Ruins

"Hm." Xiang Xiang slowly moved through the forest, pushing bushes out of the way.

Various exotic-looking plants were rooted within the forests, only presenting themselves to Xiang Xiang now that she's ventured deep enough.

There were roses with 6 flowers on one plant; crystalline-like. Xiang Xiang was in awe at the beautiful sights and gathered a ton of the plants.

She was confident that at least one of those plants had to have some beneficial effects.

"I wonder what I might come across. I've been in this place before, but I haven't gone this deep..." Xiang Xiang was deep within the forest.

She was both cautious and excited.

After walking for a few more minutes, Xiang Xiang noticed the outline of a stone structure on the ground. The stone itself looked incredibly ancient and gave the impression that it'd crumble with the slightest touch.

'Hm... All that's left is the foundation of what I'm guessing was a shelter..."

Xiang Xiang continued walking until she felt the ground under her sink rapidly. Before she could react fast enough, she fell. Her view had completely changed from a vast forest to the entrance of some type of underground ruin.

Xiang Xiang was rather intrigued by this sudden turn of events and tried to peak inside of the ruins.

'What is this?' She thought to herself. She created a few balls of glowing Killer Qi to illuminate her surroundings.

Xiang Xiang looked through the illuminated passage and discovered that it was nothing but a long corridor that led to someplace else. There were dried-out and destroyed torches attached to the wall, along with a few skeletons that were on the precipice of turning to dust.

A thick and ancient smell permeated the ruins, giving Xiang Xiang the idea that the ruins had been abandoned for a long time.

Since she had entered the dungeon in hopes of stumbling across things like this, she took a deep breath before entering the ruins.

She walked lightly upon the stone floor while observing the skeletons and torches. When she came across the first skeleton, she touched it out of curiosity.

It immediately turned into fine grey dust upon Xiang Xiang's light touch. She continued walking through the corridor...

As she reached the end of the corridor, or what she believed was the end, the orbs floating around her lit up more of the ruins. From then on, there were three directions that she could go in that led to different places.

Xiang Xiang quickly realized that the ruins were more of a maze than anything. She felt a headache coming on when she recalled her past involving mazes.

She hating nothing more than mazes.

She sighed before going through the left tunnel. Upon entering the tunnel, she began hearing various inhuman noises that sparked her interest and made her cautious.

All that was around her was another corridor, the same as the one she came through before. But at the end of the corridor, there were two paths she could follow. Xiang Xiang could faintly hear the inhuman noises originating from the left path.

She also noticed that the skeletons within the corridor were dressed with pieces of rusted armor. They looked as if they were glorious pieces of equipment in the past. But alas, too much time has passed, causing their glory to wane.

"What exactly have I stumbled across?" She muttered to herself before intentionally going down the left path. She wanted to discover the origin of those noises, whether it'd kill her or not.

Even after watching so many horror movies, she still made such a choice.

The noises only grew louder the closer Xiang Xiang got to the end of the left path. There were no more skeletons, and instead, the sounds of chains clattering could be heard in tandem with the vicious shrieks.

Xiang Xiang quickly materialized a thin katana by her side and approached carefully. The room at the end of the left path was dark and instantly became silent when Xiang Xiang entered.

Due to her being at the Qi Refining realm, she had no trouble seeing through the dark of the room. Her gaze instantly locked onto a an odd-looking being that lingered in the corner of the room. The room was about the size of the average one-bedroom apartment.

The creature's body was entirely black and it's shoulders, chest, arms, and legs were covered in bright white engravings. The creature was bald and its eyes glowed white, and it had a pair of short horns that curved downward on its forehead.

'What is that? It's like some kind of fallen angel...' Xiang Xiang recalled the foolish imagination of humans thousands of years ago and their assumptions of fallen angels. Regardless, the being before her seemed to match a small piece of that description.

The creature halted its violent shrieks and turned to face Xiang Xiang, before pointing at her and speaking the human language.

"You... I smell both the auras of fate and chaos on your body..." The creature's eyes seemed as if they could perceive something that Xiang Xiang couldn't. They glistened with a mysterious tint and the creature's dark expression suddenly turned solemn.

'What is this thing?' Xiang Xiang thought to herself as she observed it.

The creature's posture suddenly changed from slumped over like frankenstein's henchman to an alert man. It's body flickered and the creature suddenly disappeared from its original location without expending the slightest bit of Qi.

Xiang Xiang's expression turned solemn as well and she immediately placed her katana forward.

The creature appeared before her with its hand grasping the katana's blade as if it were a piece of wood.

Without much resistance, the creature shattered the blade with its bare hands. Just as it was about to kill Xiang Xiang, it stopped for some reason.

"You contain the humans fate... Pardon my past actions... Follow me, I have something for the bearer of humankind's fate..." The creature said.

With that, the entire ruins began to shake uncontrollably.

Xiang Xiang didn't know whether to celebrate or to be cautious. It took her a while to process the fact that the creature had crushed her sword with incredible ease.

This was a giant red flag and signal that she shouldn't get on its bad side or test it.

Or else it'd kill her in but a second.