Born in Blood-Chapter 571: Statue

The second Liam stepped foot over the separating line, a distant sound rang out, seemingly through a series of long, distant corridors.

KERCHUNK!

Following this noise, there was a silent pause.

Liam held his breath as the corridors slowly came alive with dim colors, and the hallway he had entered through slowly rose up and closed away.

In front, the hallways split and rearranged, splitting off into a complex arrangement of long, wide, low and high tunnels shooting in different directions.

Even upwards and downwards!

Which meant that this was a three-dimensional maze...

Liam slightly grimaced. Completing a two-dimensional maze made by an ancient monster like Naxathra would be extremely difficult.

Following this thought, there was silence.

...And a long, ghastly rasp that came immediately after.

Houuuurrrrrrrrhhhhh...

Liam’s skin rose.

He was not alone in here.

’What kind of test is this?’ Liam thought with focused eyes, his gaze scanning the tunnels. ’What are you expecting of me?’

He didn’t know where to put his next step. Considering how he nearly died before he even started the exploration, he needed to consider his every move carefully.

First, he checked the Sea of Shadows for an easier way of navigation, and to scour how far or near the other... "thing" was in comparison to him.

As it was now, he didn’t sense it close.

And that was a good and bad thing.

Good as in Liam had time to get away from the Thing if it approached him.

Bad as in he didn’t know where the Thing was.

It could come from anywhere... and unless it was slow, it could rapidly gain on him from unexpected angles.

This...

This reminded him of something.

What was it, again?

Right.

A horror flick.

This was straight out of a c-tier horror movie!

Liam shook off the excess thoughts and focused on spreading his mental energy.

Obviously, his mental waves didn’t reach far at all, and he attributed that to Naxathra’s meticulous planning.

But the Sea of Shadows worked fine, albeit from a distance of just 500 meters as opposed to the hundreds of kilometers he was used to. Naxathra’s magics suppressed almost all of Liam’s abilities, including his shadows... but the mechanisms put in place were ancient and outdated.

Newer powers most likely slipped through its cracks.

After a brief scan of his surroundings, Liam covered himself with shadows and glided through the foremost hallway. He made no noise at all.

If the environment was a maze, the objective was most likely to discover a way out of it.

How big or small, easy or difficult it was to do this, was a different matter.

And, most likely, he would learn the hard way.

That being said, he maintained a slow pace to minimize any hidden threats and keep the noise he made to an absolute minimum.

After all, Liam couldn’t shake off the feeling he was being hunted.

He kept his ear open for any noises that came from the Thing.

There was just pure silence.

Liam made no noise, but neither did the Thing.

He eventually arrived at an intersection. To his left was a wide corridor that led into a circular-shaped room.

To his front, an upward slope that curved to a tunnel-like area.

And to his right, a downward slant which lowered into a narrow, zig-zag shape.

It had to be said that Liam could not see the contents of these locations.

With his shadows, he could tell their shapes.

Even with his King’s Eye, the dimness was too much.

His mental energy could not sense any danger from all three locations, which he could only attribute to Naxathra’s cunning design.

’Pick your poison.’

The room with the wide-most amount of space interested him most. If there was any danger, he could use the space to his advantage.

At least, at first glance.

Judging by what he’d seen so far from this Tomb, trusting his base instincts would be pure idiocy.

Perhaps the biggest room came with the toughest challenge.

The same went for the other two.

They each most likely came with a strange element that seemed appropriate enough to make Liam’s life harder.

Nevertheless, he had to choose one.

Suppressing the urge to groan in annoyance, Liam chose the largest room.

There was an explanation for his choice.

Despite him taking into account the largest room was the hardest, he still chose it.

Why?

Because it was hard in a way he could manage.

After all, the room came in the simplest shape.

The other two were almost claustrophobic.

Which meant that they required some sort of expertise to get through.

Although Liam was the expert when it came to most fields, he wasn’t sure whether or not his methods could be applied on the ancient cultivator’s Tomb.

Liam’s Blood Weaving and Primordial Forging were niche methods, after all.

He arrived at the large room’s entrance.

Then, he paused.

Liam took a quick look at the other corridors. The two other choices.

With a frown, he resolved himself and stepped foot through the large room.

Everything was basked in darkness.

KERCHUNK!

Immediately, the maze — and his surroundings as a whole — began to change shape.

The entrance behind him was sealed shut.

His senses, which felt tightly suppressed, were slowly returning. In fact, he felt 50% of his mental prowess come back.

This... made him feel uneasy for several reasons.

Why would he need more power?

GHRRRRRRRR!

With a rumbling noise, the ceiling rose from 10, to 30, to 40 meters high. What looked like a chandelier made from bones repelled from the ceiling a second after, bursting into dark flames.

It was then that Liam laid his eyes on the very center of the room.

All he could do was curse under his breath.

In the very center of the chamber, a huge statue of a grotesque monster stood tall.

About 13 meters tall.

The front of its "head" looked like an ugly mass of twisted stone eyes mushed together.

A curved line below these eyes resembled a mouth.

As it was, the monster’s statue looked like it was smiling.