Life Diary

Zhuge Gan's Diary looks thin, but when you flip through it, it's very thick, seemingly endless.

The former head of the Zhuge Family was probably over seventy years old when he disappeared. Judging from the contents of the first page, he obtained this diary in his middle age, and it must have contained tens of thousands of pages of records over the decades.

Of course, daily diaries usually don't contain much useful information; they're basically just about what I ate that day, who I met, and what Lineage matters I handled. Occasionally, they'll record some important events, such as a younger member of the clan getting married, a child being born, or an elder passing away, etc.

Well, most of the diaries seem to be about the life experiences of an ordinary old man. Major events in the cultivation world are rarely mentioned, and even when they are, they are mostly mentioned in passing. There are no secrets that everyone is looking forward to.

"The contents of Life Diary can be modified..." Zhuge Zi said, "You can add to it or delete from it, but no matter how you modify it, the entries in the diary must be true; false things cannot be recorded in the diary."

In other words, the Old Man may have deleted some content he didn't want people to see, so there's probably no clue about his earlier life experiences. Everyone flipped through the pages and finally, after skipping countless pages, they came across the record about the maze.

"I've entered the Endless Maze. I heard Old Yuan mention it not long ago; a young girl from the Hell Creek Family of the Federation went through this mission. According to current intelligence, this maze hasn't been cleared yet... I wonder if I'll be able to get out."

"There were eight people who came in with me: three Rogue Cultivator, three officials from the Yuan Cultivation Society, and two scions of the Great Family. One was Chen Jin from the Vermillion Bird Town Chen Family, and the other was Ling Yue from the Ling Family... I heard Ling Ao mention this girl before; she seems to be a rising genius of the Ling Family, having joined the clan at the age of twenty, with a limitless future."

"After a brief discussion, we decided to explore together. However, this maze is too large, and the walls are exceptionally hard, immune to energy attacks. The nine of us tried various methods, even my Penetrating Cannon, which could only leave a mark a little over half a foot deep on the wall, far from penetrating it. Moreover, the damage to the wall heals itself automatically, so it cannot accumulate at all."

"Unfortunately, although I am at my Peak, as Illusion Faction, physical destructive power is my weakness. I wonder if I could break through the barrier if it were someone with the kind of Violence output like Old Yuan."

At this point, everyone looked at Old Yuan, Old Yuan shrugged and said, "I've tried it too. The protective energy basically dissipates upon contact with the wall. With just a pair of bare fists, you can't budge it an inch..."

"Indeed..." Zhuge Zi nodded. "Even with Noble Phantasms, energy-based attacks are basically ineffective, and physical attacks, even with their accompanying attack effects, are useless. Grandpa's Penetrating Cannon is a rare, purely physical damage Noble Phantasm, and a legendary one at that, with all its functions enhanced by direct destructive power. If even that can't be shaken, breaking through a wall is basically out of the question."

Hearing what everyone was saying, Luo Jun looked at his Hundred Treasure Box.

Because Old Yuan was always by his side, he didn't try to break through the wall. However, without the aid of Yuan Qi, it would be difficult for him to break through the wall with just his physical body... But if he used the Myriad Jun Hammer...

However, even if we could successfully destroy it, without a target, smashing a few walls in such a large maze would be pointless. Besides, the walls have Self-healing capabilities, so the damage wouldn't accumulate. Let's wait until we get more information.

The group continued flipping through the pages, and the next few days were spent exploring the maze. They discovered two relics, which they exchanged for supplies, but these were far from enough to sustain the nine of them.

Finally, after five days, the team began to fall apart, and everyone decided to split up and act separately. Whether they could find supplies depended entirely on their own abilities. Every week, they would return to the point where they parted ways to share information; if they didn't return, it was assumed that they had died in the maze.

As the most powerful Peak Expert, Zhuge Gan was naturally a sought-after asset. In the end, everyone drew lots to decide that Chen Jin would be paired with him.

"Today is the seventh day since we entered the maze, and the second day since we split up."

"I don't know if it's just my imagination, but I feel like my luck has improved since we separated. This morning I found a relic and exchanged it for supplies, and this afternoon I encountered a treasure chest. That treasure chest was Protection by a group of Man-eating Monster Flower, Chen Jin used his ability to burn the flower bushes clean, and we easily opened the treasure chest. Inside were three Silver Ingot and a bunch of copper coins."

"Killing monsters before would drop similar ancient coins, but I don't know what they're used for. However, the quest rules say there's a shop in the dungeon, so could these be used to buy things there?"

"Today is the eighth day since we entered the maze, and the third day since we split up."

"Great, we stumbled upon an Endless Shop today. We exchanged the Silver Ingot and copper coins we've collected over the past few days for over five thousand yuan and browsed the product catalog. Sure enough, there's a clue about the exit, but it costs one hundred thousand yuan and only indicates the direction of the exit for one hour. It seems leaving from here will be more difficult than we imagined."

