Chapter 142: Clearance Reward

Dao pushed open a door and walked inside. The moment they stepped away from this doorway, the black luminous spots that had been glowing on the Doomsday Vine slowly dimmed, and immediately afterward, a white luminous spot lit up near that black spot.

After they left, the patterns on the closed door began to shift. The original patterns faded away, only to reappear shortly after, though they were no longer the same as before. The black luminous spot at the center of the door had also turned white, flashed once, and then concealed itself within the patterns.

"We each take a door, observe the luminous spots hidden within the patterns, and remember to cross-reference with the route on the Doomsday Vine. We cannot rely solely on matching colors."

Dao looked up at the Doomsday Vine, confirmed his position, and walked toward the door in front of him. Ye Bai walked toward the other door.

"Huh?"

Not long after he began observing, just as the patterns on the door in front of Ye Bai started to shift and before the luminous spot hidden within the patterns could appear, he heard Dao's voice.

"What is it?" As the patterns before him shifted, a wave of dizziness washed over his brain, followed immediately by the appearance of a black luminous spot.

"The pattern on this door is different from the last one, and the dot at the center of the door seems to have changed color as well," Dao said as he pulled a streak of dark ink-like thread from the door.

"The route displayed by this door is the one we just traversed. If I remember correctly, the dot at the center of the door should have been white, but now it has turned black."

In that short span of time, Ye Bai had checked the luminous spots in the other door as well. Although it was white, it was not the white luminous spot displayed by the Doomsday Vine.

Furthermore, so much time had passed since they entered the room, yet the white luminous spot on the Doomsday Vine had not lit up, indicating that the luminous spot they were searching for was not in this room.

"You mean the patterns on the doors and the hidden luminous spots are constantly changing colors?" Ye Bai had originally thought that finding the map would make escaping the maze easy, but in reality, even with the map right above your head, this place continued to shift like a confounding formation.

"Yes. The biggest trouble now is that we don't know the pattern by which the luminous spots and patterns change. If they keep changing like this, even if we find the right luminous spot, if the color changes, does that mean we have deviated from the map? Could this maze be in constant motion?"

Dao had already abandoned the route behind the previous door. If his deduction was correct, the route represented behind this door had already changed and was completely meaningless to them.

"Which door should we choose now?" Dao pointed to the remaining two doors and asked Ye Bai.

"The door we were at earlier with the black luminous spot—is it still there?" Ye Bai stared at the dimming luminous spot on the Doomsday Vine, lost in thought.

Dao checked the marks on the Ink Blade and said, "It's still there, but its position has shifted."

"It's still there. As long as it's there, we can find our way out as long as we know our original position." Ye Bai stopped dwelling on the color of the luminous spot on the door, pushed open the very door he had opened earlier, and walked inside.

"Just as you said, our eyes, ears, and even our brains will deceive us. What should we trust at a time like this? Intuition? Or something else?"

Ye Bai suddenly felt his mind getting somewhat chaotic, as if he had discovered the true nature of this maze, yet also as if he had fallen deeper into another layer of its mist.

"Look for the door with the black luminous spot."

When they first entered, that door had possessed a black luminous spot—a door Ye Bai had personally investigated. He no longer bothered to check the color of the luminous spot on the door; the locations of the exit and the entrance could not possibly be the same, let alone the fact that this was not yet the exit. At this point, the color of the luminous spot at the doorway was completely useless to them.

"We found it now. What should we do next?"

After Ye Bai spoke, Dao did not ask for the reason behind his actions. Until they escaped the maze, everything remained a conjecture.

Whether it was because they had stayed in the maze for too long or because they had fallen under some psychological suggestion, as time passed, Dao felt his mind growing increasingly heavy, and just as he stepped through the door earlier, he had actually seen his master.

"Wait. Watch whether the patterns on the door change, and pay special attention to the color changes of the luminous spot."

"Understood."

Ye Bai turned around and began staring at the next black luminous spot on the Doomsday Vine, waiting for the moment it would light up.

"You're right, the Ink Blade is the key to leaving this place. Later, I'll signal you to release the ink threads from the Ink Blade into the door. Don't worry about the changing patterns on the door; you just need to find the door where the black luminous spot appears."

Looking at the Doomsday Vine before him, Ye Bai felt a surge of emotion. If his hypothesis was correct, this place was terrifyingly unfathomable. Catching a glimpse of hope was simultaneously the onset of despair; conventional thinking could simply not be applied to this place.

Just as Ye Bai was about to check the position of the subsequent luminous spot on the Doomsday Vine, the black luminous spot at the second corner of the vine suddenly lit up.

"Quick, release the ink threads of the Ink Blade into the door with the black luminous spot." In Ye Bai's eyes, that gradually brightening black luminous spot was brimming with hope like a twinkling star.

In Dao's field of vision—at least for the duration he had been staring—whether his eyes were continuously deceiving him or his brain was being misled once again, the patterns on the door he saw had actually changed three times in that brief span, and even the black luminous spot inside flickered back and forth between black and white.

