Chapter 1204: 379. Misleading Guidance_2

Noland Lee pondered to himself:

“The Assassin Angel had predicted that it would take up to ten years for Nabby to become assimilated by the Mental Pollution left by the Binder of Blood. It’s only been four months since he obtained the Corpse Essence, and he has already become like this, which is somewhat beyond my expectations.”

Noland Lee noticed that the energy pillar emitted by Clinton Windhawk was beginning to spread toward Entrances 1 and 2 of the maze.

Denise Green and Selena should be waiting at Entrances 1 and 2 of the maze.

Without hesitation, Noland Lee used “Mind View” at a speed much faster than the energy pillar.

After several jumps, he saw Denise Green and Selena stationed at the entrance.

...

Noland Lee activated “Mind Induction” and spoke the pre-prepared passphrase to them, confirming his identity.

He did not wait for the two to ask questions; he took a step ahead and cast “Veil of Different Worlds (Imitation)” on them, concealing their forms.

“What kind of magic is this?” Selena looked at the energy membrane enveloping her body in astonishment, feeling as though she was cut off from the world, perhaps it was just her imagination.

Denise’s reaction was a bit slower, just staring wide-eyed, curiously examining the pale purple fog covering her body.

At this moment, the energy pillar released by Clinton Windhawk reached the exits of Mazes 1 and 2.

Denise Green and Selena’s bodies slightly trembled as they simultaneously entered a state of stillness, daring not to make any further movements.

The energy pillar twisted and bent like a centipede in a large hole in the soil, navigating through the empty maze corridor.

Waves of vibrations composed of Wind Energy emitted from the pillar, sweeping through every corner of the maze passage fully and indiscriminately.

Several invisible shockwaves struck toward Denise and Selena but passed directly through them without stirring any waves, falling straight to the floor beneath them.

“You two stay put and don’t move. There are unexpected guests in the maze, and I will take care of them,”

Noland Lee instructed:

“With the invisibility spell I’ve cast, they cannot possibly detect your presence. Just stay calm.”

Denise obediently nodded her head and stood still.

Selena, somewhat worried, asked:

“Who are they?”

Noland Lee scoffed and said:

“Hah, some old acquaintances. Clinton Windhawk and Benjamin Jelani.”

Selena was stunned:

“How could it be them? How did they know the exact time the Sub-dimensional Entrance would open?”

Noland Lee shook his head slightly and said:

“It’s a long story, let me deal with them first.”

Nabby was no shallow schemer.

He didn’t randomly select his collaborators.

The reason he collaborated with Benjamin Jelani and Clinton Windhawk was because Nabby had learned of the conflict between “Noland Lee Jarvis” and these two.

Though Nabby did not know the mysterious entity’s identity in the natural world, nor why it was a Third-Ring Wizard, this did not hinder him from drawing Benjamin and Clinton into the scheme to restrain the actions of the mysterious entity.

Noland Lee hastened his pace toward the maze exit, paying little attention to Nabby and the others.

However, Clinton seemed to have some issues with Entrances 1 and 2 of the maze and was determined to find the people who entered the maze through those entrances.

“I haven’t detected any energy fluctuations that don’t belong to our trio,” Clinton explored the maze with the energy pillar as he spoke.

Benjamin Jelani pondered and asked:

“Not a single movement?”

“None at all,” Clinton paused and added:

“At least within the range I’ve surveyed. I haven’t seen anyone. Perhaps those who entered from other entrances have already reached the deeper parts of the maze.”

Benjamin thoughtfully tilted his head and looked at Nabby asking:

“Didn’t you say before that the mysterious entity is very familiar with this Sub-dimension?”

“Yes,” Nabby nodded.

Benjamin had his answer: noveldrama

“Then it seems its plan is very simple, just to be the first to enter the Sub-dimension and take up a spot in this maze space, ensuring all who enter are its own people. If that’s the case, this mysterious entity might not be as powerful as you imagined.”

