Unknown

The descent continued, and it was similarly smooth-sailing as their previous fights. The Bas showed up less and less, while each time they dared to challenge the army, the elite archers and priests made quick work of the packs. There were hardly any injuries, let alone casualties – so much that before they knew it, the sound that echoed through the cave’s walls weren’t the clanking of armor or the deafening heartbeats of the conquerors. Everyone had a smile on their faces, while the sound of joy and laughter soon spread through like a storm. With each turn, they looked more and more like a merry band of artists on a trip than a raid army exploring uncharted territories.

However, what made up for the lack of threats in monsters, was instead fulfilled by the slowly but surely tougher terrain. The army didn’t notice at first, but the pathways became smaller and smaller the further they went through. They entered with their full formation – each row could fit ten people. But the number soon decreased to eight, then to six, then four…

By the time they were at their current turn, the number had decreased to only fitting three. Zhuque and Aoba had to leave behind their carriage to continue their journey on horseback, with the former sitting in front of the latter on the same steed. Baihu and Ryuuhan had also shifted from their original formation to travel in the same line, bringing their defense for the princess as close as possible.

But that was the extent of their misfortune. Despite the tight passageway and rocky spikes protruding from both the top and bottom of the walls, they were still fairly easily maneuverable, and the path was a complete straight. If things kept up this way, they’d have no trouble exploring the rest of the floor.

At least, that was what they had hoped. Instead, what blocked them from advancing was a giant wall at the end.

“Is it a dead end?” asked Zhuque.

“No, that’s not possible,” answered Ryuuhan. “I know I’ve marked every path on the left side, and all of them led to a dead end. If this path on the right also leads to a dead end, what else is there for us to continue? This is a tower, not a dungeon.”

“But we can’t exactly force ourselves through, right?”

“That’s… not necessarily true,” this time, it was Aoba that pondered. “Maybe this is the tower’s test for us? Only those who were chosen by nature could continue?”

“You mean that it’s asking us to break open a path using some kind of spell?” Zhuque said.

“Likely the case.”

Meanwhile, there was one with another idea. “Hmm…” Baihu seemed to be thinking for a short while, tapping his hands on the nearby rocks, then his feet – seemingly judging them.

“How about we just break these?” In the end, this was the answer that he came up with. A very “Baihu” solution.

“Brother, not all of us have your ridiculous strength…”

While Zhuque was shaking her head in embarrassment, Ryuuhan, on the other hand, actually seemed to be struck by the simple yet genius solution. Tapping his hand and feet against the rocky formations around him like the young Huoguo prince, Ryuuhan could feel the different textures and densities of each part. He quickly moved along the way, tapping and hitting repeatedly before finally stopping at the wall before them.

“This is the one,” he answered. “The wall is indeed the weakest, so any good hit can break it. After that, we’re just gonna take advantage of the hole and tear it down.”

“Sounds like a plan,” before they knew it, Baihu had already stepped forth with a grin on his face, cracking his shoulders for a quick warm-up. “Alright everyone, stay out of the way.”

The soldiers had no choice but to follow his order, while Zhuque could only let out a sigh and shook her head, moving towards the back along with Aoba and Ryuuhan. She was all too familiar with her brother’s personality – if he was to decide on anything, there would be no stopping him even if the sky were to fall on them.

Baihu, meanwhile, took a deep breath and readied his stance. Taking one step back, the young man tightened his muscles, turning his arm harder than steel itself. As he exhaled, the sheer air pressure around had already heated up to the point of turning into a thin layer of white steam, while his limbs slowly reddened from the pumping blood in his veins.

Baihu was in top form.

“Hah!”

All it took was a single punch, straight at the centerpoint of the rocky wall. The cracking just took a moment, before the entire wall crumbled down like dust, revealing a vast, empty space on the other side.

“There we go!” Dusting off his hands, Baihu said with glee. While the soldiers and Aoba were still agape at the performance they had just witnessed, Zhuque couldn’t help but grin along.

That’s my brother for you! She thought.

However, there was still one person who didn’t show any joy before the spectacle.

“Hey, Princey,” Ryuuhan suddenly approached Baihu, lightly poking the latter’s arm. “You okay?”

“What’s wrong with you?” The young prince immediately dodged sideways. “Or was my performance too dazzling for even you to take?”

“... Never mind. Suit yourself.”

Ryuuhan might have backed off, but he was sure of his fingers. That slight touch just now was proof – two deciding ones, as a matter of fact. It was for only a split second, but Baihu had very slightly flinched from his touch, and his skin was burning with internal heat.

But as the latter had said, it wasn’t for him to pry further. And so, Ryuuhan didn’t bother with it, instead joining the army once more and traversed through the hole they were just granted with.

However, their trials didn’t stop there.

“W-What is this place?” The first soldier’s sound already signified a tough road ahead.

Despite the vast space, the ground was no more. Instead, what surrounded the army was a vast pit of black mud that stretched to no end. It wasn’t bottomless – only extending to an adult’s ankle – but that much was already enough to severely limit one’s movement.

“Get on the horses!” ordered Aoba. “Our cavalry has thirty in total; three will ride one and we’ll cross on their backs.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” answered Baihu, who had stepped down onto the mud field himself. “Look.”

