Boundless Cultivation-Chapter 80 - Sands of Time

Alaric aimed his palm at the large hourglass, ready to launch a mana blast. Just as he was about to release his hold on the swirling mass of mana, a presence materialized behind his back.

He instantly pivoted and launched a mana blast at the four-legged beast. Before the beast could take a single step, its body exploded on contact with the mana blast.

He frowned. Hmm…that was an easy win.

The beast resembled a jackal, its black fur growing in patches over its emaciated body. The thin limbs and sickly appearance indicated that the jackal was not in good health and thus, had been easy to defeat.

Two more presences emerged inside the hall, but his attention was pulled elsewhere. A single grain of white sand drifted to the bottom chamber of the first hourglass. Alaric grinned as he hurled two more mana blasts with a lazy flick of his hand, killing the jackals instantly.

Two more grains of sand dislodged and dropped to the bottom. It was just as he suspected - killing monsters resumed the timer on the hourglass.

He cracked his neck and stretched his hands as four new presences materialized inside the hollow chamber - now stronger. The jackals were slightly larger, with healthy fur growing around their body.

Still, they didn’t pose a challenge to Alaric at all. Instead of wasting mana, he flung himself amidst the group of jackals and punctured holes through their soft bodies with his mana-empowered limbs.

The dying howls of the canines echoed in the empty hall as his body was drenched in their blood. Alaric didn’t care. He was already on his way to annihilate the new monsters.

Let’s get this party started. He was like a reaper of death, killing each jackal with a single blow of his limbs. They couldn’t hold a candle to his speed, nor the resilience of his body.

Alaric didn’t use his shield or any of his other skills yet. He conserved his mana as much as possible because there was no doubt that the challenge would escalate as time went on.

After a while, he stopped counting how many beasts he fought - lost in the ecstasy of killing monsters. With each successive iteration of new monsters, they continued to grow physically stronger - larger and more agile.

However, after a while, he detected the presence of a peculiar jackal - its fur flickering like a living shadow. Sharp fangs dripping with greenish liquid revealed themselves as the creature snarled.

It didn’t attack him mindlessly like the rest of the pack, opting to keep its distance. He refused to allow an intelligent creature to ambush him. To his amazement, when he struck the shadow jackal, the creature vanished and reappeared a few feet to the side.

It had teleported a short distance. The creature thought it had caught him off guard and attempted to bite him with its poisonous fangs. Unfortunately, for it, Alaric never lost track of it within his sphere of perception.

Conjuring a sharp mana sword, he bisected the creature in mid-air as it pounced at him. The two halves of the beast’s body separated and splashed into the pool of blood that had accumulated on the polished ground.

The blood of the creatures turned to thick red fog as soon as it touched the floor, obscuring his vision. The creatures had their noses to rely on, while he had his perception skill. Still, Alaric was confident that he held the advantage.

The next batch of monsters were all shadow jackals. Eliminating a group of them proved to be trickier than expected since they could instantly dodge his attacks due to their short-distance teleportation skill.

On the flip side, evading the jackals without his mana shield was impossible due to the same reason. He quickly discovered a pattern in their fighting style - they couldn’t do teleportation in quick succession more than twice.

The strategy of these shadow jackals had evolved to compensate for the weakness of their pack members. The jackals that were vulnerable after a teleport were guarded by the other pack members.

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Of course, he could still pinpoint vulnerable jackals and pepper them with mana bullets, but that would be no fun and it would waste too much mana. Besides, Alaric loved a challenge.

If that’s how you want to play it… He activated [Zen Flow] and focused on tracking the jackal that teleported the last. I will indulge.

Identifying his target, he lunged forward, aiming his mana sword, and didn’t falter when two shadow jackals materialized in his path. He pressed on, slashing his sword with full force, never losing sight of his target.

The two jackals yelped in pain as he smashed through their block and cleaved through his target in one fluid motion. He advanced to the next target, and the next, with each successive killing.

The shadow jackals howled in unison, witnessing the slaughter of their kin, yet failing to land a single blow on him. Before long, the presence of the shadow jackals became a distant memory as the hall was once again plunged into a deathly silence.

He glanced at the large hourglass. Only a handful of white sand had collected at the bottom. At this rate, it would take weeks, perhaps even months to exhaust the sand on the top section.

How long will it take? Am I missing something? Just then, he detected movement in the smaller hourglass. The black sand started dripping into the empty chamber as the construct flipped over, restating the timer.

Swirling black sands erupted from the floor, summoning a kneeled humanoid within. Even before clashing blows with the entity, he could sense its power - it was on a completely different level from the shadow jackals.

A towering jackal-headed warrior, clad in ornate, battle-worn black and gold armor, parted the curtain of sand and revealed itself. The creature locked onto Alaric with its hollow eyes that looked like bottomless pits.

A menacing expression adorned its face as the creature growled in hateful fury, revealing obsidian fangs, as saliva dripped from its black-lined lips.

Its claws oozed a green liquid, sizzling the floor upon contact. Whatever substance that was, it wasn’t normal poison.

Alaric was stunned. During his research of the ancient history of The Howling Expanse, he had encountered records of entities resembling the creature before him.

Could it really be… The creature howled and summoned a pair of weapons in each muscular arm - a large khopesh sword in one hand and a full-body shield in the other.

The khopesh pulsed with the same green energy that he sensed in their claws while the shield was engraved with protective hieroglyphs, emanating a defensive aura.

