Chapter 36: Black Mechanical Golem

"Demon?" Dao Wei echoed, clearly confused.

Before he could protest, the centaur charged at him, sword raised.

"Die!" the centaur roared.

Dao Wei's expression darkened, the calmness vanishing from his demeanor as an intimidating aura radiated from him. "Courting death?" he muttered.

With a simple gaze, he sent the centaur flying a hundred feet back, the creature's organs crushed under the sheer force of Dao Wei's power.

The female centaur rushed forward, panic in her eyes. "Please, no more! Don't kill him!"

Dao Wei looked at her and finally noticed her true beauty—her emerald green eyes, flawless light skin, and flowing black hair. Even her horse body and horns couldn't detract from her ethereal appearance.

"Well, he attacked first," Dao Wei said, his voice still cold. "I was just being generous."

"I know," the centaur girl said softly, her voice calming Dao Wei as well. "I apologize for his rashness. But our tribe are the defenders of this place—the home of our Lord. You must not trespass here. Please, leave."

"You hold them here! I'll get the others!" the male centaur shouted as he fled, not even looking back.

Dao Wei and the girl both watched him in disbelief.

"Well, that was rather cowardly," Dao Wei said with a laugh. "He just left you here alone."

"I... Please..." The girl struggled to find the right words, clearly torn between duty and the fear of facing Dao Wei alone.

"Look, you don't have to worry," Dao Wei assured her, his voice gentle. "I have no intention of hurting you."

He extended his hand, his smile disarming. "Let's start over. My name is Dao Wei. I have no idea how I ended up here, but I'm pretty sure this is exactly where I need to be. What's your name?"

The girl hesitated for a moment before speaking, her confidence slowly returning. "My name is Jendayi. I'm a warrior and guardian of our Lord's home. You say you mean no harm, but why should I believe you?"

Dao Wei was about to answer when he suddenly felt an almost primal pull coming from the towering structure in the distance. Without thinking, he leaped forward, his body moving instinctively as he appeared before the Silver Tower in an instant.

As he stood before the tower's entrance, he noticed a stone pillar to the left side of the gate. Atop the pillar was a reddish imprint of a hand, perfectly matching the size and shape of his own.

"Well... I guess I'm supposed to put my hand on this," Dao Wei mused.

He reached out and pressed his hand against the imprint. The moment he did, a surge of information flooded his mind, and the pedestal began to glow with a radiant, golden light.

Dao Wei's mind was overwhelmed with knowledge, as if the tower itself was imparting its secrets to him. He stood frozen, absorbing the influx of information.

"Well that's certainly a new reaction." Jendayi was shocked beyond belief as she witnessed the Tower respond to Dao Wei. "How... How did you do that?"

"I'm not sure, it just felt right..." Before Dao Wei could even explain, something happened

A coarse voice rang out...

"Inheritor of The SkyTower, destined to rule over all the seven heavens. Since you are here, then from today onwards you will make your own destiny with your hard work."

"You are not allowed to bow your head in front of anyone. You are the owner of yourself and your destiny. Remember, No one has the right to look down on you, no one, not even the heavens."

"No one has the right to look down on me, not even the heavens." Dao Wei murmured this phrase and his blood began to boil.

His eyes lit up and he said out loud looking at the sky, "Yes! I, Dao Wei am the owner of my destiny and myself. No one has the right to look down on me and no one has the right to stand in my path of walking toward the peak of martial arts."

"If devils stand blocking my path, I will cut the devil into thousand pieces, if god stand blocking my path, I will kill it, and if heavens Stand blocking my path, then I, Dao Wei, will split the heavens."

"From this day on, I shall be known as Tian Dao, Heaven's Wrath. All that tries to stop me from advancing shall perish."

As if the Heavens and Earth heard him, a loud noise echoed through the entire world.

Rumble!

Thunder struck and the land shook violently as if loosening all the shackles that bound it. Dao Wei felt something break in his body and an overbearing amount of energy rushed into him. He felt relaxed, calm, and fulfilled.

After all that settled and he had calmed himself down, he suddenly heard the sound of the door opening.

Churrr! Churrr!

At that moment, the Silver Tower's massive gate began to creak open, its ancient mechanisms grinding to life after eons of dormancy.

"How did you do that?" Jendayi clearly couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"It was quite simple actually... I touched the pedestal..." Dao Wei had no idea what was going on just like the girl.

"Wait... What? How did you actually do that? Only our Lord is supposed to be able to... Open the..."

"I must go and tell the elders!" Not waiting for his response the centaur girl turned and ran away.

