The Young Master in the Shadows

Chapter 491: A side quest that no one has the time for

“So, the girls were saved by that ‘Vic’ guy…” the storm lord who sat on her throne asked Aerith and Rosette who kneeled in front of her throne.

“Yes, your lordship… They seemed to have come from the same world Mother and Victor did! That guy Vic doesn’t want them there, less some find out that he is behind the scenes in many instances!" Aerith explained her findings after interrogating the girls. One of them was so full of hatred that she told her everything. “Many of them still want to return, but they don’t know how!”

“And Victor’s master…”

“It seems that he had struck a deal with Vic to teach them how to kill demons and bring them here…. He doesn’t care about them at all!” Aerith hesitated.  “One of them seemed to have even been employed by Vic to kill him by exploding herself, but she failed!”

“...” the storm lord squinted her eyes. “This means that Vic doesn’t really care about their lives per se… He might even have a way to control them!” she said.

“Oh…”

“He probably has some reason to send them here… intriguing,” she paused. “Did they say how they entered this world?”

“According to them, Victor’s master constructed a strange gate in the safe zone they were hiding in, and after they ‘were thrown’ into it, they found themselves on that hill!”

“I see… Oh… Are they really going to form that ‘Demon hunters’ sect or whatever?”

“Yes… Vic promised them that if they managed to survive for 3 years, he would send them back to their original world! “Aerith nodded, taking out a book and presenting it to the empress. “This book was given to them by the old master. It contains the descriptions and the vanquishing methods of many demons… Some of them are ones I know, while others are completely foreign!” she explained. “There are also some missing ones so I presume whoever wrote this book, didn’t do it for demons in our world!”

“Oh…” the storm lord nodded, noticing the book's very fine drawing method and polished paper. 

“This thing must have been produced in my original world using the printing press I explained a year ago!” Rosette interjected as the storm lord flipped through the book.

“Not bad… I will increase the budget for that press thing, it seems useful,” she said, throwing the book to the side without interest. “What about Victor, did he set the date of departure with his master?”

“Yes, on Thursday at dawn…” Aerith replied. “Now he should be in the market as he said he wanted to ‘check the local goods’ before going back!” 

“Eh… Oh… right…” The storm lord had difficulty controlling her face. Just now she used her ‘Eye of the Storm’ skill to peek at what he was doing, and he was not just checking the local goods, he was literally fucking them… Yeah, that bastard was in a brothel surrounded by 5 curvy women at once…. DAMN PERVERT! “Wasn’t he going to build a gate first with the material he got from me or something?”

“He told me his master had already collected those, but he had no idea how he was going to use them,” Aerith said.

 “Oh… Are you sure you wanna leave me and go with Victor?” the storm lord frowned for a moment before changing the subject.

“Ah…. I am sorry, your lordship… My mother is going and I…” Aerith hesitated looking at her mother who sighed looking back at her.

“It’s ok… I always knew that you would have your own road to follow, but I am very concerned with your demonic blood going berserk…” the storm lord sighed. “Take this…” she said, giving Aerith a sparkling blue pill. “It is called the Storm Control Pill… I couldn’t create it earlier because I was cursed, but now it is possible. It will strengthen your soul and help control your demonic blood… Eat it now so I can guide you!”

“Thank you, your lordship!” Aerith immediately swallowed the pill and moments later felt a great surge of power inside of her. It was so huge that she almost lost control.

“Focus… Let it run its course in your body…” the storm lord said with a hidden glint in her eyes as she watched Aerith consume the ‘Pill’.

“Your lordship… I wanna ask you something…” Rosette, who felt glad that her master was taking care of them, asked.

“About Meril?” the storm lord asked.

“Yes!”

“Her bloodline, in addition to yours, has a combination of a draconic and a demonic bloodline. At first, I suspected that the trace of demonic blood in her might have something to do with your old lover, but after checking on Victor, who should be his son, using the analysis array, it was clear that he was not the source. That idiot only has that lascivious elder dragon bloodline!” the storm lord pondered. “She might have gained that blood because of what you went through while pregnant with her… The demons and all…”

“Ah…. I understand…” Rosette bit her lip.

“Don’t worry about her, she is a tough girl!” the storm lord said. “I need you to keep an eye on that stupid elf lover of hers though… I suspect that Sun Bastard is actively keeping an eye on him! So, make sure to keep track of all his movements once you're back!”

