Sphinx (Two-in-One)
Shadow Labyrinth, Hub Hall.
Bai Xiaowen and his two companions continued forward. While Ahan was scouting ahead, Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi secretly opened the treasure chest that Leona had dropped.
Leona has a kill rating of A and has three chances to be drawn without missing a turn.
"You have obtained a special item: The Legend of the Abyss (Book)."
"You have obtained 7 Superior Psionic Crystal."
"You have obtained an equipment Enhancement Card: four-star."
Bai Xiaowen wasn't disappointed despite not getting Gold Equipment in the three draws. At least, the Four-Star Equipment Enhancement Card and Superior Psionic Crystal could be used to enhance equipment, which were exactly the kinds of useful items that Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi could use. Getting them wouldn't be a loss.
As for the book, "Legend of the Abyss," Bai Xiaowen glanced through it.
"What's written in the book?" Li Shuyi asked in the Team Channel.
Bai Xiaowen said, "This book tells the story of the Shadow Labyrinth that exists in the Glimmering Abyss. It devotes a lot of space to describing the dangers and opportunities within the Shadow Labyrinth. In the blank spaces of the book, there are also notes written by Leona when she was human."
Bai Xiaowen flipped through the pages and said, "Leona was originally a nun from the Church of Light. For some reason, she abandoned her original faith and began to pursue the power of the Abyss. These notes record her process of pursuing the power of the Abyss. Hmm, there's also information about Amotava and the Mysterious Will at the end... I understand why this special item has such a high priority for extraction. It turns out it's to give us some information for reference in this way."
Li Shuyi listened intently. "What intelligence?"
"Amotava is a legendary creature from the Black Tide Plane. It is said to have nine heads, a body as large as a mountain, and heads that reach into the clouds, level with the stars..." Bai Xiaowen shook his head and laughed, "Of course, that's an exaggeration, but there's no doubt that Amotava is extremely powerful."
After a pause, Bai Xiaowen continued, "While Amotava was wreaking havoc on humanity, an organization called the Fate Sect was born. Guided by the Prophecy Tablet, the warriors of the Fate Sect found Amotava's weakness, killed him, and sealed his remains in the Shadow Labyrinth beneath the Abyss. Subsequently, each warrior took a portion of the relics that had been peeled off Amotava's body as proof of their honor and brought them back to the Black Tide Continent."
"These relics are what are known as the ' Dragon's Eye,' ' Dragon's Fang,' ' Dragon's Heart,' and ' Dragon's Scale.' Later, these relics were lost and never mentioned again, so there's no need to say more about them."
"Let's start with the Fate Sect of Destiny. After killing Amotava, this cult experienced a major split. The prophet who held the Prophecy Tablet was brutally murdered. Following his master's dying wish, the prophet's disciples took the Prophecy Tablet to the Shadow Labyrinth and sealed it along with Amotava's remains, thus eliminating the source of the chaos."
Li Shuyi said, "So now, is Amotava going to be resurrected?"
"It can't be considered a resurrection," Bai Xiaowen turned to the last few pages of the book. "According to Leona's records, the 'master' she mentioned, which is the Mysterious Voice of the Awakened Game, is a being even more powerful than Amotava. He merely used Amotava's remains as a vessel to Sovereign Rule the Black Tide Continent ... So, Amotava's Remains should be considered some kind of container. I understand now; the other party needs to replenish Amotava's remains to make the container as complete as possible so that it can bear his power."
"So, the opponent only has the Dragon's Eye in your hand and the Dragon's Scale in Ahan's hand left, and they can 100% repair the remains?" Li Shuyi asked.
"That's right, his transformation is currently 80% complete, that's the result I saw with my Insight," Bai Xiaowen said. "I also have one more suspicion: that mysterious being probably knows about our Awakened outsider identities and has Storage Space. Unless I voluntarily hand over the ' Eye of Amotava,' he won't get it even if he kills me."
Li Shuyi suddenly realized. "That's why he went to such lengths to create this ' Awakened Game' —just to trick you into willingly handing over your eyes."
