"Catch him! Don't let him escape!" Helk shouted as he and the rest of the bandits chased after Ranze.
"Catch me if you can," Ranze grunted as he jumped into a hole, arriving at an underground tunnel. It was small, only wide enough to crawl on all fours. This was the route he picked to reach the ruins.
Even though he was aware that Elder Galda had tricked him, the map seemed real. And, even if it wasn't real, he didn't have any other option but to reach the ruins in the centre of the Misty Gorge Ruins.
After all, he could no longer return to the Giant Whale Sect. He would be killed one way or another. It was not to mention the fact that the bandits were chasing after him.
With no cultivation, death was his only option. So instead, he planned to head into the ruins and hope for a way of survival there. Maybe he would indeed chance upon some treasures there.
After all, Origin Beasts didn't need any external items to cultivate. They only protected precious herbs and the likes, having no interest in inanimate objects due to their lack of Martial Spirits.
The tunnel he entered spanned for almost ten kilometres in length and directly led into the ruins. That's why he persisted in running and managed to enter it just when the bandits were about to grab him.
And, just to ensure they wouldn't be able to catch him in the tunnel, he placed a bunch of pepper packets at the bottom of the hole that led into the tunnel. This way, the moment they landed in the tunnel, they would step upon the pepper packets, causing them to explode and spread the pepper powder within.
In this narrow tunnel, that would be a horrible situation.
Ranze hoped to gain enough time to leave. The bandits weren't aware that this tunnel was safe. So, they would definitely hesitate, unwilling to lose their lives for no reason.
They would be trying to find other modes of tracking him. 'Since they can track me, it means that they would be aware of my position all the time. After all, the tunnel is only four metres from the surface.'
"But, it'll go deeper further in. It won't be possible for them to reach me that easily even if they tried to dig through." Ranze smirked, gazing at their positions on the brick, "You can track me, but at the same time, I can also track you."
After crawling forth for thirty minutes, the tunnel became wide enough for him to rest comfortably. He took out some food and water from his storage pouch and rested for an hour. He was too exhausted to even move a finger.
And knowing that he wouldn't have any space to rest or recover once he entered the ruins, Ranze took the time to relax and regain his strength.
After travelling for three hours, the tunnel had a height of three metres now. He had reached the end, noticing a flight of stairs spanning upward.
Ranze gazed at the brick, seeing that the six bandits were still keeping track of his location, trailing after him on the surface.
"They should be exhausted by now. It's not easy to come this far on the surface." Muttering as such, Ranze scaled the flight of stairs, soon arriving within a massive space.
Even though it was called ruins, the place was wholly intact. It was as if the interior was maintained using a mysterious power.
Standing before him were two massive faces, each spanning a height of thirty metres. The faces resembled rakshasas—man-eating monsters—from the legends, with their mouths wide open, acting as the entrance.
There were two paths for him to choose from as Ranze gazed at his brick, frowning, "The map ends here."
"Where do you think we should go next?" Ranze gazed at the brick, asking it.
"If you are unsure, how am I supposed to know?" The brick retorted, saying, "Let's just go left. It's not like we can predict what they might contain, right?"
"You're right about that." Ranze nodded as he carefully tiptoed through the left path, alert against any traps.
Two minutes after he had left through the path, the figure of Compass Carburettor arrived at the massive space, frowning as he looked at both the rakshasa heads, sending out a Spydragon to scout out the paths each.
The Spydragons flew through the two paths, quickly relaying everything they witnessed to him. It was a long path, indeed filled with traps to the brim. But, the Spydragons didn't have any cultivation, and hence didn't trigger them.
'So, that part about not having a cultivation ended up being the truth.' He nodded, watching the Spydragons travel for a couple of kilometres before reaching the end.
And at end of the path was a massive dome. Contained within were massive sculptures of creatures of various shapes and sizes.
And, embedded in their centre seemed to be…Martial Spirits?
The Spydragon observed them, noticing that the sculpture resembled the Martial Spirit embedded into its core.
There were all sorts of Martial Spirits here, starting from Trash Martial Spirits to even a rare few Earth Martial Spirits. And all the sculptures were inanimate.
"But, judging based on how ruins work, they would begin moving when cultivators approach them." Compass Carburettor muttered, smiling wryly, "This feels like entering a game before its launch. Everything is there, but none work."
Of course, that was only because he was a mortal. All the traps here had been prepared for cultivators.
There were quite some obstacles along the path that mortals wouldn't be able to scale past. So, it was impossible for anyone to go around the mechanisms here.
But for Compass Carburettor, it was easy as he casually flew past everything, reaching the dome with the sculptures.
He was unsure as to what the past civilisation was attempting to do by sealing Martial Spirits in sculptures. He wasn't concerned about that, even though that garnered his interest.
Compass Carburettor then noticed a door within the body of a sculpture in the centre. It was something that one would only notice after reaching its back.
And now, Compass Carburettor noticed that it led into another chamber, sighing, "Where is this leading towards now?"
