Having acknowledged the concerns of Dolores and Professor Atkinson and reassured them that he would be okay even if the presence in the lower levels possessed great power, Jianmen pushed open the gate and went in, after asking Dolores and Professor Atkinson to be prepared to escape.
Before going into the gate and descending the stairs to the lower level, Professor Atkinson asked Jianmen to carry a special artifact with him - it was a magical probe that could record signals and energy signatures from the surrounding area, and it had a magical version of video streaming functionality, which allowed him and Dolores to see what Jianmen was seeing on two different magical tablets.
The stairs leading to the lower level were higher than the stairs before, and the walls seemed to be made of different material - the walls seemed denser, thicker and smoother than the walls in the temple and the upper stairs. There were also relief sculptures on the wall - some of them depicted the same avatars of the god as the statues in the temple, and some of the depicted shapes of creatures that looked like their bodies were made of wind, some kind of cloth or fog. The air also felt chillier and a bit harder to breathe, when Jianmen concentrated for a brief moment, he could make out the reasons for it: the air behind the gate was quite a bit denser than it was on the surface and in the temple, and there was some kind of cold, grim and somehow sense-depriving energy radiating from the depth of the space below. There was visible fog in the air, and the fog was not made of water, but some kind of high density and energy absorbing liquid.
“The fog seemed to be getting thicker, how far away can you see? ” Jianmen asked.
“Visibility is not that bad. Be careful, looks like you’re still in the safe area. We will let you know when we’re having trouble, or you’re stepping into danger zones.” Dolores replied through the probe.
“Thanks. I’ll keep going then.”
The further Jianmen treaded down the stairs, the thicker the fog and denser the air around him. What was more, cold energy radiated from the depths also grew stronger, and Jianmen had to use more of his Xuanli to resist the sense-depriving effects of the energy.
“Hey, professor, Dolores, are you aware of the energy radiation here? It seems to have the effect of depriving you of your senses, and that includes the sensing ability of your power of mind and will. It’d be really deadly if you’re not careful.” Jianmen said to the probe.
“There’s this kind of energy down there?” Dolores asked: “I guess that kinda explains how we’re getting less and less visibility down there, and we didn’t even see or hear someone trying to ambush us.”
“Be careful, Mr. Yu. You are getting closer to the place where we got attacked last few times.” Dolores reminded Jianmen.
“Don’t worry, I’ve been resisting this energy ever since I walked through the gate.” Jianmen continued: “You guys recording anything useful or valuable, tell me if you want me to slow down.”
“Just be careful.” Dolores and Professor Atkinson said simultaneously: “You’re in the danger zone.”
Jianmen continued walking down, and before long, the fog was thick enough that Jianmen felt like his clothes were getting wet from the liquid that the fog was made of. And out of nowhere, he started seeing streams of even thicker fog flowing around, and some of those thicker streams even formed into different shapes: some of them looked like humans, some of them looked like monsters and weirdly shaped animals standing on their hind legs.
“You guys seeing the shapes in the fog?” Jianmen asked.
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“No, what do you mean?” Dolores sounded equally confused and concerned.
“Here.” Jianmen pointed the probe at the direction of some of the shapes of thick fog that looked like a tall and slender humanoid monster with no arms: “Can you see it now?”
“No… all we’re looking at was fog and an empty space.”
“Just one second. Let me do a quick experiment.” Jianmen said, then he conjured up his Xuanli to form a transparent bubble in his left palm. And inside the bubble, were some reflections of the shapes of fog. “Interesting, so these shapes of humans and animals are actually there, and they’re not illusions from the surroundings.”
Just this moment, a giant figure with a wide body, four arms and a long neck appeared in midair, wielding one humongous black scythe with two arms on its right and swung it at Jianmen.
Jianmen swiftly turned the probe away from the edge of the scythe, and raised his left arm to block the incoming attack.
A loud metal crashing sound exploded when the edge of the scythe connected with Jianmen’s left forearm. Jianmen was immediately sent flying back, but before he collided with the wall behind him, he adjusted the position of his lower body and landed on the wall and on his feet.
The figure made of fog bursted towards Jianmen and swung the scythe at Jianmen again, aiming directly at his head. And before this strike could land, Jianmen already hopped to the side and ascended the stairs back through the gate.
“What happened? Were you attacked?” Dolores asked as Jianmen closed the gate and sealed it with a spell.
“Well, what do you think?” Jianmen smiled and showed her and Professor Atkinson his left forearm, there was a straight, bruised red line on it, “This is quite a fierce one. Almost got me by surprise there. But what’d I tell you? I’ll be okay.”
“Wow. I thought Josephine was exaggerating, I’ll never doubt her again.” Professor Atkinson looked at Jianmen’s arm with amazement and then turned to Dolores: “Are you seeing this Dolores, the same attack that almost broke our fully charged Ring of Guardians!”
“Yeah, this is… ridiculous.” Dolores was struggling for the correct adjective: “Did you see what attacked you? We didn’t see anything through the probe. Oh by the way, thank you for protecting it. It’s immensely costly.”
“It’s a figure made of the fog. A bit like other shapes in the fog that you couldn’t see.” Jianmen made sure that there was not anyone or anything trying to push open the gate from the other side, then he pointed at a statue in the corner of the temple to his left: “It looked like that - so I think I know now what attacked you, and why you didn’t see it coming.”