Chapter 156

Chapter 156: The Nine-Turn Labyrinth Trial

Rong Shu urged in a low voice: “Not here.”

She pressed the little creature on her shoulder: “Yan Yan, blink again.”

She pushed once more, voice clipped with focus: “Again.”

She frowned, glancing around the new surroundings as the fog shifted: “Huh? Where is this place again?”

Silence fell, thick as the mist.

Little Hamster’s space-jumping ability was not restrained by the Nine-Turn Labyrinth. A new problem, however, presented itself: his jumps were unstable, and even he did not know where the spatial rift he opened would lead.

The Scorchfire Secret Realm had been open for several months; naturally, many cultivators had already entered and were exploring within. Those unable to unravel the labyrinth’s mechanisms could only be penned inside, forced to wander and try their luck.

More than once, Little Hamster’s sudden jumps nearly sent them crashing into unfamiliar cultivators. If not for Rong Shu’s quick, clever evasions each time, rumors of a visitor who came and went like a ghost would have spread among the labyrinth’s cultivators, a so?called Labyrinth Specter.

From somewhere ahead came two grumbling voices; Rong Shu stilled and listened as she crouched behind a curtain of grass. One complained in a husky whisper: “This labyrinth’s trial is a real headache.”

The other muttered, tone sour: “Should’ve brought an alchemist in with us.”

The first spat, resigned: “No use talking about it now. Keep looking for the mechanism.”

After another jump failure deposited her nearby, Rong Shu realized she had chanced upon two unfamiliar, mid?stage Foundation Establishment cultivators. Luckily, her current position was well hidden; she did not need to leave in a hurry.

Hearing their conversation, she mulled it over, thoughts tightening like a knot: [The Nine-Turn Labyrinth does have mechanisms. If you solve them step by step, you can get out.] Before entering the secret realm, she had done her homework with Zong Wen Shi and learned that the labyrinth’s mechanisms revolved mainly around alchemy. [Once inside, a cultivator must search the maze for specific spirit herbs, refine them into pills, and take them.]

[After taking the pills, the body undergoes a temporary change: not only will the fog that blocks one’s sight be repelled on its own, but the user will also become, in a sense, a component of the labyrinth’s formation. In that state, the formation will no longer treat the pill?taker as an outsider to be locked away.]

[If a cultivator is not an alchemist and cannot refine pills, there is another way to “work the mechanism”: at every key fork there grows a special, inconspicuous spirit herb; identify it carefully and you can tell which way to go.]

“Trial?” Her gaze flickered.

[Right! Zong Wen Shi said this Nine-Turn Labyrinth is actually a trial road deliberately set up for alchemists by a great alchemist. It was originally forged to test his own disciples; nowadays the test falls to all who enter the secret realm.]

[Since the labyrinth’s mechanisms are designed as a trial, they shouldn’t be lethal.]

With that thought, Rong Shu lowered her eyes to the Little Hamster in her hands. She could, of course, keep using his space jumps to come and go as she pleased within the maze. [But wouldn’t that defeat the point of tempering myself? I came to the Scorchfire Secret Realm to train, to test and improve my strength, not to sightsee.]

“Gu?” Little Hamster gazed up at her, puzzled that she had suddenly gone still.

Rong Shu spoke softly: “Yan Yan, no more space jumps for now.”

She added with a smile: “Let me try to unlock the labyrinth’s mechanisms. If I truly can’t, then you can carry me out.”

Though he did not understand why she had changed her mind, Little Hamster still nodded.

She set him back on her shoulder and rose: “Let’s see what this Nine-Turn Labyrinth can do.”

“Gu,” he answered, his tiny claws hooking gently into her collar.

Decision made, Rong Shu began, like the other cultivators, to methodically work on cracking the formation’s mechanisms. She surveyed a patch of lush grass and murmured to her companion: “This stand looks promising. Let’s see if we can find the Dew Condensing Nine Turn Grass.”

A moment later she reached a broad sward of green. She explained as she searched: “The key herb for refining the Mist Dispelling Pill, which drives away the fog, is the Dew Condensing Nine Turn Grass. It lives in symbiosis with the labyrinth’s formation. Once it leaves the fog, it will wither of its own accord within two hours and lose all medicinal efficacy.”

“There is no Dew Condensing Nine Turn Grass outside the secret realm, and it cannot be cultivated.”

“It looks almost the same as ordinary wild grass. The only difference is that the part of the blade that hugs the ground is purple shot through with white speckles.”

As she spoke, her gaze combed the grass inch by inch, sweeping along the bases of each tuft. When a clod of dirt or a stone blocked her view of a grass base, she would crouch, draw a small hand?shovel from her Storage Pouch, and clear the obstruction away.

She breathed, precise and patient: “Not this one.”

She shifted a rock and shook her head: “Not here either.”

Clinging to her collar, Little Hamster searched with her, bright eyes darting over the grass for the telltale purple?streaked base.

After several hours of painstaking work, Rong Shu finally found five clumps of Dew Condensing Nine Turn Grass.

Her eyes lit up as she whispered, delighted: “Found them.”

“Good thing I brought plenty of other spirit herbs. I can refine the pills right away.”

She hurried to a safe, hidden spot and kindled her furnace. One clump failed in the first batch, but the remaining four refined successfully; in the end she obtained thirty Mist Dispelling Pills, ten to a bottle, which she packed into three porcelain vials.

She did not take one immediately. The Mist Dispelling Pill would only widen her vision within the labyrinth; it would not, by itself, lead her out. She would still need to refine another pill called the Formation Dissolving Pill, whose three key spirit herbs could only be found inside the maze.

She drew a steady breath, then set back to work: “Next, we need to find…”

She moved patiently from fork to fork, murmuring as she checked and rechecked the thickets: “Not here… not here either…”

Her eyes brightened as she knelt to pluck a stem: “Here it is.”

Time blurred. She did not know how many days passed as she alternated between gathering herbs and refining pills. When the pills ran out and she still had not escaped, she returned to harvesting more herbs and refining more medicine. Now and then she had to keep a wary eye out for other cultivators roaming the labyrinth.

At last, perseverance paid off. After emptying several bottles, Rong Shu stepped out of the maze.

She laughed aloud, relief spilling over: “Finally out!”

She tossed Little Hamster up in a gentle arc and caught him as he dropped, then couldn’t resist rubbing his soft fur several times.

“Gu gu!” Little Hamster squeaked his protest.

Rong Shu pretended not to hear and kept petting him.

Her gaze lifted to a towering structure in the near distance. She muttered under her breath: “That tall spire should be the Scripture Tower. I wonder how many days have passed.”

Inside the Nine-Turn Labyrinth, everything had been shrouded in fog with no sky or sun; by her rough estimate, perhaps seven or eight days had gone by.

She settled Little Hamster back on her shoulder and set off toward the Scripture Tower.

Halfway there, however, several roadblockers stepped out to bar her path.

One snorted with a thug’s swagger: “Brat, just out of the labyrinth, are you?”

Another curled his lip, eyes sweeping her up and down: “Must’ve picked up plenty of spirit herbs in there. Hand them over, quick.”

Rong Shu stared, taken aback. [I’m being robbed?]