Chapter 383 - Origin

Xiao Lou thought that the two roads chosen by the two teams, the gods realm path and the hell realm path would lead to the depths of the labyrinth and perhaps the only exit of the entire labyrinth. As a result, Ye Qi and the others only walked through two rooms with mechanisms and actually returned to the original entrance point?

In order to confirm it, Xiao Lou used the voice headset to start a voice call. “Senior Gui, are you sure that you are back at the original point? Perhaps it is another room arranged exactly like the six paths of reincarnation?”

In secret rooms, similar scenes often appeared which made people mistakenly think they had gone back to the place they had just been. In fact, the rooms were just copied which confused people. In order to avoid this situation, Xiao Lou had left a mark in the original room of the six paths of reincarnation.

Gui Yuanzhang was confident. “It is the origin. An arrow mark was placed at the door when we entered the gods realm path before and this room has that arrow.”

Xiao Lou, “……”

That’s right. Old labyrinth players knew to put an arrow mark at any fork in the road to indicate the path they have taken. Since Teacher Gui saw the mark he placed, it meant they had returned to the room from before.

In this way, Ye Qi’s group took a trip to the gods’ realm with no gains and actually returned to the starting point of the six realms of reincarnation? Was the gods’ realm path circular?

Gui Yuanzhang said, “It seems that the gods’ realm doesn’t contain the exit. We are planning to choose another door to go in and see. Professor Xiao, do you have any suggestions? The remaining ones are the human realm, the demi-god realm, the animal realm and the hungry ghosts realm. Which one should we enter?”

Xiao Lou’s heart was a bit confused. This labyrinth was more difficult than any labyrinth he had encountered before. They had been in here for more than an hour and he had no idea about the exit or even the structure of the labyrinth.

After hearing the discussion of the team members, Old Mo took out his own map. The hell realm path already showed signs of curving. Perhaps it was also a big circle. Once they passed through the 18 hells, they might return to the origin…

Xiao Lou thought about it and suggested, “Try the human realm?”

Gui Yuanzhang agreed. “I think so too. Then we will enter the door of the human realm. Contact me if there is a situation.”

Xiao Lou warned. “Watch out for hunters and always be alert.”

Xiao Lou hung up the call and looked at his teammates. “We have only reached the fifth level of our hell realm path. We should continue. This path might not necessarily be correct but I’m not willing to give up halfway.”

The others agreed with Xiao Lou’s opinion. Though this path might not necessarily be the right one, but… it doesn’t have to be the wrong one either?

If they walked back halfway and this was the correct exit, wouldn’t they be filled with regret? If they chose a path then they should finish walking it. At the very least, they could completely eliminate it from the possibilities.

***

The six people continued walking forward and saw the sixth level, the hell of copper pillars.

It was said that people who deliberately set fires during their lifetime or set a fire for reasons such as destroying evidence, revenge etc. that caused innocent people to be implicated, would be sent to the hell of copper pillars. Little ghosts would strip off their clothes and make them hug a copper pillar that was one meter in diameter and two meters in height while naked. Charcoal was burned in the cylinder and air was constantly blown with a fan. The copper pillar would soon become hot and the person holding the copper pillar would naturally be burned alive.

In the room in front of them, countless copper pillars appeared.

All of them were glowing red from the fire contained inside and were constantly rotating. The clicking sound of metal mechanisms moving could be heard.

The distance between the copper pillars was only 30 cm. If they weren’t careful and touched a copper pillar while walking through, their skin would definitely be burned instantly or even completely burned to charcoal.

For people like Yu Hanjiang and Lu Jiuchuan who were over 185 cm and had sturdy figures, it was hard for them to pass through the 30 cm gap without guaranteeing that their bodies wouldn’t touch the copper pillars. In addition, the arrangement of the copper pillars was chaotic and covered the entire room. They had to go sideways for the first step and in the second step, they might hit the next copper pillar head onk2026;

The six people stood at the entrance to the hell of copper pillars and Xiao Lou couldn’t help having a headache. How could they survive? These copper pillars could burn people to death. The stand-alone games he played in university weren’t so difficult to pass. Today, he gained a new insight.

Lu Jiuchuan raised his head. “The copper pillars are very high. Can we perhaps fly over from the top?”

Tang Ci said, “I’ll have the drone fly up and see.”

A miniature drone moved under Tang Ci’s control and flew to the top of a copper pillar, only to find that the copper pillars were directly attached to the ground below and the ceiling above. With no possibility to go beneath or above the copper pillars, the only way left was to pass from the middle.

The only problem was that the gap between each pillar was too small. Perhaps a skinny person could pass sideways without any problems but if a fat person encountered this, they would definitely be stuck in the middle of two copper pillars.

They were struggling to figure out what to do when Liu Qiao suddenly opened her mouth. “I have a way that might work.”

Xiao Lou glanced at the little girl who poked her head out of Old Mo’s pocket. “Xiao Liu, say it.”

Liu Qiao explained, “Professor Xiao, do you remember the fairy tale card I drew before? The Ugly Duckling card. I can transform up to 10 people into ugly ducklings or turn myself into a white swan. After transforming, you can’t be attacked for 30 minutes but your actions will become awkward. I think the average duckling is smaller than a human and they should be able to pass through a gap of 30 cm?”

Everyone, “……”

Lu Jiuchuan wondered helplessly, “What type of strange cards have you drawn?”

Liu Qiao didn’t know how to answer this question. In any case, she had the strange fairy tale cards, Xiao Lou had various ancient characters while Uncle Mo had building material and a comfortable sofa. Group Leader Yu’s weapons were normal but they couldn’t be used in this labyrinth.

Xiao Lou thought of Liu Qiao’s Ugly Duckling card and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “This can work. You can change 10 at a time right? First, turn Mr Tang’s pathfinder ant into a duck and see if it can get through.”

