"How was it?"
A full quarter-hour later, Xu Xiaoshou saw fine sweat beading on Xiao Kongtong's face and could not help asking.
"Big! Too big!"
Xiao Kongtong turned back without sheathing his sword, merely splitting off a thread of spiritual consciousness to reply. "The interior of this First Hall of Sin is truly far larger than I imagined. The Myriad Sword Technique I'm using searches extremely quickly, and I've accounted for every possible outcome, but even now, I still haven't found a proper answer."
"After all, this is the most laborious way to solve the problem," Xu Xiaoshou said thoughtfully.
As the senior disciple of Moon-Joining Immortal City, Xiao Kongtong's strength was beyond question.
In a quarter-hour, Xu Xiaoshou estimated that Xiao Kongtong had probably probed an area nearly half the size of the Forest of Miracles with Void small swords.
Yet there was still no result. Did that mean there was a possibility that there would be no result from here on out either?
"What if the maze only exists as a cover? What if it misleads people into focusing on solving the maze itself, only for them to discover in the end that the maze has nothing to do with the main hall?" Xu Xiaoshou rubbed his chin.
"That possibility cannot be ruled out." Mei Suren nodded, tapping his paper fan. "Perhaps breaking it with brute force would be easier than solving it with cleverness... Mm, I mean solving the problem."
"Brute force?" Xu Xiaoshou froze.
If Eldest Senior Brother's "immortal pointing the way" still counted as cleverness, what could be called truly barbaric?
"Perhaps splitting this hall apart with a single sword strike would trigger a stress response and reveal the path to the main hall," Mei Suren said, looking rather serious.
"..."
The moment those words