Chapter 258: The Last Three Flights Of Stairs

Tang Ling’s face twitched as he simply brushed Ro Li off with a chuckle.

What the hell? Is this big idiot really going to follow me wherever I go? He even ignored Ro Xin’s advice and followed me! Should I be grateful? 

However, Tang Ling was having a headache about how to shake this big idiot off his tail.

Ro Xin, on the other hand, looked at him. “How did you understand the formation?”

“No, I don’t really understand it. I’m just comparing it to find out the similarities.” As he talked, Tang Ling fished out the paper that he made comparisons on and gave it to her. “Time is running out. I’ve found a total of 56 similarities. I actually wanted to ask you for your opinion, but you were busy.”

Ro Xin doubtfully accepted the paper from him. Upon first glance, she was shocked. She never thought Tang Ling was able to precisely draw the formation lines and magical lines, even she herself had to spend a huge amount of time to get it right.

“You? A day?” Ro Xin was utterly shocked, but he knew time was not on their side. As she spoke, she led Tang Ling and Ro Li further ahead. They had passed the first key point in the formation, so it was relatively easier for her to continue.

“Yeah, a day. Did I spend a little too long?” Tang Ling scratched his head and smiled at her.

In Tang Ling’s case, having Precise Instinct at his disposal and only being able to find 56 similarities between the formation line and the magical line, he was not pleased with the result.

Ro Xin suddenly had the urge to beat Tang Ling up when she heard him chuckle. Her face turned as black as coal, yet she wanted to cry because she felt stupid. Is he showing off?

As they moved on, she checked the comparison on the paper, and the more she checked, she more she was astonished. She paused and said, “Did you do all the comparison by yourself?”

“Is it helpful?” Tang Ling was sizing up the surroundings. From where he stood, he was able to see the entrance again. He saw that the soldiers from the Stardust Council had started to move out under the big-headed freak’s guidance. Judging from their position, they were at least three steps ahead and every step was correct.

“It’s really helpful!” The exclamation escaped her mouth. The comparison was not as easy as Tang Ling claimed. Instead, it was very tedious. If it was that easy, her family would not have devoted three generations to study the ruins and only have 60% confidence to decipher everything.

The symbols that Tang Ling circled out in his comparison overlapped with the notes in the Ro family teachings and proved that he was on the correct path. Those parts that did not overlap provided to be a great help to Ro Xin.

“That’s great if it’s useful.” Tang Ling was very calm as he sounded a little relieved. That big-headed freak looked smart. If the three of them did not have the confidence to lose him, as long as the big-headed freak seized every possible advantage and figured out the starting point, he might be able to lead his men to intercept them or even overtake them.

While Tang Ling was really calm, Ro Xin had a feeling that Tang Ling was showing off. She grunted and stuffed the paper back into his hands.

“I really don’t know her sometimes.” Tang Ling was speechless.

Ro Li added behind him, “She always wants to be the smartest. You won’t understand.”

Is it about being smart? Tang Ling really did not understand what just happened.

…

Inside the strange house, the trio was racing against Draconic Seven and Colo to decipher the formation. One had to give it to Colo for his capabilities in deciphering. He was quick and almost as fast as Ro Xin even after she got help from Tang Ling.

However, of course, Colo had the help of advanced technology. The devices were able to analyze many times quicker than the human brain. All Colo had to do was key in the correct direction.

No one talked during the deciphering process. At first, Draconic Seven was provoking Tang Ling, but as the process went on, he started to become quiet. Is there anywhere else stranger than this place? At least, he could not think of anywhere else.

At times, they got close to Tang Ling and the siblings, like they were just right in front of each other. For example, when they were standing on stairs A, the trio was on stairs B. The two flights of stairs were side by side and the only difference was the height which was less than half a meter. It felt like he could catch Tang Ling by reaching out, but he could not. In fact, they were not even close to touching the three of them.

One of the soldiers who was sent to test the stairs tried to catch Tang Ling at one point, but half of his body disappeared right after he reached his hand out like he had been sliced in half by some invisible force.

Draconic Seven’s little test angered Colo again. He warned Draconic Seven, “Even if they are right in front of us, don’t try to touch them unless I tell you that we close.”

“Why?” Draconic Seven was also putting up Colo’s bad temper because he had to.

“Haven’t you meet someone with space ability before? Didn’t you notice that those who got cut into half died like they were killed by someone with space ability?” Colo raised a curious brow and his tone reeked of impatience.

Draconic Seven frowned as he suddenly started to be terrified of this place. Indeed, the several soldiers who had died testing the stairs looked like they were killed by the signature move of someone with space ability, the Dimension Slash.

What did that mean? The house was probably full of space blades. Those stairs that looked like they were beside each other were actually miles apart since the space in between them were compressed together, hence forming space blades.

Right after the conversation ended, several heavy thuds sounded and they saw the bodies of the soldiers that had disappeared reappear on the stairs that were only a dozen meters ahead of them.

Draconic Seven’s forehead was covered in sweat while he kept telling himself, ‘It’s just the visible distance, it’s just the visible distance.’

He could no longer trust his eyes. If he was already so shocked just getting close to Tang Ling and the siblings, then he was overwhelmed when he saw the three of them walking into a wall. It was like they had simply walked into a painting and continued moving forward.

Human bodies existed in the 3D world and no matter how realistic it was, the painting on the wall was 2D! It could never create a real 3D world, no matter how well it could deceive the eyes.

It was like the trio had turned into paper and walked into a painting. Whenever Draconic Seven thought of themselves moving like that later, he could not help but tremble. His mind even started to play tricks on him. If he walked into the wall and came out, would he still be himself?

Humans were instinctively frightened about the unknown.

