The Rich Cultivator
Chapter 170 - 169. Leaving the Shrine

Chapter 170: 169. Leaving the Shrine

Tyler looked at the ten sound transmission charms in his hand with a mischievous glint in his eyes. A fleeting thought crossed his mind, and he smirked.

"Let’s just call it ’Labyrinth Communication Charms’ from now on," Tyler murmured to himself, giving the charms a quick, approving nod. He took one and was about to send a message to Lily, but paused.

A thought occurred to him. **Lily’s too clever to be wandering around aimlessly.** She would definitely be using her Phantom Mask to blend in and move swiftly through this labyrinth.

Instead of directly calling her by name, Tyler decided to be more discreet. He switched to his Phantom Blackwood voice, his tone deep and commanding, a persona Lily would immediately recognize.

"Darling? Are you there?" Tyler said with a smirk, imagining her reaction. "It seems like I’m inside a shrine near a desert. I’m heading towards the center. Meet me there."

Satisfied with the message, he closed his eyes and thought about Temptress Blackwood. The charm vanished from his hand, off to deliver his voice to Lily.

Tyler wasn’t entirely sure if it had worked, but the system seemed simple enough. A sudden idea hit him, and his eyes lit up with amusement.

He grabbed another charm and said, "Potato Tomato," just to test something. He thought about himself this time, sending the message to his own location. Sure enough, the charm disappeared. Moments later, it reappeared, and he heard his own voice echo back at him, "Potato Tomato."

Tyler laughed at the absurdity of it. "So that’s how it works," he muttered. He rolled his eyes at the fact that he had addressed Lily as "darling" in the first message, when he could have just used a more straightforward approach.

Shaking his head in amusement, Tyler turned his attention back to the remaining doors. There were still two doors he could open, and they could hold important treasures or dangerous traps. He had to choose carefully.

Walking past the first few doors he’d already investigated, Tyler paused in front of the fifth door again—the one offering immortality at the cost of being locked inside forever. His mind lingered on the possibilities. What if he had opened it earlier? Would the communication charm have allowed him to bypass the trap? He shuddered at the thought of testing that theory.

Instead, he focused on something more practical. He’d already opened the sixth door, getting the sound transmission charm, but what else could be useful?

His eyes landed on the fourth door. Poison gas. It could be handy if he ran into those Moon Honey Bees or other creatures later in the labyrinth. He thought about how to handle the situation. Perhaps the gas could give him an advantage when dealing with certain traps or enemies.

Tyler carefully considered his choices. "Three doors, three chances." He repeated the warning in his mind. He was aware that if he exceeded that limit, the consequences could be severe, maybe even fatal.

"Oh no..." Tyler muttered under his breath, his brow furrowing with frustration as he studied the situation before him. The thought weighed heavily on his mind—he had already opened one of the doors, and now the consequences were starting to become clearer. Each door was intricately paired with another, designed in such a way that if he wanted to acquire a treasure, he would also have to endure its associated challenge. The last three doors were designated for escape, but since he had already chosen the sixth door, which granted him the Sound Transmission Charm, the next logical step would be to open the fifth door.

But the fifth door was a trap. A trap dressed as a treasure.

Sure, the fifth door promised the ultimate reward—immortality. But immortality at the cost of being locked away, forced to wait for someone else, some loved one, to open the door and free him. The risks, in Tyler’s mind, were far too high, despite the allure of eternal life. He didn’t trust a situation where his fate would be entirely in the hands of someone else. After all, who knew how long it could take? He wasn’t willing to be trapped, no matter how tempting the reward seemed.

He sighed deeply, feeling the weight of his options pressing down on him. "Now what?" Tyler mumbled as he paced in front of the nine doors. Even if he chose another door, either the one with poison gas or the one with water, he knew he’d eventually have to open a treasure door to claim a prize. But there was the catch—he could only open three doors in total. If he used up his remaining chances on treasures, then his escape routes would be cut off.

