Devour

At dawn, Cheng Bai and Lu Miaoting were teleported to Yushan in Tianshu City to start a new journey. Xiaobai carried the two of them across the Yanshou River in the east.

Blue water tigers are often seen in the river, and six-headed snakes occasionally appear. These monsters, which were once thought to be powerful, now look weak and cannot attract Cheng Bai's attention.

The Lost Ancient Land is vast. With the help of the parchment map, Xiaobai moved quickly and arrived at the ancient battlefield faster than expected.

This secret place covers an astonishing area. It is surrounded by mountains forming numerous valleys. There are mountains within mountains and valleys within valleys. The areas with sparse forests are flat, the wasteland is vast, and rivers are interspersed.

The valley was eerie and silent, like a huge battlefield of hell. An air of desolation was overwhelming. It was not yet the winter solstice, but the temperature had dropped sharply, as if a cold winter was approaching. It even froze at night. There were countless corpses of various animals and humans scattered all over the ground, which was creepy.

Lu Miaoting looked around and said unhappily, "It seems that no one is willing to come to such a terrible secret place."

Cheng Bai didn't see it that way, and said bluntly: "So many people died, which means that countless people have come here, and most of them were knocked out by the poisonous gas in the valley and became food for the moles."

The secrets of the ancient battlefield are mysterious and unpredictable. Even the sheepskin book left by the master of the Yellow Jade Banner only describes the situation outside, and only briefly mentions the core area. A kind of raw-eating and blood-drinking monster called Tu Luo is common here. Its challenge level is only 2, which is about the same strength as an ordinary adult, but it is not afraid of poison. It likes to eat raw animals that accidentally enter the ancient battlefield and are knocked down by poison gas. If there are humans lying on the ground, it will also eat them.

Lu Miaoting looked up the sheepskin book and said, "The poison gas is related to minerals and groundwater. The concentration is highest below half a foot above the ground, halved below one and a half feet, and halved again below three feet. The poison gas is very weak below five feet, and is negligible at a person's height. Normal walking will not cause harm. Ordinary people who lie down for too long, or sleep in a camp, may develop illness or even fall into a coma."

Cheng Bai knew very well that this kind of poisonous gas was generally hydrogen sulfide, which had little effect on the strong. The spiritual eyes could also see the distribution of the poisonous gas clearly, so he could just avoid it.

Explorers traveled great distances, mostly for mining.

The valleys around the ancient battlefield are rich in rotten silver, also known as water iron. The treasure has a hardness of 4 and is precious and rare. Although it is harder than diamond, its appearance is not good. From a distance, it looks like a pool of turbid water on the ground, mostly covered by mud and sand, and is easy to overlook. Once it is uncovered, it can be taken away in one piece, and it is easy to mine.

Cheng Bai distinguished them clearly, collected mineral materials along the way, and gradually approached the central area of ​​the ancient battlefield.

After climbing over a hillside over 100 meters high, we saw a shocking and wild scene ahead. There were towering ancient trees, lush greenery, jagged rocks, and steep peaks that reached the sky. In the forest, there were groups of monsters with sheep heads and four horns and human bodies. They were earthworms.

A flight of stairs leading to a magnificent building appears hidden in the shade of the trees. It is wide and neat, as if leading to a mysterious fairy palace deep in the clouds.

Lu Miaoting said in surprise: "We have been walking for so long, but this is just the outer perimeter. The real secret place is inside. No wonder anyone can come here."

Cheng Bai learned a lot of information from Shi Ziyu and said, "There is a staircase maze deep in the ancient battlefield. I think it must be here."

The two men and the wolf approached the building and walked up the stairs. The nearby mole creatures were weak and did not dare to come and provoke them, so there was no one around.

After walking for a while, there were more steps ahead, and the road branched into two sides under the shade of trees. Cheng Bai chose to climb the left steps. After a while, there were more steps ahead, and three branches.

"It's getting more and more complicated. Which way should I go?"

Cheng Bai jumped off his mount, looked around, broke off a large branch from the side of the steps, broke off a small branch and placed it on the ground as a mark, and walked up the steps on the left fork.

Lu Miaoting secretly praised him for being cautious so as not to get lost.

I continued walking up the steps, only to see more steps ahead, branching into nine paths.

The white-collar team was fearless. They continued to choose the leftmost fork, put down a small piece of branch, and strode forward.

There were still more steps, more forked roads, and a doorway ahead.

Lu Miaoting said quietly, "We already have the gate, but it turns out we are still on the outskirts after walking here."

After walking up this flight of stairs, there are more stairs and branching roads ahead, as well as more doorways, which increase in number in a repetitive and boring manner.

Cheng Bai marked the path and chose the leftmost fork again. He passed through the doorway, climbed over the steps, looked forward, and was secretly shocked.

There are still more steps and forks in front of us, which are more complicated, intertwined, connected up and down, and have many doorways that rise and fall.