"Well... There goes another one." Dao Wei shrugged his shoulders and faced the open doors.

He looked at the door and started walking toward it. When he reached the front of the door of the SkyTower, he stopped and looked inside it. There was nothing but only darkness.

"Should I go in or not?"

Dao Wei took a brief moment to think about it before making a decision.

"Forget it, since I am the inheritor SkyTower then I will look into it".

Dao Wei entered through the door which opened up into a courtyard inside the wall. The silver structure he'd seen was but the walls of the castle and the SkyTower was inside the castle.

In the middle of the courtyard, a massive black metal guardian stood imposing. It gave an aura similar to that of Lucid and Ailia.

Once inside, Dao Wei felt a similar weird feeling he felt at the cave. Somehow he knew this place, it felt familiar. Yet, he'd never been here. But looking around, Dao Wei felt a central type of familiarity and comfortability.

"Home..." Dao Wei muttered to himself. The feeling was really weird yet so familiar.

Sigh...

Dao Wei couldn't explain it but he felt like he was really home.

The courtyard was beautiful and looked as if it was being maintained as if someone had been taking care of the place.

Suddenly the machine activated, a red light glowing on its forehead. "Intruder detected, initiating countermeasures.

Before Dao Wei could even react, the black metal golem crossed the courtyard appearing right infront of him.

"It's fast!" Dao Wei thought.

It began engaging in a fight with him, and somehow he couldn't activate his Qi and had to rely on his physical body.

Unconsciously, his body reacted quickly create a blue sphere of pure arcane energy around him.

Bang!

The shock shook the entire castle and the black golem seemed to malfunction a bit. The red light flickering as if it was about to die off.

The shockwave seems to have been working, but then the golem got back to full power.

"Good news, I'm still alive. Bad news, I don't think I even made a dent." Dao Wei was shocked, the force from the golem was enough to annihilate stars and talk more about his still developing body.

"How the hell am I supposed to beat this thing?"

As Dao Wei was still trying to figure out what to do, the golem stood back and didn't seem to be going to attack.

"Accessing power signature. Signature recognized. New protocol initiated."

"Welcome home, Master." The golem spoke to him, its red light now glowing green.

"Master? Me?" Dao Wei was taken aback by the sudden change of things.

"Correct, you are my creator, my Master." The golem replied.

Dao Wei remembered he'd just become the SkyTower's Master, and thus the master of everything inside.

"Mmm... Just like the door, it seems to recognize me." Dao Wei was happy with the turn of events. He was just a step away from taking full control of this place. He had a tribe of guardians and an absurdly strong golem protector, what or who would he even fear in this world?

"Hey, big guy, will you let me pass now?"

The golem moved aside and motioned for him to pass, "Of course, this is your home Master."

"Do you have a name?" Dao Wei asked.

"I was designed as project K.V.L.T or kvlt." The Golem responded.

"Hmmm.. so you're a black golem named kvlt?"

"Correct, Master," Kvlt replied

"Are you the guardian of this place?" Dao Wei continued with his curious questions.

"I was designed as your Guardian and sparing partner. Would you like to resume the previous session?" Kvlt asked.

"Uhmm... Not now." Dao Wei replied he wasn't planning on playing with a metallic golem any time soon.

"Any other questions you would like to ask, Master?" Kvlt was really a caring and straightforward golem.

"No. Nothing else for now." Dao Wei replied

"Very well, Master. I will resume Sentry Mode." With that, Kvlt took on Sentry Mode and Dao Wei proceeded to the actual Tower.

He tried to open the doors and they opened without any resistance.

When they opened, instead of a building, it was a portal. But more advanced and complex than the one Ailia opened.

'Given everything here seems to be mine... It should be safe to enter.' Dao Wei thought for a moment and then stepped through the portal.

When he opened his eyes, he was in some sort of a hall. Two stairs on each side led upstairs, and several doors were in the room. Between the stairs, blue flames burned warmly as if it were eternal. The space inside was a lot bigger than you see from the outside, some sort of folded space.

This type of power was beautiful... And impossible. Whoever that created this place was a genius. The rooms were a product of the space around them being folded. The actual size is probably as small as the space between the door and the wall, but when one passes into the room they will experience it in full size.

The blue flames in the hall radiated power even stronger than the one he felt with Lucid or Ailia. It seems to be the one powering the entire place, probably even stronger than World Roots.

This place was amazing and Dao Wei could discover a lot of things from the tower, but for now, he had to get stronger first so he could enjoy this place.

He picked a door at random from the many doors in the hallway. Inside there was nothing on this floor except for a cauldron, and a black dragon circling around it.