Map Activated

After exchanging for the Personal Map from the Endless Shop, Old Yuan had sent messages to others explaining that there were exit clues in the shop. For the next dozen or so hours, no one sent any more messages.

The sudden arrival of this information suggests that important intelligence has been discovered.

"It was sent by Mao Xintong." The source of the information could be determined through the Talisman Paper. After activating Old Yuan's Talisman Paper lit up with a light and projected an image.

The image is focused on a Dead Alley, only a few meters wide. Deep inside the alley, a group of bizarrely shaped monsters march past, but they are not moving along the alley. Their formation is perpendicular to the alley, emerging from the right wall and casually disappearing into the opposite wall.

Passing through walls? Aren't the walls of a maze impassable? Judging from this, these monsters seem like intangible phantoms.

The effects weren't over yet. Two or three seconds later, the camera began to move rapidly to the left, quickly reaching a corner dozens of meters away. From the corner, you could see the group of ghosts continuing to advance, passing through the wall and effortlessly disappearing into the opposite wall.

Finally, the camera shifts, revealing a wall that seems to stretch endlessly in both directions, suggesting there's no way around it, and the direction the procession is heading is unclear.

The video ends here.

"What kind of monsters are these?" Ma Qiao asked confused, "How did they get through the wall? Where did the team lead? What were they doing? Why didn't Mao Xintong say a word or even an explanation?"

"She probably can't say," Old Yuan frowned. "Look at her on camera, she's obviously being sneaky, and she's barely making any noise when she moves... Those monsters must be very sensitive to sound. If she makes a sound, it will cause trouble."

"What can you tell just by sending an image?" Sun Xiaowei pouted.

"These monsters are the problem in themselves." Luo Jun stroked his chin. "The rules emphasize that walls are impassable, yet they've all walked through them in droves. That must be some kind of hint..."

"You mean, the direction these teams are heading might be the exit?" Sun Xiaowei asked in surprise.

"It might not be the exit, but it's definitely some special location." Luo Jun shook his head. "And it might not be the direction they came from; it could be the direction they came from..."

Sun Xiaowei shook her head. "But the problem is, everything in the maze looks pretty much the same. Just looking at this short clip, you can't tell their exact location, let alone determine their direction of travel."

"Direction..." Luo Jun frowned, recalling seeing an Absolute Compass in the brochure of the Endless Shop. Such a small item cost over two thousand coins, and Luo Jun hadn't seen any use for it, so he hadn't considered exchanging for it. Now, however, he realized that the ability to indicate direction in a maze was quite important; no wonder it was so expensive.

"Regardless, this is at least a clue." Old Yuan clapped his hands. "If we encounter a similar situation, we can consider investigating it. For now, let's continue exploring."

The group nodded and were about to leave when Luo Jun's ears suddenly twitched. "Wait, there's something ahead."

"Hmm?" Upon hearing this, everyone became alert, picking up their weapons and standing guard. After a while, they finally heard rustling sounds coming from ahead. Looking up, they saw a slender, humanoid figure emerging from the depths of the maze.

The maze's ceiling was five or six meters high, and the figure's head was touching the ceiling, even tilted to the side.

Although it has a human-like body structure, it is entirely grayish-white, without any hair or wrinkles, and its surface is smooth, looking like Game model without textures. This thing might seem comical in Game, but seeing it in reality, especially in such a dimly lit maze, is truly terrifying.

"What monster?" Ma Qiao sneered, picked up a shotgun, and fired at the Ghost Shadow figure. Two bangs rang out, and the bullets dented more than ten times on the Ghost Shadow's smooth skin, but soon the dents healed, pushing the bullets out.

"The shooting failed?" Ma Qiao was stunned. Sun Xiaowei, who was standing next to him, put her hands together and conjured a robot about the height of a person. Her hands transformed into chainsaws and she charged towards the monster.

The monster seemed not to see the robot and continued walking forward. The robot's chainsaws spun rapidly on both hands and slashed down at the monster's thigh!

Hiss hiss hiss!

A deafening cutting sound rang out as the monster's legs twisted and deformed under the sharp saw blades, stretched and tangled into the shaft until the machine jammed and finally stopped.

Looking at the monster again, it seemed oblivious to the attack, continuing to move forward slowly. The cutting robot was entangled in the flesh of its leg and couldn't break free, so it was hung on the monster's leg and dragged along.

"So difficult to deal with?" Everyone was dumbfounded.

"This flexible structure, which can be stretched at will, is extremely resistant to physical attacks." Old Yuan frowned. "You all step back!"

