Chapter 295: Danger Lurks All Around
Just as the sense of danger enveloped him, the enormous statue’s eyes suddenly opened, and a frightening beam of light shot towards him with no forewarning.
In that critical moment, Jiang Chen closed his eyes and the Boulder’s Heart formed a layer of protection around his consciousness.
The beam of light shot straight into his eyes and attempted to pierce his consciousness through the eyes.
The mental defenses of the Boulder’s Heart blocked this beam of light.
Jiang Chen felt his consciousness waver strongly as it was almost shattered by this blow. His muscles tightened in response, and the feeling arose like he was about to freeze spontaneously.
“This is bad!”
The ominous feeling grew even stronger in Jiang Chen’s mind as he restrained that feeling of horrified fright in his heart, picked up his feet, and ran frantically forward.
He knew that he couldn’t spend even a second longer in this place.
The beam of light shot out from the statue’s eyes was enough to pierce through a soul, attack it directly, and then completely turn the person into metal and thus into a humanoid sculpture!
Jiang Chen was now a hundred percent certain that those humanoid sculptures weren’t poured out of metal at all, but candidates who had once appeared on the tenth floor.
It might have been decades ago, or hundreds of years ago, or even thousands of years ago.
The legacy realm of ancient times had seen generations upon generations of people, and countless numbers must’ve braved the magnetic golden mountain as well.
Those randomly scattered sculptures were definitely practitioners who had once passed by here and hadn’t been on their guard against the metallic eyes of this statue.
This was simply too frightening.
Jiang Chen ran up a few hundred steps in one go, slowing down only when he was far, far away from the statue.
He was still a bit frightened when he thought of what hd just happened.
If his reaction had been a little slower just now, or the defenses of the Boulder’s Heart a tad bit weaker, then he would’ve surely joined the ranks of the sculptures.
Even with the speed of his reaction and the Boulder’s Heart defending against the majority of the light beam attack, that attack had been enough to make him suddenly feel like his body had been poured full of lead, his muscles immediately stiffening as well.
There had likely been less than five percent of the original strength left in the light beam attack after it had broken through the defenses of the Boulder’s Heart. This less than five percent had been enough to almost hold him in place! This frightening might was enough to cause cold swear to pour from Jiang Chen’s body.
He kept circulating the fire spirit power from the Lotus within his body, slowly refining the remnants o the metallic beam attack in his body.
Of the five elements, the fire of the south was the antithesis of the metal of the west. The power of fire was a natural check on the power of metal.
Beneath the refinement of the fire Lotus, the slight bit of metal power that had stolen into his body was slowly cleaned up and Jiang Chen’s body slowly recovered itself.
“The beauty of the tenth floor was just a temptation alright. Although it’s not as frightening as the magnetic storm, but the evil golden eyes of the statue is more terrifying than any magnetic storm.”
Jiang Chen’s heart still palpitated in fright.
There was at least a warning to the magnetic storm as there were always some warnings before the twister formed.
However, this evil eye was completely perverse. Its eyes had suddenly opened and the beam had shot into his soul. The speed of that attack had been as fast as light and caught him completely off guard.
If it hadn’t been for Jiang Chen training the Boulder’s Heart to the level of being able to deploy it with one heartbeat, that evil gaze likely would’ve invaded his soul and turned him into a sculpture.
Frightening. All too frightening.
To count the steps, he’d walked precisely one third of the three thousand steps in front of him.
“Can it be that there are three tests on the tenth floor, and that the evil golden eye of the status is just the first?”
Jiang Chen postulated and felt that this was very likely.
If this truly was the case, then the path up to the second test would be relatively safe.
Indeed, things were as Jiang Chen had calculated. Nothing much happened to him between three thousand and six thousand steps.
“It looks like the meaning behind the tests of the tenth floor is more deliberate than the previous nine floors. Those on the previous nine floors were all random, but there are noticeable signs of the tests being planned on the tenth floor. Therefore, what will be the second test?”
Jiang Chen also knew that there was no way back now that he had made it this far.
He walked up all six thousand steps and had neared two thirds of the way according to his mental calculations.
If things really were as he’d simulated, then he wasn’t too far from where the second test was.
Jiang Chen’s gaze suddenly froze as soon as he followed this thought through to the end.
There was a large ravine in front of him. It was as if an ancient god from the heavens had lifted a giant axe and viciously carved it into the mountain.
This long ravine was like an enormous scar on the side of the mountain. Grotesquely shaped rocks were at the bottom, giving rise to awe to onlookers as soon as they’d taken a look.
Jiang Chen stood in front of the ravine and looked outwards. If this was the outside world, a third level spirit realm practitioner could fly for short periods of time and could make it past this ravine.
