Because they had set out too late, Zhang Wen and his companions found themselves completely alone on the jungle path, with no one in sight either ahead or behind. They could only follow the trail of the martial artists who had departed earlier, hurrying to catch up.
However, after walking along the road for about half an hour, Zhang Wen and his group were stunned to see, directly before them, a castle hidden deep within the jungle!
The castle was covered in climbing vines, and the occasional glimpses of its weathered walls revealed its ancient age.
Its stone gate stood wide open, dark and gaping like the maw of a monster. Standing outside, Si curiously peeked inside.
“See anything?” asked Kai.
“Nothing at all—just an empty corridor. Pitch black,” shrugged Kentucky’s tough guy, turning back to Zhang Wen with a gruff tone. “Hey! Are we going in or not?”
“Of course. Unless you don’t want to return to the Star Moon,” Zhang Wen replied casually with a smile, stepping forward and entering first. Iniel followed silently and closely behind.
“Tch!” With a sneer, Si followed Iniel and Kai into the castle.
After passing through the dark corridor Si had mentioned, Zhang Wen and his companions found themselves facing a massive wooden door that resembled an ancient city gate.
Zhang Wen gave it a gentle push, and to his surprise, the heavy door creaked open as though it weighed nothing. Before them lay a vast, empty hall. There was no one inside, nor any decorations. The granite walls surrounding the chamber were completely sealed, with no windows to be seen. Only four ever-burning spirit lamps, mounted at each corner of the walls, cast a hazy yellow glow.
“What kind of place is this?” Iniel asked, instinctively moving closer to Zhang Wen, her voice edged with nervousness.
“How should I know? I’ve never been here before, just like you,” Zhang Wen frowned. He strode into the hall and began tapping the surrounding walls, as if searching for treasure.
“Hey! What exactly are you looking for? It’s obvious—there’s nothing here!” Si, who always looked for a chance to mock Zhang Wen, couldn’t resist a jab.
“No, something’s off,” said Kai, frowning. Usually siding with Si, this time he moved forward quickly into the empty hall.
“What do you mean?” Si grumbled, annoyed. “Didn’t you all notice when we arrived? The castle is barely the size of a palm. This hall is the entire thing!”
“No, Si. That’s not right,” Kai shook his head firmly, also beginning to tap the walls. “Do you even realize where we are?”
“Of course I do! We’re on Pico Island!” Si replied confidently, plopping himself down at a corner of the wall.
“Pico Island—exactly. To be precise, we’re at the Infinite Arena of Pico Island,” Kai glanced at Zhang Wen, who was carefully inspecting the walls, and a knowing smile crossed his face. “You should’ve noticed it, right? That boundary line we passed through—the one marking the entrance to the Infinite Arena.”
“Oh, yeah, I saw it,” Si nodded blankly. Though he vaguely sensed something in Kai’s words, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“Then think about it—how could an unoccupied castle appear out of nowhere in a place like the Infinite Arena?”
“Oh!” Si suddenly jumped up, realization dawning.
“There must be clues here that we need.”
“How do you know that?” Though Si had been convinced by Kai, his tone toward Zhang Wen remained as confrontational as ever.
“Of course I know,” Zhang Wen replied with a smile. He still had a long journey ahead on Pico Island, and plenty of opportunities to make this hot-headed “Kentucky’s Number One Warrior” suffer.
“Si, you really…” Iniel, watching Si smugly pat himself on the back, turned red with embarrassment.
Truthfully, Iniel had her own grievances with Zhang Wen’s domineering ways. But if you were going to challenge him, you had to do it right! Bombarding him with silly questions only made her look foolish.
“Huh? What did I do?” Si asked cluelessly.
“Si, shut up!” Iniel clenched her fists, her head practically steaming with frustration.
“Haha!” Zhang Wen’s timely, annoying laugh made Iniel nearly lose the will to face anyone.
