Chapter 115: The Undead

As soon as his boots touched the stone, Theo frowned.

"Is there a trap at the tomb’s entrance?" Theo asked, genuinely concerned. "The killing intent is overwhelming."

"The intent is not coming from the tomb," Liana noted, her silver eyes scanning the crowd. "It is directed at you."

Theo looked around.

The Praetorian Guards were glaring at him, fueled by Cassia’s recent propaganda campaign portraying Theo as a treasonous brute.

Hierarch Malakor was staring daggers at him. Theo and Liana had single-handedly dismantled the Cult’s southern operations months ago.

"Gaius," Malakor whispered without turning his head. "Find an opportunity inside the tomb. Eliminate the Sovereign and the Empress. I will double your bounty."

"Consider it done, Hierarch," Gaius blinked, his cross-eyes widening in delight.

Two employers paying him for the exact same assassination? It was a lucrative day...

But the most intense hostility did not come from the Praetorians or the Cultists. It came from the hundreds of wandering mercenaries and young prodigies.

"He must not know how to fly properly yet," a young swordsman gritted his teeth, staring at Theo’s hand.

"Yes, she is only holding his hand to stabilize his descent. That must be it," another coped desperately.

Facing the envious, burning glares of the entire Imperial generation, Theo’s expression remained stoic.

Slowly, he reached out and grabbed Liana’s other hand, interlocking his fingers with hers and pulling her slightly closer.

Liana blinked, caught off guard. "What are you doing?"

"What if there is a randomized spatial displacement array inside the entrance? If we only hold one hand, the spatial shear might tear us apart." Theo said earnestly, his face a mask of solemn duty.

Liana narrowed her eyes.

She looked at the incredibly intricate explanation on his face.

She doubted there was a spatial shear array inside.

She strongly suspected this was just a bout of childish, petty stubbornness, driven by the envious glares of the crowd...

However, she did not pull her hands away.

After a brief silence, the Reborn Empress gave a faint nod.

"...Indeed. Safety first," Liana agreed.

...

Hundreds of elite cultivators stared in dumbfounded silence as the Abyssal Sword Sovereign nonchalantly held both of the Aurora Empress’s hands.

The entrance was just a colossal hole in the ground; there was no apparent teleportation array.

Among the crowd, Valeria and the Imperial Academy disciples silently stepped further away.

"Should we not greet the Sovereign?" Valeria asked, adjusting her spectacles.

Her hair had grown back to her chin since Liana had stopped lecturing at the academy.

"Valeria, are you not sick of the sugar?" her martial brother grimaced. "You want to walk over there and choke on their affection?"

"What sugar?" Valeria asked, genuinely confused.

Another peer sighed. "Valeria, if you go over there and watch Instructor Liana fight, you will inevitably try to copy her intent, fail, and cut off the rest of your hair. You will be bald before we reach the first chamber."

Valeria fell silent. "...This is not the right time to greet them."

Before long, a sinister, icy wind howled from the depths of the abyss.

It carried the faint sound of inhuman growling.

"What was that?" a mercenary swallowed hard, staring at the entrance as if it were the maw of a leviathan.

"We move," Crown Prince Aurelius commanded.

He and his silver-armored Praetorians were the first to leap into the gloom.

Hierarch Malakor, unwilling to let the Crown claim the vanguard’s advantage, immediately followed, though not before shooting Theo a glare laced with venom.

"Do those sound like ghouls to you?" Theo asked, his hands still securely wrapped around Liana’s.

Liana sighed.

"To be precise, they are a hyper-mutated variant of the undead," a new voice chimed in.

Theo’s brow twitched.

Despite his usually calm demeanor, this specific voice inexplicably annoyed him.

He turned to see Sylvia, the Overseer of the Obsidian Vault, smiling serenely.

"Why are you here, Sylvia?" Theo asked.

"I followed the threads of causality and the guidance of the Heavenly Mandate," Sylvia replied. "Sovereign, you may dislike the chaotic nickname given to you by the public, but causality demands it. I wish to explore this tomb, and I would like to join your vanguard."

"Why not follow the Crown Prince?" Theo narrowed his eyes.

"Your group possesses a superior destiny."

"Give me one reason not to throw you into the crater," Theo sighed, feeling a headache forming.

"I am a master of First Era Imperial architecture and elemental feng shui," Sylvia pointed at the abyss. "For example, those roars belong to Miasma-Walkers. They are corpses preserved by extreme elemental energies. The most famous are the Ash-Walkers, who cause localized droughts, and the Quake-Walkers, who can shatter tectonic plates..."

"Stop. I understand. Welcome to the vanguard," Theo raised a hand, sparing himself the academic lecture.

Before descending, Theo tapped into his suite.

*Great Sage, scan the remaining stragglers. Focus on the cross-eyed Cultist.*

[Affirmative. Target: Gaius (The Butcher).]

[Age: 56. Physique: Shadow-Veil Physique. Realm: Outer Scenery (First Tier).]

[Background: Mocked for his strabismus since childhood. Executed his tormentors. Became a bandit, but was exiled for a severe inability to distinguish allies from enemies during raids. Joined the Syndicate, then defected to the Cult of the Devourer hoping they could cure his eyesight.]

[Recent Activity: Accepted two independent assassination contracts targeting Theo and Liana. Intends to kill two birds with one stone to maximize profit.]

Theo watched Gaius’s back disappear into the descent.

An Outer Scenery assassin with friendly-fire issues.

It was going to be an interesting expedition...

Theo, Liana, and Sylvia leaped into the abyss.

The descent was surprisingly short, but the gloom was impenetrable. Theo ignited a sphere of karmic fire, allowing it to float above their heads.

"Where did everyone go?" Theo murmured.

[Warning: Localized spatial architecture is rearranging. Euclidean geometry is currently invalid.]

Liana rested her hand on her sword. "The tomb is moving."

A subterranean, shifting maze. The ancient structure was isolating the intruders.

"We should locate the central burial chamber," Theo suggested.

Sylvia looked at him. "First, we must determine the exact era of this architecture. Shifting tombs from different dynasties follow different laws."

The ornaments in her hair tinkled as she stepped forward.

"If we cannot decipher the rules of these moving walls, we will be trapped in the shadows forever, slowly starving to death in an infinite labyrinth!"

Theo stared at her. "Why are you so excited about that?!"