Chapter 454 - It's Vee!
"AH, WAIT! How the hell are you even here?"
"Me? Well, I was lucky enough to pass the Bridge to Heaven." Exhibiting a half-smile, Virus vaguely responded.
"Wuh? That's impossible! You're shitting me, right? Lucky enough to pass it? What the hell do you take the Bridge to Heaven for, hot face? If it was something you can sweep through with luck alone, every rando would be here right now!"
Not desiring to explain more specifically, Virus changed the subject, "Anyhow, how could I catch up to you guys? I obviously entered the Invisible Fortress much later than you and you two are only here? Just how slow are you two?"
"Ah, actually… that's because of our bad luck, the first gate we tried was the dead end, so we had to waste hours returning to the three gates of dead-end, dead, and end." Henna was the one to reply instead this time. However, inspecting her expression, Virus could detect some hints of dissatisfaction over her face.
'Hmm, why is she not happy with me being here?'
Meanwhile, the upper cheeks area of the veiled woman's face suddenly flushed red as she angrily vocalized, "Damn it. We might have lagged too much behind compared to the others!"
"But… why are you guys in such a rush though?" Puzzled about the reason behind the cheeky woman's rush, Virus interrogated casually.
As a result of that, however, the two ladies gazed into each other's eyes for several seconds before the veiled woman seemed to have made a decision at last as she locked eyes with Virus and clarified the situation.
"Ah, well, being ahead of others here is always a boon since you'd be able to have a monopoly over others if you came across a valuable treasure. But to be honest, that's not the accurate cause behind our haste right now. We're all are in a hurry because we just noticed this round of the Invisible Ancient Fortress World is rather special."
"Special? Why is that?" Mystified by this odd set of circumstances, Virus demanded further elaboration.
With a rare glint of gravity in her eyes, the veiled woman untangled the affair more. "That's because thousands of years ago at one particular appearance of the Invisible Fortress, someone found an incredible treasure room, unfortunately, he was only capable of taking one item from that treasure room but even that item was so awesome that it made him one of the stronger cultivators of his time!"
"And?"
With one brow arcing upward, she answered. "And, at the time, since he wasn't ever going to be able to return, that person revealed where the treasure room was roughly located at."
"Hmm… so you guys already had the map of this maze of infinity prior to even entering the Invisible Ancient Fortress World?" Gently touching his chin, Virus assumed the possibility.
But to that assumption, the veiled lady only shook her head and denied, "No, not really. That's because every time the Invisible Fortress appears and the trial takers participate in the maze of infinity they are randomly thrown to a different corner. And the maze of infinity is so large that the chances of the trial takers being dispatched to the same location are almost zero! Therefore, it doesn't really matter whether you have a map or not since it's entirely a futile endeavor."
"All that particular cultivator revealed was a hint that will lead to the treasure room." Finally done with her brief account of the affair, the veiled lady went quiet.
Unfortunately, that attempt of illumination only forced Virus to be even more confused than before. "Huh? Then doesn't that mean you guys are aimlessly chasing ghosts? I mean you claim you don't have a map, and that each time the representatives of that era are sent to a different place, so what's the point of having a hint when you don't even know where you are?"
Together with a playful shove, the cheeky woman shed more light on the topic, "That would've been the case if we had not come across the three gates of red, yellow, and green."
"Other than the hint that leads to the treasure room, that cultivator also mentioned in a passing that in his journey to the Invisible Ancient Fortress World, he had come across three entries of red, yellow, and green and that he actually picked the red door!" Waving three of her fingers in front of Virus' eyes, the cheeky woman chuckled in some amusement.
Finally feeling as if the fog had melted away, Virus could easily connect all the dots together. "Hmm, I see, so the impossible did happen in this round of the trial of the infinity maze. Then, considering this piece of information to be general knowledge and seeing that the red gate leads you to the treasure room, all the other representatives must not have hesitated at all before picking the red one and began charging ahead as fast as they could, right?" Finally getting a clear picture of the entire situation, Virus concluded.
"Exactly! That's why we need to hurry! Let's go together!" With her lips pursed together, the cheeky lady pointed at the path ahead while urging them to move swiftly.
"I would rather go alone though." Virus denied without further ado. He was more inclined toward moving solo unless necessary.
"But… hot face, the other representatives might have teamed up as well, so going alone would only endanger your life and ours… we could be easily defeated if the others ganged upon us," A sorrowful glint seemed to fill the veiled lady's eyes at once as she continued sadly. "You're not going to let them gang up on us, right? Two frail ladies gang-raped and a strong man doing nothing but watch and let it happen… sob…"
"Sob… that turns you on, doesn't it, watching two fair ladies get gang-raped by other men." Accompanied by restless movements of her body, the veiled woman seemed to be in anguish while tears filled the corner of her eyes.
'Here we go again.' On the other side, veins were about to pop on Virus' forehead while he nearly saw blood before him. "I'll tag along, for now, so shut up."
In fact, even if it was just to pay back some of the favor, Virus would've still willingly collaborated with her. She just had to tell him their life will be endangered instead of all these insolent behaviors.
…
Afterward, the trio sprinted on the narrow corridor for a while until the corridor itself began to gradually expand. By the end of the expansion, it became a titanic yet long hall that continued as far as the eyes could perceive!
"Hmm, what will we face this time, I wonder?" Virus mumbled as they proceeded forward cautiously.
