Chapter 2: Exploring the Ruin

Wei stared at the walls in a daze. He saw so many pictures on the walls, showing separate scenes lining across the wall as a story. Wei smiled with joy and took out a black book from his mysterious space.

The book was a magical treasure that copied writing and carvings onto its pages. The pages were organized based on different topics and the carvings on the wall created a new section in his book. He spent half an hour ensuring that both sides of the hall were recorded onto his journal before hiding it back in his mysterious space.

Just as he turned right and stepped on a tile outside the entrance hall, the walls shifted and revealed several small wooden tubes. Wei panicked and jumped back. He held his breath and nearly dropped his torch as arrows shot out from the walls.

His heels pressed another tile and Wei felt his body shift downward. Without a thought, Wei bent his knees and sprang back into the hall. This time, green gas sprung out from the walls and held corrosive properties. The walls and floor sizzled but remained undamaged as the gas dissipated.

"Impossible," Wei gasped, seeing the wall as normal as it was previously. However, the tubes and tiles remained in place. Wei lifted his free hand and sparks came to life.

The sparks collided and began to concentrate into the form of an arrow. All of this happened in an instant and Wei launched the arrow at the wall. The arrow was destroyed as it burst with a blast of sparks. Still, the walls appeared undamaged.

Wei breathed deeply and decided that it was better to fly. Wei laughed as he flew over the tiles and entered the rooms one by one. A part of him just knew he would have already died before entering the first room.

The main treasures he had found were shining white crystals about three inches long. The rest of the items he found were rusted pieces of armor and weapons damaged by time. He then returned to the right side of the hall as he reached the end of the hall from the left of the entrance hall.

Wei cried out as his black cloud was nullified when entering the room at the end of the hall. He fell and rolled once as he crashed onto the floor. As he got up and rubbed his knees, his eyes widened as he stood before a steel statue.

The statue donned a golden armor with dragon shoulder guards and a crimson mask. Below the statue was a plaque with letters made out of pure silver.

"Congratulations for passing the first trial. If you were a mortal, the traps among the tiles will have killed you. This room is the second trial for those who entered from the Black Sea Portal. You will be destroyed and remade. What potentials and limitations you had are gone, to be rewritten in this place. Don the armor and the mask. Then, your trial will begin," Wei read aloud, alarmed at its words.

This was no ordinary ruin. It would have to be one of those immortal ruins his grandmother had talked about. Cultivator academies and sects highly coveted and closely guarded such places. If Wei's guess was true, he might encounter other people within the ruin.

Nothing happened as Wei put on the gold armor. Wei's hairs stood on end as the armor seemed to be made especially for his size. As he put on the crimson mask, he shook with fear as the mask seemed to merge onto his face like a carapace. Wei looked back at the plaque to see the words changed.

"The path of a cultivator is a path of blood and steel. Hence, you must be baptized with blood and death. You will be taken to an executioner platform where you and nine others will behead ten million souls. No matter the race, gender, or power; you will behead them all," the plaque began.

"There is no execution without reward. Your spirit energy will be purified the more you behead. As you behead one million of the ten million souls, one hundred treasures will appear. As you have entered the portal with the second highest difficulty, you may any pick seven. Before you proceed to the execution platform, you must pick any weapon in the room to serve as your tool for execution," the plaque concluded. "Choose carefully. Once a decision is made, tap the weapon onto the plaque to proceed to the next phase."

Wei looked around in wonder as the walls vanished to reveal white marble walls with shelves of all kinds of weapons. Spears, swords, axes, sickles, and maces littered the walls most. Wei felt tempted as some even radiated magical energy. He could tell the weapons were actually magical treasures!

After much time contemplating his choices, he decided to use his own sword. When he was twelve, he saw a shooting star as he trained bitterly on the sands. The shooting star crashed a few meters offshore, sending a twenty five foot wave crashing onto the beach.

After he lost consciousness and awoke ten minutes later, he spent hours digging up the meteor and dragging it home. He had it forged into the sword he now carried, a small piece of it carved into a smooth, stone medallion with a dragon insignia he still wore around his neck. He also considered the plaque's words and feared there was a price to pay for the magical weapons.

Wei drew his sword and admired his sword once again. He loved the gold guard and shining steel blade. The double-edged blade was black and turned azure toward the tip. He brandished it once before tapping it onto the plaque. The plaque shined as the words changed once again.

