Chapter 2298: New Entry

To unlock all four corners of the surface, there are eight locks he needs to undo.

At least, the puzzles are not that difficult to his standard and he can do it quickly.

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

He finished the next two. But he is definitely not fast enough to stop more puppets from coming out.

Because as evidence, the third puppet fell down from the walls..

And this time, he didn"t even have some grace period that he usually has before it lands an attack on him. This one is faster than the previous two combined.

It is also a puppet that is in the shape of a beast. A wolf to be precise.

The metal wolf seemed to harness the wind element. It didnt even look like it was running. Its almost like it was gliding as it made its way to Sam.

Sam barely managed to dodge by clinging on to the pillar. But the wolf is too agile. He turned around and tried to bite him down.

Sam climbed upwards on the pillar making the wolf bit on to the edge of the pillar.

*CLANG*

The sound... the pillar is too hard and durable. Sam could see that the wolf"s teeth deformed a bit.

The wolf looked at Sam and jumped up. An air cannon appeared undeanth its feet as it shot upward, almost reaching Sam.

Sam twisted to the side and moved to the other surface.

*BOOM*

The wolf didnt fall down, it launched another air cannon to divert its direction and came at Sam and this time, some wind blades followed along with the wolf.

*BAM*

Sam kicked the pillar and launched himself like an arrow, towards the closest red pillar that was already there.

That pillar was already part of a formation that was restraining the snake.

The wolf didnt lag behind and came after him.

*BOOM*

A condensed wind bullet landed on the pillar first as Sam jumped to a tile when the wolf followed.

A new pillar was erected. Sam looked at the previous pillar a bit hopefully and his eyes lit up when an energy thread came from it to the new pillar.

He also looked at the formation warily, hoping that it was not deactivated and he is glad it didnt.

Sam doesn"t completely understand the workings of the red pillars. Can a single pillar be used for multiple formations? And if he tried to do that, will first formation be affected? He wanted to find out the answer and this is the attempt.

It is not like he hasn"t stepped on a pillar that was already in the formation before. When the snake came that is first thing he did. And he jumped from that already active pillar to new tile, making a new pillar come out. However at that time, there was no link between the old and new pillars.

At the time, Sam also didn"t have the intent to connect them both. Now, he wanted to connect them both and jumped with that intent. So, they were connected. It seems like the formation of the room is too advanced.

Advanced to the point that it can even detect intent.

Sam is a bit wary of the setting. It is never a good thing one something is peering into one"s head. He could never be comfortable about that. He pushed that thought to the back of his mind and dealt with the problem at hand.

He connected the formation with a few of the old pillars that are already binding the snake. Soon, a new barrier appeared and it merged with the barrier around the snake, creating a slightly bigger barrier.

Sam just used six more pillars and connected them with the snake barrier to make it bigger, trapping both the wolf and the snake.

Of course, the barrier type changed a bit, however it is defensive nonetheless and it worked perfectly.

Since he acted a lot quicker this time, he has a bit more time before the fourth puppet comes falling down. He hurried to the first golden pillar.

He even activated partial light fusion to his hands as he started working on the formations. He only focused on speed and precision nothing else. Not even the energy expense mattered. It is not like those small movements will consume a lot of begin with.

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

Five clicks, consecutively rang through the room as Sam opened the first surface. The pins came off the surface and the rest of it fell down to the ground. He could see the huge sphere of energy at the center of the pillar"s hollow.

Apart from that, the rest is all blurry, even to his energy vision.

It seems like some excessive measures have been taken to keep it all concealed.

He just moved to the second surface.

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

He unlocked six locks before, he heard it.

*THUD*

The fourth puppet came out.

Sam didn"t even bother examining this one. All he checked was if it was humanoid, what its speed like, what element attacks it is using. He got that information in the first three seconds and the he lured it to the pre-determined trap spot. He used six more pillars and expanded the first formation and blocked this together with the first humanoid puppet.

Sam went and opened the second surface.

The internal mechanism is visible much more clearly now. But still not clear enough. He even tried to poke his hands inside to see if he can access it in its state. Then he felt it. The aversive reaction of the energy over his skin.

It felt like he placed his hand in the boiling hot oil.

However, instead of his flesh and bone, his spiritual energy circulation is being effected. He hurriedly grabbed his hand back and used observation on himself. It could have become

lethal.

Luckily, he didn"t put his hand all the way through and only a few fingers were affected. It didn"t take long to recover before he dove into solving the next surface.

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

He is faster this time. The third surface is done and he noticed the mechanism much more clearly. Now the fourth surface. He knew he could crack it before the next puppet comes and

he did.

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

*CLICK*

The surface fell down and he saw the energy core inside. There are no extra circuits surrounding the core. It is connected to the bottom through a specially inscribed metallic rod from which it is drawing the energy from and it is channelling that energy to the lotus on top.

It is very simple. In fact, the energy core"s presence wouldn"t have impacted the function of the lotus. He could see it easily working with a straight inscribed rod. So, the only reason the core is hear to make the other puzzles intact.

If he wants to stop this lotus, all he has to do is dissipate the energy of the core and keep in a constant state of energy deficit. However, he didn"t rush to do it.

Before that he needs to understand what type of node the petals of these lotus are in the

golden formations that were created until now.

Each petal is acting as a node for different formation and there are four until now. Even though all formations triggered a square to open up, Sam noticed that all four of them are not the same formations. The sequence of the nodes is different, which means apart from triggering the walls to open up, they have some other purpose.

Sam needs to identify it became he cannot access the formation network openly. However, now that he has access to one of the energy sources of the formation, he can.

He thought for a moment and closed his eyes. He activated a different type of partial fusion this time. A fusion of neutral spiritual energy. No element, nothing. This is a bit harder than the elements oddly and it is not exactly energy efficient to sustain.

But right now, he believed this is the best way to go.

He extended his hand to the energy core. He didn"t feel the resistance or the previous burning feeling. He took a deep breath before using the observation ability.

A string of energy was drawn from the core as it connected with Sam"s own energy network.

He connected himself to the formation as a pa.s.sive object and is reading how it works.

Now, he could see it. The energy network that he failed to see with his previous observation ability and energy vision is now clearly visible.

He started looking at the four formations that are already placed and the fifth formation that

is being constructed in real time.

His focus is at all time high.

And at that moment...

*GRRR*

He heard the familiar rumbling sound. A frown appeared on his face. The fifth formation is

clearly not done.

He opened his eyes and looked straight ahead.

A wall opened a small entrance. And a person is standing there.