Du Lai was far too unpredictable a person — only the mention of Fu Miaoxue could make him pause and think.
Bai Youwei said calmly: “You and Fu Miaoxue entered the King’s War with no interest in the battles at all — your only focus was getting into the maze. It was actually to help her restore her body, wasn’t it? The maze can turn people into dolls; perhaps it can also turn dolls back into people. That’s what you two were thinking, correct?”
Du Lai sat before the glowing square, eyes lowered, expression unchanged.
Bai Youwei continued: “You’ve been through quite a few games, but your experience with mazes is nearly zero. So you and Fu Miaoxue decided you’d follow me into the maze first, build up enough experience, and then bring her in with you afterward?”
A subtle change finally crossed Du Lai’s face — a kind of dismissive nonchalance, a faint, indifferent smile. “We wouldn’t dare owe a favor like that.”
“Of course… this isn’t really a favor.” Bai Youwei smiled just as faintly. “You brought companions in to build experience, but you genuinely helped me out as well. We’ve been mutually beneficial.”
Without Du Lai, Leonid, and Chen Hui, it wouldn’t have been easy for Bai Youwei to make it through a maze run.
“When you bring Fu Miaoxue into the maze in the future, be careful — it can never hurt.” Bai Youwei said. “The keys are almost all collected; it won’t take much longer. Leaving a bit later is always better than taking the wrong path.”
Du Lai furrowed his brow slightly. “You suspect this exit isn’t the real one?”
“Anything is possible.” Bai Youwei said coolly. “At least before all the keys are collected and the door’s secret is unlocked, I feel that just walking out like this isn’t prudent enough.”
Du Lai lowered his head, watching the tiny lice crawling between his fingers — burrowing under his nails, squeezing into the folds of his clothes, flitting and landing, muddling his consciousness.
“Understood…” Du Lai closed his eyes. “I’ll wait for you to come back.”
Bai Youwei pressed her lips together, then left the stone chamber along with the others.
…
Without the minotaur’s threat, they moved freely through the maze and found the remaining keys quickly.
Bai Youwei followed the positions of the teleportation stone chambers, retrieving each marked key one by one. Counting the keys Chen Hui and Ashalina had found, there were twelve in total.
Everyone returned to the mural room.
The keys seemed to have no required order — any key could fit any lock.
Shen Mo fitted the keys into the locks, turned them, and opened them.
Click.
One lock opened. Then the second…
“Will the true exit be behind the door?” Chen Hui asked uneasily.
Ashalina stared tensely at the door. “I don’t know…”
Leonid, so hungry his vision had gone dark at the edges, fought to restrain himself and stepped back a bit, muttering under his breath: “Hope it’s not a trap.”
The final lock opened as well.
Shen Mo turned to look at everyone, his gaze ultimately settling on Bai Youwei’s face.
Bai Youwei nodded to him. “Open it.”
The heavy iron door was pulled open by Shen Mo with a long, grinding creak…
When the iron door was fully open, everyone froze.
Because behind the door was not the exit they had imagined — it was a wall. More precisely, it was one face of this pillar, fitted with a door.
No exit. No mechanism. The face the iron door had been concealing was the fourth mural on the pillar.
Every flashlight beam converged on the mural.
The fourth mural was far more complex than the first three.
In the painting, the minotaur was propped over a bonfire; a crowd of small figures danced around the flames with their hands raised, while the hero who had slain the monster held a blade in one hand and something dark and indistinct in the other.
Looking more closely, all the small figures were also cradling something black in their hands.
The painting was far too abstract — it was impossible to make out exactly what they were doing.
As Bai Youwei stared at it, a sudden jolt of alarm shot through her. “Quick! …We need to get back to Du Lai!”
—