Back in the cave, Hui Yue frowned slightly, as it was completely shrouded in darkness. Within seconds, he created three additional Qi Fans, which he used to gather his companions and bring them to him.
Together, they stepped into the blackened world of the cave. Yet as soon as their feet touched the ground, it felt as though the entire world had begun to spin.
With an inadvertent grab, Hui Yue sensed a surge of force pulling them, causing all four of them to scramble blindly in absolute darkness. Suddenly, Hui Yue once again found his footing.
Hui Yue quickly cald himself, waved his hand, and summoned a mory Stone from his storage stone. The mory Stone in his hand contained the essence of sunlight, and as its radiance illuminated the cave they had entered, Hui Yue’s eyes widened slightly as he spotted Deng Wu standing beside him. Wang Julong and Sha Yun were also with them.
"What bad luck," Lan Feng comnted upon discovering this. "They’ve ended up in another room. I think we should head out to find them."
Hui Yue got up but didn’t imdiately set out to search for Wang Julong and Sha Yun. Instead, he calmly observed the surroundings, his expression tinged with wariness.
The cave was barren, as expected, but a few types of fungi grew in the darkest corners. When Hui Yue activated a light stone, the mushrooms began to crumble, as though the sunlight was lethal to them.
The stone, in truth, was a low-tier storage stone housing a seed of light. Its poor quality and exposure in the room let sunlight spill over everything nearby.
A light seed isn’t truly a plant. Rather, it’s a small pearl refined from concentrated sunlight. Crafting a single light seed takes over a year, and its exorbitant cost lies in the preciousness of both plants and pearls. A light seed isn’t sothing just anyone can afford.
The na stems from its ability to be "planted" into the ground, where sunlight will "grow" from it. A tree absorbs the light cast upon it, and its output includes more light seeds.
Though this sounds straightforward, the process is crucial: the tree must continuously refine sunlight while producing seeds. Otherwise, the tree cannot generate seeds. Within the Sun Kingdom, only one area ets the stringent requirents for cultivating light seeds.
For this journey, Hui Yue brought only two beams of sunlight, both of which he currently carried. He couldn’t help but worry for Wang Julong and Sha Yun, who were trapped in the Black Maze without any light to guide them.
The room illuminated by the stone was dark and damp, isolated entirely from the outside world. With no windows, there was only one path forward, forcing them to discuss which direction to take.
After assessing the situation, Hui Yue handed the light stone to Deng Wu and quickly sat down in a ditative posture.
Seeing this, Deng Wu furrowed his brows in confusion, thinking this wasn’t the ideal ti for cultivation. Nonetheless, he said nothing and patiently waited for the youth to finish whatever he was doing.
Hui Yue synchronized himself with the earth, but his control over it wasn’t yet complete. Even with full synchronization, Hui Yue, as a young man, still needed to hone his elental affinity and couldn’t command larger quantities of earth.
Sitting in deep thought, Hui Yue wasn’t training, contrary to Deng Wu’s assumption. Instead, he was manipulating his Earth Elent Affinity to scan as much of the mountain as his capability allowed.
Hui Yue was attuned to the earth, his presence blending into the maze’s twisted walls and winding passages inside the mountain. Unfortunately, his control over the earth limited him to scanning only a few kiloters from his current position. Despite his diligent search, he found no trace of Sha Yun or Wang Julong.
Hui Yue frowned, opened his eyes, and stood up, brushing off the dust that had collected on his robe while sitting.
"I can’t sense any living beings or detect any signs," Hui Yue said aloud, explaining what he had observed. "The maze stretches far beyond what I can scan. It twists upward and downward with varying levels, branching left and right. It’s incredibly intricate. We should anticipate this maze covering a vast space, so our biggest challenge now is determining which path to take to find the other two."
Deng Wu nodded solemnly. Although he couldn’t synchronize with his elent, he was still able to wield it. Shortly thereafter, he retrieved a carving knife and inscribed a symbol on the wall beside the room they had entered.
The inscription served as a safety marker with nurous advantages. Deng Wu crafted it not only to leave behind a ssage but also to imdiately sense if any creatures approached it.
If Sha Yun or Wang Julong stumbled upon the inscription, an illusory image of Deng Wu would materialize, instructing them to remain in that room. Simultaneously, Deng Wu would be alerted to their arrival at the previous location.
As its creator, Deng Wu could perceive his inscription from any distance without limitation. As long as the inscription was ford through his cultivated foundation, it would ensure communication, even if he left this plane.
Watching Deng Wu create the inscription, Hui Yue nodded in approval before slowly starting down the lone path ahead, with Deng Wu following closely behind.
Though the pathways were evidently millennia old, it was clear they had been constructed with ticulous attention to detail. Now moldy and damp, the stone walls had once been dry, decorated every fifteen ters with a light stone.
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