Chapter 147: The Iron Lock and the Key

"What is going on with you all?" Bai Wan'er was already somewhat immune to lightning; she had seen purple and red flashes alike. But how was she to make sense of the vast crowd of people lying unconscious before her?

Bai Wan'er wore a blank expression. Only Tian Xin was standing. Even Xiao Ming, whose strength was on par with hers, was sitting cross-legged on the ground, looking utterly exhausted, as though he had just survived a fierce battle.

*Whoosh.* A streak of red lightning flashed across the sky, leaving behind only a jagged black fissure that slowly healed.

"I'll give you fifteen minutes to recover. In the meantime, explain what happened to the others." Tian Xin faced the spot where the red lightning had struck, his eyes flickering with an unreadable expression.

Just what kind of place was this? How had Annihilation and Devouring appeared here, and how much longer could this spatial realm hold out?

The red lightning continuously illuminated Tian Xin's cheek, yet deep inside he felt as though he had just escaped the wolf's den only to enter the tiger's lair. A moment later, however, a strange smile crept onto his face.

Crisis implied greater opportunity. If he could manage to bring back a few good artifacts this time, he could finally ask his father for the treasure he had always wanted. Tian Xin began to calculate in his mind.

"Lang Xin, you speak first."

The history of the Terran-Subterranean clan far exceeded that of humanity; they had existed on Earth long before humans ever appeared. Even dark epochs like this one had been experienced by the Subterranean clan more than once. Although previous dark ages had not caused significant turmoil for them—meaning they had not actively intervened—the Subterraneans had preserved detailed records of every single one.

While the Subterraneans maintained contact with humans and shared intelligence, it did not mean they handed over all their secrets or opened up their core archives to each other. In truth, both the Subterranean leadership and the upper echelons of humanity knew that all the information shared so far was trivial, or consisted of things mutually owned by both sides, such as the hidden mystic realms located within the major cities.

The red lightning and black fissures before them, however, belonged to the Subterraneans' core classified secrets. Had Tian Xin not been the son of the patriarch, he would never have had access to such high-level information.

In the archives, the red lightning was called Annihilation, and the black fissures were known as Devouring. The black fissures were a byproduct of the red lightning, though they did not appear every time the red lightning struck.

Annihilation merely destroyed everything within a space and disintegrated its structural integrity, whereas Devouring embodied absolute destruction. The appearance of Annihilation alone was not terrifying; whenever the two manifested together, it meant that the space had reached its final moments. Annihilation took charge within the space, while Devouring destroyed the space itself. If one could obtain the spatial fragments his father desired just as this realm shattered...

"Except for Huixin and me, everyone else is dead." Lang Xin's words sent monstrous waves crashing across a calm lake, making everyone's breathing grow heavy.

"Who were you with?" Tian Xin had anticipated this outcome. Back when they had been forcibly separated by the Earth-Bound Dragon-Shifting Formation, the exhaustion of his internal elemental energy left him no choice but to scatter them. Judging by the current state of affairs, they must have been divided into three groups.

"Yuxin, Zixin, and Wang Jiao from Purple Star Academy."

Before Lang Xin could finish, Huixin's sobbing rang out again. "It's all my fault. If it weren't for saving me, they wouldn't have died."

"It seems the remaining two of you stayed together then. With Maple from Purple Star Academy dead as well, it appears the only survivors of this new spatial exploration are the ones standing here." Tian Xin did not even bother asking about the people from Heavenly Wood Academy; their battered appearances made it obvious that the others had perished.

"Very well, it's time to move." After sorting through all the information, Tian Xin began plotting how to secure what he wanted within this crumbling space.

Ye Bai and Dao glanced at Bai Wan'er. Bai Wan'er remained silent, following behind Tian Xin. Wang Jiao's death came as a profound shock to her.

Ever since learning of Maple's death, Bai Wan'er had known more people would die, but she never imagined Wang Jiao would be among them. Everything Wang Jiao had experienced while unconscious made her Purple Star Academy's sole reliance among the three teams; in terms of combat strength, Purple Star Academy was the weakest, to say nothing of their background.

Now, with Wang Jiao gone, their source of intelligence was lost. Perhaps sticking close to Tian Xin would offer a sliver of safety, if only to keep the remaining two alive.

Neither Ye Bai nor Dao saw Bai Wan'er speak, so they quietly followed at the rear of the procession.

"Huixin, do you feel like this place looks somewhat familiar?" Lang Xin's sudden question caused Tian Xin to slow his pace, though Huixin showed little reaction. "Not really. Hasn't it looked like this the whole time?"

*Whoosh.* Another streak of red lightning sliced through the sky, stretching toward the horizon before a black fissure tore open. There was no natural light in the sky; the crimson glare illuminated everyone's face, including one face twisted in terror.

Lang Xin, who was walking ahead, suddenly failed to hear Huixin's footsteps. Thinking she had noticed something unusual, he turned around only to find Huixin staring ahead in stark horror.

"What's wrong, Huixin?"

"W-We're back in that place." Terror welled up in the depths of Huixin's eyes like a rising tide. Lang Xin had only ever seen Huixin wear this exact expression in that single, terrifying place.