However, thanks to the restraining force of the mountain, Jiang Chen estimated that he’d have to split his trip into three, four trips before he could fly over the ravine.
But, grotesquely shaped rocks dotted the surface of the ravine and there was no place he could push off from at all.
“Can this be the second test?” Awe grew in Jiang Chen’s heart as he looked at the intersecting rocks beneath him.
If this ravine was the second test, then all would absolutely not be as calm as it appeared on the surface.
This calm could be harboring an exceedingly frightening test.
“Who cares about all this, time waits for no one.” Jiang Chen’s thoughts moved as he immediately called upon six vines of the fire Lotus, forming a bridge over the ravine.
Since there was no bridge on the two sides of the ravine, Jiang Chen planned on using the Lotus to form a temporary bridge.
He needed to leap three or four times to clear this ravine. His lotuses would help him push off six times.
That would be more than enough if he didn’t run into any accidents.
The Rat King wasn’t as unbridled as before at this moment and also hopped onto the first fire lotus with Jiang Chen.
Whoosh, whoosh.
His figure cutting through the air, Jiang Chen landed on the second lotus with another leap. The enormous size of the petals was enough to accommodate several adults, so it was more than enough to support Jiang Chen.
One of the grotesque rocks below suddenly moved and emitted a sharp sound.
That sharp sound suddenly broke through the peace of the ravine, and all the rocks started moving, as if ancient creatures awakening from their slumber.
Their bodies twisted as they transformed into different beings, surging upwards from the bottom.
Although these beings all looked different, all of them were shaped like weapons, exuding a frightening intent to kill.
“Kill him, kill him!”
“How can a human blaspheme the magnetic golden mountain?! Kill!!”
“It’s been a long time since a human has barged into the tenth floor, kill! Kill! Kill!!”
The golden monsters all shrieked and shrilled with stilted language. Those were the cries of wild beats and were extremely irritating to the ear.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Countless numbers of grotesque rocks squirreled out of the ravine and transformed themselves into weapon shaped monsters with a shake of their bodies, surging straight to Jiang Chen with extreme ferocity.
It looked like these golden monsters had a primal hatred towards humans. They seemed to have been instilled with a particular notion that they had to kill any human they saw.
Jiang Chen’s body was surrounded by thousands of golden monsters in a second.
Clang!
Jiang Chen’s nameless blade swept out as it brushed off the two golden monsters out in front. His body leapt upwards again beneath the aid of another fire lotus as his blade struck out once again.
This strong stroke was enough to rip four monsters into shreds. Metallic fragments rained down into the ravine below.
However, killing four monsters was just a drop in the bucket compared to the thousands of them present. It made no change in the situation.
The countless numbers of golden monsters swirled towards Jiang Chen like locusts. He dodged and weaved but was still unable to evade them all.
However, his body was midair and had no place to push off from. He’d used up all the strength in his body and was about to fall!
The distance of his jump was not yet enough to reach the third fire lotus.
His position was quite awkward. If he fell down now, he’d be doing so in the empty space between the second and the third lotus.
Without leverage, a free fall was inevitable unless he grew wings.
It was a good thing that Jiang Chen didn’t panic in the face of danger. The nameless saber danced like a mad demon, blocking all golden monsters that tried to attack him.
Although the monsters numbered many, they weren’t enough to contend with Jiang Chen one on one.
However, he also found it hard to extend his strength fully as he hung in midair.
Seeing that he was about to fall into the ravine and into the nest of the countless golden monsters, Jiang Chen’s heart raced as he deployed his spirit ocean to the utmost.
He summoned the third fire lotus vine and it grew bigger, shooting towards the direction Jiang Chen was descending it. The petals opened and dragged Jiang Chen away with them like a large mouth.
This sudden development surprised all of the creatures.
“Kill him, kill!”
All of the creatures exploded towards the third fire lotus.
The fire lotus vine was as if a water snake as it weaved and threaded, suddenly flinging Jiang Chen towards the fourth lotus.
The strength of this throw was uncommonly fast and stunning, leaving the creatures no time to react.
“Cleave!”
A creature in the shape of an enormous golden axe chopped straight toward the fourth fire lotus, like it was a small mountain in itself. Judging from its momentum, it wanted to destroy the fire lotus along with Jiang Chen.
Jiang Chen was also rather ticked off by these golden monsters.
He formed a seal with his hands as the three lotuses in front moved swiftly towards him. Their vines turned into flaming red ropes as they latched onto the golden axe creature, holding it in midair.
The petals of the four lotuses opened at the same time as four gouts of flame rushed out, akin to four fire breathing dragons and cooking the creature alive.
Beneath the power of the true flames from the lotuses, the creature was swiftly burnt to a crisp.
