Yan Wei looked at the ascending stairway before him.
He didn’t immediately step onto it, instead pondering two possibilities.
The first was that the Man in Black Robe had expended too much energy earlier and was in a hurry to retreat to this secret place, thinking that no players could discover it and thus not bothering to close the hidden door.
The second possibility was that the Man in Black Robe was even more cunning than Yan Wei had anticipated, expecting that someone might be following him and deliberately leaving the door ajar. The Man in Black Robe wasn’t afraid of players discovering this place because perhaps at the top of the stairway, death awaited those who dared to venture further.
Or perhaps…
Both possibilities were true.
They had stumbled upon this hidden fourth floor, saving several days of searching, and the Man in Black Robe had taken advantage of the situation, intending to trap anyone who found this place.
Since the Man in Black Robe might have anticipated this, Yan Wei decided not to proceed cautiously. He retracted his Perception Burst skill and said, “I want to go in.”
His expression remained unchanged, but his gaze deepened. “It’s worth a try. If we give up now, the next time we want to enter, we’ll either have to devise another plan to lure the Man in Black Robe into opening the door for us, or spend time solving the puzzle of how to open it. Both options require time and carry significant risks. We still have zero points. The time we’ve invested these past two days was to take an alternative path, but if we give up now…”
Yan Wei always had a clear assessment of his own abilities.
Even if he could deduce and speculate, it was always based on a certain level of certainty, and there was always a probability involved. He wasn’t a god; he couldn’t succeed every time in every aspect.
He said, “If we give up now, we’ll have to abandon our useless conscience—join the score-grabbing. Because I don’t have a high certainty that leaving now will allow us to continue on this path of breaking the situation first.”
Lin Zhen, surprisingly, spoke up with a rare moment of practicality: “But grabbing scores also has risks, right? What we want isn’t just to be in the top few, but to be first—let me think, it seems like we either have to kill Xu Miaomiao’s entire team or Xue Wan’s entire team? The unorganized group isn’t enough…”
“So I want to go in. The risk of entering is actually similar to the risk of leaving now, but the reward—”
Yan Mingguang said calmly, “Is high.”
This meant all three of them wanted to go in.
Yan Wei still had Lin Zhen walk at the back, ready to attack from a distance and guard against any sudden danger from behind. Yan Mingguang walked closely in front of Yan Wei. They moved as quietly as possible, cautiously stepping through the door.
Behind the door was the stairway.
There were no lights inside. Looking towards the end of the stairway, only darkness could be seen. It was as if there was no path ahead, or as if the darkness stretched endlessly.
Yan Wei held the Moon Wheel in one hand, following closely behind Yan Mingguang as they ascended the stairs, his mind pondering the layout of the castle.
The castle was circular, with the outermost walkways forming a pattern. The routes from the first to the fourth floor, when overlapped, formed the shape of a crow ready to take flight from a bird’s-eye view. The location of this hidden fourth floor, separated from the Stargazing Platform, seemed to be on the crow’s back.
What was the back?
Regardless of what the back represented, the back… the back…
“Yan Mingguang,” Yan Wei spoke up, “this is the crow’s back. Whether it’s a person or a crow, the back is a blind spot. A blind spot means—”
Yan Mingguang clearly understood: “A weakness.”
Lin Zhen from behind: “What does that mean? Does this place represent a weakness?”
“It might represent it, or it might contain it.” Yan Wei stepped onto the next stair, his brow slightly furrowed. “The layout of this castle, I feel like it symbolizes or represents something. We can’t use this castle or do anything through it, so the only purpose the layout serves is to provide us with information.”
“The crow could symbolize the castle’s owner, the coins are the Items we need to consume to destroy the Puppets, everything has symbolic meaning. So the crow’s back, the blind spot… symbolizes a weakness?”
Or perhaps it was a method to deal with the crow—the castle’s owner?
Yan Wei thought, his attention fully focused on analyzing the layout. He took a step forward but didn’t firmly place his foot on the stair. The stairs in the castle were taller than usual, oppressive and grim. Each step required a deliberate, large stride to ascend. In his distraction, Yan Wei suddenly missed a step.
He didn’t react in time, slipping backward in the dim light.
“—Careful!”
Before Yan Mingguang’s words even finished, he had already reached out and grabbed Yan Wei.
It seemed that in his urgency, Yan Mingguang had pulled too hard, not only saving Yan Wei but also yanking him up an entire step. Due to the momentum, Yan Wei collided with Yan Mingguang, momentarily stunned before quickly regaining his footing and stepping back, still holding the Moon Wheel.
“I wasn’t paying attention just now,” he said.
“Mn.”
Lin Zhen urged from behind: “Aren’t we going? This stairway isn’t that high, it’s just a bit dark ahead. You’re not afraid of the dark, are you?”
Yan Wei: “Let’s go.”
Thinking about this now was pointless; they should first explore this hidden fourth floor. He focused his attention on his surroundings, his Perception spreading out, but it felt like the path ahead was winding and his Perception couldn’t penetrate deeply. This sensation felt familiar, but the light was too dim to see clearly, and Yan Wei couldn’t pinpoint it immediately.
The anticipated danger hadn’t arrived yet.
Could it be that the Man in Black Robe was truly in too much of a hurry and forgot to close the door?
