Chapter 436 - 208: Digging 3 Feet Deep, Cracking the Maze
Chapter 436: Chapter 208: Digging 3 Feet Deep, Cracking the Maze
"Space and gravity are distorted? This... how are we supposed to get through this?"
"No wonder it felt like we were just walking in circles. So that’s why!"
A sense of powerlessness once again washed over the group.
Just then, the distinct sound of footsteps suddenly echoed from a deep, dark passage nearby.
"Who’s there?!"
Hu Dahai spun around, his battle blade clenched tightly in his hand once more. The other Xinhuo members also instantly adopted combat stances, staring warily into the darkness.
Soon, a figure slowly emerged from the shadows.
When they clearly saw the somewhat tattered Xinhuo combat suit on the newcomer, everyone let out a long sigh of relief, their frayed nerves finally unwinding.
"It’s one of us..."
"You scared me. I thought it was another one of those damned things."
Lin Ye’s gaze, however, sharpened slightly.
The newcomer was Zhang Daoxuan.
He looked quite disheveled. His combat suit was covered in corrosive marks and small tears. Although he didn’t seem seriously injured, the lingering exhaustion and gloom between his brows were more conspicuous than any wound.
Clearly, he had also endured a fierce battle before finding his way here.
Zhang Daoxuan’s gaze swept across the cavern. When he saw the ground covered in inert green slime and the regrouped Xinhuo members, a flicker of almost imperceptible surprise crossed his eyes.
He had obviously been besieged by the Rot Eye Race as well and knew just how difficult they were to deal with.
Seeing everyone here mostly safe and sound was, in itself, an incredible feat.
His eyes finally landed on Lin Ye. He nodded in greeting, after which Lin Ye quickly briefed him on the information he had just shared.
"A trap of distorted gravity, you say..."
Zhang Daoxuan murmured, lost in thought.
The entire cavern fell silent again. Everyone’s gaze subconsciously focused on the young man who had just arrived.
They had all witnessed Lin Ye’s almost miraculous methods, but they had little impression of Zhang Daoxuan, who was also a newcomer but had always kept to himself.
After a moment, Zhang Daoxuan suddenly looked up at Lin Ye.
"Perhaps we could try the anchor point method."
"Anchor point?"
Hu Dahai looked confused. The term was unfamiliar to him.
Zhang Daoxuan’s gaze drifted for a moment, as if lost in a distant memory.
"When I was young, my family took me to a sword pavilion. There was a place there called the Wuxiang Sword Palace. It was a lot like this place—a chaotic maze made entirely of broken swords. One wrong step, and you’d be lost forever."
"Back then, I and..."
He paused here, his tone tinged with a complex emotion.
"...and another person, we used this exact method to get out."
’A thought stirred in Lin Ye’s mind.’ He was almost certain that the "other person" Zhang Daoxuan mentioned was Zhang Daoming.
Zhang Daoxuan didn’t elaborate on the topic. He was merely using the story to introduce the point he really wanted to make.
"Any maze, as long as it’s man-made, is guaranteed to have a correct path to the end."
"The reason we get lost is that our senses are being deceived."
"Therefore, we need an anchor point that absolutely cannot be misled by our senses."
His gaze finally locked onto Lin Ye.
"This anchor point doesn’t need to actually enter those distorted passages. It just needs to stay outside and point us in the absolute correct direction."
"And you, Brother Lin Ye, are the best anchor point."
"An absolutely objective reference coordinate that won’t be fooled by any environment or any illusion."
Zhang Daoxuan took a deep breath and began to lay out the entire plan he had conceived.
"The core trick of this maze is using gravitational distortions to warp our spatial awareness."
"But no matter how it’s distorted, gravity itself is an objective reality. For this planet, the direction of ’down’ will always point toward its core."
"Our senses can be deceived, but Brother Lin Ye, as long as you aren’t inside the distortion yourself, your spiritual perception won’t be affected."
"Brother Lin Ye, the premise of my plan is that you can directly perceive the purest direction of gravity, correct?"
Lin Ye nodded slightly.
At the same time, he was beginning to follow Zhang Daoxuan’s train of thought.
He had been disoriented before simply because he was caught within the effect, fooled by his own senses.
"First, we need to use your ability to identify all the areas with gravitational anomalies."
"These areas are definitely where the true paths to the lower levels are hidden."
"Then, we’ll need an explorer to actually enter the various passages within these anomalous zones to find the way through."
"Inside these areas, the explorer’s senses will be completely muddled. They might feel like they’re going straight down when they’re actually moving horizontally, or even upward."
"And that’s where the anchor point comes into play."
"Brother Lin Ye, you just need to stay at a distance and use your ability to provide the explorer inside with an absolute, correct sense of direction."
"You’ll tell them where true up, down, left, right, front, and back are. Then, we can analyze that information in conjunction with the passage’s layout and elevation."
The cavern fell silent once more.
Hu Dahai and the others were stunned by Zhang Daoxuan’s wildly imaginative plan, unable to fully grasp its logic at first.
Lin Ye, however, instantly understood the key to it all.