Five Hundred Years, You Finally Remembered Your Master

"Xiao Ran?"

Liu Mingyang called out, but there was complete silence ahead; there was no response, not even an echo.

This empty, familiar scene made his heart tighten suddenly.

He strode forward to the location where he suspected Xiao Ran had disappeared and searched for him.

There were no crevices or caves nearby.

"Senior Brother Xiao?"

He called out again, but there was still no response.

He wildly swung his sword in all directions, digging a cave within a radius of several feet, but Xiao Ran was nowhere to be seen.

He disappeared in the same way as Team Leader Cao.

Spatial magic?

However, he did not detect any fluctuations in Spiritual Power, nor did he see any Spirit Runes, restrictions, or formations.

Vanished into thin air?

He felt that it was too quiet around him, and even the drifting Wraith Fog had disappeared.

"General...?"

He subconsciously switched to a more respectful form of address, his voice trembling noticeably, as if it were about to be swallowed up by the claustrophobic space.

Sudden!

From an unknown location, from an unknown distance, a faint, ethereal sound drifted over.

"You've finally decided to call me General."

Liu Mingyang suddenly straightened his burly body.

"Are you still there?"

"I've always been here, it's just that you're not."

Xiao Ran's voice was calm and ethereal, seemingly indifferent, yet it gave people an extremely reliable feeling.

Liu Mingyang was taken aback. He looked around and saw that the layout was still the same as before.

"What do you mean I'm no longer here?"

Xiao Ran sighed.

"There's a barrier in your heart. Don't just focus on Body Art and forget about the mental cultivation method."

Liu Mingyang was still completely bewildered, thinking to himself, "My mental cultivation technique isn't bad either."

Xiao Ran said, "Do as I say."

Xiao Ran's voice was not produced by his mouth or his consciousness, but rather by a kind of soul tremor.

Liu Mingyang had no choice. Even if he heard the voice, he couldn't locate Xiao Ran with his divine sense, so he had to do as instructed.

"Good."

"Take one step back, three steps to the left... three and a half steps, right here. Just meditate on any mental technique until you forget yourself, and then I'll pull you back."

Liu Mingyang walked to the designated spot, somewhat unconvinced, and took out his secret manual—

The Ten Thousand Buddhas Meditation.

I sat cross-legged and meditated, but it took me about half an hour to barely achieve a state of selflessness.

A large hand reached out from nowhere and pulled him into the spatial ripples.

Liu Mingyang suddenly woke up, opened his eyes, and saw a magnificent underground labyrinth in front of him.

It's like an underground city!

Looking back, he saw that it was indeed the river that Xiao Ran and he had walked along earlier.

There was no trace of the cave being excavated later.

Xiao Ran gripped Liu Mingyang's shoulders tightly, not daring to relax for a moment.

"You swung your sword too forcefully and too chaotically, so much so that you fell into the parallel river without even realizing it."

Liu Mingyang asked blankly:

"Parallel universes?"

I guess so.

Xiao Ran patted his shoulder and said earnestly:

"Clear Sword Heart can one secure a stable path forward."

This guy is so young, yet he speaks so eloquently about educating people, leaving no room for argument...

In fact, Liu Mingyang's mental techniques were not bad; he used to be able to debate with Team Leader Cao for a while.

Unfortunately, Xiao Ran's mental cultivation technique was too strong!

"You mean, Team Leader Cao also got lost in the maze?"

"It should be."

Xiao Ran thought to himself, not everyone has the right to stray into a maze; even he almost went astray.

It was only through the keen senses honed by the Art of Resonance that he was able to walk straight through the maze, and then, resisting its allure, he managed to locate Liu Mingyang.

This Team Leader Cao is clearly no ordinary person; he's at least far more powerful than Liu Mingyang! "Why didn't Team Leader Cao turn back to look for me after he wandered in?"

Liu Mingyang asked again.

Xiao Ran explained, "That's because his Dao Heart isn't firm enough."

So you're saying you're even better than Team Leader Cao? You're awesome, you're right.

Liu Mingyang had nothing to say.

Xiao Ran said, "Let's go."

Liu Mingyang then took a closer look at the maze.

The labyrinth looked like a city, with its dark, high walls extending into the sky, invisible to the naked eye, or perhaps into an abyss.

The surrounding area was covered with seals.

The hollow, erotic sounds coming from the cervix seem to have a strange attraction, teasing your nerves, pulling at your limbs, making you want to go in against your will.

The more attracted Liu Mingyang, the more he stopped and dared not move, cautiously asking, "How can there be such a large maze beneath Flamefree City?"

Is it big?

For Xiao Ran, the maze was like a maze map in a single-player game.

You say it's big, it really is big.

You mean small? Probably only a few tens of megabytes of space.

This involves higher-order Spatial Laws.

Xiao Ran could only glean some insights through his Resonance Divine Sense and Max Level Architecture skills, making it difficult to delve deeper. Naturally, he couldn't explain it clearly to Liu Mingyang in simple terms.

Liu Mingyang was puzzled but impressed, knowing only that it was some kind of spatial magic, yet he couldn't sense any Spiritual Power fluctuations.

Is the inscription really here?

"I've seen the underground fortification map. If the inscription is in Flamefree City, then it can only be here."

The two then entered the maze.

The alleyway was about three zhang wide.

It was very quiet around us.

Even the Wraith Fog could not penetrate it.

The high walls on both sides stretched endlessly into the unknown, making the palace alley seem vast and empty, and the two people appear extremely small.

