"Again? Why are there three paths again?"
Leorio stared at the three nearly identical dark openings before him, his scalp prickling.
Unlike the forks they had encountered earlier, this one seemed designed with sheer malice.
The three passages formed a precise triangle, one above and two below. Their size, angles, and even the patterns on their stone walls were indistinguishable, as though they had been copied and pasted.
"Lin Yan, which way this time?" Gon asked instinctively.
Lin Yan stood still with his eyes closed, his brow tightly furrowed.
Something was wrong.
There had been plenty of forks before, but one route had always carried the "main current of qi," while the others were merely "tributaries." He had been able to distinguish their strength clearly.
Here, however, the airflow guiding them seemed to have struck a massive boulder and split evenly into three streams.
Strength, speed, direction... everything was identical!
This was a trap, one specifically designed to counter a perception ability like his.
"I... can't tell them apart." Lin Yan slowly opened his eyes. For the first time, a trace of uncertainty entered his voice. "The airflow in all three passages is exactly the same."
"What?!"
Leorio rushed forward, grabbed his own tie, and shouted in agitation, "You've got to be kidding! That wind-listening trick of yours stopped working at a time like this? We have less than fifteen hours left!"
"Quiet, Leorio!" Kurapika said gravely, forcing himself to stay calm. "There has to be a way. The examiner couldn't have designed this maze as a game of pure chance."
Gon got to work too. He dropped to the ground and sniffed around each of the three entrances like a puppy.
But he soon stood up in disappointment. "No good. It seems like they've been specially cleaned. There's no human scent at all, just stone and dust."
Tonpa hung back, staring darkly at Lin Yan's back, a sneer of malicious delight curling his lips. See? I knew this brat couldn't be trusted. Listening to the wind to find his way? He probably just got lucky. Now we're completely screwed...
Killua's expression turned grim as well. He walked over to Lin Yan and asked in a low voice, "Is there really no way? That weird 'sense' of yours is completely useless now?"
Lin Yan did not answer. His thoughts were racing.
The Dao follows nature, and all things have qi. If the airflow has been muddled, what about the earth's qi?
An idea flashed through his mind.
He looked at Killua, resolve returning to his eyes. "No. There's still one way."
Without waiting for anyone to react, he walked straight to the center of the platform.
He slowly crouched and pressed his right palm firmly against the cold stone floor.
"Hey, hey, Lin Yan, what are you doing? Praying to a god?" Leorio asked, utterly baffled by his actions.
Lin Yan ignored him. He closed his eyes and focused his entire mind on his palm.
The Book of Changes says: as heaven moves with vigor, the noble man strives without cease; as earth embraces all, the noble man sustains all things through the depth of his virtue.
Heaven governs movement; earth governs stillness.
Heaven's qi flows ceaselessly and is easily disturbed, but earth's qi is dense, heavy, and settled. It supports all things and records the traces of everything that passes over it.
Through his palm, his consciousness connected with the vast stretch of stone beneath his feet.
Hum!
As his awareness sank deeper, an aura far heavier and more ancient than anything in the air flooded his perception.
It was the qi of the rock itself: cold, silent, and unchanged through the ages.
If that was all he could sense, it was no different from looking with his eyes.
Lin Yan drew a deep breath. The white dantian embryo within his dantian trembled slightly, and a strand of pure true qi traveled along the meridians in his arm, slowly entering his palm.
He was not trying to strike anything with his true qi. Instead, like a drop of ink falling into clear water, he let his own qi "listen to" and "feel" the qi of the earth.
Human qi... that's what I need to find!
Thousands upon thousands of examinees had passed through this maze.
They might not have left footprints, but the life energy radiating from their bodies, the breath they exhaled, and the heat generated by their feet rubbing against the ground as they ran would all have inadvertently left imperceptible imprints in this silent earth qi.
Like a trail trodden by countless people, even without a signpost, it would stand apart from the surrounding wilderness.
Lin Yan's consciousness stretched farther through the darkness, filtering out the rock's vast, meaningless "dead qi" as he focused on finding those faint traces of "life"...
His perception swept through the passage on the right.
It was utterly cold, its earth qi as still as a stagnant pool.
It's a dead end.
He probed the middle passage next.
The same sensation: dead silence, without a single trace of life.
Another dead end.
Finally, he turned his awareness toward the passage on the left.
There!
Against that dense, gray backdrop of earth qi, he "saw" a trail formed from countless tiny, scattered points of light, each carrying a faint trace of "warmth"!
Those were the remnants of "human qi" left by countless examinees running past!
Though extremely faint now, they were undeniably there!
It was like seeing a river of fireflies in the pitch-black night.
"Found it."
Lin Yan's eyes snapped open. He stood and pointed at the left-hand passage without hesitation.
"This way."
His voice was quiet, but it carried unquestionable confidence.
"Are you sure?!" Leorio still sounded uneasy. "How did you figure it out this time?"
"I pressed my hand against the floor and felt it out," Lin Yan explained succinctly. "The passages on the right and in the middle are 'dead.' No one has used them in a long time. Only the one on the left is 'alive.'"
"Dead? Alive?" Leorio was completely lost.
Killua's eyes, however, lit up.
He instantly understood what Lin Yan meant.
Though he had no idea how Lin Yan had done it, the logic made sense!
"I get it! Two of these three paths are abandoned passages that have never been used. They're nothing but traps! Only one actually leads to the next stage!"
"Enough people passing through would leave traces!" Killua said excitedly. "Lin Yan, you... you've got a sharp eye!"
He looked at Lin Yan with genuine admiration for the first time. This guy's ability was practically the bane of every trap and maze!
"I trust Lin Yan!" Gon nodded firmly.
"If even Killua says so... what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Leorio stopped hesitating and was the first to charge into the passage on the left.
Tonpa curled his lip behind them, grumbling inwardly as he ran. Hmph, he makes it sound so convincing. Let's just hope he isn't leading us off a cliff...
Hope rekindled in their hearts, and everyone raced ahead.
Watching his companions' backs, Lin Yan let out a small breath of relief.
What he had just done had taken an enormous toll on his mind, but his conviction had only grown stronger.
The Dao exists within heaven, earth, and all things. As long as you know how to "ask," it will give you an answer.
He steadied his breathing and quickened his pace again.
Yet after they had sprinted through the long passage for nearly ten minutes, the sight before them sent everyone's hearts plummeting.
At the end of the passage stood a thick, tightly sealed stone wall.
Cold and hard, it blocked every possible way forward.
Once again, they had reached a dead end.
Before you continue