Chapter 356: 356
They walked down the sloped tunnel . At first, it was only slanted slightly, but soon sloped down to almost seventy degrees .
After a good fifteen minutes and a turn, they finally saw a light at the end . They walked toward the light for another ten breaths before Zhang Songhui stopped .
"Please stop for a moment . " He raised his hand . "We're about to see the divine beast that guards the entrance . Don't be frightened .
"Giggle . "
The girl in the red dress laughed . Zhang Songhui seemed like he was exaggerating .
But Zhang Songhui didn't take notice of her behavior and ignored it . He raised his hand and drew some simple symbols in the air in front of him .
"Boom…!"
With a faint rumble, a black, a half-circular hole slowly appeared in front of them . It was over ten meters in diameter .
A dot of gold burst from the center . It was a golden flame the size of a fist .
The golden flame grew and grew, becoming wider and longer . Suddenly, it exploded, forming a golden rectangular door .
Numerous fragments of jewels and gems were embedded into the door . Colorful gems formed a huge face in the door that looked at the people silently .
"Hiss…"
From the top of the door, a huge serpent with the face of a human slowly slid down in the golden flames . The face was that of a beautiful girl with white, golden hair . Her irises were golden, and she looked at Zhang Songhui and the rest silently .
"Please enter," the human-faced serpent spoke slowly . Her voice was mixed with the sound of metals clashing, and had a piercing quality to it .
"Thank you, Madam . " Zhang Songhui lowered his head in respect . All the others quickly paid their respects too, including the guy and girl who were boasting about their money . From their expressions, they knew who this person was .
Lu Sheng gave the huge serpent an extra glance in curiosity before lowering his head .
"Buzz…"
The huge door slowly opened, revealing a golden vortex .
"Imagine yourself walking in," Zhang Songhui whispered .
They all understood . Taking a step forward, they all turned into golden beams of light and shot into the vortex .
***
When he opened his eyes again, Lu Sheng found himself standing in a small room . The walls were covered with pale blue wallpaper .
Beside him were the others that had been with him .
Zhang Songhui stood in the front, looking at them .
"Now that you've come to your senses, please come out . Otherwise, you will block the other people trying to come through . " He smiled .
The few people that already made it in hurriedly walked out of the room .
Lu Sheng glanced back . The room they had come through was like a dressing room, with over ten of them standing in a row . All these tiny rooms were located in a larger golden-white hall . There was an arched gate on one side, and the other three sides were filled with these little rooms .
They only walked out of one . People walked in and out of the other ones .
"I'll take you guys around . There is a map of this area in the crystal in the center, so you can go see where you want to go . Additionally—"
Zhang Songhui didn't finish before he was interrupted by the red dress girl . "That's enough . Someone's here to pick me up, so I'll take my leave . " As she said so, she left the hall .
All the other people also excused themselves by saying someone was here to pick them up .
Soon, there were only Lu Sheng and Zhang Songhui left .
Zhang Songhui shrugged and looked toward Lu Sheng .
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"Don't look at me . No one's here to pick me up . " Lu Sheng smiled .
"That's okay . I've been picking up people for a long time now, and almost nobody waited for me to finish . " Zhang Songhui also smiled .
"You've just arrived, so you're exempted from paying living expenses for a month . I'll take you to the living quarters . After a month, you'll have to start paying rent . One word of advice: here in the Inner Quarters, money is the most important thing . Everything else comes second . "
"I understand…" Lu Sheng nodded . "How many people can the Inner Quarters house?"
"I'm not sure . No one has ever counted . But I think there are at least a few thousand," Zhang Gaohui said thoughtfully . "It's because there are people getting kicked out constantly, while others come in . No one knows the exact number . "
"Do all the Thousand Sun Sect branches located in prefectures require so much money?" Lu Sheng couldn't resist asking .
"The others are better . They also ask for money, but the Moling Prefecture is especially bad . Most of the others are much better," Zhang Songhui said resignedly . "Please don't blame them . You should know since you entered the Thousand Sun Sect that the founder was born a merchant . So, this situation is completely to be expected . "
"Okay…" Lu Sheng was speechless .
"Let's go, I'll take you to the registration and get you your living arrangements . "
Zhang Songhui led Lu Sheng out of the hall .
Outside was a clean, white space, almost like the inside of an enormous church . Above them was a white arch with a gold, glowing ball in the center, giving off a soft and warm light .
Below were all sorts of different styles of white buildings with the occasional golden house .
The two walked out of the hall and into a square . There was a hexagon-shaped crystal in the center of it .
The crystal was more than ten meters wide and was lying flat on the ground . The inside of it was faintly golden, and spells and symbols flashed across the corners .
