Chapter 403: Archon

Jack, Brock, and Min Ling fell down the hole. As Spacewind’s attack dissipated on the space above them, they were relieved—which quickly turned into new worries as they gazed down. They were falling through seemingly infinite darkness. The walls were smooth around them, and there was no bottom in sight.

“This can’t be good,” Jack said.

“Big fall for big bro,” Brock added like it was natural.

“Try to slow down!” Min Ling shouted. They galvanized their Dao, but it was useless. At best, they could decelerate a little. The gravity here wasn’t only extreme—dozens of Earth gravities strong and rising—but it was also magical. It possessed its own Dao field, greatly limiting their ability to resist.

Even people like Spacewind or Uruselam couldn’t fly upwards in this hole. As for Jack and the rest, they could only fall a tiny bit slower.

They braced themselves. Half a minute passed with them falling at blinding speed, yet they hadn’t reached the bottom.

“I check,” Brock said, releasing a bro pulse that ran down the shaft even faster than they could. “Okay. I have good news and bad news. What first?”

“The good news,” Jack said at the same time that Min Ling said, “The bad news.” They glared at each other.

“The good news is that bottom safe. No spikes. No monsters.”

“Great,” Min replied. “And the bad news?”

“Bottom not far away.”

They instantly crashed into hard rock. Jack felt the air leaving his lungs. The rock below them was as magically enhanced as the rest—it didn’t even budge.

Thankfully, Jack’s body was highly tempered so it could resist a fall, but the others weren’t so fortunate. They lay on the ground, gasping for breath as they slowly recovered.

However, these injuries were unimportant. Jack forgot all about them as he stared at the view around them.

They lay inside a small cave at the edge of a large cavern. That cavern was several miles tall and several wide, its floor covered by a pool of glowing red lava. The most striking sight, however, was the massive tree that stood in the middle of the cavern. Its roots dug deep into the lava, while its tallest branches stabbed high into the ceiling, stretching for who knows how long. The other branches were gnarled, carved to end in what resembled wooden dragon heads, and though they exuded an indescribably ancient aura, they also contained vigorous life force. As for the trunk, it was a mile wide and covered in bark that had naturally formed into engravings of dragons.

As soon as Jack laid eyes on this tree, he gaped. The aura it exuded, the timelessness, the strength… It was like staring at a dying God. He instantly knew that this tree was the origin of the temple’s sacred and heavy Dao, the very reason that temple had been built for. In fact, this tree could be the core of the entire hidden realm, its branches spreading for miles underground to become the pieces of wood that speared through the temple tunnels.

As Jack was lost, so were the rest. They could only gape, lost in the majesty. It was only some time later that Brock managed to say, “Wow.”

“This tree…” Min Ling said, whispering unconsciously. “It’s so old. So powerful. What could it be?”

Jack couldn't tell whether this tree had its own conscience. If it had, it was deeply asleep. But even so, this was not an existence they could afford to antagonize. Judging by its aura alone, it was probably at the A-Grade.

At least, this place looked devoid of danger.

A thought suddenly struck Jack. He looked around. Besides their own, there was no other tunnel leading upward—none that he could see, anyway. There was no exit portal either. It was just them. The tree. A hole they couldn’t climb. And a hermetically shut cave.

“Shit,” he said.

The temperature was high, but nothing they couldn’t withstand. A lava lake filled most of the cavern, surrounded by a thin strip of stone between it and the walls, while more stones surfaced from the lava, forming what seemed like a path between the tree and Jack’s current position.

The three looked at each other, then advanced towards the strip. They weren’t too hurt—Min Ling had even found her spear, which had bounced off into the hole after helping block Spacewind’s attack.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

They walked deeper into the cavern. Soon, they reached the lip of the lava lake. A path of stones led to the tree in its center, almost inviting in its desolation, but how could things be so simple? The writing over the hole had promised certain death. There had to be danger.

“Let’s walk around,” Jack suggested.

The three followed the edge of the lake, circling the cavern. They lowered their speed to that of mortals, maintaining full vigilance. Yet, nothing jumped at them. No monster rose from the lake. Not even the slightest wave splashed on the stone, evidence of magma so dense it was immovable.