“It is just your eyes playing tricks on you. They aren’t really in the wall. They are actually in another pocket dimension. This is why this place is fascinating.” Colo’s eyes were gleaming with excitement. He tried to comfort Draconic Seven but the latter looked at him as if he was some sick psycho.

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It was at that moment that the soldiers reached the branching path that had troubled Tang Ling and the siblings. The options were either the window or the stairs leading downwards.

Colo only used seven minutes to calculate the correct path and he told the men to choose the window.

Right after the group of soldiers experienced the fake free-falling sensation beyond the window, the strange laughter appeared again. It was exactly the same as when the trio had passed through the window.

“Huh? Hahaha…”

“Who goes there? Show yourself?” Draconic Seven was calm as he instinctively reached out for his gun, but judging from his trembling thumb, his mentality was being challenged.

As a matter of fact, some of the soldiers felt odd in the house from the very beginning. Although they kept hearing strange noises in the house, they were unable to locate the source.

Now, with the laughter clearly echoing in the air, it was impossible for the trio to make the noises to deceive them, so they could no longer assume it was their imagination.

“Ghosts!” a soldier shouted, but Draconic Seven grabbed him and pushed him off the stairs.

Instantly, the soldier was sliced into pieces and his severed body landed on several different flights of stairs with a couple of thuds.

“Those who disrupt team morale will die,” Draconic Seven kept his gun and uttered coldly. Despite his heart being tortured to the brink of collapsing by this hellish house, he would never allow the troops to be messed up.

“Fools!” Colo mocked.

…

Tang Ling and the siblings were at the last three flights of stairs. One of them led to the ceiling and extended beyond it. It seemed blurry and vague, so they had no idea where it would lead to.

The second one led to the second floor and did not appear fancy. Yes, they finally saw the second floor, but it was a dark corridor with nothing visible.

The last one led into the wall again and there was a vivid and lively tunnel where the stairs extended into, and similar to the first one, it had no end.

“According to the family notes, the second formation ends here and this will be the final key point. If we make it through this, we’ll be able to get to the third street of the Ninth Ruins. So, after we decipher the second formation, we’ll be able to move freely in the Ninth Ruins, at least, for the most part.” Ro Xin took a deep breath.

Truth be told, the Ro family’s biggest wish was to decipher the second formation. If they were able to move freely in most of the Ninth Ruins, it would be enough to provide shelter for the Drifters in the camp.

“This won’t be easy. Tang Ling, I need your help.” As she spoke, she passed the drawings of the formation she made to Tang Ling. She had committed everything that she had drawn to mind, so she no longer needed the paper.

Tang Ling also looked serious as he rested on his knees and referred to the notebook with the Ro family teachings, more specifically the part about the formation, and started to compare the two.

They were able to secure a little more time this round. At first, Colo was able to keep up with Ro Xin’s deciphering speed, but the team of scientists faced problems at the key points and were ultimately left behind. The symbols that Tang Ling found in his comparison drawing played a huge role in analyzing the key point in the formation, so they were able to move faster.

“We have at least 20 minutes for this.” Tang Ling roughly calculated the time and started to discuss it with Ro Xin.

Ro Li was a little bored while the two were busy, so he unconsciously peered around while yawning.

“I think we should exclude this path to the second floor first.” After analyzing the comparison result, Ro Xin picked up her pen and wanted to eliminate the option. Elimination was a magical method in decision making and had been passed down since ancient times. It was even useful in such a situation.

Tang Ling frowned as a strange feeling rose in his heart. From the aspect of formation theory, the path to the second floor should be eliminated because it was the typical example of a trap.

However, from a rational aspect, they were able to draw a pattern along the way and the path that seemed like the most reasonable one would frequently be the wrong one whereas the one that looked like an obvious trap would be the right path.

Although it stated the owner’s habit while designing the complex formation, it was difficult for them to decipher the owner’s thoughts. However, was it really so?

The strange feeling came from the owner’s design, but Tang Ling was unable to capture the inspiration this time.

Ro Li yawned again with a loud sound.

“Brother, can you please be quiet? Don’t disturb us now.” Ro Xin turned and glared at Ro Li.

Ro Li stretched his body and said, “I think both of you are thinking in the wrong direction.”

“What do you mean?” Ro Xin raised a brow.

“I don’t know, but I instinctively feel like it’s wrong for you to eliminate this option to the second floor.” Ro Li pointed at the flight of stairs to the second floor which was the option which Ro Xin wanted to eliminate.

“Instinctively?” Ro Xin had a feeling that her brother was just messing around.

However, Tang Ling grunted in accordance. He bolted up and looked at Ro Li. He managed to capture the inspiration this time and he asked Ro Li seriously, “Are you saying that your gut feeling tells you that this path is the right one? Why don’t you feel it? Come on, sense it as much as you can.”

“Hmm.” Ro Li shut his eyes, appearing like he was in deep thought.

Ro Xin did not say anything, but judging from her expression, she did not buy any of this.

“I don’t know what’s wrong or right, but I have a feeling we will be safe if we walk up here,” Ro Li opened his eyes and answered Tang Ling.

“Great, then let’s…” As Tang Ling spoke, he moved his foot forward and wanted to step on the flight of stairs leading to the second floor.

However, Ro Xin nervously held him back. “Are you sure about this? If you aren’t, this is the final key point of the formation, so if you take the wrong step, even if it’s just a step, we might face irreversible punishment.”

“No, but I have a feeling, a hunch, and most importantly…” Tang Ling looked at Ro Xin to say, “Ro Li said so, thus I think we should trust his gut feeling.”

Right after his words subsided, Tang Ling’s foot also landed on the first flight of the stairs to the second floor.

Then, from that dark corridor of the second floor, a burst of strange and drifting laughter that could shroud the heavens rang out.