"No weapon offered by the room was chosen. No weapon was taken out of a storage or spatial treasure. No price will be paid, but a reward instead. The sword tapped will become forged into a magical weapon, bound to your soul with no power able to dissolve your spirit imprint. In ten seconds, you will appear in a place of judgment. How you execute is up to you," the plaque stated, an inhuman voice emanating from the plaque.

A red light expanded from Wei's mask, enclosing him into a sphere as the mask turned black with a neon green symbol of his forget. Any piece of piece of Wei's body not covered by the mask and hair became covered in darkness, an aura of shadow giving the gold clad Wei a more tyrannical appearance.

In an unknown space, long lines of people were lined up in chains atop clouds. All eyes fearfully looked up as another speeding comet of gold light speeding toward the front of the line. Two ten meter warriors clad in gold armor saluted as the comet sped past them at the gate and arrived before a hundred meter square platform.

All around the platform were numerous races of celestials, humans, and magical beasts alike. They watched as a tenth raised platform arose from the platform. The gold comet of light stopped before the three steps of the raised platform and the other nine executioners donned in different golden armors stopped their actions and stared at the comet in shock.

"Impossible. Someone came from the tenth entrance?" one of the masked executioners gasped.

"There are many options for the second trial, but the Black Sea entrance is rumored to have only the execution trial due to the danger of even approaching the entrance," another agreed.

"What is so dangerous about it?" a third inquired.

"To this day, no one has traveled beneath the surface of the Black Sea and lived during sun down. However, this kid seems weak. He's barely stronger than a mortal," the second executioner muttered as the red light sphere revealed Wei.

"The condemned will now branch off and make a tenth line for execution. The executions scheduled for the Black Sea Executioner will be made shortly," one of the golden warrior guards roared, causing the audience to look at each other in shock.

Someone had really come from the Black Sea on Earth! None of their organizations and clans had found the entrance in years, much less have the ability to survive the neon green waters. Even those beings from other worlds in the Mortal Realm were stunned. Only the undead or demons have ever come from the entrance. Even more unbelievable: he's only at the first layer of condensation!

Many people in the crowd began to give orders to their subordinates. There were many second trials of the immortal ruin, but the execution trial was the most bloody and rewarding. They watched as the tenth executioner walked onto the platform as a human with white wings and white robe appeared next to him to give instructions.

"Hello, Black Sea Executioner. You have already been informed of the requirements and reward. You can ask the condemned to give you their possessions before they die. The hundred treasures will also appear as you do your duty. You have until the next beheaded condemned to choose the treasure when it appears. No matter how powerful they are, they cannot harm you. Listen to no threats. Behead all one million. Do you understand?" the winged human asked.

"Are you an angel?" Wei asked, stunning everyone in the stadium.

The winged human was taken back for a moment before answering, "I am of the seraphim race. I a version of what you call an angel, but possess no human blood. I'll take it that you are ready. Draw thy blade and prepare."

Wei's golden armor changed into a black leather armor with golden dragons on his chest, back, and shoulders as the seraph beckoned the first condemned. Wei was stunned as his first beheading was a purple-skinned human with devil horns and bat wings. A long scaled tail waved behind the devil as he knelt on the platform facing the crowd to Wei's right.

"Do I say any words in particular?" Wei asked the seraph.

"No. Mock them, taunt them, and even conversing is allowed. The end result must be the same: death. In that regard, some executioners torture their victims first," the seraph answered. "They cannot speak unless allowed by you. Only you decide if they have the right to say any last words."

Wei nodded and turned to the devil. The other executioners wanted to speak to him, but looks from the seraphs prevented them. They could only bite their tongues and continue their beheadings.

"Do you have any last words? Now is the time," Wei asked the devil.

"For thousands of years, I slaughtered worlds of you human scum. To think I will fall to a human barely a cultivator and doomed to have my soul devoured and destroyed..... get on with it," the devil spat and dipped his head.

Wei breathed in deeply, his eyes closed. As he opened them, all the audience could see was black shadows swirling in his eyes sockets as he swung his sword. The body twitched twice before falling forward, a pool of blood slowly spreading to drip off the platform's edge.

Wei paused as he saw the next condemned. She was an absolute beauty, her body perfectly proportioned and looked more beautiful than an angel as she knelt before him. The audience could only sigh with pity as some men felt their distinct parts harden.

"Do you have any last words? Now is the time," Wei said after he gazed at her face and chest before shaking his head.