The three immediately retreated behind Old Yuan, who then put on his Eight Trigrams Finger Tiger. With a clink of his fists, a thick pillar of fire erupted, filling the entire corridor in front of him and instantly engulfing the monster!

The raging flames lasted for more than ten seconds, causing the cheeks of the people behind them to flush, and the temperature in the corridor rose sharply, far exceeding that of a sauna.

Feeling that it was about time, Old Yuan finally removed the pillar of fire. In the sweltering corridor, the tall, thin human figure, charred and smoking, had vanished, along with the robot wrapped around his thigh.

But the monster seemed to want to continue. It took another step forward with stiff steps, but as soon as it moved, its ankle could not bear the weight and broke. Its tall body crashed to the ground and fell to the ground with a crash, scattering into pieces.

"I thought it was some kind of powerful monster..." Ma Qiao breathed a sigh of relief, "Once we find its weakness, it's not that difficult to deal with."

"It's not that simple!" Luo Jun frowned. "Old Yuan Yuan's attack was extremely powerful. As Elemental School, I could feel it. Its intensity far exceeded that of any Elemental School expert I've ever seen!"

Luo Jun's words were half true and half false. Although he was not Elemental School, he had experienced the power of the Eight Trigrams Finger Tiger firsthand. Even if Old Yuan did not use his full strength in the maze, the fact that this monster could survive for so long and still retain its human form was enough to demonstrate its strength!

"Hey, look, what's that?" Sun Xiaowei suddenly pointed to the monster's mangled corpse, from which a faint golden light emanated.

"It looks like a treasure..." Ma Qiao was about to step forward when Old Yuan stopped him. "The Endless Maze is dangerous. Xiao Wei, use your abilities to go up and take a look."

Sun Xiaowei nodded, controlling her Mechanical Spider, Xiao Hei, to step forward, pry open the monster's charred remains, and pick out... Gold Ingot?

"What is this?" After confirming there was no danger, the group examined the Gold Ingot.

"Remember what the merchant said? Killing monsters yields currency," Luo Jun analyzed. "Could this be it?"

"Isn't it money?" Sun Xiaowei asked curiously.

"Maybe we can exchange this for something. Let's keep it for now." With that, Luo Jun put the Gold Ingot into his Equipment Pack, and the group continued forward into the maze.

It has to be said that the experience of this maze was unlike any mission Luo Jun had ever undertaken before. Other missions felt like having a sharp sword pointed at you from behind, forcing you to keep moving forward and race against time to complete the task.

But the pacing of this maze was so strange. When I first saw the description, I thought it would be a process of being constantly harassed by various traps and monsters. But what I actually did was spend most of the time in the maze encountering practically nothing except for various forks in the road and going up and down stairs...

The key point is that everyone knows this is Chaos Mission, and a notoriously difficult one that no one has ever cleared. While it's dangerous if monsters keep charging in, at least it provides some reassurance. But continuing forward without seeing a single ghost is unsettling and makes people more prone to overthinking. This is especially true for the relatively weaker Ma Qiao and Xiao Wei, who are constantly on edge. As for Luo Jun, he's confident in his abilities, but the problem is he came because Old Yuan is likely to die in this mission. While he's not too worried about his own safety, he's constantly watching Old Yuan, afraid of overlooking any danger, making him the most anxious of the group.

In this state of trepidation, the group walked for another ten hours or so. More than thirty hours had passed since they entered the maze, almost a day and a half.

However, Luo Jun's Dice of Heavenly Secrets hadn't refreshed, indicating that less than three hours had passed in the outside world...

But only he knows this; he can't tell anyone else.

In a relatively spacious room, the group ate some more. They had used up about a third of their ten-day supply. This was partly because they were worried about not finding a new supply point and had been quite frugal, and partly because there hadn't been any fighting along the way, just traveling. For Cultivators, the physical exertion was quite low, so they didn't really need to eat much.

"When will this ever end...?" Ma Qiao complained. "If you ask me, let's open the map and see what's around here. That way we can get more information."

"Opening the map is fine..." After so much time, Luo Jun was getting a little impatient. "But based on previous experience, there might not be any encounter points within this kilometer radius... After we finish opening it, we need to move as fast as possible and cover as large an area as possible."

"No problem!" As Martial Combat Faction, Ma Qiao was confident in his speed. "But you, an Elemental School, can you keep up with us?"

"That's easy," Luo Jun laughed. "I'll lead the way with the map, and you guys just follow me."

"No problem." Ma Qiao and Sun Xiaowei subconsciously regarded Luo Jun as the one with the lowest cultivation level and did not take him seriously at all. They agreed readily, while only Old Yuan smiled without saying a word.

After a quick stretch, Luo Jun took out his Personal Map: "Ready?"

