Chapter 71: The Underground Maze

Qu Yi recognized You Huo Ling as a mid-grade immortal artifact and immediately understood its immense power. Besides capable of unleashing the Zi Ye Heavenly Fire, You Huo Ling could also launch flame-based spatial attacks, with those flames containing explosive forces that were extremely deadly. After quickly understanding You Huo Ling’s capabilities, Qu Yi stored it within his body before taking off to explore this underground maze realm.

The entire area was a vast plain, stretching endlessly. Qu Yi flew for quite some time before spotting a circular hole in the plain—this was the entrance to the underground maze. He quickly landed at the entrance. Soon, he released his spiritual sense to delve deeper underground, only to find that it couldn’t even sense the bottom of the circular hole. Given Qu Yi’s current spiritual realm, his sense could detect distances of over 200,000 li, yet it still couldn’t sense the depths below—this showed just how deep the hole really was.

“Qu Yi, no need to sense further. Just jump into the hole,” the Artifact God suddenly said with a laugh.

With that, what more could Qu Yi say? He immediately leaped into the hole and began falling. Suddenly, before even falling ten meters, he found himself in a circular hall surrounded by red-glowing crystals. The hall was filled with red-lit jade, and on one wall stood a portal, seemingly leading to a maze.

“What’s going on? I haven’t fallen ten meters yet, but it feels like I’ve already reached the entrance of the underground maze!” Qu Yi exclaimed in surprise.

It was truly hard for Qu Yi to understand. His spiritual sense had clearly indicated the hole was extremely deep, yet his body had arrived underground without falling ten meters—this was utterly baffling.

“It’s not strange. There’s actually a layered spatial array at the hole’s entrance. Your spiritual sense will never be able to detect the bottom. But once you jump in, the array will detect you and transport you through countless spaces straight to this entrance,” the Artifact God explained calmly.

Upon hearing this, Qu Yi began to understand. Since he had already reached the entrance, he didn’t bother asking how the layered space was formed. Instead, he went straight to the portal, intending to enter the maze with its walls covered in red crystals.

“Heh, this maze is even a 3D maze. Emperor Hao really wants to tease you all on purpose,” the Artifact God suddenly spoke up.

Qu Yi lifted his right foot just as he was about to enter the maze but immediately retracted it.

“Instrument God, what does ‘three-dimensional maze’ mean?” Qu Yi asked, filled with confusion.
In Qu Yi’s experience, all mazes were flat—just one entrance, and by walking continuously, one could exit through another exit. Hearing Instrument God mention a three-dimensional maze piqued his curiosity greatly, so he naturally wanted to understand it better.
After a while, Instrument God slowly said, “Qu Yi, let me give you a concrete example. There are eight identical cubes. If you combine these eight cubes, you’ll form a larger cube. Well, this underground maze is made up of countless such cubes. Each side of a cube represents a path in the maze. So when you reach an intersection, you have to choose between five directions: left, right, up, down, and forward. What’s more frustrating is that you can’t sense the exact direction in this maze. Moreover, the maze is controlled by magic arrays and can change its shape freely—from cubes to rectangles. So whether you keep walking in one direction or wander around randomly, you won’t be able to escape.”
Upon hearing this, Qu Yi imagined a huge cube, with countless smaller cubes inside. People walking inside would feel lost and unable to find the exit.
“Instrument God, you just said it’s impossible to escape? Didn’t Emperor Hao say there’s an exit? Could it be that Emperor Hao lied?” Qu Yi said in shock.
“Oh, Emperor Hao didn’t lie to you. There indeed is an exit. What I mean is that if you rely solely on walking, you definitely won’t be able to escape. But in this maze, there are some branching points where there are earth-type immortal beasts. If you kill one of them, you’ll receive a reward that allows you to stabilize a part of the maze. Think about it—if you kill enough of these beasts and stabilize many parts of the maze, it won’t be able to change freely. Then you can walk in a straight line to the exit,” Instrument God said with a faint smile.
Qu Yi finally understood.
“Then fine, Instrument God, please show me where the immortal beasts are. I’ll go kill a few of them.” Qu Yi raised his right foot again, ready to enter the maze.
“Why go through such trouble?” Instrument God replied indifferently.
Qu Yi, who was about to step into the maze, pulled his foot back, looking astonished.
“Instrument God, could there be anything else strange in this maze?” Qu Yi asked curiously.

“It’s not like that. Others have to go and kill the celestial beasts, step by step, to stabilize this labyrinth. But you’re different—you have the Star Luo Ding, which allows you to charge ahead and destroy the entire labyrinth.” The Artifact God said with a faint smile.

Qu Yi thought for a moment and understood what the Artifact God meant. No matter how the labyrinth changed, as long as he destroyed its key formations, it would no longer be able to change, and he could fly straight through to leave.

“Artifact God, you’re truly powerful,” Qu Yi couldn’t help but praise.

