IWOL Chapter 255: In a Predicament

Dong Zheng once again stood in the stone chamber.

The door behind him was closed tightly, and Dong Zheng was silent. He couldn’t remember how many times he’d placed the stone statue he’d picked up along the way in his pocket. The moment Ren Heming entered through the door, he threw himself down on the stone bench. He couldn’t wait to rest. Laying his upper body down on the table, he lazily said, “Do you give up now?”

Dong Zheng also sat down slowly beside him. He had already tried all the choices available to him at each node. The tree diagram that branched out with each choice was clear in his mind. The three branches separated out from the initial node, each further producing their own branches. However, these options branched out from each other but ultimately ended up converging to the same end.

To enter or not to enter the underground cave, to save or to not save the girl, to go left or to go right, to enter or not to enter the village…No matter what choices they made, they would eventually end up in the stone chamber. All choices lead to one predetermined ending.

Ren Heming was so worn down that he didn’t know what to say. When Dong Zheng came in, he thought that since he became “Shixiong,” he would see things from a different angle. Maybe he would find clues that he didn’t get before. But he didn’t expect to re-walk through all the branches with Dong Zheng and still got nothing in the end.

Otherwise, why else would his former shixiong have to stay until Dong Zheng came and he replaced him?

Ren Hening was weak with fatigue. “Let me rest…I will definitely continue to accompany you before you lose hope. But before that, can you let me rest?”

Every time they returned to the stone chamber, Dong Zheng would only allow a short rest before immediately restarting. Ren Heming was exhausted and needed to take a rest.

Dong Zheng obeyed his request and didn’t insert the stone statue. In fact, after exploring all the branches, insisting on returning to the starting point again and again was a waste of time. The clues related to leaving must be hidden in their previous experiences. It was just that he, Ren Heming, and all those people in the past hadn’t discovered it yet.

As for the exhausted shixiong lying on the opposite bench—At beginning, Ren Heming wasn’t verbose, but now he’d talked endlessly, as if he hadn’t spoken in a long time. From speaking Farsi to acting in the capacity of a Jinyiwei and a team leader, he no longer tried so hard…These clues allowed Dong Zheng to confirm his identity as a pilgrim.

So many brain developers and yet none had managed to find a way out. The answer must be an unexpected or hidden mystery. Dong Zheng fiddled with the stone statue. He knew every inch of the line, every nick.

Where was the problem?

Ren Heming was lying on the ground, sleeping in his clothes. Dong Zheng had asked him how long he’d stayed here and Ren Heming had answered that he could not remember clearly. The day and night could not be seen in the stone chamber. He and his shixiong had slept here all day long and had gone through the experience of hunting down the evil spirits two to three hundred times.

That was indeed a desperate number. Dong Zheng frowned when he heard this unexpected amount.

But Ren Heming was also optimistic. “No, I’m almost out. When you came in, it meant that I already had one foot out. When another poor devil is selected and thrown into this place, I can finally leave.”

Aside from passing the test, there was indeed no other alternative. But Dong Zheng couldn’t afford to wait.

Or maybe, he could afford to wait, but Cui Zuojing couldn’t.

The young man was still waiting for him outside, waiting for him to pass the test of the library and to release their blood contract, waiting for the moment when he could return to God’s Back Garden and end everything.

Ren Heming made a steady snoring sound. Dong Zheng also lay down on the ground, and he looked up at the ceiling of this underground palace, lost in thought.

His kernel had simulated all possibilities and analyzed all his experiences, and it was constantly calculating the results, however probable or improbable.

He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

——

Cui Zuojing was bored. After studying the fresco above his head, he began to study the texture of the floor. The floor was spliced ​​by various geometric figures, which seemed to contain an unknown law.

Karls had been organizing books in this library, accompanying and supervising Cui Zuojing. Seeing that the boy was so bored that he was trying to tilt his chair and land on the ground with only two legs, Karls pulled out a book with a blue cover from the bookshelf beside it and handed it to Cui Zuojing.

“Maybe you can use it to pass the time.”

Cui Zuojing took the book and placed it on his lap but didn’t immediately open it. He asked Karls, “Did you know me before?”

“In the Pure White Realm, how could anyone not know you?” Karls chuckled softly. “Even all the members of the High Council had seen you.”

Cui Zuojing immediately remembered that he’d accidentally entered the conference hall of the High Council when he was playing with the executioner in the Labyrinth of Time. The thirteen inexplicable creatures sitting around the round table spoke a language that he could not understand at all, and stared at him with icy eyes.

A fearful, cold sweat couldn’t help but come over him, and he smiled and said, “I didn’t anger those big people?”

Karls said, “They are very optimistic about you. Don’t be afraid, the library has always been peaceful. We never take the initiative to embarrass the guests. Besides, the realm also needs your help.”

Cui Zuojing was relieved. He took the book on his lap and opened a page.

“Ha?”

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