Unexpectedly, the crystal ring was so persistent that it floated up again, approaching the right thumb of water Elara. The water Elara was furious. With a wave of his hand, he shouted, "Ominous thing, go away!"
With that shout, the crystal ring floated more than ten feet away and remained motionless in mid-air. The water Elara was stunned for a quarter of an hour. Glancing at the crystal ring again, he turned back to Kellen and Nine Spirits and said, "That thing isn't the key. Where could that key be?"
Kellen looked around the house and found something in the corner that looked very strange. A long wooden pole stood quietly in the corner of the room, in the most inconspicuous spot. Under the pole were a jumble of wooden boxes, and on top of the pole was an unremarkable bamboo basket!
This made Kellen very puzzled!
A small bamboo basket, not placed on flat ground, not placed on a wooden box, not placed in a wooden box, but strangely placed on top of a tall wooden pole, could there be something odd about the basket?
Kellen tugged Elara at the corner of her dress and said to the basket, "Could it be in the basket?"
The water Elara looked around and found the position of the bamboo basket rather odd. "Perhaps... "Right there!"
Hearing the conversation between the wind and the spirit, the Nine Spirits had already stretched out his neck, and indeed saw in the small basket a key the length of a soup spoon. Without hesitation, Jiuling cast his mind spirit technique, and a golden beam of light pierced through Jiuling's vertical core snake eye and hit the key in the basket, but the key didn't move at all!
"How strange! My spirit technique doesn't work on this thing!" The Nine Spirit's self-talk was heard by Kellen very clearly.
Kellen asked, "Is the key in the basket?"
Nine Spirits nodded and was about to open her mouth to take the basket down. Unexpectedly, just as the snake's lips touched the basket, the bamboo basket burned into a firework! In an instant, it vanished without a trace.
The Nine Spirits hurriedly withdrew and stared blankly at the empty position of the bamboo basket for a while.
Water ElaraKellen exclaimed in unison, "How could this be?"
Nine Spirit ignored the two children and continued to stare at the empty bamboo basket. After a while, the bamboo basket reappeared in its original position. Nine Spirits moved closer and saw that the key was still there.
I thought to myself: Yes, this magic tower is sealed by the aquatic spirit magic. How could I, who have the fire element on my body, touch it? Not only can I not touch it, but Kellen, who has the element of fire, cannot do it either.
Nine Spirit looked back at Water Elara and said, "She can!"
Nine Spirits leaned over to Water Elara and hissed, "Come up!"
Although the snake language was not understood by Water Elara, Kellen had no need to translate it. The water Elara had already understood the Nine Spirits' gesture. Without a sound, he climbed onto the snake's back. He bent up and, with a curling motion, gracefully slid the water Elara precisely to the top of his head.
The water Elara clung tightly to a pair of huge nostrils of the Nine Spirit and was already carried high up to the bamboo basket. It seemed that not only the Nine Spirits and the Water Elara had come along, but the crystal ring had instantly moved to the right hand of the water Elara. Water Elara gave a disdainful wave and swung the ring aside. "Disgusting!"
This time, Water Elara was a bit sly and did not go straight for the key but picked up the bamboo basket. Seeing Water Elara lift the basket, Nine Spirits hurriedly brought Water Elara to Kellen. Worried that something strange might happen next.
Just then, the ring was once again clinging to the little hand of water Elara. Water Elara waved again, "How annoying!"
Kellen giggled: "It's so hard to get the key at last!"
"An exciting moment!" said Jiulingxin.
Water Elara struggled to shake off the unpleasant mood entangled by the ring, stared at the key in the basket, and finally revealed the innocent smile that had been suppressed in her heart for a long time, saying, "It's really not easy! The fourth level of cultivation is finally over. I wonder where we'll go next?"
"We're going to suppress the fifth level of calamity Spirit Castle!" Nine Spirits said a snake-like phrase.
Kellen laughed and said, "The Nine Spirits said we would go to suppress the fifth level of Calamity Spirit Castle."
"Hey! So excited!" With that, Water Elara stretched out her little hand and touched the key in an instant, a blinding light shone all over the tower house. Four blue aquarian characters flashed from the key and were deeply imprinted in the minds of Nine Spirits, Kellen and Water Elara.
"It's all about persistence!"
※※※
The blinding blue light gradually faded and suddenly turned into a star-like blue glow. Nine Spirits, Kellen, and Water Elara, as if in a dream, moved their illusions to a place that was completely different from the giant Beast Tower.
Cataclysm Castle. Mysterious and eerie.
Amidst the thick, dark clouds overhead, thunderous thunder rumbled and surged, as if it had never ceased for thousands of years. The thunderbolts that burst through the sky, with their fangs and claws, tore open the dark clouds and then healed them. Tear it apart again, then heal. Over and over again, without stopping.
Under the thick black curtain, the majestic, bald rock peaks of the forest, in the torrential downpour, plunge steeply into the clouds, with no view of the peaks at all. On both sides of the jagged mountains, the flood was surging, and it seemed that not a speck of yellow earth could be seen.
Years of storms have left no yellow soil.
Two children stood on a small, unremarkable hill, drenched to the skin by thunderstorms, their ears filled with the sound of surging floodwaters.
Water Elara nudged her little mouth towards Kellen and shouted, "What the hell is this place!"
The Nine Spirits stretched out their necks and hissed out long snake-like letters in the thunderstorm.
"Kellen said, 'Nine Spirits say this is the Disaster Spirit Castle!'"
Water Elara: "What? I can't hear!" As soon as I finished speaking, I felt something touch my little hand. Looking back, it turned out to be the haunting crystal ring! "Go!" With a wave, he stepped aside.
Kellen shouted at the top of her voice, "Nine Spirits say this is the Disaster Spirit Castle!"
Water Elara, with a bitter smile on her face, said, "I've experienced the 'natural disaster', why is the 'spirit castle' gone?"
The Nine Spirits looked at a faint, yellowish light on the distant horizon and said, "The Spirit castle is on the distant, yellowish horizon."
Kellen shouted at the top of her voice, "Do you see that dim horizon?"
That was where the power of the sun could reach.
Water Elara looked hard: "I see! Far away! Very far!"
Kellen pointed her hand and shouted, "That's it!"
Water Elara stared blankly at the clouds rolling and lightning rumbling across the sky, trying to reach the end. Oh my! It's as hard as climbing to the sky!
Water Elara shouted loudly, "Let's go!" He plunged headlong into the churning, mud-rock torrent. Kellen and Jiuling stared blankly at each other and hurriedly followed in.
Three figures, like a stone sinking into the sea. No waves, no sound. Just like that, he was submerged in the surging torrent and vanished without a trace.