"There's no other way, let's focus on surviving first. We spent over a thousand to exchange for three days' worth of food each. We don't know when we'll encounter a store again, but we can't store all this stuff in our Hundred Treasure Box, and buying too much is inconvenient to carry. If we eat sparingly, we should be able to last a week."

Upon reading this, both Ma Qiao and Sun Xiaowei looked at Luo Jun.

It has to be said that Luo Jun's storage space artifact was incredibly convenient; without it, they wouldn't have been able to exchange for so many supplies at once.

Of course, it's not just that; there are also badges worth three thousand coins every day, a video recorder that can record maps... These equipment combinations mean they basically have no survival pressure.

Judging from the diary entries, the group's operation was forced to break up into smaller groups within a few days due to a shortage of survival resources. However, Luo Jun's special abilities and skillful maneuvering allowed him to easily support a four-person team, as if he had prepared for this maze in advance...

Could it be that he knew about the mission beforehand and had made a plan?

Continuing to flip through the pages, nothing particularly noteworthy happened for the next few days, until the twelfth day.

"Today is the twelfth day since we entered the maze, and the seventh day since we split up."

"We returned to the place where we parted ways as agreed, and waited for a day. The other four groups also returned."

"We were divided into five groups before. Besides my group, there were three pairs: two officials in one group, two Rogue Cultivator in another, and one official and one Rogue Cultivator pair. As for Ling Yue from the Ling Family, she volunteered to be in her own group. This time, apart from Chen Jin and me, Ling Yue and the official group and the Rogue Cultivator pair all returned in their entirety, while only the Rogue Cultivator from the paired group came back."

"According to her, they encountered a powerful monster, the official was killed, and she barely escaped with her life."

"While expressing our regret, we also exchanged information. Apart from us, none of the other groups encountered a shop, so it seems that shops are not common in the maze."

"However, Ling Yue found a treasure chest, which happened to contain a lot of supplies, so there's no need to worry about food shortages for the time being."

"The two officials looked to be in very poor condition. They only found one relic, exchanged it for some limited supplies, and managed to hold on until now. We gave them some food, and they've managed to survive."

"As for the surviving Rogue Cultivator... her A Liang. Perhaps because she was alone and the resource pressure was relatively low, she seems to be in pretty good condition. However, she seems to have been frightened and is somewhat absent-minded."

"This also puzzles me. The monsters we've encountered along the way, while not exactly weak, shouldn't pose too much of a challenge for most cultivators at the Heart Refining Realm. If we couldn't defeat them, we could at least avoid them or escape. That official was a sheriff from a major city with considerable combat experience, so how was he killed?"

"Under our persistent questioning, A Liang replied that the monster she encountered this time was completely different from the ones before. It was a monster with an irregular body and a bizarre appearance that made people feel physically uncomfortable."

"Indeed, while the monsters in the maze are bizarre and varied, their shapes are relatively harmonious and regular. The monsters she described are quite different in style, more like Chaos Creature."

"Chaos Creature occasionally appear in Chaos Mission, but this usually means that the Chaos Mission has been corrupted... Could it be that the reason this Endless Maze has remained uncompleted is due to the intervention of Chaos Creature?"

... Upon reading this, Luo Jun looked at Old Yuan with some surprise. "Isn't it normal for Chaos Creature to appear in Chaos Mission?"

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at him in surprise, and Ma Qiao even shouted, "You kid, you don't happen to encounter Chaos Creature on every mission, do you?"

"It's not that bad..." Luo Jun waved his hand. The last time he encountered the Chaos Creature Chaos Creature was at Playground Number Six, where he almost got tricked by them. And then there was the first time at the Midnight Hotel; now that he thought about it, it was probably full of Chaos Creature... If Midnight Hotel counts, they had met not long ago...

"Your situation is rather special," Old Yuan waved his hand and said, "Your first mission was 'Rules Horror,' which are usually missions in areas heavily invaded by Chaos Creature. So the rules you saw often contained contradictions, and even traps."

"We call those twisted creatures Chaos Creature because they only exist within Chaos Mission. Although their names both contain the word 'Chaos,' Chaos Creature and Chaos Mission are fundamentally opposed; Chaos Creature always tend to invade and tamper with the rules of Chaos Mission."

"Generally speaking, the rules of Chaos Mission should be clear and logical. Only after the quest is invaded by Chaos Creature and corrupted will contradictions and false rules arise, leading to a significant increase in the Mission Difficulty."

"So, all the supernatural quests Rules Horror have been corrupted?" Luo Jun suddenly realized.

"You could say that 'Rules Horror' is the most corrupted of the Chaos Mission, having lost its original mission characteristics. All the rules now only point to survival." Mao Xintong explained, "The rules in the mission will try their best to ensure the participants' survival, but at the same time, the invading Chaos Creature will try their best to lure the participants into traps. Therefore, the gap between the upper and lower limits in 'Rules Horror' is extremely large. If you take the right path, an ordinary person may survive, while making the worst choice can lead to utter destruction for even a master."

