Reincarnation Of The Strongest Spirit Master

Soon enough, everyone could see something shimmering in silver lights, sending off rays from the ground. Seeing the early signs of these rays made everyone know what William guessed was true, and that pumped up their wills, and made them dig faster and work harder.

William thought deeply about the options of places that the gate could be at. He knew the masters looked for a long time for it, and yet they failed to sniff a thing about it. That meant it was somewhere they didn't get to, and it had to be close by and accessible by the statues here.

It went without saying that the wolf statue knew how to get access to this gate quickly. And that made William guess it was buried underneath the ground, the only place they didn't look at.

The rays kept increasing in number, but they felt like they were too far away. William watched others work for hours, and all they progressed aside from digging deeper, was more rays shining, nothing else.

"Something is off…" for a moment there, he thought he cracked the puzzle and found the solution. Yet as the masters kept digging without finding anything, he couldn't help but feel this was weird.

And when he looked at the wolf statue, he could swear he saw a smug smile on its rocky fate. That statue was very calm, indicating they were doing something wrong.

"Stop," as he knew something was off after five more hours without achieving anything, he had to intervene, "Get out from there, all of you, get out now!"

His words landed, and everyone looked in the king's direction. "You heard the man, do as he said," the king confirmed the order while giving William a long glance.

It was as if he was asking him: What are you doing? 

The king was excited like others about having these rays, but like William, they started to feel something was off hours later. It was unexpected to not find a single lead towards the gate. And so when William intervened, they knew he had an idea.

"Bring me someone with a space element," William waited for the master's digging to get out before he turned to the king, "better to be someone in the pinnacle or high stage…"

"I can do it," one of the high-end masters volunteered, "what do you want me to do?"

"Go down there, inspect if you can sense any space fluctuations down below," William pointed towards the hole the masters dug, and waited for the master to do his part.

Any gate would work using a space element, and that was enough to create fluctuations. If there were none, it meant there was no gate here. And that would just make them return to zero square.

The only issue he and others had in mind was these rays. They looked like the ones released by any high levelled gate. Having these just added more to the confusion, and didn't solve anything.

"There is nothing here," and as William feared, that master said after a few minutes of contemplation and testing, "there isn't a single speck of space fluctuations here."

"Look around then," but he knew the gate was definitely here. If it wasn't in the hole, it must be elsewhere, "it's here, just sniff any space fluctuations to find it."

William didn't wait for the master to do what he was told, turned to the king, and added, "About the incoming enemies…"

"Don't worry, our masters already gained enough rest, recuperated, and healed. We built preliminary defences, and placed tons of traps and arrays around. Even if they came in huge numbers, even if they led a strong force, we can defend here until we find that gate…"

"Found it!" Just before the king could continue speaking, the master who was currently in midair, was in the middle of his jump, as he was about to move from the deep hole to the surface.

Yet it seemed he felt something when he was in midair, something that didn't add up at all. But what he said next explained it all.

"Found what?" even William didn't get what that master meant. And yet the answer had to wait until that master returned to the ground, jumped off again, and this time he went all the way to the ceiling.

"Yes, yes, it's here, I'm sure of it," he muttered these words, ones that didn't explain anything. This time, no one tried to ask or question him, as they waited for him to get down and explain things, "I found it! Found it! It's not down there, it's up there!"

Like crazy he kept shouting, pointing up and down, confusing everyone. "Calm down, Joshua, tell us what you found in plain simple words," Sloth interfered, asking one of his old friends, "explain to us as if explaining to a six years old kid."

"Isn't it obvious?" The master named Joshua looked around as if he was feeling crazy or something, "fine… it's that simple, you asked me to find the gate, and I found it up there, at the ceiling, not at the ground."

As he got the answer to his question by the weird silence and looks from others, he explained. The moment he did, everyone realised what was going on.

"So… You made it hide up there, while the way to activate it lies at the ground? Brilliant idea indeed," William nodded, praising such a good plan and scheme. 

Enemies would look for the gate in one direction, and then they'd get confused. If they looked up there, then they'd find nothing. According to Joshua, only the areas touched by the rays of light coming from the bottom had space fluctuations. As for others, they had nothing.

It meant the key to unraveling the presence of this gate was through digging the ground, releasing all the rays, and then starting working on the ceiling. It was double the effort and work, but this was a very intelligent idea, and he'd not restrict praise for his enemies over such great moves.