Bai Xiaowen nodded, then said with a touch of emotion, "Actually, if the other party uses reasonable means for a normal transaction, I'm not against giving him my eyeballs, as long as they can offer me something that satisfies me... The Black Tide Continent isn't Earth; even if I cause Floodwater, I can just walk away."
Li Shuyi could understand Bai Xiaowen's mentality. As awakened beings, they were basically all driven by profit in the Spirit Realm Plane. As long as they could gain enough benefits, they would not hesitate to become enemies with the entire world.
"But they don't have anything good to offer me in exchange," Bai Xiaowen concluded.
"When I pretended to pray earlier, I received a notification about ' Abyssal Infusion,' which can increase our strength. Not only does it raise our level by 1, but it can also upgrade our template," Li Shuyi said. "If we can get benefits like this, then we've hit the jackpot."
Bai Xiaowen laughed and said, "You're overthinking it... Well, this kind of enhancement is indeed possible, but the price is hard to say. You'd have to accept the other party's modification. If I'm not mistaken, the prerequisite for accepting this modification is to voluntarily dedicate your entire body and mind to the other party and become their most loyal servant... If we really do that, we might never be able to return to Earth again and can only live as special Spirit Realm beings."
Bai Xiaowen thought of the King of Fighters Universe, where the NESTS Organization's modification technology altered the target's memories and implanted orders of absolute loyalty to NESTS during the modification process. He had always been wary of such modifications.
Suddenly, Ahan in front stopped in his tracks.
"Another fork in the road has appeared. Come, Prophet, guide us in the right direction." Ahan chuckled as he uttered a somewhat cheesy line, with a touch of humor.
Bai Xiaowen stepped forward.
This is a three-way intersection, and in front of each fork in the road sits a statue. The statues are human-faced and animal-bodied, and they look strangely familiar.
"This is... the Sphinx??" Bai Xiaowen realized, "Could they talk?"
The riddle of the Sphinx is a story known even to children on Earth. However, the three Sphinx before us are clearly not something that can be solved by simply solving a riddle.
The Eye of Amotava radiates a verdant light, revealing a message on the dome:
Three guardians are before you
Guardians of the Path of Truth
Upholding the truth, remaining consistent
Guardians of the Path of Chatter
Sometimes real, sometimes fake, difficult to distinguish
Guardians of the Path of Death
Abandoning the truth and spouting lies
O lost traveler
You can tap the guardian's ear
Ask them where the truth lies.
But each guardian has limited patience.
I will only answer one question.
See through the illusion and get to the essence.
Make the most important choice of your life.
Hopefully this isn't the last choice.
The clue was quite long, and after reading it carefully twice, Bai Xiaowen said, "It's another reasoning problem. I've noticed that the builder of the Shadow Labyrinth really likes to play this game; we've solved several similar problems along the way."
"What does this text mean?" Ahan asked.
"These three Sphinx are the guardians mentioned in the inscription. The three paths behind them are called the Path of Truth, the Path of Chatter, and the Path of Death. Literally, the Path of Death should be a dead end leading to death, while the Path of Chatter should be a winding, endless road. We must take the Path of Truth."
After a pause, Bai Xiaowen continued, "The following text is crucial. The guardians of the Path of Truth will never lie. The guardians of the Path of Chatter may speak the truth or lie. But the guardians of the Path of Death, the exact opposite of the Path of Truth, will never tell the truth. Each guardian will answer one question. We need to think about how to ask them, obtain the corresponding logical information, and deduce the correct location of the Path of Truth."
Li Shuyi said, "There are three of us, plus Kitz, that makes four... If each person can get answers from the three guardians, can we ask a total of twelve questions?"
"You're overthinking it... We're a team, and we only have three chances to ask questions. We won't give you any more. Besides, there are probably restrictions on the questions we can ask. Multiple questions in one sentence, or asking for multiple pieces of information in one question, are invalid. Otherwise, this fork in the road would be too easy."
To verify his guess, Bai Xiaowen tapped the ear of the Sphinx and asked, "Where do these three paths lead? Which one is the Path of Truth, which one is the Path of Chatter, and which one is the Path of Death?"
The Sphinx no reaction, confirming the hypothesis.
Bai Xiaowen tapped her fingers lightly, pondering for a moment.
