One Wish to Own the World



Tiara was getting stressed; they didn't consider the possibility of not hearing each other because of the canyon. They couldn't match their thrusts without talking, and they'd risk separating if they tried to do it without matching their strikes.

Tiara started considering just doing it and letting the other two die if they failed to copy her actions in time.

"All right, we can hear each other now."

She suddenly heard Alaric's voice and sighed in relief when she remembered he had Sound Qi.

"In the count to three, thrust your weapons into the wall for exactly 5 seconds. One… two… three!"

One spear, one sword, and one saber pierced the canyon's wall, leaving behind a deep trail as the three slowed down their descent. After counting to five, they all pulled their weapons back.

This process repeated itself twice more until they were on the verge of entering the mist.

"We don't know what will happen inside the mist, so be prepared for any danger!"

As soon as the ice touched the red fog, Tiara felt a strong interference with her Qi. The three discs instantly melted, and she hurriedly generated new replacements. However, she found it too hard to maintain three, and without a second thought, she let the other two melt again and took care of herself.

"I can't hold it; the mist is ruining my Qi techniques!"

But nobody heard her words; Alaric's Sound Qi got canceled as soon as he was covered in mist. 

Tiara felt a small object hitting her chest, and looking down, she saw her Blood Token there. She didn't know if it was Ken's doing or the place's, but she placed it in her pocket and kept descending. 

To her fright, her weapon never found the wall again; every time she thrust it, she missed. The fog messed up her sense of direction, and she couldn't do anything other than do her best to control the ice disc until she crashed into the solid ground.

"Ah!"

The woman let out a groan of pain as she performed a roll to distribute the impact throughout her body. She didn't do it perfectly, but she managed to prevent any serious injuries. She felt that the bones in her legs cracked, so she took a healing pill and concentrated on absorbing the effects.

'I wonder if the other two managed to survive the fall somehow. If they were fast enough, perhaps they managed to use the wall?'

She remembered how she failed to find the walls, but she also knew that the other two weren't any weaker than her and had their own strengths. She soon felt suffocated by the mist and unconsciously deployed her Ice Qi around her to relieve the pressure.

Her face revealed a hint of surprise right away. When she activated her Ice Qi around her, she felt something calling to her from behind her. She didn't notice it earlier when she used the ice disc, probably because of the pinch she was in.

'Ken mentioned this place is an inheritance ground meant for Elemental Qi. Maybe the suffocation inside the mist is meant to make us use our Qi, which would be detected by some formation.'

The young woman believed that the formation's role was to guide the cultivators to the right place for them in the chasm and prevent them from trying to steal everything.

Still cautious, she followed her instincts and headed toward the voice she could hear. As far as she could know, it could also be a trap, so she never let down her guard.

After an uneventful session of walking while being in full alert mode, she could finally see further than a few centimeters ahead. 

'That's why this place is called "Mystic Chasms", as in plural,' Tiara smiled as soon as she saw the scenery in front of her.

She found another small chasm, which seemed like a tunnel that led to a cave underground. What made her smile wasn't the additional chasm; it was the ice that covered the walls of the tunnel. It made her more confident in her assumption that the place guided the newcomers to the right place for them.

·ƈθm 'I wonder if cultivators without any Elemental Qi can survive this place. Since they can't use any specialized Qi that the formation tries to detect, they might just wander here until they die.'

Tiara tried earlier to push the bloody mist away with her Saber Qi, but the voice stopped calling her, and only silence took its place. Taking Ken's words into account, she deduced that the formation only called for those that used Elemental Qi.

'It'd cause a lot of casualties among those that try to enter the chasm without any information about it. I guess that's an evil sect for you.'

The lady was also worried that Ken, whom she never saw using any Elemental Qi, will be lost here forever, along with her free ticket to the strongest sect in the continent. She calmed down when she remembered he still had his Escape Token.

She looked around her before descending again. The opening in the ground had a radius of 5 meters, and it was free of red fog. Not only the opening was clear, but also the area 5 meters around it had no fog, allowing her to see clearly.

'Maybe I should wait here to ambush other Ice Qi cultivators for extra BP before entering?'

She pondered before deciding against it; while this plan might work, it could easily backfire. She must not forget that she wasn't in the Labyrinth of Blood anymore, where everyone was only at the fourth stage. She could easily meet a tragic end by facing a peak Nascent Soul cultivator.

Another reason not to do it was that she couldn't sense the blood tokens inside the mist; it blocked her senses almost completely, which meant both she and the enemy would be surprised to see each other every time someone would come out of the mist.

'Let's go.'

With those inspiring words, Tiara sat down on the icy ground and slid into the tunnel.