Liu Qiao nodded. “Yes, I haven’t seen the size of the duck this card transforms you into yet.”

Tang Ci called out a mechanical ant.

Liu Qiao might be in Old Mo’s pocket but she could still control her cards smoothly. She found the Ugly Duckling card and used the skill to change the mechanical ant into a cute duckling. The size was only 10 cm wide and 20 cm tall.

Tang Ci controlled it to move forward…

The 30 cm gap was narrow for adults but for ducklings…

It was spacious!

Xiao Lou’s heart was overjoyed. “Yes, let’s do it like this.”

Liu Qiao gave a reminder. “Mr Tang, after Brother Jiu becomes a duckling, can you ride him?” After all, Tang Ci’s legs still weren’t working even if he was the size of a thumb. Someone had to take him with them or he could only crawl over slowly.

Lu Jiuchuan smiled. “No problem. I will be a ride for Xiao Tang.”

Thus, the card in Liu Qiao’s hand flashed and she turned Xiao Lou, Yu Hanjiang, Old Mo and Lu Jiuchuan into four ducklings. The four ducklings lined up neatly in the hell of copper pillars. This scene looked like it came from a cartoon.

Lu Jiuchuan, “Quack quack quack.”

Tang Ci wondered, “What did you say?”

Lu Jiuchuan, “Quack quack quack quack.”

Xiao Lou, “Quack quack.”

Yu Hanjiang, “Quack, quack, quack.”

Liu Qiao and Tang Ci, “……”

As a human, they couldn’t understand the words of a duck at all! Nevertheless, Liu Qiao probably guessed Lu Jiuchuan’s meaning. It should be that he wanted Tang Ci to climb onto his back. Therefore, Liu Qiao helped Tang Ci sit on the last duckling (Lu Jiuchuan).

Lu Jiuchuan was relieved.

Liu Qiao walked in front and led the way. After all, she was only the size of a thumb and the distance of 30 cm was a wide road for her.

The four ugly ducklings, Yu Hanjiang, Xiao Lou, Old Mo and Lu Jiuchuan followed Liu Qiao. They might move awkwardly as ugly ducklings but no matter how clumsy, they could still get out of this hell of copper pillars within 30 minutes.

Xiao Lou felt that their team’s style was becoming increasingly stranger.

In the mirror maze, Old Mo splashed paint the entire way. In the hell of steaming, Mr Tang asked everyone to wear mech armor. Now Liu Qiao turned them into ugly ducklings to pass through the hell of copper pillars…

It wasn’t known who it was but one duckling accidentally brushed against a copper pillar and the duck feathers on his body were almost charred. He let out an urgent quacking sound. In the end, the six people took 15 minutes to pass through the hell of copper pillars without any danger.

Liu Qiao sighed with relief and withdrew the card. Everyone returned to human form.

Lu Jiuchuan asked, “Xiao Tang, I was talking to you just now. Why didn’t you react?”

Tang Ci was expressionless. “I only heard quack, quack, quack.”

Xiao Lou’s group of four, “……”

So Tang Ci and Liu Qiao only heard quacking while the four of them talked all the way?

Tang Ci wondered, “What did you say?”

Lu Jiuchuan smiled dryly. “I asked you what it felt like to ride a duckling. Cough, forget… let’s forget about today.”

It was better to forget the black history of quacking together as soon as possible.

Xiao Lou smiled and touched his nose. “The next level should be the hell of the mountain of knives.”

Those who killed people would be sent to the hell of the mountain of knives after death. They were stripped of their clothes and forced to climb the mountain of knives naked.

The six people continued to move forward and saw the seventh floor, the hell of the mountain of knives. The wide room was densely packed with sharp knives. This was an underground labyrinth after all and they couldn’t be made to climb a mountain. The hell of the mountain of knives was changed to become a large pit filled with knives and there was also a constant rain of knives from the ceiling.

The light footwork card couldn’t be used to fly past. If they used the knives as a landing point then they would definitely get cuts all over their body.

This level was much more difficult than the previous hell of scissors. Xiao Lou stood at the door and observed for a long time. He was unable to find any regularity in the knives falling. As a result, Old Mo proposed an idea. “I can use my marble floor to create a path over the knife pit. Everyone just needs to avoid the knives falling from above.”

The more people, the more strength there was. Everyone’s cards were really being put to the best use today.

Old Mo’s marble brick could be used to pave the ground or build upright walls. It was a very versatile construction card.

Moreover, this card had 100 pieces of marble to use at will. The marble could cover the length of the knife pit and the quality was excellent. The bricks would form a solid path which wouldn’t break from the falling knives, meaning the group didn’t need to worry about suddenly falling into the pit of knives below the path.

Old Mo saw that his teammates had no opinions and took out the marble to quickly lay them down.

The knife pit was originally densely packed with sharp knives. The knives that made people feel creepy were quickly covered by the marble floor tiles. In front of everyone, a flat marble path was formed.

There were still the knives falling from the ceiling. Tang Ci suggested, “I will use my drones to block the knives. Everyone, go quickly.”

He normally only summoned one or two drones for flight tests. Now he summoned a large number of drones that flew together in the air and formed a metal, protective umbrella that blocked all the knives falling from the ceiling.

Under the protection of the drones, the group quickly walked across the marble floor.

Xiao Lou couldn’t help feeling that the seemingly difficult hell of the mountain of knives had actually become the simplest level. This showed how important the rational use of cards was. If Ye Qi and the others were here, Teacher Gui’s brush could make them float in the air or Ye Qi’s teleportation card would allow them to pass this level smoothly. There were actually many ways to do it and it was up to everyone to use their brains.

Proofreader: Fictional Reality & Paranoid Kitten