The God Virus

By now, the Sphinx was obviously cursing Virus internally as its expression contorted to many incomprehensible shapes.

"THIS ONE IS THE HARDEST SO FAR SINCE THE ANSWER DEFINITELY NEEDS TO CONCUR WITH THE LETTER 'O' IN 'ECHO' AND THE LETTER 'N' IN 'VOLCANO' SINCE YOU ALREADY FILLED THEM AS SUCH. SO, TELL ME THIS…"

"WHAT TIME IS SPELLED THE SAME FORWARDS AND BACKWARD?"

"Noon." As laid-back as ever, Virus answered, obliging the monster to fill the row with his intended letters.

ROOOOAAAR!

Listening to the Sphinx roaring as if it had just experienced the worst loss of its life only made Virus feel like he was watching an amusing live drama in front of him. In fact, he kind of missed having a cup of tea right now.

What was supposed to initially amuse and entertain the Sphinx had now turned into a game that entertained Virus instead.

"T-THAT I-IS CORRECT! YOU MAY ENTER THE THIRD TREASURY!"

Following that, four new doors materialized in front of the three.

"See you soon guys." Smiling from ear to ear, Virus winked at the veiled lady and Henna before launching into one of the doors.

On the other side, having long become dumbfounded by the entire situation in front of them, the two women could only whisper to one another.

"He's not just good, is he?"

"Ah, no, hot face is more like a grandmaster at solving riddles, definitely! Smart, handsome, talented, and strong! Ah, I want him even more now!"

Ignoring the strange parts of her sentence, Henna confirmed, "Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He doesn't even think before responding."

"Well, let's go into a treasure room for now."

After entering the third treasury, the scene Virus perceived was tens of thousands of small wooden cases that had been stored over the panels installed all around the room.

"What's inside the cases?" 

Gradually strolling beside a panel, Virus curiously grabbed a random case before opening it. The instant he opened it, however, a sharp aroma of various plants hit his nose.

'Hmm, a pill?' Closing the case, Virus picked another one, however, that one also contained a pill.

'So those are special cases that can maintain the quality of pills no matter how much time passes. But what's the information about these pills?'

Thus, Virus tried discovering any description or detail that might have been left on the panel or the case itself.

Alas, even after searching for nearly fifteen minutes, he could guarantee that there were indeed no details provided regarding this or any other pill for that matter. The only information was the name of the pills which were scrawled only on some of the wooden cases alone while the rest didn't even have their names carved.

"Nothing about their grades, effects, or whatnot, eh?" Although there wasn't even the most basic of information about any of them, Virus at least started checking the names of the pills that's been made available.

However, it didn't take long for him to notice that he was unknowledgeable about most of the names.

'Guess this is the bad thing about being in the ancient times of the past, most things are bound to be different from the future.'

Proceeding to another corner, Virus was just about to pass by a panel, when a particular name scrawled on one of the cases garnered his undivided attention.

"Absolute Liberation Leveling." Reading that title out loud, Virus' eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets while his mind jumped to a specific name mentioned within his database.

In his past world of the future, in the Cultivation Multiverse of Qi, there was a record of an ancient pill the recipe of which had long gone extinct.

But, according to that information found and mentioned, a single one of those pills was said to be able to unconditionally raise the level of a cultivator in the Liberation stage by one entire level!

It didn't matter if one took it in the first level of Liberation or at the fifth, or even whether the synthesis rate was at once percent or ninety percent, the point was whenever a cultivator consumed an Absolute Liberation Leveling, the cultivator would immediately be elevated to one percent synthesis of the following level in the most perfect manner possible!

In fact, not only was there a record of a pill like Absolute Liberation Leveling which mainly functioned in the Liberation stage, it was mentioned that there had been other pills like that in the ancient times of the past. Albeit, even the credibility of such information was questioned.

However, even though the Absolute Liberation Leveling pill appeared to be utterly omnipotent, it still had a major flaw that could not be ignored.

That flaw was the fact that it was just a one-time consumable item, meaning once it was taken, the body would immediately grow resistant to it as it would no longer be effective.

'Well, one time is enough for me anyway.' Picking the small wooden case, Virus didn't want to linger around as he turned around and left.

Just as he exited the gate, however, he discovered the bloody face of Henna who was anxiously waiting for something or someone.

The moment she spotted Virus leaving the gate, she ran towards Virus and started crying while muttering barely comprehensible words, "V-Vee… Miss, H-Hel… S-She…"

Swiftly grabbing her by the shoulders, a bad premonition crept into Virus' heart as he said gravely. "Calm down first. Then tell me what happened."

…

Several minutes ago, after watching Virus enter a random treasure room and holding a brief conversation with Henna, the veiled lady urged her, "Well, let's go into a treasure room for now, shall we?"

"Alright, miss." Casually picking a gate, the two launched inside.

Following quickly, just as brilliant smiles had occupied their faces after seeing the thousands of pill cases all over the room, the two suddenly spotted a group of familiar people within their treasury of pills.

"Huh?" With that, the two were instantly alerted as they cautiously locked their eyes at the countenances of the three unexpected intruders inside their treasure room. Subsequently, the veiled woman's eyes went wide open at once!

That was because two of the three individuals were respectively the third barbarian prince Ra and his loyal lackey Knightgruella!

"W-what are you two doing here?" Slightly perturbed by their existence there, while clenching her fists, the cheeky woman questioned.

In the meantime, as the trio had just come to be aware of the existence of Henna and the veiled woman, bewildered, they also glared in their direction in a stupor. Alas, their puzzlement only remained until Ra started laughing like a madman.

"Hahahaha, would you look at that? The supreme ugly came to me all by herself! Hahaha, and here I was considering searching around to find you."

"Grrrr?" Besides Ra and Knightgruella, the third individual who wasn't a human started growling in question. It was in fact a monstrous beast called the Purple-Maned Ancient Lion.

Amongst the group of representatives Virus had chanced upon prior to entering the Invisible Ancient Fortress World, this Purple-Maned Ancient Lion was the creature that had been standing beside Hadelia the entire time.. Apparently, this lion was the true representative of the monstrous beasts.