Spring Banquet (18)

"There are obviously so many lamps, but the corridor is cool and dry. Not to mention, there is no distinct burning oil smell."

Ren Yifei noticed that these oil lamps were the product of the night. When it was lit, a faint sweet fragrance which makes people dizzy would be emitted. ApL39o

After nightfall, the oil lamps in the corridors and in the rooms would light one by one. He had been accompanied by such lamps throughout his journey and at this moment, they were there in the labyrinth.

But what he cared more about was the antler-like forked lamp stand which resembled the branches he saw in the garden that night.

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Ren Yifei scrutinised it for a while. He then stretched out his hand and pinched the cotton thread at the base of the wick.

Without the burning heat, the flame turned into a small flower at his fingertips. The flower scattered light rays like a ball of light and also like a little sunlamp; if you stared at it for too long, your eyes will begin to sting. cPsHBX

"Sure enough..." Ren Yifei raised his eyebrows and thought that things were getting a little interesting.

He then exerted a little bit of force and twisted the wick, crushing the small ball of light. When the flower at the tip of the wick was extinguished, a small blue flower with six translucent petals appeared in his hand.

The oil lamps that were lit at night were simply the branches of the glowing flower tree.

Since there was no one to disturb him here, he could use this opportunity to organise his thoughts.

zYGCtB

Biting the tip of his finger again, he wrote on the wall using his blood, "The first level is Ting Yun Pavilion. It appears to be normal, but it is actually built out of a bunch of vines; no one else knows this yet."

He drew some buildings as well as branches and vines underneath. He deliberately pointed out the lotus pond in the middle.

"During the day, there is no change in Ting Yun Pavilion and the lotus pond would be located here. At night, the vines below will start to move around and devour demons, and the lotus pond here becomes the glowing garden."

"Ting Yun Pavilion has two floors, one appears in the daytime, and the other appears at night. So what I see during the day is not an illusion, and what I see at night remains real." zw9ban

Ren Yifei took a step back and looked at the diagram he drew on the wall. It was a city supported by countless branches and vines. At the centre was a lotus pond, and at the bottom of the pond was a garden.

He closed his eyes. The labyrinth, the lanterns as well as the flickering light all receded and his world became completely dark.

Ren Yifei appeared in his mindscape where there was nothing; no light nor sound.

"The first clue is the lotus pond. Day and night are like two sides of the same piece of paper." jclFo8

He folded his hands and reopened them to reveal a translucent piece of paper that had formed at his fingertips. He threw it out and it turned into a blank white map that represented daytime.

He tapped the centre with his finger and a lotus pond appeared in front of him.

Using the lotus pond as the focal point, golden lines pushed out in all directions and he tapped it at random. Semi-transparent three-dimensional buildings are then raised from the paper, "The Qian Sui Hall is here. This one is the banquet hall. Over there is the residential area for the little demons. The garden..."

One by one, the fragments were put together, making the map's surface become uneven and full of vitality. vMetWK

The image he saw when he was in the air slowly overlapped with the route he personally travelled through, and a miniature three-dimensional map of Ting Yun Pavilion appeared.

Ren Yifei used his finger as a pen to draw lines through the corridors and connected them one by one.

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Looking at the Ting Yun Pavilion that has not been rearranged, the corridors were unexpectedly divided evenly into six sections and each section was in the shape of a petal.

The paper flipped over and the black side, also known as the night side appeared. In the centre was a perfectly circular garden with glowing flowers. uyi0Wj

He thought back to that night and the fragments in front of him turned into cards. Ren Yifei travelled through these memories to determine the route he walked that day

At night, Ting Yun Pavilion has no residence nor courtyard— only never-ending corridors.

These corridors on the map appear like circuits and were very fragmented; there was only one piece and many places around the edges were missing.

But these were only the excess parts, there were several parts that do perfectly overlap with the corridors that appear during the day. RfjrTN

He outlined the overlapping parts and it clearly shows the shape of a 'petal'.

"Pa—" with the snap of his finger, the overlapping image of the day and night rapidly zoomed out, becoming the scene he saw in the sky that day.

He was suspended high above the ground before he headed straight for the lotus pond.

It was as if he had passed through some sort of membrane when he went into the lotus pond, and the perfectly circular garden appeared in front of him; the garden which contained glowing stamens and fluid secreting pistils.

Continuing downwards was a layer of intertwining vines.

Ren Yifei suddenly opened his eyes and the simple picture he drew with blood was still in front of him.

