Unable to contact his teammates, Xiao Lou was extremely anxious, his brows furrowing tightly.
Seeing his serious expression, Yu Hanjiang whispered to comfort him, "Don't worry too much. Brother Jiu and the other three are capable of protecting themselves. CEO Shao and Ye Qi have Tao Yuanming in their hands. If they encounter danger, they can hide in Peach Blossom Spring. Perhaps it's just a loss of contact, and they're not in any danger."
Xiao Lou opened the team contract book. All twelve names on the signature page were still there, and the team-limited [Resurrection Card] and [ Time Reversal Card] had not been used—the names were still there, which at least proved that all the teammates were alive.
He breathed a slight sigh of relief and said, "Since we can't contact them, let's do what we need to do first. Investigate this Ghost City and see if we can find any clues."
Yu Hanjiang nodded in agreement, pressed his earpiece, and said, "Everyone, jump out of the window and regroup as soon as possible."
A moment later, the group of six gathered downstairs at the inn.
Liu Qiao stepped forward with concern and asked, " Professor Xiao, are you alright? You don't look well."
Xiao Lou forced a smile: "It's nothing. I was just worried about my teammates who suddenly lost contact. Luckily, they're all alive, and their names are still on the contract book..." He turned to look at the dark alley and said, "Let's go, let's investigate first, and then we'll figure out how to meet up with Brother Jiu and the others after dawn."
The group followed Xiao Lou forward.
At night, Qingfeng Town seemed to have suddenly become a ghost town. There was no sound in the town, and even the moon and stars overhead seemed to be covered. It was pitch black, and you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang took out two luminous pearls to provide light.
After walking for a few minutes, Old Mo suddenly asked in confusion, "I remember that during the day, the alley behind the inn was about 100 steps long. How come it seems to be longer at night?"
This dark alleyway seemed to have no end.
Yu Hanjiang also became alert and asked in a deep voice, "Last night when we went to Ghost City, we walked through most of the town's paths, but we never encountered such a long alley, did we?"
Old Mo took out the maze map he had drawn last night and said with certainty, "No, the maze we walked through last night was similar to a honeycomb maze. The roads were all winding and twisting. There were no long and straight alleys like this."
Qu Wanyue said, "I also remember the Ghost City maze last night. Most of the time, it was a turn every ten steps or so. But just now, we walked over a hundred steps and kept going in a straight line. Does the maze change every night?"
Liu Qiao didn't come in with everyone last night. Hearing this, she guessed, " Could the Ghost City maze at night change according to the nighttime plot?"
Xiao Lou thought so too. He looked at Liu Qiao and said, "That is indeed possible. Last night we saw Miss Zhao getting married and Madam Chen giving birth. Tonight there are different plot lines, and the maze will change accordingly... In other words, Ghost City is different every night, which will bring a lot of inconvenience to our investigation."
Long Sen quipped, "So, the maze diagram that Old Mo drew last night won't be needed tonight?"
Old Mo looked dejected. He turned the white handkerchief over and sighed, "Sigh, I guess I'll have to redraw it. A maze every night, is this Diamonds girl trying to drive us crazy?"
Liu Qiao shrugged: "I've never thought she was cute. If Ninth Brother were here, he would definitely call her a pervert."
Xiao Lou said helplessly, "Let's go. I wonder what Ghost City will be like tonight."
The group continued forward along the narrow alley. Old Mo always scaled his maps proportionally; for example, one centimeter on the map equaled ten steps in reality, making them more intuitive.
He drew a long straight line on the back of the handkerchief with his finger, and strangely, the line seemed to have no end.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, Old Mo stopped, looked down at the map he had drawn, and frowned, saying, "We've already walked more than 200 steps, why is there still no exit in this alley?"
Liu Qiao looked around and said, "This alley is so long, and there isn't a single house around?"
Xiao Lou looked back; the inn where he had jumped from seemed to be gone. Under the luminous pearl light, the entire alley appeared extremely deserted, with only the long shadows of the six of them trailing on the ground.
A dark, quiet environment can easily amplify a person's sense of tension.
The six people stood in the empty alley, looking at each other in bewilderment.
Yu Hanjiang whispered, "Try to see if there's a path on the side." Back in the ancient tomb maze, they had also encountered endless steps, but it turned out to be an illusion; the way out was actually on the side. It was a normal reaction for Yu Hanjiang to want to try the side.
Xiao Lou knew what he was going to do and consciously took a step back.
Yu Hanjiang took out a sharp military knife, raised his head, and chopped hard at the wall—
This knife could cut through iron like mud, and Yu Hanjiang was incredibly strong. His teammates thought he would split a hole in the wall, but when Yu Hanjiang swung his knife, the wall didn't budge. Instead, Yu Hanjiang's knife was sucked into the wall like it was hitting a sponge!
An extremely strong force was pulling Yu Hanjiang, and it looked like his arm was about to be sucked into the wall. Xiao Lou hurriedly grabbed his other hand and pulled him back desperately: " Hanjiang, be careful!"
Yu Hanjiang reacted extremely quickly, immediately putting away the card.
Xiao Lou, still shaken, grabbed Yu Hanjiang's hand and asked, "Are you alright?"
Yu Hanjiang shook his head: "It's nothing. There's something wrong with this wall, everyone stay away!" If that knife hadn't been a card, it would definitely have been sucked into the wall by now.
Good Yu Hanjiang stopped quickly enough, otherwise he would have lost a knife for nothing.
