“Is there really no other way?” Ye Tianxie asked. A class that any ordinary player could obtain on a whim had become a chasm he could scarcely cross… Was he truly destined to be a man without a class forever in the World of Fate?
Kong Xiu shook his head. “There is none. Unless… Your power instinctively repels ordinary classes, so unless your latent power awakens — and the awakened power would spontaneously become a class uniquely your own… Or else, unless you can find a hidden class of such immense power that it matches the strength of your potential!”
Ye Tianxie’s expression shifted through several changes, and he gave a faint, bitter laugh. “Very well. In that case, I won’t trouble you any further.”
Either awaken the power, or find a hidden class… what kind of joke is this! He didn’t even know what power was hidden inside him — the devil himself would know how to awaken it. A hidden class? Obtaining a legendary hidden class was harder than ascending to heaven; where was he supposed to find one?
Ye Tianxie pushed open the stone door and walked out toward the light — and just then, Kong Xiu’s voice came suddenly from behind him. “Xietian, wait a moment.”
Ye Tianxie stopped and turned to look at him.
Kong Xiu strode up before him, his brow easing, and said with some excitement, “I’ve just remembered something. That thing may be able to help you.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“The Dragon God’s Stone!” Kong Xiu said. “Legend has it that far to the south lies a bottomless abyss called the Hidden Dragon Abyss, and at the bottom of that abyss is a Dragon God’s Stone. It was condensed in ages past by the supreme Dragon God of the dragon race, who poured his lifetime’s dragon power into it before his death. Any young dragon of the race need only draw near it, and their dragon power will awaken at once.” Kong Xiu paused, then continued, “The Lost Codex contains records concerning the Dragon God’s Stone; its existence ought to be more than mere rumor. Since the Dragon God’s Stone can awaken unawakened dragon power… then the dragon power you possess may perhaps also be awakened by it.”
“You want me to go find the Dragon God’s Stone?” Ye Tianxie’s brow furrowed slightly as he turned Kong Xiu’s words over.
“That’s right. The Hidden Dragon Abyss was originally a forbidden ground where humans could not set foot — though even were it not forbidden, ordinary people would have no ability to tread there at all. The dragon race hasn’t emerged in a very long time, but that by no means proves the dragons are extinct. There may well be dragons beneath the Hidden Dragon Abyss, and they would not permit other beings to intrude. Even I… forget one of me — ten of me wouldn’t have the nerve to go near that place. And yet, I hope you’ll make a trip there… You possess a Hero’s Badge, which is itself a miracle, and a still greater miracle may yet be born because of you. At the same time, you possess the power of the Dragon Soul, so even if dragons truly do dwell there, perhaps they won’t reject you too harshly… And you humans from another world, even in death, only lose levels rather than truly endangering your lives. Though with your ability, going there is all but ten deaths and no life, I still hope… that if the chance arises, you’ll make a trip to the Hidden Dragon Abyss.” Kong Xiu’s expression was grave, his voice growing more earnest with every word. Today he had witnessed with his own eyes a scene he’d never dreamed of, and now he madly yearned to see the birth of a powerhouse without equal in all of history — because this was the first person whose potential could shatter the God-Summoning Stone, the first to possess the power of the dragon.
Was there truly a Dragon God’s Stone beneath the Hidden Dragon Abyss? No one dared say for certain. Could the Dragon God’s Stone truly awaken Ye Tianxie’s latent power? No one could say for certain. Would there be dragons beneath the Hidden Dragon Abyss? No one knew… But just as Kong Xiu said, players would not truly die. He had no reason not to go and test it out for his own sake.
“Where is the Hidden Dragon Abyss?” Ye Tianxie asked.
“Three thousand kilometers to the south. Once there, ask anyone at all and you’ll learn where the Hidden Dragon Abyss lies. But with the ability you now possess, you cannot go. Even if you went now, you’d be destroyed by the fierce monsters around it before you could even draw near. When your level reaches 70… no, 80, you should have the ability to reach the edge of the Hidden Dragon Abyss. As for how to get down into that bottomless abyss… that you’ll have to figure out on your own.” Kong Xiu said.
Three thousand kilometers south… Level 80… descend into a bottomless abyss… What. Kind. Of. Joke. Is. This!!
Three thousand kilometers — with a player’s initial movement speed of 100, even walking without pause there was no telling how long it would take to arrive, all the more so with ferocious monsters of every level range scattered along the way, none of which a low-level player could contend with. Level 80… At the World of Fate‘s leveling speed, it had taken Ye Tianxie nearly ten days to go from Level 0 to his current Level 11 — and that pace could even be called the fastest among all players. Who knew what year of the monkey it would be by the time he reached Level 80. A bottomless abyss… with Ye Tianxie’s current ability, a height of a dozen-odd meters was enough to kill him outright. Bottomless… that was enough to kill him several hundred times over.
Ye Tianxie wrestled with it inwardly for a while, then walked out of the place in silence under Kong Xiu’s strange gaze.
“Oh la la! Master, I saw it all, and heard it all.” Little Guoguo sat astride his shoulder, all smiles, as though she’d accomplished some magnificent feat. In her hands she cradled a lollipop she’d already demolished a good portion of, her little pink tongue rolling back and forth across it, her face wearing an expression of utter contented enjoyment.
Apart from crying and making a fuss whenever she was displeased — which forced Ye Tianxie to give in every single time — this little thing spent all her other hours as free and comfortable as a pampered young miss of a wealthy house. From the second day after meeting Guoguo, Ye Tianxie had begun wrestling with the question of which of them was actually the master.
“Guoguo, do you know anything about this place, the Hidden Dragon Abyss?” Ye Tianxie asked, still turning things over in his mind. Inside the head of this little thing — seemingly as pure as crystal — were in fact hidden a great many things no one else knew.
“Mm…” Guoguo blinked, plugged her little mouth with the lollipop, and said indistinctly while sucking at its flavor, “I don’t know right now… But if I had ten apple-flavored lollipops, and ten lemon-flavored lollipops, and ten mango-flavored lollipops, and ten orange-flavored lollipops, and ten peach-flavored lollipops, and ten banana-flavored lollipops… then maybe I’d remember.”
Ye Tianxie listened with the veins throbbing at his temples. Guoguo had pulled this move on him N times already, and it worked without fail every time: whenever he asked her a question she happened to know the answer to, she’d seize the chance to extort him viciously. And all Ye Tianxie could do was grit his teeth and endure it… then obediently give in.
(End of Chapter 63)