Chapter 71 – Spatial Tunnels aren’t very safe...

Jack can feel a slight pull on his finger where the newly created ring is, stealthily looking around the area he can't see anything of note.

There is only Drakon and himself in the immediate area while the various soldiers and guards are further back watching the scene while also training. Even further in the distance a demonic sheep is quietly on looking at the going on as it looks between Jack and the orb floating near to him, a strange light flashes in its blank eyes before it turns around and leaves.

*DONG*

A loud clock sound fills the immediate area drawing attention from everyone in the area, Jack's heart is pounding in nervousness as he waits patiently to see what's going on while also keeping a close eye on the ring to ensure the shadowed figure doesn't get close again.

*DONG DONG*

A clock sound resounds again, this time no one will make a sound as a weird tension washes over the crowd. Jack and Drakon make subtle eye contact, but both shake their head to indicate that they each can't see the shadowed figure.

*DONG DONG DONG*

A large gateway appears not far from the red orb that is still sealed by the shimmering barrier of the 4-direction formation.

The gateway looks ancient and worn but countless inscriptions of animals are layered over the gateway, a symbol of a rabbit with a large moon behind it appears lit up while a tightly closed door blocks the way, a large keyhole appears prominently on the door.

The ring has no further reactions so Jack takes a final check of all the equipment he has brought, Albert has taken the storage ring again while his main spear is being repaired by the dwarves, there's nothing left for him to decide around the village while Jessica and Amber are probably still sleeping after trying to keep up with the dwarves drinking last night.

Jack steps toward the gateway with his heart pounding, he's taking a gamble right now as he holds the Jade Palace Key.

This is either an elaborate trap or a strange system that's part of the game world…

He steps slowly towards the gateway, trying to calm down when he's given a slight startle by the key that has left his hand and is floating toward the door, his footsteps pause as the crowd watches the key fly into the door in silence, the key unlocks the door that creaks open slowly.

It emits a blindingly bright light from the slight crack between the creaking doors as it opens slowly causing everyone to either look away or block the light with something, Jack tries to block it with his hand but feels something touching the back of his hand strangely attempting to lower it.

"Go… GO!"

The strange voice tickles his ear sending a shiver up his spine, but Jack feels himself being pushed toward the door. He attempts to use the ring according to the instructions, but nothing happens to his disappointment. The doorway has opened enough to allow someone to squeeze through while Jack can feel a strange pull on his body towards the red light.

It seems like a trap with the push and the fact this door is pulling him toward it, looking around with his divine sense he's able to see the figure again but this time they're barely perceptible ahead of him so it gives him some hope that it's not a trap. The figure is barely perceptible but Jack can still see the slim figure which if he were to guess; it's a woman.

The figure enters the blindingly bright doorway while Jack does the same after which the door slams shut not allowing anyone else passage including a figure wearing a tattered blue robe and animal mask blending into the crowd.

A rather familiar feeling comes over Jack as if he's falling just like a longer version of the teleportation gates at the system cities but allowing him more time to study it trying to look away from the blindingly bright red ball that fills his vision.

His quick investigations into the tunnel aren't very fruitful after using his divine sense to inspect it. It just seems like an entirely smooth glass-like tunnel made of energy leaving Jack disappointed he didn't uncover more clues about tunnel creation helping his understanding of the 3rd motion of 'Heavens Piercing Thrust'.

Jacks attention quickly turns away from the tunnel toward the shadowed figure before him, it's still barely perceptible but he's able to make out their body that is wearing tight leathering clothing while their face is bandaged up tightly only allowing a dark hole where the eyes should be but Jack is certain that it's a girl now.

The trip continues as he's not able to make sense of anything, the trip on the surface is over nearly instantly but this one has gone on for at least 20 seconds so far, Jack tries to pull out the replacement spear which works and suggests that this isn't within subspace or 'Ether Space' as the dwarves call it… or perhaps this storage functionality works differently.

The blindingly bright ball seems to be getting larger, Jack still can't look directly at it but Jack feels a familiar twitch in his head as a voice comes over, '..ger Detected, ..arp...danger ahead!'.

Lightning comes out of his body and shocks the tunnel, causing it to crack and splinter but hold together still.

'What did you do? These tunnels are so unstable' Xueli's panicked voice comes over Jack's mind by the time the other voice has finished speaking.

Jack looks at the cracks that are holding while he mutters, "It's holding… but danger ahead…" while he looks around, he can barely make out what looks like something approaching him. It looks like a bunch of red clouds ahead of him that are giving off a weird red glow.

The crack travels along the length of the tunnel as Jack and the shadow travel along it, 'Try hitting the tunnel!'

