This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!

Chapter 73: Chapter 073 I’m Getting Serious Now

The piercing wind pulled Chen Ke back to reality; whatever the stone gate concealed, if Si’s consortium had gone there in person, it must have held value.

Furthermore, Brother Discouraged had said that in order to access the next area, they must “repeat the cycle” to open the gate. Could the team from the consortium be searching for a crucial item needed to repeat this cycle?

Standing here musing was useless, so he turned back, retracing his steps along the stone corridor to the hall, and headed down another staircase they hadn’t taken before.

This staircase led down to an even larger hall.

This hall, likely built into the deeper part of the mountain, was much more spacious than the one above, extending into the mountain with a long corridor ending in a vast door.

There were no other paths from the hall; it seemed the only way to get to lower levels of the cathedral was through the door in the central hall, blocked by an air wall.

On the outer walls were rows of windows that should have contained colorful stained glass, but now only the hollow frames remained, through which cold wind howled, filling the room with ash-laden air.

The floor of the hall was covered in charred debris, with the remains of a chandelier piled in the middle of the corridor. The two rows of ornamental silver knight armor placed along the walls were also scorched black.

It was difficult to discern what this hall’s prior purpose had been.

Black streaks, likely remnants of a carpet, stretched from the corner of the wall to the door deep in the hall; undoubtedly, the priests had once walked down a splendid carpet towards that very door.

Chen Ke wandered the corridor attentively, eyeing the charred knight armor on either side—in many horror films, these weren’t just decorations.

Suddenly, the hollow armor began to move, chasing after the female lead with a flurry of slashes—a clichéd scene, perhaps, but it easily stirred up the audience’s emotions.

This clichéd scene did not unfold before Chen Ke; as he approached the tall door, the armors remained silent. He looked back, feeling he had been overly cautious.

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He examined the door in front of him, a set of wooden double doors painted in an orange-yellow hue, standing about 2 meters tall with immaculate brass floral handles that appeared untouched, even fingerprint-free, like an unpeeled new smartphone.

The door before him gave Chen Ke a very eerie feeling, he sensed something immensely abnormal about it, but couldn’t pinpoint why he felt so. Only when he looked around did he notice where this odd sense of disparity came from.

The door was too new!

Within Chen Ke’s view, everything appeared ancient and fire-scorched, except for the door which looked as if it had just been bought from IKEA and not yet installed.

Chen Ke placed his hands on the door handle, the icy touch transferring to his palms.

“+2 hours”

“+2 hours”

“Lifespan has reached its limit”

…

“Damn it…”

Chen Ke’s muscles tensed, and in an instant, he loosened his grip on the handle and executed two consecutive rolls backward.

Just as he moved away from the door, a loud “duang” sounded as a hefty double-bladed axe tore through the door, sending splinters flying.

Chen Ke turned around to see a heavy knight stepping through the broken door with slow, deliberate steps.

The knight was roughly 2 meters tall, clad in heavy brass-colored infantry armor, which from a distance, looked like a ball.

In his left hand, he held an exaggeratedly large gray square tower shield, which was so large that it completely covered him, even though the knight himself was very large. A blue badge was painted on the shield—Chen Ke guessed it was the emblem of the Fan Hede Kingdom’s Knight Order.

And the double-edged axe in the knight’s right hand also seemed unreal, the size of its blades almost comparable to a table… Chen Ke absolutely did not want to be hit by such a thing.

Glancing at the Fan Hede longsword in his hands, Chen Ke couldn’t help but think about retreating, but he clearly knew that he was not incapable of defeating this knight.

In past battles, Chen Ke had developed a method to judge the strength of enemies based on the lifespan added or subtracted from his life countdown.

Using his own lifespan as a unit, if a monster added about one-tenth of the unit time to his lifespan, then it meant that he could handle it…

For example, if he currently had 10 hours of lifespan, then he could handle a monster that added about 1 hour of life to him.

Moreover, Chen Ke had also noticed that this added lifespan value was variable, supposedly determined by the equipment, Holy Relics, and various skills he currently possessed.

Of course, it had a minimum limit, which represented the basic threat level of the enemy.

This seemingly invincible knight had only added 2 hours to his lifespan, possibly because Chen Ke had just learned the Transcendent Skill of “Spiritual Energy Burst,” allowing him to fight against it.

Chen Ke gripped the Van Hede straight sword in his hand and carefully observed the heavy knight’s movements.

Having used a shield before, Chen Ke knew well that a shield protected its bearer, but it was also cumbersome for the bearer. If the force hitting the shield was strong enough, it could make them lose balance—and that was precisely the opening Chen Ke needed.

He had a way to make the knight lose his balance.

Chen Ke cautiously moved toward the heavy knight, preparing to dodge the glaringly bright axe. He needed to get as close as possible to make Spiritual Energy Burst more effective.

Spending 3 hours of his lifespan to use this skill should be enough to break open the shield.

The heavy knight, with heavy footsteps, advanced towards Chen Ke, most of his body hidden behind the shield, but his right hand wielding the axe made Chen Ke hesitant to act rashly.

Chen Ke understood very well that a single strike from the opponent could kill him.

It was like a psychological wrestling match, a test of who had more patience. Both maintained a delicate distance, circling each other, just waiting for the other to make a move.

Finally, the knight made the first move, letting the axe thud to the ground and dragging the blade towards Chen Ke with an upward swipe. Sparks flew as the blade grazed the stone floor and assaulted Chen Ke.

Chen Ke read the attack, slid to the right, a schadenfreude expression on his face, his left hand reaching for the knight’s shield, mimicking a snapping gesture.

“Bang!”

A muffled sound rang out, Chen Ke’s vision went dark as if he had run into a wall at high speed. A powerful inertia threw him several steps backwards, a warm flow gushing from his nose.

It was blood.

The heavy knight stepped back slightly, pulling the shield close again. After dodging the axe attack, Chen Ke had been hit by a shield strike.

The nosebleed soon stopped, and Chen Ke wiped the blood on his fingers onto his clothes, only to feel a chill in his stomach. He remembered he was wearing a Holy Relic…

“I’m getting serious now, buddy,” Chen Ke said to himself, assuming a combat stance.

It seemed in the Great Void, even if the opponents were revenants, one couldn’t truly treat them just like the zombies in zombie movies.