CHAPTER 511: CHAPTER 511. ELEMENTAL WORLDS

After having a working path, Amon stood. He memorized the map he had drawn on the ground. The others had actually stumbled near the metal statues, but Amon asked them to keep going until they reached Wu Di. This showed that getting to the regular exit points was much easier because they had shorter paths.

Huang San was among those who stumbled near one of the metal statues during his journey. He again asked Amon if they should just use this exit point rather than insisting on reaching the wooden statue, which was further away. The victory points they received for the trial would be the same anyway.

Amon insisted they follow the original plan.

There was a reason why Amon insisted on this, a reason Amon didn’t tell the others.

Throughout his research, he discovered tomes and records from ruins containing teachings and theories about pocket worlds with a similar mechanism utilizing elemental relationships. This kind of pocket world usually served as a vault where the ancient stored their treasures, and the most valuable treasure was stored inside the heart of the vault, which was only accessible by opening a series of locks in a specific order. This order was the elemental support sequence, which Amon aimed for.

Everyone might say that this pocket world was already bereft of treasures, but Amon didn’t believe that was the case. His reasoning was due to the accounts from past Huang Clan members who entered this place. None of them recorded solving the challenge in a particular way. They all believed they were tossed into random spaces within the pocket world after finishing one challenge.

In other words, the ultimate treasure of this pocket world was still untouched. He didn’t know what it was, but it should be more worthy than all the other treasures that had been found in this place.

The only problem he had was when he arrived at the final vault, the others in his team would also be with him. He didn’t know if he could take the treasure for himself without the others being aware of it. The chance was he might need to get rid of the others, but that would mean burning the bridge with the Echos Kingdom and letting go of his rise to power here. He didn’t know if the treasure was valuable enough for him to do that.

He would cross that bridge when he opened the vault and assessed the situation. Without prior knowledge, he couldn’t make an appropriate plan.

Amon spent almost a day carving the channel following the mapped-out path. The water flowed following the carved channel. Even though the channels were all at the same elevation, the water flowed forward into the newly carved channel as if gravity was pulling it. Even when the channel slopped upward due to being made on a curved stone bridge, the water still flowed forward and upward.

When Amon arrived at the site with the wooden statue, Huang San again argued, "If we used the other exit point, we would have entered our second trial stage half a day ago. The others might beat us if we spend longer time than necessary."

"The others are flying blind," Amon argued back. "They need time to figure out the challenges in each stage while we already know what to look for. We will still be ahead of them."

"Are you sure about that...?" Huang San asked again, but Amon refused to respond to the subject.

Amon carved the last channel that brought the water under the wooden statue. The water flowed there and stayed at the end of the channel like usual.

"Hey, nothing happens," Wu Di said.

Everyone turned to Amon. Amon didn’t say anything. His gaze remained on the wooden statue.

On the next fire burst that engulfed the wooden statue, a loud hissing sound was heard. Steams were also seen accompanying the flames. It was what usually occurred when a fire was met with a large quantity of water. Except here, there was no large quantity of water. The water in contact with the fire burst was only a tiny amount inside the channel.

Even so, the effect was as if someone poured an enormous amount of water into the fire burst. The flames sizzled and weakened before going out altogether. As it did, something happened to the wooden statue.

The statue grew. Vines and roots grew out of its wooden body. It rapidly enlarged until it became some sort of a deformed tree with the shape of a dog’s head. The mouth of the dog’s head was wide open. The size of the mouth allowed one person to go through, and it looked like the entrance of a cave.

"Uh... Okay," Wu Di said. "Who wants the honor to enter?"

Amon answered by walking forward. He entered the dog’s mouth without hesitation.

"Well, if anything. I can’t deny I admire the man’s..."

A light engulfed Wu Di during his speech. This was at the exact time Amon entered the dog’s mouth. The same thing happened with the others in their team.

They reappeared in another world filled with tall and large trees.

"... confidence," Wu Di finished his sentence. His voice trailed off at the end due to the surprise of seeing the new place he was in.