"So, does that mean the maze was also contaminated?" Luo Jun thought of the strange creature that dropped the Gold Ingot and the thugs and merchants in the Black Shop. He had thought these Chaos Creature were just oddly shaped monsters, but he didn't expect them to be signs of contamination.

"That's normal," Old Yuan nodded. "If it were an ordinary mission, there's no reason why no one would have been able to solve it for so many years."

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"Let's not dwell on this, let's continue reading the diary!" Ma Qiao suggested.

The group continued flipping through the pages. After exchanging information, Zhuge Gan and the others separated again. Zhuge Gan kindly asked A Liang if she wanted to team up with him, but she refused and chose to continue exploring alone.

Over the next few days, nothing particularly unusual happened. Zhuge Gan continued exploring and collecting supplies to sustain himself.

At first, they arranged to meet regularly, but soon, the other groups stopped returning, and the area around the meeting point was almost completely explored.

During this time, they encountered black shops, killed Chaos Monster, saw the introduction to the Void Pass, and concluded that the combination of Black and White Shops could help them leave the Endless Maze.

But no matter how hard they tried to kill monsters, search for treasure, and solve puzzles, they couldn't earn enough money to exchange for the final treasure.

Finally, after more than a month, only four survivors remained.

Zhuge Gan, Chen Jin, Ling Yue, and A Liang.

Somewhat surprisingly, A Liang, who lost his partner in the first few days and explored alone, actually survived.

After discussing it, the four decided to leave the area.

Over the next few days, they acted as a group, exploring and entering new areas. Initially, the areas were similar to the previous ones, with monsters and shops, and then...

"Huh?" Zhuge Zi, who was in charge of turning the pages, was taken aback, because after a certain page, the diary had been torn up...

All that's visible are the stubble left after tearing; there are a dozen or so pages in total. The pages below are all clean, without any writing.

Clearly, those dozen or so pages that were torn out were the last records of Zhuge Gan's life!

"This Senior Zhuge is too much of a tormentor!" Ma Qiao exclaimed angrily, "We're about to see the crucial part, why did he tear it up?"

"He didn't tear this!" Luo Jun shook his head and said.

"How do you know it isn't?" Ma Qiao asked.

Luo Jun knew, of course, that since Zhuge Gan had specifically wanted to keep this diary, he must have intended to convey a message; why would he have torn it up himself?

The only possibility is that someone, or something, destroyed the diary after his death!

But this diary was inside the Hundred Treasure Box; how could anyone else have destroyed it?

No... Luo Jun frowned and looked at Zhuge Zi: "Could you try to put this diary into the Hundred Treasure Box?"

Zhuge Zi nodded, tried it, and then looked surprised. "Unable to collect..."

"As expected!" Luo Jun narrowed his eyes. "Strictly speaking, the relics in this maze shouldn't be considered Hundred Treasure Box, but rather some kind of maze prop that simulates Hundred Treasure Box. Even the treasures that were opened from the Hundred Treasure Box are fakes made to resemble the originals! This is why these treasures can't be taken out of the maze, and why the relics can't be opened with lock-picking tools—because these aren't real treasures at all!"

"You mean..." Mao Xintong frowned, "This diary was also created by the maze, and these missing pages were torn out during the copying process?"

"Very likely." Luo Jun nodded. "And this precisely shows that important information is hidden in those last dozen or so pages that were torn out!"

"But it's too late no matter how important it is..." Sun Xiaowei said dejectedly, "We'll never see it..."

"On that point, I don't think so," Luo Jun shook his head. "Have you considered this: if you want to hide information, why not just destroy the entire diary instead of only hiding these crucial pages?"

"Could it be a restriction imposed by the mission rules?" Zhuge Zi asked Luo Jun.

"I don't think it's entirely..." Luo Jun said, "Since this mission has been confirmed to be contaminated by Chaos Creature, it means that the rules we see are not entirely accurate. Moreover, under these rules, there are at least two forces vying for power: the mission itself and the invading Chaos Creature."

"The mission itself should be aimed at getting us out, so it will provide us with assistance. The functions mentioned in the explicit rules should all belong to this side."

"As for the Chaos Creature, they probably want to kill us. They're not written into the rules, so they're causing trouble in secret. If I'm not mistaken, the Black Shop that's not mentioned in the rules, and the Void Monster Army that Sister Mao saw, should all be from this side."

"Currently, it seems the Chaos Creature tore up the diary. The reason it wasn't completely destroyed is most likely due to obstacles posed by the mission itself. If this incomplete diary is indeed a product of the clash between the powers and authority of the good and evil sides, then I have a bold guess..."

At this point, Luo Jun picked up the diary and looked at everyone. "If the maze itself wants to maintain its original rules, it will definitely try its best to preserve the complete diary. These missing pages might appear in other forms!"

(End of this chapter)