(MC POV)
Surprisingly, the giant vault door was not locked at all. You'd think that something holding various priceless artefacts would at least have a locked door after all the traps or something.
But nope, the giant, golden double doors of the vault swung inwards with a loud groan when I tried to push it, allowing us to step past them without any other problems.
Behind those ancient doors was the exact image of what you would expect to find in a vault: piles upon piles upon piles of gold and precious metals alongside various antiques and other treasures.
I could sense the swordsman and swordswoman taking a step towards the gold before quickly stopping themselves. At least they were still aware of their positions which I believe was brought about by the fear of us killing them more than anything else.
My disciples were of course surprised by the splendour they saw inside but they lacked the greed the two burdens following us had. In fact, the sight made them stick closer to me for some reason.
Instead of basking in the treasures before us, I simply ignored it all and continued walking forward, my disciples following along without protest.
"Ma… Master Lin! Are you not going to take any of this? If… If you don't want them, can we take them?" The sword 'god' Dao cried out.
"Hate to break it to you, but everything you see here is merely an illusion," I sighed, not slowing down my steps.
He turned to give me a look of doubt, "That's… I mean… I can definitely sense their weight and presence? An illusion should not give off such feelings?"
I smiled at him, "I won't stop you if you want to go and pick up some treasures for yourself so feel free to knock yourself out."
He gave me a look that suggested he had plans to do just that before he stopped himself and shook his head, moving to join me in walking down the hall.
At least he isn't completely stupid.
The same could not be said of the other one though…
While we were moving past the mountains of gold, swordswoman Jian tried to pick up some of the gold coins by using the tip of her sword to try and scoop some up surreptitiously. What she did not expect, however, was for the sword to sink into the pile of gold before being pulled out from her grasp.
She watched with wide eyes as the sword was swallowed into the pile of gold up to its hilt, causing white smoke to emit from it before the handle clattered noisily on the ground.
Left behind was the jagged metal embedded on the hilt that looked like the rest of the sword had been melted right off.
"Gold slimes," I explained with a condescending smile. "I suppose you're lucky to not have used your own hand to touch it."
I could see my disciples were clearly looking down at her for falling into such a trap but they quickly lost interest in her when I continued moving past the giant gold slimes. These were the final traps in the room for anyone who somehow managed to get past the maze, this guy really didn't want anybody touching his stuff.
Incidentally, the two burdens huddled closer to us than before.
At the end of the hall was a stand made out of obsidian, on it was a sword with a blade as black as night with an equally dark handle punctuated by what looks like a diamond embedded in its pommel.
"The Sword of the Nine Heavens!" The female sword 'goddess' gasped.
I moved closer to it and quickly took a step to the side as a figure blurred past me to make a dive for it.
The sword disappeared from its pedestal and my disciples started to move into combat stances but stopped when I waved my hand at them.
"Finally! Finally! The sword is mine! Hahahaha!" Swordsman Dao cheered, lifting the sword into the air triumphantly. "With this, I can conquer the entire continent!"
I wasn't even surprised when the other burden rushed past me and tackled the man onto the ground, resulting in the two of them scrambling for the sword like two starving animals fighting for food.
"Should I cut them down, Master?" Eris asked, her sword already unclasped.
I fought hard to keep my face passive and shook my head, "Just watch."
All of us stared at the two self proclaimed sword gods wrestling with each other on the ground, trying to pry the sword out of the other's grasp.
They were rolling around the ground trying to get leverage over the other when the woman kicked her counterpart in the stomach, sending him rolling away from her.
The man let out a growl as he tried to get back on his feet, only to fall flat on his face as he did so.
Looking down, he realised that his left foot was slowly being sucked into the pile of gold that he had the misfortune to roll into when he got kicked.
Try as he might, he could not pull his appendage free before the acid in the slime started dissolving his foot while slowly pulling the rest of him closer.
He let out a scream of pain but quickly took out his sword and slashed at the slime, only for his attack to bounce off its surface harmlessly.
Thinking quickly, he changed the angle of his sword and shifted his body before swinging his sword, cutting off his leg just below his knee.
Freed from the monster, he quickly scrambled away from it, not even caring that there was a large amount of blood currently spilling out from his stump of a leg.
Before he could recover though, there was a gust of wind before his head was separated from his body, the head flying through the air before landing right on top of the slime he had just escaped from. We could still see the look of astonishment on his face before it sank into the slime to be dissolved.
Of course, I made sure Cai Hong was distracted with some cookies and head pats so she didn't see the gruesome sight.
The killer lifted the weapon stained with the blood of her brethren in the air, "Ahahaha! Now I'm the greatest Sword Goddess to ever live!! With the Sword of the Nine Heavens, I will be the one who will conquer this entire Plane!!"
She then turned to us with a disconcerting smile, "Kneel before me or die!"
I pointed a finger at her, "In an entire room that was basically set up as a trap, you never thought that the sword could be a trap too? How the hell have you been alive for so long?"
My words seemed to have woken her up from her trance and she finally looked down at the sword she was holding.
It was only then that she realised the handle was slowly melting into black liquid that was moving up to consume her hand.
She tried to drop the thing in her hand but the black slime stuck fast to her, already moving to envelope the rest of her arm at a rapid speed.
The woman screamed as her arm melted inside the slime but the scream was quickly silenced as her head was consumed inside the slime as well.
She tumbled down onto the floor sending me a pleading look to help her as she tried to crawl her way towards me.
"Don't look, everyone. There's some trash rolling around over there," I told them, covering Cai Hong's eyes from the view.
The slime consumed the rest of the woman and melted her body away, leaving not even bones behind.
Once the self proclaimed sword goddess was completely gone, it moved to devour the corpse of the self proclaimed sword god as well.
We watched on as it disposed of the two bodies before the slime coalesced into a black pulsating blob in the middle of where the two had once fought.
The slime did not have any human features but we knew it was currently focused on us.
"All of you," I called out, getting the attention of my disciples. "The wall directly at the end is an illusion, just walk straight through it and I'll join you all later. There's no more traps in there so you don't need to worry."
"But… Master…" Lian Li started to protest.
I shook my head to silence her, "I want to talk to the slime for a bit."
"Allow us to stay then, Divine One," Shiori suggested.
I shook my head, "Alone."
They turned to look at the slime and back to me before finally nodding, all of them moving towards the wall and stepping through it confidently, showing their absolute trust in me.
I also erected a shield on the wall so that any words said here would not pass through to them and if a fight broke out, nothing could reach them either.
Once I was alone with the black slime, it shifted its mass and transformed itself into a person with my features. The only difference was that the other man's skin was tanned in colour.
"Hello," the copy of me greeted with a slight bow.
I knew the greeting was not for me so I kept silent.
Instead, Xun Guan peeled herself away from my clothes and reformed herself in front of me.
My slime girl frowned at the black slime before letting out a sigh.
"Hello… Sister."
