The north-facing corridor had many forks. When the group arrived at the first fork, Xiao Lou left a blue mark and went to the right; Yu Hanjiang left a red mark and went to the left; Lu Jiuchuan and Lao Mo continued forward, and at the fork ahead, they also split up and left black and white arrow marks respectively.
A moment later, Xiao Lou arrived at the exit and found the blue mark he had left behind.
Then, he saw Yu Hanjiang coming from another exit.
Xiao Lou was taken aback: "Another circular road?"
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "There are no other forks in the road here. It feels like I've gone in a circle. The corridor isn't straight; it has a strange curve."
As the two were talking, Lao Mo and Lu Jiuchuan returned to their starting point at the intersection ahead.
The four people looked at each other in bewilderment.
Suddenly, Liu Qiao spoke up: "Since we are in the upper level of the maze, and the Six Paths of Reincarnation chamber was a petal-like structure, could the remaining mazes be structured like leaves, roots, or branches?"
Liu Qiao's words were a wake-up call.
It's normal for her to associate the petals with green leaves and branches.
Thinking back to the fork in the road, it really did resemble a bend in the road, like a leaf. After entering the fork, it didn't take long before I was back at the starting point, as if I had drawn a circle around the outer edge of a leaf.
Old Mo looked at the map on the handkerchief and said, "It should be Green Leaf. I've been staring at Compass the whole time, and the pointer keeps changing, which means the direction of the corridor is not fixed and keeps shifting. If I'm not mistaken, the rest of the maze is like a big tree with many branches and leaf-like networks—we can only slowly find out where the real exit is."
You think this fork in the road is a loop of leaves, but what if this is the exit?
All the corridors were the same width, making it impossible to distinguish the trunk, branches, and leaves...
The difficulty of this maze exceeded Old Mo's expectations. He was getting dizzy from drawing it and couldn't help but mutter to himself, "The World Weekly Routine is this hard. I estimate the elimination rate this time is more than 20%. The Six Paths of Reincarnation alone will stump a lot of people. As for the Eighteen Levels of Hell, there must be countless Challenger teams that can't get through it."
Xiao Lou smiled wryly: "Other Challenger teams, no matter how difficult, at least don't have a time limit. They can slowly figure things out and find the right way out in five or six days. But we are different."
Hunter is such a pain, the maze is about to collapse.
The already difficult Weekly Secret Chamber has become dozens of times more difficult.
Other Challengers, as long as they are brave enough and unafraid of things like corpses, ghosts, and vengeful spirits, can slowly explore and treat it as a thrilling tomb raiding game.
They now have only one time to escape!
If they can't find an exit quickly enough, they'll be buried alive. This is fucking diamonds. Weekly Routine? It's turned into a survival room because of Hunter!
Xiao Lou also considered teleporting everyone back to Peach Blossom Spring, but Peach Blossom Spring is at the entrance of the maze. If everyone went back, they could only enter the initial Six Paths of Reincarnation chamber and then go down to the second basement level from Herbal Hut.
By this time, the second basement level had been destroyed, and they couldn't get in at all.
The only way out is to pin our hopes on this labyrinth of branches and leaves before us.
With so many branching paths, under normal circumstances, they could check them one by one and try them one by one... But now the situation is urgent, and there is simply no time to test them one by one.
The maze was shaking more and more violently. The four of them had each taken a different path, only to quickly return to the starting point. There were bound to be many of the remaining paths that were just time-wasting "circling" routes.
If you keep going around in circles in the maze, it's like a few small insects climbing up a big tree, following the branches and leaves all around, getting dizzy and disoriented, and having no way to find the exit.
Xiao Lou took a deep breath and made a bold decision: "Everyone stop. Let's carefully analyze the clues we have so far and see if we can deduce the correct path through the maze."
Upon hearing this, the teammates stopped in their tracks.
If someone else had said this, they might not have believed it, but coming from Xiao Lou, everyone was compelled to believe it. Since time was limited anyway, running around aimlessly might not lead to an exit; it was better to calmly analyze the clues carefully.
Gui Yuanzhang's team also stopped. He asked in a low voice, "You want to analyze the lower-level living burial tombs?"
Xiao Lou said, "That's right. Old Mo, show me the maze plan you drew."
Mo Xuemin handed his handkerchief to Xiao Lou.
The teammates gathered together to examine it closely—the maze had two levels, upper and lower, and Old Mo had drawn two diagrams on his handkerchief to distinguish them. On the upper level, there was a petal-shaped maze on the east and west sides, with the six petals representing the Heavenly Path, the Human Path, the Animal Path, the Hungry Ghost Path, the Asura Path, and the Hell Path, respectively. The stamen in the center was the main secret chamber covered with talismans, which was also the entrance to the lower level.