Through Benjamin’s analysis, Nabby and Clinton also realized this.

Benjamin was right.

If the mysterious entity was already strong enough to overpower a Transcendent Wizard, there would have been no need to devise a plan to seize slots in the maze.

It was precisely because the mysterious entity was not powerful enough that it needed to form a soul contract with Nabby to block other Transcendent Wizards from entering.

Benjamin Jelani continued,

“I agree with Clint’s earlier point. In mazes like this, where the entrances are extremely regularly distributed, the exit is generally located at the center of the sphere formed by the entrances. Let’s head there now; we might encounter that mysterious entity.”

Just as Benjamin finished speaking, Clint suddenly said,

“Wait a moment, I have detected some strange energy fluctuations.”

“Where?” asked Benjamin.

Clint raised his hand and pointed in a direction,

“Over there.”

“What is that place?” Benjamin asked again.

Clint pondered for a moment and said,

“If my detection is not mistaken, the maze space we are in now is a standard cube. We had previously speculated that the maze exit is at the center of the cube. However, the energy fluctuations I’m sensing are occurring on one of the edges of the cube, that place…”

Before Clint could finish, his tone suddenly changed as he said,

“Wait, the energy fluctuations have disappeared—it seems like it passed through the maze’s wall on the edge and left the maze.”

Benjamin’s eyes lit up,

“Does that mean the maze exit is not at the center of the maze but at its edge?”

“That is possible,” said Clint.

Nabby said,

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s hurry to the place where the energy fluctuation disappeared.”

The three could not split up and had to move as one.

After unifying their goal, Benjamin used lightning magic to transform their trio into a flash of electricity, moving swiftly in the direction Clint had indicated.

Their flying speed was extremely fast, like true lightning zipping through thousands of meters long maze corridors and then swiftly turning 90 degrees into another corridor.

In under a minute, they covered close to 10 kilometers at lightning speed and arrived at the place where the energy fluctuation had disappeared.

There, they saw strange characters on the wall.

It was a circular pattern of unknown significance, drawn with ordinary ink, covering one wall.

And this wall was located at the very edge of the maze.

One could imagine that something had arrived at this wall while the three were talking and exploring and drew the mysterious circular pattern, activating some function of the maze and passing through the maze’s edge before leaving.

After a heated discussion, Benjamin and his companions took note of the mysterious patterns on the wall and hurriedly went to look for the other edges of the cubic maze.

In their opinion, the cubic maze had 8 vertices and 12 edges, thus, 8 of those edges should be the maze exits allowing only one person to pass through, while the remaining 4 were dead ends.

Since the mysterious entity could open a maze exit by drawing mysterious patterns, they should also be able to do so.

The only trouble was, Benjamin and his companions were unclear which edges were exits and which were dead ends, and they could only try them one by one.

Misled by Noland Lee, Benjamin and his companions, who knew little about the maze, ended up on the wrong path.

They tried several edges in succession but could not find the maze exit.

This started to make them doubt their hypothesis or wonder if the mysterious patterns corresponding to each edge were different.

Benjamin and his companions had to stop and ponder the meanings of the mysterious patterns.

Taking advantage of their halted progress, Noland Lee accelerated his pace and finally reached the exit’s location in the center of the maze.

Noland Lee crashed into the plain stone wall, smoothly passing through it into a sub-dimensional core filled with gray fog.

A light sphere surrounded by gray lines quietly floated in the air.

Noland Lee raised his hand, grasped it, and a system message emerged in his mind.

[You have touched the “Sub-dimensional Core.”]

[Estimated to consume 1.2 billion Energy Points, it can be bound to your soul.]

[The binding process will last 12 minutes, do you confirm to proceed with binding?]

Noland Lee nodded and mentally said, “Bind.”

A Veil of Different Worlds enveloped the central wall of the maze, completely concealing it so that Nabby and his companions had no chance to peer into its secrets.