Chapter 638: Chapter 638: The Maze

Due to the unexpected appearance of the fog, the two sides temporarily stopped fighting and decided to escape the invasive fog first. However, they still remained a considerable distance with each other, making sure they were completely aware of the movements of their opponents.

After all, they were enemies, not friends.

As of the moment, Malcom had chased them for about thirty miles persistently. However, he was certain of the fact that he had not been there for long since he entered the region surrounded by the fog, as he estimated he only traveled for about four or five miles in total.

Judging by the flying speed of this particular group of warriors, they fathomed that they should be able to return in a few minutes.

Everyone's hearts were seemingly troubled as they all visibly sported identical looks of apprehension--no one was certain enough to quell their doubts about whether or not they could even walk out of the fog.

Five more minutes had passed by, yet they still found themselves still stuck in the thick fog. Glancing at one another with uneasiness, they knew that with their current flying speed, they should have flown dozens of miles in that short period of time. In spite of this, the fog still appeared to have no end in sight even if they felt they were closer and closer to way out. With furrowed eyebrows, they were slightly panicking at the fact that they could not even see any sign that indicated the edge of the hazy fog.

“Dang it! We're done for. It's just like the rumors have said! Once we enter the fog, there will be no turning back…”

a worried expression was painted across Shane's features as he morosely uttered.

“Shut up,” Malcom berated. Although he still had the grit to maintain a false sense of calm on the surface, he could not deny the truth that he was a little alarmed and anxious by the way things were going. As a matter of fact, the ogre race was the race who happened to be the most familiar with the Dark Nether Cave. Previously, several races had joined hands to explore and discover what lay beneath the core area of the Dark Nether Cave. Moreover, the number of warriors that the ogre race had specifically sent out was more than that of the others. As not a single soul had returned, the ogre race suffered the most loss out of any of the races.

In addition to this, the ogres were the ones who had unfalteringly prepared themselves to the best of their abilities during the exploration of the core last time. It was to the extent that every ogre warrior had made a life token, as well as established a message rune system for communication.

Unfortunately, things immediately went wrong after the warriors entered the dense fog, due to the fact that all of the message runes they created were all suddenly disconnected and they were then unable to communicate with the outside world. However, strangely, their life tokens were all still intact.

Since the life tokens were still intact, they were somehow relieved because it meant that they were still alive. Thus, the warriors outside had assumed that they were relatively safe after entering the fog from the start. However, after three days had passed, all the life tokens belonging to them had all shattered simultaneously! Without a doubt, over a dozen ogre top-level war lords all died in an instant!

Astonished at what they had just discovered, they all wondered the same thing: just what was it that had caused the sudden death of these top-level war lords?

Regrettably, they were all at a loss because it was a mystery that no one was able to solve.

With a heavy heart, Malcom might have had the chance to solve this mystery, but he was afraid that the price in exchange for it would probably be his life.

Therefore, at this time, Malcom was indeed extremely agitated and nervous. Nevertheless, he still strove to appear as calm as he could, for the sake of the other warriors and for his own sake.

At the present, Zen, who was not far behind him, suddenly spoke up, “Stop!”

Upon hearing the abrupt voice, they all whirled around to look at Zen who appeared to have noticed something. “What happened?” Fabian asked, looking at the man curiously.

“Look!” With his eyes trained below, Zen pointed at the ground, where there seemed to be a small mark that was almost unnoticeable.

In an instant, everyone looked down at the mark and asked at the same time, “Oh, what is that?”

“Just before we set out, I secretly left this mark. Now...” Glancing between the mark and the others in front of him with a bothered frown on his face, he paused for a while as if deep in thought before speaking up once more, “We just went back to the place where we started off.”

Chuckling mirthlessly, Shane addressed Zen a reply, “So it seems like we were going in circles?”

Confirming his statement, Zen gravely nodded and everyone's crestfallen faces gave the impression of hopelessness.

“Why is this happening, then?” Fabian whined, waving his arms around petulantly. “We were obviously flying in a straight line!”

the warrior complained, huffing at the impossibility of the situation.

With a slight smile, Zen moved closer to Fabian and promptly countered, “Are you sure we were flying in a straight line all this time?”

“Yes, I am quite sure!”

Fabian firmly replied as he stared at Zen crossly.