Down
On the floor, because Xiao Lou and Gui Yuanzhang acted separately, Lao Mo drew two lines.
One route was Xiao Lou's group's. After discovering the first stone coffin, they first moved about 30 degrees southeast and found the second stone coffin. Then they faced due north and found the third stone coffin.
Gui Yuanzhang and his group first shifted about 45 degrees to the northwest and found the second stone coffin. Then they continued to the northwest, with the two paths forming an obtuse angle of about 135 degrees. This was confirmed by Lao Mo and Senior Gui at the time.
Xiao Lou confirmed again: "Senior, you were walking in one direction on the second basement level. The angle between the two corridors between the second and third tomb chambers is about 135 degrees, right?"
Gui Yuanzhang said, "That's right, I measured the angle using a compass pointer."
The orientation of the compass will definitely not be wrong.
Xiao Lou carefully examined the drawing Lao Mo made and tried to connect the locations of the six stone coffins into a line in his mind.
Then, to his surprise, he discovered that when all the sarcophagus chambers were connected, the pattern resembled the shape of a sieve, with the last chamber pointing due north, precisely at the tip of the sieve.
Dubhe (天枢) is directly opposite the north star.
Xiao Lou's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said with certainty, "I understand now. The lower-level burial chambers, when connected together, form the Big Dipper! The true meaning of the burial coffins in this underground tomb should be the legendary'Seven Stars Surrounding the Moon'!"
Upon hearing this, the teammates were simultaneously energized.
According to legend, the living burial site, which resembles a cluster of seven stars surrounding the moon, has three tombs on each of the left and right sides, while the middle tomb appears to be supported by the hands of the other six tombs, symbolizing the noble status and position of the tomb's occupant.
The Seven Stars Surrounding the Moon consists of seven tomb chambers, which, when connected, form the pattern of the Big Dipper.
The three tombs that Xiao Lou and his team just discovered, judging from their locations, the three on the east side should be associated with the stars Tian Shu, Tian Xuan, and Tian Ji. The three tombs discovered by Gui Yuanzhang's team are associated with the stars Yu Heng, Kai Yang, and Yao Guang.
What's currently missing is the Tianquan star, which is located in the very center of Big Dipper.
Xiao Lou carefully recalled the location of Tianquan Star and then drew an intersection point on Lao Mo's map.
As expected of someone with a design background, Lao Mo's drawings were extremely precise. He even used the proportions commonly used in engineering drawings. He marked 1cm = 10 meters on the map, meaning that 1cm on the map translates to 10 meters in the actual distance within the tomb. Lao Mo had been measuring distances with his footsteps the whole way, so his drawings, calculated using multiples, were absolutely accurate.
Xiao Lou marked the Tianquan stars on the map in the order of the Big Dipper, and then used the side lengths and angles of triangles to perform the calculations. As a science student, solving trigonometric distance math problems that even junior high school students could do was a piece of cake for him.
He quickly calculated the precise location of Tianquan Star.
From Tianquan Star, which is the exit of the steps of the last tomb they just left, walk about 30 meters due north and then 300 meters due west to reach Tianquan Star.
From the exit of Yaoguang, which is the last tomb chamber of Gui and his ancestors, walk 300 meters due south and then 300 meters due east to reach Tianquan Star.
The two teams are now on opposite sides of the maze. There are many branching paths around them, and the dense, leaf-like structures seem overwhelming. However, as long as they determine the direction of the compass, they can find the correct path.
The location of Tianquan Star is the intersection of the two teams—which is also the exit of the Seven Stars Surrounding the Moon maze!
Xiao Lou quickly said in the voice channel: "Senior Gui, keep an eye on compass, walk 300 meters due south, then 300 meters due east, and we'll meet at the location of Tianquan Star!"
The teammates were confused, but they all had the same thought in mind.
—Listen to Xiao Lou. It's better than wandering around aimlessly in a maze like a headless fly.
Although the maze was shaky and seemed about to collapse, and everyone was inevitably nervous, it was precisely at the most critical moment that everyone's trust in each other was put to the test.
Gui Yuanzhang had little contact with Xiao Lou, but he had a very good impression of the young man.
He had heard of the legend of the Seven Stars Surrounding the Moon, a type of tomb. Moreover, Xiao Lou had even drawn a map of the tomb, proving that the lower-level tombs were arranged in a Big Dipper formation.
Therefore, the possibility that the exit of the maze is the "missing" tianquan star in the very center is extremely high.
Gui Yuanzhang looked at the fork in the road ahead and decisively said, "Let's go as Xiao Lou said, everyone hurry up and follow!"