“Si, when we arrived, the castle was completely empty,” Kai, resigned, continued explaining to his companion.
“Yeah, so what?”
“…Before us, dozens of martial artists had already entered the forest! This castle is clearly visible. They must have noticed it. Even if most of them thought there was nothing inside, there must have been at least a few who thought like we did. So why is the castle completely empty now?”
“Ahh!” At this point, Si finally understood the oddity Kai was pointing out. His mouth dropped open in shock, but before he could even cry out, Zhang Wen, standing across the hall, spoke three words.
“I found it.”
Right after he spoke, Si suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet vanish as though it had been pulled out from under him! The other three clearly saw a stairway leading deep underground appear exactly where Si had been standing.
“Eh?!”
Despite being a Saint-ranked expert capable of flight, Si had no time to react as he lost his footing. Thus, the mighty “Kentucky’s Number One Warrior” let out a startled cry and tumbled down the hidden stairway like a bouncing ball.
“Let’s go,” Iniel muttered, her head lowered as she stepped into the underground passage. She was too drained to even complain anymore.
“Let’s go,” Kai echoed, equally flustered, following closely behind Iniel. Zhang Wen was the third to enter. The moment he stepped through, the entrance behind them sealed shut as if by magic.
Kai, a Saint-ranked warrior, reacted swiftly. Almost the instant the entrance closed, he activated his battle energy and dashed toward the sealed entrance in a flash.
To his shock, when he reached out to push it open, he found not the thin stone panel he had expected, but a massive, solid rock!
“What’s going on?” Kai ran his hands over the moss-covered stone, his face filled with disbelief. Iniel, equally stunned, hurried to Zhang Wen’s side, pounding the rock behind them and growing even more bewildered. “This should be the castle hall we were just in. Why does this stone feel like it’s solid all the way through?”
Zhang Wen peeled off a small patch of moss from the rock and frowned.
“This explains why the castle was empty,” he said. “You don’t need to knock anymore. What’s behind this stone isn’t the castle we were just in. And the stairs beneath our feet aren’t the same ones either.”
“I don’t understand,” Iniel clenched her fists. “What exactly happened?”
“To put it simply—we were teleported. There must have been a device set up by a High-Level Spirit Master within that hidden stairway. As soon as we stepped in, it sent us here.”
“So you’re saying we’re no longer in the castle?” Iniel quickly caught on.
“Exactly. We could now be anywhere on Pico Island—or even not on Pico Island at all.”
“N-not on Pico Island?” Iniel was alarmed. “If we really left Pico Island, what about the airship? How will we get back to the Star Moon?”
“Don’t worry,” Zhang Wen’s lips curled into a smile. “We can return anytime. Pico Island is not only the entrance but also the exit of the Infinite Arena.”
“Huh! I always wondered how Pico Island, though large, could possibly support an ‘Infinite Arena.’ Just two High-Level experts fighting could destroy the entire island. Now I finally understand. This is the truth behind the Infinite Arena! Pico Island is merely an entrance. Everyone who passes through it gets teleported into a passage like this one.”
“Then why haven’t we seen anyone else? I remember three teams left shortly before us. If they were also sent here, we should have encountered them by now.”
“Of course not. There may be many such passages, each team entering the entrance being randomly teleported to a different area. These passages together form the real Infinite Arena. If I’m not mistaken… this Infinite Arena is our destination. That woman, Rofrey, must have hidden the clue to the airship here.”
“Very likely. Heh! Using the Infinite Arena as the competition stage? Hmph! It’s actually kind of exciting.”
“Try not to get too excited. We don’t have much time. Also, Rofrey won’t let us pass easily. The real test has only just begun now that we’ve entered the Infinite Arena.” With a slight smile, Zhang Wen led the three Kentuckians deeper into the passage.
After descending for a while, the staircase ended. Before the four stood a massive underground corridor, nearly two meters high and wide enough for two spirit-powered cars to pass side by side.
