The Paladin in the Abyss

Lancelot’s heart sank. There were too many prisoners around, and the other party had not revealed any killing intent before speaking, so his Spirit Perception sensed nothing.

His companions, seasoned adventurers, immediately turned their heads towards the source of the voice the moment it sounded. They had expected to see an ugly old crone dressed in crude, dirty, tattered clothing adorned with decorations made from bones, intestines, and dead animals—a witch. Rumor had it that these witches were masters of Magic, wielding countless dark arts beyond ordinary people’s imagination, fully capable of explaining the various eerie phenomena in the dungeon. Moreover, according to what everyone saw in the Prophecy Magic, it was indeed the witch who had stolen old Bruto’s soul and brought it to this dreadful realm.

However, what appeared before them was an extremely beautiful woman with delicate features, hair as glossy as silk, and a black evening gown as noble as that of a queen, adorned with decorations made of gold and jewels. Yet her skin exhibited an eerie grayish-white hue, with green nails, lips, hair, and particularly enchanting emerald eyes...

The moment Lancelot saw those eyes, he felt as if he had been struck by a Warhammer. This was not in the sense of feeling a strong pleasure at the sight of something beautiful, but rather literally as if he had been hit by a Warhammer—possibly wielded by a giant. He felt a curse begin to invade his body, and a pinprickling pain surfaced at his fingertips and toes. At the same time, he noticed that the woman’s hair looked glossy for a reason: what looked like hair was actually numerous slender snakes, their bodies covered with fine scales, with triangular snakeheads at the ends, opening their venomous mouths towards the crowd.

"Don’t look into the lady’s eyes!" came Barrend’s panicked voice from behind, "She is a Medusa!"

It was too late. Looking towards the enemy was an instinctive, subconscious reaction—almost always the right action in any situation. However, Medusa was an enemy one should never look directly at. Legend had it that merely making eye contact with her could curse any living being with petrification, and not even Medusa herself was exempt, which is why they removed all mirrors from their lairs and destroyed any reflective surfaces.

Yet the Medusa before them didn’t seem as powerful as legends suggested. Though everyone was affected by the curse of petrification, they did not immediately turn to stone. It was as if some power within them was resisting, giving them a chance to avert their gaze. In fact, most of those present felt an indescribable sense of familiarity as if they had been affected by a very similar effect before.

Lancelot, with the strongest Divine Sense, was the first to recall the source of this familiarity—their encounter with the true form of Cang Ye, the Mother of Demons, hidden behind a shroud in the Demon Capital Gaomendikolia when they looked into a Magic Mirror. Although he couldn’t remember at all what he had seen, his body remembered the feeling, and unlike the last time, he wasn’t powerless to react.

Towering stone-like golems stood beside the Medusa called ’Madam’, who took heavy steps forward and raised their fists to charge at the crowd. Lancelot forced his focus away from the swiftly approaching enemy, channeled the True Yuan in his Dantian through every Meridian in his body, and then, with a low growl, caused all his Meridians to constrict simultaneously and "squeeze" the True Yuan into his flesh.

The sensation was far from comfortable; it was as if Lancelot had been pierced simultaneously by numerous spears. The excruciating pain almost knocked him unconscious. That, however, was but a fleeting moment. The pain quickly subsided, and with it, the onset of petrification, restoring his full control over his body.