Ye Bai's voice was a prompt, but even more so, it was a wake-up call that violently jolted Dao back to reality. The scene before his eyes reverted to normal, the patterns on the door returned to their original state, and the dot at the center of the door turned back to black.

Once recovered, Dao did not hesitate. He immediately cast the pre-prepared ink threads of the Ink Blade onto the door with the black luminous spot, letting out a long breath as sweat began to drench his palms unawares.

"What's wrong with you?" After seeing the second black luminous spot light up, Ye Bai finally relaxed, only to turn around and find Dao covered in cold sweat. Dao looked less like he had just threaded an ink string into a door and more like he had survived a grueling battle.

"It's nothing, just a bit dizzy." Dao forcefully rallied his spirits, avoiding further discussion on the topic. As he wiped the sweat from his brow with his hand, he also noticed that the second black luminous spot on the Doomsday Vine had already lit up.

Sure enough, a new mark had appeared on the Ink Blade, matching the hint on the Doomsday Vine identically.

"How did you figure it out?" Dao looked at the Ink Blade, a sense of defeat rising in his heart for the very first time.

Ye Bai casually pushed open the other two doors and walked inside.

"Sometimes black isn't black, and white isn't white. We assume this place is a huge maze, but is it really a maze by nature, or does our brain simply make us believe it's a maze?"

Ye Bai did not elaborate. He now suspected that yet another layer of secrets was concealed within this maze. Once he figured out its underlying rules, the Ink Blade would no longer be necessary; as long as the Doomsday Vine overhead did not vanish, he could find his way out.

Dao stood in place for a moment, pondered, and followed Ye Bai toward the next door.

"Ah—"

Walking ahead, Ye Bai was looking for the third black luminous spot when, before he could even raise his head, he heard Dao's cry of agony. He whipped around immediately to find Dao kneeling on both knees, clutching his head tightly with his hands and gasping for breath.

"What's wrong with you?" Ye Bai walked over slowly and squatted down in front of Dao. Dao's eyes were shot through with red bloodshot veins, making him look as though he hadn't slept in ages.

Dao raised his head with great difficulty, looked at Ye Bai, and tried to articulate something, but before he could even speak a word, he passed out entirely.

Only then did Ye Bai realize that Dao's foot was still lingering inside the previous room. It was only after pulling Dao completely into the current room that his condition slowly stabilized.

"What on earth was Dao trying to say? Having been trapped in the maze for so long without any accidents, what just happened? Or did someone just attack Dao?"

Ye Bai did not bother observing the luminous spots on the door. If his guess was correct, this room was a dead end, and the luminous spots within it were all meant to mislead, but Dao's condition was something he had entirely failed to anticipate.

Dao had not suffered any physical harm and woke up in less than ten minutes.

"What happened to you?" Ye Bai got straight to the point and asked directly.

Dao stared up and down at Ye Bai for a moment before asking, "Did you really not see any visions?"

"What visions? I didn't see anything except these doors. What did you see?" The time difference between the two of them stepping into this door was less than three seconds; it was hard to imagine what could have happened in such a short window.

Dao sat on the ground, his chest heaving a few times as he recounted what he had just witnessed.

"Actually, back in front of the previous door, I already caught a glimpse of my master."

"Your master?"

"Yes. But it was just a fleeting flash. However, this time I saw a completely different scene."

Ye Bai did not interrupt again. In his opinion, Dao must have fallen into an illusion; after all, anyone staring at those patterns for too long would experience dizziness.

"The moment I stepped in here, I saw five corpses on the ground. They were reduced to mere skeletons—four of them positioned in the four corners of the room, and the remaining one right in the center."

"If you truly found the way out, let's leave quickly. The longer we stay here, the more wrong everything feels."

"Agreed." Ye Bai replied, his expression turning rather grim. Sure enough, lethal traps were concealed here; nowhere in this place was a benevolent land where one could wander without peril.

"This time you walk in front, let's see if I still encounter these illusions. Remember, only the black luminous spots appearing every alternate door can be trusted; all these doors we've been looking at in between cannot be trusted at all."

As they passed through the door, Ye Bai did not experience any illusions, but with no time to dwell on it, hearing Dao's warning made him feel that this place was indeed deeply sinister.

Ye Bai kept his eyes glued to the Doomsday Vine, waiting for the third black luminous spot to light up. Suddenly, a black dot flickered into view, and he shouted, "Ink thread!"

"Done. Let's move to the next door."

As they stepped through the next door, Ye Bai's vision suddenly blurred, plunging him into pitch blackness where he could see nothing at all, though Dao remained unaffected.

"Hurry up, it seems I've fallen into it as well just now."

Dao did not speak, his pacing growing noticeably faster.

Thus they alternated back and forth. During this process, Ye Bai fainted three times and Dao five times, until finally, the marks on the Ink Blade aligned perfectly with the Doomsday Vine.

"Are we finally getting out?" The salt crystals formed from the evaporation and condensation of sweat on their heads were now several layers thick, and Dao looked far more wretched than Ye Bai.

After pushing open the final patterned door, they beheld the sight they had anticipated.