Chapter 81 – Interspatial Runes
Everyone saw Ye Wei was leading Hong Xun and Xue Yao over to the four enormous crystal pillars, so they followed; nobody was paying attention to Lu Chao as he was still shocked and glued to the floor.
Although everyone hated Lu Chao, nobody wanted to pick a fight with him now because he still had four scrolls in his hand.
Ye Wei quietly stood before the four massive pillars. He raised his head and frowned as he inspected the crystal pillar. Xue Yao and Hong Xun were acting like his bodyguards standing close to him on his left and right respectively.
With a lot of unanswered questions regarding the treasures, everyone else stood a bit further away and looked curiously at the three.
‘What’s with these crystal pillars? Are they booby trapped?’
While the cultivators were confused and theorizing, Ye Wei slowly extended his arm in from of the crystal pillar and placed his hand on it. After a murmur, he took his hand back and walked up to another pillar to repeat the process.
After inspecting all four crystal pillars, Ye Wei gently took a deep breath and nodded thoughtfully as he turned towards the crowd.
“These are spatial runes repository that contain treasures hidden in each of the pillars. The treasure you saw were a projection of what is inside these spatial runes. The person who set this up made it so the treasures stored the runes were projected into the chamber. Considering everyone’s strength, you should be able to break the pillar at the front easily.” Then he pointed to the two pillars further in the back and said, “These two pillars will be a bit harder to break, but Hong Xun and Xue Yao should be able to handle them. As for the last pillar…” Ye Wei paused and sincerely looked over the crowd. “The fourth one here is tougher than the jade crystal wall; it cannot be opened by force!”
“You guys can break these three pillars open and then share whatever treasures are inside of the interspatial runes as for the last pillar, I will deal with it. If I am lucky enough to break it open, I will take everything that’s inside, any opinions?” Ye Wei said in a modest tone.
Ye Wei could feel the four sources causing a great Qi disturbance even before entering the chamber. After having inspected the pillars where the energy was coming from he could tell that it was because of four interspatial runes and the vast amount of treasures stored within them.
‘The fourth pillar, the one at the back, feels like a high-grade interspatial rune.’
Ye Wei’s words shook them, and everyone suddenly was surprised. Their eyes lit up, and they stepped forward a few steps for a closer look.
“There are what in the pillars?”
Spatial rune repositories were very rare. Only Runemasters, who had mastered the complex interspatial rune system, were capable of inscribing these magical symbols. It was said in legends that the highest grade interspatial runes could even hold a whole city!
Ye Wei used three medium-grade scrolls to get the cultivators out of a deadly situation, and now he had opened the jade crystal wall that was impenetrable to everyone else. Without him, all the cultivators wouldn’t even know where the real treasures were hidden.
If it weren’t for Ye Wei, there wouldn’t be treasures to share or lives to live. Asking for a quarter of the treasures seemed reasonable to everyone.
“I do not want any more bloodshed. Ever since I stepped into this labyrinth, all I’ve seen was fighting and conflicts. So many lives were lost for stupid and selfish reasons. I only have one requirement. No matter what is stored in those repositories, you guys can not fight each other for them; instead, you are to distribute them according to your cultivation levels. It’s not exactly fair, but it is as close as it gets!”
Everyone looked at each other and realized it was the fear of death that made them kill each other!
“If you agree then swear to the cosmos; make a heavenly oath not to fight each other! Only after will teach you how to crack open these pillars!” Ye Wei exhaled gently and requested with a friendly smile on his face.
Hearing Ye Wei’s touching speech, everyone was looking down thinking back to how excessively aggressive and ruthless they have been. The fire was no longer in their eyes; instead, it was replaced by a gentle solemness.
Ye Wei was the only person here who knew the repositories existed. He could have very well waited until everyone left the chamber and then took all the treasure for himself, but he decided against it. The cultivators recognized his generosity. They could not imagine what kind of family he was from, and how well he was brought up!
A few of the Warriors raised their heads and made an effort to memorize Ye Wei’s face and swore to themselves that if the opportunities arises to repay him in the future, they would do so no matter the cost.
“I swear on the heavens.”
“I also swear on the heavens!” After a brief moment of silence, everyone raised their heads and looked at Ye Wei with the utmost respect.
Soon all the cultivators followed. If they were to break the oath then the wrath of the heavens, the will of the cosmos, would strike down and render them asunder. Throughout the history of time, there wasn’t one soul that challenged this powerful oath to the heavens and survived.
Seeing that everyone made a vow, Ye Wei felt relieved. After all, there really were a great many treasures stored within these four repositories. After having used up all three offensive scrolls he was given, he was not confident in surviving if another brawl were to break out.
Treasures in the three lower-ranked repositories were to be shared between a few hundred, and Ye Wei had one repository all for himself. He was very satisfied with the arrangement.
Greed was not a respectable trait in Ye Wei’s eyes, and he wouldn’t be greedy. If he were to act greedy who knew what the other cultivators would do?
After telling others where the pillars’ weak spots were, Ye Wei walked over to the pillar at the back.