"I became a concubine to a prince who became emperor. I slept with his best general and overthrew the dynasty before being killed by his wife. Beware of beauties, executioner. One day, you will surely lose your life to one," she warned.

"I probably will. Perhaps enough of women like you will prevent that," Wei said silently before cutting off her head.

He was stunned as he saw a gold necklace with a blue diamond containing spirit energy fall from the beauty's body. The seraphim did nothing as Wei picked up the necklace and stored it in his hidden body space.

"The loot is yours of course. Also, the rewards are not visible to anyone but you. Do note that you might encounter other people as you explore the main grounds of the immortal ruins. The items you pick up might reveal your identity," the seraph answered, predicting Wei's words as Wei turned to him.

Wei received many odd trinkets from the corpses of demons, devils, humans, and magical beasts. Those in the audience envied the ten executioners, each one wondering their identities as executioners were replaced after reaching their quotas. Each of the nine other platforms had at least four new executioners, but Wei was still cutting off heads.

Occasionally, black liquid impurities would seep from the armor. No one noticed as the liquid mixed with the blood drenching the platform. Wei had already killed over nine hundred and ninety nine thousand condemned and only had five more to go.

He had already browsed ninety nine true treasures and chose six. The most notable was a fire attribute spirit root. After absorbing the spirit root into his body, the souls fragments absorbed after each beheading further improved it. Even his lightning spirit energy became more powerful.

Wei gained the ability to create and manipulate fire because of the flame attribute spirit root. His talent for fire attribute skills and spells would be the highest and even learned skills and spells for both fire and thunder elements.

He learned the Lightning Fall sword skill and Fireball skill. He also learned the Inferno Strike skill that could be used with his fists, feet, and sword. He could have learned many more spells and skills, but learning too many would do more harm than good.

He also found what the seraphim called an Obsidian Star Stone. It was one of the rarest types of earth belonging to a black crystal beast from another planet. Overtime, the rock would temper his body and his affinity to earth would also be greater than average. Wei's grandmother would surely be more than satisfied now.

Wei stared at his last three condemned as he beheaded another two. Finally, he could stop killing. He was mentally exhausted, but his body was still as energetic as ever. It was as if the armor was enchanted to prevent physical exhaustion, hunger, and thirst. He wanted to go back home and eat his grandmother's cooking by the warm fire in their cabin.

His cultivation had also broken through to the seventh layer of condensation. For his age, he was above average and any sect and academy would accept him when discovering his fire attribute spirit root. His potential for fire spells and skills would more than make up for his cultivation talent.

As a human emperor approached the platform and knelt, Wei said, "Do you have any last words? Now is the time."

The emperor stared at the jian, unable to see the black and azure sword's true form as it was covered in golden flames like all the other executioner weapons. He looked at the swirling shadows radiating from Wei's eyes under the mask's effects.

"I had my empire taken from me by my own brother and failed to take it back. I pass on my Beast Tamer skill to you, and my advice. Do not tread the world alone. The path of a cultivator is lonely. Very lonely. Even mortals need to live their lives with others," the emperor sighed and dipped his head. A gold thread spread from him and Wei learned the skill as it disappeared into his own.

"I will heed your words well, emperor. Be at peace," Wei said and beheaded the grieving old man.

As he killed the final condemned, Wei automatically chose the hundredth treasure as his final reward. It was a cyan crystal magical knife able to create ten copies of itself at a time that could fly in any direction Wei chose. Its greatest aspect was that it was indestructible, like his sword, but completely silent. Even if he swung the knife, no one could hear the blade.

"The quota is met. Your sword will be changed as you appear in the main grounds of the ruins. Good luck and remember to harden your heart to your enemies. Fall, and it might be you who gets beheaded in this dreadful place," the seraphim warned, waving its hand as Wei vanished with a golden flash.

"That Black Sea Executioner was no mere human. A part of him relished the killing subconsciously. How else could his soul withstand devouring the fragments of one million others?" one of the seraphs noted as it flew to where Wei vanished.

"It is the bloodline. That sword is extraordinary as well. The executioner also learned the Azure Destruction Blast technique, a technique utilizing light and darkness. His talent wasn't great though. The rewards of the soul fragments only raised him to the seventh layer of the first realm of cultivation because it had to increase his foundations," the other seraph sighed. "His four other rewards aren't bad though. Perhaps it will give him an edge against the talents and elite of his world."

"And how many human centuries do you need to wait before the next executioner?" the seraph laughed and grew stern. "The third trial will be interesting. Many humans and magical beasts this decade."