The Tunnel

"It has been so long, yet I still cannot find a way out." Chen Beixun leaned against the stone wall, a sense of frustration and agitation welling up in his heart.

He had refused to give up, searching every corner of this space with An Changyan and exhausting every possible method. Even returning the small cube containing the secret technique had failed to provide an exit.

Leaning against the stone wall, Chen Beixun's gaze swept calmly over every corner of the space. He had repeated this process tens of thousands of times. His mind rapidly flipped through the memories in his brain, constructing one mind palace after another, hoping to find some clue.

He even tried to link irrelevant matters with key objects, piecing together things that were separate or even completely unrelated... yet there was still no clue.

He could not help but doubt himself, wondering if he had become a funerary object for this so-called 'World Master'. If this were a place of treasure, there should be a way out; no matter how difficult, it should never be a dead end.

Chen Beixun had ventured far and wide, encountering countless dangers. While this predicament did not count as the most dangerous, he had never seen such an unsolvable situation.

It was like the medieval 'witch trials', where the intent was simply to drive one to death. Take the medieval 'witch trials' as an example:

How does one judge if the other party is a witch? If they can stay underwater for an hour, they are not a witch.

Is an ordinary person capable of staying underwater for an hour? It was a complete dead end!

One might ask, why not study that secret technique? Perhaps the technique is the key to breaking the deadlock. Chen Beixun had thought of this too, but unfortunately, the technique had a password—three whole layers of passwords! Not only that, but there were also restrictive measures in place to prevent brute-force cracking.

"Ah!" An Changyan stood in the corner, her back against the stone wall, slowly sliding down. Clearly, she had already suffered a mental breakdown from the current situation.

"So annoying!" An Changyan sat in the corner, irritably twirling a strand of hair at her temple with her fingers.

Chen Beixun glanced at An Changyan sideways. He suddenly felt that this person was actually somewhat foolishly cute, and he couldn't help but laugh.

This scene was caught by An Changyan, who said indignantly: "What time do you think it is, and you're still laughing?!"

"Heh." Chen Beixun chuckled a few times, then said: "The sight of a lone man and a lone woman sharing a room reminds me of a night with torrential rain."

An Changyan: "?"

Chen Beixun smiled indifferently. Feeling uneasy, he suddenly felt a trace of relaxation.

The two looked at each other. The atmosphere became awkward.

Suddenly, Chen Beixun stood up with a smile on his face and said lazily: "What's wrong, Your Highness? A few days ago, you were still holding onto me. Are you tired of me now?"

An Changyan's pretty face flushed red, and she stammered: "I... I... I was just... scared, that's all. Don't get the wrong idea."

Seeing her put up such a brave front, Chen Beixun smirked and asked: "Do you want to?"

In an instant! A bolt of lightning flashed through An Changyan's mind.

A thunderous boom.

"You... you..." An Changyan wore a mournful expression, pointing her finger at him as if he were the most heinous criminal.

"Heh." Chen Beixun smirked while staring at her, then shrugged and said: "You said it yourself at the time."

He had done something spiteful, which had nothing to do with finding an exit, but it gave him a unique feeling and filled the void of his low spirits.

"Don't worry, Your Highness! I won't tell anyone about this," Chen Beixun said, flashing a sinister smile afterward.

An Changyan stared fixedly at his hateful, smiling face, thinking resentfully to herself: Damn bastard.

For a moment, she felt a sense of regret; she had lost both her dignity and her leverage, still failing to subdue him.

Seeing that she remained silent, Chen Beixun said in a helpless tone: "Fine! Since Your Highness is so indifferent, then I..." Before he could finish, An Changyan interrupted him in a panicked rush.

"Fine, fine, I'll listen to everything you say!" After saying this, An Changyan closed her eyes, buried her head deep, and muttered something to herself.

Seeing this, Chen Beixun sat on the ground, murmuring to himself: "Listen... to everything I say?"

"Yes!" An Changyan reacted as if struck by lightning, springing up like a switchblade.

She gestured wildly, listing his crimes, throwing out everything—relevant or not. The scene was as aggrieved as it could possibly be.

"Alright, alright!" Chen Beixun waved his hand, saying with some annoyance: "I'm telling you! Your Highness! You have a bit of a problem, don't you?"

"Get lost!" An Changyan cursed, then continued listing his crimes.

He acknowledged her talent for rhetoric, but stopped himself from arguing further, turning his head to the side and falling into a long, deep contemplation.

Seeing Chen Beixun ignore her like this, An Changyan felt angry—though it wasn't the first time—and began to curse loudly.

A young girl's temper is like a dark cloud; it comes quickly and goes just as fast. Before long, it dissipated.

Chen Beixun looked up, glanced at the now-calm An Changyan, and thought of an interesting idea. After deliberating for a few seconds, he exhaled and stood up.