Indeed…it’s an Anubian Death Guardian.

The creature matched the descriptions quite well. According to legend, Anubian Death Guardians were mighty jackal-headed warriors sworn to safeguard the secrets of the lost civilization.

Alaric was pulled out of his reverie as his opponent vanished, instantly reappearing to his right.

He raised his mana sword just in time, deflecting the khopesh swung by the jackal-headed warrior. The blows were fast and landed hard, sending shockwaves reverberating through his arms.

Only after a few blocks, he noticed cracks stretch across his mana sword. The green energy was corrosive, eating at the mana construct - it wouldn’t last long at this pace.

Instead of funneling more mana to strengthen his mana sword, he changed his tactics. He continued deflecting the strikes of the khopesh, right until the moment it shattered.

But that moment created a diversion - an opportunity that allowed him to create distance and launch a barrage of mana bullets.

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The Anubian Death Guardian wielded his khopesh with practiced ease, deflecting the mana bullets effortlessly. It hadn’t even used its shield to deflect, demonstrating an attitude of superiority.

So, you think you are tough. Pausing a breath, he launched a mana blast. How about this?

Alaric had guessed right. The death guardian also suffered from a similar weakness as the shadow jackals. It had already teleported too many times in a row and needed time to trigger the skill again.

Caught off guard, the death guardian was forced to intercept the mana blast with its shield. The blue ball of devastation wasn’t at full power but still managed to rattle the whole shield, pushing his enemy back.

The shield caved in at the point of impact but withstood the blow. The hieroglyphs glowed golden as the shield was already repairing itself.

Alaric didn’t wait. He lunged forward and delivered a crushing kick to the shield, sending the massive metal plate skidding across the floor. The death guardian snarled and gripped its blade.

He ducked as the corrosive blade sliced through the air at his neck level, before kicking the death guardian in the stomach. The hulking creature hurled through the air due to the force of the impact, spewing blood from its mouth.

Seizing the moment, he fired another volley of mana bullets. The death guardian vanished just as a hail of mana bullets assaulted the spot he occupied moments before.

Alaric grinned when he spotted his opponent reappear to the side. The jackal-headed warrior had finally realized that its opponent wasn’t some pushover.

Screaming in some unknown language, it weaved its blade in the air, sending waves of dark green energy in a wide arc.

The green energy beams collided with his mana shield, rippling violently but unable to shatter it. However, he could sense the barrier gradually weakening - it couldn’t sustain too many of those vicious strikes.

He crafted a layered mana gauntlet before dashing to his opponent. Time to end this once and for all. Seeing him forsaking his long-range advantage in favor of short-range combat, the death guardian snickered.

It slashed in a broad horizontal arc, and Alaric sidestepped. Another strike, another dodge. Their deadly dance continued.

Meanwhile, he prepared a mana-scrambling wave and funneled more mana into his muscles, in preparation for what was to come next. The death guardian got too irritated, witnessing his nonchalant behavior. It created an opening.

Getting under its guard, he discharged the mana scrambling wave moments before it attempted to teleport. Judging by its expression, the death guardian was shocked senseless at its inability to teleport.

A heartbeat later, he planted a heavy uppercut into its chin, snapping its face backward - broken fangs and blood flying everywhere. The death guardian slammed on its back as it fell on the floor.

The last thing it saw as it craned its neck was a swirling blue orb of light. The next moment, its face was obliterated.

The blow landed harder than he expected. In fact, he felt a surge of tingling course through his muscles. Is it the effect of my muscle reforging? He shook his head. Now is not the time.

Alaric relaxed as he stole a look at the second hourglass. The black sand had almost exchanged chambers; only a handful of grains remained in the top section.

The presence of two more Anubian Death Guardians pulled his attention. Alaric grinned in anticipation of another exciting fight. However, the shadowy forms were erased from existence just as the last black grain of black sand hit the bottom chamber.

Hmm…was that a survival challenge then?

A deep rumbling yanked his attention before he could continue his chain of thoughts. The massive metal doors creaked as it began to slowly split apart. An intense aura burst from within, making him sweat a little.

He felt as if he stood once more in the presence of Anu-Khepra-Ra.

The doors halted their movement, having opened only a quarter of the way. However, he didn’t let his guard down. Inside was a black void that protected the secret within, from his [Mana Resonance] skill.

Oddly enough, he could still perceive barely discernible, fast, shadowy movements. For a moment, he thought he glimpsed a gigantic snake slither across the darkness inside.

He deliberated whether to wait or head inside. However, before he could make his decision, two burning orbs manifested in the darkness.

And, the moment they did, he felt his body froze - literally. He couldn’t blink or breathe, let alone take a single step. It was as if all the energy had been drained from his body.

What in the hell is happening?

“Ooh…a curious little explorer, sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong,” a sweet, melodic female voice greeted him from within. “Now, face the consequence.”

Moments later, something shot out from the darkness and slammed into his body, sending him flying upward. Alaric crashed hard into the ceiling wall, spewing a mouthful of blood. Pain ravaged his body as his bones shattered.

He still couldn't summon his power, but at least, he wasn’t paralyzed anymore. His body dropped to the floor, sending a fresh jolt of pain.

He was on the verge of losing his consciousness. Still, he struggled to catch a glimpse of the entity that had so easily disabled him. He craned his neck - and succeeded.

A colossal, fur-coated feline paw, tipped with wickedly curved claws, slowly retracted into the consuming darkness of the sealed chamber.