"Stop! Halt your advance!" Lang Xin's eyes locked onto the spot where Huixin was pointing. "Don't move, the one carrying the sword."

Lang Xin's voice was startlingly loud. Liu Yun, whose foot was already raised, found himself unable to put it down nor pull it back. He glared at Lang Xin, a surge of irritation rising in his chest.

"What is going on?" To be honest, at such a sensitive moment, Lang Xin's outburst had frightened everyone.

"It looks like we've returned to that place." Lang Xin pulled Huixin over to Tian Xin's side and warned Liu Yun, "Don't put your foot down. Just shuffle back the way we were standing."

"Where?" Tian Xin demanded an explanation from Lang Xin, while the group instinctively split into three clusters.

"Right where Yuxin and the others died." Lang Xin walked over slowly and brushed aside the dirt where Liu Yun had almost stepped, revealing a small, gray, serpentine stone sculpture resting before them.

"Just this? I could crush a dozen of these with a single step!" Liu Yun said dismissively, venting his earlier irritation while mocking Lang Xin for making a mountain out of a molehill.

*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.* Red lightning flashed and vanished, while black fissures crisscrossed the sky like torn, gaping mouths.

The moment Liu Yun finished speaking, before his voice even faded, his eyes widened as if he had just witnessed the impossible.

"How did you guys manage to get out before?"

In an instant—the very instant the red glare flooded their vision—the surrounding ground was densely packed with those small, gray serpentine sculptures of varying sizes.

Ye Bai looked at the snakes that had suddenly materialized all around them, feeling a deep, profoundly unsettling sensation, as though these serpents weren't stone at all, but entirely, horrifyingly alive.

"There was no way out, none at all! There was no exit route; the only reason we made it out was because the three of them used their bodies to draw all the snakes away!" Huixin seemed on the verge of a complete psychological collapse, babbling incoherently.

Tian Xin looked at Lang Xin, who silently nodded, offering only a single warning: do not touch the serpentine sculptures.

The group resumed their march, everyone keeping Lang Xin's warning firmly in mind. Even though Ye Bai clearly felt as though they were walking in a straight line, the surrounding scenery refused to change.

"Could it be...?" Ye Bai glanced at Dao. Dao seemed to have noticed the anomaly as well; he met Ye Bai's gaze and gave a subtle nod.

"Don't you all feel like something is strange about our surroundings?" As soon as Ye Bai spoke, Bai Wan'er cast a glance at him. "I mean, the environment around us hasn't changed at all."

There was no concept of day and night here; they could only estimate the passage of time based on physical exhaustion. Since everyone present was at least at the intermediate entry level, going by his own rate of physical depletion, Ye Bai estimated that at least a dozen minutes had passed.

"You think so too?" Bai Wan'er noticed Dao looking at her as well.

Dao did not speak, merely nodding in agreement.

At that moment, Lang Xin turned his head and said, "How can that be? This is exactly how we walked out before, and look—the positions of the stone snakes around us have changed."

"Then why did three of you die?" Ye Bai countered sharply, instantly leaving Lang Xin speechless.

"I don't know if it's a coincidence or something else, but why are there only two survivors from every exit? And ever since we met up, the situation encountered at each exit has been completely different. Yet what we experienced inside the tunnels fits together like puzzle pieces, ultimately guiding us here. Now, Bai Wan'er, the puzzle piece representing Heavenly Wood Academy has already been used up, and the scenario before us is the exact one Lang Xin and the others went through. So where does ours fit?"

"That's right, you and Dao were together. What did you experience?" Bai Wan'er stared intently at Ye Bai. She had always regarded him as someone willing to risk everything for power, but this journey had completely refreshed her impression of him.

"A maze, or rather, an illusion. In fact, the moment I saw there were only two people in every direction on that circular platform, I knew something was wrong. We can consider ourselves lucky, because no matter how many people entered, only two could ever leave each path. We are like keys, and everything we experienced in the tunnels was just a series of heavy locks."

The more Ye Bai spoke, the greater his internal dread became. To kill people without allowing them a way out—what was the ultimate purpose of all this?

"Look! That snake that was right there just now is gone!" Liu Yun suddenly let out a startled cry.

"What's going on?" Tian Xin demanded, looking directly at Lang Xin.

"Time's up. The sculptures are about to come alive. We have to get out of here immediately, or we'll all end up as statues!" Lang Xin turned to Ye Bai. "If your guess is correct, lead us out right now. If we don't leave immediately, it'll be too late!"

Ye Bai pulled the Doomsday Vine from his pack. Peering through it, he saw red and blue points of light flickering incessantly within the vine's fibers.

"This way." Ye Bai took the lead, striding toward a different direction. "We've been walking in circles for so long simply because we were trapped in place. The varying positions of the snakes must have been some kind of visual trick."

As Ye Bai forged ahead, the others followed closely behind. Nearly everyone could hear the faint rustling of grass all around them, yet not a single creature made a move to attack.

When Ye Bai raised his head one last time to gaze at the sky, the crimson light filtered through the Doomsday Vine and struck his face. Finally, a smile broke across his lips.

"All right, we're out."