“Understand!” Rosette said. “Your lordship… Once I leave this world, will I have a way to contact you?” she asked.

“I will give you an artifact for that!” the storm lord nodded. “It can only work once in a few months to make a very short call, but it should be sufficient to inform me if anything is wrong!”

“Thank you, your lordship! I…” 

“YOUR LORDSHIP!” Suddenly someone broke in running interrupting Rosette. It was one of the giantesses who served her.

“What’s the problem?” the storm lord asked with a frown, she didn’t like it when others interrupted her scheming.

“It is about the Library’s Vault, you sent for us to fetch one of the books from there earlier, but for some reason, the door won’t budge!”

“Oh…” the storm lord raised one eyebrow. “It had been a long time, and the mechanism might be malfunctioning… Call for the Court’s Artificer, we will go take a look at it later!” 

***

“So, this is the place…” Victor said as he flew back to the hill where he left the girls. Of course, he was not in the brothel, that was Sini disguised as him to fool the storm lord’s eyes. He gave her both a strap on and very specific instructions on what to ask for less she repeated that stupid Alex’s mistake spreading his reputation of being a granny lover.

Anyway, the reason he came here was simple: he wanted to check the three sketchy ‘adventurers’ he met the previous day with Aerith.

Those guys smelled fishy, especially with the three of them being possessed by demons, and he was not going to leave them around to endanger his future base!

Thankfully he set one of their fate threads to as a target and was now following it.

Passing over the hill and making sure the girls were doing fine building a fence around their newly established ‘sect’, he released a few weak demon beasts to attack them before continuing his journey. Those beasts were both to make them more alert and to give them some free experience points.

After that, he continued his journey… He continued flying for 3 hours, crossing into the southern lands but still, there was no trace of the thread's target, contrary to his expectations.

Could it be possible that he was wrong and those guys were just passing there?

Victor, who didn’t really have the time to take care of random stuff, was considering turning back when it happened.

Whoop!!!

The fate thread suddenly moved to point backward toward where he came from.

He paused as he realized what was happening. The target had just teleported.

He immediately turned around and followed the thread.

He was right! Those guys were doing something in the area as 4 miles to the southeast of the place where the newly established sect was, he finally reached a point where the thread was pointing directly downward. 

Looking down as he descended, he found nothing, just a barren hill in the middle of nothing! If it were not for the thread going into the ground, he would have never suspected that someone was doing anything fishy here!

He raised one eyebrow and then began to check around for some cave or entrance to an underground passage, but he found nothing after checking a few square miles. Nothing at all! 

Well, those guys were up to no good, just like him. Choosing to work in the lawless land just outside the border of both the Royal Union and the Silver Empire which belonged to Storm lord, clearly meant they had to be extra careful!

Should he bother with them? DAH! Of course, he should! Demons should never be left to do their own bidding. And those guys usually carried some useful stuff with them…

Thinking for a moment he took an abacus, then focused on the fate thread, making sure it was right beneath him before he walked a few steps and measured that change in its angle.

It was a very rudimentary calculation but after checking the numbers, he was sure his target was 177 feet below him.

This was a little too long for his shadow shift ability, but his Space fracture should be able to pull it off. The problem was that he was not sure what he would find on the other side.

It didn’t matter.

After putting on a dark cloak and a mask, he flicked his finger to summon his faithful 6 half demon servants from their pit in the cauldron. Those guys were the ones he stole from the sun lord. After scamming them to drink his blood and making them his flesh slaves he had to let them go through a few nights of unbearable pain to make them obedient. Thankfully they seemed to have finally understood who their new master was! Especially after he revealed his demonic blood and earned their unwavering ‘terror-based loyalty’!

Last week he used them to pressure Lazarus in the auction as a test, and although they suffered some injuries, they really followed his commands to the letter! He was so moved that gave them names. Demon 1, Demon 2, Demon 3, Demon 4, Demon 5, and finally Demon 6. Very original!

“Go right in, neutralize all danger… You may use lethal force! “He ordered before flicking his finger again, activating his space fracture skill.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…

Space broke right in front of him as if split by a dagger, revealing a dark room where a dwarf who noticed something amiss turned to take a look before a demon king jumped him with a dagger.

PSSSSSSSSSSSSST….

It was quick….