Li Shuyi and Ahan automatically entered "Salted Fish mode," looking at Bai Xiaowen.
"There is no Path of Truth asking questions; I can only try."
Bai Xiaowen stood up, walked to the Sphinx the first road, and tapped its ear. "What road is behind you?"
The stone of the Sphinx trembled, and as its mouth opened and closed, a slightly aged voice rang out:
"The sweat and tears of fools have soaked this path; all they get is meaningless repetition."
Bai Xiaowen turned to look at Li Shuyi: "The guardian of the first path claims to be the Path of Chatter, so it can't possibly be the guardian of the Path of Truth —the reason is simple: if it were the guardian of the Path of Truth, it certainly wouldn't lie."
Li Shuyi nodded, a little confused. She and Ahan had switched from "Salted Fish mode" to "666 mode".
Bai Xiaowen arrived at the Sphinx the second road, tapped its ear, and asked, "What was the first road?"
Sphinx's answer:
"The road was paved with the blood and Bone Shatter of the dead; they paid the ultimate price for their recklessness."
Bai Xiaowen squinted, strode towards the Sphinx of the third path, tapped his ear, and asked finally, "What is the first path?"
Sphinx's answer:
"The flowers of truth weave a garland of wisdom along the way, and following that path leads to the shore guided by destiny."
Bai Xiaowen breathed a sigh of relief, "Now it's easier to tell the difference."
Li Shuyi nodded and said, "Since the guardian of the third path says that the first path is the Path of Truth, it means that it lied, which also means that the third path is not the Path of Truth... Therefore, the Path of Truth must be the second path."
Bai Xiaowen nodded and said, "That's right. Based on the guardian's Path of Truth, we also know that the first path is the Path of Death, so the third path is the Path of Chatter.' Let's go, I feel like we're getting closer and closer to our destination."
The three of them continued forward along the second road.
It must be said that the interior of the Shadow Labyrinth is incredibly large. Even though the three of them had chosen the Path of Truth correctly, it still took them a very long time to walk there. Along the way, they encountered new Deep-Sea Snakefolk interceptors, but the Leader Tier Snakefolk did not reappear.
As Bai Xiaowen walked, he silently calculated the time. This was very simple and didn't require much brainpower; he only needed to check the cooldown status of the Rageclaw's ultimate skill, Suppression — Suppression a cooldown of up to 8 hours.
Bai Xiaowen and Li Shuyi Li Shuyi both truly felt the difficulty of the Black Tide Plane. They had both used up their ultimate skills, and if they encountered the three Snakefolk Boss Tier again before their cooldowns were over, it probably wouldn't be as easy to deal with as they had in the previous Nexus Hall.
It's important to know that among the remaining three Snakefolk Boss Tier, there is also a level 9 boss, Gerold.
Furthermore, those human Leader Tier and Elite Tier who have been bewitched by the mysterious will are probably being transformed at this moment. If they are transformed into Snakefolk, they will become another powerful force, and Bai Xiaowen and his companions will be in an even worse situation.
Finally, there's the big boss, the mysterious will residing within the Amotava's Remains. If it (gender/race unknown, let's use this term for now) were to disregard everything and forcibly descend using the current 80% of the vessel as its vessel, it would definitely become an extremely troublesome situation.
The only good news is that the mysterious will shouldn't descend so decisively until it determines that completing the wreckage is hopeless.
We walked forward for several hours, passing through several hub halls and eliminating several waves of Deep-Sea Snakefolk monsters, but the logical problems of the forks in the road that we encountered before never reappeared.
After passing through a downward passage, Bai Xiaowen suddenly looked up and whispered, "There's another large hall ahead... much larger than the hub hall we passed through, and I sensed the aura of some powerful individuals within it. Moreover, I can feel that they also possess similar Divine Might; we've been discovered."
"Should we wait a bit? Although the cooldown of the Demonfire Jade Pendant has long since ended, the skill attached to my golden weapon hasn't finished refreshing yet," Li Shuyi said softly.
Bai Xiaowen was facing a similar situation. The Howl skill of Rageclaw had been restored, but the ultimate skill Suppression still had about 2 hours of cooldown left, so his current state was not perfect.