The silence was deafening—pregnant with danger.

In that tension, they completed half a turn around the lake. That was when Jack felt something. It was an odd calling at the back of his mind, a faint ripple in his Dao perception.

Brock and Min Ling had already sensed it. “Over there,” Min said, pointing at a crack on the wall. It wasn’t particularly large—in fact, it could barely fit a grown man. It also looked manmade. Its edges were jagged and torn, covered by cracked stone, as if someone had taken a sword and madly dug here.

The three glanced at each other. “Let me,” Jack said. “If anything happens, I can survive the longest.”

“Lucky you,” Min Ling replied, a faint smile on her lips.

Jack led the way. He grabbed one edge of the crack and pulled himself into it, tasting the smell of sulfur and death. The path went on. Jack followed a faint vertical decline as he traversed it, but came to a dead end only a hundred feet in.

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Here, the crack didn’t widen in the slightest. It looked as if whoever dug this place had stopped here, either due to exhaustion or death. The latter was probably true—the digger of this crack lay at the very end, a crumpled skeleton folded with no semblance of dignity. It barely fit between the walls. In its hands, a sword was aimed at itself, having penetrated the skeleton’s belly.

This person had dug all the way here and committed suicide.

Jack was shocked. Generally speaking, cultivators possessed incredible mental fortitude. Killing themselves was very rare.

“What do you think happened here?” he muttered.

“Look,” Min Ling said. The three of them were cramped inside this crack, but she managed to extend her arm and point at a broken-off sword tip on the ground. Looking closer, the sword with which this cultivator had ended his life also lacked a tip.

This all painted a gruesome picture. Whoever this person was, they had used their sword to dig a tunnel through the enhanced wall, but swords weren’t meant for digging—the tip had broken off, and the cultivator, in despair, had chosen to end his own life.

Between Jack and Min Ling, Brock shook his head. “Sorry, bro… We were too late.”

“What could have led this person to such a state?” Jack wondered aloud. His other question remained unsaid, but it was clear: would they suffer the same fate?

“Who even is he?” Min Ling asked, furrowing her brows. “We should be the first to discover the hidden realm. Yet, this person looks like they’ve been here for many years…”

“That’s not necessarily true,” Jack retorted. “There are no bugs in this place. His flesh has decomposed not because it was consumed, but because it melted by the extreme heat after it lost his Dao protection. This could have taken anywhere from a few days to a few months.”

“Maybe, but this person killed themselves. Do you think a cultivator able to reach this point would despair so quickly? Who knows how long they spent here before something drove them to suicide?”

“Unless it was madness,” Brock intoned heavily. “The mind is a delicate thing.”

Jack gave Brock a surprised glance—he didn’t expect such eloquent words. He then said, “Both possibilities are valid. In any case, this person wasn’t part of our expedition or we would have known. Let’s keep searching.”

In this dangerous place, advancing without proper care was as suicidal as this unknown cultivator jabbing a sword into their belly. They set their minds to acquiring as much information as possible before venturing into the lava lake.

It was easier than expected. Two seconds into searching, Jack discovered faint writing on the wall behind the skeleton’s back. “I’m sorry, senior,” he said, gently moving the body to the opposite wall. Words were revealed—carved roughly into the stone, as if whoever did it was using a broken sword tip. But the wall was hard. Most letters were barely recognizable. It took Jack and the rest a few minutes of staring to make out the entire text.

Like most writing in the universe, it wasn’t English, but Jack found himself able to read it.

A thousand years of solitude. I can take no more! Blade, pierce my wall! Release me!

Curse you, Dragon Archon, for the hell you trapped me in! There is no key. The key is up there. How could I have known? HOW COULD I HAVE KNOWN?

There was no signature, no name. The text itself barely made sense, the ramblings of someone who’d already lost their mind. This was likely the unknown cultivator’s death rattle.

Yet, the information it contained was important.

“Dragon Archon… Is that the creator of this place?” Jack wondered. He got no response. Turning back, he saw that Min Ling’s face had gone pale as a sheet. “What?” he asked.

