Lord Shenxiu
Chapter 346: Mind (Requesting Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 346: Chapter 346: Mind (Requesting Monthly Tickets)

Inside the labyrinth.

Zhong Shenxiu explored calmly and steadily, one step at a time.

After passing through the corridor, he found himself atop a massive chessboard.

Rows of soldiers, knights, mages, queens, and kings were arranged in black and white columns, as if waiting for a chess player.

"So this is the chessboard showdown... I remember, one needs to play the role of a chess player and lead one’s side to victory in order to pass, right?"

Zhong Shenxiu stroked his chin.

He didn’t know how to play chess, but he could use brute force.

With that thought, he walked over to his side’s king, commanding a pawn, "You... go and kill the enemy king!"

The pawn was a human-sized giant metal statue, holding a shield and spear, with well-defined muscles.

But at that moment, if it could show any expression on its face, it would surely be one of utter confusion.

What chess rules allowed for slaying the dragon with the opening move?

However, Zhong Shenxiu didn’t keep it waiting long and caressed the armlet on his wrist.

The Three-eyed Feathered Serpent suddenly flapped its wings, and a sky-full of pristine white feathers rained down like snowflakes upon the opposite side.

One by one, the statues were infused with the feathers and consequently lost all mobility, their surfaces cracking with countless fissures until they exploded into powdery dust.

The enemy was annihilated!

Our side emerged victorious!

Beyond the chessboard, a passage suddenly became visible.

This was, in fact, the second way to pass the chessboard—if one couldn’t take shortcuts, one had to overturn the board with sheer force.

"Ah, I passed by using my wits to checkmate the opponent in one move."

Someone shamelessly taunted and stepped into the passage.

The Black Dragon Maze was filled with countless such trials, often very unpredictable; even he didn’t know what the next space he’d enter would be like.

As for where the Stone Dragon Heart lay, there were absolutely no clues—it was all down to luck.

’Hmm... those beings that hinted at betting on me should probably give me some sort of insight, or even deliver it right to me, right?’

Zhong Shenxiu walked through the passage, and before him, a cottage materialized.

"It looks like the riddle cottage, I’m not good at this... So, if I can’t guess it right, do I just force it?"

He furrowed his brows, thinking deeply for a moment.

The next instant.

Boom!

A ferocious gust of wind, mixed with countless shards of ice, suddenly exploded within the cottage.

The fierce storm lifted the riddle cottage up, tearing it apart midair; a clown-shaped doll inside was ripped to shreds, turning into strips of cloth that scattered down.

"To think another friend of the forceful guess has arrived..."

A smirk appeared on Zhong Shenxiu’s face as he looked up.

In midair, a woman, her body wreathed in golden whirlwinds, was being devoured by numerous black dots.

Those black dots were a swarm of moth-like creatures.

With each assault, they caused her expression to pale, and despite dying in droves, a colorful powdery substance stuck to the whirlwind, increasingly burdening the woman.

"Federation Member, ’Windcatcher’ Lady Joanna?"

Zhong Shenxiu couldn’t help but speak up, recognizing the face from before.

"Be careful of Eugene; he has gone completely mad."

Joanna’s voice boomed with an icy edge, "My dear friend, if you have truly fallen, then let me be the one to send you on your way."

"Eugene?"

Zhong Shenxiu looked towards Joanna’s opposite side.

Although Eugene looked terrifying at that moment, he still retained traces of his former self.

He had become bloated in figure, crawling with moths and bug pupae, resembling a colossal human-shaped insect nest, and took a slow step forward, "It was when the Spirit Realm Icefield was excavated and those pristine bug eggs discovered that I realized I had been the mad one before. Only then did I awaken and grasp the profound understanding of life!"

"Do you see the birth of life, how it is filled with pain yet so beautiful?"

As he spoke, two flesh pouches on his back burst open, from which a pair of massive moth wings emerged.

The patterns on them were like a pair of pitch-black eyes that could completely ensnare the mind and cast it down into the abyss.

Even Zhong Shenxiu had a momentary lapse of concentration.

The moment he saw the eyes on those wings, a violent roar echoed in his ears as if countless murmurs overlapped, suddenly erupting in his mind.

He felt as though he saw that city destroyed by Heavenly Fire once again.

Hiss hiss!

The Three-eyed Feathered Serpent let out a hissing sound.

That sensation, akin to a serpent’s tongue and cold to the touch, snapped Zhong Shenxiu back to reality.

At that moment, he saw Lady Joanna in mid-air, already bereft of all resistance, the swirling gales around her vanished without a trace, her entire being overwhelmed by moths.

"Moth Lord..."

Zhong Shenxiu murmured softly as numerous Death Feathers fell.

A vast number of moths dropped dead to the ground, but Eugene, fluttering his moth wings, watched the feathers merge into his being, his face revealing an expression of pleasure, "Death... pure death... But without life, how can one speak of the terror of death?"

The instant death verdict of the Death Feather seemed not to inflict any harm on him!

’Could it be that because moths symbolize emergence from chrysalis and rebirth, they possess the authority of the resurrection domain?’

Zhong Shenxiu was somewhat astonished as he gazed at Eugene, his pupils suddenly shifting into vertical slits.

"Illusion... haha... such a useless thing."

Eugene, now mostly transformed, felt a certain soul link emanating from those eyes but did not take it seriously.

In this pure contest of spiritual essence, he did not believe he would lose.

"Next, it’s your turn."

With a violent flutter of his wings, the eyes amidst the cloud of dust became even more lively.

While Zhong Shenxiu’s mouth curled into a slight smile, he suddenly channeled a higher-dimensional version of himself, his attribute panel vibrating as if reliving the scene of the battle with the gourmand from days past.

This time, however, he was the one spreading contamination.

Eugene froze in his actions.

He landed on the ground, a blank expression on his face, his body’s moths exploding into a splatter of blood.

"From dust to dust, from earth to earth..."

Zhong Shenxiu began to chant another unnamed spell.

This was not the Moduo Spell he had once faked as the Mad Mage but a proper unnamed spell mastered through formal rituals.

Naturally, the entity invoked was still ’Lord Shenxiu’!

Rage on!

A fierce flame raged, enveloping Eugene, who had already lost the power to resist.

When he saw the many moths being turned to ash by the flames, Zhong Shenxiu looked at the remains of the riddle cottage and suddenly felt something amiss.

"This is troublesome... both these people are Federation Members. Their deaths here, surely the Federation will quake a bit, won’t they?"

"Anyway, I definitely won’t be the first to speak out, as it’s hard to make clear. The anti-divination properties of this place are a bit nauseating..."

"Forget it, as if I hadn’t seen these two... Poor Eugene, had you chosen a different battlefield, you wouldn’t have ended up this way."

Zhong Shenxiu was about to leave when his expression suddenly changed.

He beckoned, summoning a black stone from the ashes of Eugene.

"The Stone Dragon Heart?"

Zhong Shenxiu’s face lit up with joy, and then he noticed ancient text inscribed on the surface of the stone: "I am Isreal, leaving behind a warning for posterity... The heart is a window to longevity, when you find no path ahead, you might as well ask your own heart... Besides that..."

"Do not ascend!"

"Do not ascend!"

"Do not ascend!"

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