He doesn't have time to process Xueli's words as he just does as she says.

His fist contacts the cracked tunnel edge causing it to splinter apart, breaking into sizable chunks and ejecting the occupants high in the air, Jack can feel the rushing of air tickle his ear as he inwardly curses Xueli.

"Sink…. to the bottom! Barrier!"

A whispering voice can barely be heard through the rushing air as Jack quickly collects the shattered and splintered pieces of the tunnel as they are dangerously floating by him while he's falling through the air towards the glowing red clouds below, the tunnel looks as though it goes underneath it.

Jack can see the shadowed figure enter the ring on his finger, yet it's freely able to enter and leave the ring leaving him slightly frustrated.

Looking around, he can only see this endless cloud below him as black spires break the clouds now and then, it's just endless as far as the eye can see except for one particular direction that has a large opaque grey barrier not too far away that cuts through the clouds but it doesn't reveal what's below.

"Why'd you tell me to punch the wall?"

'I heard a crunching sound'

"Great… so now what?"

'Use your dragon qi to summon your wings but be silent about it'

"What? Since when do I have wings? Why be silent?"

'SHHHH! DON'T SPEAK ANYMORE!'

The red clouds are fast approaching but strangely Jack doesn't feel danger from his fall, he takes a final look around before entering the clouds, he can see the surface of the world that actually looks rather flat unlike the rounded globe of Earth, filled with various transparent bubbles that cover land but not over the water.

He enters the thick red clouds while his body has a subtle glow within it strangely causing his fall to slow down but his relief isn't long lived as a loud and far away crunching sound fills his ears causing him to shut up and curse himself for no practise using his divine sense to communicate yet.

He passes through the thick red clouds as the subtle golden glow deep within his body doesn't stop, but his vision is filled without something that disturbs him, something that plays into his fears.

As far as the eye can see is a large black ocean, endless still black water yet when the water moves it appears it's wriggling and writhing like it comprises billions of creatures acting as one unit.

Jack pulls out various holy element items, but the shadow exits the ring whispers in his ear, 'Sink, Sink for your only hope' before it disappears willingly into the ring. Jack looks around for anything as he readies a fireball just out of pure fear but Xueli shouts in his mind, 'DON'T.. JUST FALL!'

The still water below is quickly approaching, a golden glow appears from deep beneath the murky depths below him contrasting the red clouds and black 'water', Jack puts everything back while trying to keep calm cycling his cultivation method, a single cycle circulates around his body before he slams into the water.

Quickly sinking into the substance it feels like thousands of tiny creatures are wriggling over every part of his body as his head is covered by the sloshing water but the golden glow deep within his body doesn't stop which seems to resonate with several things in the area that Jack can sense but not see.

Taking a final deep breath, his head is submerged as he just sinks into this endless darkness but strangely he finds out that he can breathe under whatever this substance is, it seems like water but using his divine sense, Jack can see that it's like tiny tadpole like creatures that emit an almost black but partially golden energy around them, billions of them join up and create this ocean like substance.

'DON'T MOVE JUST SINK!'

Xueli yells in his mind, Jack listens to her as he just silently falls through this water-like substance.

Jack tries to store some of these creatures which confuses him as a living creature shouldn't be storable so either these creatures aren't actual creatures or something even weirder is going on with his other storage area than just being able to use it during subspace travel.

The hours tick by as he's just falling, occasionally he'll make a slight twitch but soon after he'll feel massive movements within the water that seem like giant creatures are hunting for whatever made the slightest movement, while this is going on and Jack is quietly hoping that it's not a trap elsewhere on the moon…

"Congratulations on finishing the first event of the Easter Jade Palace Celebrations, we hope that everyone had fun trying to find the items within the inner palace gardens. If you'll follow me I shall take you to the prize area where we shall have a small break between the events, the Princess is looking forward to your participation in the next event where many of you will find it familiar"

The group loosely follows the attendant, there are 11 people following her, these are the participants of the Jade Palace who stepped through the door last night where they have been taking part in various events, the latest is a simple Easter egg hunt that has lasted until mid afternoon just finding painted eggs. The group comprises people in a wide range of ages and looks coming from various places all over the world.

Three people clearly lead the group with a rather arrogant expression on, two of them are rather youthful men who look to come from either America or England while the last one is a middle-aged man from an Asian region.

Following behind this group of 3 are the remaining 8 participants, just normal looking people that don't look well off nor very well equipped for this game but each of them are smiling in their own way after finding out about the rewards they can get from this event.

The event gives all the participants a choice of 1 option from the event reward board while also getting a small fortune in pills and herbs.

