Chapter 369: Chapter 254: Spirit Talent, Twisted Labyrinth

The Endless Abode.

A blood-red void stretched across the sky.

Below, a sea of flames raged.

Qin Yuesheng looked around in astonishment.

This was a beautifully scenic garden, with blooming flowers of every color, their scents overwhelming.

Mature fruits hung from the trees, and fat chickens and rabbits lay cooling themselves underneath, too plump to move.

"How did I end up here?" Qin Yuesheng wondered.

He only remembered searching for the residences of the seniors in the Taicang Sect. After a green light descended from the sky, he blinked and found himself in this place.

After walking several hundred steps, he finally encountered life. A group of Taicang Sect disciples were slaughtering chickens and roasting rabbits, feasting on the spot.

The intoxicated looks on their faces were reminiscent of drunken revelry.

He saw a Taicang Sect disciple casually scrape a tree, and immediately liquid cascaded like a fountain. He eagerly lowered his head, mouth wide open, to drink it, quickly soaking his collar.

"Alcohol?" Qin Yuesheng took a subtle sniff, surprised.

The liquid exuded a strong alcoholic scent, unmistakably noticeable.

"Have I arrived in a paradise, an earthly Eden?"

There was alcohol collected from within the trees, wild game lying under the trees, motionless and free for the taking.

Everywhere, sweet fruits were in abundance, matched by the beautiful scenery.

Calling this place an earthly paradise indeed felt fitting.

Soon, these people began dancing madly around the bonfire, singing eerie tunes that one could hardly resist interrupting with a slap.

Suddenly, from the sky came a bird’s cry, and colorful long-tailed birds of various hues flew over the forest, their calls clear, forming a rainbow in the sky.

"The teachings have begun, the teachings have begun!"

Upon seeing the bird flock, the group abandoned their food and rushed in the direction the birds had flown. Qin Yuesheng, curious, followed them to see what they were up to.

At the edge of the forest was a cliff.

As Qin Yuesheng emerged from the forest, he couldn’t help but widen his eyes in shock.

Above a hundred feet beyond the cliff, a floating island in the shape of an inverted triangle hovered among the blue skies and white clouds, its palaces continuous, surrounded by a celestial glow, resembling an immortal sanctuary.

A bamboo bridge wrapped with green vines connected the floating island to the cliff. The Taicang Sect disciples were rushing across, heading to the opposite heavenly island.

Not just them, more and more Taicang Sect disciples emerged from the forest; among them, Qin Yuesheng spotted Jia Zhuangxian and disciples of the Jade Maiden Sect. They surged onto the bamboo bridge like pilgrims.

Suddenly, the island resounded with the combined notes of drums, qin, flutes, and bells, weaving together into a serene and calming symphony.

Qin Yuesheng traveled with the crowd to the island, greeted by an expansive, spacious White Jade martial stage.

Surrounding the stage stood eight heaven-supporting dragon-claw pillars, visually arresting.

The Taicang Sect disciples who had traveled afar sought places on the stage, and it seemed that all the disciples Qin Yuesheng had seen earlier on Broken Sword Peak were present.

Buzz!

With a crisp, ringing sound, silence fell, and all eyes excitedly watched the command platform on the martial stage. Qin Yuesheng looked up to see three elders with white hair and youthful faces, clad in celestial white robes, each with a glowing red halo behind them, standing there.

"Let the teachings commence." The elder in the center spoke softly, yet his voice erupted like thunder, rattling everyone’s ears.

"Greetings to the three Immortal Masters," the Taicang Sect disciples cried out.

As everyone knelt in worship, Qin Yuesheng alone remained standing, conspicuously out of place. The three elders exchanged a glance, speaking in tones only they could hear, "This one seems to have broken free of the restraint. Let’s place another one on him."

"Yes," the other two nodded in agreement.

They then shouted at Qin Yuesheng, "Since you are here for the teachings, why do you not kneel?"

Imbued in their voice was a faint soul-capturing power, and Qin Yuesheng felt a sudden dizziness in his mind.

"These three old men are quite peculiar," Qin Yuesheng instinctively prepared to unleash the Carefree Heavenly Travel Skill to strike back, but at that moment, he discovered to his shock that his Inner Strength disappeared the instant he tried to harness it!

Simultaneously, an elder flew swiftly from the platform towards Qin Yuesheng, holding a dark green hoop, aiming to place it on Qin Yuesheng’s head.

Even without Inner Strength, Qin Yuesheng had no intention of sitting idly by. As a Martial Artist, one possesses martial skills even without Inner Strength, that’s the foundation.

He immediately reached out with both palms, intending to seize the elder’s wrist with subtle force to subdue him.

