My CEO Harem Cultivation System

Chapter 227 - Connections (3)

Li Yang opened his eyes and found himself in a new location, and all he could see was black and utter darkness. When he first entered the immaterial plane, there was nothing but light that told him the world he was in was at a higher point than what earth might have been.

Now things were different.

He was only running earlier but was swallowed and taken into this new area. Li Yang figured out that this was a cave, a cave that seemed to stretch on forever, and the only light he seemed to have was the glint of the blue thread still running through the rocky ground and terrain.

Li Yang didn't claim to understand anything at all.

But all he knew was that, similar to Ariadne's thread that helped Theseus find his way to the labyrinth, he only had one way to go and so Li Yang chased after the blue thread without any hesitation. He couldn't let it disappear—and so he wordlessly chased after it, weapon ready in his hand.

The first of the undeath came after him.

Skeletons with their eyes glowing in an unholy yellow and ghastly green flame, they ran towards him soundlessly. Devoid of any actual voices to screech out their sorrows, only the rackets of their bones as they came at him was the sound in the dead of the night.

Li Yang clicked his tongue, kept his gaze on the lingering string before he raised his sword and met the first skeleton head-on. Without any actual weapons on their person, the skeleton soon came crashing down as Li Yang leapt over it and faced the rest of the undead coming at him.

[ You Have Encountered A — ]

[ You Have Encountered A Skeleton— ]

[ You Have Encountered Multiple Skeletons ]

[ You Have Encountered A Wave of Skeletons ]

[ Achievement Quest: Lord of the Bones - I  Has Started! ]

You are now in a territory filled with undead skeletons that have risen up from their graves. Their souls are too weary and have returned to a state where all they seek is the death of all living beings.

Vanquish at least 200 of them and lay their souls to rest.

That was easier said than done, but when it boiled down to actual things… he found the opposite of it was true. Even when he was alone, they were actually easy to deal with. If not a little tricky as his sword sometimes poked at gaps in the rib cage or got stuck in a tibia and femur.

Nevertheless, the CEO still broke through the bones and crushed their skulls to dust.

Perhaps it was a different matter if it was just an ordinary man by himself, a skeleton's body was still hard and without the layer of qi protecting him from their attacks, then he would have bruised and injured himself moreover at just trying to battle one down.

At his stage, these undead creatures seemed like grunts.

He continued down the path of the cave and felt himself descending down the dark and twisting path. Thankfully, Li Yang's vision was already sharp enough thanks to his cultivation increasing his senses, but more importantly, the undead's eyes glowed like a signal to themselves, promising of his impending doom.

He'd fight against that notion.

"Surely even you can tell that you're trespassing into someone's territory, right?" Bao appeared in the corner of his vision. The fat and plump creature was floating through air and unhindered by all the creatures that came at them.

Even when a skeleton was right in its path, the creature simply phased through it.

Li Yang already tried his Afterworld Dissolution earlier and it did not work here. Possibly because he was already in the Afterworld, so it once again spoke of the unfairness that this creature had, no matter its actual arrangements with the Heavens.

Luckily, whether it was intentional or not, the Panda now appeared like some sort of round lantern. Its body was glowing like a luminescent jellyfish.

"Oi, you heard me, right?" Bao frowned at him. "What kind of person just enters a cave without any permission?"

"If the direction of the thread of memory leads me down this path..." Li Yang hesitated. There was reason and logic to the Panda's sarcasm, but he looked at the creature and sighed, "Time is of the essence, I can't stall anymore by finding another way."

"So you say, but it feels like you're going to deal with a lot of enemies. Anyhow, pretend like I was never here," the Panda said before it disappeared in a wink of an eye.

If it had left even a glimmer of a smile, the CEO would have resembled it to a cat, but there was no time for any of that. Li Yang grunted, but then continued on the path. It seemed like he could turn back now and change his direction but he had already gone too far down to return to the surface.

Every second spanned in Li Yang's mind like an hour, as more and more of these creatures appeared out of nowhere.

One moment he was running on his feet, chasing the thread down and feeling as if he was bound to escape, but then his feet were hooked by a zombie appearing right from the earth as it attempted to drag him down into the soil.

Its attempt to gnaw at his leg was far more injury-inducing to the zombie in the first place.

Still, he evaded it and soon had to keep himself on guard to attacks both in the front, beneath him and even above him. Spinning their webs or screeching into the cave, both gigantic spiders and vampire bats descended on Li Yang and attempted to snag him into traps or to the death.

Li Yang dealt with them on his own, until he finally started seeing bigger and stronger undead.

It was a funny feeling to be the one who was coming down towards the undead's territory, unlike the other way around as the olden games used to make it out to be.

A strong slash of qi dispersed into the air and cut the Draugr into two.

Or Li Yang had hoped that would have been the case. They were in an immaterial realm, but somehow the hulking figure of this beast took a lot more damage than shambling skeletons or rotting zombies.

[ You Have Successfully Killed Your First Draugr ]

[ You Have Received Bonus Points ]

It wasn't that much of an achievement when there were at least thirty of them all rammed up inside the narrow portion of the cave. And yet if it weren't for the fact that it was too narrow for them to jump at him all at once, he avoided his own defeat.

Li Yang found himself running low on his own internal qi.

While the world around him was brimming with energy, it was now only death energy that his own System refused to assimilate. Whether it was being picky or mere ludicrous, the CEO simply afforded himself a drink now.

He leaned back temporarily against the wall and gladly found himself actually leaning on the cave's surface and not a disguised skin-changing monster. Li Yang gathered his strength and recuperated for a second.

[ You Have Deducted Points—

[ You Have Purchased The Divine— ]

[ You Have Consumed The Divine Energizer Drink ]

Right after it, Li Yang already went down and held on to the string of memories. He had already tried to rekindle it by thinking back on his time with Luo Ju Di, but it still failed to fully relight itself.

Similar to a candle's wick, it was burning and turning to dust.

Li Yang refused that thought. It wasn't too late... to do what?

Go back or abandon his mission to find Luo Ju Di?

He shook his head and continued down the path. The more he traveled deeper, the more he found himself hearing voices in his head that weren't exactly his. Whispers that weren't just the System's robotic voices, now they were feminine and more alluring?

Not exactly, but they called him.

It took him into places.

Until he finally stopped and arrived into what may have been a resting spot or save point if this were anything like a game. Li Yang found and entered a strange territory in the dark cave.

The passage he passed through suddenly shut behind him. Whether it had saved him or trapped him was something one had to question.

Compared to the ever present darkness that clung and hung around him earlier... this place was glowing with a warm light.

There was a beautiful pond available that trickled and gurgled with fresh waters, and at the very center of it all was a miniature island holding a singular large fruit-bearing tree. Its branches hang low and were welcoming, with ripe fruits ready to pluck or perfect for one to nap and rest themselves in.

This place looked like a sanctuary to him.

And yet when he summoned the System in front of him to gauge the location—

[ ??? ]

It told him nothing at all.

… And yet that was already telling, in and of itself, he didn't trust this place one bit at all.

—-—-

Author's Note: Thank you for reaching the end of the chapter, here are the references available in this chapter, Greek Mythology of the Labyrinth and Ariadne, Plants vs Zombies, Dungeon Novels, Cheshire the Cat and Save Points in RPG games. (Most notably my favorite, Final Fantasy!) I know games should have save points, but man isn't it more suspicious that the Dark Lord's tower has a 'save point' for a Hero to recuperate?