The group makes their way through the palace grounds, leaving the inner palace garden area and entering an enormous courtyard before a big open field that extends as far as the eye can see but ends at an ugly grey barrier surrounding the entire perimeter of the Jade Palace.

It's a courtyard area that has a pavilion in the centre raised above everything else, the people mingle around the tables on the outside while the 3 arrogant men separate themselves from the others trying to get a good vantage point to peek inside the pavilion that is shielded from view.

This happens for a few moments before the attendant shouts out, "The Princess would like to wish you all a good and friendly competition, we shall remind everyone that there is to be no fighting nor any usage of qi or you will automatically be ejected from the Palace Grounds"

"We shall begin the next event in 10 minutes, please prepare yourselves as this is the last event and you are only given a single opportunity this time, there are a limited quantity of the higher quality rabbits," the attendant looks toward the 3 arrogant men, "this competition is about quality more than quantity"

Several of the people ignore what's going on and proceed to fill their bellies with the delicacies that occupy the tables while some others have a disappointed look when they discover this competition is about catching rabbits.

"Do we need to take part?" an older woman speaks up.

"No, but there is no time limit as until the missing person from your group turns up we cannot let you go back"

"What does that have to do with us? Just let us get on with this as I need to get back and sign on with 'Epsilon' they're giving me a significant sign-on bonus for telling them about the secret behind the key" a black-haired arrogant young man speaks out.

"You got signed up with 'Epsilon'? Haha they're going to be crushed under the weight of '8-headed Dragon'" the middle-aged Asian man speaks out while the remaining arrogant young man speaks out too.

"Wow 'Epsilon' and '8-headed Dragon'? Why did I get stuck with the dregs? 'Galaxy United' is the team that everyone should unite behind" the final arrogant young man speaks out with a thick British accent.

"Galaxy United? That sounds like some shitty soccer team"

"What did you call it? Are you calling soccer teams shit? Are you calling my team Arsenal shit?"

The three arrogant men devolve into an argument as everyone else is quietly watching the show, unknown to everyone someone that hasn't brought attention to himself is quietly preparing himself with stretches for the event coming up.

10 minutes pass by quickly, the people gather around for the start of the event while Jack's situation has changed.

The trip down to the bottom of this strange black water like substance has been incredibly tense as he hasn't been able to even twitch slightly lest he find out what the gigantic creatures that occupy this substance are. The smaller creatures seem attracted to him but tend to swim away as soon as they come in contact with his skin, something about the subtle golden glow from his bones scares them away.

The sinking feeling slows down as he softly lands on some ground, using his divine sense he's able to see that the ground is strangely golden, like a giant flat golden surface that has the occasional red line going through it. Exploring the immediate vicinity doesn't reveal any clues about what to do, but the ring on his finger is twitching in a certain direction.

Jack starts the slow process of walking through the substance in the direction indicated, each footstep feels agonizingly slow as to not alert the large creatures swimming about, as he quietly hopes to himself that it's the direction toward that grey opaque barrier that was visible while he was falling.

It takes forever just to cross a short distance but Jack still follows the finger as he watches around him trying to ensure nothing sneaks up on him but he unluckily slams into the solid opaque grey barrier causing a jerked movement to agitate the black substance.

Jack's heart pounds as he tries to find an opening, he can feel movement in the watery substance using both his hands on the barrier he can feel the ring vibrate as tiny little patterns sink into the barrier creating an opening briefly within the grey barrier.

Quickly leaping through the barrier Jack takes a deep breath of fresh air and looks behind him, there's just a grey barrier as far as the eye can see while laying on the floor behind him are three fingers with gigantic claws on them like they belong to some gigantic creature.

'Oh it's a Thousand League Murkiness Serpent, how rare' Xueli nonchalantly speaks out in his mind.

"This thing?" Jack inspects the fingers on the ground before storing them away.

'Yep, I hope we don't have to go back that way because it's gonna be mad at you' she giggles in his mind.

"Well first off, where is this? Is this where one of the world secrets lie?" Jack looks around, there's a large white wall not too far away blocking his view but the area seems like a peaceful field compared to the bitter darkness outside the barrier. Jack shakes the ring, but all that happens is the vague pulling is going toward the large white wall.

It doesn't take long to cross the distance toward the wall, Jack tries to jump up it but can't get a foothold up the several hundred metre tall wall. As he runs his finger along it, the ring again emits tiny little patterns that sink into the wall causing a tear to appear where a brightly lit room filled with books is seen through the tear.

'Spatial Tear, Secret Realm entrance, quickly go!' Xueli shouts while Jack quickly enters the tear that seals after him leaving him in a brightly lit study room incredibly confused about what's going on.