The two walked deeper into the passage. After about fifteen minutes, Ronava stopped.
"Wait."
She let go and crouched down to examine the ground. In the faint glow of the luminous moss, a shallow scratch marked where they had just walked.
"This is the way we came."
Lin En crouched down too. Nearby was a twig he had stepped on and broken; he remembered it clearly.
"We really have come back around."
Lin En stood and looked around. This place did seem exactly the same as before.
They had returned to their starting point, even though they had never turned once in this straight passage.
"How is that possible?"
he said quietly.
"A straight passage, and we wound up back where we started?"
Ronava turned and walked back the way they had come, with Lin En following her. After a few dozen steps, she stopped and pressed a hand against the rock wall.
Black energy poured from her palm and spread across the wall. Wherever it flowed, the patterns in the rock grew blurry. A few breaths later, the wall began to warp.
"Space has been folded."
Ronava withdrew her hand.
"Someone set up a Geo formation here, twisting the space in this passage into a closed loop. Whether we go forward or backward, we'll end up back at the same point."
Hearing that, Lin En thought of the people who had been sent to investigate.
"So those investigation teams... but why weren't there any bodies?"
"They probably came in too and were trapped in the loop with no way out, no supplies, and no sense of direction. In the end, they died here. Perhaps someone took the bodies away. This formation was made by someone."
Lin En took a deep breath and suppressed the fear in his heart.
Ronava had told him about something similar before. The core of a formation was its formation eye. If this labyrinth was a formation, then the formation eye had to be somewhere.
"Can you find the formation eye?"
"Yes."
Ronava looked deeper into the passage.
"But we have to be able to reach it first. If space is warped, there could be thousands of routes. We definitely can't get there by walking in a straight line."
Lin En thought for a moment.
"Then we won't walk in a straight line."
Ronava tilted her head and glanced at him.
"Your Elemental Energy is useless here. How are you planning to get there?"
"Hehe, I have my own way."
He reached into his pocket and felt the paper talisman Zhongli had given him. It was warm to the touch. A faint Geo sheen had once flowed across its surface, but now the sheen was gone.
Zhongli had said the talisman could block one fatal attack in a moment of crisis. Although it had already been used, Lin En had discovered that its affinity for Geo was far greater than that of ordinary objects. Now that its Geo was gone, the talisman could naturally absorb a large amount of it.
He opened his eyes, laid the talisman flat on his palm, closed his eyes, and pressed it against the wall.
"Can you guide this Geo into the talisman?"
Ronava was somewhat surprised. She had not expected Lin En to still be carrying the useless talisman, much less for it to come in handy again.
Although she could also break the formation in a single blow, it would take considerable effort. If anything unexpected happened afterward, she would no longer be able to protect Lin En.
"Mm, yes."
Ronava pressed her hand against the talisman. Its surface gleamed for an instant as a large amount of Geo flowed out of the surroundings and surged into it. The Geo sheen on the talisman lit up again.
"The left."
Ronava said.
"About twenty steps ahead, on the left side of the rock wall, there's a crack."
Ronava looked at the talisman in her hand. It was full of Geo again and could be used once more.
"You still haven't thrown this talisman away?"
"Mm, I kept it with me. I didn't expect to use it again."
The two walked twenty steps forward. Lin En stopped and reached for the left side of the rock wall. His fingertips found a narrow indentation, impossible to notice without feeling carefully. The crack extended upward from the ground, about a finger long and only half a finger wide.
"This is it."
Ronava stepped forward and pressed her hand against the crack. Black energy poured out and into the opening. The rock wall shuddered, and the crack widened to either side, revealing an extremely narrow passage, just wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways.
Beyond the passage was another path, identical to the one before it, but the talisman in Lin En's hand lit up again, continuously absorbing Geo.
On the right, halfway along the rock wall, was a protruding stone.
"Keep going."
The two squeezed sideways through the narrow gap and entered the new passage.
Lin En used the talisman to absorb the elements, finding a crack or protrusion every so often. Ronava used her energy to break through the obstacles, and together they advanced bit by bit through the warped space.
They continued like this for nearly an hour.
Another strike, and the passage warped and reformed once more.
They repeated this seven or eight times. Lin En was starting to feel dizzy, and the talisman was already saturated with the Geo it had absorbed. If it absorbed any more, it might burst. He was hesitating over whether to stop and rest.
Suddenly, another passage appeared.
At the end of the passage, not far ahead, stood a huge stone door.
The two approached and pushed it open.
Behind the door was a vast circular space. A five-pointed star-shaped formation was carved into the floor in the center, with a stone pillar standing at each of its five points.
"We're here. This should be the formation eye."
Lin En spoke weakly. He had not expected the talisman to absorb even the Geo inside his body.
Seeing his pale face and the cold sweat at his temples, Ronava reached out and pulled the talisman from his palm.
As soon as the talisman left Lin En's hand, his whole body seemed to lose its strength. He staggered sideways, and Ronava caught him.
"Rest for a while."
Ronava put the talisman away and gently lowered Lin En beside the rock wall.
"I'll take care of the rest."
"Are you still all right?"
"Mm, I'm fine. You should get some rest."
Lin En smiled faintly. Leaning against the wall, he caught his breath. Once his heartbeat had settled a little, he straightened up.
"Mm, I'm all right now."
Ronava walked to the center of the stone chamber, her golden eyes sweeping over the five pillars and the black core suspended in the middle.
She did not rush to act. Instead, she first looked around in case anything unexpected happened. The five pillars were linked by the formation, and the connecting lines of light glowed in a steady rhythm, like the heartbeat of some living creature.
The black core rotated very slowly, with a red substance flowing around it. As the two drew closer, the layer of flowing dark red substance on its surface grew thicker, almost solidifying.
"This formation eye seems to do more than maintain the labyrinth."
Ronava spoke.
"It's drawing power from the Ley Lines here."
Puzzled, Lin En looked up at her.
"Drawing power? Where is the power going?"
"It's being sent somewhere."
Ronava pressed her hand against the nearest stone pillar, and black energy surged into it. The patterns on the pillar's surface lit up for an instant. She closed her eyes and sensed it for a few breaths, then opened them.
"It's heading north. The destination isn't very far away, but there's at least a sea between us and it."