The error-free version can be read at 69 Book Bar! 6=9+shuba is the first site to publish this novel.

"Alright!" Ma Qiao replied confidently.

"Okay!" Luo Jun nodded and activated the map. Suddenly, a spherical Stereoscopic Projection appeared in front of it, depicting an intricate maze structure. The light spot in the very center represented the location on the map.

The group quickly scanned the area and found no unusual locations within a one-kilometer radius.

Sure enough, the maze was much larger and more spacious than Luo Jun had imagined.

"Charge!" Luo Jun gave the order and took the lead, running out first.

"Wow, that's pretty fast!" Ma Qiao exclaimed, watching Luo Jun sprint like a cheetah, and followed closely behind. Old Yuan followed closely behind. Although he was old, his Foundation Establishment, made his physical abilities top-notch in the entire cultivation world, so keeping up with Luo Jun, who was holding back, was naturally no problem.

Sun Xiaowei, on the other hand, wasn't known for her stamina, and she found it difficult to keep up when running. However, she had a solution: she used her ability to conjure a bicycle and rode it to catch up with the others.

Bicycles are relatively simple in structure, and for Sun Xiaowei, who is good at simulating Mechanical Body, making one wasn't too difficult. Although her physical strength was somewhat lacking, she was still Cultivators. The maze was flat, without even a slope, and she pedaled the bike very fast, managing to keep up with the others.

As the group ran, they suddenly noticed a special mark on the 3D map in front of Luo Jun!

"There's something here!" Ma Qiao alerted. "Stop and take a look!"

"That's a monster, there's nothing to stop here for..." Luo Jun said without turning his head.

"You can kill monsters and sell them for money!"

"Sure, but it's not worth wasting time!" Luo Jun said. "I've written it down; I'll come back to find it after this is over!"

"You... you remembered it?" Ma Qiao looked incredulous. "This maze is so complicated, do you think you're a computer...?"

To everyone's surprise, Luo Jun raised his hand, revealing a small camera.

"Although it's just Common-level Noble Phantasm, it has unlimited power, can take photos and record videos, and the images are clear and reliable. The only drawback is that when traveling between worlds, the information recorded in the previous world will be deleted."

"Is this even possible?" The three of them were stunned, but since they had already made a record, there was no reason to waste precious time on a monster, so they could only follow Luo Jun and continue running wildly.

The spherical map kept refreshing, and soon, one encounter point after another appeared on the screen, including monsters, traps, relics, and shops.

There were more encounter points than Luo Jun had imagined, but without instructions, if he wandered around the maze, he might easily miss them, even if they were right above or under his feet.

That five thousand yuan was well spent!

As time ticked by, the camera recorded location after location. Luo Jun was pleased, but Ma Qiao behind him was finding it hard to keep up.

While Luo Jun's pace wasn't exactly Ma Qiao's Limit, it wasn't something he could maintain for long. He could keep up the pace for ten or twenty minutes straight, but after that, he started to feel fatigued.

However, as Martial Combat Faction, he was too embarrassed to suggest slowing down. He initially planned that once Luo Jun slowed down himself, or even if he brought out a vehicle, he would have a reason to ask to slow down. But he hadn't expected that Luo Jun, an Elemental School, could maintain such a high speed without even panting, running like that for over half an hour?

What kind of stamina is that?

Just then, he heard heavy breathing. Ma Qiao turned around and saw Sun Xiaowei struggling to pedal her bicycle, her face covered in sweat...

Ma Qiao's eyes lit up, and he immediately shouted, "Let's slow down, the little girl can't hold on much longer..."

Upon hearing this, Luo Jun turned around and saw that Sun Xiaowei was indeed tired. This girl's foundation wasn't very solid to begin with, and she wasn't Martial Combat Faction, so keeping up with this speed was indeed a bit difficult for him.

"Then we..." Luo Jun was about to suggest slowing down when Sun Xiaowei suddenly glared at him. "No, we can't let me hold everyone back!"

As she spoke, she circulated her vital energy, and the bicycle beneath her began to transform, turning into an electric scooter in just a few seconds. Now she didn't need to pedal anymore; she could easily keep up with the speed by twisting her little hand.

"Well done, Senior!" Luo Jun praised, tossing over the Qi Storage Spirit Stone to replenish Sun Xiaowei's depleted energy. Xiao Wei took a breath, her complexion becoming rosier. She accelerated to keep pace with Luo Jun, leaving Ma Qiao alone at the back of the group to fight the wolves...

"Hey girl... how about you conjure one for me too?"

"It doesn't have to be electric, a bicycle will do..."

(End of this chapter)