Chapter 9: Template

Thanks to his recent breakthrough, Zax’s Soul Sense had attained the qualities of Sublime Soul Sense, which only experts whose souls broke through the third realm possessed. With its aid, he followed the trajectory of the shooting horn up until it entered the Earthly Crater and his Soul Sense rebounded.

His pupils shrank. Before he had the chance to formulate the first thought, to depict the abrupt anxiety in his guts, a tremor originated from the crater. It was not world shaking, but the instant it passed, the gravitational force, which is known for drawing the worldly earthly attribute energy and plunging to the sea those who attempt to traverse by air the range of the spontaneous wall of whirlpools, changed its pull.

A repelling force erupted from the depths, an invisible pillar that thrust from the center of the crater upwards, past any obstacle between it and the last sphere of the planet. The fluctuations it exuded were exceedingly tyrannical, as they spread they pushed away not just substance such as the seawater and its rocky floor down below, but also all types of attribute energy and if Zax was an Immortal, then he also would have sensed the repellent of elemental energies.

BANG!

A ripple slammed into Zax as the range of the fluctuation continued to expand and his exhausted figure rocketed uncontrollably for several kilometers, like a fly getting hit by a human’s hand.

With an involuntary groan Zax was absorbed by the high tidal waves. The impact with the water was violent, capable of inducing pain even to first level Martial Mortal. After the battle with the Horned Eel, Zax was extremely weakened, but still more able than a fourth level Martial Mortal.

His attention was divided to two things as he circulated his dark attribute energy along with the worldly he drew from the surrounding, to accelerate his recovery.

‘It’s getting farther away!’ The Horned Eel’s carcass was carried by the currents after sinking and at this rate there was the risk of him losing it. Aiming his palm at its general direction, a whip of dark attribute energy extended from Zax’s hand, wrapped around the carcass and latched to it with its Swallowing property.

‘Mm? The oddity in the crater is subsiding... ‘ The other thing he paid attention to, the Earthly Crater, gave him the impression of a monstrous beast awakening for its slumber after being interrupted by the Horned Eel’s last attack. As the fluctuations grew fiercer and the invisible pillar sprouted higher, he only expected it to get worse. ‘No gravitational force or whirlpools... !’ His heart skipped a beat.

The area was regaining a calm never been seen before. For a period of time that was impossible to determine, it was actually absolutely safe to cross the whirlpools ridden Gentic Belt!

However, this was only a small part of Zax’s surprise. Assuming, that like everything, the focal point of the calm inaugurated from the Earthly Crater, then it was possible that all obstacles lurking in the crater – mainly those known such as the gravitational force, soul attacks and enchantment – have ceased as well.

Without hesitation or a moment of delay, Zax sprung for the Earthly Crater. This prompt action was not due to rashness or a sign of recklessness, in fact, he thought and remained thinking about the risk factors as he approached his destination.

‘The leaders of the powers will surely come, and maybe are already on their way since the conclusion of my fight with the Horned Eel was inevitable. If the secret of the crater is related to that expert, the treasure the five powers try to unearth, than I can’t let this chance slip!’ He weighted the pros and cons. ‘However, I’ve got to hurry! Should they arrive together or even just Kikon or Beking, as I’m right now I’d be at their mercy’.

Seawater gathered from around, after being repelled by the invisible pillar that vanished when it topped at outer space, and swirled back to fill the void with a crushing might that could flatten any living being below the Peak of the Core Master realm. Nevertheless, to Zax the water appeared to stand still...

He dashed from the seventh ring all the way to the first, cautious of unforeseen abnormalities. Nothing occurred, which gave him the confidence to head for the center of the crater after only a fleeting instant of deliberation.

A hole with a circumference of three hundred meter was located past the first ring as the entrance to the crater’s core. A rancid smell came out of it, like that of acute decay. Zax ignored the smell. He scavenged the deceased Overlord’s Pure Core, left the carcass that was too big for his spatial ring outside, and delved in; attempting to gouge the depth and whet is at the bottom, but to no avail.

‘This is not just blackness’. He assessed. ‘For the moment, Soul Sense seems to function in the crater, but not at the perimeter of this hole. Weirder is the scent ... first it was horrible, but before I fully disregarded it, it became tolerable and as time trickle ... pleasant’. He raised his vigilance, aware that his fondness of smells could not turn perverse unless something external was the cause. ‘Formation?’ He did not reject the idea, despite being unable to detect anything of the sort.

‘Ground’. After descending for less than a minute he found his footing, but in the process he lost his sense of orientation and so could not calculate the hole’s depth.

‘How nice’. A comfortable sensation sprouted from within him. ‘All senses, including Soul Sense, are muffled here; yet, instead of arousing concern it feels wonderful ... I dare say it’s like returning to the womb!’ Without him noticing he became muddleheaded with coziness.

A wrinkle he was oblivious to, made his brows crease. In his sea of consciousness, the relieving sensation even reduced the oppressiveness of the Godlily Retribution. His spirit, in its stance toward the sixth bottleneck of insight, shuddered. It grazed its left foot on the earth of the Inner Panorama and marched forward a pace; shortening the distances of twenty nine steps to its goal by one.

White light bloomed above the sky of the Inner Panorama and suddenly Zax had a splitting headache. The bane of the Godlily Retribution relapsed, countless times – by Zax’s measurement – more domineering than before. Its oppressiveness and the sensation that permeated from the hole in the crater clashed and over ninety percent of the white light dimmed while the sensation was expelled.