Child of Destiny

Chapter 1980: Hunted?

…

Twitch!

With a slight movement of his fingers and a brief trembling of his eyelids, Shin slowly opened his eyes, waking up from what he felt was a long slumber.

Feeling the cold ground and hearing the faint sounds of droplets falling into a small pool nearby, Shin slowly picked himself up.

While people from the Soaring Continent’s forces were worrying about Shin, the man in question found himself lying in a place filled with darkness.

Shin was confused at first before a flood of memories entered his mind, making him recall what had happened.

After shaking off the intense headache that he was suffering, Shin gently sighed before speaking. “Where have you brought me this time?”

He seemed to be talking in the air, but it was clear that he was calling out for Uno, who was in control of the main body earlier.

Uno then replied nonchalantly. [I am not sure either.]

“You-…!” The corner of Shin’s mouth twitched when he heard those words. He wanted to curse on the latter, especially after hearing such a tone, but he knew that it would do nothing.

“What are you planning to do this time? I thought you wanted to consume both the pill and that vessel made of demonic energy, so why are we here?” he asked.

There was a brief silence as Uno refused to answer at first. But he later decided to speak after thinking about it for another time. [That is originally the plan, but I’ve changed my mind after stumbling into this place.]

“Eh!? This place? What is special about this place?” asked Shin subconsciously before turning his head around.

But he could not help but frown deeply after seeing nothing but eternal darkness.

However, he knew that Uno had a purpose when he brought him into this place, so he regulated the flow of mental energy within his body before activating his True Sight Technique.

Focusing his mental energy toward his eyes, he was able to enhance his vision by a great margin while also possessing the ability to see through anything.

Illusions were nothing before these eyes, much less such a thing as darkness.

It was at that moment that he realized where he actually was.

“What!? What is this place?” he asked subconsciously after realizing that they were not in an ordinary place.

At first, he thought that there was nothing special about the place, especially when he saw nothing but pillars at the edges of the room. But he later realized that there were statues in between each pillar, which seemed to be emitting holy auras within them.

Upon closer inspection, he realized that these stone statues seemed to be very similar to the Buddha Statues that he had heard about from his senior brother and the ones that he had seen in the books.

“Now that I think about it, isn’t this an abandoned Buddhist Temple?” he mumbled while trying to recall the information about ancient cultivation methods.

It was clear that these statues were very similar to the Buddhist Temples of the ancient religions and ancient customs.

It was then he heard Uno’s voice saying. [You are right. This is an ancient Buddhist Temple. Moreover, it is not just an ordinary temple, but one of the main temples at that.]

Shin then stood up and started walking around, exploring the temple. It was in ruins and almost unrecognizable, particularly due to the collapsed walls and thoroughly destroyed statues.

Aside from the room where he came from, everything else seemed to be in total ruins.

Shin later discovered that this place was an underground temple. It was mostly inside a mountain or something, especially with the overall structure of the place.

What Shin found magical was the walls surrounding the entire place. The entire temple was in total ruins, but Shin could sense that the walls were filled with special powers.

It was neither Internal Qi nor Mental Energy, but some sort of force that came from an entirely different system.

What he found even stranger about this foreign and unfamiliar energy was the sacred energy that they were giving off. It was oddly similar to his Sacred Qi, but also carried different properties.

“What kind of place is this exactly?” asked Shin, knowing that Uno must have discovered something about this place already.

Another silence followed his question. He was not sure whether Uno was doing this on purpose or if he was trying to organize his words.

A moment later, Uno finally started taking once again. [If I am not wrong, then this place must be among the hidden temples used by a certain branch of Buddhist Monks during ancient times.]

[Or it can also be a special hideout or secret temple solely meant for pursuing enlightenment.]

[The room where you woke up earlier is most likely the center of this place, which can be considered the Zen Room or something.]

Shin slightly furrowed his brows before asking. “What does it have to do with what you are planning?”

[This place is very old. Most likely older than the so-called Ancient Era that you know of.]

[A major event or a huge catastrophe must have taken place in this temple, which resulted in its current state.]

[However, it was later discovered by a certain expert of the latter generation, who had set up that ancient formation that covered the entire place.]

Shin then turned his gaze toward the walls surrounding the ruined temple, particularly the invisible energy that was covering them.

Before he could even ask anything else, Uno immediately continued. [They must have modified the original formation that was supposed to hide this place from the outsiders and transformed the entire place into some sort of cultivation room or something similar.]

[You can also call it some sort of Immortal Abode used by those ancient people pursuing immortality through cultivation.]

At this point, Shin was finally able to figure out what Uno was trying to imply. “So, you are telling me that this place is the perfect place for cultivation or something.”

“The entire place has become a powerful furnace while those surrounding formations are supposed to absorb the surrounding energy and convert it into a fuel that will keep the flames within the furnace working for eternity or such.”

His eyes swept through the entire place, closely observing the grand formation through his True Sight Technique, before sighing. “But don’t you think that the formation is beyond repair? It is not something that I can fix, given my current achievement.”

“You should have brought Teacher along if you wanted to fix this thing,” he added.

[That is a good idea,] answered Uno before adding. [Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to call for that Old Fatty during that time, especially when ’we’ are being chased by someone beyond his level.]

“Someone beyond the teacher’s level?” Shin’s expression suddenly turned grave when he heard this.

He was aware of how powerful his mentalism technique, Grandmaster Benn. As a member of the Elder’s Council, he was among the strongest people beneath the apex of each modern path.

Grandmaster Benn was a half-step Exalted Realm Mentalist, so it was someone was stronger than him, then that person must be a genuine expert standing at the peak of their respective discipline.

Regardless of whether they were a Transcendent Realm Martial Artist, an Exalted Mentalist, or a Sword Saint Paragon, they would be, without a doubt, a great threat to his teacher.

“But why is someone of that level chasing after us?” Shin was confused. “Is it the First Head or someone else?”

[I am not entirely sure either. But I can feel a great level of hostility coming from them,] replied Uno before continuing. [Moreover, their source or power is somewhat strange.]

[It is neither Internal Qi, Mental Energy, nor Sword Qi. It is not even Blood Power or Demonic Powers, which makes it somewhat difficult to figure out their methods, even for myself.]

“Something that comes from ancient methods, perhaps?” asked Shin.

But Uno shook his head inside the Sea of Consciousness, denying it as well. [I can tell if it was from the ancient methods since they shared certain properties and have the same roots.]

[But this person who is chasing us has a whole different form of power.]

Uno paused for a moment, seemingly trying to find the closest example that he could give, before continuing. [If I put it in modern terms, then the energy coming from that person is mostly the same as those things that which makes your so-called technology work.]

“The energy that makes modern technology work?” repeated Shin before asking. “Do you mean that it is something similar to the energy that the energy reactors or energy cores used by vehicles and firearms?”

[Ah! That’s right! It is something like that, it seems,” nodded Uno.

“Then it must be Mechanical Force or something similar,” mumbled Shin while trying to deduce the identity of the person chasing after them.

“Someone who is not using the modern disciplines and possesses a Mechanical Force instead. And as strong as the old monsters at the pinnacle of the three major paths-…”

Reaching this point, Shin could not help but pause, especially when he realized something.

He then gulped hard before blurting out. “There is only a single person who fits all these criteria-… Oliver Hall, the Mechanical Dullahan!”

Other people might not have any idea about this person, but Shin, as a student of Professor Henry and a member of the Research Department of the Magic Ace Academy, naturally knew about such a legendary person.

The expression on his face then suddenly turned grim before asking. “Why is such a monster coming after us?”

…