“HEY! … WHAT THE…”

“INTRUDERS…”

“DANGER…”

There were some shouts but as the rest of the demon-kin made their way inside it became silent early.

Victor nodded and crossed the fracture, allowing it to close behind him.

The first thing he noticed was the rancid air inside that dark chamber lit by only a few magical lamps. 

His 6 demon kin were standing in attention, and below their feet on the ground, were the corpses of 5 individuals, who seemed to have been busy doing something.

It took him a moment to make out the Torture table.

On it, what appeared to have been a girl was chained naked with all kinds of cuts, her entire skin seemed to have been peeled away. It was clear they were torturing her to break her soul, as to her side, on a wooden pedestal there was a strange marble, shimmering with black light.

SOUL CONTAINER BEAD, D

Victor sighed and gestured to the Demon kin to step aside as he walked toward the girl. “Are you still alive?” he asked.

“...” she didn’t answer, she just opened her bloodied eyes to look at him. Despite all the damage to her body, it was clear that they didn’t hurt her vitals as they intended to occupy her body.

“What a strong-willed one…” he sighed as he took a healing pill that was set on the side to be used by the demon right after the possession, throwing it in her mouth and then pushing a flask of wine on top of it. She seemed a little reluctant to drink, but she didn’t have a choice.

Moments later, her pain subsided as she began to heal up at a visible rate. It was just that her mind became a little fuzzy.

“Your name?” he asked as the demon-kin grabbed a few storage rings from the corpses and handed them to him.

“...” she didn’t reply, glaring at him suspiciously.

Victor sighed, this girl was strong-willed, even with the wine he needed to scam her.

“What are you doing here with five men… Are you some kind of a prostitute who took on several men at once?"

“NO WAY…” she hissed with a hoarse voice. No sane woman would take that insult. If she had not been tied up, she would have probably kicked Victor’s balls.

“How much do you charge?”

“I told you… I ...ah… Not… A… prostitute…”

“Then who are you?”

“Nyanra…”

“Is that your ‘street’ name?”

“NO… I am Nyanra from the Cara Tribe!” she paused as tears began to fill her eyes. “They attacked the village and killed my parents….” she paused as Victor approached her and put her head gently on his chest. Just randomly trying to get a certain fabled skill.

“Continue…”

“...”

“Sorry… I didn’t know about your past… My condolences… What is your race by the way?” he asked. Now that he held her bloodied head, he noticed the feline-like ears atop her head.

“Catkin!” she said.

“Did those guys take you alone here?” he asked, licking his lips.

“No… There are others here…” she replied. “She kidnapped many girls from my village…”

“Only girls?” he asked. Why was it always only girls?

“You should ask them that!” she spat hatefully. She also wondered why.

“Forget it…  I think I have an idea why…” he sighed; it was probably because the demon souls they had were all females. Matching souls' genders made things easier. It might also be a transgender soul… “Are there any other demons besides those here?” he asked as he inspected the girl. She was level 79 and had the class of BLOOD WARRIOR, it was a kind of class that allowed the player to incorporate the power of his bloodline in his attacks.

 “A few others… No idea how many as I was blindfolded most of the time,”

“How about your kin, how many?”

“About 20…”

“Did they already go through the ‘Operation’?” he asked, pointing to the bead that was still pulsating in an ominous light.

“Some did…” she bit her lips. She clearly knew what this was.

Hearing her, he turned toward his demon-kin. “Take care of them! Keep wary of everyone, there might be demons hiding!” he ordered.

The demon-kin bowed and then dispersed out of the room.

Ignoring the screaming outside, he turned to Nyanra again. Her skin was mostly healed. At the moment, she resembles an 18~19-year-old girl with bronze skin and orange-colored hair. The only difference she had from a normal human being was the slightly sharper nails, dark reflective eyes, and the two cat ears on top of her head. 

He turned and looked down. 

“Hey!” she protested, trying to cover her body to only remember she was still tied up.

“Sorry, just checking if you had a tail!” he said. “Can I touch it?”

“NO! UNTIE ME!” she commanded.

“Your loss…” he said as he casually removed the chains tying her, throwing them in his storage space. Those things were pretty good!

“Is your tribe close to this place?” he asked.

“There is no tribe anymore…” she hissed as she rubbed her hand and her feet, then jumped toward one of the dead demons and began to undress him. She wanted to put on his clothes.

