Chapter 53

Chapter 53: The End of the Maze

“You’re terrible,” Ao Chuan said in her mind. “You didn’t even know them before.”

Shao Heng felt no guilt.

“If I lived in a world with strict laws, then even if I didn’t insist on kindness, I would at least persuade myself to follow the rules.” Her pace never slowed. “But this isn’t that.”

“This is an age of cultivation where all races compete and fight alone for immortality. The Immortal Path is competition by nature.”

“Then why should I only be allowed to strike back when others come after me? Why do I always have to wait and defend?”

“And Little White Dragon, you’re really funny.”

“When you’re hungry, you eat meat. If I feed you spirit pork, would you refuse just because you don’t know that pig demon?”

“Who eats better than you?” Ao Chuan snapped back. “You’re the one who eats the best!”

After that, he fell silent, as if dazed by her logic.

Shao Heng gave a faint scoff inside.

The four of them advanced steadily. Suddenly Jiang Feng’s face changed. He took out the compass again, and the needle spun wildly as the entire compass turned crimson.

“Not good!” he shouted. “It’s a yin ghost warning.”

Bai Hong turned to Shao Heng and said, “Junior Sister, yin ghosts fear fire arts—”

Smack!

Before she could finish, Jiang Feng was flipped by a gust of yin wind. He stumbled into the maze wall, and the compass in his hand flew out. Without mana feeding it, its glow dimmed.

“Draw essence, summon fire!” Bai Hong barked.

Crimson flames burst from her palms and rushed toward the black fog rolling in.

Sss.

With a sound like water hitting hot oil, the fog dispersed a good bit. Shao Heng focused mana into her eyes and caught the outline of a blurry phantom figure—the yin ghost.

Jiang Feng had just suffered a setback and lost face in front of Shao Heng. His anger boiled.

He steadied himself at once. A flame sigil flared between his brows, like an eye. A thread of fire shot out, piercing the yin ghost and burning it to ash.

“Looks like we chose the right path,” Jiang Feng said, excitement breaking through. “We’re getting close to the end of the maze.”

Bai Hong nodded quickly. “The closer we are to the exit—meaning the closer we are to the Shattered Moon—the more normal it is for yin ghosts to gather.”

“Junior Sister Shao Heng, you’re incredible. You can memorize a maze that complex.”

Shao Heng smiled back. “Senior Sister, you flatter me. I just got lucky.”

Yu Wen kept his chin high, only giving Shao Heng a sideways glance and a cold snort.

The four continued, but their formation shifted.

Shao Heng, who had been at the back, now stood at the front because the other three slowed their steps.

The three of them had traveled together and naturally had good coordination. Shao Heng noticed, but didn’t react.

After another quarter-hour or so, Shao Heng stopped and rubbed her arms. “It’s so cold here. There won’t be a lot of yin ghosts ahead, right?”

Born from extreme yin qi, yin ghosts carried icy power. When they gathered, the cold they gave off couldn’t be ignored even by cultivators.

The compass in Jiang Feng’s hand was already screaming warnings, so red it looked like it would explode.

“Junior Sister,” Bai Hong asked tightly, “are we almost at the end of the maze?”

“I think so.” Shao Heng pressed herself against the wall and curled up, trembling.

Excitement flashed across Jiang Feng’s face—then footsteps sounded.

He turned, expression turning awkward.

Yu Wen also turned back. His eyes widened. “Why is it Zhao Qing Tu again!”

“Does he have to keep stealing from us?”

Shao Heng looked over too.

A male cultivator in pale blue stood there, tall and thin, with a youthful face and even the kind of bright energy only a teenager would have. Youth-preserving techniques couldn’t create that.

“Zhao Qing Tu?” Shao Heng murmured.

She had never heard the name, but judging from the trio’s reaction, she knew he wouldn’t be easy to deal with.

[Another variable,] she thought. [What a headache.]

Zhao Qing Tu noticed them and looked surprised.

“You actually found the real exit too?” His lips curved. “That’s impressive.”

His gaze swept past them. Seeing the familiar three plus a green-robed girl, he spoke with a hint of guesswork. “So you found outside help.”

“I see.”

Yu Wen couldn’t hold it in anymore and roared, “What, Zhao Qing Tu! You are at First Realm perfection, sure, but you only broke through recently.”

“Don’t be so overbearing. You already stole the Shattered Moon we were about to get. Now you want to steal again?”

“Do you even understand what ‘first come, first served’ means?”

Zhao Qing Tu gave him a bland glance. With a flick of his sleeve, an Octagonal Formation Disk dropped into his palm, faintly glowing.

“Rare treasures go to the capable,” he said lightly.

“Even if you got it first, I’m stronger. What if I take it?”

He didn’t say more. The delicate mechanisms on the Octagonal Formation Disk shifted, and a strange fluctuation spread out.

Shao Heng immediately shouted, “Senior Brother, Senior Sister, follow me!”

She didn’t use escape arts, but her footwork was still nimble, like a leopard sprinting away.

Jiang Feng and the others, no matter how boldly Yu Wen had talked, followed at once when Shao Heng called out. None of them tried to fight Zhao Qing Tu head-on.

In the blink of an eye, the four of them vanished. Zhao Qing Tu’s sword-brows knit as he chased after them.

The yin qi grew heavier and heavier. Clumps of black fog kept charging in. Even though their aura didn’t surpass First Realm, it was still trouble if a cultivator let that cold invade their body.

The three of them stopped letting Shao Heng run at the very front. Jiang Feng took the lead, the flame sigil between his brows flashing repeatedly as he fired off beam after beam of fire, blasting away every black fog that drew close.

Bai Hong decided Shao Heng was too slow. She hooked Shao Heng’s waist with her arm, ran her arts, and sped forward with her.

Yu Wen shouted, “Lead us already!”

“Go straight, then turn left. After that it’s left, left, right, left, left!” Shao Heng answered, pressing her lips tight so she wouldn’t grin.

Zhao Qing Tu’s arrival was actually a blessing.

Once there was competition, people felt urgency, and the more urgent they were, the more likely they were to make mistakes in the rush.

If Zhao Qing Tu hadn’t shown up, just as Ao Chuan said earlier, the three of them would definitely be wary of her. Before, they’d unconsciously let her move to the very front—wasn’t that just using her as a shield?

But now Zhao Qing Tu, who already had an old grudge with them, showed up. It saved Shao Heng a lot of effort.

After passing the turns Shao Heng called out, they finally saw the maze’s exit.

A white vortex of light hung in midair. Around it floated crystals of many shapes, all gray-white. Looking closer, you could see dust-like particles swirling around the crystals, like stardust gathering around comets.

“The Shattered Moon!” Jiang Feng cried out in joy.

Bai Hong followed right after, urgency burning through her voice. “There are four Shattered Moon crystals. Hurry, move!”

Without realizing it, she let go of the arm around Shao Heng’s waist.