363: Chapter 363 I Have a Magical Jungle Spot

"Ha— Hu."

Zhou Yan exhaled a breath of pure Qi. The Qi shot out like an arrow, creating a wave of air in front of him that ruffled his blue robes.

After taking a deep breath, Zhou Yan opened his eyes and took in the scene before him.

"As expected from the memories, is the first trial a maze?"

At this moment, Zhou Yan was surrounded by giant rectangular rock walls dozens of meters high.

The rocks were very smooth, like deliberately polished decorations, covered with some vegetation and carvings of patterns that were difficult to decipher.

Zhou Yan looked up at the sky; the sky was clear, and the air was fresh.

Through the Demon Venerable's memories, Zhou Yan roughly knew where he was.

This was a giant maze that tested the trial-taker's luck, wisdom, and a certain amount of strength.

The maze would shift silently, and walking through it would present many problems, such as sudden monsters and annoying logic puzzles.

Answering correctly or defeating them would yield certain rewards, which helped the trial-takers find their way out of this shifting maze.

Of course, if one's luck was extremely good, they could find the exit just by wandering aimlessly, but Zhou Yan didn't consider himself that kind of person.

"Long Tianxing and the others were glowing with purple light. I wonder where they went?"

After confirming his current situation, Zhou Yan didn't first think about where he was, but instead pondered the whereabouts of Long Tianxing and Ao Ye, while not forgetting to put his equipment back on.

As soon as he held that leaf, he could feel the general direction it was pointing toward.

But Zhou Yan quickly gave up on that direction because, in the Demon Venerable's memory, the light back then was yellow, which was too far from where this purple light was pulling him.

Zhou Yan hurriedly made some minor adjustments, only to find that his green light wasn't actually much stronger than the yellow light, but compared to the purple light, the difference was more than tenfold.

"Could they have been sent directly near the exit? Or have they already left?"

However, Zhou Yan wasn't envious.

He blocked the purple light's pull not just because he didn't want to attract attention—after all, if the purple light truly led to a massive harvest, he wouldn't mind the attention, as he wasn't lacking in that regard.

It was just that staying in the maze made it more convenient for him to obtain some things he would need later. If that purple light really dragged him to the next stage, he would waste too many good things.

After thinking in place for a while, when Zhou Yan opened the mini-map again, he found that the maze's terrain—the layout of the giant walls—was already different from the beginning.

And this was precisely one of the reasons Zhou Yan had stayed in place instead of exploring.

Only after it moved once could he ensure the safety of his plan.

Zhou Yan first stretched his limbs and then took out the Giant Abyss Set, a set of equipment he had phased out long ago.

However, he didn't change into the full set, only swapping out his shoes.

Once they were on his feet, although the appearance didn't change due to it being an equipment effect, he still stamped his feet to test the feel. The moment he felt the feedback, Zhou Yan wore a smile that said 'as I thought'.

"Children, I'll be going ahead now."

Zhou Yan smiled, then struck a running pose and charged straight toward the wall.

Then, the effects of the two pieces of equipment activated, allowing him to walk freely on the wall.

Zhou Yan stepped onto the wall with ease, while also feeling an invisible film covering the surface.

But whether it was a real wall or a wall with a film didn't matter; as long as there was a wall, he could climb it.

In a few strides, he had run over ten meters high, only a few steps away from the top of the giant rectangular wall.

"Whoa, it really works!"

Zhou Yan looked at the wall ten-plus meters above the ground, then at the top that was within reach.

He reached out to try and touch it, and as expected, he felt a somewhat soft power.

Flying and wall-climbing were forbidden in this Secret Realm. No matter how high one's cultivation or how strong their magic power, they could only walk on the ground.

This was one of the rules that immediately surfaced in everyone's mind upon entering the Secret Realm.

Only after that did the specific details appear, such as finding a way to escape or defeating monsters.

But the Demon Venerable was a very lucky maggot.

While he wasn't as ridiculous as those legendary stories where a Mortal could wander into the Eastern Region, join a Secret Realm, and gain massive harvests, he was still quite fortunate.

According to the memories, the Demon Venerable had been accidentally caught up in a Flood Dragon's Dragon Transformation Ritual.

That Flood Dragon was struck dead by a Lightning Tribulation during its journey, but it had Karma from its life, and its Soul was protected by that Karma, allowing it to turn into a Dragon at the final moment before death.

Though it still died, its Soul became a Ghost Dragon, and its Physical Body had successfully reached the Soul Transformation Stage before death, comprehending a Law Divine Ability.

It was quite absurd; when that Flood Dragon comprehended the Divine Ability, its mind was filled with one thought.

"If I could just walk a bit faster and more steadily in this rapid current, could I have survived the Lightning Tribulation?"

So its Divine Ability was climbing, or rather, unimpeded rapid movement.

But what did this have to do with the Demon Venerable? Everything.

The Demon Venerable was a maggot; besides filth, he also consumed carrion.

At that time, the Demon Venerable was still in the Nascent Soul Stage, trying to comprehend and practice an ability similar to devouring, hoping to rely on it to achieve Soul Transformation.

Thus, he was very lucky to obtain this seemingly useless Divine Ability through his devouring ability.

And he was very lucky to gain the qualifications to enter the Eastern Extreme Secret Realm by consuming the half-dragonized Soul Transformation Stage dragon corpse.

His actual strength was quite weak, but with this wall-climbing Divine Ability, he could walk on places attached with special power, and he moved incredibly fast, giving him a huge advantage.

After all, Secret Realms and Small Worlds have a great impact on Divine Sense and senses. No one would ever imagine that a guy hiding his presence would be standing in a spot everyone agreed was impossible, acting like a camper the whole time.

So he easily obtained a massive amount of reward items, successfully entered the next stage, and fared very well there using those items.

And this meant even more to Zhou Yan.

Although he didn't have this so-called special Divine Ability, he had a pair of conceptual online game equipment.

These shoes were originally only good for cosplaying a failed man; they were better than nothing but had fairly useless secondary stats, and he had even phased them out as his cultivation grew.

But now, they had become a Sharp Weapon for victory.

And Zhou Yan was not the Demon Venerable; the Demon Venerable only had the ability to climb walls, but he had more than just that.

Just like that, Zhou Yan backed down a few steps, calculated the distance, pulled a large dragon boat out of his pocket, held it against his stomach, and then smiled.

Outside the Eastern Extreme Secret Realm.

"Old Loach, you're pretty damn arrogant, aren't you?"

"Those who know would think you're letting your juniors out for experience; those who don't would think you're leading a mad dog out to bare its teeth."

"To be honest, if I had my temper from a few hundred years ago, I'd have stepped up and hand-rubbed that little loach into a leather belt."

The Middle-aged Man from the Dragon Clan looked at the Fifth Elder with an indifferent expression.

"Perfected Lord Law-Stealing Life-Thief, you're still as foul-mouthed as ever."

Hearing this, the Fifth Elder was about to step forward when he suddenly realized something. He then sent a Sound Transmission, telling Wang Wu and Zhu Ming to hold him back.

After receiving affirmative replies from both, the Fifth Elder launched a flying kick straight at the Dragon Clan Middle-aged Man.

But after the Fifth Elder had flown some distance, he was shocked to find that the two guys he had just told to hold him back actually hadn't, and he was really kicking out.

Suddenly realizing he'd been screwed by his teammates and that things might blow up, images of both sides going to war, fighting to the death, and a series of tragedies flashed through the Fifth Elder's mind.

At the same time, he saw that dead loach opposite him furrowing his brows, looking as if he were about to pull out a weapon.

At that moment, the Fifth Elder had a sudden flash of inspiration. He spun 360 degrees in the air, turning the flying kick into a backflip, landed steadily in front of the Dragon Clan Middle-aged Man, and spat right in his face.

"Pui!"

The Dragon Clan Middle-aged Man hadn't expected the other party to pull such a move. He instinctively turned his head and closed his eyes, but he still got a face full of spit.

Once he realized he'd been spat on, he instantly became furious. Just as he was about to turn his face to teach the other a lesson, he found that the man had already hopped back into the crowd at some point, beckoning him with a mocking finger.

"Your Brother Lan not only has a foul mouth, but my spit is foul too. What's up? Come over and hit me if you've got the guts."

Looking at the other's punchable expression, the Dragon Clan Middle-aged Man grew even more enraged, but he ultimately held back.

A globule of clear water appeared in his hand. After wiping his face, he threw it fiercely toward the other party.

The Fifth Elder simply swiped the air, turning the water into mist.

"Perfected Lord Law-Stealing Life-Thief, this old man isn't here to play word games with you. If you want to fight, once the Secret Realm is over, I'll have plenty of time to play with you."

The Dragon Clan Middle-aged Man crossed his arms, staring at the Fifth Elder with anger.

Although a conflict had broken out, at least things hadn't escalated too far, and it was considered settled for now.

Finally breathing a sigh of relief, the Fifth Elder then sent a Sound Transmission to Zhu Ming and Wang Wu.

"You two disloyal bastards! I already flew out, you were supposed to stop me!"

Wang Wu and Zhu Ming responded with bewildered expressions.

"I thought you meant to stop you after the fight started?"

"I thought the same. Who knew you wouldn't even commit and were just putting on a show?"

The Fifth Elder almost coughed up a mouthful of blood and started cursing directly through the Divine Sense transmission.

"You two are idiots, but am I an idiot too? Can I even beat him? If I really kicked him, I'd be lying on the ground in a second, and then you'd have to stop that dead loach from beating me!"