“Then what are your plans for the future?” he asked. 

“Not your fuckinyan business… “

“You want revenge?"

“...” She looked away, but from her expression, it was definitely that.

“Let me guess… Some other tribes helped those guys?”

“...” she didn’t reply.

“How about you start working for me then?” Victor asked. Although he didn’t have the time to take care of stuff here, he didn’t mind planting a seed for the future.

“We Beast Kin never work for Humanyans no matter how noble your bloodline might be!” she spat.

“How did you know I am a human?” Victor asked, feeling slightly taken aback. At the moment he was definitely activating his draconic bloodline, expecting her to grovel at his feet at any moment. Sadly, nothing like that was happening.

“You smell like one, talk like one, and most of all… lack courtesy like one…” she said as she got dressed, tucking her smooth orange tail in the pants. Only a human would request to touch another’s tail!

“Ah…. Good point!” he nodded. He should really brush up on his manners, but it was not his fault that beast kin that was brought in as slaves after the reckoning didn’t mind him touching their tails. But they were not really in a situation where they could object. And he didn't have that fetich. “Still, considering the fact that I saved your life, you know…” he said. “How can you repay me!”

“... Good deeds should be done for their own good…” she said after a pause then turned to the bead while holding a hammer that she grabbed from somewhere.

“Stop… Don’t destroy it!” he yelled as he hurried to stand in her way.

“This thing is evil… “she said angrily.

“I might need it for later…” he said, quickly reaching out for it.

“CARFUL!” she wanted to say, but to her surprise, the just bead vanished a moment before it touched his hand.

“Don’t worry, I will not let that demon possess me… I just need to extract its power and see what I might get…” he said, eyeing his Devour skill cooldown counter. 

“...” She didn’t understand what he meant. “Just be careful…” she said, reading her hammer as she headed to the door.

“Wait…” Victor said.

“What?”

“You owe me for saving you…”

“...” she turned and glared at him. “Do you want me to offer you, my body?” she asked with disgust.

“Is that an option?”

“You humanyans are all the same… No honor…” she spat. “If that is all you want to get off my back then fine…” she said.

“Oh… I didn’t expect you to agree to this readily!"

“We cat folk always pay our debt!”

“Then what if I don’t just want your body!”

“I will never work for you…”

“That is not your choice… Really!” he said, as he picked a coin from his pocket and flipped it up. Activating his newly acquired skills. FATE ARBITRATION. At the same time.

He felt some remorse as he watched a full 1000 order points get deducted, but this test was a must if he wanted to use the skill later while escaping the lords.

In a split second after activating, he was as if he was thrown into a dark space with him and Nyanra on the other side. It was like both of them were at the opposite ends of a scale and couldn’t move at all.

“WHAT… WHERE…” Nyanra was shocked as she wanted to look around, but her head wouldn't move!

“I saved your life, healed you, and saved your body from becoming a plaything for demons… Oh, I also freed you from your chains!” Victor who instinctively knew how to use the skill said, making four strange threads appear between him and Nyanra.

“Whatnya…..”

“Do you have anything to counter my argument?” Victor asked.

“What is this…”

“I am settling my Karma with you… Now, tell me, do you have anything to pay me back with?” he asked. To tell the truth, he didn’t care about making Nyanra pay him, but he thought that he got the chance to try this skill in order to be ready to use it later if needed!

“... You…” for a strange reason, Nyanra got what he was talking about instinctively. “I…”

“You have nothing…”

“... I didn’t break your jaw for wanting to grab my tail…” she argued making a read thread reach from her side to Victor’s

“You couldn’t have done that even if you wanted,” he said. The thread collapsed almost immediately as her argument was debunked.

“You…”

“I demand you become my blood slave! And you should never try to remove my mark or go against my will!” he said. This was the problem with his skill, like with contracts, his demands should be something doable by both sides.

“YOU! AHHH………” Nyanra wanted to resist but she couldn’t as a strange-looking symbol appeared on her forehead.

“...” Victor was not sure what was happening; he could only wait and watch as Nyanra seemed to be struggling against some kind of pain. But knowing how tough she was, he knew it would take a while.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH….” she finally screamed after what seemed like a few minutes. “I CONCEAD!” she yelled.

Woooooooooooooooooosh!

The darkness around them receded immediately.