Hong Xun and Xue Yao watched Ye Wei’s silhouette. Their eyes were bright, and they were amused by how Ye Wei, this fourteen year old, had handled the situation even better and fairer than they, themselves, could have.
“Let’s break the first pillar!”
Hong Xun led everyone to the first crystal pillar. They had all made a heavenly oath and therefore were very relaxed as they knew no one would dare break it.
The crowd started to work on the first pillar, while at the back of the chamber Ye Wei placed his hands on the fourth pillar. He closed his eyes, and his eyebrows twitched slightly as strands of will-force leaked into the pillar from his Sentient. His will-force interacted with the runes flowing inside the pillar.
At this moment, nobody was looking at Lu Chao. He was no longer seen as a threat to anybody because they were bound by a heavenly oath. They would now have to act as a group and defend each other. Even if Lu Chao had ten scrolls, he would never be able to take down a few hundred Warriors by himself.
“Damn it… Damn it! Why did it turn out like this? Why are they all mirages?!” Surrounded and guarded by a few five and six star Warriors Lu Chao’s eyes were bloodshot. He ground his teeth and growled, hatefully glaring at the crowd.
“It’s all because of him!”
Lu Chao’s hateful eyes darted to the other side of the chamber landing on Ye Wei, ‘If it weren’t for Ye Wei, these guys would never have united; they would still fear me!’
If everyone were not bound by the oath, it wouldn’t be difficult for Lu Chao to take at least one of the repositories. He might not even have had to use all four of his scrolls due to the fear in the hearts of everyone present.
However, the tables had turned, and now Lu Chao had to be alert. The group of Warriors could turn against him and eradicate him if he showed any signs of resistance.
‘I will never forgive you, never!’ Lu Chao’s bloodthirsty eyes stared at nothing but Ye Wei. If a gaze could kill, Ye Wei would have died a thousand times.
BANG! BOOM! BANG!
Led by Hong Xun and Xue Yao, the few hundred Warriors relentlessly attacked the crystal pillar. Every single one of them used their best stances in the hopes it would get the job done.
Qi swords, flames, ice, spectral beasts, and all different kinds of stances focused onto the first pillar, and under the immense wave of attacks, a small crack finally appeared.
“Good!”
The cultivators started to smile enthusiastically when they saw the crack and doubled their efforts.
As for Ye Wei, he was still standing quietly in front of the fourth pillar. He was frowning from time to time, and smiling occasionally when he understood more and more about the runic lock on the fourth pillar.
Ye Wei being able to break the rune barriers on the tunnel and the jade crystal wall was no accident. He had been relying on his soul sensibility without understanding how it really worked. The rune barrier on this pillar was even more complex than the one in the jade crystal wall, and his slow progress was the result of its complexity.
An hour had passed without anyone noticing, then suddenly a deafening noise echoed throughout the chamber. The first pillar was finally cracked open by brute force!
A flash of bright light blinded everyone in the chamber as strands of runes leaked out of the crack on the pillar, “A Rune repository!” Everyone’s eyes focused on the interspatial runes as they regained vision; they were breathing heavily as their treasures were now within reach.
The repository shrank on Hong Xun’s touch, and he grabbed ahold of it tight throwing it in his interspatial bag.
“Keep up the good work! To the second pillar!” Hong Xun shouted while looking at everyone. “We will share them when we have broken all three pillars open. Let’s not get distracted!”
“Okay!”
“Hahaha! That sounds reasonable! Keep it up guys!” Everyone was feeling light-hearted, they weren’t worried that Hong Xun was going to cheat them at all. Everyone was smiling brightly as they approached the second pillar.
“Is that a storage rune?!”
Lu Chao saw the rune in Hong Xun’s hand from the other side of the chamber as jealousy was eating him up. He was on the edge of losing his sanity. He clenched his fist and punched the crystal floor violently to release his anger; his venomous stare roamed around.
“They got the repository… So what? I doubt they can actually open them…” Lu Chao clenched his scrolls tight as he planned his comeback.
After two more hours, the second pillar broke open, and the group got their hands on the second repository.
After hours of using stances, every was exhausted. They all took some pills and rested briefly before they moved on to the third pillar.
The third pillar was tougher than the second one. Even though Hong Xun and Xue Yao led the cultivators to attack the weak spots, it still took them almost five hours to crack the pillar.
“Finally!” Hong Xun shouted as he grabbed the third runic repository. Everyone was so eager to see what was in the runes they forgot how tired they were.
“Not yet!” Just as Hong Xun was going to try to open the runic repositories, Xue Yao stepped forward and stopped him. She then pointed to Ye Wei, who was still standing in front of the fourth pillar.
“Wait for him!” Xue Yao scanned the eager crowd and said.
“These three pillars… They were harder to crack the deeper into the chamber we moved. Obviously, the one furthest back must be the hardest of them all to crack. If that boy fails to open the fourth pillar, we shall share what we’ve acquired with him!” Xue Yao said with a determined tone.
“Yes, I agree!” Hong Xun nodded and looked at everyone, “I don’t think anyone here objects, right?”