Life After Reaching The Pinnacle

Chapter 28: The Hall

After the dust settled down, everyone could see the result of the clash between the Red Horned Rat and Aurora.

Aurora was standing there, unharmed, with her hands crossed on her chest. As for the Red Horned Rat, its whole head was covered in blood, its horn broken, and a deep cut was there on its head.

The Penetrating Flames itself didn't have much power, but once it went inside the Rat's head, ignoring its defenses, it fried the Rat's mind from the inside.

Aurora smiled in satisfaction at her creation but immediately frowned when she saw the blood that was coming out of the Rat's head absorbed by the ground. She thought as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, 'Don't tell me it's that shit? Seriously, I now completely believe Master; they follow every single step of the novels that Master forced me to read, what a drag.'

'Monster.' Everyone who was watching her just had this thought in their minds. Defeating someone two major stages above was itself monstrous, and she did it without getting any major injuries. She couldn't be considered a genius anymore; she was in a league of her own.

Everyone from the Kela Kingdom understood now why the king was giving such importance to her. She could kill Earth Profound Stages now, but what about when she broke through to Origin Profound Stage?

As they were thinking, the ground beneath them began to tremble, as if an earthquake was coming. They hurriedly stabilized themselves. Suddenly, a wall to their right shifted, revealing a passage.

Shihab saw this and shouted, pointing towards the passage, "Everyone, enter that passage, hurry."

Hearing Shihab, everyone turned to the direction of the passage, and their eyes lit up in hope. They readily stuffed whatever pills they had left and began running towards the passage, ignoring everything.

Of course, the small Red Horned Rat didn't stay still and attacked them with their claws and mouths. Some were unfortunate and had their guts cut open by the ruthless rats, and some had their necks bitten.

Anyone who saw this sight increased their speed even more by using whatever movement technique they had, forcing themselves to the limit.

Some who almost reached the passage could only despair when they heard squeakings right behind them; they could only hope now and run fast.

'If it is as I think, then I can't let the deaths accumulate; it will just get worse.' Aurora thought as she punched a rat coming to bite her, opening a hole in its chest.

'Friction Steps.'

Aurora activated her movement technique and went in the direction of the passage, maneuvering between the rats. Once she was ahead of all the Rats, she stopped and turned around, facing the Rats.

She relaxed her mind as she took a deep breath and tapped her foot as she whispered, "Flame wall."

Instantly, a big and wide wall of flames appeared in front of her; it almost reached the ceiling of the cave. The rats instinctively stayed away from the flames as they remembered the big Red Horned Rat.

She just gave a glance at the wall and entered the passage along with everyone who survived. Only nine out of fifty managed to survive; even this was amazing considering the number and cultivation of those rats.

Aurora sat down and asked, "If anyone has the earth element, close the opening of this passage, as my flames won't last long."

A man with a great build stood up and said, "I have the earth element; I'll fix that."

He went towards the opening and made a wall of earth, just like Aurora did, but he imbued massive amounts of Profound energy to make it sturdier and tougher.

Everyone had a solemn look and was silently sitting and replenishing their Profound energy reserves. Aurora was also doing the same, as she knew she would face a tough opponent even more dangerous than the Red Horned Rat, so she wanted to be at her best.

After some time, Aurora stood up, as she was brimming with profound energy now. She said, "There's no point staying here; you'll die anyway, so follow me if you want to continue this exploration."

She didn't wait for them and walked deep into the passage. Everyone also stood up and followed her. Aurora was the only hope they had if they wanted to be alive, so why would they stay here and die?

After walking for some distance, Aurora came upon stairs which went downwards; she couldn't see the end of it.

Like any sane person, she began descending the stairs. The stairs went very deep, and it took them more than 2 hours to descend.

When they were at the base of the stairs, they came upon a long corridor. Fortunately, this wasn't long, and they reached the end quickly, but the sight they witnessed at the end of the corridor left them dumbstruck.

At the end of the corridor lay an enormous hall with a white marble floor. The hall was adorned with intricate, golden carvings and featured a high-vaulted ceiling, from which hung crystal chandeliers that bathed the room in a soft, ethereal light.

As they were observing the hall, a sound of clapping alongside a deep voice came, which made everyone's body tense.

'Clap, clap, clap.'

"Welcome, welcome..."

Just hearing this annoyed Aurora as she thought, 'Aghh, not this third-rate antagonist's speech.'

At the end of the hall, atop a raised dais of white marble, sat a pitch-black throne. On that throne, a middle-aged man with spiky white hair sat casually while clapping with both of his hands.

"I really didn't think there would be such talent in this backward place. I really like those daggers of yours, so I'll be taking those for safekeeping, as treasures like those can get you killed," the middle-aged man said with a smile as he stared at Aurora intensely.

Aurora just looked at the middle-aged man for a few seconds and said with a sigh, "Honestly, I'm disappointed in you. I was expecting so much, and you... you disappoint me."

Aurora was truly disappointed this time, as she was very excited about this trip, but this stupid fuck didn't even use runes properly for traps or anything, and he was a runemaster; what a disappointment.