“It has already been three hours, how long is this passage?” Tian Xue started to get worried as she still wasn’t able to spot the end yet. Cheng Yu also had no idea, but continuing on like this wasn’t a feasible solution. So, he took out his Jewel Cauldron.
“I think we should enter the Mountain River Diagram. This is way too slow!” After Cheng Yu spoke, he entered the Mountain River Diagram with Tian Xue. After that, he propelled the Jewel Cauldron to continue forward. Although the Jewel Cauldron wasn’t a flying-type artifact, it’s speed wasn’t any slower than any of those flying artifacts. Furthermore, its defense was very high. Therefore, even if Cheng Yu were to come across those demonic beasts again, there was no longer a need for him to exit and deal with them, but could just bore his way through.
“Tian Xing, how are you feeling?” When they entered the Mountain River Diagram, Tian Xing had just woken up. Tian Xue went over to learn about his status. After all, he was struck heavily by a Golden Core Realm beast without any proper defense. With just his Qi armor alone, it basically didn’t have much of an effect in resisting the attack.
“Senior Sister can be at ease. It’s not much of a problem, just that some of my internal organs have been heavily injured. I just need some days to recuperate and I will be fine,” Tian Xing’s complexion was still pale as he consoled Tian Xue with a smile. Tian Xing was an orphan. When he was young, he was brought to Tianshan Sect. He had been brought up by Tian Xue’s mother. He grew up with Tian Xue. Tian Xue was older than Tian Xing by a few years and had always treated him as her brother while Tian Xing had always treated Tian Xue as his sister.
“Senior Brother, we wouldn’t be trapped here forever, right?” Tian Xing looked at the situation outside. They were advancing, but they still couldn’t see any end to this passage, making it seem like an endless road.
“Not sure. Just like what your Senior Sister said. Perhaps, this passage is not a dead-end. If this passage truly leads to the treasury, it shouldn’t be that long,” Cheng Yu could only try to comfort everyone. What he wanted to do now was to understand why the Art of Derivation from All Living Things would appear here. What exactly was hidden here? This was something Cheng Yu was baffled by.
“But if it isn’t so?”
“Then we can only continue forward,” Cheng Yu voiced out his helplessness in the situation.
“Hmph! It’s all your fault. If you had listened to me and went to search for the god water, why would such a thing happen? Now we can’t even obtain treasure and we even got trapped here!” Tian Xue sat on the grass after giving Cheng Yu a kick gloomily. Until now, Tian Xue had been worrying about her mother’s injury. She hoped to locate the god water as soon as possible. The emergence of Cheng Yu allowed her to see hope, but he kept on wanting to search for treasure. So, she had no other choice and could only suppress her anxiety. Now that they had been trapped, she got even more anxious. The small hope was extinguished.
“Che! Still dare to blame me. If it wasn’t you acting like an intelligent woman to trick me, why would I charge in so casually? If you want to find someone to blame, blame yourself. Acting like a barbaric woman suits you more. In the future, don’t act so intellectual in front of him. Facts have shown that you are just a barbaric woman,” Cheng Yu nipped a piece of grass as he laid down on the grass with his eyes closed. Both his hands were placed behind his head as he voiced out his dissapointment.
“What barbaric woman! Who’s a barbaric woman! You better be clear with your words!” Tian Xue heard the evaluation Cheng Yu gave her and she immediately got angry as she kicked him a few more times.
“I am not blind. Tian Xing, what do you think?” Cheng Yu shut his eyes and didn’t move, allowing Tian Xue to vent her anger on him.
“Tian Xing!” Tian Xue glared at Tian Xing.
“Er…this…I feel…actually…Senior Brother…haha…what you said is extremely correct!” Tian Xing shrunk his neck back. All of a sudden, he laughed.
“Tian Xing, you are asking for a beating!” Tian Xue shouted before pouncing towards Tian Xing.
“I’m wounded!” Just when Tian Xue about to give him a slap, Tian Xing shut his eyes and shouted.
“Hmph! I’m letting you off today. Wait until you have recovered, I will teach you a lesson,” Tian Xue withdrew her hand and glared at Tian Xing furiously. Tian Xing was suffering from some grave injuries so she didn’t wish to worsen his injuries.
“Senior Sister, if it’s like that, my injuries will never recover,” Tian Xing spoke bitterly.
“Who asked you to make nonsensical remark by agreeing with him?” Tian Xing glanced at the unmoving Cheng Yu and commented.
“Then why aren’t you beating Senior Brother? You can’t bear to, right?” Tian Xing chuckled.
“Who says I am not going to beat him? I am going to teach him a lesson now,” Tian Xue walked to Cheng Yu and started giving him a few kicks.
“You are asking for it,” Just when Tian Xue was about to kick Cheng Yu, Cheng Yu opened his eyes and grasped Tian Xue’s ankle. He followed up by kicking Tian Xue’s other leg.
“Ah!” Both of Tian Xue legs went face up to the sky and she fell down onto Cheng Yu. Cheng Yu rolled away causing Tian Xue to land on the grass patch.
“Cheng Yu, you’re dead!” Tian Xue crawled up with her chest in pain. Immediately, she got angry.
“It’s clearly you who tried to attack me. You can’t blame me!” Cheng Yu sat up, looking at Tian Xue’s chest as he laughed. He was thinking, for this woman to fall straight down onto the floor, he was pitying the two rabbits on her chest. Unfortunately, the timing wasn’t right. Otherwise, he would have certainly went forward to give them a massage.