Shaking his head as he exasperatedly sighed, Zen tried to get his point across without sounding impertinent. “This fog is somewhat strange. But even if this was a common fog, it would not be that easy for us to keep moving forward in a straight line.” ɽＡ𝐍őβĘ𝙨

“Zen, are you perhaps, doubting our intelligence?”

Shane asked, raising an eyebrow in challenge at the underlying implications of what Zen had just said.

All around him were a group of capable and top-level war lords. With a cautious glance between Zen and Shane, they did wonder right then if the former had insinuated that a group of war lords were not clever enough to know if they were walking in a straight line or not. 'Did he really mean what he said?' they all collectively pondered. In fact, even a small kid could tell something that obvious so Zen's words were undoubtedly a bit confusing to understand.

Sighing once again, Zen gave Shane an indifferent look before walking closer to the offended man. Once he was at arm's length, Zen reached his hand out and tore a piece of cloth from his sleeve. Nodding to the other direction, he said to Shane, “Come here.”

“What are you planning to do?”

The man cautiously stared at Zen as he anticipated what he was about to do next.

“Don't worry, I only need you to help me conduct an experiment. I'm not going to fight with you,” Zen simply said, crossing his arms against his chest.

Truthfully, Shane did not want to go with him, and it was written all over his face just by the way he doubtfully looked between Malcom and the rest of his companions. If Zen were to suddenly attack him, with the watchful presence of several others by his side, how could he resist then?

However, upon observing Zen's genuine gesture, Malcom seemed to have his mind made up as he promptly ordered, “Shane, go over to him.”

Seeing as he could not deliberately refuse Malcom's command, he had no choice but to brace himself and walk up to Zen who was patiently waiting for him.

Raising the strip of cloth in his hand right in front of the hesitant man, Zen looked at Shane directly in his eyes before instructing him carefully, “Now, you don't need to fly. You don't have to use your life vitality or your other special senses. Just try to walk forward by instinct!”

“What is this…”

Needless to say, Shane was terribly confused of what Zen was asking him to do.

“Just do as I say,” Zen urged him, giving him a pointed look.

Distractedly turning his back to look at Malcom, Shane gulped once he saw him staring at him with such fierceness. With no other choice, Shane sighed in defeat as he walked over to Zen and the man instantly covered his eyes with the cloth. After blindfolding Shane, Zen then asserted, “Now, move forward.”

Under Zen's directive, Shane took his first step forward and hesitantly walked further.

“Go, keep going!”

With Zen constantly urging him from behind, Shane lost his uncertainty little by little and his speed steadily increased as he rapidly strode onward.

A hundred feet easily became two hundred, which reached three hundred in no time at all. Not a long moment after, he had walked over four hundred feet.

The young warrior was already far ahead, and his figure slowly sank into the embrace of the fog, like a stone dropping into a vast lake.

“Where am I? Can I stop now?” he asked, his voice briefly cracking due to him being slightly worried of his surroundings. In reality, Shane was not the type of person to be overly courageous in the face of something he feared. Furthermore, he was currently in the Dark Nether Cave. Who knew whether a demonic beast would suddenly jump out and swallow him in the next moment? As he was temporarily banned from using his sight, he felt his heartbeat rise erratically with the sudden realization that he was alone.

Before Malcom was about to say something as he noticed something strange, Zen stopped him. At the same time, Zen activated his life vitality to talk to Shane directly, “Go, go on! You're very close to the finish line!”

Upon hearing the urgent voice, Shane quickened his pace significantly and rushed forward without hesitation.

From the start of his walk until the end, everyone attentively observed Shane's movements to see if what Zen was spouting was indeed true. Loud gasps were heard from the warriors as they watched Shane walk around in a big circle before finally returning to the starting point, which was beside Zen. Once he stopped, Zen then took the cloth off Shane's face.

The moment Shane opened his eyes and blinked to adjust his vision from the sudden brightness, he immediately saw everyone standing around him. Confusedly tilting his head to one side, he asked them apprehensively, “You…, you have been following me the entire time?”

Everyone shook their heads in denial. In fact, they had not moved even a single inch after Shane started walking.

“B-but, but..” he started to stammer. “I was walking in a straight line just now!” Shane stated in confusion, wildly looking at the other people gathered around him in dismay--they, too, were in disbelief at what they had just witnessed.

