Nine Heavenly Thunder Manual

“Bam!”

A loud sound of clashing metallic items resounded. Lei Yu’s fist had directly smashed straight into the flat side of the blade. The next moment, the golden axe actually flew out of Pelagon’s hand, landing over ten meters away, on the ground.

The look of surprise on Pelagon’s face was more obvious now. Lei Yu did not give him any opportunities. His body still hadn’t landed on the ground yet, but he already kicked out his foot and used Pelagon’s body as leverage. He twisted his body and made a half-spin in midair, landing a perfect roundhouse kick directly on the side of Pelagon’s neck.

Both their bodies flew off in opposite directions, crashing against the walls.

“Crack!”

The two simultaneously smashed against the the thick labyrinth walls, leaving a body-shaped crater, fearsome cracks spreading outwards from it. The loose gravel showered onto the ground as the two slid down the wall, both breathing heavily.

One of Lei Yu’s hands was pressing against his own chest, exerting pressure over a wound in order to stop the blood from gushing out. The sweat on his forehead had been dripping off his face, leaving a small puddle on the ground.

Pelagon wasn’t any better off. The instant Lei Yu knocked the golden axe out of his hand, and since he couldn’t react in time, he had yet to regain any control or feelings of his body from Lei Yu’s sudden furious kick. Starting from his neck, down to his chest area and his arms, they all felt like they were paralyzed. Perhaps Pelagon should be thankful for being so comfortable for now. Once the paralysis effect wore out, the severe pain would arrive, giving him a taste of unbearable agony.

Straining to use the wall as support, Lei Yu took the lead in standing up first. His chest was heaving up and down, yet between gasping breaths, he still managed to say, “You still want to continue fighting?”

“My duty is to guard this place; to stop and kill any intruders!” Pelagon replied stubbornly.

Lei Yu’s unfaltering steps drew closer and closer to Pelagon; the latter’s entire arm still being paralyzed, he could not even move a finger. This was to say that, even if he would have wanted to wiggle his fingers in order to recall his golden axe, it was now an impossible task.

Lei Yu stopped when he was about a meter away from him. “Previously, I was already being merciful to you, but you wouldn’t listen to my advice and still wanted to fight me. There’s no other way, because I can’t continue being kind-hearted. As a former emperor, you don’t even have a bit of willpower. A mere sentence said by that bastard and he was able to control your mind… there’s no point for you to keep living anymore!”

Lei Yu raised his hand, but in reality he didn’t have much internal energy left; he still had to put up a front though. Extracting the limited energy he still had in his Sea of Energy, Lei Yu controlled a current of internal energy the thickness of a thread, which linked to one of his meridians. Even though this last bit of internal energy was thin, it still contained a fearsome amount of power. The internal energy slowly condensed in Lei Yu’s right arm, actually making the lightning brand start to shimmer.

Clasping his left index and middle fingers together, he stroked his right arm from top to bottom. A clearly visible line of internal energy could be seen moving towards the fingers of his right hand. One could see that an attack impossible to resist for Pelagon was about to burst forth.

At this moment, a ghostly shadow started floating down from the air, heading straight for Lei Yu.

“Now’s the time!” Lei Yu shouted, and suddenly turned around, his internal energy at the tipping point before erupting. The instant Lei Yu turned around, a purple energy with the power of lightning and the thickness of a finger flew out, its target being the emerging shadow.

“Whoosh!”

“Puff!”

The shadow did not have its guard up at all, its attacking posture had not even changed, and its body had already been blown away. On its chest, a finger-sized hole allowed one to see all the way through and behind it.

“You…!”

With a “plop,” Lei Yu fell next to Pelagon’s body, completely out of strength. Being able to stay conscious was only owing to the trace of internal energy he had just absorbed.

“Blurgh!” A mouthful of black and red blood sprayed out of the shadow’s mouth. The power of the surprise attack wasn’t actually capable of taking a life, but it had come too suddenly, so it hadn’t had its guard up.

Lei Yu carefully looked at the features of this shadow. The thin face looked as if a skeleton had slapped on a piece of skin. Its already pale look had become even more horrible-looking after Lei Yu’s attack, capable of giving those who laid eyes upon it chills in their heart. Deep inside its eye sockets, was a yellow eyeball with black pupils, that no matter how you looked at, it wasn’t something a human would have. The shape of its pupils looked like a lizard’s or a snake’s.