Occasionally, scratch marks can be seen on both sides of the black wall; some are white, some are black, and some are still fresh.

A thin layer of white ash covered the ground.

Xiao Ran bent down, reached out and touched some white ash. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was human ashes.

The ashes are quite old, some are hundreds of years old, some are thousands of years old, and some are even tens of thousands of years old...

Is it really Ancient Stele?

Xiao Ran said, "It seems that many people have strayed into the maze while searching for the inscriptions and ended up dying here."

Liu Mingyang instinctively panicked a little, but forced himself to remain calm.

"It's alright."

You're fine, my foot! Xiao Ran simply said:

"We're here now, panicking won't help. Find the inscription and you won't die. Hold on to my clothes and don't let go under any circumstances."

The two walked one after the other.

At each intersection, there are six branching paths leading up, down, forward, backward, left, and right, nested in layers and interlocked, as if one were in a boundless ocean.

Xiao Ran looked closely and saw that the maze distorted space, like a self-enclosed topological space such as a Möbius strip, making it easy for people to lose their sense of space.

Liu Mingyang had long since lost all sense of direction.

Are you sure you're on the right track?

Xiao Ran shook his head.

"I'm not sure, I'm still investigating."

With the Art of Resonance and the Blood Jade Bone anchoring him to his Master, Xiao Ran was unlikely to get lost, but it would still take some time to reach the center of the maze.

I don't know how far I went, or how long I walked.

The two noticed a person leaning against the corner of the wall.

This was a slightly overweight young mortal man, wearing a gray training robe, but with fair skin, suggesting he came from a wealthy family.

The body appeared to be unharmed, but the person was leaning against the corner of the wall, motionless, like a corpse.

His gaze was fixed and unfocused... as if he had been dead for a thousand years.

Xiao Ran squatted down and examined him carefully, confirming, "This person must have entered the maze in the last few days. His body is still fresh, but his heart is dead."

Liu Mingyang suddenly had a bad feeling.

"You mean..."

"That's right, not only is space distorted here, but time is also distorted."

Xiao Ran then took out a Heart Strengthening Pill refined by his Senior Uncle and tried to wake him up.

This medicine is half poison and half divine; we'll have to wait and see.

The young man convulsed for a while, then gasped for breath and vomited a mouthful of black blood.

His eyes, however, regained their life force, now filled with bloodshot veins. He looked extremely exhausted, yet his hands gripped Xiao Ran's wrists tightly.

"A thousand years... I'm still alive? Have I become an immortal? Are you an immortal?"

Xiao Ran shook his head.

"I am a disciple of Zongzhi Mountain, and I came to save you. Only a few days have passed."

The young man calmed down a bit. After a long while, he looked at his body and saw that his flesh was fresh and everything was normal. Only then did he let go of Xiao Ran's hand.

"Thank you so much for saving me, Immortal Senior!"

Xiao Ran frowned and asked him, "Who are you? With your strength, it's impossible for you to enter the maze."

The young man puffed out his fleshy chest and said with no small amount of pride:

"My name is Wang Fugui. I am a disciple of the National Teacher. I came in with the National Teacher, but I got lost very quickly after entering."

Is the National Teacher here too?

Xiao Ran glanced at him subconsciously and saw that this person had already cultivated the first level of the Everlasting Spring Art.

Even if he had mastered the first level of the Everlasting Spring Art, he was still a novice. Why would the National Teacher bring in such a burdensome disciple? Xiao Ran suddenly realized something.

"Where did you come from? How many of you are there in total?"

Wang Fugui said:

"We have a total of 108 disciples, who came from Deep Well in the south of the city."

Xiao Ran pressed further:

"You more than a hundred people, have all reached the first level of the Everlasting Spring Art?"

How did you know?

Wang Fugui was somewhat surprised.

After all, before Flamefree City was devoured, only ten people had mastered the first level; the rest had mastered it by absorbing the Wraith Fog.

Xiao Ran understood.

The National Teacher's position is based on the soul techniques of the Everlasting Spring Art!

One hundred and eight people were scattered throughout the maze. The National Teacher could sense the others using his Everlasting Spring Art, which would allow him to avoid many detours. It was a solution, albeit a less-than-ideal one.

Wang Fugui stared at Xiao Ran for a while, still somewhat puzzled.

"The National Teacher and over a hundred people have gotten lost. The Immortal Senior came in alone. Is there any way for him to get out?"

"One person?"

Xiao Ran was taken aback and suddenly turned around.

Good heavens! Liu Mingyang is no longer here...

Xiao Ran immediately spread his divine sense and searched the vicinity, but couldn't find a single hair.

This guy has probably traveled to a place hundreds of thousands of miles away, to some unknown space, to some unknown dynasty.

Unfortunately, although Liu Mingyang was an elite member of the Dao Alliance, his aptitude was too poor for this maze.

Xiao Ran turned around, about to ask Wang Fugui about the National Teacher's situation.

Wang Fugui suddenly looked terrified and pointed behind Xiao Ran, shouting:

"A ghost! A ghost!"

Xiao Ran looked back again.

A long-haired female figure, resembling Sadako, slowly drifted over.

The female figure was scary, but her breasts were a bit big...

Just as Xiao Ran felt that the curve of the robe was somewhat familiar, the female figure suddenly appeared.

She was very strong, and she pounced on Xiao Ran, grabbing his cheeks with both hands, and weakly, tearfully cursed:

"You unfilial disciple... Five hundred years have passed, and you've finally remembered to seek out your master!"