As if he finally reached the point, Ichikishimahime floated down from above, with his hands behind his back, he circled around Ning Xue.
Finally, she stopped in front of him, tilted her head to look at the monotonous mask, and spoke with a smile.
"It's very simple!"
She raised her hand and pointed at the stone wall behind him - it was a wall covered with grooves of different sizes, with different shapes and irregular arrangements.
She pointed at the colored stones of different shades scattered on the ground, her tone brisk as if she was inviting him to play a game.
"Just fill all the holes in the wall."
Ning Xue lowered his head and kicked a stone beside his feet, making a crisp collision sound with a hint of surprise in his tone.
"Is it that simple?"
Ichikishimahime floated to his other side, bent down with his hands on his knees, looked up at his mask, and repeated it with a smile.
"It's that simple."
"No trap?"
"No, I am a very honest person."
As she spoke, the topic suddenly changed. There was a hint of danger in her voice, with an obvious hint of teasing, and her eyebrows were curved like a cunning arc.
"But... your Chakra is very cold and evil, which is my type."
"So, if you still don't finish it after you're exhausted..."
Halfway through her words, she suddenly turned her head. Her delicate face instantly became ferocious, with fine scales appearing on the surface of her skin. Her lips were split to both sides, revealing the tip of her forked and slender tongue. She made a hissing sound and her tone became cold.
"I will eat you."
Ning Xue heard this sentence again, his expression was unperturbed.
He didn't even stop what he was doing, he just squatted down and picked up a stone and complained without raising his head.
"What a bad hobby."
Ichikishimahime was stunned for a moment when he heard these words, and then changed back to the delicate girl's appearance. She covered her stomach with her hands and burst into laughter. The laughter was crisp and clear, as if she had really heard some interesting joke.
"Haha... you are really interesting! We are snakes, and human Chakra is helpful for our cultivation."
"How can you say this is bad?"
Ning Xue ignored her excuse and just pressed the stone in his hand accurately into a depression in the wall. With a "click", it was embedded perfectly, exactly.
He straightened up and asked casually as he walked to the next location.
"Are those corpses outside the door all ninjas?"
Ichikishimahime heard the question, floated into the air and sat cross-legged, with his hands on his knees, his posture casual, and he opened his mouth to answer him.
"Some are, and some... are for ordinary people seeking strength."
Ning Xue picked up the next stone without pausing, but his brows under the mask frowned slightly.
"Ordinary people... dare to come to a place like this?"
"Of course you don't enter casually."
Ichikishimahime shook his legs hanging in the air.
"While you are walking through the fog, we will observe and judge carefully."
"If it's someone passing by, we will give him several opportunities to return on his own."
"Only those who are confirmed to be seeking strength or holding a token will be allowed to enter the first test."
She paused and tilted her head, trying to observe the change in Ning Xue's expression, but found that the other party just lowered his head and kept picking up the stones, making gestures, and inlaying them. Every movement was crisp and neat, without any hesitation or pause.
The mask covered his face so she couldn't see anything.
She curled her lips in disappointment, but continued talking.
"However, most people can't resist the temptation at all - they are either deceived by illusions or greedy, and they all die there in the end and are eaten by us."
She spoke very easily, as if she was describing an ordinary and trivial matter.
When she turned her attention to Ning Xue again, she was horrified to find that the other party had actually completed three-quarters of the filling!
"You... how did you do that?!"
She suddenly fell from the air and floated to Ning Xue's side, looking at him in disbelief.
She had only said a few words, but the masked man opposite seemed to have already known where each stone should be placed. His movements did not pause at all. He picked up the stones, walked to the position, and set them in place. There was no comparison process at all.
"Secret."
Ning Xue inserted the stone in his hand into the last groove. The corners of his mouth under the mask were slightly raised, and the raised veins at the corners of his eyes never faded.
He used Byakugan to look at the grooves on the entire wall, and then scanned the surrounding stones.
As long as you can clearly see the direction of the grain, there is no need to repeat trial and error.
He glanced at the last groove and found that there was no completely matching stone, so he picked up a long piece, gently broke it into two pieces, and stuffed them into the last two gaps in the wall.
"Click."
"Click."
The two grooves are filled in at the same time and fit perfectly.
Ichikishimahime's eyes widened, his mouth opened slightly, and he was speechless for a moment.
The entire puzzle-solving process, from when she explains the rules to when the other party completes it, scratching it off, takes no more than ten minutes.
"You... you're going too fast..." She murmured in a low voice, with a hint of disbelief in her tone.
This masked man has completed all of this in less than ten minutes. Is this really too simple?
Ning Xue stood up, patted the dust and debris on his hands, and when he turned around, the stone wall had already made a dull roar, and the stone door slowly lifted upwards, revealing a new passage.
The faint light came from the depths of the passage and hit him, making the figure look particularly cold.
He walked to the entrance of the cave, paused slightly, turned his head, and his voice came out from behind the cold mask, plain and casual.
"Ghana."
After saying that, he walked into the passage without looking back.
Ichikishimahime floated in place, watching the retreating figure. It wasn't until the figure of the other party completely disappeared into the mist that he seemed to come back to his senses, tilted his head, and let out a soft hum of unknown meaning.
"Really... it's even more mysterious than us."
She muttered, and as soon as she finished speaking, the entire cave and her own figure began to disintegrate quickly like sand and dust blown away by the wind, turning into mist and blending into the thick fog.