Lei Yu sucked in a cool breath. Was this still considered the look of a human? It was too scary looking! This person was none other than the master of the labyrinth – Crete.

“You dare to actually hurt me?! I want your life!” Crete ignored his heavy injuries, his body suddenly rushing over to him. Lei Yu went ahead and closed his eyes, as he didn’t have any strength left to resist him. It looked like he wouldn’t be able to fulfill the so called destiny that had been laid out by the Prophet Kalchas and Telephassa.

At this moment, Lei Yu’s entire mind was filled with the images of Ai Er; the way she frowned and smiled, the words and actions she made; the little sweet words of love they whispered into each other’s ears, all of these making Lei Yu unwilling to leave.

“I’m sorry, Ai Er. This time I really have no way of getting out alive.” Lei Yu had given up. It was the first time he had truly given up on living. It wasn’t his choice to give up, but he had truly used up all his internal energy. The Spiritual Bead of Longevity he’d once had was no more, and because of that incident in the Kou country, that green energy had been completely used up as well. Adding the fact that Lei Yu didn’t even have the strength to run away, one could say that if an ordinary person appeared in front of him, one could effortlessly kill him on the spot.

Lei Yu tightened his fists, but found that he didn’t even have the strength to keep doing that. Thus, he awaited the arrival of his death, sprawled on the ground.

“Argh!”

“Crack!”

Two strange sounds echoed, then Lei Yu felt something warm hit his face. Using his last ounce of strength, Lei Yu opened his eyes, and was suddenly completely shocked at what he saw.

Crete’s attack which had been meant for him had actually penetrated deeply into Pelagon’s stomach. The latter was supporting his body with his two hands on the ground, as he protected Lei Yu’s. The blood flowing out onto Lei Yu’s face had come from Pelagon’s stomach. Lei Yu could clearly see that, although he’d been dealt a lethal blow, his face still held a smile. The red that shrouded his eyes had disappeared. It gave Lei Yu the feeling that the Pelagon now was his true self; his dignified face gave one an impression of kindness and friendliness – this was the face a benevolent emperor should have.

Lei Yu looked up, his mind becoming even more shocked. The half squatting Crete had his eyes open wide and round in surprise. His slit-like pupils strangely became round as well, and his thin pale face was continuously trembling. A huge shiny golden axe was deeply embedded into the back of his head. One could say that pretty much the whole axe was inside his skull. Yellow blood had been continuously flowing down his back, and dripping onto the ground.

“Bang!”

They both fell to the ground simultaneously. Pelagon’s huge body fell on top of Lei Yu, robbing him of the ability to breathe and almost killing him.

Crete was more or less as dead as a doornail. Lei Yu could somehow guess why Pelagon had helped him. Perhaps the previous attack had made him recover his senses, or perhaps in his mind, he hadn’t been able to let go of his descendants and subjects.

Lei Yu could clearly detect that Pelagon’s heart was still beating, except it was becoming slower and slower.

“I… I request… that you help me! Help me save… save my… save my people!”

The voice that came out of Pelagon’s mouth was barely audible while he gasped for air, but Lei Yu could still clearly hear everything. With great difficulty, Lei Yu replied, “I will!”

At this point, even though Lei You couldn’t see it, a bright smile was on Pelagon’s mouth. This was probably the happiest moment of his life, because he had finally made a decision that he felt was the right thing. He had saved Lei Yu, and in return, Lei Yu promised to help him save his people; now he could rest assured, and leave this world in peace.

No one would remember the mistake he’d previously made; no one would remember Pelagon in his armor, attacking Greece. However, from this day onwards, Lei Yu would forever remember his actions and he would forever be grateful towards him.

A few minutes later, the labyrinth started shaking, and all the walls started moving all of a sudden. Lei Yu could only stare with wide eyes, unable to move. In this moment, Pelagon’s body crushing Lei Yu, and Crete lying by their side both started becoming illusory under his horrified look . Lei Yu clearly felt the weight on top of him disappear, and the next instant both bodies vanished. The labyrinth then started undergoing astonishing changes.

