29 A mythical beast
~~~~~~~~~
Stillness roamed the pathway as the horrific phenomena signs vanished like a mirage, scattered bones, and the sitting swoony youth, with a strong scent of blood coming from his body, was the only thing that remains in the space.
After hearing the screeching sound, I finally breathed a sigh of relief, dropping straight to the ground from the mental, and physical exhaustion.
Looking at the dark ceiling, hardly fighting the urge to blackout, I sighted.
My foot was busted, my fingers white and deprived of blood, while my whole body was filled with scars.
But nothing mattered to me; at this moment, the adrenaline rush made my body senseless; hence, I faintly smiled, looking at specifically nowhere.
Even the system shot a jolly cry, making mechanical gunshot noises; he was so delighted. That his robotic way of speaking collapsed, temporarily getting replaced by a street thug way of conversing he learned from my memories.
<Hell yeah, homeboy, I never doubted you dawg>
"..." I didn't reply, ignoring him while thinking about the next test.
I never thought my life was valuable till today; such a feeling was addictive, not that I want to try to feel it again; the odds of surviving are too slight. But since I did, I think I will keep bragging till death comes.
Few seconds passed, I relaxed for a couple of minutes, listening to my unstable heartbeats.
However, my expression switched fast to an urgent one, remembering that I still have one more test to go through.
«What does that bastard have in store for me» I wondered, yet, my question was instantly answered with a buzzing sound.
{
The next test will start after 5 seconds.
}
"5"
"4"
"3"
"2"
"1"
I waited, but nothing happened, no blacking out, no grim reaper came to hunt my soul, no painful traps, just lull.
"Huh!?" What's happening?" I chimed.
Adding, almost immediately, "Oye, bastard ghost, where did you go?"
Bones in the ground started to shake fiercely, dancing under my eyes.
Like a shadow moved them with invisible threads from above, playing with them as he likes, but that wasn't the only thing that being played with; my heart also fluttered from fright, sending shivers and goosebumps through my whole skin.
In a matter of seconds, they shaped themselves into the familiar mini skeleton I encountered in the first challenge.
He stood up, headless, oddly searching for his missing part, before finally finding it in a corner and stuffed it inside the neck bones.
"Clack* Clack*
The head was eventually fixated in its original place, and he finally turned his head to face me.
The marble wall shone, and blood words appeared.
{
In the history of conducting these tests, nobody managed to survive till now; I truly salute you.
I attended to give you a last impossible task so that your misery would end. And even the reward was only a black bone; in the standard case, if you have the black lotus fire to help shape it into a sword, it would be considered a valuable treasure. However, not even I have such an incredible item.
But surprisingly, I received an order from my master, the mighty YaoGui spirit, after he got slightly impressed by your performance and saw something inside of you, ultimately deciding to bestow upon you a test on his own.
}
Upon reading the words, I gaped, "A test?"
«Why would such an ancient demon be interested in me?»
Following that, the marble wall changed words.
{
The test my master conveyed to you is the "Vex House."
The rules are as following:
1-Spend the night, and Survive till tomorrow.
2-Unravel the mystery of the house.
3- don't lose your sanity.
4-And, most importantly, exit before the first ray of the morning shone.
Reward: Yougui's most precious personal companion son, one of the two celestial beasts of hell only child, "Horse face." the Guardian of Yama's portal of Hades.
A sacred rank beast.
}
Yama was one of the principal officers of the jade emperor court; fierce and dark like a heap collyrium, some claim he's the god of death and the judge of the narkas or, in other words, "Hell," A wise creature who watches over the cycle of rebirth. In contrast, others think that he doesn't have anything to do with being a jury, and his real work is to watch over the purgatorial aspects of hell.
One of his servants is a horse-face mythical beast. Initially, he was just a horse working on a farm, but after his master worked him to death, Yama took pity on him and gave him power making him one of his soldiers.
Of course, no cultivator could clarity such myths nor their origin; the old passed it to the young, and the latter passed it to his descendants.
But everyone knew that it existed, as it was listed in the beast catalog inside the palace of the kingdom.
In the novel, beasts were separated into gates, and each gate contains ten ranks, as following from the weakest to the strongest: initial gate, Earth gate, sky gate, nascent gate, sovereign gate, sacred gate, and divine gate.
There are only a few sacred rank beasts in the whole world, scattered between the planes; most of them are deeply sleeping to conserve their lifespans, sealed or dead.
YaoGui's personal companion, "horse-face" also long perished. However, he left a foal and hide it in this mountain, intrusting it to the smiling ghost till a suitable companion appears to lead him to his original home, the underworld;
High ranking beasts need thousands of years to reach adultery on their own; it's already been years since he's been locked up here, yet, his strength only reached the normal gate stage seven.
Seeing the reward with his own eyes, a fire lit up in jin heart; one of his dreams is to ride a beast as big as an island, as tough as Diamond, and as scary and ferocious as a heavenly dragon.
«Holy shit! A sacred beast! I am about to wreck the sect but wait a minute, don't tell me I stole Chun-fated companion?»
<The villain never even knew about such a hidden beast; in fact, throughout the whole novel, this beast remained solo>
«And why would they show him to me then?» Jin exclaimed.
<Like the spirit said he saw something inside you, most likely we will know about it after you clear the test>
<...>
<If you can clear it>