Yan Wei felt a sense of unease, that deep, eerie sensation clinging to every inch of his skin, sending shivers down his spine. He kept one hand in his pocket, his fingertips brushing against his Swallow Coin, unconsciously clenching his fists. In the cold air, the warmth from the hand not in his coat pocket became more noticeable. Yan Wei instinctively moved his fingers, rubbing against this warmth, only then realizing what it was.
When Yan Mingguang had pulled him back earlier, he hadn’t let go.
And Yan Wei hadn’t noticed either, just holding hands with this person as they walked up the stairs, one in front of the other.
They reached the top of the stairs. Yan Mingguang paused slightly, one hand still holding Yan Wei’s, the other gripping the Long Whip tightly as he cautiously stepped forward. After ensuring there was no danger, Yan Mingguang turned slightly, the hand holding Yan Wei’s giving a tug, pulling him up from the step below.
Yan Wei’s gaze flickered, and he said in a low voice, “Thank you.”
Then he withdrew his hand, shoving both hands into his pockets as he steadied himself and began to look around.
Lin Zhen, who had been at the back, now stepped up as well. Seeing Yan Mingguang pull Yan Wei up earlier, he didn’t think much of it. When he reached the top step, he also extended his hand towards Yan Mingguang.
Yan Mingguang, however, just glanced at him, then turned away, his entire demeanor exuding an aura of “keep your distance.”
The “stranger”: “?”
Lin Zhen, confused, retracted his hand and had to forcefully step up to the fourth floor himself.
Yan Wei had already taken a few steps forward. Yan Mingguang kept a close eye on him, and as soon as Yan Wei moved forward, Yan Mingguang followed closely by his side.
“This place…” Yan Wei raised his hand, pointing vaguely towards the darkness ahead. “My Perception can’t penetrate it, like there’s a wall, but occasionally, some Perception can seep through, winding and twisting back, as if there’s a path. This feeling…”
Lin Zhen, who had entered full of anticipation for action, now found nothing but silence and boredom. He yawned and said, “Winding and twisting? Isn’t this a maze? The first day of the instance nearly drove me crazy.”
Yan Wei’s eyes lit up: “Yes, it’s a maze. I was overthinking earlier, imagining traps, but it’s not that complicated. This familiar sensation of Perception being unable to extend but winding and twisting is just like the Jungle Maze we encountered when we first entered!”
This was another entrance.
Yan Wei stepped forward, his fingertips touching a wall that felt like tree leaves—it was identical to the walls of the Jungle Maze.
Without needing Yan Wei to say anything, Yan Mingguang stepped forward, decisively cutting his own arm. Blood dripped in the dim light, falling onto the wall before them. Yan Wei held the Moon Wheel up to the spot, carefully observing, but saw that after the blood dripped, the leaves merely trembled slightly, the blood flowing over them without any sign of corrosion.
Their blood could carve a path through the Jungle Maze outside, but it couldn’t corrode this small maze hidden on the fourth floor of the castle.
“A maze… another maze. The crow’s back carries a maze. What is hidden inside this small maze?”
Yan Wei’s brow twitched, and he said, “No wonder. The Man in Black Robe wasn’t too exhausted to close the hidden door, nor did he deliberately leave it open to attract followers. He was confident. The hidden door was just the first obstacle. Even if someone entered, there was still this maze as a deeper layer of protection, so he didn’t need to worry too much about the hidden door.”
There were no traps, nor was it negligence.
It was simply because there was a miniature Jungle Maze inside, so it didn’t matter if someone entered.
Yan Wei tried stepping forward, entering the only available path, and indeed felt the same sensation as in the Jungle Maze—his Perception couldn’t extend, and he had no idea what the path ahead would be like.
The moment he stepped in, the voice of Lou echoed in the minds of Yan Wei and his companions.
[Congratulations to the players for advancing the main storyline of the instance, discovering the Jungle Maze within the castle, and advancing the progress of breaking the instance. Reward: …]
Following this was a series of data rewards.
The instant boost in data made Yan Wei clearly feel a sudden increase in his Body Index and Perception. Clearly, this progress wasn’t ordinary. This single boost even directly elevated their team’s strength.
“Shall we go in?” Yan Mingguang asked him.
Yan Wei nodded but said, “We’ll go in, but before that, Lin Zhen, go handle something.”
Lin Zhen was startled: “Me?”
“Yes, you.”
About ten minutes later, Lin Zhen gently closed the hidden door from the stairway side, carrying something as he quickly ascended the stairs. Then, he placed the item in front of the maze and said to Yan Wei, “It’s done.”
Yan Wei nodded.
Yan Mingguang didn’t say much, stepping forward first towards the dark entrance of the small Jungle Maze. He seemed to reach out towards Yan Wei but retracted his hand before making contact.
This action was hard to notice in the dim light, and Yan Wei didn’t realize it, simply following Yan Mingguang into the maze.
As soon as they fully entered the maze, just a few steps in and not yet at the first fork, Yan Wei, using the light from the Moon Wheel, noticed what appeared to be words written in dark, aged blood on the maze wall ahead.
“What’s that?” Lin Zhen asked.
Yan Wei’s gaze sharpened, staring ahead as he read aloud, word by word: “—He was a man of unknown birth.”