“You think you were walking in a straight line, but you were not, clearly,” the young man said indifferently, although his eyes were alight with passion. “The reason we can usually walk in a straight line is actually because we have something stationary and obvious that allows us to use it as a reference!”

Rolling his eyes at the blank expressions of the other warriors, Zen continued, “For example, if there happened to be a mountain up ahead, you can use that as your object of reference when you approach it. This way, you can maintain a straight line!”

“But in this fog,” Zen paused before lowering the volume of his voice. “All the reference objects have disappeared, as if this dense fog has become a piece of cloth covering our eyes.”

With a solemn tone, Zen then addressed all of them, “That is why we are walking in a perpetual circle.”

“So that explains it, then. Well, how come I've never heard of it?” Fabian asked curiously, with the others behind him nodding vehemently in agreement.

The young man did not bother replying as he shook his head desolately. It was true that in this chaotic Sea God Continent, killing was the ultimate means to survive. It was definitely not as stable and peaceful compared to the lives people led in the Central Region. In this forlorn place, there was no culture heritable. Therefore, in that moment, Zen could finally understand why they were ignorant of this simple principle.

“What should we do now?”

biting her lower lip unconsciously, Esther turned to Zen and asked him with a hopeful expression on her face.

At that instant, everyone seemed to follow her lead as they all turned to look at Zen. It was obvious by the way they all regarded him with seriousness that they all saw hope from Zen. In a situation where they did not understand what was happening around them, Zen's miraculous stunt was impressive and gave them a newfound sense of hope.

“We need to continue walking!” he declared. Unsheathing his long sword, Zen determinedly stood as he made a visible mark on the ground before choosing a direction to walk forward.

Everyone glanced at one another and their gazes became more and more resolute. Within that short moment, it was like everyone's thoughts had been united--they placed all their hopes on Zen to get them out of the intrusive fog.

In actuality, Zen did not finish what he had intended to say earlier. As a matter of fact, he did not have any object around as his reference in the first place!

Eventually, the space ring located on his chest was the only thing that he relied on to give him a sense of direction.

The further away Zen was from the inheritance that the immortal Mist had mentioned, the ring on his chest was supposed to feel slightly colder. Similarly, the closer he was to the location of the inheritance, Zen would definitely feel a higher temperature emitting from the ring on his chest.

More so, as long as the temperature inside the space ring significantly decreased, the Jade Butterfly located in the Sumeru Space would glow with less and less flames. What this meant was that everyone was constantly distancing themselves from the core area.

In this line of reasoning, it should not be difficult for them to leave the core area upon using the space ring.

After all, the Jade Butterfly acted as a beacon for all of them.

However, Zen could not deny that this fog was truly strange, making it possible for people to lose their sense of direction quite easily. Just now, upon trying to return and walk out of the fog, the temperature of the space ring had initially decreased, but it suddenly spiked up without warning some time later. All the way through, Zen observed with trepidation that the temperature was constantly changing.

In conclusion, this only meant that they had not been walking in a straight line, nor had they been going in a circle just like their speculation. Instead, he realized with a start that they had moved sometimes left, sometimes right, sometimes far away, and sometimes unnervingly close.

It was as if they were lost in a special space!

Despite his sudden alarm at what he had just become aware of, Zen did not dare reveal the secret to the others due to the following considerations. Firstly, it was unnecessary for him to divulge it as of now, and secondly, it might even cause more panic and anxiety.

At the present, everyone continued to move forward even more cautiously. It was not just Zen alone who would occasionally drop down and make some marks, but the others soon followed his example.

Without them noticing, five minutes had passed.

Ten minutes later, they still persistently walked forward.

Fifteen minutes later, they were still going at it, to no avail.

Although some of them started to feel tired and worn out, the warriors determinedly strode forward even after two hours had passed.

With their method, it was not long before they reached the four-hour mark.

As time perpetually ticked on and on, everyone's heart, as well as their hope in ever finding a way out, gradually sank to the bottom.

Even though they did use their own methods to leave marks on the ground, it was to their disappointment later on when they eventually found out that the marks they had left were useless as they reappeared disorderly. For example, upon discovering the first mark and expecting to see the second mark next, they all groaned inaudibly as the sixth mark popped out in front of them instead.

In this fog, panic seized their very bones as there seemed to be a massive space maze around them.