Chapter 22: The Viper and the World-Seed
Night fell over the Deadlands of Zone Z like a heavy shroud. The air grew cold, and the eerie howls of Void Beasts echoed off the jagged canyon walls.
To any normal cultivator, this was a time of terror. A time to hide, set up defensive arrays, and pray for dawn.
To The Dining Hall, it was dinnertime.
I stood over a massive, hovering black-iron wok in the center of our campsite. Underneath it, a formation of fire crystals provided a steady, smokeless heat. Inside the wok, the choicest cuts of Thunder-Horn Drake meat were sizzling in a glaze of Spirit Honey and Void Pepper.
"Simmons," I commanded without looking up. "The glaze is reducing too fast. Lower the heat by 3 degrees."
"Yes, Chef!" Simmons scrambled to adjust the crystals.
Anya was sitting on a log nearby, holding a plate and a fork, her legs swinging impatiently. Ria was patrolling the perimeter, her silhouette flickering in and out of the darkness.
Everything seemed peaceful.
But I knew we had a guest.
My Void Sense had picked up a distortion in the air ten minutes ago. It wasn't a beast. It was a human heartbeat, slowed down to near-stasis to avoid detection.
'He's good,' I thought, flipping a steak with my spatula. 'He managed to bypass Ria's sensors by masking his scent with corpse dust. Must be the assassin Vex hired.'
I didn't alert the others. I wanted to see what he would do.
The Shadows.
Viper held his breath. He was perched on a rock outcropping twenty meters above the campsite, blended perfectly into the stone.
He watched the target—Rudra Ye—cooking.
'He is wide open,' Viper analyzed. 'His back is turned. He is distracted by the food. His weapon is nowhere in sight.'
Viper drew his twin daggers. They were coated in Necrotic Basilisk Venom, a poison that rotted flesh instantly upon contact.
'One strike. Sever the spinal cord. Take the head. Collect the girl.'
Viper moved. He didn't jump; he fell like a leaf, silent and deadly. He utilized the Shadow Step technique, appearing directly behind Rudra in a split second.
The daggers flashed green in the firelight, descending toward my neck.
"Die," Viper hissed.
CLANG.
Viper's eyes widened.
His daggers hadn't hit flesh. They had hit metal.
Specifically, they had hit the flat side of a Heaven-Grade Spatula.
I hadn't turned around. I had simply raised the spatula over my shoulder, blocking the strike with casual precision.
"You're late," I said, looking at the reflection of the assassin in the polished metal of the wok. "Dinner is almost ready, and you didn't wash your hands."
Viper was a professional. He didn't panic. He retracted the daggers and spun, aiming a kick at my kidneys.
I stepped to the side, still stirring the meat with my free hand.
"No running in the kitchen," I scolded.
I grabbed a handful of Void Pepper from the counter and threw it in his face.
"ARGH!" Viper screamed.
Void Pepper wasn't just spicy; it was a spiritual irritant. It burned the eyes and the soul simultaneously. Viper stumbled back, clawing at his mask.
"You... you threw spice at me?!" Viper choked, his composure breaking.
"It's a valid culinary technique," I replied, turning to face him. "Now, let's see. Poison daggers. Bone armor. You must be Viper."
Viper regained his vision, tears streaming down his face. "I will skin you alive!"
He lunged again, unleashing his full cultivation base—Late Core Formation. His aura was thick with the stench of death. He moved like a blur, slashing a hundred times in a second.
I sighed. "Ria, keep an eye on the meat. Don't let it burn."
"Understood, Master," Ria said, stepping up to the wok and taking over the stirring duties, completely ignoring the assassin trying to kill me.
I faced Viper unarmed.
He thrust his dagger at my heart.
I opened my mouth.
Chomp.
Viper froze.
I had bitten the blade of his dagger. My teeth, reinforced by the Dragon Sovereign Constitution, clamped down on the poison-coated steel.
"Mmm," I mumbled. "Basilisk Venom. Tangy. Needs more acidity."
CRUNCH.
I bit the tip of the dagger off and swallowed it.
The Heaven-Devouring Sutra broke down the poison instantly, converting it into nutrient energy.
Viper stared at his broken dagger. He stared at me chewing on steel.
"You... you ate it?" he whispered, horror dawning in his eyes. "You ate the Necrotic Venom?"
"I have an iron stomach," I grinned.
I moved.
Seal 1: War God.
I didn't punch him. I grabbed him by the throat and slammed him onto the cooking table.
"Who sent you?" I asked, picking up a cleaver.
"I... I will never talk!" Viper gasped.
"Wrong answer," I raised the cleaver.
"Vex! It was Vice-Principal Vex!" Viper screamed instantly. "He paid me fifty thousand stones! He wants your head and the girl!"
"Vex," I nodded. "Predictable."
I knocked Viper out with a chop to the neck. He went limp.
"Simmons!" I called out.
Simmons ran over, holding a ladle like a weapon. "B-Boss! Is he dead?"
"No. Tie him up," I ordered. "Strip him of his gear. We'll sell him to the Bounty Hall later. He's worth at least 10,000 stones alive."
I looked down at the unconscious assassin. Something was bothering me.
When I slammed him onto the table, the ground beneath us shuddered. Not from the impact, but from a resonance.