Lu Miaoting was dazzled and whispered, "Do you still want to move forward?"

The work of collecting the rotten silver ore has been completed. If you are not sure about entering the maze, you can turn around and go home.

"Of course we have to go. We always walk along the leftmost side. If we go back, we will walk along the rightmost side. We won't go wrong." Cheng Bai continued to lead the team deeper.

Lu Miaoting smiled and said, "It's marked, how could we go wrong?"

Continue up the leftmost steps, put down the marker, go through the doorway, and look up in shock.

There were countless steps and branch paths crisscrossing back and forth, rotating and interconnecting, and countless doorways, which were simply dizzying.

Cheng Bai pondered for a moment, then said with a smile, "This is the real maze. Do you remember how many times you went up and down the stairs?"

Lu Miaoting thought carefully and suddenly felt confused. She stammered, "It seems that I went up the stairs 5 times and went down the stairs 3 times... No, I went down the stairs 4 times, and went up the stairs more times, 6 times."

Cheng Bai shook his head and said, "Neither is right. The illusion has confused our memory. Let's go back to the first fork and have a look. The branches we prepared are not enough."

The maze was filled with endless stairs and there were no branches or stones to break off to serve as markers. Putting down the last small branch in their hands, the two men and the wolf turned around and headed back to the right.

After walking a few steps, Cheng Bai suddenly stopped and asked, "Where are you going?"

But the two men and the wolf went in three different directions, each taking a different path.

Cheng Bai was surprised and asked, "Can't you tell the right side? We are going to the far right."

Lu Miaoting glanced at Dabai and Xiaobai, thought again and again, turned around on the spot, and found that it was difficult to distinguish left from right. The countless stairs, forks, and doorways around her all looked the same.

Cheng Bai recalled the direction of movement and gathered everyone to walk towards the rightmost path he had confirmed.

After passing through the doorway, Cheng Bai and Lu Miaoting looked at each other in bewilderment. The steps, forks, and doorways in front of them were becoming more numerous and complicated. The key point was that they could not find the branch mark they had put down earlier.

Lu Miaoting panicked and said, "No, we took the wrong road. This is not the way we came here."

Xiaobai remained silent, squatting on the ground looking at his master.

Cheng Bai gestured upwards and said, "We have unknowingly entered the belly of the mountain. The maze is even more complicated. Look at the ceiling above."

Looking up, I was shocked. The stairs, forks and doorways that were originally distributed up and down, front and back, left and right were now crisscrossed on the ceiling. I felt dizzy and almost suspected that I was walking on the ceiling, which was the ground. All the forks seemed to be passages, but also seemed to be dead ends.

I turned around and went back to the leftmost fork where I came from, and went through the doorway, but I couldn't find any branch marks.

Lu Miaoting said in disbelief: "Impossible, I remember clearly that I walked to the right when I came here, and walked to the left when I returned. How could I have made a mistake?"

I walked back and forth for a long time, completely disoriented as to which direction was right or left. The magnetic field here was so strange that even a compass was useless. It was as if I was walking from the ground to the ceiling, and then from the ceiling to the ground, endlessly, through countless steps and doors.

Cheng Bai wiped a drop of sweat from his forehead and exclaimed, "We are walking in a four-dimensional maze, which is similar to the architectural structure of a Möbius strip. What we thought of as left and right before was wrong, because left and right are not left and right at all, but directions other than up and down, front and back, left and right. If we walk in the three-dimensional direction that we already know, we will never be able to return to the original path."

Lu Miaoting said blankly: "We shouldn't walk around randomly. We should strictly follow what Palace Master Shi said. Now everything is in chaos."

Cheng Bai smiled and said, "It's okay. I was just testing the difficulty of the maze. The path Xiaobai wanted to take just now might be the right one. It can return by following the scent it left behind. I have a better way."

Ordinary people would be in a desperate situation facing a four-dimensional maze, but fortunately Cheng Bai had the secret technique of teleportation and could start over. He took Lu Miaoting and Xiaobai directly back to the first step in front of the three forks in the road. The ground was still motionless with the mark of a small branch that was broken for the first time.

Lu Miaoting felt relieved and thankfully said, "Fortunately, I can regret my move. How do I get in now?"

Cheng Bai looked around and said leisurely, "One begets two, two begets three, three begets all things, and nine is the ultimate number. This is the ladder of all things in the ancient battlefield. The maze is still just a peripheral building. Even earthworms dare not approach it. You really can't get in without some skills."

The ancient battlefield is ancient and vicissitudes, and its layout is grand and unimaginable. The maze is just the tip of the iceberg, but it is not that no one can crack the four-dimensional maze. There are people on earth who can do it. Shi Ziyu has solved this problem after years of exploration.

When Cheng Bai entered the maze again, he held the void rope in his hand and tied one end to a small tree next to the steps, leaving a clear track along the way to facilitate identifying shortcuts through the maze, while also referring to Shi Ziyu's experience.

