"These are the insides of the palace?"
What was inside the palace was slightly different from what Ye Chen was expecting. He was only half a step slower than Murong Qingcheng, and by the time he got in, he could already not find her at all. Apart from her, he could not see anyone else either. Instead, there was a tunnel in front of him, with all four walls boarding up and giving out a suffocating feeling.
Looking back, he could no longer see the front door of the palace as if he had appeared out of nowhere inside this tunnel.
"How strange!"
Ye Chen frowned as he released his soul power, covering five-hundred-meters around him. The restriction on the soul power in the palace was surprisingly high. Even with Ye Chen's 5x stronger soul power, he could only cover five hundred meters around him. But, if it were a normal person, then it would probably be about one hundred meters combined.
Slowly letting out a breath, Ye Chen recalled his soul power and thought to himself, 'Within five hundred meters', there are only tunnels one after another. It is a maze, and the walls are about one meter thick. I wonder how strong they are though.'
Taking out his gold sword, he threw out a sword attack onto the wall to his left.
Shoo!
He left a couple inches deep sword mark on the wall; the silver colored iron chips sprinkled in the air before landing onto the ground.
"Normal attack is almost useless?"
Indeed, if he performed his ace attacks, its power would be a couple of times more powerful than his normal attacks, but he had no idea where exactly he was at the moment, and it would not make a difference if he broke through the wall and entered another tunnel.
"Ah well, I will look around first."
Lifting up his feet, Ye Chen started to walk forward.
…
"How come this palace only has tunnels? Where am I going right now really?" Situ Hao was a young warrior who got famous recently. Although his Situ family was not as famous as the top four families in the world, but it was also one of the few families with thousand years of history.
This time, the opening of the treasure tower was a great opportunity for him; as long as he could find a semi extreme rank weapon in here, his power would increase drastically again. Besides the top five young warriors, no one else would be able to be his opponent then, not even Ye Chen.
"I already have a semi extreme rank great sword. All I need now is a defense shield." Semi extreme rank attacking weapons were not that rare, unless it was a set of gloves or something similar. But, semi extreme rank defense items were extremely rare. Even a rank 5 institution might not be able to get their hands on some.
The tunnel was not in a straight line; instead, it was really twisted.
After going around another corner, Situ Hao continued walking. After reaching another edge, he naturally turned around, expecting another turn. "Huh? A room?"
A joyous surprised expression appeared on his face as three hundred meters on the left in his sight was actually a door. A gentle light leaked out from behind.
"There must be a great weapon in there. I really hope it is a semi extreme rank one."
His heart beat excitedly. He swallowed once, taking two steps and then walking rapidly toward the door.
"Oh no, there are footsteps."
Situ Hao heard footsteps approaching, and they were getting really close.
In the next second, a young man in blue walked around the corner, less than ten meters away from the door.
"A room?"
It was indeed Ye Chen. He had been walking for a long time inside the tunnels, and was almost accepting the idea that he was completely lost. Before, he was not headed toward this direction, but he had heard a slight string of footsteps. Naturally, they were from Situ Hao.
"Ye Chen, right? I found this room first. In order to skip all of the hassles, I wish you could leave as soon as possible." Situ Hao naturally had never heard about Ye Chen before, but he had heard people describing him, such as the fact that blue robes were the choice of clothing for him.
Ye Chen said, "Everyone who came in here is for treasure hunting. It does not mean that the treasure you've seen would just belong to you. Plus, you have not even seen the treasure yet."
"It seems like you have never heard of the saying, 'one more friend is better than one more enemy', right?" Situ Hao's expression sank as he rested his right hand on his sword, tightening his palm. That sharp sword aura jumped right at Ye Chen.
"Whether we are friends or not is not something that I can decide. It should be a mutual decision." Ye Chen could tell that this Situ Hao was one of the powerful ones who just had not gotten famous yet. He knew that the latter's power might not be weaker than Beiming Hui's. This time, the opening of the fourth level had indeed attracted a lot of hidden powerful warriors, and even he would not dare to be reckless. Some of the powerful ace attacks should still have to be taken seriously.
"Alright, the others said that you are the strongest warrior just below the top five young warriors. Today, I, Situ Hao, will give it a try. I would like to see if you have the power worthy of the title."
"Three Extreme Sword!"
He had used his most powerful attacks right in the beginning while taking out his longsword. He waved it aggressively and three beams of sword qi shot out before overlapping on top of each other. Thousands of beams of sword qi came together and created a net. Luckily, Ye Chen had powerful sensation; otherwise, if he had tried to squeeze through the gaps of this attack, then he might lose his advantage.
"Gold Pattern!"
Ye Chen did not plan to fight all day either, so he performed his powerful attack as well. The gentle gold pattern was like one seen if a rock was thrown into the lake. It spread out, welcoming that incoming sword qi net.
Boom!
There were only two ends for the qi and blasting waves to go. After the aggressive blast took place, Ye Chen took out a top rank shield, blocking in front of him.
