Chapter 3624: Chapter 3624: The Broken Passageway

Once all three Treacherous Beings were killed, the stones stopped moving.

Though these stones were formed by the earth spirits, they remained as mere piles of dead things.

Zen cut the stones carefully and took out the Holy Stones within. These Holy Stones were about the size of a grain of sand.

He did not know just how many stones Element Spirit Civilization had but he considered them a rare treasure and they would be very useful if he encountered a large number of Treacherous Beings.

After he put the stones away, Zen and the others continued to venture into the depths of the cave.

The path was not complicated and all they needed to do was go down.

As they went deeper, the path got wider and there was a continuous draft that blew above their heads.

“It seems there is a hidden pool or river here in the cave,” Eastern Emperor Taiyi told them.

Zen nodded at his observation. “There is indeed a pool at the end of the cave. Your real selves are trapped beside that pool.”

Eastern Emperor Taiyi couldn't help but flinch when he heard the word "real'.

It wasn't long ago after he was rescued from the Divine River that he found out there was a “real” version of himself so he still wasn't that used to the concept.

Fuxi and the Snake Goddess had long since accepted the fact that they were their creators' avatars but it was going to take Eastern Emperor Taiyi a bit more time to do so.

Realizing the slip of his tongue, Zen quickly tried to correct his mistake. “I'm sorry.”

“It's fine,” Eastern Emperor Taiyi assured him with a smile. “I'd actually like to see what the real Eastern Emperor Taiyi looks like!”

Not long after, a pool appeared before them.

The water was so clear that they could see the bottom of the pool.

King Ieuan looked around. “I don't see any of the human heroes...”

“How can that be? This is a dead-end. There is no other way up ahead,” the Snake Goddess seconded, walking around to search for the human heroes.

Zen also circled around the pool once and released his spiritual sense in an effort to find something like a hidden passage. Unfortunately, he came up with nothing.

Ever since the Primeval Lord of Heaven told him that he didn't sense the existence of the real human heroes through the Civilization Artifact, Zen had begun to mentally prepare himself for this sort of result. It didn't hurt any less, however, when he looked around and found nothing but an empty cave.

Yasamin looked at the others with a frown. “Do you think they've already been taken away by the Element Spirit Civilization?”

“They were trapped here for quite a long time. Maybe they've already been killed,” Pearson murmured.

The Eternal Realm Hunters did whatever they could to hide but in the end, only three of them managed to survive. It was truly highly unlikely that they would still be alive after so long.

“There's another possibility,” the Snake Goddess said as she pointed upwards. “What if they went on to the Jade Pure Realm?”

Unlike Pearson, the Snake Goddess chose to be more optimistic. The roads in the Myriad Pagoda Mountains all led to the Pure Sky Platforms after all, and this cave was no exception. 𝐑ÅΝȏBЕŚ

Since the human heroes were trapped in this cave for so long then that meant they had all the time in the world to ascend to the Jade Pure Realm.

Zen nodded in agreement with this assumption. “Master Campbell, do you know how we can go to the Jade Pure Realm?”

As a world builder, Campbell was undoubtedly the one who was the most familiar and knowledgeable about all this. “I know that this path leads to the Night View Island. It's a huge and independent Pure Sky Platform. Unfortunately, I didn't design this path. Let me think for a second...”

Though he was a world builder, Campbell only partly participated in the construction of the chaos. He didn't know about all the specifics.

Fortunately, he was quite close to his colleagues and had a general understanding of what they did when they built the passages. He walked towards the pool and scooped out a handful of clear water. Soon enough, a smile broke through his features.

“Boil the water,” he told Zen.

The man's eyes widened in astonishment. “Boil the water?” he repeated to make sure he heard Campbell right.

It wouldn't be difficult since the pool wasn't that big but Zen was just caught off-guard by the strangeness of the request.

“Yes. Don't worry, you'll find out why when you boil it,” Campbell assured him.

Since there was really nothing else to do, Zen took on Campbell's strange request and jumped into the pool. He originally wanted to activate the Godly Way energy but the Primeval Lord of Heaven who was in Zen's inner world was too impatient and directly asked Zhurong to move.

There was a flash of red light and the entire pool immediately began to boil.

Zhurong's powers were at work and if he went all out then he could instantly evaporate the water within the pool.

As the entire pool boiled, a miraculous scene appeared.

A crooked red path appeared in the originally clear and transparent pond. This path exhibited many twists and turns as it extended all the way down to the bottom.

Pearson, who always had a deadpan expression, sported a look of surprise. “Is that the entrance?”

The Snake Goddess nodded. “I think so.”

Fuxi could only stare at the sight in shock. “To think the entrance is actually hidden like this. Who would ever have thought of boiling the water?”

Once upon a time, the thirty-nine human heroes got trapped here and tried every means to find the passage out of this place. At some point, one of them probably boiled the water on accident and discovered what was previously hidden.

Zen soon emerged from the water and waved everyone in to follow him as he swam along the red path.

Not willing to be left behind, everyone quickly jumped into the water and followed Zen.

It wasn't until they reached the bottom that they saw a door constructed out of pure light open for them. Zen entered first, followed closely by his companions.

“Splash!”

As soon as he crossed the threshold, Zen immediately felt as if his world was spinning. He was previously swimming downward but now everything was upside down and he was headed upwards.

When his vision stabilized, he saw a passageway above him.

They were very familiar with this passageway. They had grabbed onto fish hooks when they went to the first Pure Sky Platform, but it seemed they had to manually swim their way up this time to reach the Pure Sky Platform they were heading to.

Nobody talked much, too focused on moving their limbs to swim their way up. They'd eventually reach their destination this way, right?

Wrong.

The group swam for quite a while but there was no indication that they were getting closer towards the Pure Sky Platform. Zen quickly surfaced and found himself in the middle of the passageway!

Splash! Splash! Splash...

Everyone looked around in confusion when they saw where they were.

King Ieuan was the first to speak. “We're still in the passageway?”

“Look!” the Snake Goddess exclaimed as she pointed upwards.

They originally swam upwards in an effort to reach the Pure Sky Platform.

However, when they looked up, they saw that the passageway was cut in half. They were in the lower half and the other half of the passageway hung above their heads.

“This passageway seems to have been intentionally destroyed by someone,” Eastern Emperor Taiyi remarked in observation.

“Who?” King Ieuan asked. Just who would do such a thing?

“Maybe we're right and the real human heroes did arrive at the Pure Sky Platform,” the Snake Goddess said as she continued to look up.

“Why do you think so?” Yasamin asked.

“If those real human heroes found this passageway then they would safely arrive at Pure Sky Platform. However, the Element Spirit Civilization would still be hot at their heels,” the Snake Goddess stated with a smile. “If they truly wanted to escape then they had to make sure they couldn't be followed. Breaking the passageway was the best choice to make sure their pursuers would never be able to go the same way they did.”