He glanced upward, hoping to see the way he had entered, but couldn’t break through. He jumped, but he couldn’t reach any higher than the 7th, 8th, and 9th doors...

He needed to think of something fast. Another sigh escaped his lips, but then, an idea began to form in the back of his mind. It wasn’t a perfect plan, but it was better than staying stuck in the room forever. "Well, even though I want the Moon Honey, I don’t think it’s worth the trouble,"

There was a more straightforward option—water.

He quickly opened the door that has water.

Immediately, water gushed out, flooding the room. The force was overwhelming, and within moments, the entire room was submerged. The water filled every corner, rising quickly to Tyler’s chest, then his neck, until the entire space was underwater.

Once the room was fully flooded, he swam toward the another door. This was the door that held the ancient beast, a creature that had been trapped for over a thousand years. Without hesitation, Tyler reached out and opened the door.

A burst of intense heat surged into the water, and for a brief moment, the creature tried to escape its prison. But the water, pouring from the first door, was relentless. It surged toward the creature, quenching its flames with a loud hiss. The fire flickered and sputtered as the beast struggled, but in the end, the water won. The creature’s fiery form dissolved into the water, its life extinguished as its once-powerful body turned to ash, which scattered into the water.

Tyler, however, wasn’t done. With swift, practiced movements, he swam toward the pile of ashes that had settled at the bottom of the flooded room. His eyes scanned the debris, searching for anything of value. And then, he found it—an ancient marrow bone, carved with intricate letters that seemed to glow faintly even in the dim light. The letters were unfamiliar to him, but he knew enough to recognize that this was no ordinary bone. It had to be important.

"Looks like I’ve got my treasure," Tyler murmured as he snatched the bone and tucked it safely.

Now, it was time to get out. The room was still submerged in water, but Tyler had anticipated that. Using his Kun Swimming Skills, he launched himself upward, propelling his body through the water with speed and precision. His muscles worked in perfect sync as he maneuvered toward the passageway he had come from. Just as he had hoped, the water level had risen high enough to allow him to reach the small opening in the ceiling.

He climbed out of the flooded room, his body dripping with water as he reached the same passage he had used to enter. With this, Tyler escaped the place easily.

┉┈ ◈ ◉ ◈ ┈┉

Lily Gomes, still disguised as Temptress, stumbled into the next puzzle area with exaggerated movements, swaying like a drunken sailor. Her usually graceful demeanor was now replaced by an unsteady gait, adding to the illusion that she was inebriated. Isadora, on the other hand, was in a similarly disheveled state. She had discarded her dress and was left wearing only her innerwear. She clung closely to Temptress, her condition not much better. The two women looked as if they had been submerged in wine, their state a clear indication of the difficulty they had faced in the last trial.

"Hey, don’t just ignore me," Isadora pleaded, her voice tinged with desperation. Her earlier composure was gone, replaced by a vulnerable tone that suggested the trial had taken a heavy toll on her.

Lily, maintaining her façade of drunkenness, smirked. "Why does a Manhunter need a woman?" she mocked, her words laced with playful sarcasm. Despite her teasing, there was a note of genuine curiosity in her tone.

Isadora stopped abruptly and fixed Lily with a serious gaze. The change in her expression was stark, her earlier frivolity replaced by a determined seriousness. She looked as if she was about to reveal something significant.

"Though I am called Manhunter," Isadora began, her voice low and earnest, "I am still a virgin." She covered her face with a mix of shame and embarrassment, her eyes peeking through her fingers as she confessed this personal detail.

"Poor girl," Lily sighed and moved closer, her lips almost reaching Isadora’s.

"Darling? Are you there?" Lily suddenly stopped when she heard a voice. "It seems like I’m inside a shrine near a desert. I’m heading towards the center. Meet me there."

She looked around, but Tyler was nowhere to be seen. Her mind began to clear a bit.

Meanwhile, Isadora, with her eyes closed, was still waiting for her kiss in her drunken state.

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