The more Virus studied his surroundings, the more suspicious he became. Right now, on both sides of the hall, a group of demonic faces was carved, and apparently, the number of demonic faces was at least in thousands.
Furthermore, beneath each demonic countenance, a single withered corpse that had been nailed to the wall could be spotted.
"Huh? Did another Manticore do this?" Virus whispered to himself.
"What's a Manticore?" The befuddled veiled woman questioned since that was a term she'd never heard or read about.
"That place right after the red gate when you guys left the academician representative behind and escaped by yourselves, there was a creature called Manticore there." Hands clasped behind his back, Virus said.
"Really? That sneaky bastard was a Manticore? We couldn't even see what it looked like, so we were so frightened that we all started running without even daring to check behind us. That creepy place was no joke, to be honest!"
Waving his fingers before the two, Virus revealed another truth. "Well, I don't think you two needed to run in the first place since you are both women, that creature only hunts men and probably didn't throw a single glance in your way."
Surprised by the fact, the veiled woman felt speechless. "Wuh? For real? So we were scared for nothing?"
"Yes." He confirmed harshly.
"But how do you know all that? And how did you know it was a Manticore? And how did you survive that above everything?" Feeling lost, the veiled lady asked. The more he was in her company, the more mysterious Virus became to her eyes. 'Who exactly are you, hot face?'
"Well, I figured it out somehow through sheer luck." Pulling his shoulders closer together, Virus replied in a laid-back manner.
"You're going with that luck bullshit again! Will you stop already? Just say I don't want to explain or something!" Tapping one foot on the hard floor, the veiled lady was feeling truly frustrated now.
"Well, whatever." He answered while acting even more easy-going than before.
"Y-you!" Running her hand through her silky hair, she was only speechless.
"B-but, is there a Manticore here as well?" Meanwhile, scanning her surroundings, Henna's figure was shivering slightly as she inquired.
"Hmm, to be truthful, I don't believe that is the case actually. Looking at the state of those corpses, they've all withered away while their flesh and bones remain on their body without much damage to them. A Manticore simply won't let the flesh of its prey rot away as it'll consume the meat while it's fresh. Only the bones will remain as it's the ration for a longer period of time."
"I see, but, hot face, you must be very hot in the brain as well since you seem to be knowledgeable about everything, so smart! I'm even more into you now." With her chin held high, the cheeky woman acted unusually smug as if she couldn't be more proud of herself for choosing such a wise person as her man of interest.
"Anyway, nothing's happened so far, so maybe there are no challenges in this hall, let's rush over." Henna stated, truly desiring to believe that herself.
Afterward, while staying absolutely vigilant, Virus and the other two ladies continued to tread forward.
In the meantime, without their notice, around three specific demonic faces, ancient runes began to quietly light up and shine.
Next, the runes seemed to have become alive as they started vibrating while three of the withered corpses also started shivering in sync!
On the other side, the party of three had only walked a few steps ahead when unexpectedly strange roars reached their ears.
That nearly forced the two ladies' hearts to jump right into their mouths as their eyes went wide open. Although they were both strong, apparently, after experiencing the trials so far, they had deemed this place to be too creepy for them.
Next, turning back, the trio caught the sight of three withered and rotten bodies currently striding toward them!
ROARR~ ROAR!
HHHHAAAAHHH~
"Ahhh, the withered corpses are moving!" The color seemed to have left Henna's face at once as she screamed in absolute trepidation while the image of the charging opponents reflected within her eyes.
"Defend and attack!" Totally composed, Virus didn't hesitate to storm at one of the withered corpses at once before throwing a punch at the closest target.
Wham!
Unfortunately, reaching out with its palm, the corpse easily stopped Virus' strike!
"Damn, they're pretty strong! At least at the mid-Third Order in terms of pure might." Analyzing and measuring the level of the corpse's strength, Virus surmised almost instantaneously.
Following quickly, the corpse opened its mouth wide, revealing oddly sharp teeth before pouncing toward him in an attempt to bite the flesh off his neck!
"Get the hell away from my hot face!" Right as the opponent was about to land on Virus' body and bite his neck off, energy started gathering and churning on the veiled woman's staff as she smashed the enemy savagely and sent it flying away.
"Who's your hot face! Also, stop addressing me as hot face, it's Vee!" Concurrently, Virus thought to himself. 'How can someone be so annoying in every type of situation imaginable? Such a weirdo. I'm more freaked out by you than this Invisible Fortress.'
At some distance from the two, the assaulted corpse rose to its feet almost immediately as it charged at them again.
Alas, the other two corpses were also upon the trio as well!
"That was one of the strongest attacks in my arsenal but it did absolutely nothing to it! In my opinion, we can't defeat them at all. They're also rather quick, if any of you have any brainstorms in regards to how to deal with them, now is the time to let it out!"
As three withered enemies finally arrived before them, each of them went against one moving corpse.
Boom! Bam! Wham!
"Argh!" While Virus and the cheeky one successfully blocked the incoming attack, Henna was sent flying away!
Her performance had experienced a sharp fall due to the shock of witnessing moving corpses. As a matter of fact, even in the Cultivation Earth, being attacked by corpses was a terrifying concept, especially to a woman that had not seen much of the world.
"Sister Henna!" The cheeky woman's eyelids jumped as her expression became unusually grim.. Obviously, she held Henna just too dearly as it broke her heart to see her get hurt.
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