Ancient City Maze

"Here it is..."

Luo Jun slowly opened his eyes and found himself lying on a sandy area, surrounded by tall trees whose names he didn't know, their branches and leaves lush and verdant...

No, upon closer inspection, this is not sandy land. The sand only covers an area of a few dozen meters. Further out, there is moist soil and lush vegetation, which seems to be a tropical rainforest... This sand must have been transported here with them.

There were others lying next to Luo Jun, all still unconscious. Luo Jun guessed that the time it took for them to wake up was probably related to their Mental Power...

He took the small knife from his Hundred Treasure Box, summoned dice in his mind, and determined the event. "It points in the direction of Yuan Shouzhen."

This time, the dice finally spun!

Two results: one is 8 points, and the other is 54 points.

Although it failed, it confirms that Master is indeed in this space!

Luo Jun had a better understanding of the situation, then suddenly leaped upwards, clearing the towering tree canopy, and finally saw the entire space.

This is an ancient city nestled in a rainforest. The outermost ring where Luo Jun is located is a lush primeval jungle. A few kilometers further in, you can start to see stone buildings. As you go deeper, the buildings become more and more numerous and taller, overlapping and staggered, like a huge maze. And at the very center of the maze is a huge pyramid.

After two days of investigation, Luo Jun learned that in the Ancient Parami Civilization, pyramids were the tombs of emperors, normally built in the wilderness far from cities. Why was this pyramid built in the very center of the city?

After landing back on the ground, Luo Jun picked up the branch, looked at the three dice rolls left and the little over a thousand experience points for leveling up, and decided to roll one more time.

After all, in this strange and unfamiliar world, it's always better to be cautious in everything you do.

"Ding! Event Difficulty 100 points, Final Points 88 + 15 points, Event Success!"

We finally succeeded!

As the knife fell onto the sand, it eventually pointed towards the city center, towards the pyramids.

It really was there!

"Ding, event complete. 100 base experience points, difficulty level 7x, 700 Experience Points points gained!"

Seven times?

Luo Jun was somewhat surprised. Just pointing in one direction had a difficulty level seven times higher?

While the success of receiving directions does have some impact on whether one can find Master, it's certainly not the deciding factor... Even so, with Severity Coefficient of seven times, doesn't that mean the difficulty factor of finding Master itself is likely twelve times the maximum?

Although his Master was indeed the most important person to him, given the high Severity Coefficient of the situation, Luo Jun had a feeling that finding his Master was not as simple as just rescuing him.

As he was pondering, a groan came from beside him. Turning his head, he saw that Zhuge Chi had also woken up. Seeing that 'Night' had woken up earlier than him, this Peak was obviously a little surprised, and his gaze towards Luo Jun became more scrutinizing.

After Zhuge Chi, the others also woke up one after another, with only a few seconds between them.

Luo Jun briefly explained the current situation to them and tried to guide them to explore in the direction of the pyramids.

Actually, there's no need for guidance. That thing is the most eye-catching thing in the entire space, and a normal person's first reaction would definitely be to go and take a look. There's a high probability that Old Yuan and the others are there too.

"This is a closed space." Mu Ning used her detection ability to sense the surrounding environment. "The entire space is blocked by a hemispherical barrier. If we walk a few hundred meters away from the pyramid, we will be blocked and we will not be able to get out."

"Can you find out what's going on over at the pyramids?" Ma Lei asked.

Mu Ning shook her head. "That pyramid seems to be shrouded in some kind of mysterious force. As I get closer, my Perception Ability is greatly limited. Basically, once I enter the city area, I can't detect anything."

"Trapped...?" Zhuge Chi sighed. "Then we can only go to the pyramids and take a look. It would be best if we could find Old Yuan. They entered several days earlier than us, and they might have already made some discoveries."

"Where's our guide?" Jin Fei asked Ophelia. "Does he have any objections?"

Ophelia shook her head slightly. "All information about Amgilla comes from Myth, and the descriptions are vague. If we enter the city, perhaps we can find more clues."

Since they were in agreement, they decided to act without delay and, after a short rest, set off towards the pyramids.

