even better as he got closer to the core chamber. The energy coming from the core chamber was getting more intense. The purity was getting denser. The energy was so thick; that he could barely breathe and was almost choked to death. He fixed his eyes on the jade coffin in the middle of the room and struggled forward to sit before it. Crossing his legs over each other, he closed his eyes and tried to absorb the energy coming from the coffin.
He stretched his being till it entered the coffin and touched the dead lying inside. Like someone had snapped his finger, he found himself standing before a still stream in a paper world of white drawn in place with black ink. Looking around in confusion he noticed his reflection in the water and he walked towards it. Looking down into the mirror still water, he saw a face definitely not of him. The person in the reflection was slender and had monolid eyes. His robes looked to be from the same world. But he carried a scholarly air to him. The still stream winds swept his robes back, making his form as elegant as an ink painting.
"You no more run?" he heard a familiar voice call to him, and he turned around to meet the most unexpected person.
"Oracle," he whispered but the words did not come out. Before him, was the oracle of Deranox.
"It was hard for you to run this far, why stop?" she asked.
"The stream should not be disturbed," Ed found the words leaving his mouth.
"Ah, you are a scholar this lifetime, I see," she said as she walked closer, and then looked down at the water behind him.
"This water will dry soon. Standing here to make it your grave has doomed it. Are you good or evil, I wonder sometimes?"
"I am neither. You have the wrong person,"
"Oh do not worry. I have the right person. Whatever form you take, I will always find you and kill you. If not I, someone else will; that is our heavenly task," she said and a giant hammer descended from the sky, dissolving the scene before him. When Ed opened his eyes, he found himself sitting before the scholar in the dream. The coffin had vanished and his elegant form cross-legged before him, too close for comfort. The scholar's eyes opened abruptly and he turned into a stream of ink and rushed into Ed's being. A bell rang from within him as he completely absorbed the scholar, who settled in his core as a vast ink stream.
Ed had his eyes closed and did not notice the ring that the scholar had on, had appeared on his finger. Neither did he notice that the entire tomb had vanished at that instant with all its energy into him. He was too immersed in the dense energy swirling in his core to notice that he was now sitting on a flat sand bed with dust swirling around him, revealed to all the cultivators.
Before they could panic at the tomb that had vanished, the clear sky crackled with threatening lightning.
Nti Anem watched as the tomb vanished, leaving Ed alone sitting in the middle of a flat sand land as far as the eye could see. He sighed at the development as he saw cultivators who were about to enter the tomb panic and rush forward. He disappeared from his spot above and appeared closest to Ed. Though still far, he was close enough to start a spell he had been tinkering with as Ed was cultivating while holding a mountain a while back. He flicked his wrist, locking the space between him and Ed and him and other cultivators. On cue, lightning crackled in the sky, and Nti Anem looked up to find the sky darkened and nine shadow beings rising in the sky as though looking down at the form of Ed below.