Immediately afterward, Qu Yi raised his right foot again, ready to enter the labyrinth once more.

“Ah, actually, it’s also possible to fly away from the labyrinth all the time—it just takes longer,” the Artifact God suddenly said again.

Qu Yi quickly pulled back his foot, his face showing anger. Clearly, he had been irritated by the Artifact God’s endless chatter.

“Artifact God, can’t you just say it all at once? I’ve already raised my foot three times. Are you trying to tease me? Just tell me everything about this labyrinth, will you?” Qu Yi shouted.

But as soon as he finished speaking, his spiritual essence was violently poked, causing excruciating pain. He curled up into a ball and rolled on the ground in agony.

The Artifact God had poked Qu Yi’s spiritual essence again!

After a long while, the pain in Qu Yi’s spiritual essence subsided. His vital energy moved, drying off the sweat on his body. He lay still on the ground, seemingly ready to die there.

“Young man, you’re a bit too impatient. So, I’ll give your spiritual essence another shock to calm you down properly. Alright, now I’ll tell you the reason. Although this three-dimensional labyrinth can change its shape freely, it’s still controlled by formations and can’t go beyond their range. So, even if the cube transforms infinitely, it can at most become a very long rod, but there’s still a limit. If you keep flying in one direction, you can actually reach the exit,” the Artifact God said calmly, as if unbothered by what had just happened.

Qu Yi lay on the ground, heard the Artifact God’s words, thought about them, and understood.

But since the Artifact God had poked his spiritual essence again, angry and resentful, he didn’t want to get up and decided to sulk at the Artifact God.

“To fly in a straight line in one direction, first you need to find the center of the maze, and then you can fly straight. Since the transformation of the cube starts with the small cubes on the edges before affecting those slightly further in, if you fly straight away from the center, you still won’t be able to escape. Due to the control of the formation, every time you move away from one small cube, the one you enter moves back to its original position, so essentially you haven’t moved forward at all.” The Artifact God paid no attention to Qu Yi’s feelings and continued to explain the underground maze on its own.

Qu Yi listened quietly and finally understood. However, he remained lying still, as if he wouldn’t get up unless the Artifact God apologized to him. Seeing that Qu Yi still didn’t move or speak, the Artifact God suddenly saw the Dimension Ball fly out of Qu Yi’s soul and into the hall. Then the Dimension Ball came beneath Qu Yi, grew larger, and lifted him straight into the maze. Once inside, the Dimension Ball returned to Qu Yi’s soul.

Qu Yi smiled helplessly—his strength was still too weak, and he was completely under the control of this Artifact God. “Artifact God, one day I’ll definitely catch you and give you a proper punishment,” Qu Yi vowed fiercely before stepping into the maze and walking in one direction.

“Qu Yi, take out the Star Luo Ding. I’ve found Feng Han. You can use it to break through the maze walls and enter another passage,” the Artifact God suddenly called out.

Upon hearing this, Qu Yi naturally took out the Star Luo Ding. He was even surprised himself—he had come to trust the Artifact God to this extent.

……

Feng Han, a powerful warrior in the later stages of the Golden Central Sect’s tribulation trials, entered the maze with Jin Xiong and Cang Huang. After passing through a few branching paths, he lost contact with them due to carelessness. At that moment, Feng Han was at one of the branching points and encountered a Yuan Yao-class monster, the Rock Scaled Snake.

The Rock Scaled Snake was coiled in the passage, filling the ten-meter-wide corridor completely. With cold, venomous eyes, it stared at Feng Han and flicked its tongue.

“You beast! Don’t think just because you have the strength of a Human Immortal, you can stop me,” Feng Han shouted, waving a low-grade Immortal weapon in his hand.

The Rock Scaled Snake simply shook its head, clearly ignoring Feng Han’s words. Suddenly, it dived headfirst at Feng Han.

The castration was carried out swiftly, generating a powerful flow of earth-based primordial energy aimed at enveloping Feng Han with it before using the snake’s head to kill him outright.
“Beast!”
Feng Han’s eyes widened in fury as he swung his great sword violently, sending a golden blade flash straight at the Rock-Scaled Snake.
Sensing the massive amount of metal-based primordial energy in the blade flash, the Rock-Scaled Snake showed no fear at all and continued to charge forward with its head.
Indeed, it effortlessly blocked the blade flash with its petrified head, leaving no scratch. Moreover, its momentum remained unimpeded, while the earth-based primordial energy had formed a flow to encircle Feng Han, locking him tightly.
Ah!
Feng Han let out a terrified scream as he died instantly, his body blown apart by the Rock-Scaled Snake’s attack.
At that very moment, the once impenetrable walls of the passage suddenly exploded open, revealing a huge, dark-colored cauldron.
The cauldron moved at incredible speed—it not only shattered the walls but also struck the Rock-Scaled Snake’s head, crushing it to pieces.
Qu Yi activated the Star Luo Cauldron and rushed over.