“Don’t let the confusing numbers distract you. When you enter the maze and see a doorway, go in when you see one, go left when you see two, stay in the middle when you see three, and back out when you see nine. That’s the trick to passing through the doorway.”

Cheng Bai led the team through numerous mazes, but saw that the sky was getting darker and darker.

Lu Miaoting felt the change in light and opened her mouth to remind him, "It's getting deeper and deeper, and the light refracted from outside is getting less and less."

Continuing to go deeper means that the direction is correct and the four-dimensional maze cannot be infinitely looping after all.

Cheng Bai pointed to the darkness ahead and suppressed his excitement, saying, "In there is the real ladder to heaven. Let's see if it can really accommodate everything."

The astonishingly long Void Rope in his hand has reached its size limit. If it were someone else, they would have to leave this route to get out. They can teleport back and forth freely. The Void Rope has completed the prompt task.

Cheng Bai grasped the end and shook it, and the treasure was manipulated as easily as with his own arm. The force was transmitted to the other end, opening the knot and retracting the Void Rope.

Crossing the tall and long dark corridor and entering a larger area, the countless steps and doorways around it no longer appeared. Instead, there was a wide octagonal space. There was a stone statue standing on one of the eight directions, and the other seven directions were empty walls.

The building is incredibly tall. Looking up, you can see more levels reaching up to the sky, stacked in countless numbers with no ceiling in sight. There is only one stone statue in a specific position on each floor, and no two look the same.

The various stone statues are of different sizes. Some have human faces and animal shapes, some have bird heads and human bodies, some have four legs and long wings, some have many hands and eyes, and they are strange in shape and in various postures.

Lu Miaoting exclaimed: "This is the real Ladder of All Things. It's so spectacular."

The wall in the direction we came from moved quietly and closed the entrance without a sound. The octagonal shape of the Ladder of All Things was intact. Eight huge spirit stones in the corners of the wall emitted a soft and misty light, illuminating the surroundings.

Cheng Bai has been in Qi Zong for some time and is quite knowledgeable: "Flintstone, a fourth-level rare stone, a rare treasure, is actually inlaid here to be used as a lamp. What a generous act."

Just as he was about to go forward and try to pry the flint stone off and take it away, he found that the stone statue was moving, and the stone skin on its body was constantly breaking and falling, revealing a vivid face.

It had a rat-like face, mean eyes, a big head and a small body, thin limbs, and was less than four feet tall. It was clearly a little water ghost.

This is a weak monster with a challenge level of only 1, and its strength is about the same as that of an ordinary human child in his teens.

The little water ghost looked ferocious, holding a sharp wooden spear, and pounced on us to attack.

Lu Miaoting stepped forward and punched it, easily knocking it away. It hit the wall and turned into smoke and dissipated. It was completely an energy life form.

"What the Ladder of All Things is? It's so weak, there's nothing to worry about."

As soon as Lu Miaoting finished speaking, the lower floor slowly came to a higher floor, and it was difficult to tell whether the ground was rising or the wall was falling.

The new stone statue was covered with cracks and the stone skin had fallen off. Another monster walked out. It had four goat horns on its head, a human body and goat hooves. It was strong and muscular, holding a bronze squash hammer. It looked majestic and was slightly taller than an adult. It was a common mole outside the maze.

Lu Miaoting blasted it into smoke and it disappeared.

Cheng Bai looked at the gradually rising higher floors and suddenly realized, "It's level 3 now. The Ladder of All Things is a place for fighting and promotion. It's either for leveling up or for assessment. It's a really wonderful design."

The core of the ancient battlefield secret realm is to pass the level. The higher you go, the stronger the monsters will be. If you win all the way, you will be given corresponding rewards. There is one challenge opportunity every day, and Shi Ziyu has benefited a lot from this.

The stone statue shed its stone skin, and a tall man walked out, holding an iron sword and moving agilely. There were even humans among the monsters.

The male swordsman's swordsmanship was very strict, but unfortunately he was only a warrior at the fetal breathing stage, and his strength was mediocre. He could not withstand Lu Miaoting's attack and turned into green smoke and disappeared without a trace.

The ground rose to the fourth level, and an ugly scabby fishman jumped out of the stone statue. He was no different from the one seen on the shore of Kanhai. He held a stone axe and bared his teeth at the two men and the wolf.

Lu Miaoting squinted at Cheng Bai and complained, "Should I do it?"

Cheng Bai really didn't want to take action, so he blew a whistle. Xiaobai obeyed his command and rushed forward, easily hitting the scabby fishman with his claws, turning him into smoke.

Seeing the level rise again, Cheng Bai frowned slightly and said softly: "The higher you go, the stronger the monsters become, but how do you stop?"

No one answered, and Cheng Bai realized that he had actually forgotten to ask Shi Ziyu.