Shi Lang gulped as he heard the clicking sound from the door. He did not know how to react. Looking at things with his sensing ability, he found nothing unusual. The terran heaved a sigh of relief and looked at the two people gawking at him.
He said, "Shall we go in?"
The two nodded and pushed the hall to go inside. What the trio did not know was that the emergence of the palace had set waves of tremor in the Battlefield of gods. Many people from the central plains have come to the place in search of treasures and inheritances left behind by the strongest existences of the world.
The crowd did not belong to the Spiritual cultivators but also to the demonic cultivators. This place had a lot of demonic inheritances left behind also.
The moment the palace surfaced on the barren land of the desert, a beam of light pierced the skies, and the people were shocked. This beam was visible from all directions, and the people who had yet to find anything substantial changed their paths' trajectories.
Some rushed forward to see what this beam of light was about, while some of them were heading over with malicious intent. Demonic cultivators had two goals. One was to get stronger, and the other was to kill the spirit cultivators and destroy as many inheritance shrines as possible.
The latter was not an easy thing to do. So, they focused on spiritual cultivators.
...
Shi Lang and the two entered the big room and found a figure sitting on the floor in lotus mudra. Yun Xue and Bo Qingtan were shocked, and they froze. However, Shi Lang could tell that the person was no longer alive. He took a few steps forward and bowed to the corpse of the immortal god.
This corpse gave off such strong pressure that his heart beat slightly faster. He said, "We apologize for disturbing your rest, senior. Please forgive us."
At this moment, an aloof voice sounded, "To think someone will finally come to this place. Ah, after all this time."
Shi Lang was surprised, and the voice said, "Raise your head, young man."
The terran raised his head and cupped his fists. A figure condensed from the spirit energy appeared before them. The man said, "My name is Mystery Blade. What you see now is me leftover spirit conscious. I hope you understand what it means to step through that door?"
Shi Lang nodded and calmly replied, "It means that I am capable of inheriting your mettle."
The phantom nodded and said, "Yes, you are. However, opening the door is easy. The real exam for you is to pass the trials we left behind."
Shi Lang thought about it and nodded. He asked, "Senior do you mean to say that as long as I pass the test, I can inherit your skills?"
Mystery Blade nodded and said, "Yes, you can inherit everything in this palace as long as you can pass the test."
Yun Xue stepped up and bowed to the phantom with cupped hands before she said, "Junior Yun Xue pays respect to Senior Mystery Blade."
The old man's phantom replied, "Raise your head, young fairy. What do you wish to ask?"
Yun Xue stood up straight and asked, "Senior, do you mean that as long as anyone clears a test, they can inherit the things left behind by you and your peers?"
Mystery Blade nodded and said, "That is true. I want to tell you now that instead of inheriting my mettle, you three should rush to the central room on the palace's top floor. The reason you were able to open the door was because you had activated the palace Spirit Banishing Array."
The sun of understanding dawned over them. Mystery Blade said, "As we speak, many people are charging over. You can rush to the room and try to see if you can gain control of the palace. This is a place where you can gain inheritance and use it as a traveling vessel. If you can refine the core of this place, the palace will come in very handy."
This surprised the three of them. Shi Lang did not expect to have stepped into a treasure trove. He bowed to the phantom and said, "Senior, will we be able to use spirit energy inside the palace if we manage to gain the approval of the palace?"
The phantom nodded, and the trio bowed to him in gratitude. The old man said, "Hurry up!"
How could he not tell they were forcefully controlling the urge to rush out? He was not only testing their strength with this but also their character.
...
Shi Lang and the two came out of the room and gazed at the three-dimensional map. They were following the instructions of the old man. Shi Lang highlighted a red door on the top floor and asked the communicator to highlight all the routes that lead to the place.
They had three ways to get to the top, and Shi Lang could not decide which one he wanted. Bo Qingtan said, "If this place can be reached from three sides, then why don't we three split up? The finder is the keeper if we can find some treasure on the way."
Shi Lang glanced at Yun Xue, who nodded and said, "If you die, it will be a waste, Wood. Make sure to look after yourself."
The man smirked, and Shi Lang said, "Do not underestimate the traps in this place."
The two people nodded, and soon they split up. Shi Lang took the staircase in the middle. This flight of stairs was akin to a dragon coiling around the entire central zone of the pala,ce and it was most likely that this section had the most dangerous traps.
The terran took a deep breath and rushed through with a steel-like resolve. Shi Lang did not stop Yun Xue and Bo Qingtan from rushing over because he knew that, as cultivators, they did not wish to be sheltered and wished to be strong. To become strong, they had to face dangers and stake their life. This was inevitable. Shi Lang would not be present to guard them always.
As the terran rushed through the stairs, he could not help but shed some cold sweat. The entire staircase only had a few inches of space to step without triggering the traps. However, his foot landed on an inch of space when he thought he had cleared the floor.
The cunning person who set these traps was someone Shi Lang wanted to beat up. The entire fifty steps cascade had inch spaces of safety. However, this time, the inch space was the pressure plate, and the rest of the stair was connected.
Shi Lang found himself standing on the first step, and now the stairs were replaced with spearheads. He muttered, "Fuck."
The stair on the top teleported him back to this place, and the steps were replaced with spearheads. He would have to jump over them if he wanted to climb. He shook his head and rushed up but pulled back with the movement. His foot was about to fall on the tip of the spear.
The spearheads were not lying there silently. As soon as he was about to move, the spearhead stabbed upward at his sole. Shi Lang could not help but curse the person who created these traps.
After taking a few seconds to observe the spearheads, he stepped forward. The terran matched with the rhythm of the stab attacks. He moved his foot upward with the spearhead before making contact with them. He was slow at the first few steps, but after five steps, he better understood the situation, and his speed picked up. However, he did not let his guard down.
He was correct not to let his guard down, the walls on the side had blades embedded in them, and just when he grew familiar with the spearheads, the sword blades began to stab from the side. Shi Lang paid greater attention to the walls while dodging the attack and found several tiny spots on the wall's surface.
He could tell that these pores were filled with needles, and all of them would fire with the power to kill him. He looked at the stabbing sword blades and remembered the time gap between each step.
He exerted some pressure on his feet, jumped atop a stabbing sword's edge, cleanly avoided the needle trap, and crossed half the stairs on coattails. However, this was not over yet. Just when he thought half of the floor was cleared, he found that he was about to land on the spearhead but no longer had a similar composure.
He could see a steamer of water shooting at his foot from below the spears. The water splash was so fast that he closed his eyes and began to think of a way to get off the place.