Opening the doors to the room was not as difficult as he imagined. In fact, they were way too light to be considered a stronghold for a treasure.
As soon as he opened the door, the white flames that had been illuminating the room suddenly turned off, drowning the room in darkness, with the only light coming from outside the room.
Outside of the door was a hall that stretched into a darkness that was illuminated slightly by runes on the wall.
With that, he left the room, and instantly he was in battle mode, his spear gripped tightly in his hand. Although the room he came from was safe... in its own charming way, he knew that it might not be the case for outside.
It was a passageway guarding a weapon that seemed like an artifact. So there were bound to be traps or guardians outside the room.
As soon as he got some distance away from the door, it closed shut by itself. He would have loved to explore more of the room, to investigate, but with how weak he was currently, sitting and waiting there might have invited more trouble than it was worth.
He continued to walk in the darkness for what felt like hours before the structure changed.
The stone walls were now covered in vegetation, and the runes had disappeared. He wasn't in total darkness, though. A few beams of sunlight were passing through the cracks in the ceiling.
The walk had been uneventful. No traps were triggered, nor had he faced anything guarding it. However, soon his peaceful walk was intruded on. Two wolf-like beasts were walking in his direction and stopped when they noticed him.
He had noticed them as well, but he didn't stop. He continued walking until they were clearly visible, only stopping 15 meters away.
The two wolves were dark in colour and were taller than the average wolf. They had three eyes, with the third being in the middle of their foreheads, which was closed. They had two massive canines coming out of their snouts.
They were slightly on the thinner side, so they probably preferred agility over raw strength.
None of them made the first move to attack each other, preferring to observe each other.
He had never seen beasts like these before, so he noted the details of the beasts carefully, making sure not to miss anything.
He could sense something from them that he could not quite put a finger on. It was an energy. The same type of energy he had absorbed from the spear, but the one being emitted by the wolves was strangely more pure.
He had never felt this type of energy before. It was warm, unlike the qi energy he was used to, or the heavenly essence that was cold. The energy the wolves released was pure and surprisingly more overwhelming.
'How... fascinating.'
The energy was definitely not something the Heaven Realms had. The runes and this weird energy—everything pointed to the fact that he was not in the same realm, nor was he in any of the other realms of Heaven. Everything was so strange.
At that moment, one of the wolves attacked, sprinting straight at him with incredible speed. Its fangs were bared, and its eyes were locked on him. The other wolf stayed back, watching carefully.
He noticed the movement right away, and as soon as it lunged at him, he reacted quickly. He stepped to the side just in time, avoiding the wolf's claws.
Before the wolf could land and turn, he thrust his spear toward its rear. The wolf noticed and kicked the spear away just before landing on the ground.
As soon as the wolf landed, he didn't stop attacking, not wanting the wolf to regain its breath. He closed the distance and thrust his spear again. The wolf jumped back immediately.
'Got you!'
That thrust had only been a trick. When the wolf jumped sideways, he quickly adjusted and stabbed toward its neck. The strike landed, piercing the wolf's throat.
The wolf let out a short cry, then dropped to the ground, blood pouring from the wound. It twitched once before going still.
The other wolf didn't move. Its third eye opened, glowing faintly. It stared at him without making a sound.
He tightened his grip on the spear and took a step forward.
"I hope you enjoyed the show."
The wolf only growled in response.
The fight wasn't over.
From the looks of it, these wolves were not smart and could fall for feints. So, catching them off guard was the fastest way to kill them.
At that moment, the second wolf's third eye lit up. A dark beam shot out, aimed straight at his head.
He instantly lowered his head, a scorching black beam passing just above him. Had it grazed his skin, it would have left a nasty burn wound.
So, it had range. Well, that made the fight slightly more complicated. He had to close the distance fast.
The eye glowed again. Another beam fired. He leaped to the side. Before he could steady himself, a third beam was already coming. He rolled across the ground, barely avoiding it.
The wolf kept firing, one shot after another, and before long, he noticed a pattern in its attacks.
As the eye flashed and fired, he dodged and surged forward. The wolf saw him closing in and leapt back.
'As if I'd let you get away.'
He extended his spear to its full reach and thrust forward. The wolf twisted mid-air, but it wasn't fast enough.
The spear pierced into its exposed stomach. Blood spilled out as it dropped to the ground.
The wolf, realizing it was about to die, put all its effort into bringing its enemy down with it. Its eye shone brighter than before, gathering as much energy as it could.
Realizing what the wolf was about to do, he quickly punched it in the jaw, snapping its neck back and causing it to miss.
It twitched violently. Then stopped.
He glanced at the holes the beams had carved into the stone walls. Close call.
He didn't like that. He had once been so powerful that most fights never needed to reach a close call.
Despite the whole fight not lasting long, his body was slightly strained. He had the combat experience and knew how to fight. Killing was not the problem. His body's power was. Although he had absorbed the red energy from his spear, it didn't turn his body into a powerhouse. He took way too long to kill these wolves, even if they were stronger than the current him.
Sensing something behind him, he turned around again. He looked at the wolf's body. And something was happening. Its energy was being gathered on top of its body and rotating fast, forming a black vortex.
It soon stopped spinning and condensed into a small black disc that levitated just on top of the corpse.
The disc was radiating a faint black light, but the most surprising thing so far was the energy being released by the black disc. It was slightly more overbearing than the wolves themselves had been.
Looking at the other wolf's corpse, the same phenomenon was happening. He didn't know what to do at the moment. His body was feeling a slight pull towards the disc, making him even more hesitant and uncomfortable.
Deciding to investigate it, he got closer but maintained a distance from it, but as he did, the pull he was feeling got stronger. Not finding anything strange, he decided to just trust the feeling and let it guide him. When his hand touched the disc, it turned into mist that slowly entered his body.
His body felt slightly hot for a moment, and he could feel the weird energy enter, to finally settle in his heart. As soon as it did, he felt a rush of power and could feel his strength increase slightly.
'Getting stronger by killing... How is this possible?!'
The disc that the wolves dropped was more impressive than he thought, but its function scared him. If anyone in his old realm had a treasure or had found a way to get stronger while killing, a war would be waged to obtain that method.
After all, what would have been the point of cultivating if you grew stronger by killing things?
He quickly went to the other wolf corpse and touched the disc floating above it, and he felt the same feeling all over again.
'Amazing...'
Right there and then, he discarded the possibility of this realm being a remote realm related to the Heaven Realm he knew. Heaven would not have allowed for such an easy defiance against its will.
He had been a little uneasy when he didn't recognize the energy he was sensing, but this changed everything. Not only was this realm's way to get stronger different, but to him it seemed more efficient.
'From now on... nothing will stop me from reaching true immortality.'
He could not help but get excited. Despite the path ahead looking dark and bloody, he was not one to shy away from such trivial things.
He was now sure that he was stepping on a new path. New world or not, his goal remained the same. He will continue to strive for eternal life, and if obstacles got in the way of him achieving true immortality, he would crush them down and turn them into stone he will use to make stairs that lead to his goal.