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A huge and fierce bird smashed its massive claws at a yellow-haired figure, missing them as they avoided it in time, and struck the hard iron floor, creating a loud clanking sound.
The bird screeched angrily as its yellow eyes bulged out and stared at the slippery worm. Fueled with pure rage, the bird charged forward and chased the worm with its beak ready to peck it into the abyss.
Watching this joke of a fight, Adori shook her head, it had already taken too much time. The time that they couldn't afford to waste.
She casually made a single step, a single step that closed the gap between her and the bird in less than a second.
Drawing her blade as it shimmered with a thin white light, she swung it in a horizontal slash as her figure appeared just in front of the bird.
It suddenly stopped in its tracks and became motionless, as suddenly, the top half of its body was cut cleanly, and fell to the ground.
Xin watched this with his mouth agape. He had been fighting against the bird for a while so he knew its strength, it was its endurance and defense.
It wasn't dangerous and strong for him per se, it was just too tough for him to bring it down quickly. It always protected its vital areas and its movements weren't slow either. It was way stronger than Bloomer. After all, the bird was the final boss.
"Congratulation, regulars! You have finished the Hell Train's final test. You can wait until the train reaches the last station, or you can enjoy another adventure on a bonus floor. If you want to experience another adventure on the Hell Train, just go inside the gate in front of you." An announcement rang out.
"Let's go, the Hidden Floor awaits." Liu Guanyi motioned them forward.
Adori and Xin nodded and followed him to the gate. The gate was a big rectangular silver-colored metal. At the moment, it was wide open, showing a blank white layer that had a similar feel to those warp devices.
"Good luck Xin, Adori. You know what to do." Liu Guanyi spoke with a smile.
Both of them only nodded curtly and walked into the gate without hesitation. The moment they touched the white layer, they were instantly gone as Liu Guanyi couldn't sense their presence anymore, getting teleported to somewhere else.
"Now, I only have to wait for their news." Said Liu Guanyi casually.
There were a few reasons why Liu Guanyi didn't go into the Hidden Floor despite his curiosity of whatever was on there that made the king Zahard himself tamper and develop the floor personally.
Firstly, he didn't have enough information about it. It was too risky to go into that without enough information.
This was the case since the influence of the king was immense as he had taken action on the floor personally. Whatever was prepared there, Liu Guanyi didn't want to test it by himself.
Zahard didn't exactly have the greatest reputation, after all. He was a ruthless, uncaring, and aloof king that never cared about his subjects. He was also an extreme narcissist that built numerous temples to worship and revere him as some kind of god.
Granted, Liu Guanyi knew that on each floor, there was an altar on the highest ground on the floor dedicated to praising the floor ruler, someone who ruled and managed an entire floor on the behalf of the floor guardians.
However, to self-proclaim himself as a god? He was just being presumptuous.
Anyway, even so, the Hidden Floor itself wasn't that dangerous, at least for normal regulars. They were many records that ticket holders managed to finish the floor.
The rumors themselves also originated from those people who passed the floor. Liu Guanyi didn't go was because he was wary of king Zahard's influence there.
If someone found out that he was an irregular or there was a trap made for irregulars there, it would spell doom for him since his true identity would be known to the highest authority of the tower.
Not only that Zahard's stance toward new irregulars was much more dubious than the Workshop, the king was also simply way too powerful and resourceful for Liu Guanyi to deal with, yet.
Once he was exposed, he would be a fish on a chopping block. Even if he wanted to resist any of his machinations and schemes, he wouldn't be able to. To deal with such an ancient monster, Liu Guanyi would need to become an ancient being himself.
Therefore, sending Xin and Adori was the best course of action to investigate and explore whatever was on there, especially Adori.
She was extremely powerful as a D-ranker regular, way more powerful than those in the D-rank and she was an intelligent and capable woman as well.
With her identity as a princess of Zahard, she would very likely to have more leeway compared to common regulars, making the exploration much easier. Even if the exploration didn't have any results, it wouldn't hurt them at all as it wasn't that important, anyway.
Liu Guanyi and Adori only wanted to dig more about the Hidden Floor. The powerful spell that makes people forget about it, and combined with the fact that king Zahard had personally acted himself meant that the Hidden floor would at least be something of importance.
Since they could only visit the Hidden Floor once after finishing the Hell Train, why not check it out? It wouldn't take long, anyway.
Liu Guanyi sat down. Now, he only needed to wait for their return. He believed that Adori wouldn't fail him, he had understood her capabilities well, after all. If those weaklings could return from the Hidden Floor, there was no reason why, Adori, who was tens of times more powerful, couldn't manage to do it.
Liu Guanyi cleared his thoughts and created a small bang of shinsu. It absorbed the shinsu in the surroundings, increasing its power yet also its difficulty to control as it began to shake uncontrollably on his hand. However, before it began to break, it quickly calmed down and stabilized.
A smile surfaced on his face at this small achievement, these were all the crucial foundations of his future plans. It didn't matter how long it would take him.
Hundreds of years?
Thousands of years? A hundred thousand years?
As long as Liu Guanyi achieved it, it did not matter.
Your powerstones, please?