Realization dawned on Skyler immediately after she listened to Avery’s explanation. She recognized the rooms on both sides of the tunnel as guestrooms for the visitors of the sects in the past.
It’s true. Not letting these people into the internal part of the sect is an excellent precaution to prevent others from harboring any ill intention toward their sect.
Staring at the heavy stone door, Luol sighed. “This is the real Narcissus Palace. The dangers. we encountered earlier are insignificant. The true challenge starts now!”
Jared was aware of that too. The real dangers lay in the actual Narcissus Palace, and the arcane array they had run into earlier was just a slight deterrence on Narcissus Palace’s part.
“Open the door!” Emiliano waved his hand, ordering his men to push open the door. “Something is amiss! Don’t push the door,” Jared stopped them.
“Hmph! It’s just a stone door. What’s so weird about it? Wait, do you want to be the one to open it so that you can distribute the treasures again when you find them? Drop the act. I can see through your tricks…” Emiliano sneered. He then said to two of his Stormwind Sect disciples, “Ignore him. Open the door now.”
His men did as they were told. They looked at the bulky stone door before pushing it with all their might. These men should have it easy to move the stone door because they were Martial Arts God, but surprisingly, the door refused to budge even after they exerted all their forces to open it. Seeing this, Emiliano grumbled, “Losers! How is it so difficult to get it open?”
Amused, Avery asked Emiliano, “Emiliano, what’s wrong with your disciples? Do they not have enough to eat? Should I ask my men to help out?”
Humiliation crept into Emiliano. He shouted at his disciples, “What an embarrassing bunch! You guys should pay with your life if you can’t open the door.”
The disciples gathered their martial energy and focused them on the stone door. Multiple light patterns appeared moments after they injected their energy into the stone door. The lights flickered, a sign that confirmed someone had set an arcane array on the stone door, which made it dense and hard to move.
Buzz! Suddenly, two blue-colored flames erupted, engulfing the two disciples trying their hardest to open the stone door.
“Argh!”
“Ahh!” The two men wailed in pain when they saw the fire spreading over their bodies. They slapped on the flames, trying to stop it from spreading, but the fire burned brighter the more they wanted to stop it.
Emiliano rushed over and asked his men to put out the fire. A few mages from Stormwind Sect gestured hand seals, then countless pillars of water came crashing down from the sky, spraying water over the two disciples who were on fire.
The water did not help, nevertheless. The blue flames burned strong until the two disciples became ashes before disappearing. As he glanced at the burn marks on the ground, anger burned in Emiliano’s eyes. He had already lost a few men before they got into Narcissus Palace.
“Mr. Chance has already reminded us that it’s dangerous. Yet, some people just wouldn’t listen. Well, well. Now someone has been burned to death…” Skyler said.
Emiliano became even more frustrated upon hearing Skyler’s words. He didn’t retaliate, however, because if he had listened to Jared’s advice earlier, his people wouldn’t have died.
Avery gazed at the arcane array on the stone door as he exclaimed, “Wow! They even set up an arcane array on the stone door. Narcissus Palace is not a place to be taken lightly.”
“You, you, and you! Find a way to break this arcane array!” Emiliano instructed the mages of Stormwind Sect. After all, Jared was the one who broke the arcane array prior to this, causing shame to Stormwind Sect. Breaking the current arcane array could restore some honor to their name, and Emiliano would have a say in the distribution of the treasures found within.
