Chapter 2601: Chapter 2602: Exit
"Have you already voted?" Dox was taken aback for a moment. He had just been spacing out for a few seconds, and they had already finished voting?
Angel nodded, "Vay and I chose to take that dog hole above, while Black Earl and Kaier decided to continue on the big road. Now itâs up to you to decide."
Angel didnât block his words, and everyone else heard it, but no one objected. They all knew that Doxâs inspiration was the key, and their choices were not important.
"I see..." Dox noticed that even Black Earl didnât object, and Vay cooperatively nodded with Angel, so he was convinced. After all, the situation outside the illusionary realm was quite urgent now, and it was normal for everyone to make decisions quickly.
Angel: "Have you made up your mind? Are you going to take the dog hole above or the right path?"
Dox considered for a moment and said, "Letâs continue forward."
Angel paused for a second but quickly regained his composure, "I thought youâd choose the small path above like me, but I didnât expect you still wanted to admire the beauty of the mutated carrion squirrels."
Dox: "That small path is very high, and itâs so narrow; doesnât it seem strange to you?"
"Whatâs strange about it?" Angel looked up at the hole above. Apart from being a bit high and small, there was nothing strange about it.
"Itâs just that you have too little experience exploring ruins. Such an intriguing small path is meant to trap Transcendents. Curiosity can be exploited, and who knows, the end might just be a trap." After speaking, Dox didnât forget to elevate Kaier. "Look at Kaier; heâs explored many ruins and chose the right path. And the one who followed your choice is a homebody who hasnât stepped out in decades."
Angel:... Kaier and Vay, he just randomly distributed the choices, and that can become evidence?
Angel couldnât refute his previous words, so he could only say dryly, "I see... Cough, since you voted for the big road, letâs continue forward then."
After making their decision, everyone didnât hesitate and continued moving forward.
At this moment, Dox approached Angel and whispered in his ear, "Actually, thereâs another important reason I chose the big road."
Angelâs eyes lit up. Could it be inspiration?
Dox: "Because Lord Black Earl chose the big road. If thereâs a thigh to cling to, why make any independent choices?"
Angel: "... When you made the choice before, you didnât consider Lord Black Earlâs option."
Dox: "Wasnât there no danger before? Now with the magical creature tide outside, naturally, I should first consider the thoughts of the thigh."
You really are a fickle fence-sitter.
Angel suppressed his urge to retort and said calmly, "I think in the future, when you make decisions, you should think independently."
"Wasnât I just thinking independently before?" Dox was puzzled for a moment and then suddenly had an epiphany, "Oh, I get it. You think I didnât support you and only considered Lord Black Earlâs choice, so youâre feeling a bit uneasy, right?"
Angel:... Not at all.
"No worries, next time when making a choice, Iâll consider your feelings more. Of course, in the end, Iâll still think independently." Dox comforted him.
Angel really didnât want to continue talking with Dox, as this guy always made people want to retort.
He walked ahead with large strides, came beside Black Earl, and directly switched to "private chat" mode.
However, Dox didnât follow, instead furrowing his brow slightly, as if thinking about something.
"Is Doxâs choice this time reliable?" Angel had originally quite believed in Doxâs inspiration, but after hearing Doxâs reasoning just now, he started to doubt it.
Black Earl: "As long as he is currently in a state of inspiration outbreak, all his reasons are unnecessary to listen to. They are all deliberately guided by inspiration. If inspiration had guided him to choose the small path initially, he would have had a different pretext then."
Angel pondered, "Only look at the results, donât ask about the process?"
Black Earl: "No need to ask. Any choice he makes now will have a self-justified process in his own mind. The more you inquire, the more this self-justified process will be ingrained in him. And to allow inspiration to advance, he must first have a process of self-doubt, not increasingly believing his choices are right."
Angel: "If all the choices he makes are correct, will he have self-doubt?"
