Chapter 1104 - 894: Labyrinth (2)

Each time it flew a certain distance, the surface of the gray mist would occasionally ripple with an extremely subtle circle, expanding outwards from a certain point into the depths of the mist layer, before returning to silence.

The direction of those ripples seemed to follow a certain pattern, but the bird’s field of vision was too narrow to see the bigger picture.

After spending an hour conducting careful research and investigation, Duke confirmed that it was impossible to traverse the top of the high walls.

He withdrew his eye of exploration and turned to look around at the boundless gray-white stone corridor.

Since he couldn’t break through upwards, he could only move under these high walls.

He walked to the nearest stone wall, pressing his hand against the rough gray-white stone slab.

The stone wall was icy to the touch, and the ancient patterns on its surface trembled subtly beneath his palm, each trembling echoing faintly with the rhythm of the distant surging gray mist.

The maze was not dead; it was breathing.

Duke pressed his palm against the gray-white stone slab underfoot, allowing his Spiritual Power to seep into the surface of the stone.

He attempted, as he had before, to merge into the earth. Earth Elemental Form was one of his most relied upon techniques in countless battles and stealth operations, allowing him to move freely through rock layers like a swimming fish.

But this time, as soon as his Spiritual Power had seeped less than half an inch into the slab, it encountered an extremely dense barrier of rules.

The ancient patterns, which had been slowly circulating on the surface of the slab, all lit up instantly when his Spiritual Power touched them, weaving gold light along the patterns into a dense network that bounced his Spiritual Power and the bodily transformation he was attempting back.

The repulsion was not violent, but extremely firm, like a locked door, not leaving any gap for penetration.

Duke frowned slightly, stood up, and walked to the stone wall, pressing his palm against the rough gray-white wall surface again.

The same repulsion reappeared, and the pale golden light network inside the stone wall emerged from the cracks deep within when his palm touched them, like some ancient immune system repelling a foreign invader.

He tried again at another stone wall, with the same result.

He quickly walked along the corridor to the intersection, testing the ground, the walls, and even squatted down to touch the tiny gaps where the stone slabs joined with his fingers.

Every inch of gray-white stone lit up with pale golden pattern light the instant his Spiritual Power touched it, uniformly resisting his integration.

Every stone slab, every stone wall in the maze was thoroughly permeated by these ancient rules.

He could not merge with the ground or penetrate the walls; he could no longer freely stealth through the earth in Earth Elemental Form.

Duke stood up, reassessing the stone corridor extending straight into the depths of the gray mist before him.

Being unable to burrow or penetrate walls meant everyone could only progress along fixed pathways.

Intersections would become natural ambush points, dead ends would become hopeless situations.

Standing at the center of the intersection, Duke withdrew the hand previously pressed against the wall.

Earth Elemental Form was suppressed, but it wasn’t his only means of concealment.

He took a deep breath, his body silently dispersing, transforming from flesh and blood into a nearly imperceptible breeze.

The perception in Wind Elemental Form was completely different from Earth Elemental Form, lacking the earth’s weight and stability, replaced by extreme lightness and mobility. His consciousness scattered within each waft of air, allowing him to glide soundlessly along the gray-white stone wall surface, pass through the gaps between ancient stone pillars at intersections, and flow freely within the maze passageways.

Next, he drew a breath of the World Tree from the Light God Court, covering the surface of his Wind Elemental body like a thin layer of light-green gauze, further suppressing his already faint Wind Elemental fluctuations to the point of completely blending with the environment.

After completing all this, he silently floated forward along the main passage’s stone wall.

The passage ahead branched into an intersection; he did not rush to turn but first circled high along the stone wall, ensuring there were no ambushes nearby, before continuing.

After turning past the intersection, the sight before him suddenly changed.

This stone corridor was wider than the previous ones, with denser ancient patterns on the walls, pale golden threads circulated along the cracks.

And on the right side high wall at the end of this corridor, a flower was quietly blooming.

It was a silver flower, only the size of a fist, with crescent-shaped petals layered outward, each petal edge exuding an extremely faint silver-white glow, as if coated in moonlight.

Below the flower, there were no leaves, only a thin dark gray stem emerged from the stone wall cracks, its surface covered in fine dark patterns, which circulated a faint dark sheen under the petal’s silver glow.

The Holy Silver Moon Flower, a top material for Dark Attribute Potion, would naturally grow only in environments where Shadow Energy was rich enough to erode reality.

This flower had long been extinct in the Wizard Plane, found only in the oldest Alchemy Manuscripts in the Six-Ring Tower Library.

Duke did not immediately approach; he suspended silently high up on the wall, extending his perception to carefully sweep the shadowed areas below the high wall.

At the base of the high wall lay several chunks of granite detached from above, their gaps appeared deep at first glance, resembling an ordinary pile of fallen rocks.

But scattered around those chunks were a few shreds of snake skin, with subtle traces of Shadow Energy remaining on their edges, apparently shed only recently.

Following the direction of the snake skin, he continued probing upward, soon capturing a curled energy signal deep within the stone wall cracks beside the Holy Silver Moon Flower.

The intensity of that signal remained steadily at Tier Three High Stage, heartbeat extremely slow, breathing almost imperceptible, but its temperature was fractionally higher than the surrounding stone walls.

The giant snake had hidden itself well, its scales nearly perfectly matched the gray-white stone wall, curled within the shadow of the crack, with only occasional slow breaths slightly disturbing the Shadow Energy at the crack’s edges.

It was guarding the flower; the Shadow Energy of the Holy Silver Moon Flower had a natural allure to Dark Attribute creatures. The giant snake most likely considered the flower the core of its territory, long entrenched beside it to absorb the diffuse Shadow Energy, evolving its scales to a camouflage nearly identical to the stone wall.

Silently sliding along the high wall, Duke moved to the side where the shadow of the stone pillar was densest, then quietly approached.

His Wind Elemental body hardly caused any disturbance within the dense Shadow Energy, and the World Tree’s breath fully integrated his presence into the maze’s own energy background.

The giant snake remained curled within the crack, breathing steadily, heartbeat slow, completely unaware of something now a mere arm’s length from the wall outside.

Maintaining Wind Elemental Form, Duke hovered silently just above the giant snake, then soundlessly condensed his right hand from the Wind Elemental form.

Four rule lights interwove and twisted at his fingertips, forming an extremely thin, delicate four-color light blade.

The transition between Wind Elemental and human form was nearly seamless, and at the moment the light blade completed its cohesion, his wrist gave a subtle shake, sending the four-color light blade as silent lightning slashing down toward the giant snake’s neck.

In the fleeting instant before the light blade touched the scales, the giant snake’s eyelids snapped open, its dark yellow vertical pupils reflecting the incoming four-color radiance, filled with pure astonishment and confusion.

It didn’t even have time to make any attack or evade.

The light blade sliced through scales, muscle, and bone, slanting through the neck, and severing the huge snake head along with a small section of neck.

The snake head flipped off the high wall and fell, crashing with a dull thud among the fallen stone pile below.