The walls on both sides were covered in smooth white tiles, and every few meters, a bright ever-burning spirit lamp illuminated the entire passage like daylight.
“Damn!” Seeing the sight before him, Si couldn’t help but curse. Just digging out such a massive underground road dozens of meters below the surface was already mind-boggling! And this was only one of countless such roads in the Infinite Arena!
“Let’s go,” Zhang Wen said, watching the stunned expressions of the Kentuckians. He couldn’t help but smirk. A simple underground passage had already left these three Kentuckians speechless. If they ever got to Earth and saw the subway systems beneath cities like New York or London, they’d probably lose their jaws entirely.
Of course, the Kentuckians had no idea what Zhang Wen was thinking. As they followed Zhang Wen, they kept looking around, marveling at how rich Hassan must be and how many imperial shields it must have cost to dig such a tunnel.
Following the seemingly endless underground road, the four walked for an indeterminate amount of time. Just as they were beginning to think the tunnel might never end, a door finally appeared before them.
Eager to move forward, Si rushed ahead and pushed the closed door with all his strength—but it didn’t budge.
“Tch!” Frustrated, Si spat and began searching for a mechanism to open it, but found nothing. Finally, out of options, he kicked the door hard—only to have the force completely rebounded, sending him tumbling backward.
“Hahahaha!” A loud, mocking laughter echoed through the tunnel.
“You bastards…” Si growled as he stood up, only to realize that the laughter hadn’t come from his companions. Just a short distance behind Zhang Wen’s group, four martial artists—two men and two women—had appeared out of nowhere!
The newcomers weren’t very old, but their expressions radiated an arrogance that even surprised Zhang Wen. If he judged solely by their looks, he’d have thought they were all High-Level experts.
Laughing as they approached, one of the women, wearing an ultra-short skirt that exposed her thighs and a leather strap around her leg, pointed at Si and giggled, “Neil, what are these guys doing? Are they trying to entertain us with a clown act?”
“Hehe! Who knows?” Neil, the man beside her, laughed mockingly, treating Zhang Wen’s group as if they were invisible.
As the four newcomers continued to mock Zhang Wen’s group, Iniel quietly moved to Zhang Wen’s side.
“Zhang Wen, how did they appear behind us? I vaguely remember seeing them before. They should have left earlier than us. When we came through, I made sure there were no side paths.”
“Don’t worry,” Zhang Wen gently shook his head. “This place has been altered by High-Level Spirit Masters. The space here is different from normal. Even if they entered the castle before us, it’s not strange for them to appear behind us now…”
“Hey! You two, whispering about something?” The woman who had mocked Si earlier interrupted Zhang Wen’s explanation. At that moment, the four newcomers had already stopped just ten meters away from Zhang Wen’s group.
“Hmph!” Kai let out a cold snort, his figure shifting slightly to stand protectively in front of Iniel alongside Si. As warriors of the Kentucky clan, they couldn’t tolerate the way the four newcomers treated Iniel.
“Oh? The weird-looking ugly guy is acting tough,” the woman sneered with a laugh, her gaze turning colder. The other three martial artists also crouched slightly—anyone familiar with imperial martial arts would know they were ready to attack at any moment.
Their provocative behavior only made Kai and Si more tense, their hands already resting on the hilts of their weapons.
The air in the tunnel seemed to freeze. Just as both sides were about to erupt into a confrontation, Zhang Wen suddenly smiled.
“Funny. Are you planning to fight us here?” Zhang Wen stepped forward, pushing aside the tense Si and Kai.
“Hehe! Fight? Don’t flatter yourself. We’re four, and you’re only… barely two and a half,” the woman laughed again, shaking her finger. “You, a newbie at the Expert level, barely count as half a fighter. As for that spirit master girl, I could knock her down with just one finger.”
“Hmph! Try it if you dare!” Kai growled.
“Hahaha!” Zhang Wen laughed heartily.