I knelt down and placed my hand on the dirt of Zone Z.
'Technique: Void Sense.'
I sent my consciousness deep into the earth. I pushed past the rock, past the magma, deeper into the crust of the planet.
Usually, the earth is solid. But here... in Zone Z... there was a Crack.
A massive fissure in the spatial reality of the planet.
"Well, well," I whispered, my eyes lighting up. "The diary was right. But the location was wrong."
"Master?" Ria asked, plating the Drake steaks. "What is it?"
"The entrance to the World Core isn't just in the Academy Dungeon," I stood up, dusting off my hands. "Zone Z is sitting directly on top of a natural vent. The chaotic energy here? It's not from beasts. It's leaking from the Core itself."
I looked at Anya. "Anya, finish your dinner. We're going spelunking."
The Descent.
Leaving the students to guard the camp (and the prisoner), I took Ria and Anya to a secluded canyon about a mile north.
The pressure here was immense. The air vibrated with a low hum that made my teeth ache.
"Here," I pointed to a seemingly solid rock wall.
I drew Antakala—my black sword—from my soul. It hummed, sensing the treasure beneath.
"Cut," I commanded.
I slashed. I didn't use Qi. I used the Authority of the Sword Emperor.
SHING.
Space itself split open. The rock wall didn't break; it peeled apart like a curtain, revealing a swirling vortex of golden light.
"Hold my hand," I told Anya. "Do not let go."
We stepped through.
Gravity vanished. We fell.
We fell for what felt like miles, tumbling through a tunnel of pure mana.
Then, we landed.
We weren't in a cave. We were in a massive, subterranean geode the size of a city.
The "sky" was a ceiling of glowing crystals.
The "floor" was a sea of liquid golden mana—the lifeblood of the planet.
And in the center of the sea, floating on a lotus made of stone, slept the Guardian.
It was a Star-Turtle. It was colossal—easily the size of a mountain range. Its shell was encrusted with diamonds and ancient runes. It snored, and every snore sent ripples through the mana sea.
"It's... big," Anya whispered, clutching my leg.
"Shh," I put a finger to my lips. "It's sleeping. We don't want to wake it."
I looked around. I wasn't here for the Turtle. I was here for the Treasure.
According to the laws of the cosmos, where a World Core exists, a Natural Primordial Treasure is born to channel its power.
I scanned the area with my Eye of Truth.
There.
Hovering right above the Turtle's nose, bobbing gently in its breath.
It wasn't a sword. It wasn't a crown.
It was a simple, unassuming band of grey stone. A Ring.
"Found it," I whispered.
I flew over the mana sea, moving silently. I approached the sleeping Guardian. The pressure here was crushing—easily Demigod Level. If I hadn't wrapped myself in Void Qi, I would have been flattened.
I hovered in front of the massive turtle nose. The ring was right there.
I reached out.
My fingers brushed the cold stone surface of the ring.
HUMMM.
The ring didn't reject me. It felt my Void Soul. It felt the familiarity of a Sovereign. It vibrated happily, like a lost pet finding its master.
It slipped onto my finger. It resized itself to fit perfectly.
Information flooded my brain.
[Item: The Ouroboros Ring]
[Rank: Natural Primordial Treasure]
[Ability: World Creation]
I gasped.
"It's not just a storage ring," I realized. "It's a Seed."
Inside the ring was a pocket dimension. But unlike normal spatial rings that are frozen voids, this one had life. It had soil. It had a sun. It had air.
It was a Small World.
It could support living beings.
"This is it," I landed back next to Ria and Anya. I showed them the ring. "This is our ticket out of here."
"A ring?" Anya tilted her head.
"This ring contains a world," I explained. "When we ascend to the Middle-Level World, the dimensional pressure usually crushes anyone below the Core Formation realm. But if I put you inside this ring... I can smuggle you across the border safely."
Ria scanned the ring. "Master, the energy density inside the ring is... evolving. It grows as you feed it Spirit Stones. We can build a base inside."
"Exactly," I grinned. "We can take the villa. We can take the kitchen. We can take the whole family."
Suddenly, the ground shook.
A massive, sleepy eye opened behind us.
The Star-Turtle had woken up. It looked at the empty spot where its favorite toy (the ring) used to be. Then it looked at me.
It narrowed its eyes.
'Give... it... back...' a telepathic voice boomed in my head, slow and ancient.
"Run!" I grabbed Anya and Ria.
I didn't try to fight. You don't fight a Planet Guardian.
I channeled all my Qi into the Ouroboros Ring.
"Activate: World Shift!"
The ring flashed. It didn't teleport us away; it phased us out of the core's reality and back to the surface.
POP.
We appeared back in the canyon in Zone Z, gasping for breath. The fissure in the rock sealed shut behind us.
Below us, the earth rumbled as the Turtle threw a tantrum, but it couldn't follow us to the surface without destroying the planet.
"Safe," I wheezed, looking at the grey ring on my finger.
Anya looked at me with shining eyes. "Big Brother, did we just steal a toy from a turtle?"
"We liberated a Primordial Artifact," I corrected, standing up and dusting off my robes. "There is a difference."
I looked at the ring. With this, I had the ultimate sanctuary. A portable world where my family would be safe from the Arbiters.
"Let's go back to camp," I said. "I think the Drake meat is done resting."