"If it were you, would you?" Black Earl countered with a question.
Angel thought for a moment and nodded, "I would. I believe in being lucky once or twice, but not in being perpetually lucky."
Black Earl: "So do you think that Dox will have self-doubt now?"
Angel glanced at the carefree-looking Dox with peripheral vision and hesitantly said, "If inspiration never appears, and only guides in the shadows, he should doubt. But now, with inspiration showing up occasionally to make its presence known, Dox will just think itâs as usual. Itâs likely he wonât have much self-doubt."
Black Earl: "What you said isnât wrong, but you are only considering it from your perspective, or rather, the most normal perspective. But do you think Dox is a normal guy?"
"Perhaps heâs already started feeling that somethingâs not right."
Black Earl said meaningfully.
Angel thought about it and felt that what Black Earl said was right. Jon often told him not to judge others by oneâs own standards, especially in the Wizardsâ Realm where freaks and oddballs were aplenty, normal thinking seemed to be the minority.
"Did you probe that small path earlier?" Angel didnât pursue the issue with Dox any further, as it was something Dox needed to experience himself as part of his growth process.
"Very long, not a dead end." Black Earlâs words were concise, "What about you, did you find anything? Didnât Speedy also go there just now?"
Angel nodded, "At the deepest part, thereâs a sealed gate, resembling the kind in a prison. The sealing power is strong, but it doesnât impede the flow of elements. Speedy perceived through the seal that it was quite a spacious area inside, and the wind was flowing. As the lord said, itâs not a dead end."
Black Earl: "Do you think the ones who built the underground labyrinth would inexplicably place a seal on a small path? Moreover, all these years, that seal hasnât been broken. Has no one else discovered it?"
Angel: "Are you suggesting... thereâs danger inside?"
"Since Dox arrived here, did he make any wrong choices?" Black Earl said, "No need to overthink what the danger is, or why no one has touched the seal in all these years. Anyway, having chosen this path, why care so much? What if the seal Speedy sensed was a trap?"
Angel paused; if Black Earl hadnât mentioned it, he indeed started pondering why no one had discovered or destroyed that seal all these years.
Looking back, that path was indeed very peculiar.
Anyway, they had no intention of turning back. Peculiar as it may be, if curiosity got the better of them, they could always return to the Nightmare Realm later to see what lies at the end of that path.
As they continued onward, the number of mutated carrion squirrels surrounding them finally showed signs of thinning out.
After enduring the mental pollution along the way, the two apprentices finally heaved a sigh of relief.
After about another two hundred meters, a fork in the path appeared once more, similar to the initial situationâit was a three-way fork.
However, this time there was no noticeable stench of a sewage ditch, indicating there was probably still some distance from it.
The left road and the right road are relatively narrower, but they still can accommodate at least ten people walking side by side. As for the middle road, itâs as wide as the current road.
Worth mentioning is that there are sporadic mutated Carrion Squirrels coming and going on both side roads, but there are no mutated Carrion Squirrels on the middle road.
Now, itâs time for a decision again.
The two apprentices couldnât help but secretly glance at Dox, and Dox returned a grimace.
Angel stood at the crossroads, once again taking out the short staff. Familiar reverberations appeared once more before everyone.
This time, no one discussed the distance of the reverberations; they were all quietly waiting for the result of Angelâs investigation.
Two minutes later, Angel opened his eyes.
"The left side continues inward, very deep, canât probe the end. But the life shakes inside are strong, itâs basically certain to be all mutated Carrion Squirrels."
"The middle road is also very deep, unable to probe the end. Within my probing limits, I didnât detect any life signs, but there are some transcendent traces. Perhaps itâs an exposed Magical Energy Array, or some leftover transcendent items."
Angel paused: "As for the right... two hundred meters ahead is the exit."
"Exit?" Everyone was shocked; the exit is here already?