“What’s so funny?” one of the other women snapped angrily.
“Nothing. You just want to go through that door before us, right? Go ahead,” Zhang Wen said casually, gesturing for them to proceed.
“What? Why should we let you go first? We were here first!” Si protested loudly.
“Hey! Did you forget our agreement?” Zhang Wen smiled at the Kentuckian brute.
“Tch!” Si and Kai clenched their fists, reluctantly stepping aside.
Zhang Wen’s gesture was clearly seen as a sign of weakness by the newcomers. “Haha! Smart choice. You saved your lives,” the two male martial artists sneered, walking past Zhang Wen and the Kentuckians with arrogance. Their laughter made the two proud Kentuckians nearly grind their teeth in fury. Iniel also clenched her fists tightly, her fingers turning white.
“Don’t worry. The real show is just beginning,” Zhang Wen said with a smirk, seeing the dark expressions on the Kentuckians’ faces.
As the arrogant two men and two women approached the door where Si had previously failed, they searched fruitlessly for a mechanism. After a brief discussion, the three stepped back, leaving only the woman in the short skirt standing before the door.
“Hehe!” With a mocking laugh, purple energy flared around her.
A tenth-level expert’s full battle energy stirred strong winds in the tunnel. Then, from the leather strap on her inner thigh, she drew a silver dagger, barely three inches long.
The moment it touched her hand, the dagger erupted in blinding white light. As her purple energy surged into the blade, it grew brighter and brighter. At its peak, she swung it with all her might at the door, smirking mockingly at Zhang Wen’s group behind her.
Seeing the grim faces of Si and Kai, she couldn’t help but smile smugly. She was already imagining how she’d mock the “cowards” behind her after breaking through the door.
Though there was no prior grudge, she simply didn’t like the look of them.
“Hmph!” Kai couldn’t help but let out a cold snort. He could guess that Zhang Wen had some plan in letting the newcomers go first. But from what he could see, Zhang Wen was about to be proven wrong!
A tenth-level expert’s full-strength attack combined with a high-grade crystal weapon! Kai had never heard of any door that could withstand such a strike!
If the newcomers broke through the door, what would happen next? Thinking of this, Kai’s face darkened further.
Bang!
Vara’s dagger finally struck the stone door. But what happened next left every single pair of watching eyes wide with shock!
Vara’s full-strength strike failed to break the seemingly fragile stone door! Worse, the door appeared to reflect all of her power back at her!
The full force of her attack struck her directly, sending her flying backward with a deafening explosion, rolling far across the ground!
Moreover, her three companions, being too close, were caught in the violent shockwave. Though not as badly hurt as Vara, they were still thrown about, looking utterly disoriented and embarrassed.
“You… how did you know that would happen?” Kai looked at Zhang Wen as if seeing a ghost.
“No way! No way at all! That was a tenth-level expert’s full-strength attack! How could it not even break a simple door? I checked the door’s material earlier—it was just ordinary granite!” Si grabbed his head in disbelief. What he had just witnessed was beyond his comprehension.
“Want to know why?” Zhang Wen smirked, deliberately teasing.
“Yes! Tell us!” Si nodded eagerly, like a bobblehead.
“Teacher Zhang Wen, please don’t keep us in suspense!” Iniel’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“I told you earlier—this place is completely different from what you imagine. Take that door, for example. You can see it, touch it, but in reality, it doesn’t exist.”
“N-no… exist?!”
“Exactly. That’s not a real door. Just like the passage we saw in the castle on Pico Island, it’s an illusion created by a High-Level Spirit Master. As for its function… as you just saw, it reflects any attack directed at it back at the attacker.”
“Are you kidding me?! If that’s true, we’ll be trapped here forever!” Si cried out in panic.
“Hehehe! Kentuckian, you’re smarter than you look!” At that moment, a completely unfamiliar voice suddenly echoed through the tunnel.
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage