After stepping through the door, Xuan found himself imdiately blasted by a heat wave. For a second, he thought he had returned to the volcano or the desert, but soon realized that was not the case.
'This is… an arena?'
Near the corners of the room, four totems of fire stood, igniting and illuminating the chamber. Surrounding them on the walls were gated cells, holding unknown entities within. Across from Xuan was a door that most likely led to the next area, and it was already open—in other words, he could choose to leave whenever he wanted. But of course, he wasn't going to do that without seeing what this place was about first. Above the door was the roman nural I, symbolizing 'one'. It hovered there like a sigil made of fiery orange Qi, further adding to Xuan's suspicions.
The arena was perfectly still, as if awaiting the challenger—in this case, Xuan—to say he was ready. Silently, Xuan closed his eyes and acknowledged it.
'… Let's begin.'
Imdiately, the four totems flared to life, and their flas soared towards the ceiling. The gated cells opened, and from them ca…
"… Wood?"
Indeed, the only things that ca from the gates were several small logs. They rolled out and fell onto the arena floor, slowing down in speed before coming to a complete stop.
"…"
Xuan was baffled. What kind of challenge was this supposed to be? Heck, what was he even supposed to do with this?
'When in doubt, chop it in half.'
That was his logic. In this world, you could never be too careful. Taking out his Scarlet Passion sword, he cleaved the logs in half, but soon found that his sword passed straight through the wood. It was like they weren't there at all, intangible… but Xuan quickly discarded that theory as he bent down and felt the log with his fingers. Without a doubt, they could be touched. But if that was the case, then… why did his sword not split them apart?
Deciding to take a different approach, Xuan focused his gaze on the pile of logs, and snapped his fingers. The aura of a dragon flashed from his eyes for a brief mont, and suddenly, the logs burst into flas.
The technique he had used was Combustion—part of the Zodiac Techniques. It caused whatever object he wanted to burst into flas, so long as he had the strength.
'So… fire works, but not my sword?'
He supposed that made sense, given the… 'fiery' aesthetic of this arena, but it was still too early to tell. Perhaps there was sothing else at play.
Just then, the fire totems let out a burst of flas again, catching Xuan's attention, and the roman nural above the door flipped from I to II. Once again, the gated cells opened, and this ti, what ca out weren't as simple as a few rolling pieces of logs. Crawling from the cells were several low level Fire Beasts—only… they weren't exactly real.
Well… perhaps that wasn't the right way to describe them. They weren't real since this entire realm was paracausal, but they certainly could still do so real damage—not to be underestimated by any ans, even given how weak they were. With that in mind, Xuan, not even bothering to draw his weapon, opened his palm and used the most basic technique he had.
'Sky Devil's Palm.'
Even if it was a basic Earth-Grade technique, the damage it could deal was still nothing to scoff at. Xuan's two attack-related stats, both Soul and physical, were insanely high for his cultivation level. The Qi converged into the shape of a hand swept across the arena, filled with destructive power, and…
… Phased straight through the incoming horde of Fire Beasts.
"… Oh?"
Xuan, tilting his head slightly in confusion, blinked in interest. Easily, he sidestepped the attack of a jumping Fire chipmunk or whatever it was, and pulled out his sword to slice it in half. Once again, however, the blade passed straight through, and failed to do any damage.
'As expected… these aren't just normal Fire Beasts.'
They were inside this paracausal space, so naturally their nature had been altered sowhat. However, if this was ant to be an unescapable arena, the door wouldn't be left wide open—it still was, even after the trial had begun. That ant there had to be so specific way this place wanted Xuan to defeat these Fire Beasts… and the clues were scattered right around him.
'Hm… I see how it is.'
Backing away, Xuan reared up his sword, eyes ablaze with indignation, and swung it horizontally in front of him as hard as he could.
"Flas… of Descension!"
Using the technique he replicated by performing intercourse with Huo Fei, Xuan unleashed a terrible burst of flas in front of him, spanning the entire arena's width. It flew across the air like a raging stormbird, and incinerated everything in its path—the Fla Beasts included.
'Now that I think about it… there was that saying, wasn't there? Fight fire with fire… or sothing like that.'
Yet again, the fire atop the four totems increased in magnitude, and the roman nural above the door slowly morphed from II to III. It was now round 3—and this ti, the gated cells did not unlock. Instead, it was the ceiling that suddenly opened up, and from it ca a massive boulder.
"Hm?"
Xuan quickly looked up, and using Swift Cloud Steps, quickly moved out of the way right before the rock dropped on his head. The boulder smashed into the arena floor, causing a small crater, but did nothing more. Xuan half-expected it to explode on him or sothing, but nada. It remained perfectly still, just as a boulder should.
'Now, the question is… how do I move forward from here?'
Xuan thought back to the previous two rounds. There was a pattern. Both tis, he had to use fire to progress, and both tis, they were used in a different way. Following his past knowledge and the quote that had been used to describe the Corridors of Ti…
'… I see.'
This was teaching him Laws. What a perfect opportunity, considering he'd just reached the stage at which he could start comprehending them.
The first Law of Fire was Ignition—he had ignited those pieces of wood, and that had let him progress to the next stage.
The second Law was Incineration—he'd burned those Fire Beasts to a crisp, allowing him to move onto the third.
And now… the third Law was—destruction.
If he wanted to progress further, he'd need to destroy this boulder using the power of fire—and luckily for him, he already had the ans to do so.
Xuan, focusing his gaze on the boulder intently, smiled.
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