Angel: "The so-called exit is a living area, similar to the building complex we saw earlier. On the right is a living area, quite large, with abundant life signs. Estimate that there are probably many Magical Creatures."
"Extraordinary items should also not be lacking," Dox supplemented.
Angel turned to Dox: "So, youâre planning to stay and explore the living area?"
Dox mumbled: "I was just saying casually; I donât really intend to explore. Also, after all these years, God knows whatâs still usable inside."
"Then which road do we take now?" It was Vay speaking: "Why donât we just vote like we did earlier?"
His voice was very loud, especially emphasizing the phrase "like we did earlier." Clearly, it was some kind of suggestion.
Kaier understood Vayâs hint and immediately responded.
The Black Earl narrowed his nose and murmured, "Idiot."
Dox didnât say anything either, spreading his hands in a casual manner.
Everyone looked to Angel, who remained silent for a moment: "Letâs put voting aside for now. Letâs first check out the living area on the right; I need to confirm the location."
Angel understood that Vayâs words were meant to help him persuade Dox. Yet, though his performance was adequate, his intentions were written all over his face, which was evident to everyone except Kaier; all Official Wizards present could easily see Vayâs ulterior motive.
Thus, the Black Earlâs speechless critique.
Angel didnât want Dox to notice anything amiss, so he didnât mention voting this time. Instead, he planned to first check the living area on the right to see if there were any landmark buildings.
If he could provide a position, he could roughly find the way out, not needing Dox to make a decision.
No one opposed; they also wanted to see the differences between this living area and what they had seen before.
Quickly, they walked right for two hundred meters, turned a corner, and saw the shining gate ahead.
After exiting this gate, everyone paused.
The scene before them wasnât much different from what they had seen before, but this living area was extremely bright.
Because, at the top of a distant high tower, there was a massive fluorite like a little sun, illuminating the entire living area.
It was practically like daylight.
"That fluorite..." Doxâs eyes suddenly lit up; fluorite is cheap, but such a giant fluorite is rare, suggesting it might sell for a good price!
"Donât fantasize about that fluorite; itâs connected to the Magical Energy Array, absorbing sunlight from the ground during the day through the Magical Energy Array to maintain its brightness for thousands of years."
Angel immediately shattered Doxâs daydream.
Actually, with a bit of thinking, this could be figured out, but unfortunately, Doxâs mouth always moves faster than his brain.
Apart from that giant fluorite, the entire living area was similar to the previous one, with a faint fishy breeze drifting through the air, indicating this place was far from peaceful on the surface. Concealed Magical Creatures were far from few.
Behind them were towering maze walls, and straight ahead was a garden square.
Angel took a few steps forward to the center of the square, staring at a fountain not far away.
Calling it a fountain, but it was no longer spraying water, and was filled with foul-smelling stains. Even the statue in the center of the fountain was stained so dark it was unrecognizable.
Angel reached out and flicked his finger, causing a splash of water to shoot toward the statue.
The stains on the statue were quickly cleansed.
The statue was of a graceful and noble Goddess, her left hand casually falling in a gripping pose, likely once holding a long object, probably a blade; but it was now gone, while the other hand held a scale.
The left side of the scale was a pile of shattered stone debris, unrecognizable in form. The right side was a childâs severed head.
The child was naked, draped in white gauze, with one white and one black wing on its back, holding a bow and arrow aimed firmly at the left side of the scale.
At first glance, it seemed as if the bow-holding child on the right shot the statue on the left side of the platter into pieces.
"Is there anything strange about this statue?" Everyone gathered around Angel, and Dox asked.
Angel didnât speak; instead, he lowered his head to search for something in the fountain.
After a while, Angel used the Hand of Magic to retrieve a head from the filthy fountain bottom... a statueâs head.
With a wash of clean water, it revealed a cute childâs head.
Placing the head on the bow-holding childâs neck, it fit perfectly.
Seeing this roughly restored statue, Angelâs expression became somewhat somber.
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