“I’ll kill you!” Tian Xue crawled up, pouncing at Cheng Yu. Cheng Yu hugged onto the pouncing Tian Xue, causing both of them to start rolling on the ground. Tian Xing widened his eyes, before shifting his eyes away, ”Sinful, sinful. I saw nothing.”
“Senior Brother! Look! The exit!” Tian Xing turned his head around and spotted the exit. He shouted out excitedly. It was at this moment Tian Xue noticed that she had been lying on top of Cheng Yu. With both of their faces near each other, they were almost sticking towards each other. She was startled as she quickly climbed up while blushing. Cheng Yu paid no heed to it. He had experienced situations like this numerous times. He spotted a bright light at the end of the passage, and if it wasn’t a mistake, that should be the exit. The Jewel Cauldron increased it’s speed, as they looked at the bright light getting bigger and bigger. The trio finally felt at ease. Treading a never ending passage had truly caused them to feel stifled.
Very quickly, an exit appeared before them and the Jewel Cauldron charged in. The trio leaped out from the Jewel Cauldron impatiently. But when they saw how familiar everything was before them, the trio was dumbstruck. It was exactly the side palace they were at before entering the passage!
“This…isn’t this the palace hall we were at?” Tian Xing voiced out his confusion. The decoration, layout, everything was exactly the same as that palace hall they were at previously.
“Could it be another palace hall that has a resemblance? In such a big palace, it’s not much of a big deal to have a similar one,” Tian Xue also felt that they had arrived at the previous palace hall but such a thing was unlikely to happen. So, she was somewhat unconvinced.
“It should be the previous palace hall,” Cheng Yu surveyed their surroundings, especially that shut stone door. That was the door he came in from.
“But we clearly went into the middle door. Now, it’s opened again and why did we came out from this door?” Tian Xing pointed to the door at the back and said.
“Isn’t it just nice? One for entrance, one for exit. A total of nine doors. This means that only one is the real passage,” Tian Xue analyzed.
“…” Cheng Yu didn’t speak but looked at Tian Xue.
“Wha…what. Am I not right? There’s such a possibility!” Tian Xue saw that Cheng Yu’s eyes were filled with doubts. But when she recalled the ambiguousness she had with Cheng Yu just now, her face had unknowingly turned red.
“Senior Brother, what Senior Sister said seems quite reasonable. One for entrance, one for exit, by calculations, there will be a remaining door,” Tian Xing felt that Tian Xue’s analysis seemed to be quite justifiable. So, he voiced out his approvement. Cheng Yu started to contemplate. He didn’t speak but went forward to study the stone doors.
“Oi! What I said is certainly right. At least what I said previously wasn’t wrong either. These passages aren’t a dead-end,” Seeing how Cheng Yu was not replying to them and was studying the stone doors carefully, Tian Xue spoke from behind Cheng Yu.
“Which door do you think we should go to?” Cheng Yu was truly unable to tell any differences in any of these doors. Perhaps, what Tian Xue said was right. So, he wanted to know her opinion.
“In any case, it’s either they are connected or the right passage. So, I feel that choosing any one of them will give the same result. If we were wrong, we will just return here. At most, we will just be wasting a few more hours. We have already entered once. So, there’s another seven passages. At most, we will go the wrong path three more times and the fourth one will absolutely be the right one,” Tian Xue looked at the faintly lit passages. Who would know which one was the correct one? So, she spoke irresponsibly.
“Alright. I will trust you once more,” Cheng Yu felt that although this method was quite stupid, it was currently the best solution. At least the current him was still unable to resolve the mystery behind the nine doors. Cheng Yu looked at the other seven doors before choosing one on the left side and walking in. Similar to the previous one, when the three of them entered the passage, the entrance they came in from shut itself automatically.
“Everyone enter the Mountain River Diagram!” Cheng Yu took out his Jewel Cauldron once again. Once again, the trio hid themselves inside the Mountain River Diagram. With experience, Cheng Yu no longer had anymore concerns, increasing the cauldron speed to its maximum, they rushed through the passage.
“Our luck shouldn’t be that bad to have to finish treading all the eight passages before locating the true passage, right?” Sitting on the grass, Tian Xing spoke.
“No good words are to be expected from a scoundrel! Can’t you say something nicer? Perhaps, this might be the correct passage?” Tian Xue replied ill-manneredly.
“Perhaps, it might not be the correct one?” Cheng Yu looked the other direction, giving a nonchalant reply. Cheng Yu felt that it shouldn’t be that simple. There might be the possibility of these nine passages to be all be fake, but he wasn’t able to find any other method. So, he could only do it the long and hard way.
“You are just spouting rubbish. If it’s all fake, it will mean that there’s nothing here. Since there’s nothing here, why would the palace master use so much effort to make such a weird passage?” Tian Xue was clearly insisting her viewpoint was right. Who would be so bored and make nine different passages inside a palace hall? Wouldn’t it be quite pointless? In any case, no matter which door they went through, they would keep on returning to the side palace hall.
An hour later, a few demonic beasts appeared. However, it wasn’t a leopard, but monkeys. Seeing the emergence of the Jewel Cauldron, the monkeys blocked their path forward. Cheng Yu didn’t have the mood to fight with them. So, he just rammed his way through.