Apart from a few people gathered around the crystal, there was no sign of life anywhere around them . Occasionally a talisman might fly across the sky, or a few shadowy figures flash through the square and disappear among the buildings, but that was it .
Zhang Songhui stood in front of the crystal . He wrote on one of the corners, quickly inputting all of Lu Sheng's information .
"Okay . this will be your address, don't lose it . " He handed a small crystal ball to Lu Sheng . "In the Inner Quarters, this is your pass . Don't lose it . "
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"Okay . " Lu Sheng nodded .
"I'll see you again sometime, then . I'll be leaving first . " Before Lu Sheng could say anything else, Zhang Songhui turned around and left swiftly .
Lu Sheng watched him leave . He then held up the crystal ball to try to figure out how it worked .
He inserted True Qi into it and it slowly lit up . There was a gold thread suspended inside, like a worm, and it pointed toward his front left .
He knew the basics of what this was now .
Holding the crystal ball, he crossed the square and wandered on the empty streets for a bit .
This was pretty similar to the Outer Quarters . No one was outside, and if they were, they were all walking hastily or had expressions full of stress and worry .
The layout of the area was similar to the one above ground too . Apart from color differences between the buildings and that golden ball above their heads, everything was the same as it would be in daytime above the ground . Using his crystal ball, Lu Sheng soon found the house he was allocated .
It was an empty four-cornered living quarter . His room was the 67th house . There was no one to welcome him or explain anything . He had to figure out everything on his own .
As soon as he walked into the garden, Lu Sheng saw a large notice board facing the gate .
There were all sorts of black leaves on it . Each leaf was as long as a person's forearm and contained information about different kinds of notices .
Which elder was teaching, what day the Secret Arts Library would put new secret arts on display, what new creatures the Spirit Training Arena has captured, etc . , etc .
Lu Sheng reached out and pulled a leaf down to see its texture . But no matter how much he bent it, it didn't break .
"Interesting . " He smiled . He looked up at the golden ball .
With his senses, he could tell that the ball was not there to act as a light, but instead was a huge true essence ball .
White threads of true essence shot up from below and entered into the ball . It then returned small amounts of golden true essence which scattered and fell down .
"What a powerful matrix…" Lu Sheng breathed deeply . He could sense that the true essence in the air was very pure . Although it wasn't as dense as it was in the Secret Area, it was purer and without any impurities . This way, it was faster to absorb .
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He also noticed that the golden true essence the ball gave off only landed on living quarters and nowhere else .
"This is why living costs money here," he said in a moment of realization .
Entering the garden, Lu Sheng found his own room through the direction the crystal ball gave him . There were no keys . He only had to touch the door using the crystal ball for it to open .
Lu Sheng didn't waste any time . He went in, locked the door, shut the curtains, and inspected every corner . After making sure everything was safe, he quickly sat down on his bed, crossed his legs, and started chanting his master's name silently to enter the Secret Area .
***
"Hiss…"
Lu Sheng opened his eyes and looked around . He was in Master Su Ningfei's underground cave again .
Su Ningfei wasn't there, but there was a black stone table that was shaped like an altar . A few things were on it .
Lu Sheng walked over . It was a yellow, stone board with a few messy knife cuts on it .
There was a small line carved next to the stone slate: "Understand this slate to become a Divine Lord . "
Lu Sheng's curiosity was immediately hooked . He knew this was Su Ningfei's pointer in breaking through to Devil Lord .
"What I'm missing right now is mental energy, the difference in mind and soul . Master knows this, yet she still left this stone slate for me . That means the stuff on this can improve my soul . " Understanding his master's intentions, he picked up the irregular slate and examined it carefully .
But there was nothing on the slate at all, not even a hint . Maybe Master Su Ningfei was waiting for him to finish his mission first before explaining .
Lu Sheng set the stone slate down and looked around . Green emeralds were embedded into the wall for lighting purposes, and a huge crystal was placed in the ceiling so that the golden sunlight could shine through with beams of light .
After searching around for a bit, he made sure there were no new exits or hints . Defeated, he returned back to the table and sat down to ponder on the stone slate .
"Devil Lord, Divine Lord . In essence, those are really similar to Divine Weapons and Devil Blades . It's an improvement in the quality of my life and soul . To reach that realm, I need a higher-level soul since my body is already strong enough . If I can just understand this stone slate…"
Staring at the stone slate, he started examining the knife slashes . But after a long time, he still couldn't figure anything out . These knife marks were the same as any other . For a bit, he even suspected Su Ningfei found a random piece of stone to trick him .
"Deep blue . " He decided to ask his cheating device for help .Please download our sponsor's game to support us!