The maids who walked around at night were bugs that crept along the flower.

The devoured demons were the nourishment that the flower prepared for itself. cwuD5A

Did the demons who came to this spring banquet come as guests, or as ingredients?

Ren Yifei looked around. This place was also a part of the large vines, the reason why he can't see its real appearance was because of these flowers and fragrances.

With a wave of his sleeves, he intended to blow out these oil lamps, but the flames in the lamps only flicker and did not go out.

There were endless corridors and oil lamps in front of and behind him, he doesn't know how long it would take to extinguish all of them one by one. Could it be that he was really going to be trapped here? 4d1rGQ

Ren Yifei frowned as he pondered over this when suddenly, the thin strands of hair on his temple swayed.

"Wind?"

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He directly plucked out a strand of hair and held it in front of him. He saw that the hair was blown by the wind in a certain direction and it was not from the same direction he had previously been in.

Were there other exits around here? 3YsFK4

Following the direction of the wind, he slowly walked over until he reached a glass wall.

Although he cannot see the passage, there was a drift. Ren Yifei tried to reach out and as though his fingers were dipped into water, it passed through the glass wall.

The other end was empty.

While Ren Yifei was breaking through the labyrinth, Saman was sliding downwards at a very fast speed on the other side. He was also accompanied by another player whose role was a demon named Qing Lin. fX7Eln

Saman was stepping on a simple skateboard which was used to protect his feet. On the other hand, Qing Lin was not prepared for this so he ended up sliding against the wall of the tube that was covered in mucus which rapidly corroded his clothes.

Qing Lin had felt a burning pain in his back and internally cried, "I can't go on like this. If this corridor continues farther, won't I melt?"

"Brother, do you still have another skateboard?"

Saman glanced at him and tossed a skateboard over. i1ng7A

At this time, the inside of the tube was pitch-black so Saman only threw the board in the direction of the other's voice. But Qing Lin also didn't disappoint and was able to catch it at once.

"It changed," Saman was still in the mood to feel the wall of the tube to consider their situation, "It used to be a fleshy wall, but it's now full of sharp barbs."

Barbs are often used to prevent prey from escaping.

With the addition of the bards to the corrosive mucus and plants, it was hard not to think of pitcher plants. nFBtPL

"We're almost there," Saman estimated the time and took out a wooden stake before ruthlessly inserting it into the wall to slow down.

"Brother, me, me," the player, Qing Lin, cried for help again.

With the help of a few wooden stakes, the two plunged directly into a pool of mucus at a relatively slow speed. Even though they were mentally prepared, they still accidentally swallowed a mouthful of mucus and almost couldn't spit it back out

"Come on," Saman began to swim through the mucus. He tried desperately to get out of the pool of mucus, but when he took a deep breath, he only smelled a foul rotten stench. Ak5Dwh

It was so dark that they couldn't even see their hands in front of them.

Qing Lin took out an oil lamp holder that was broken off, "I took it from the corridor."

Chrysanthemum Garden.

With this dim light, the two of them were finally able to figure out what was going on around them.

Above them was a deep canal which was where they had fallen through, and surrounding them were bloody translucent mucus-like substances. 7HVD21

The good news was that the wall of the tube was not far from them. It was only about a dozen meters away and they should be able to reach it before they are digested down to the bones by the mucus.

The two silently swam towards the nearest wall.

"Ah!" Qing Lin screamed.

Saman was about to ask what was wrong when he suddenly felt something wrapped around his ankle. Before he could even distinguish what it was, countless nail-like objects dug into his skin, muscle and even bone. His face turned pale as sweat dripped down from his forehead. rp2TFu

There was something in the water.

As the nails continued to dig into him, Saman felt his strength rapidly decreasing. He quickly took out the giant sword and swung it downwards. The mucus parted and the things wrapped around his ankles were also cut off, only the nail-like things remained.

"Help me," Qing Lin shouted, unable to keep himself up any longer and was about to sink.

Saman weighed the situation for a moment before he turned around and swam towards Qing Lin. E5r1FB

He helped the other cut off what was around his ankles and the two swam desperately towards the wall.

The wall of the tube was soft so Saman cut it open with his sword and a shimmer of light began to seep through. With two more slashes, he was finally able to make a hole big enough for one person to pass through. The two climbed out of the hole one after the other and poured out with the mucus.

