The Mage of Primordial Chaos

Chapter 512 – Waterfalls And Chalices

"So… any ideas?" I asked the girls, folding my arms.

"Just… bust through," Yu An Xue said defiantly, clenching her fist in determination.

"Um… I doubt that's going to work," Lan Xiao Su said awkwardly, scratching her cheek. "After all… this is Aquira's temple. And she favors gentleness and kindness, does she not?"

"Yeppers," Aerim said, exiting out of my soul from nowhere and hovering beside me in her gas form. "She's the most 'god'-like one of us all. Benevolent and kind, Aquira is. Everyone is on her good side until they aren't~"

"… Right. So, breaking through is out of the question," I muttered with a sigh. "That leaves unlocking this door the proper way. But the question is… how?"

"Well… the symbols on this door consist of three blue tear-shaped gemstones and three white rhombus-shaped ones," Lan Xiao Su analyzed. "The chalice behind us right here has one of those blue tear-shaped gemstones embedded within its pedestal."

"In other words… the two are connected, somehow," Mei Gui muttered, deep in thought. "I agree with Lan Xiao Su, Master."

I nodded. "Yeah… it can't be a coincidence. Let's check it out."

Circling back around to the front of the chalice, I pressed my finger on the blue tear-shaped gemstone on the stone pedestal. Suddenly, it lit up as if activated, but…

… Nothing else particularly noteworthy happened.

"Huh…" I scratched my hair, at a loss for what to do next. "Nothing happened…?"

"No," Lan Xiao Su interjected, pointing at the waterfall. "Look—behind it, you can see one of the blue gemstones lit up as well."

Indeed, she was right. Behind the waterfall, on the massive stone double doors, one of the six gemstones had lit up in correspondence with the one on the chalice. It was faint and barely visible due to the thick waterfall, but it was there.

"So… I'm assuming when all six gemstones are lit up, the doors will open?" I arched an eyebrow.

"Yes, that seems to be the case," Lan Xiao Su replied. "Which means… there should be other chalices around here somewhere. We should explore."

I nodded. "Xiao Su, you're with me. Mei Gui, go with An Xue. We'll take the left side, and you two can take the right to save time."

"Understood, Master."

"Got it!"

With that, we parted ways, splitting our group of four into tag teams of two. Lan Xiao Su and I headed down the left path from the chalice and turned right so we headed deeper into the temple, while Mei Gui and An Xue went down the right path and turned left to do the same.

What we found waiting for us was an elevator of some sort. There was an option to go the left too through a set of doors as well, but the elevator seemed more interesting.

As Xiao Su and I approached, the doors slid open on their own—but it was strange. Where was this elevator supposed to take us if the doors were facing this way? Down, perhaps?

But upon closer inspection, I noticed that there were doors on the other end as well. That meant this elevator would take us up, towards the ledge above us. Once again, Sky Magic was banned here. Aquira wanted us to do this puzzle properly, and I had no intention of cheating it.

As such, after confirming that Mei Gui and An Xue were also met with the same thing, Xiao Su and I entered the elevator. The doors rolled shut, and as expected, we felt ourselves elevating. It wasn't a very long trip, and nor was the distance traveled. The doors soon rolled open once more—but this time, on the other end instead of the ones we entered from.

Xiao Su and I stepped out, and found another chalice directly ahead of us. This one, however, had a white rhombus-shaped gemstone in it rather than the blue one on the previous one.

Without hesitation, I pressed on this one as well—and as expected, the gem lit up white. Following the same logic as before, a white gemstone on those double doors should've similarly done the same.

That was two done. After checking in with Mei Gui, however, that number quickly rose to three as they similarly had activated another white gemstone.

Now, only three remained.

To our left was a door, and after nodding at each other, Xiao Su and I entered—it was unlocked. What greeted us, however… was a broken bridge.

On the other end was another chalice, with another blue gemstone embedded within its pedestal. But between where we were and the chalice's location, there was no bridge. Down below was a waterfall that led into a deep black abyss, and since we couldn't simply fly across… well, needless to say, we were screwed.

"Hm… this doesn't make sense," Lan Xiao Su murmured. "Why make a door lead here only to an empty bridge…?"

"Wait. Look over there," I said, pointing towards the chalice. "There's a staircase leading up to it… and it connects to the door… from down below?"

"Huh… looks like we'll need to backtrack and access it from there, then."

I nodded, and the two of us retraced our steps, going back down the elevator and heading for the doors beside it down below. But…

"… It's locked?"

"Then how are we supposed to get to that chalice…" I muttered, scratching my head.

"Wait," Lan Xiao Su said, carefully analyzing the lock on the door. "This looks like it can be opened from the other side—which means there has to be a way across to that chalice, somewhere."

That's true, but…

With a sigh, we headed back up the elevator, confused and perplexed. This time, however, when I tried going back into that room with the broken bridge, Xiao Su didn't follow. Figuring that she was thinking about something, I headed in on my own and looked for any clues of an alternative way across.

Unfortunately, I found nothing—no upwards route, no secret lever to activate a bridge, no nothing. We were completely stuc-

Suddenly, a waterfall opened up on the ceiling and poured down between the platform we were on and the platform the other chalice was on. Magically, rather than falling directly into the void below, it hit a seemingly invisible surface in mid-air and formed… a bridge.

"Xiao Su!" I called out. "What did you do?"

From behind me, Xiao Su entered through the doors triumphantly. With a smile, she replied.

"I turned off the white gemstone chalice. I think I've got an idea on how this operates."

I blinked, impressed. "How?"

"In essence, the blue gemstones activate water mechanisms, and the white gemstones disable them. In this case, this bridge was already here, but the white gemstone we activated on that chalice deactivated it. The only problem is…"

"… I doubt we'll both be able to get across using this," I muttered, and Xiao Su nodded.

"Correct. One of us has to stay behind and activate the other chalice again."

"That's fine," I said. "You can take care of that. I'll go across this… bridge."

I didn't want Xiao Su to go across this in case it wasn't stable, so I'll leave the other chalice up to her. She nodded and didn't argue, although worry lined her face.

Taking a deep breath, I prepared myself. Even though I didn't think Aquira was like Aerim and would prank me, letting me fall to my death, this was still not easy. The water bridge looked pretty much transparent, and it was like walking on glass but far more frightening.

Slowly, I stepped one foot out. As soon as my boot contacted the water, I felt myself sink into it a little, and my eyes widened as I clenched my fists.

"… Okay. It'll be fine," I told myself, gulping. After making sure my foothold was stable, I took another step.

Once again, my foot sank into the water a little, but it held firm. It certainly wasn't an easy feeling—I felt like if I budged one inch, I would collapse and fall through this thin layer of water.

Soon, however, I finally made it across the bridge. The relief I felt when I finally reached the other end of the bridge was indescribable. Lan Xiao Su flashed me a thumbs up from the other end, and I headed for the chalice in front of me before activating the blue tear-shaped gemstone embedded in its pedestal.

Instantly, the waterfall in the ceiling opened up again, and this time, it didn't stop. The waterfall served as a curtain and blockade, preventing anyone else from going across. The pressure was enough that if any other weight fell on the bridge, they would fall straight through.

"I'll see you down below!" Lan Xiao Su hollered, and I flashed her an 'ok' hand gesture before heading down the stairs.

Just as she had stated, the doors were able to be opened from this side. I emerged just in time to see Lan Xiao Su emerge from the elevators, and I smiled.

"And that's that. Now… how's Mei Gui and An Xue doing?"