An Changyan, leaning against the corner of the wall diagonally opposite, saw him stand up and turned her body to face the wall.

"Still angry?" Chen Beixun smiled. He walked over, and while speaking, reached out toward An Changyan's temple, stroking her hanging dark hair.

"I'm not usually like this," he said to himself. "Having lived for so long, I've rarely been deceived... uh... I remember on a commercial planet, I was swindled out of everything. I was only at the Planetary level then, lost all my savings, and was thrown onto a remote, scorching, uninhabited planet to fend for myself..."

An Changyan paused. In her mind, she recalled the intelligence report on Chen Beixun, and indeed, such an event had occurred.

But the difference was that in the report, Chen Beixun was the swindler; he had spent years accumulating vast wealth through fraud, only to be caught, have all his assets confiscated, and be exiled to an uninhabited planet.

"Is it a lie?" An Changyan clenched her fists. She couldn't help but ponder the authenticity of his words. She seemed somewhat anxious; she had been thinking for a long time, and Chen Beixun's words carried a bewildering sense of truth.

Everything he said seemed inconsistent with his character, like a clown who had spent his life using clumsy acting to make people laugh, only to suddenly create a world-renowned masterpiece one day.

An Changyan's eyes narrowed, flashing with a sharp edge as if she had caught a slip in his words. She turned her head impatiently, eager to expose him.

However, An Changyan was met with a gaze brimming with tears.

He... is crying? An Changyan froze. She never imagined that such a cold and heartless person could shed tears.

For a moment, this sharp-tongued and eloquent Highness was rendered speechless. She lowered her head, trying to avoid his gaze, her heart churning in a way that made it impossible to remain calm.

What has he been through? An Changyan shifted her posture to face him directly and reached out to stroke Chen Beixun's cheek.

Chen Beixun stopped speaking and leaned his face closer to her. The faint, delicate fragrance emanating from An Changyan made him reluctant to pull away.

An Changyan's feelings for him were quite strange. At first, she had wanted to recruit him, but she failed. She should have given up then, yet she remained stubbornly persistent. Now, An Changyan was slowly becoming even stranger, a situation driven by many factors—such as the fact that Chen Beixun was the only person who dared to ignore her.

"Your Highness," Chen Beixun said softly.

"Hmm?" An Changyan looked up, clearly a bit shy, but she quickly composed herself and said, "In the future, when we are alone, you don't have to call me Your Highness. Um... call me whatever you like."

Chen Beixun nodded.

Suddenly, a violent tremor shook the space.

Boom! Boom!

The exit they had entered through opened, and along with it, a narrow, unknown passage appeared directly opposite the exit.

"This!"

The two of them stood up at once, looking at each other in disbelief. The way out they had spent so long searching for was right before their eyes.

"Let's go!" An Changyan was very excited. She looked at Chen Beixun, waiting for him to point out the correct exit.

Chen Beixun fell silent. He felt something in the unknown passage calling out to him. Chen Beixun returned to his usual calm, his mind weighing the importance of leaving versus exploring the unknown.

"What's wrong?" An Changyan tugged at him.

Chen Beixun frowned, having made a decision. He looked at An Changyan, handed her the small cube containing the secret technique, and spoke as if giving a final request: "Give this to the Lotte Family, will you?"

"Ah? Are you not coming with me?" An Changyan asked, looking into his earnest eyes.

Chen Beixun did not speak; he simply released the twenty-one guards from his World Ring.

At this moment, An Changyan realized that Chen Beixun was serious.

"Don't do this!" An Changyan grabbed his hand and hissed.

Chen Beixun shook off An Changyan's hand and shouted to Moluo among the guard team: "Moluo, I entrust the safety of Her Highness An to you! I have already sent you the coordinates for the exit."

Moluo: "Yes! But, Your Highness, what about you?"

Chen Beixun frowned slightly and said: "Do not ask!"

"Why!" An Changyan's heart felt unbalanced for a moment; she did not understand why Chen Beixun had suddenly changed like this.

Chen Beixun gave her a faint look, then shoved the captured E-grade weapon into her hands. He turned and charged into the unknown passage.

An Changyan stared blankly at Chen Beixun's disappearing figure.

"Your Highness An, let's go!" Moluo said. "His Highness has a Domain Lord-level plant lifeform!"

An Changyan did not speak. She suddenly felt that everything she had done was no different from worthless fantasy.

"I hope you can come back... If you return, come to my family." An Changyan walked toward the exit, looking back at the passage from time to time.

Meanwhile, Chen Beixun shuttled through the crisscrossing, net-like passages.

"Almost there!" Chen Beixun's gaze was like lightning as he stepped onto the Gold Cloud Shuttle and flew rapidly, like a streak of golden light.