Chapter 433: The Strong One Who Penetrated the Illusory Realm

The only difference between the second and first floors of the Choice Tower was that all dimensions of the room on the second floor were twice those of the first floor. Based on Ye Feng’s estimation, the dimensions of the first floor were roughly two meters each, while on the second floor, they increased to four meters. Although it was still not very spacious, it was undoubtedly much better than the cramped space of the first floor. The walls, ceiling, and floor around were pitch black, and there was no light source in the room, making it completely dark—yet the oppressive feeling was much less. Moreover, having already passed the first floor, Ye Feng understood the rules of the game well, so he felt more at ease mentally.

A room with dimensions of four meters in each direction had a total surface area of 96 square meters, which was a significant increase from the previous 20-something square meters, meaning the difficulty rose sharply. On the 20-something square meter area, Ye Feng had previously calculated that there were over 200,000 different paths, with only one being correct. In other words, if unlucky, one would have to try all those paths to find the right one. But now, with the area increased so much, Ye Feng roughly estimated that, if the distance between the two sides of the maze remained unchanged, there would be over 900,000 paths. This meant that if he wasn’t lucky enough, he would need to simulate over 900,000 times in his mind to find the correct path.

However, his mental calculation speed was tens of thousands of times faster than that of an ordinary human on Earth, as his mental strength was now on par with that of the powerful beings in the divine realm. It wasn’t that Ye Feng had become tens of thousands of times smarter; rather, the stronger one’s mental power, the more information they could process in the same amount of time—a matter of quantitative change.

This was also why, on the first floor, he had completed calculating 30,000 paths in just the time it took to drink a cup of tea—15 minutes at most. Calculating this way, he could process 34 paths per second on average. But in reality, if one expanded one second by 10,000 times, that would represent his information processing speed as an ordinary human. Under these circumstances, if Ye Feng were an ordinary human, it would take him about five minutes to calculate one path on average. In a maze, one might reach a dead end in just a few seconds or take over ten minutes—so an average of about five minutes per path was considered a normal speed.

If Ye Feng’s mental strength was strong enough to allow him to work without rest, and at the same rate as in the first layer, it would take about seven and a half hours to complete all 900,000 routes. Of course, this was the time required in the worst-case scenario—only if all the previously calculated routes turned out to be incorrect. Knowing the approximate time needed to complete all 900,000 routes, Ye Feng couldn’t help but sigh. Then he slowly sat cross-legged and hovered inside the room. He sent his mental energy out to record the entire maze, then began simulating and calculating it in his mind. This time, Ye Feng wasn’t as lucky as before; it took him over 500,000 attempts to find the correct route. It consumed four “disappearance periods,” or two hours. He also noticed that his mental calculation speed was slightly faster than in the first layer. Looking at the much larger map, Ye Feng transformed all his mental energy into white and used it to move the chess piece slowly. This time, however, it was unexpectedly heavy. Even with all his mental energy focused on it, he could only move the piece at a snail’s pace. It took half an hour to cover a distance of less than 100 meters. By the time the piece reached the exit, Ye Feng felt utterly exhausted. Even the mental energy he had used for calculations earlier, which had only consumed a small amount, was now completely depleted. “The gravity acting on this piece is twice that of before, yet the total distance is more than four or five times longer,” Ye Feng said, dragging his tired body into the third layer. Without even taking time to observe the maze there, he immediately sat cross-legged to restore his mental energy. Once his mental energy had recovered a bit, he sent some of it into the Void Realm. “I want ten pills that can restore mental energy, with a strength at the peak of the Heavenly God level.” “There are seven types of pills that meet your requirements. The most effective one is the Heavenly Essence Pill, a mid-grade special pill, costing 500,000 points of fourth-tier domain value per pill.” “Take that then!” “Ten Heavenly Essence Pills will cost a total of 5 million points of fourth-tier domain value. With the ultimate discount, the price is 95% off, so 4.75 million points need to be deducted. Confirm purchase?” “Yes!” “Domain value has been deducted, and the pills have been stored in the fourth-tier storage cabinet. Please check them soon!” Ye Feng used his mental energy to scan the storage cabinet, and a purple pill appeared in his palm. He immediately swallowed it and then slowly closed his eyes.