But the elder was faster. Before Qin Yuesheng’s palm reached halfway, the elder already clamped the hoop onto his head.

Swoosh!

Instantly, a ghostly green infant peeked out from the hoop, with a sinister grin and tightly grasped Qin Yuesheng’s hair.

Qin Yuesheng felt his mind surge with ghostly wails, as several hoarse, young, mad voices shouted in his mind:

"Who are you?"

"Who am I?"

"What’s your name?"

"What’s my name?"

"What are you?"

"What am I?"

One question after another kept echoing, suddenly, Qin Yuesheng felt that he seemed to have forgotten something.

This amnesia was comparable to an increment, and within three breaths, Qin Yuesheng’s expression began to show signs of confusion.

Thirty breaths later, he sat on the ground clutching his head in pain: "Who am I, what’s my name, what am I."

The elderly man who had placed the band on him looked surprised.

Ordinary people would lose all their memories instantly, but Martial Artists with stronger willpower due to their practice could drag it out for three or four breaths.

Yet, like Qin Yuesheng, only starting to show symptoms after thirty breaths, he had never heard of, seen today for the first time.

The more Qin Yuesheng collapsed, the happier the ghostly green evil on his head became; it laughed with a clattering noise, waving its small hands like a child.

It was because Qin Yuesheng had a Spirit Value as high as 100, with unusually strong resistance, that he could hold out until now without total amnesia; but if things continued like this, isolated and helpless, he’d become like other Taicang Sect disciples—only a matter of time.

The elderly man saw Qin Yuesheng could still persist and then formed the thought to add another band on him. Immediately, another ghostly green ring appeared in his hand, aiming at Qin Yuesheng’s forehead.

Suddenly, wind and clouds surged, changing instantaneously.

Deep in Qin Yuesheng’s mind, a dilapidated labyrinth suddenly stirred massive ripples, flowing toward the sky, flying out of Qin Yuesheng’s head, growing with the wind.

By the time everyone reacted, a massive slowly rotating labyrinth had already appeared in the sky above the Immortal Island.

Compared to this labyrinth, the Immortal Island seemed as small as an ant.

"What, what is this!" The expressions of the three elderly figures changed significantly as this unexpected anomaly occurred, unbelievable how such a new element could emerge beyond their control.

The labyrinth kept rotating, slowly evolving its spinning power into a huge pull, drawing Taicang Sect disciples on the martial arts platform one after another, all being sucked into the labyrinth.

The three elders tried to resist but ultimately couldn’t withstand the pull and ended up being sucked into the labyrinth as well.

Suddenly, everything before Qin Yuesheng’s eyes began to crack like a shattered mirror, eventually returning to darkness, turning to nothingness.

...

"Hiss!" Suddenly opening his eyes wide, Qin Yuesheng found himself lying on the ground, surrounded by no Immortal Island or martial arts platform, no labyrinth in the sky.

Everything just now seemed like an illusion, possibly a dream.

Bang!

A palm hit the ground, instantly cracking an immense depression on the surface.

"My Inner Strength can be mobilized again, what just happened." Qin Yuesheng was quite puzzled internally.

In a certain room.

Three elderly figures lay on the ground, eyes glazed, expressions wooden, eyes hollow like soulless idiots.

The big furnace inside kept emitting vibrations, shaking the whole furnace with a banging sound, but soon it fell completely silent.

...

Qin Yuesheng pushed open a room’s door and saw two large bunks inside, where many Taicang Sect disciples were sleeping soundly.

But the expressions on these people’s faces while dreaming were quite strange, each showing confusion, urgency, and anxiety.

Qin Yuesheng extended his hand to the wrist of a Taicang Sect disciple, intending to check his pulse.

At that instant, Qin Yuesheng only felt a sudden brightness before his eyes; a massive labyrinth shrouded in dark nothingness appeared before him.

He was floating above the labyrinth, able to overlook any corner within it.

Then Qin Yuesheng realized astonishingly that in the vast labyrinth, numerous people were running around within, trying to find the labyrinth’s exit.

Yet, given the labyrinth’s enormous size with some passages constantly shifting positions, these people simply couldn’t find an exit to escape.

"Ah!" The elderly man who had previously placed the ring on Qin Yuesheng slapped the labyrinth wall forcefully but to no avail.

"Where exactly is this! Damn it!" The elderly man leaped up, attempting to climb the wall, hoping to find an alternate method to break through the labyrinth.

But the outcome disappointed him; the labyrinth contained exceedingly powerful gravity, preventing him from lifting off even ten inches, let alone climbing the wall.

Not only this elder, many within the labyrinth were attempting various methods to leave, but the results were surprisingly uniform.

No one could successfully escape.