The area was densely wooded and had complex terrain, but the group consisted of top-notch experts who moved with incredible speed, swiftly overcoming any beasts or monsters they encountered. They dealt with them in no time and arrived at the edge of the city a few minutes later.

"It really looks like a maze..." Jin Fei looked up at the huge building in front of him. "It doesn't seem that big from a distance, but it's really huge up close."

"The city streets are all winding and twisting," O'Toss said, gazing into the depths of the city. "If we keep going like this, we don't know when we'll get there... Let's go from the rooftops!"

Before he finished speaking, Luo Jun had already leaped up and climbed to the roof of the nearest building.

The building is very tall. From a distance, it looks like it has only three floors, but when you get closer, each floor is four or five meters high. Although it is severely weathered, you can still see the once magnificent decorations. The three floors, including the attic on the roof, are as high as seventeen or eighteen meters.

However, this level of height is not a challenge for those who are skilled in the Heart Refining Realm.

Luo Jun stood on the rooftop, his brow furrowed slightly, looked ahead at the even taller buildings in the city center, shook his head, and returned to the ground.

"Let's stick to the ground," Luo Jun suggested. "We can't get through on the roof."

"What do you mean by that?" O'Toss glared at him. "Didn't you just climb up there? You could have just jumped back and forth on the roof!"

Luo Jun glanced at him. "You can go up and give it a try."

O'Toss frowned and, imitating Luo Jun, scrambled onto the building in front of him and began to climb. At first, he was quite fast, leaping up seven or eight meters in a single step, but once he was on the second-floor windowsill, he stopped moving.

"What is he doing?" The others were wondering when they saw O'Toss's body begin to sway slightly, as if he was gathering strength. Finally, he suddenly exerted his strength and jumped up two or three meters, grabbing the edge of the wall between the second and third floors. However, climbing any higher was extremely difficult. In the end, before he even reached the third-floor windowsill, he fell uncontrollably and crashed to the ground with a thud.

"Something's wrong! This place is too eerie!" the guy yelled as soon as he got up. "Why does it feel like the higher we go, the harder it is to mobilize our vital energy, and the gravity has increased so much..."

Is this even possible? Everyone else tried it too, but apart from Zhuge Chi, no one else managed to climb to the top of the building.

"This place is clearly under some kind of restriction..." Zhuge Chi analyzed, "The higher the altitude, the greater the restrictions..."

"That's probably why I can't detect it," Mu Ning said. "I can sense that the closer we get to the city center, the stronger this force becomes."

Zhuge Chi nodded, raised his hand and struck the building beside him. Ripples appeared on the white wall, but there was no sign of damage.

"This building is blessed by some kind of divine power, so it can withstand enormous gravity. However, intruders are not protected. As gravity increases, they might be injured even if they just stand on the roof, let alone climb up it."

At this point, he looked at Luo Jun with some surprise, thinking to himself that when Ye had just climbed up, his movements were so fluid and effortless, showing no signs of being affected. Although he could also climb to the rooftop, he didn't know he could do it as easily and effortlessly as Ye.

Little did he know that the guy in front of him, even with his vital energy completely sealed, still Root Bone thousands of times stronger than that of an ordinary person!

Upon reaching the rooftop, Luo Jun did indeed feel immense gravity, but it wasn't enough to render him immobile. However, he keenly sensed that the further he went towards the pyramid, the stronger the restriction became. Furthermore, the structures inside were taller and more difficult to climb. He estimated that he could only advance a few hundred meters at most by scaling walls and ridges before he could move an inch further. The others certainly couldn't keep up with him, and without the help of these experts, he would have a hard time rescuing his Master.

It seems the only way to navigate the maze is from the ground.

They followed the road into the city, and soon they saw a huge stone monument standing at the crossroads, with a passage inscribed on it in large Ancient Parami script. Ophelia stepped forward and translated it.

"Pilgrims who have traveled thousands of miles to Amgilla, now three paths lie before you: anger, lust, and greed. Only by choosing the path that suits you best can you reach your destination."

(End of this chapter)