Chapter 404 - 404: We were wrong

"Divine Heaven Sect was crazy. Why the heck did they make so many stairs? I swear I'm going to be so pissed if I don't get anything useful when I get to the top," Long Chen muttered.

Long Chen rested for half an hour before he stood up and resumed his climb.

He kept going up as fast as he could.

"Xun, You have been around for so long. You must know of great jokes from the higher world. Can you tell me some?" 

He started talking to Xun as he was getting bored.

"I don't know anything like that. Tian Shen was a serious guy. No one dared to joke in front of him," Xun said.

"Oh, let me ask you a question. Who is more fun to be with? Him or me?" Long Chen asked 

"You... ask some really stupid questions," Xun said.

"I'll take that as me. How about we learn some Ancient language in the meantime. It's not like we're going to get to the top anytime soon," Long Chen said.

"I can't teach you as I can't hold ink or paper to show you, but I can teach you how to speak," Xun said.

"That works for the time being," Long Chen let out with a smile on his face.

"Alright. Tell me something, and I'll tell you how it was said in Ancient Language," Xun replied.

"Alright," Long Chen said.

"Thiken," Xun replied.

"I didn't start yet," he said with a wry smile on his face.

"Si chere Xuin Wu," Xun responded again.

"That's not it,' he said.

"Dis Nit Ate," Xun answered.

He couldn't help but smile. He realized that she was messing with him now.

"I love you," Long Chen said.

"Si Etes Xi," Xun replied.

"Si Etes Xi," Long Chen repeated.

"I love you," Xun translated subconsciously before she realized what had happened.

"I love you too," Long Chen laughed out loud.

"Hey, aren't you going to translate that?" Long Chen asked as he chuckled.

"You idiot. You tricked me into saying that," Xun told him.

"Really? I don't think I did anything like that. Also, why don't you come out?" Long Chen said to her.

"Hmph," Xun snorted as she stopped talking.

"Hey, don't do that. I'll die of boredom if I don't talk to anyone in this long journey," Long Chen let out with a wry smile on his face, but the formation stopped him.

He realized that he couldn't move ahead. He had gotten to the 100000th step.

The voice again asked him a question.

"What is more useful? Offense or Defense?" 

"Of course, offense. There's no way to win if one is always on the defense," Long Chen said.

"The questions are all over the place. Why did they even make this formation? If I'm not wrong, it should serve some purpose that I don't know of," Long Chen muttered as he continued ahead.

The spiral stairs wrapped inside the wide tower in a way that made them longer than they should have been.

Long Chen kept going higher and answering questions whenever he got them and talked to Xun in the meantime, and this time, he genuinely started to learn the Ancient Language and how he could speak it.

He had so much time, and he learned many words of the Ancient Language. He was now able to make a short basic conversation in the Ancient Language.

After a long time, Long Chen got to the end of the stairs.

He was brought to a Black door.

Long Chen pushed the door open and entered it.

He found himself in a small room, and there was only one thing in front of him.

It was a set of black gloves that had red linings on them.

"The treasure hall has selected the treasure for you based on your answers and the time you took to get to the top," that voice said again. 

"Oh, so that's what it was. This place doesn't have the treasures that a person can choose, but it's a place where the formation chose the weapon depending on the cultivator's answers," Long Chen muttered as he stepped towards the gloves and picked them up.

He didn't know what grade they were, but they felt much more powerful than Fury, which was a Gold Grade Sword.

"That voice didn't tell me anything about these gloves. Sigh, I'm sure the disciples in the old times should be able to ask the elders about it, but there's no one in the sect anymore. I guess I'll give you a name myself. You'll be destroyers," Long Chen said as he wore the gloves.

He didn't know that the gloves which he called destroyer were called the Sea Severing Gloves.

These gloves were the strongest treasure of the Divine Heaven Sect, but the outside world didn't know about them, and that's why they didn't include them in the list that Long Chen was given.

Usually, a disciple would never have received these gloves as it required the answers to be much more specific. Long Chen had given the exact same answers.

When the formation was made, the answers for getting the Sea Severing Gloves were decided using the Ancient Heaven Divination Technique. Although the technique didn't specify the person that will get the gloves, it did show a glimpse to the Sect Master about what the answers should be.

Long Chen looked around in search of the place that had the treasures of the treasure hall, but he couldn't see anything inside the room.

There was no way to get to the treasures from here.

He left the room and searched on the floor, but there was nothing on this floor but a single room where Long Chen had received the Sea Severing Gloves.

"It doesn't look like I'll get more treasures," Long Chen muttered as he walked back to the stairs and started going down.

He got back much faster than he climbed and stepped out of the tower, but he didn't leave.

"When the Divine Heaven Sect was still fine, a disciple should be allowed to come here again to get treasures if they had permissions from higher-ups. It can't be a one-time thing. Should I try again? I'll try giving different answers this time," Long Chen muttered as he walked back inside again.

He tried stepping on the stairs, but he couldn't. He was stopped.

"I guess it doesn't work like that," Long Chen shook his head in disappointment as he turned back and stepped out of the tower.

He walked to Chu Miao, who was waiting for him near a tree at some distance from the tower.

"Was it really their Treasure Pavilion? Did you get the treasures?" Chu Miao asked.

"It should be the treasure pavilion, but we were wrong. Everyone was wrong. The treasure pavilion isn't a place that has artifacts on display for disciples to choose. It's a place that gives only one artifact to the person and that too after they climb hundreds of thousands of stairs," Long Chen told her.

"Those Gloves? Are these the one thing that was selected for you when you climbed the stairs?" Chu Miao asked him.

"Yeah. I call them destroyers," Long Chen said.

"What do they do? Do they increase your strength or Strengthen your attacks?" Chu Miao asked.

"I have no idea what these do. These are literally in the realm of the unknown, but they look cool," Long Chen said.

"Did you try punching anything?" She asked again.

"I tried everything. They don't increase my Strength or make my fist attack more powerful. I'll keep wearing them, though. Maybe I'll find out their true use one day," Long Chen said 

"Should we go ahead? There should be more places that have treasures we need. We still haven't found anything from the list other than the Flute of War," She said.