PING…. the sound of the coin he thought of earlier hitting the ground sounded almost immediately, proof that very little to no time had passed after since activated the skill.

Victor took note of that as he eyed Nyanra who collapsed to the ground with the glowing symbol on her forehead.

Victor stepped toward her, using his fingernail to cut his fingertip before shoving it in her mouth. “Come on… “

She wanted to resist, but the more she did the more the Symbol on her forehead shone with darker red light until finally couldn’t stop herself from sucking on his finger. Moments later Victor got the prompt.

He thought for a moment, then pressed Blood Slave. This pussy would be useful in the future. And he really appreciated her strong will. Very few can withstand demonic torture without their souls shattering.

Through her eyes, he would be able to keep track of this world perfectly after he left!

The moment the skill was activated, the red symbol on her forehead vanished. Still, Victor knew that it was never gone, the moment she tried to get rid of his seal it would return and torture her!

“Now you are mine…” he said as he pulled his finger out of her mouth, wiping her drool on it with her newly acquired cloth.

She just glared at him. She was not sure what this Blood slave meant, but she was sure it wasn’t a good thing at all.

“Let’s go…” he said, turning and heading toward the door.

Nyanra hesitated, but the moment she thought of defining him, it was as if a strange pain began to spread through her body. DAMN IT! She could only follow him. As long as he was not going to force her to do anything bad, she would humor him for now. That’s what she told herself.

The place outside was not big, composed of a long corridor with cells on one of the sides. It led to a stone-carved ladder at the end.

The demon kin were standing there covered in their victim's blood as several decapitated dwarves' bodies lay at their feet.

In the cells to the side, there were only 9 other naked cat girls collapsed on the ground. The rest must have already turned to demons and left this place!

Nyanra quickly opened the cell door and hurried inside, wanting to rush to free her friends, but Victor held her hand. “Wait… “he said, pointing to two of them. “Kill them!” he told his men.

“What…” Nyanra wanted to protest, but moments later, the two collapsed cat-kin Victor pointed at jumped at the same time, wanting to kill Victor. Naturally, they were quickly handled by his Demon-kin.

“You can tell demons apart?” she asked as she bit her lip.

“Yes… feed these to your kin, they should be good in a few hours!” he told Nyanra, giving her some healing pills.

She hesitated.

“Worried about them also becoming my slaves?”

“...” she glared at him.

“You can leave them here to die…” he chuckled.

“...” she hurried and began feeding them the pills one by one.

Victor ignored her as he walked toward the stone ladder, thinking for a moment, he activated his disguise.

“Keep an eye on them…” he told Demon 1 before climbing up.

It was a long climb… A very long one. About 166 steps to be exact.

Finally, he reached what looked like a hatch that he climbed out from to find himself in a small cavern with a strange magical array in the middle. 

As someone who studied those things extensively in his past life, he knew what this was. A teleportation array.

Before going to inspect it, he had to do one thing though… To kill the three demon guards who stood around it. They looked like some kind of wolf-kin and all of them had a level of 90.

Victor casually went around, decapitating them one by one as their friends were oblivious. His disguise skill was super powerful when his enemies were unguarded.

Watching their cold corpses fall to the ground, he checked the room again. He found nothing so he walked toward the array. After inspecting it, he could easily tell how it worked. It needed a key!

He quickly got one from one of the guards. It was a wooden token with a special symbol on it.

He smirked as he changed his shape into one of the cat-kin then entered the array and activated it. 

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Moments later he was standing in the center of what appeared like a huge hall that had a domed roof. Under his feet, there was a familiar array engraved.

“Name?” a clerk dwarf who sat on a desk beside the array asked as three guards eyed him.

“Nyanra?” Victor said while curing inwardly.

“... YOU ARE NOT IN THE BOOK…”

As the dwarf spoke, the three guards jumped Victor, who professionally dodged then it was a tough battle. Their level was similar, but very soon, two of the wolves managed to apprehend the intruder and decapitate him!

They turned to look at the dwarf, but to their surprise, he was already dead…

WHAT…. 

Before they could comprehend that moments ago the one, they killed was their colleague, they were both also decapitated.

Taking their storage rings and shoving them in his storage space. Victor slowly left the hall into a corridor.

The first thing he noticed was the moment he walked out, the door behind him vanished.

It took him a moment to realize that it was some kind of an illusion as his hand was able to go back and forth through it!