She took some time to form words. “Archon… Do you know what that title means?”

“No.”

“It’s transcendence. In this world, the strongest people are A-Grades. That is the highest known realm. However, at the very peak of the A-Grade lies transcendence. A legendary realm of existence, the absolute apex of cultivation, and the cultivators who reach it are titled Archons. Even Old Gods, if their strength had to be categorized, would be particularly strong Archons.”

Jack’s eyes widened. “What!?”

“It is true,” she replied, her chest fluttering. “My master once spoke of these things. It shouldn’t be false.”

Jack was stunned. A realm at the end of the A-Grade—transcendence?

“So Archons are peak A-Grades?” he asked.

“Not exactly. Archons are entities that have taken half a step beyond the A-Grade. Their power is greater than a peak A-Grade’s, though they haven’t really broken through to the next realm, if it exists.”

“And you are saying that the Old Gods are such Archons? That the creator of this hidden realm was an Archon? Could it be an Old God!?”

“There is no Old God who appears as a dragon.” Min Ling shook her head. “If this place really was made by a Archon, it could only be a cultivator—unless this skeleton was mistaken, of course. But…” Her composure returned, overcoming the surprise of encountering the word Archon. “This can’t be right. If this place really was the hidden realm of a deceased Archon, there is no way our diviners could get it so horribly wrong. Plus, there would be A-Grade existences serving as guardians, not B-Grade ones.”

“Then…”

“I don’t know. Let’s just keep looking. The truth will come to light eventually.”

Jack nodded, as did Brock.

“Look,” said the brorilla, pointing back at the writing. “A thousand years… That is long. Poor skeleton bro. Why does he talk about key?”

Jack and Min Ling also returned their attention to the writing. In his final words, this unknown cultivator was raving about a key.

“There is no key. The key is up there. How could I have known?” Jack read, squinting at the letters. Suddenly, his mind flashed. He turned his hand and an item appeared.

This was the treasure of the largest cube. Before, he’d just grabbed it and fled—there was no time to inspect it. Now, however… It did resemble a key.

The back half of this item was like the handle of a key. A green dragon head adorned its rear end, while the entire item was made of aged wood. As for its front, it was not like a normal key, but more like a complex seal—innumerable tiny lines covered a wooden square an inch wide, forming a shape vaguely like a roaring dragon head. Yet, its complexity was unfathomable. Replicating this seal would be impossible.

The key emitted no ripples, no aura. If it hadn’t been the sole content of the central cube from before, Jack would have taken it for decoration.

“Could the key this cultivator missed…be this one?” he couldn’t help but ask. His mind instantly reached a sad possibility. “I think I know what happened,” he spoke slowly. “This cultivator must have wandered the universe outside System space and stumbled upon this hidden realm. He entered, and being a weak B-Grade, rushed past the death dragon without defeating it to reach this place—or, perhaps, he failed to defeat the dragon and had to escape through the hole. He was then stuck here forever. This key must be needed to exit, but after entering this cavern, there was no way to fly back through the hole. The cultivator advanced too quickly, missed a single item, and that completely destroyed him.”

Min Ling felt chills crawl down her spine. “What a horrifying fate. For a B-Grade to die like this is just awful.”

“But fair,” Brock replied heavily. “Dragon Big Bro wrote it on the wall: only death is here. If skeleton bro entered and died, he can only blame himself.”

Those were harsh words, especially when spoken in front of the body. However, no one refuted Brock. The cultivation world was harsh to begin with. Death lurked behind every corner. This cultivator challenged the hidden realm by himself, desiring to reach the apex, and paid the ultimate price.

“What a cruel trap,” Min Ling couldn’t help saying.

Jack was silent. He bowed slightly to the skeleton, then received it inside his space ring alongside the broken sword. “We do not know your name,” he said, “but this is no resting place. You suffered enough in life. Once we exit, I promise to find a good place to bury you.”

“If we exit,” Brock replied, ever the optimist.

Jack gave a sad smile. “Let’s return to the lava lake,” he said. “Let’s see what this senior never did.”