The Huoguo prince stomped his foot down. However, the impact was much larger than expected – just with one step, almost his entire leg had already sunk within the field. There was thankfully no danger as Baihu managed to escape the mud with sheer strength, but as he stepped out, one could clearly see the black sludge clinging to his leg already hardening like stone.

“This field isn’t ordinary mud,” concluded Baihu. “The ground below is incredibly soft. I bet it can only hold the weight of one adult at most, let alone a horse. And once you get stuck, there’s no getting out if you’re a normal person. I was only able to do it thanks to my strength, but as you can see, even that’s not safe.”

Swinging his leg at full force towards the wall, Baihu shattered the solidified mud on his body into hundreds of pieces. “And this thing hardens extremely fast when it’s off in the air. Going in with horses and they’re dead as soon as we cross.”

“What do you suggest then?”

“Get out of here. Punk,” glancing towards Ryuuhan, Baihu said. “You know the way around right? Lead everyone back to the Palace, then bring the news to Tianlong for assistance. We’re gonna need some wood and rope for a bridge at least, then we can continue, but this time cut down on the horses and move in small infantry groups.”

It was a sound plan. They had traveled far enough, and it wasn’t as if the trip was worthless. The army had learned the way to beat the Bas, and if they could build a bridge across, their future trips would be all so much easier.

However, there was one person in the group who was heavily opposed to the idea.

“I disagree.” sounded Zhuque.

“Zhuque…” Baihu said. He wasn’t surprised – if anything, it was to be expected from his sister. However, there really was no other reason for any of them to continue, except the latter’s almost unhealthy love for the tower. On one hand, as one of the commanding generals, he had every right to refuse the suggestion. As a brother, it was also in his interest to not let his sister step in jeopardy.

But on the other hand, speaking from his role as a brother, he wanted to make his sister’s wish come true. He knew that it was wrong, of course, but Zhuque had been shouldering too much. And now, finally with a chance to be herself for once, who was he to take it away from her?

“... Get everyone out, Ryuuhan.”

“Understood,” nodded the young man, who then turned to the rest of the army. “You heard the prince! Scoot, all of you! Here’s the map to the area, you know what to do!”

“Thank… wait, what did you say?” It took a moment for Baihu to process the order Ryuuhan just spoke of.

“What, and let my liege here all alone?” The retainer let out a cheeky grin. “And before you say ‘well then just get him back as well’, look at those two. Do you really think that His Highness will leave quietly?”

True to his words, Aoba was already standing before Zhuque, his hand tightly holding onto the latter’s sleeve. However, it looked less like a sweet moment of a desire to protect, and more like a makeshift leash to prevent the latter from running off on her own.

With a sigh, Baihu shook his head. “Fine. No one leaves then. But the rest of the soldiers stay here; us four will be the only ones to try crossing the mud.”

Turning to his soldiers, Baihu ordered. “You guys are on standby. I’ll be fine, but if there’s anything unusual, I want all of you to get us out of there, even if by force. Got it?”

“Yes, Sir!” The men shouted in unison.

“Good. Now…” the prince took out multiple sets of clothes that they had brought along on the trip, then tore all of them one by one and tied them together, making one long, colorful rope.

“This should be enough. Zhuque, Aoba, Ryuuhan, come here; we’ll tie this together for the soldiers to pull out when the time comes.”

The other three followed suit. Baihu took one end and handed it over to one of the soldiers, while quickly tying him and the rest of the royals to it as well, each separated by around a meter in rope length.

“Alright. Let’s go!”

“Hey, this thing’s pretty easy to go across!”

The one who exclaimed was Zhuque. Unlike the others, she was quite light on her feet, and as such didn’t get held down by the mud nearly as much – her feet were practically on the same height as on solid ground. The same went for Aoba, whose stature was much more similar to Zhuque than to a trained body like Baihu or Ryuuhan; the Watatsumi prince was gliding on the mud with his expert control of water, even forming a stream under his feet to separate them from the filthy substance below.

Baihu was already used to the mud, so he was also not taken aback by its properties. Even if he was the tallest and heaviest out of the four, the Huoguo prince had enough strength to force his way through, with each step rocking the mud around, sending splashes all over.

The last to step in was Ryuuhan. However, the moment he set foot in the muddy field, something responded.

With just one foot into the mud, the boy had already felt the heat coming from below. The mud on the surface was bubbling, as if trying to boil them alive. But the most dangerous was the sudden flash of gold coming from below the mud. And to make matters worse, there wasn’t just one, but two of them – signaling a pair of eyes, with each being as big as a human’s head.

“Pull us out, now!” Both Baihu and Ryuuhan sounded at the same time.

As the soldiers followed, the four were forcefully dragged out of the field in a flash. But the mud wasn’t the danger, it was the thing inside… and that thing had already joined them on the ground.

Crawling out of its damp home, awakening from its slumber, was a beast reaching the cave’s ceiling. Its hind legs were hooved like a herbivore, but also webbed like an amphibian while having bulging muscles for ease of movement beneath the mud. Its forelegs, however, were more similar to the predators on land, with tough golden scales hard as diamonds and jet-black claws as long as a grown man. Its head was long and its mouth narrowed – classic features of a crocodile, and its glistening golden eyes reflected the fear in everyone’s face as clear as a mirror.

Zhuque was speechless. But this time, it really was fear that had gotten hold of her.

For before them right now stood a monster that wasn’t ever documented in her scroll.