Liu Qiao's face turned pale, and she stared at the wall as if she were looking at a monster. She whispered, "Could it be a visual illusion? Or have we encountered a real 'ghost wall' and will never be able to get out of this alley?"
To verify Liu Qiao's question, Xiao Lou took out Compass, drew a ring, and threw it at the wall.
Just like before, Ring was automatically sucked into the wall and quickly disappeared without leaving any trace.
The walls on both sides of the alley resemble man-eating monsters.
Old Mo suddenly said, "Look closely, the bricks on the ground and walls are different from the bricks used in the buildings of Qingfeng Town, and they're different from the ones we encountered in Ghost City last night. Guardian, if you're changing the maze, there's no need to change the bricks too, is there?"
Old Mo was the most professional when it came to the use of building materials, and Xiao Lou noticed something was wrong when he heard this. Although the light was dim and the patterns on the bricks were not visible, both Qingfeng Town during the day and Ghost City last night used ancient stone bricks, which were not very smooth and even had moss growing in the gaps between the bricks.
But tonight, the alleyway's ground and walls are incredibly smooth, somewhat like bluish marble.
The technology of ancient brick kilns was far from reaching this level.
Xiao Lou paused for a moment, then suddenly thought of a possibility: "This isn't a maze, but a card effect. Someone has locked us in a closed space!"
Almost as soon as Xiao Lou finished speaking, a series of "cawing" sounds suddenly rang out from all around. Yu Hanjiang turned around abruptly and shone the luminous pearl behind him—only to see a swarm of crows flying in from behind like a dark cloud, screeching and swooping down on the crowd!
Yu Hanjiang had never seen so many crows in his life. The crows filled the entire alley, almost drowning the six of them.
The crows were incredibly fast. Liu Qiao, standing at the back, was nearly pecked out of one eye. She quickly used her Lightness Skill to fly up and throw out a Little Red Riding Hood as a substitute. Almost instantly, the Little Red Riding Hood was engulfed by the crows. Terrified, Liu Qiao swiftly released the Elsa fairytale card she had drawn earlier.
Snow and ice are falling!
Elsa was a card that Liu Qiao just drew after clearing Q Secret Room, and it's the first time she's used it today.
A dazzling display of snowflakes fell down, instantly freezing the air behind her, and the crackling sound of frost freezing living things filled her ears!
The crows that were still flying were frozen by the ice and snow, and they all turned into frozen crows, like ice sculptures, frozen in the air in various strange postures.
Liu Qiao, her face pale, flew back to Xiao Lou's side and said, "It's Hunter again!"
Xiao Lou looked at the frozen flock of crows in front of him and said softly, "Everyone be careful. This Hunter is very powerful."
I just encountered that "female ghost" with her hair flying everywhere, and now someone has locked them up in an alley and unleashed a flock of crows to attack them...
Yu Hanjiang suddenly said, "This alley should also be a kind of'spatial domain' card, which forcibly pulled us into a closed place."
Old Mo was taken aback for a moment, then asked, "How are we supposed to get out of here?"
Xiao Lou said helplessly, "We can't go out without the master's permission, just like my Peach Blossom Spring." However, while Peach Blossom Spring has a beautiful environment with peach blossoms all over the mountains, this time the environment is a dark alley.
Xiao Lou took a deep breath and said, "Domains usually have a time limit. Peach Blossom Spring lasts for 3 hours. Since this card can forcibly pull us into the dark alley, judging by the strength of the S card, the time should not exceed 3 hours."
Liu Qiao said, "So, we have to try our best to stay alive and get through these 3 hours?"
Back in the Q Secret Room, Xiao Lou also dragged Merfolk Clan's clones into Peach Blossom Spring and burned them. In fact, if you put yourself in their shoes, it was inevitable that they would become prey and be dragged into other realms.
As the difficulty of the levels increases, the Challenger becomes stronger, and the Hunter will naturally not be weak either.
Xiao Lou whispered to his teammates, "Everyone come here, stand back to back, get your cards ready, and be prepared to fight at any time."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Lou's teammates immediately moved closer to him, forming a circle of six and cautiously looking around.
However, nothing happened after that.
Ten minutes... twenty minutes...
Compared to Xiao Lou and his group, who were on edge and extremely wary, this Hunter seemed quite patient.
I don't know how much time passed, but the surrounding environment remained unchanged. The dark alley was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Although everyone was exhausted, they dared not relax for a moment. The large-scale ice and snow created by Liu Qiao with the card had gradually melted, but no one could say for sure whether something else would attack them.
Just then, a large number of green vines suddenly appeared under everyone's feet. As if they were sentient, the vines quickly wrapped around everyone's legs!
Yu Hanjiang's expression changed, and he immediately swung his military knife, cleanly severing the vines beneath his feet. Xiao Lou hurriedly took out his Compass and drew an invincibility circle around his teammates.
The green vines stretched out their claws outside the invincible circle, but couldn't get close to them.
However, the invincible circle can only last for 10 minutes. Once so many green vines get out of control, they will definitely strangle them quickly! What's even more terrifying is that this Hunter has not shown his face until now, and no one knows how many trump cards he has up his sleeve.
Xiao Lou whispered in Yu Hanjiang's ear, "We can't just sit here and wait to die. Since he can attack us with all kinds of cards, he must be in this area as well. We must find him as soon as possible."
Yu
Hanjiang nodded, a sharp glint in his eyes: "That's right. There's another way to break through this closed domain—to kill its master."