“Gate of Death?”
At first, the three words engraved atop the gate shrouding the first corridor that the young girl was exceedingly familiar with, didn’t manage to obtain a significant reaction.
An Fei stood in place before the throne of sky-blue crystal, her eyes locked onto the black metal plate.
Gate of Death.
The longer she gazed upon the intriguing words, the more the young girl felt the sentiment of resentment and sorrow billow throughout her heart.
An Fei soon blinked rapidly and shook her head to clear the remnant thoughts from her mind.
“Why… did they become visible now?”
Was it due to the red scar the sliced through a significant amount of her body…
Or was it due to the fact that she had manifested the <Heavenly Talisman> during her incidental fight against the delicate Young Master of the black steel carriages?
Or could it be caused by something else entirely?
Many questions revolved throughout her mind, drowning her thoughts in an unending swarm of unease and hesitation.
Helpless towards her own curiosities, An Fei quickly turned around to face the throne, her right index finger tapping onto the corresponding armrest of crystal.
With a fluctuation of silent acknowledgement, the crystalline armrest split apart to reveal the black tome with its pristine, snow-white pages.
In her haste, the young girl didn’t allow for the hidden mechanisms to completely push the manual upwards before her hands grasped the fabric covers.
“…please give me some answers?”
Holding the hope dear against her heart, An Fei exposed the feathery pages of the <Eternal Sanctum> to the throne hall. Accompanied with the subtle sonata of glistening light, the young girl’s trembling fingers flipped across the page, reaching the end of the manual in a short few minutes.
There was… nothing regarding the ten gates of black metal, nor the curious yet fear-inducing engraving atop of the first corridor.
The black tome that had ruthlessly teased her emotions yet provided her with the most information since her introduction to the Sanctum, lay completely devoid of any changes since her last perusal several weeks ago.
The black, sharp lettering in contrast to the soft white pages remained identical to before, and the disappointment began to generate within An Fei’s heart.
The young girl sank into the throne with strength fleeting from her body.
Why… was there nothing?
The <Eternal Sanctum>, however annoying the timing of revealing its contents were to the young girl, held an importance far greater than she could have ever expected.
When she had any questions that couldn’t be answered by the other manuals scattered throughout the realm of sky-blue crystal, the black tome bound by fabric usually imparted some clues of knowledge.
“So why is it blank now?”
Every second she stared at the three words stabbed deeply into the black metal plate, she felt her heart quiver and threaten to split into two.
Inexplicable and unreasonable resentment, grief, sorrow, and pain swarmed her senses, causing the young girl to bite her lips to withstand the agony.
Furthermore, the anger that followed threatened to override her thoughts, flooding her vision and hearing with scarlet and a white, ambient noise that blocked all thought.
It was as though she was suffering from a constant betrayal, as though someone was branding the essence of her soul with an unescapable pain.
“I… I…” An Fei murmured with her eyes downcast, not daring to look upon the first corridor that she had held tender to her heart.
She… didn’t know what to do.
Rationale reminded her to take a step forth to decipher the mysterious presence that had infiltrated the marker plate atop the gate guarding the first corridor.
As long as she did not glance directly into the engravings, the overwhelming influence on her soul would not commence.
All that was required to withstand her fears and unease was to arise from the chair. If she took the first step towards the mystery and danger-ridden gate at this moment, her caution and worries would surely be dissipated without doubt.
After all, the Sanctum had never harmed her since her first entrance at least a year ago.
Since An Xiang Yang had inevitably passed the mysterious realm of sky-blue crystal to her through the platinum mirror, An Fei could not find any logical reason as to why she could be harmed by the pressure emanating from the three words.
And yet, the pain, the sorrow – the sense of utter loss and betrayal felt so real.
When closing her eyes, she could vividly imagine the back silhouette of a figure enraptured in the throes of grief and loss. With each beat of her heart, the ambient noise drilling at her ears transmitted screams of absolute pain and misery.
“Grandfather…”
The word – no, the name that she managed to avoid uttering for the past few months, ever since she had opened her heart to the ancient world strife with legends, finally escaped from her lips.
An Fei’s absentminded eyes revealed to her the indistinct shadow of a hunched but warming figure, the lingering aura bringing forth a hint of comfort and relief to her troubled mind.
Hua!
“Ah?”
As if responding an unknown cue, threads of golden light streamed from the crystalline walls, wrapping around the young girl’s slumped body.
The threads of warm light gently yet forcefully raised An Fei from the seat of the throne, bringing her to shakily stand before the gate of the first corridor.
The engraving with the horrifying words willed its resentment and anger to infiltrate the young girl’s soul as it had done so before, but the threads of golden light swayed as though fierce and agitated snakes.
An Fei only experienced a momentary quiver at the base of her soul, before the unique sensation returned to normal in the span of a few breaths.
Emboldened by the constant streams of warmth encapsulating her body, the young girl raised her head to face the plate of black metal.
“What’s going on?”
The three words retained the effect of inducing a great fear into the depths of her heart, but the terrifying phenomenon of the ambient noise and the scarlet haze had vanished.
Her soul remained intact under the protection of the golden threads wrapped around her body, causing a hint of warmth and suspicion to well up within her mind.
Why… was this happening?
The engravings above the first corridor’s gate nearly burned her mind to ashes and crumbled her sense of reality, and the Sanctum dispatched the golden threads of divine essence to rescue her from succumbing to her shock.
Moreover, the protection of the divine threads caused her to gain a temporary resiliency to a portion of the intimidating effect of the engravings, but…
“…if it were a toxic element, why would the Sanctum allow it to even remain?”
The golden threads did not allow the young girl to respond, and it seemed that the Sanctum itself wished to retain the information as a secret.
Before An Fei could begin ruminating on her sudden insight towards discovering a possible explanation to the bizarre events, the golden light wrapped around her body wrenched open the metal gates to hurl her body into the first corridor.
“Hey! Wait!”
Having deposited the young girl into the seemingly infinite corridor, the golden threads retreated into the main throne hall, quickly vanishing into the crystalline surfaces. Despite An Fei’s startled calls, she was soon left alone in the corridor that remained close in her memories.
The young girl rubbed at her shoulders to ease the sentiment of discontent and aggrieved emotions, staring towards the end of the corridor as though she could determine the precise distance.
An Fei took a deep breath to relax her nerves, before releasing a sigh of exasperation.
“What was that about? Why is the Sanctum being rather strange tod – ouch!”
Pak!
A foreign object dropped from the ceiling to collide roughly against the back of An Fei’s head, the sharp pain prompting a wave of suppressed tears to well and stream from the corner of her eyes.
The young girl crouched to the ground as she clutched the back of her head with both hands, faint groans of unwillingness and bitter protest escaping her throat.
It really hurt!
The <Steps of Underlying Shadow> had decided to join the Sanctum in its mutiny, hence the blow from the sharp edges of whatever was falling on her head had not been mitigated in the slightest!
“Wuu…”
An Fei swore that at the back of her head, was a noticeable swelling where she had been suddenly struck.
The young girl stamped her feet to drive out the remainder of the scathing pain from her attention, sweeping her gaze across the crystalline floor in anger.
The floors were clear, the walls were devoid of any foreign objects, and the ceiling was clear… the ceiling was clear… the ceiling was not clear!
Directly atop her head, was an oriental folding fan, neatly folded with elegant clasps of jade…
Pak!
“Ah!? W-why are you –“
Pak!
“Wuu….”