At this moment, in a small mountain and river cottage, an old man frowned slightly. Before him was a three-dimensional image, and the person in the image was undoubtedly Ye Feng. Clearly, nothing Ye Feng did had escaped his notice. He pointed a finger at the image, at Ye Feng’s forehead, and then the image flipped, turning into a vast purple sea. Above the sea stood a majestic palace, appearing extremely powerful, and not far from the palace was a huge ancient coin. “What exactly is this?” The old man seemed to pay no attention to the palace at all; instead, his gaze was drawn to the ancient coin, which he stared at for a long time without moving. “I didn’t expect to misjudge it at first glance. I thought it was just an ordinary virtual treasure, but now it seems this thing isn’t that simple… It could even be easily opened in the Selection Tower…” “Who’s spying???” Just then, Plan in the Fourth Realm suddenly opened his eyes and let out a roar. That roar reached the old man’s ears through the virtual image in front of him. “Huh, there’s such a powerful spirit vessel?” Although slightly surprised, the old man did not back down. Instead, he pointed at the coin. The next moment, his figure appeared in the Fourth Realm of the virtual world. “Who are you?” Plan looked at the old man warily, clearly sensing the old man’s strength. “You don’t need to know who I am. You’re not a spirit vessel, right? Even the spirit vessel of the most powerful virtual treasure can’t be this strong.” The old man instantly saw through Plan’s cultivation level. “I’m not a spirit vessel. I’m just guarding this thing on behalf of someone else.” Plan knew lying wouldn’t help, so he nodded and said, “But this isn’t a place for you to be.” “Don’t worry. I’m just curious and came to take a look,” the old man said, scanning the surroundings. “The laws within this thing are quite strange, with such mysteries hidden within.” “Elder, please leave,” Plan said, forcing himself to speak these words even though he knew he was no match. “Alright, since you’re acting on someone else’s behalf, I won’t trouble you,” the old man said, glancing at Plan. Seeing no fear on his face, he nodded in satisfaction. “This thing isn’t bad, but it probably wasn’t given to this kid by that guy, Immortal, right?” “Immortal?” Plan looked at the old man with a strange expression, completely unaware of what the old man was talking about.

“You don’t know?” The old man raised his eyebrows slightly, but in an instant he understood. “Alright, I get it. It seems this little guy obtained this opportunity on his own. It seems I wasn’t wrong after all.”
“I’m leaving. Don’t tell the little guy I was here,” the old man said, a hint of threat in his voice. “Otherwise, you should be able to guess the consequences…”
“Uh…” Plain’s back instantly became soaked with sweat as he looked back in the direction where the old man had been—there was no one there anymore.
“Hehe, quite interesting. This little guy possesses an immortal bloodline. If he can inherit my rules, along with his peculiar blessings, his future achievements could be limitless…” A somewhat satisfied smile appeared on the old man’s serious face. “To meet this little guy before my death is probably my last blessing…”
Ye Feng needed ten Tianjing Dan to restore his mental energy, which surprised him greatly. After all, just one Tianjing Dan was enough to restore a peak Heavenly God-level warrior who specialized in mental energy from exhaustion to full capacity. Yet it took him ten of them to fill his mental sea. He originally thought his mental energy was only two or three times stronger than that of ordinary peak Heavenly God-level warriors, and slightly weaker than those who specialized in mental energy at the same level. But today, it turned out to be completely different—his mental energy was ten times that of those who specialized in mental energy, or thirty times that of ordinary peak Heavenly God-level warriors. This was completely beyond his expectations.
“There are still seven layers left. I guess I’ll need to expend my mental energy at least seven more times. I’ll buy a hundred for now. If I don’t use them all, I can give them away.” Ye Feng made up his mind right away.
Ye Feng once again extended his mental energy into the Void Realm to buy a hundred Tianjing Dan. This time, he got a 10% discount, costing only 45 million domain points.
After preparing the pills, Ye Feng finally looked around the room he was in.
It was eight meters long, wide, and high, with black walls and no light at all. But light or no light made no difference to Ye Feng—he could see everything clearly. In fact, he already had this ability since he was in the cultivation world.

Eight meters in length, width, and height—twice as spacious as before, which made Ye Feng feel a bit more comfortable. The floor area was roughly the same as that of his dormitory back in college on Earth. Thinking of this, he was filled with emotion: “I’ve been away from Earth for hundreds of years. The friends I knew back then, aside from Brother Long and the others, are now just piles of yellow soil…” His thoughts wandered for a moment before returning to focus. He looked up at the eight-meter-high ceiling and shook his head helplessly. “384 square meters—four times larger than before. I guess there are nearly four million different paths in this maze this time…”