The maid squad is too strong, what use is there for me, the Demon King?

The dark and deep corridor seemed to have no end, with huge stone pillars casting distorted shadows. The smell of millennia-old dust mixed with a faint magical aura in the air, making it suffocating.

Phoenix's expression was solemn as he extended his immense spiritual power like tentacles to the maximum extent, sensing the energy flow and potential traps in every inch of space ahead.

Despite his injuries, Taric gripped his battle axe and followed behind, each step incredibly difficult, while the unconscious Sophia was gently levitated beside him by Phoenix's gentle magic.

This eerie ruin was fraught with danger. They had gone less than a hundred meters when an inconspicuous ancient rune on the side wall suddenly glowed with an eerie light!

Whoosh whoosh!

Several shadow arrows imbued with corrosive energy appeared out of thin air and shot towards the three of them with a sharp whistling sound.

Phoenix's eyes narrowed, and he instinctively tried to teleport away, but the space remained as solid as an iron plate, and the teleportation failed.

Without hesitation, he maintained the magic that held Sophia in his left hand, and with his right hand, fingers like a knife, he slashed forward.

"Tsk-!"

A thin, yet incredibly sharp, invisible blade of space flashed as he moved, slicing precisely through the air.

The moment those shadow arrows touched the spatial blade, they were silently cut and annihilated as if thrown into a meat grinder, without even a ripple of energy escaping.

Taric watched with a mixture of fear and relief. He had almost instinctively swung his axe to block, but whether his heavily injured body could withstand such a bizarre attack remained to be seen.

"Your Majesty Phoenix, your spatial magic is still usable?" Taric asked in surprise, having assumed that all spatial magic was banned.

Phoenix frowned, continuing cautiously forward while saying in a deep voice, "The restrictions here are extremely strange... It seems to only target spatial laws related to 'displacement' and 'access.' Techniques like teleportation and activating spatial storage equipment are completely locked down."

He tried it, and sure enough, he couldn't even do the most basic thing like taking out a bottle of healing potion from his storage ring. The tiny spatial fluctuations were suppressed as soon as they appeared. "But pure spatial cutting and distortion techniques used for attack and defense... are less restricted."

This discovery eased Phoenix's mind somewhat, but his worries did not lessen. The inability to teleport meant that they had lost their most effective mobility and escape route.

Unable to use storage equipment means they have lost supplies, and Taric and Sofia's injuries cannot be treated in time, so the situation will only get worse.

As they continued their exploration, the various traps and obstacles they encountered along the way kept them constantly on their toes.

As soon as they stepped into what appeared to be a peaceful area, the shadows beneath their feet suddenly began to writhe as if they were alive!

Several dark, shadowy tentacles suddenly shot out from the ground, coiling around the three people's ankles like venomous snakes, followed by a chilling sense of restraint and a soul-devouring force.

Phoenix reacted extremely quickly, slashing his fingers in quick succession, creating several tiny spatial rifts that precisely cut through the connection points between the shadow tentacles and the ground. The shadow tentacles, like vines with their roots severed, instantly stiffened and dissipated.

Tarik broke out in a cold sweat. If Phoenix hadn't intervened, he probably wouldn't have been able to break free given his serious injuries.

After passing through the ruins of a collapsed side hall, they entered a circular corridor.

At first, Phoenix did not notice anything unusual, but soon he discovered that the surrounding murals and colonnades were moving and rearranging in an extremely slow and imperceptible manner.

They seemed to have fallen into a huge three-dimensional maze, where the space itself was being subtly altered.

"A mere trick!" Phoenix sneered, his eyes flashing with silver light. His powerful mental strength forcefully discerned the patterns of change in the corridor space. He guided Taric to take seemingly circuitous but actually precise steps, each step landing on a "node" of the spatial structure. In just a few minutes, they escaped from this ever-changing maze, and the scene in the corridor behind them was completely different.

In the center of a relatively spacious hall stood several black obelisks engraved with intricate magical runes.

As they approached, the magical runes on the obelisk lit up one by one, emitting a low hum.

The invisible magic in the air began to vibrate violently, forming a resonant attack targeting the spiritual power of life.

Taric suddenly felt a splitting headache and his vision went black. Phoenix quickly erected an invisible spatial barrier, enveloping the three of them.

The mental attack struck the spatial barrier, creating ripples that were cleverly deflected and dispersed. "The attack is invisible, but it spreads through energy fluctuations; its path can be distorted."

Phoenix calmly explained, while flicking his fingertips, sending several subtle spatial shockwaves toward the obelisk's base, disrupting its energy cycle and causing the obelisk's light to dim rapidly.

As he walked along a damp side path, Taric accidentally brushed his arm against what appeared to be ordinary dark red moss on the wall.

The next second, the moss spread rapidly like a leech attracted by blood, releasing a strong corrosive acid and a strange fluctuation that devoured life force.

Taric's arm armor was instantly eroded, sending a piercing pain through him.

Phoenix reacted swiftly, using his spatial cutting power to transform into the finest scalpel, instantly "peeling" the small patch of clothing and armor, along with the moss itself, from Taric's arm. The wound was a bloody mess, but it prevented more serious erosion.

He then used the spatial membrane to completely seal and crush the still-wriggling clump of moss.

The entrance to what appeared to be a magnificent palace suddenly changed as they stepped onto it!

Countless hideous phantom monsters rushed in from all directions, accompanied by deafening roars and terrifying mental pressure, almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

Taric instinctively raised his axe to fight, but Phoenix held him back.

"Holding fast to one's original intentions is all in vain!" Phoenix shouted in a deep voice. He clasped his hands together and then suddenly parted them outwards. A powerful spatial shock spread outwards from him, and the entire illusion space shattered like a broken mirror, revealing the real, simple stone passage behind it.

The key to breaking the illusion lies in disrupting its energy field, rather than attacking the illusion itself.

In the middle of a sloping staircase, the three suddenly felt their bodies lighten, followed by a powerful force that pulled them upwards, instantly reversing the direction of gravity!

Phoenix remained calm under pressure, instantly using spatial powers to immobilize himself and Sophia, while a spatial rope wrapped around Taric as he was about to crash into the ceiling.

He carefully observed the subtle runes on the steps, found the core node, and then destroyed the rune structure with a spatial cut, restoring gravity to normal.

Every time he encountered a trap, Phoenix was able to escape danger thanks to his superb spatial skills and rich experience.

But he also clearly sensed that the deeper he went, the more intricate and dangerous the mechanisms became, and the stronger the residual magic became.

He continued to try to teleport, the silver light at his fingertips flashing and then vanishing in an instant, only to be met with the cold and merciless spatial blockade.

As Tarik watched Phoenix make his move time and time again, he felt a mixture of awe and worry.

His Majesty Phoenix's power is undeniable, but how long can he hold out in this dangerous place with the two of them dragging him down? And where exactly is the princess? Anxiety gnawed at his heart like a venomous snake.

Phoenix, through this continuous exploration and confrontation, gained an increasingly profound and even alarming understanding of the strength of the person who orchestrated this scheme.

He continued his ascent into the deepest part of the ruins, burdened by immense pressure.