Thinking for a moment, he activated his draconic bloodline, allowing his eyes to quickly gain a golden color. Immediately the illusion disappeared.

Turning, he inspected the corridor. It was pretty dim with rooms on both sides.

Thinking for a moment, he began to check them. Most were empty, but a few had demonically possessed poor souls, sleeping within. They were the Nyanra’s kin.

Naturally, as they had no idea he was there, he quickly killed them all before reaching the end of the corridor, making sure to check for any illusions along the way. There was none!

In front of him, there was a stairway!

Climbing up and walking out of a heavily guarded door, he found himself on the ground floor of some kind of a building.

“You are new here?” one of the four guards at the door asked as he noticed Victor push the door and walk out. He couldn’t open it while in disguise after all!

“Yes!”

“Show me your training completion symbol…”

“...” Victor sighed as another battle ensured. The three guards attacked their friends as Victor isolated the area to not attract any attention.

The battle was quick, and the four demons all successfully crossed to the afterlife.

Grabbing the corpses into his storage space he began to explore the building like he belonged there.

The building was full of humans and demi-humans going through their daily work. Most of them were not demonically possessed. Just a few guards here and there.

 It took Victor 15 minutes to finally figure things out.

This place was a shady trading company of some sort, and at the moment he was no longer in the Silver Empire, but a small kingdom in the Royal Union called the Bear Crown. It was in the far south of the continent!

This building was composed of three stories and although it was not on a main street, it was in a well-respected neighborhood in the capital. On its door, it had a large plate with the words. ‘THE HONEST DWARF TRADING COMPANY!’

Thinking for a moment, Victor slowly walked back inside and headed upstairs toward the company's owner's office where he used his sword to relieve the few dwarves who ran the place from their demonically possessed heads.

In another 30 minutes, all of the top brass of the company no longer existed. Thankfully those guys were not too high level, probably intentionally keeping that was not to attract attention!

After stealing everything that could be stolen, he took the shape of the owner to walk out and call all of the employees and tell them to leave today and come tomorrow morning for some important announcement.

Thankfully with the top brass all dead, none of the disgruntled employees argued and everyone left, including the guards. This place traded in a lot of shady stuff, and it was not unusual to send everybody home when something very illegal was happening, or a very important VIP was visiting!

Making sure the building was empty, Victor quickly sealed the front gate then headed back down and teleported back.

“What did you find?” Nyanra asked as soon as he appeared. She and her kin who were looking curiously at him were already in the upper cave with the demon-kin who didn’t let them use the array.

“The demons are running a company on the other side; I already took care of them!” he said thinking for a moment. “Tomorrow morning, take your kin and go there to take care of it!” he said. He had no time for this shitty side adventure. He needed to hurry back to Trilaria.

 “I…”

“In there, there are some documents about why you were targeted, some noble fool wanted cat-kin sex slaves and those demons were going to send him possessed ones…” Victor explained, reaching for the owner’s storage ring and throwing it at her.

“Ah… Whatnya…” She didn’t know how to respond; he was talking too quickly.

“I will be using my skill to see through your eyes and instruct you on what to do… We will make it seem like you brought the company…” he said. “Some demons might appear, but I trust you will manage to kill them in time! In the ring, you will find one of the devices the Sun Temple uses to find demons! Although it is very inaccurate with high-ranking demons, it will help you find weaker ones… Make sure not to expose it...”

“Ah…” she felt lost as she looked at the ring in her hand.

“Now I will have to leave or that stupid lord might suspect that something is wrong… I will talk to you tonight. For now, feel free to use those tokens to cross the gate… And be careful!" he said, throwing Nyanra the teleportation key before taking out his cauldron and setting it on the floor gesturing for the demon-kin to go in.

They quickly vanished in front of the shocked cat-kin who didn’t understand who this sketchy guy was and what he was talking about.

“See you later…” he said, turning and walking toward one of the hall’s walls. He reached through it and he passed right through.

He took a deep breath and took a step forward finding himself in what seemed like the bottom of a narrow well.

Using the protruding stones on the side to climb up, he finally managed to reach what looked like a two-foot wide opening covered with sand that didn’t fall in due to some kind of strange energy barrier. 

He had to take a deep breath and push upwards to break through it. 3 feet up he reached the surface, an area a mile away from the Demon hunting sect!