The Qi was being used up much faster than normal inside the water, but he was okay with that. As long as he knew what was inside the water, he would be fine.
He ran around at full speed with his spiritual sense looking at everything.
After a few seconds, he saw something ahead of him. He walked forward hoping it was a talisman, but instead it turned out to be a key.
It looked very new and looked slightly blue underwater. He quickly kept it with him and search around a bit more. He found 2 extra talismans.
One gave him a 40-second reduction, and another gave him a 24-second reduction.
Finally, he brought back friction and swam up before flying out of the lake. He took a deep breath and immediately flew to the other side without any delay.
He then entered another maze. He was walking forward when he suddenly met Yang Ma returning back from another pathway of the intersection.
"Oh Brother Yu, I can't believe we meet here," Yang Ma said.
"Hello, brother Ma. Did you come from a dead end?" Alex asked.
"Oh yeah, that direction is a no-go. Let's go here," Yang Ma said.
Alex nodded and started walking. As he passed by, Yang Me made a smirk that seemed to match his face. He slowly walked forward and got directly behind Alex.
He took out his red talisman and quietly brought it next to Alex's talisman. However, Alex disappeared. In the next second, Yang Ma heard a PING from behind him and saw Alex catch his falling talisman.
"You really aren't a very good person, are you? Sister was right about stopping me from interacting with you," Alex said.
Yang Ma smiled and said, "there is nothing good or bad. There is no fairness in this game. I do what I can to win."
"Well, I can't argue with that. Keep doing what you are doing then. See you later," Alex said and immediately disappeared.
Yang Ma looked around and couldn't find him.
Alex was now 10 meters away from his original place on a completely different part of the maze. He had appeared right next to a girl who was frightened out of her wits and immediately got into defense position.
Alex saw that and thought nothing. Without caring about the girl, he immediately ran towards an intersection and chose a path. He made his way through many intersections, stealing a few talismans along the way, and finally made it out of the maze.
"What?" he thought when he finally saw what was in front of him.
"A flower field?" he thought as he looked at the land filled with yellow flowers and green grasses all around. "What are they?" he thought and went forward to check.
[Soothing Orchid]
[Dreaming Thorns]
"I have never come across these flowers have I?" Alex thought. He checked his memories and found that they were used in a few pills in the True rank that helped with insomnia and anxiety.
"What the hell is this place?" he thought and started walking through it. The plants were nearly a meter and a half tall and flying didn't make sense.
As he kept on walking, he really did feel himself soothing. It was like all worries in his mind had been stripped away. He felt calm. He felt really tired and just wanted to rest.
However, that feeling disappeared very quickly and he was left gasping for breaths. "What was that? I— I nearly fell asleep," Alex thought.
He quickly stepped back from the yellow flowers.
"Ow," he screamed. He looked back to see that the Dreaming Thorns had stabbed him. 'But I'm a body cultivator,' Alex thought. Then, his body started getting lethargic, as if he was ready to sleep.
<Toxic Substance detected>
<Sun God's Divine Yang body disintegrates everything>
<Toxins have been destroyed>
<You have received 20,000 Qi>
Alex immediately got awake. "What… happened?" he said with fear in his eyes. "What do these things do?" he thought.
'Damn, I really need information on what each ingredient does by themselves and not just what they make,' he thought.
He sent out his spiritual sense and tried to search for the talismans he could find. Unfortunately, he did not, but that also meant he didn't have to stop anywhere.
He quickly reached the walls on the other side and saw something written on top of the entrances.
- Once you choose an Entrance, you cannot choose another—
"Okay," Alex thought and entered one of the 10 openings. Once he was inside and had gone past a few intersections, he met some people. Only this time, Alex was sure they were a group.
They were 2 men and 1 woman standing on either side of the wall with their backs to it. They were holding their red talismans in their hand.
'Sh*t,' Alex knew what was happening.
The 3 looked at him with sinister smiles. Alex frowned. He wanted to teleport to the other routes but wasn't sure if that was allowed or not. After all, the rules said, you could not change the entrance after choosing once.
He thought for a few seconds and immediately ran away leaving the 3 in laughter. But after a minute or two, he returned, and in his hands were a bunch of flowers and thorns.
"Wh— What are you doing?" the girl asked.
Alex smiled and dropped it all near their feet. Without touching, the thorns didn't do anything, but the flower surely did.
With so many at the same place, they all started getting sleepy. The man handled himself and slapped himself to keep himself awake.
But while he was doing that, Alex ran past him. The man's body was too lethargic to stop him. After failing to get Alex, he decided to get his comrades and switch places.
At the same time, he heard a sound.
PING
He didn't even have to look back to know that his talisman had just been stolen away by Alex.