Situ Hao did not have that easy of a time, as the gold pattern was obviously more powerful and aggressive than his Three Extreme Sword. It went through his attack immediately. Although Gold Pattern's power had been canceled out a lot as well, but the shockwave created from the clash had mostly affected him.
Pooh!
There was no time for other movements, and Situ Hao was blown back into the air. He opened his mouth and puked out a huge chunk of blood, which splashed on the roof of the tunnel.
"Defensive Sword Spell!"
Surprisingly, Situ Hao, who was being blown backward, suddenly performed a sword spell with his hands while pointing out a finger attack at Ye Chen. As it was thrown out, a sword flew out of its scabbard automatically, stabbing at Ye Chen within a second.
It was way faster than most people's reflex time. If it were not Ye Chen who was at the receiving end, then there was more than seventy percent chance that he or she would be killed by this attack. The remaining thirty percent would be badly wounded as well.
"What? Defensive Sword Spell?"
Ye Chen was shocked. As someone who had traveled to this world via soul, he knew very well about the defensive sword spell. He was always under the impression that only the Sword God would have this kind of power.
After the shock, Ye Chen performed his Spiritual Sword Attack almost subconsciously.
Ting!
A clinging sound was heard, and Situ Hao's deadly attack had been shattered by Ye Chen.
"What! It has been canceled out? How is this possible!"
Situ Hao's smile froze on his face. Earlier on, he had already made the perfect plan. He knew that even if his Three Extreme Sword could not do anything to Ye Chen, he could at least wound the latter severely with his defensive sword spell. What he did not foresee was that Ye Chen's gold pattern was this powerful; it had even wounded him quite a lot internally. But, in these kinds of situations, it would be best to perform the defensive sword art after all.
However, he had guessed it wrong. Ye Chen's spiritual sword attack was reaching its limit. Even the longsword he controlled remotely had been shattered as well.
"Run!"
Without another sound, Situ Hao did not wait for his body to land on the ground before pushing his Zhen yuan and flying back out to where he came from.
Ye Chen did not decide to chase after him. Firstly, Situ Hao's flying sword was way too famous, and there was no time for any type of preparation before he flew back the way he came from
Ye Chen did not chase after him, as Situ Hao's sword speed was way too fast. Even the rest of his attacks might not be able to make the other stay, since the distance between the two had increased,
"This Defensive Sword Spell is indeed different!"
Earlier on, Ye Chen was indeed surprised. If it were the real Defensive sword spell, then he would have to use one hundred and twenty percent of effort to defend himself. But, his opponent's sword spell was not as powerful as he had thought, and it was not even performed in a smooth manner. It was only traveled in straight line just like the sword in his hand; it was only slightly more powerful than a normal attack.
The real Defensive sword spell should be able to move as his mind moved. Not only should it be extremely fast, it should be able to turn around edges, attacking its opponents from different corners. Under such conditions, even with enough defense, it would only be possible to handle this attack with speed. So, even if it were Ye Chen, he would have to use all of his power in facing of this attack.
But obviously, Situ Hao's defense sword spell was nothing like the one he had thought. Perhaps the power was somewhat close, but the smoothness was nowhere near.
Of course, there was still some kind of connection between the two.
No matter it was Situ Hao's sword spell or the one in Ye Chen's memory, the core was the same. It was just flying swords containing Zhen yuan and used soul power to move.
He laughed at himself a bit as he mumbled to himself, "Warrior is warrior, and the sword gods are the sword gods. I think I overthought on that one. Ah well, even if it were a thing, it would not be that big of a deal after all, since all of the warriors on this land trained martial arts, which are not necessarily that much weaker than the ones I read about before. Seriously speaking, every warrior reaching the Sea of Souls Realm would have the power to open mountains. Once they reached the Life and Death Realm, they could even shatter space, which would not even be the limit of their power."
Calming himself down, Ye Chen started walking again, into the room.
It was not a big room. There was a stone stand in the middle, with a light ball floating on top. Inside it was a sky blue shield.
"Semi extreme rank shield?"
Ye Chen was not sure yet. The vibration of the shield had been barred by the light ball, so it would be impossible to tell its quality from the outside.
Pop!
Throwing out a punch at the light ball, the surface of the fist had a white shine of the dragon bone defense layer. The light ball popped open immediately, and the blue shield landed in his hand.
Boom!
The aggressive vibration almost shook the whole space. It was a couple of times more intense than normal top rank items. Only Semi extreme rank weapons would have the power to have this kind of a vibration.
"It is indeed a semi extreme rank shield!" Ye Chen let out a breath. "Let's make the soul mark first."
Only with the soul mark could this shield be used in its most optimized condition. With this shield, Ye Chen's defense would no longer be a weakness.
With the talent in soul power, Ye Chen managed to make the soul mark quickly. Within fifteen minutes, this light blue shield officially belonged to him.