The two of us charged forward recklessly, all fatigue vanishing in an instant.
At our speed, we should have reached the exit quickly, but at this moment, I noticed the light ahead didn't seem to be growing any larger.
"What's going on?" I asked, frowning.
Lin Chun paused and instinctively looked ahead, also noticing the anomaly.
This feeling made me extremely uncomfortable. Earlier, in the maze, because we saw no hope, we were actually more relaxed. Now, with hope right in front of us, for some reason, it had become a heavy burden.
"Relax your mind," I said slowly. "We need to calm ourselves and proceed as usual..."
Lin Chun looked at me with some confusion: "Lu Ge... what do you mean by that?"
"It's simple... we mustn't let the hope before us blind us. We need to know what we're doing!" I said earnestly.
Lin Chun paused for a moment, understanding my meaning: "I see. We're here only to increase our strength. Even walking on this path is still a goal..."
"Exactly!" I nodded with a smile.
Before I could finish speaking, we suddenly found ourselves bathed in the light.
The blinding light lasted only a moment before disappearing. By the time I could see my surroundings clearly, despite being mentally prepared, I was still astonished.
This place was too beautiful.
I couldn't even describe the scene I was witnessing with words – vibrant colors, all sorts of formations.
This place encompassed almost all the beauty one could see underwater.
Most importantly, being here felt like walking within a painting.
"This can't be an illusion, can it..." Lin Chun asked cautiously after staring for a long time.
I glanced around, reached out to touch the nearest coral, and then nodded: "It's not an illusion..."
Hearing this, Lin Chun looked around in amazement.
After we finally finished admiring the surrounding beauty, we remembered our purpose for being here.
We came here to improve our strength...
But since we had arrived here, it meant we had escaped the maze.
Where were the things we were looking for?
Just then, I suddenly noticed what seemed to be a tombstone directly in front of me.
The appearance of a tombstone didn't surprise me. A place like this, built with such significance, must have its reasons.
The existence of this tombstone was clearly one of those significant reasons.
I walked quickly towards it and saw that it was covered with dense characters.
These characters were all very strange symbols, but when I looked at them, I could understand their meaning, though I didn't know why.
There was no other information recorded here, only name after name.
"Zhou Ran, Zhao Tianyu, Chen Hu..."
I read the names one by one, pondering what it all meant.
At this moment, my vision suddenly blurred, and a terrifying energy instantly engulfed me.
Instinctively, I grabbed Lin Chun.
Everything around us suddenly turned dark.
"What's going on?" I frowned. I could feel Lin Chun beside me because I was still holding his arm.
But I couldn't see him.
"Lu Ge... did the sky suddenly turn dark?" Lin Chun asked.
I shook my head: "That's impossible. Even if it were dark, it shouldn't affect our vision..."
After the baptism of Mu Shen, even in darkness, our vision would not be impaired.
But now, it was pitch black.
"Could it be another trap..." Lin Chun whispered.
"I don't know..." I shook my head.
Frankly, I wanted to figure out where I was and what I was facing, but besides the darkness, there seemed to be nothing else.
As I was wondering, a beam of light suddenly appeared not far away.
Following that, a translucent shadow appeared before me.
Then the shadow slowly solidified, and I could see it clearly: a man holding a long saber.
He wore cloth robes, the style completely different from ours.
"This is..." Lin Chun looked and paused.
At that moment, another man appeared beside him, identical in style, appearance, and clothing to the first one.
"What are they doing?" Lin Chun asked.
"I don't know..." I replied, but to my surprise, I found that I could see my surroundings clearly now.
At least now I could clearly see Lin Chun beside me.
"If there's any danger, we'll fight together!" I said in a deep voice.