Chapter 433 - An Illusion
"Sigh, this path… it's really long," he muttered while he was now walking inside the dead silence and pitch black atmosphere.
If not for his stick that suddenly started to glow hours ago, he would be walking literally inside a black hole.
'Ding! The stairs go deeper than you think,' the system said before adding, 'Ding! There are more hours than you spent here.'
"I'm already bored," he sighed as he helplessly kept descending in this place.
After ten more hours, he finally heard something new from his system.
'Ding! It's ending.'
"Really?" he asked while taking a long deep breath, "why can't I see anything then?"
'Ding! It's still pitch black down there.'
"Sigh, I should have used my fire then to illuminate the path."
'Ding! Your fire is corrosive in nature, you'll risk having those old stairs eaten away.'
"Tsk," Arthur knew his system had a point here, but he was very depressed by this gloomy atmosphere.
"How long?" after ten minutes he asked.
'Ding! Half an hour more, be patient, you're almost there.'
"Found anything down below?"
'Ding! There is something jamming on my scout ability, like that golden aura.'
"Golden and not even able to light a single candle light down there, tsk," he was complaining from this place and right now the idea of going down here seemed sillier than it ever was.
"Finally," Arthur felt the ground under his legs when he reached the bottom. As his system described; there wasn't a single light there except for a strange luster coming from the far front.
"What is that?" Arthur muttered while pointing the stick casually towards the front.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
.
.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
Suddenly two semi-circular rows of giant torches were lit up, each with a strong booming sound like they were exploding.
The torches were arranged in five gian circles, and Arthur just stood in the interior of the first outer circle.
"Wow, this place… it's a treasure hall!"
The moment all the torches were lit, the gigantic space he was inside appeared to his eyes. He was standing on the edge of a giant hall filled with riches, littered all in gold color.
'Ding! Don't!'
The system only said this single warning, and Arthur paused. He was about to go there and check these things out, yet as his system warned, he stopped and muttered: "What's wrong?"
Yet only silence came to assault him. He glanced around while feeling suddenly vigilant. "Are you there?" he muttered again, and unlike the habit of his system, he heard nothing back from it.
"Strange," Arthur said to himself before his mind started stirring against the normal flow of things. "Illusion, damn!" he cursed the moment his mind provided the most logical answer here.
"When did I fall under it?" he muttered yet he had no time to waste, "I have to act fast."
He wasn't the expert in dispelling illusions, yet he had a trick of two to do so. "Pain is the first thing," he tried to take out his arrows and yet he failed.
"Damn! This illusion is strong," he was pissed off and his intuition told him how dangerous his situation was. "If this fails, then clearing the mind helps," he sat on the ground and instantly closed his eyes and started contemplating.
Yet the more he tried, the harder it got for his mind to be clear. "Something is wrong," he muttered, and then he suddenly had a stroke of realization.
"It's you…" he glanced over the stick in hand and without any hesitation he threw it far from him.
"Rumble!"
The next moment he found himself standing again in front of the golden aura. He wasn't deep inside the hole, or he was lying on its cold ground just now.
The golden ball was there, and his stick was still touching it. "Damn you," he cursed before returning fast to the back, taking the stick away from this far dangerous golden ball. "It's you, damn it!" he shouted in extreme rage while the second thing he did was to shout on his system.
"Don't bother," suddenly this cold tone came, not from the ball, not from the stick, but from his mind itself. "Your system is sleeping right now."
"Fuck off," Arthur didn't buy this nonsense before hurrying to shout, "is this illusion so strong? Damn," he sat on the ground and started calming his mind again.
"Told you it's pointless," the cold sound came again in his mind, "you've already come out of my illusion."
"A sincere advice from a wolf," Arthur sneered while trying his best to calm down.
"I'm no wolf, damn, this is the harshest thing I ever heard since I died!"
Arthur didn't follow his words as he kept meditating. "So you want to waste your time then? Fine, try to relax and do whatever you are trying to do. I'll just be here waiting for you to end."
The voice did really stop speaking, and Arthur managed to enter a meditating state of mind. He calmly stayed there for hours, as he never experienced such a feeling since…
"Wow, I was cultivating just now!!" he opened his eyes and he was shocked by his realization. He glanced at his body, yet he didn't feel any changes there. "Sigh, it seems I have a long road ahead of me before actually cultivating."
"Have you finished your bla bla bla?"
Suddenly the same cold voice that he last heard before entering into such a state came again making him startled. "Damn!" he hurried to stand up while glancing all around. The golden ball was still there, and the golden stick was in hand, and he was alone in between.
"Tick tick," he threw the golden stick away as if it was such a cursed thing.
"Don't think throwing it away would help," the voice came again before adding, "it's already connected to you, and you are connected now to me."
"Who are you?" show yourself!" Arthur was furious and the next moment he took out his bow and arrows, even his bloodthirsty sleeping sword was taken at the next moment.