74 Chapter 74

The interior of the room literally transformed. They reshaped themselves from wood walls into stone walls. The furniture changed as well. The wooden bed disappeared and was exchanged for a modern-looking bed. Even the size of the room changed, it became bigger. 'I recognize this room,' Amon thought after the room stopped changing. It was the room of one of his safe houses. He had many such houses which he used when he performed missions. "You are different from the other teenagers who came here," Amon heard the woman's voice from his back. Amon immediately whirled back. There the woman was, standing naked just behind him. "The other teenagers were unrestrained of their impulsive lust. Why are you different?" Amon was baffled. He had never had someone come so close to his back unnoticed. "What do you want?" Amon asked. Despite feeling no danger from this mysterious woman, to be able to alter the environment was an alarming feat. Amon didn't think antagonizing a being with such unknown ability was wise. "I already tell you, I only want you to be happy." "Then let me out of this dimension. I will be happy about that." The woman again showcased her seductive smile. "You are still too young. You don't know what is good for you. There is nothing for you out there. Stay here and let me take care of you. You will be happy." There was no use talking to this woman, Amon thought. Amon decided to try finding the exit himself. He ran to the door and opened it, only to find the outside was a lush garden with a pool. Multiple stairs branched out from this garden and went up to the sky. Amon looked at the stairs. They seemed to go up all the way to the white cloud above. Above the cloud, there were a few floating lands with structures on them, they looked to be upside down. One of the stairs going up ended at one of these floating lands. Splashing sounds were heard, Amon looked down and saw the mysterious woman swimming in the pool. Not woman, women. There were three of them, all looked the same, all naked. "Why don't you come and join us?" The three asked at the same time. Amon frowned. 'This is not a pocket dimension,' he said in his mind. He sat down on the floor. The women kept on calling him, seducing him to join them. Amon ignored all the noises. The women's voices came nearer. Their voices were now as if speaking from right beside him. He ignored them all. Little by little, the voices receded, until everything became dead silent. He even lost feeling in his body. It was as if he was floating in an empty space. He couldn't tell if he was still sitting or if he was standing. Soon, the noises returned. Even louder this time. It was as if a hundred of those women were teasing him at the same time. Yet, he didn't let his mind drift. He focused all his senses, trying to isolate the real ones. He felt a tiny prick on his left arm. He immediately shifted all his attention to that part, blocking all other sensations. He felt the pain from the prick. He let that pain take hold. It slowly coursed throughout his arm, then his entire body. He could feel the numbness. He then slowly felt the wetness of the flat surface on his face. He knew then that he was lying face-down on a damp floor. He smelled a strange odor. He felt the humid air. He forced his consciousness to consolidate. He slowly regained control over each part of his body. He felt his fingers move. He slowly opened his eyes. As he had thought. He was lying down on the ground. All that he had experienced just now was an illusion. He knew, however, he was not out of the woods yet. Whatever caused this illusion was certain to be nearby. He tried to force more parts of his body to move. Everything felt numb. He took a deep breath. He then focused inward to articulate the aether in his body. Energy circulated through his body. Whatever power was holding him down, the aether slowly returned the control of his body back to him. When he could move again. He tried getting up. There were thin membranes all around his body. It was sticky yet crispy. It broke to pieces when he rose. He looked at his left side. There was a small spider-like critter. It had been the one that bit his left arm. That bite was what had given him the sensation that allowed him to escape the illusion. He expressed his gratitude by slamming a palm down at the critter, turning it into a paste. He looked at his arm. There was a tiny hole where the critter had stung him. He felt slightly numb around the area. He wondered if that critter carried poison in its bite. Amon then looked around. He was in a large cave hall. Surprisingly, he was not alone. There were others. Others who seemed to have been here for a long time. The sticky membrane around his body was around these others too. But on them, these membranes had hardened to what appeared like tree roots. These roots-like membranes were holding the others in place. They seemed to still be alive, their eyes opened. Yet, it was hollow, no consciousness could be gleaned from those eyes. These captives were different in age, but they were all older than Amon. Some even looked like old men already. When he looked further, some seemed to have died for some time and even a few had only skeletons left. He roughly could predict after seeing the scene. He then sensed something from behind. He swirled in that direction. Something was coming from one of the holes around this cave. "Why don't you want to stay? Why don't you allow me to make you happy?" Amon heard the voice of the woman again. However, it was no longer the sexy and alluring voice. The voice now sounded like a strange inhuman voice that only resembled a woman's voice. He heard stepping sounds and saw a shadow from the hole. Not long after, the owner of the voice came forward. She stepped into the cave's dim light with all her six legs. The bloated stomach carried a head that resembled a woman's head with long hair. At the bottom of that stomach, there was a large tentacle. Due to its position, it looked very much as if that was the creature's penis. Amon never read about this creature in any books about spirit beasts. All the reports from the Lin clan's past ventures into this dimension also never described such a beast. Probably because none had ever come back after encountering this creature. But one thing was sure, this creature should be at least a lower superior beast. No inferior beast had the ability for language. The bound people around this cave should be the previous competition's finalists. Pai Kuan did mention some who entered this dimension but didn't come back out. These people should be some of them. Maybe these membranes kept them here despite being alive after their three-months time was up. Amon had no intention to join this vegetative troupe. The spiderlike woman beast didn't come nearer. It instead stayed near the hole it came out from. "Why don't you bow to me…!?" Her voice suddenly reverberated with a very high pitch. Amon felt as if the voice was piercing into his head. He experienced a serious headache. "Sleep now… Let me take care of you… You do not need to worry anymore…" The beast's voice turned soothing. Amon felt a strong desire to rest, but he forced his mind to focus. "Get out of my head, you disgusting thing!!" Amon shouted. He bit his lips to have the pain force him to stay conscious. The spider beast reeled backward one step as if someone had punched it. "Why don't you succumb? How can your mind be so strong? Aren't you a teenager?" It uttered. "I see… You put people to sleep and then what? Feed on them?" Amon said. The pain in his head had greatly subsided. "No, these people are still alive and physically well. So, I guess you feed on their mind? Are you keeping their bodies alive and feeding on their thoughts? Is that what you are doing?" "Never mind that. Since you are not willing to live happily, then I will let you die miserably," the spider beast said menacingly and took one step forward. A throwing knife appeared in Amon's hand and he threw it forward. The knife flew straight at the beast's head, but the spider beast turned out to be not slow. It jumped before the knife arrived. It jumped very far and very high, it ended up sticking onto the wall. Its legs had claws that allowed it to cling to any surface. Amon threw another knife. The beast jumped again and stuck onto the ceiling this time. Amon equipped his bow. He had limited throwing knives, he couldn't afford to continue wasting them like this. Amon used his aether to mark the beast using his bow arts. He then took a shot. The beast jumped away again, Amon's bolt turned a sharp curve following the beast's path. But just as the bolt was about to hit, the beast's speed suddenly increased. The bolt lost its target. 'It is too fast,' Amon thought. The beast no longer stayed passive, the tentacle at the bottom of its stomach shot some sort of liquid. Amon noticed the tentacle suddenly became erect and knew that something would shoot out. He had already jumped away when the liquid came. The liquid hit the ground and it solidified into what looked like wooden roots. If he got caught by this liquid, he won't be able to move. Amon kept on moving to make him a harder target while he continued shooting his bolts. Neither Amon nor the beast managed to hit their targets. 'This can't go on. I don't have unlimited ammo, while the beast probably can shoot that liquid for a long time,' Amon thought. He needed another way to fight this beast!