"We are in a jungle now," An Guan remarked.

Huang San looked around and said, "So weird to be in a jungle without any sign of animals."

"Okay, people. You know what to do. Look for something related to the elements of water and metal," Amon said.

Xin Wuming tried flying up. He couldn’t get beyond the tree canopies. "Our flying limit is even lower than before. This will make it more difficult to mark a path."

"We find the elements, then we figure out how to deal with the challenge," Amon said. "Now, split up!"

Finished speaking, he went in a direction.

"If anything, I can’t deny I admire the man’s focus," Wu Di said.

"Sounds like you have a lot of admiration for him. Why is your friendship no longer like during the early years in the Royal Academy?" Huang San asked.

Wu Di shrugged. "I can’t tell you that. Okay, I’m off!"

Wu Di again chose the opposite direction from Amon’s. Huang San looked at the two’s backs as they disappeared behind the trees. Xin Wuming and Yang Li also went away, picking random directions different than the two. After a short glance with An Guan, Huang San also left.

The challenge inside this trial stage took them a slightly shorter time to complete, at around one and a half days. It was Xin Wuming who discovered the water-element exit point. It was an old, dead tree that discharged a small but never-ending stream of water. The water fell into a small puddle at the foot of the tree. No matter how much water fell into the puddle, the puddle stayed the same size.

They found several other strange trees they suspected to be exit points as well. These trees were covered by soil that clung to the trunks unnaturally. Amon told them to ignore those exit points because they were of the wrong elements.

As for the metal-element solution, Huang San found it. It was a huge, black blade the size of two adults. Huang San tried lifting it. While it was not impossible, it was very heavy. It took the five of them to successfully lifted it. They slowly carried it to where Xin Wuming was waiting.

While the jungle was not easy to traverse, it didn’t have consistent obstacles like the lava rivers from the previous stage. Thus, they didn’t take many detours. Still, the journey was slow. They even had to rest a few times because the giant blade was simply too heavy. They figured this challenge would be much easier if they had a full ten-person team.

Arriving at the site where Xin Wuming was, the heaviness suddenly became lighter. The blade can be wielded by even one person. Amon used it to cut the dead tree apart. Upon that action, the dead tree shattered into dust, and the water it contained inside splashed out. The small puddle under the tree turned into a pond.

As before, Amon jumped into the pond without any hesitation.

The next world they found themselves in was a world filled with water. It was water for as far as their eyes could see. There was no land in sight.

"Earth and metal," Amon told them. He then flew off into the distance.

"Well. Considering everything is out in the open, it shouldn’t be difficult to spot earth or metal here," An Guan remarked. "Let’s move, everybody. Amon is right. At this pace, we should be the ones who are in the lead!"

An Guan’s assumption turned out to be wrong. Even after two days of flying, they saw nothing but water.

They had almost used up half the limit of the time allowed inside a trial, so Amon thought they must be doing it wrong. At that thought, he looked at the water under him. He dove into the water and swam under it. The depth of the water was nothing but darkness. Even for his dark vision eyes, he couldn’t see the bottom. He retraced the path he had taken, except it was underwater this time.

After a few hours, he saw something unusual. An orb of flame was floating inside the water. It was not the elements he was looking for, but at least this confirmed one thing.

He sent telepathic messages to everyone, "Enter the water. The elements should be hidden underwater."

They found the elements they were looking for after another day of searching. The exit point was a large metal bowl floating at a fixed point in the water. As for the earth element, it was in the form of a large mound of soil floating in the middle of nowhere inside the water.

Amon asked them to carry the soil to the metal bowl. Since they didn’t have space rings, they had to carry the soil by an armful, which is not much. They placed the soil inside the metal bowl. They had to go back and forth many times to fill up the bowl. They finally managed to fill up the bowl at the beginning of the fifth day.

The fill-up metal bowl transformed into a metal ring. The inside of the ring was a portal. Amon stepped into that portal and brought them to the next trial stage.