This was exactly like last time when Lei Yu had finally found the sacred object, and all the walls had closed off the junctions, only leaving one path. This current path was much wider than previously, when Lei Yu hadn’t been the only one here. Clenching his teeth, Lei Yu used all his strength to get off the floor by using the wall as support.

The labyrinth had once again restored its calm, but it had become a single-lane tunnel. Lei Yu looked at the three golden items, but didn’t have the strength to pick them up because he was currently in too much pain.

Noticing that to his right there was some sort of distortion, Lei Yu slowly turned to face it.

“Minotaur Linos!”

Covered in a golden color, a monster appeared in front of Lei Yu. With a bull’s head and two sharp horns, terrifying blood-red eyes, and his body not much different than an ordinary person’s, except for it being much more muscular.

One could see that thick chains were restraining his arms and legs, restricting his movements. The most horrific thing about him were two gleaming sharp hooks which penetrated through his shoulders, and locked onto his shoulder blades. Behind the hooks were chains, extending all the way back until the place where they were attached to the top of the walls.

It looked as if any slight movement would bring him unbearable pain. At this time, Minotaur Linos’s pair of huge bull eyes, strangely, were looking at Lei Yu. It seemed like Lei Yu was more of a monster than him. Being able to defeat Crete and the three guardians, was he a human or a ghost?

“Hey, what are you looking at? I’ve suffered a lot because of you!” Lei Yu had a funny expression on his face. Because, no matter how he looked at Minotaur Linos, this bull was actually quite cute looking, and not as fearsome as depicted on the flag.

“Who are you?” Minotaur Linos asked as he blinked his eyes.

“Shit! Hold up, let me recover a bit before we talk more!” Lei Yu simply closed his eyes and began to replenish his internal energy. HOwever, the spiritual essence around him was too pitiful, so time seemed to pass in slow motion.

After about an hour, Lei Yu finally opened up his eyes and stood up. Although he was unsteady on his feet, the little bit of internal energy inside him still helped him to walk, albeit grudgingly.

This Minotaur Linos was indeed a virtuous person, he actually hadn’t uttered a single word during that hour. He had just stared at Lei Yu until he regained his consciousness.

“You… you’re here to rescue me?”

“No shit, Sherlock!” Lei Yu went up close to Minotaur Linos and looked around. “I’m really doubting whether you’re really the fiendgod Minotaur Linos. No matter how I stare, you don’t look like a monster that likes to devour little boys and girls.”

He gently poked the two chains pierced through his shoulders, and Minotaur Linos cried out in pain. “Who told you I liked devouring little boys and girls?!”

“Then why do you require yearly sacrifices of little boys and girls?” Lei Yu asked.

“That’s what Crete needed, so he could use those little boys and girls to increase his strength. It has nothing to do with me. Since I’ve been locked up here, I haven’t dared to move a single inch! Hey! Stop poking the chains! It hurts a lot!” the big bull-headed fiendgod shouted hysterically. Lei Yu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, he had never expected to suffer through such hardship in order to rescue such a wimpy bull-head.

Walking towards the golden axe, which was shimmering with a golden light, Lei Yu picked it up. Surprised, he actually felt some type of connection with the axe. Merely testing it on a whim, he put the axe back down and wiggled his fingers. The golden axe slightly shook before flying into Lei Yu’s hand. “Oh shit! It’s actually this simple to control!”

Walking up to Minotaur Linos, Lei Yu raised the axe, and a golden beam of light flew out and sliced the chain apart. In actuality, the big bull-head’s power wasn’t weak. It was because of the hooks locking his shoulder bones, which made him unable to utilize his strength. After the heart-wrenching pain had passed, Minotaur Linos stood there like a dummy. He didn’t dare to believe that he had gained his freedom so easily. It was simply too incredible to describe.

“Hey, why aren’t you leaving?” Lei Yu patted his bloody shoulders as he asked this.

“What about you?”

“Me?” Right now, Pelagon’s dying request was replaying in Lei Yu’s mind. Since he had promised him that, he would not go back on his words. Since Lei Yu could freely choose to return in any point of time, then he wasn’t in a rush to put the spring water into the golden bowl. Turning his head and looking back to the area where Minotaur Linos had been locked by chains, a spring water vortex was slowly rotating in the middle of the wall, filled with star-lights which made it look very pretty. “I will go back with you. My guess is that Prophet Kalchas is still waiting outside for us. Let’s go!”