"Doesn't this scene look similar to when a child is born? Like how it would pop out with the amniotic fluid?" Qing Lin used this method to divert his attention away from the pain in his feet.

Saman looked at the scene outside and did not respond. yBp2wF

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Seeing that Saman didn't speak, he also raised his head and froze.

The underground, which was supposed to be dark and gloomy, had transparent bands of fluorescent lights hung around everywhere. The light in the band would also occasionally flicker, like stars that dotted the night sky.

Saman remembered that when he was a child before he was taken to live in the city, he would sit in the courtyard and look up at the Milky Way across the sky which seems to extend from the present all the way into the unseen future.

"It's like a galaxy." Qing Lin sighed. I XdY7

A few of these light bands were concentrated at the place where they had previously escaped from, which was a huge round opaque bulge.

The side of this bulge was attached to a light band with a black egg in it.

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A thick tube was attached to the bulge and went into the dark place where they had slid down.

This structure... chills suddenly ran down both of their spines. ny4CTc

No longer in the mood to appreciate the beautiful scenery, they both approached the light band. Sure enough, inside these transparent bands were black oval lumps that resemble frog eggs.

However, it was actually demons that had been crushed and compressed into a ball.

"My God," Qing Lin exclaimed, "Are these the players and NPCs that disappeared before?"

"Cut it open and see." G0riE6

Saman directly cut the band and the fluorescent liquid inside poured out along with the clump of demons. They both fell to the ground with a 'splat' sound and the fluorescent liquid splashed everywhere, dyeing the surroundings.

The egg was wrapped in a thin film, and a folded person with dishevelled hair could vaguely be seen.

Saman walked forward and cut the membrane with his sword, allowing the yellow-brown pus which resembled melted fat and flesh to flow out; this enabled them to see the demon inside a bit clearer.

"Deplorable..." Qing Lin covered his nose. aQLdYV

The air was filled with the smell of rot and the demons that poured out were almost completely melted, revealing mostly bones.

However, in the case in front of them, the demon inside was still not dead and was still breathing with much difficulty.

Their inherently powerful healing ability has now turned into a form of torture.

"Although I saw this through that person's eyes, I still feel very shocked," Qing Lin sighed again while Saman began to treat his own wounds. nVhRpY

He took out a bucket of clean water and took off his half-corroded clothes.

"You even brought your own bathtub?" Qing Lin widened his eyes and asked cheekily, "Do you have any more?"

Of course, there was none, so Qing Lin could only hold his nose and wipe his body with a cloth reluctantly before putting on the clothes he brought.

Many demons could also do this, but the size of the space varies from person to person. kJSelx

Although the surface of their skin has serious degrees of corrosion wounds, a demon's recovery speed was fast so their wounds would heal by themselves after a few minutes.

What troubled them was the strange vines that were wrapped around their ankles.

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Although a section has been cut off, it was still alive. As soon as it was touched, its 'teeth' will bite down and desperately dig into their bones.

Saman was stunned, he grabbed one end and ripped it off. eT3L81

He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, his body was also sweating profusely and his face was so pale that it doesn't look like he has any blood left.

On the side, Qing Lin was also in distress. He looked down at the tentacles around his ankles and closed his eye, disheartened.

"AH—"

A high-pitched sound echoed in the underground space, shaking the suspending bands and causing the long fluorescent bands to sway along with the contents inside them, resembling a flowing river of stars. I5 4kQ

Qing Lin was lying on the ground and every muscle began to tremble uncontrollably.

He looked back at the tentacle with bone fragments, pieces of flesh and blood. He hissed and sucked in the cold air, "There were also f*cking barbs?"

"Fortunately, it did not fall off automatically and remain in the wound," Saman took out a clean rag and bandage the wound.

"Is this okay?" 6Y2kDc

Qing Lin gasped for air and then slowly got up to deal with the wound.

The two of them purely have a partnership due to a common interest. Once Qing Lin starts to drag his feet, Saman would leave him without hesitation and vice versa.

After a short ten-minute rest, they felt that their bodies had recovered and they got up.

"This seems to be a player," Qing Lin pointed to a man covered in scales, "He is still alive. Maybe we can try to save them." 4yKxGR

When going up against these types of games, the more players that survive, the better.

"En," Saman cut off the light band and the player inside slipped down.

Saman stabbed a hole in the other person's arm with his sword, but the player still had his eyes closed and did not respond at all.

He put away the giant sword, "Let's go." ObP8JF

It was hopeless.