44 Wormslayer And The Black Cloud Curse (1/2)

The fountain was at the almost exact center of the spirit formation, although off by a few steps. The body of the fountain which seemed made of stone was stain by fresh blood.

Something was wrong there, Shin Sumi knew it. All around the stone build of the three leveled fountain were small pedestals very similar to those around the main statues that could be seen on the outer edge of the room.

They protruded by a meter or so and were perfectly placed around the fountain, which made them also not centered when taking the entire room into account.

Before she had seen the blood, Shin Sumi hadn't paid attention to that at all, focused as she was on the history of the place and the stories it told.

Now though it was different.

”That fountain and the stones around it are not part of the room. They were added much later. The ground is also covered in less dust and rubble.”

Without another word, Shin Sumi took out her Gold Tyrant Flying Sword. The thin blade shone a golden light around her and seemed humming for battle.

Holding it in her small hand, Shin Sumi felt powerful like never before. After undergoing repeated refining with pure sources of Shinsoo, the weapon's quality had improved by a lot, and small intertwined vein like lines could be seen running along the base of the blade.

But Shin Sumi hadn't taken it out just for the sake of marveling at it's elegance and strength.

Standing about ten steps away from the row of off-center pedestals, Shin Sumi aimed at the fountain itself and let go of her sword.

Brute forcing it, she had put a lot of power into the sword, which spun at great speed and whistles through the air. Shin Sumi's arm was still finishing the motion when the tip of the sword penetrated the stone of the second level of the fountain.

The way she had thrown the sword, the power she had put into it and the point she had aimed at, the fountain should have almost exploded into thousand of pieces but it did not.

The second level of the fountain was cut clean off like it had been made of butter.

Immediately a shower of blood started raining from the severed fountain. Even more impressive, the fountain itself trembled and started... wiggling?

The row of pedestals sunk into the earth, followed by the fountain, all the while a roar echoed from below.

As it turned out, the fountain was only the tongue of a gigantic worm type creature, using its appearance to bait people to get closer, until they were inside the pedestal circle. By this point Shin Sumi had guessed that the array of stones were in fact teeth only waiting to crush everything that got close enough.

Shin Sumi was surprised, but not unprepared. She had somehow felt that something like that was about to happen, although she hadn't thought that her sword would find its way to the other side of the room after breaking the fountain.

”Oh no, I need to get it before that thing gets away or attacks!”

But it was too late. The tongue and the teeth had disappeared in the ground, leaving only a wide crater the size of a small house.

The ground was rumbling furiously under Shin Sumi's feet. Her sword was a dozen meters ahead, on the other side of the crater.

It was a very small distance, the likes of which she could cover in less than a second. She was halfway there when the earth split open under her feet, prompting her to jump vertically at the last moment.

Shin Sumi had only one thought ”If only I could get my hand on my sword” before she felt a call from inside her.

It all happened in the span of time it takes to blink, and Shin Sumi naturally answered the call.

The Gold Tyrant Flying Sword was saying something to her. Shin Sumi uttered one word mentally.

”Return!”

And the sword moved. Flying back to her hand faster than lightning, Shin Sumi held it firmly by the time she landed right besides the huge worm who just reached the apex of its attack.

The stone teeth closed in the air, grinding everything that was in the mouth, rocks, tiles and soil to dust. They produced a deafening noise that was horrible in the ears.

As the creature fell back down, intending on hiding under the earth until the next attack, Shin Sumi spun on herself, sword in hand.

Hacking with all the speed and strength she could muster, Shin Sumi cleaved into two the giant worm.

A second cut parted what remained in the air. Then a third slice, and a fourth, all the way to eight slices.

The worm was defeated but would never know how. Like a vegetable prepared for a soup, the giant worm had been cut into evenly spaced slices.

A pond of blood filled the crated that remained in place. After breathing in relief for a bit, Shin Sumi's face was distorted by disgust as she plunged her arm into the remains of the worm.

An orange core was retrieved and given to the little nut. The fight was over.

”It was only an orange level beast? I guess it was pretty easy to cut down” she thought.

What intrigued Shin Sumi more though was her sword.

What had happened? How did the sword come back to her hand? Did it ask her?

The Gold Tyrant Flying Sword was, as the name stated, a flying sword. It was part of a type of magical weapon that could be controlled at a distance by the user.

But as far as Shin Sumi's knowledge went on these matters, only Liquid Realm cultivators and above could accomplish such a feat.

”Has the sword already reached such a level?” she pondered.

Experimenting a bit, Shin Sumi found that she couldn't control the sword in the air, but she only had to give it a word through divine sense for it to return to her hand immediately.

Unknowingly, the bond that had formed between her and the weapon had been strengthened by their shared cultivation of the Veins of Hell Fire.

”That will surely come in handy in case of sneak attacks like that!” she said excitedly.

Every day now she found herself with renewed power and strength beyond her wildest imagination! To think that when she had arrived to the Dark Sky Starry Sect she was completely talentless and weak...

Now Shin Sumi had the power to protect herself and her friends, for sure.

If she could find them. She was, after all, lost in a giant underground maze where anything could potentially attack her from anywhere.

Shin Sumi was about to leave the plaza through one of the many entrances when she realized that the little grey nut wasn't anywhere on her body.

The glowing leaf symbol on her wrist clearly showed that the nut was outside, too.

Turning around, Shin Sumi found it next to the hole where the worm had transformed into a puddle of dark blood. Something of interest was there, that's what the nut was saying.

After all, it made sense because even if it was easy to forget about it, the point of this place was to provide a trial for the Rising Star Tournament.

Werever a powerful foe could be found, it was logical to have at least a simple treasure like a weapon for example.

Her face torn by disgust, Shin Sumi reached into the blood to where the little nut was indicating.

Shin Sumi took out a weirdly shaped object in blood colored wrapping.

Discarding the disgusting cover, Shin Sumi retrieved something that looked like a curved blade, the kind that draws strange arcs in the air when thrown.

The weapon was nothing impressive, and just a glance and a sliver of Shinsoo were enough to confirm that it was a low level artefact that probably wouldn't be useful for Shin Sumi.

But almost as soon as she had uncovered the blade, the little nut reacted strangely, not bothering with the weapon at all, instead turning to roll around the blood clad wrapping.

”... really?” sighed Shin Sumi, picking up what seemed to be hardened cloth... or parchemin?

Using a bit of Shinsoo to magically remove the blood from the thing in her hand, Shin Sumi's eyes almost gained stars when she saw glowing lines appearing on the ancient-looking scroll.

”It's a cultivation technique for the Liquid Realm! Now that is worth something!”

In comparison to the useless strange blade, the scroll held a lot more potential in the eyes of any disciple.

Cultivation techniques were not uncommon, but they varied a lot depending on their grade and the use of a lesser technique could sometimes lead to reduced speed of cultivation or even blockages.