Chapter 221: Chapter 219: Twelve Is a Magical Number

The pure magic crystal circulated in Hilia and Elina’s hands as they both appraised it, confirming it was indeed genuine.

After confirming, both were even more puzzled.

Finally, Hilia put away the pure magic crystal: "Whether it’s a blessing or a curse, you can’t escape it. Anyway, let’s hold onto it for now. This relic is a bit strange; it certainly won’t let us acquire something so valuable so easily. Anyway, just take it, and at worst, throw it away."

Elina wholeheartedly agreed.

However, she suggested a constructive idea: "Why not try using an emergency teleportation scroll to return to the camp?"

Hilia was taken aback, then her eyes lit up, "Good idea, as long as we take it out of the relic, we will know if it works."

Saying so, she directly took out a teleportation scroll and opened it, channeling magic power into it.

The faint glow of magic power flowed into the scroll, and it lit up.

But the next moment, the pure magic crystal in her hand suddenly emitted a glow, and then a translucent barrier appeared around, firmly locking her in, and the faint glow on the scroll quickly dimmed.

"The scroll... failed?"

Hilia was stunned.

Then she was relieved.

"I knew this magic crystal wouldn’t let us take it out so easily."

Rose smiled: "This pure magic crystal is exclusive to this ancient relic. It’s only a pure magic crystal inside here. Once taken out, who knows what it will be? Perhaps something else, perhaps still a pure magic crystal, but it won’t let you take it out. When teleportation spells act on the pure magic crystal, it will react, preventing the use of subspace teleportation to return it to reality."

"Relic-exclusive... Does that mean there’s somewhere we might need to use this magic crystal?" Hilia asked.

"You need to continue exploring to find out."

Hilia briefly relayed Rose’s words to Elina, who was very disappointed: "I knew it wouldn’t be that simple."

Returning from the dead-end, the two continued to the left, soon encountering another fork. This time, the left was also a dead-end, with a treasure chest inside, revealing another pure magic crystal.

They picked up the pure magic crystal and continued forward.

Then came the third, fourth...

More and more pure magic crystals made them numb to the color scheme.

If it weren’t for these magic crystals being unable to be taken out, at this moment, they might feel like they’re in a cracked game that can connect to others’ regular versions, exciting.

Unfortunately, they can’t take them out.

The excitement of a cracked game at first fades, becoming boring.

Upon seeing advanced magic crystals, they remained calm, immune to the glow of advanced magic crystals.

Now, they wanted more to find the way out.

"It’s been a few hours since we came in, right? There are no dangerous traps, only forks, magic crystals, forks, magic crystals, no clues to any exit." Hilia looked at Elina and asked, "Have you encountered such a relic before, don’t tell me you rely solely on time to find it?"

Elina nodded, "You can only find it through time, there’s no other way, unless you, Hilia, try flying over?"

Hilia shook her head, "Can’t fly, flying up feels like being crushed by a mountain."

"Then we can only try slowly."

As they spoke, they arrived at a crossroads again. Just as Elina was about to go left, Hilia called out, "Wait!"

"What is... this?"

Elina saw Hilia walk over and crouch down, picking up a copper coin from the ground.

"Is this the first copper coin you threw?"

Elina shook her head, "Not sure which one, but it’s definitely one I threw."

Initially, they threw copper coins, but as more forks appeared and there seemed to be no looping, they stopped.

In the end, they found themselves back at the starting point.

Hilia looked at the copper coin and asked, "Still going left?"

"We’ve been going left for so long, no point in changing to the right now?"

Elina said as she headed to the left path again.

"I want to see with my own eyes the state of the treasure chest inside."

In fact, on their journey, not every path was a dead-end. Sometimes turning left led straight through, while other times both the left and straight paths were dead-ends.

Theoretically, walking this way should eventually lead to an exit.

But now, they returned to the original point.

It’s a loop.

A treasure chest was open at the end of the path, mocking them as if the relic’s owner was laughing at them.

"We circled back to the start." Elina seemed a bit annoyed, "Had we known, we should’ve taken the right path at the beginning."

Hilia comforted her: "It’s not too late to change now; let’s see what the right path holds. If the right path also returns to the start, then we should consider whether this approach is correct."

Elina checked the time, "We took about four hours to circle around..."

"Four hours, we can afford to waste that!"

So the two returned to the crossroads, re-marked their paths, and headed right without hesitation.

The first right path was also a dead-end, with a treasure chest inside, but instead of a pure magic crystal, there was something resembling a bowl, entirely white, covered with strange patterns, inside marked with the number "9."

"What is this?"

They examined the bowl from all angles, finding nothing.

Suddenly, Hilia had a flash of inspiration and took out one of the pure magic crystals they had acquired, placing it in the bowl.

It fit perfectly.

After placing the pure magic crystal in, the patterns inside and outside the bowl emitted a faint glow as if activated by the pure magic crystal.

They exchanged glances; their eyes gradually brightened.

"So, to exit this maze, we need to find these bowls and pure magic crystals, and place the pure magic crystal in the bowl?"

Hilia frowned, "I’m afraid it’s not that simple; we need to remember this is bowl number nine. Perhaps recording this is important."

Elina nodded, reassuring her that it would be remembered.

They seemed to have found the solution, quickly proceeding forward.

Four hours later.

They returned to the starting fork, took out their findings, eleven bowls, and eleven pure magic crystals.

They arranged the bowls according to their sequence numbers, Hilia stopping Elina from placing the magic crystals.

"We’re short one bowl," she said.

Elina was puzzled, "Why?"

"Just a hunch, the number of bowls and magic crystals is likely twelve."

"But we’ve explored all the paths on both sides, there’s no path left."

"There must be another. Twelve is a mystical number; Hilia felt she missed something."

Elina suggested, "Why not place the magic crystals on these bowls first, see if anything happens, then reconsider?"

"Good point."

The eleven magic crystals were placed, and as the last was set, all bowls emitted white light, and the path ahead twisted like a braid, forming a broad avenue leading into the depths of the relic.

"Is it really not twelve...?"

Hilia couldn’t shake the feeling something was off.

Besides wasting time, was there truly no other problem with this maze?

Her passive spell, crisis perception, faintly sensed danger.

Suddenly she realized something.

"Elina, we missed a path."

"Which one?"

Hilia looked back.

"The one behind us."