Chapter 57: Open-Air Maze

Before a field of orchid berries.

A brown-haired man in armor with a white cape spoke coldly.

"Failed?"

Maxine knelt on one knee on the ground, blood seeping through the gauze freshly wrapped around her nose.

"My lord, we are deeply sorry. The enemy possessed an artifact capable of rapid movement; we could not intercept them."

"Worthless! I truly do not know what kind of pig brains you have, insisting on using such rotten street methods."

Maxine dared not say anything.

But in her heart, she had cursed ten thousand times: Wasn't it you who approved it?

"What is their background?"

The brown-haired man asked.

"They came from the west. Judging by their accent, they seem to be from Windstorm City. As for their rank... I cannot tell, but I estimate it does not exceed Rank Five."

Maxine's eyes darted about, exaggerating the enemy's rank as high as possible.

A Rank Three noob had completely failed to perceive the opponent's spiritual accumulation, yet felt confident they were above Rank Four.

The brown-haired man lifted his foot, stepped on her head, and pressed it down into the earth.

"Did you pursue them?"

"Uh, we have already dispatched people in the name of the Holy Fire Squad."

Maxine spoke hurriedly, her voice filled with panic.

"I suppose you still have some brain. Send high-rankers, understand, you fool? At least Rank Five! Even if Succubi are unskilled in combat, they are still Rank Five!"

"Understood! Vice-Captain Gram!"

"When no one is around, call me Captain! You fool! My lord is currently gathering demon races; be sharp, and scrutinize every person entering the city!"

Meanwhile.

Rod and the other three had arrived before this open-air maze.

"Do you see it? The color of the soil."

The half-dragon Xia Li pointed to the ground.

She paid no attention to the previous turmoil; on the contrary, she felt somewhat excited. Before rushing here, she had even let out a few squeals.

"Pink soil."

Tally replied.

With that, the four of them stepped across the boundary line between the pink soil ahead and the ordinary brown soil.

The vast expanse of land ahead was composed entirely of pink soil.

Apart from that, it was no different from ordinary wilderness.

"Good. This is the most direct way to identify the maze. As long as the soil on the ground remains pink, you are still within the maze."

"Understood."

"But remember this carefully: previously, a unlucky soul forgot this point, failed to perform the ritual upon truly leaving, and died from a curse the next day."

Rod paused, stunned.

Ritual?

What ritual?

He had never heard of such things.

The sand tornado ritual of the Death Desert was so overwhelming that the mere mention of those two words triggered a stress response in him.

Gema seemed to see through his confusion and remarked strangely, "You do not know? This open-air maze has several rules that must be followed."

Xia Li scratched her head awkwardly.

"I originally intended to explain everything to you thoroughly tonight, but events unfolded suddenly, and I had no time to bring up many things."

Having said that.

A gust of wind blew, and a sky full of pink petals swept down onto everyone.

Rod reached out and grabbed a handful.

He discovered they were merely ordinary petals, yet this was all desert; where did the flowers come from?

Suddenly, he could not help but start counting the petals in his hand.

"One, two, three, four... Uh, is this a mental-type power?"

Rod quickly broke free from that power.

"Wow, for a human, your mental resistance is truly quite good," Xia Li said, looking surprised.

She added, "Good. Rule One: Pink petals occasionally drift down with the wind within the maze. If you start counting them, you must stop before reaching 'thirteen'; otherwise, the result will not be good."

Having said that, she downed a vial of magic potion, presumably to enhance her mental resistance.

Gema retrieved a metal hat with an antenna from the belly of the magic doll and quickly exempted himself from the effects of Rule One.

As for Tally, she was too lazy to deal with it and simply dove into Rod's shadow.

Strange to say, Rod remembered that half-dragons possessed extremely strong resistances in all aspects; this effect was something he could break free from quickly, so why did Xia Li still need to drink medicine?

Seeing him staring at her drinking the potion, Xia Li bitterly smiled and crushed the vial.

"My dragon blood percentage is not very high; my various resistances are only slightly better than a human's."

Only upon hearing the words "dragon blood" did Rod suddenly remember.

Half-dragons are a sapient race that Highly Value dragon blood; the percentage of dragon blood directly determines the opponent's strength and appearance.

For instance, Xia Li was a girl wearing hot pants and a genuine leather jacket, her snow-white, slender legs clad in tall boots, looking like a human female cowboy from Earth.

And the draconic features on her body were limited to the dragon horn on top of her head, and even that was only one.

This was enough to show that the dragon blood in her body was extremely thin.

"Sorry."

"What's the big deal? Tonight, don't bother with that succubus Young Lady—come keep me company, ahem, ahem—and we'll immediately move on to the second rule."

Tally poked half her little head out of the shadow, fixing her with an unfriendly stare.

Rod and his group walked and talked as they went.

Under Xia Li's lead, after spending two hours, they successfully left the desert terrain; ahead, trees and dilapidated houses gradually came into view.

Not only that, some steam-spurting holes had also appeared on the ground.

It was obvious that the temperature here had risen considerably.

"We need to find a place to rest and set out again after the temperature drops."

Xia Li took off her genuine leather jacket; underneath was a white silk short shirt, clinging with sweat.

She was about one meter seventy tall, with a hot, figure.

Rod had always been a polite, decent person and rarely looked on purpose.

He just couldn't stand her constantly swaying about in front of him, jumping and bouncing.

Gemma scooted over and, with a mischievous grin, bumped his shoulder with her magical puppet.

"I did a good job finding her, right? You probably have no idea how hard it is to find a female guide for an open-air labyrinth."

"I reiterate once more: you are the most professional guide I have ever seen, bar none."

She, however, snorted coldly in her heart.

I'll be damned if I can't wear down that lecher.

The group found a dilapidated house with half a roof and simply set up a camp.

Xia Li took the first watch; the latter half of the night was Rod's turn.

Tally emerged from the shadow, curled up lying down, her little face resting against Rod's collarbone, her warm breath constantly brushing his neck lightly, like a kitten.

The succubus, who was only allowed one meal a day, was clearly even sleepier than before.

The two were quite heat-resistant; leaning together, they were completely unaffected.

"Strange enough—this is the first time I've ever seen a succubus raised to be so well-behaved."

Xia Li quietly scooted over, pressing her sweat-damp arm against his.

"Is that so? Actually, succubi aren't all that hard to handle." Rod gently patted Tally's back.

"You have no idea how strong a succubus's troublemaking ability is. In my tribe, over a hundred people once died in a succubus-fueled brawl."

"That exaggerated?"

"But then again, it's our fault too—half-dragons are naturally very particular about that sort of experience. The taste of a succubus, I don't think any race could resist it. If I were a man, I'd want to seek them out too."

Having said that, a watery mist spread through her eyes.

She kept brushing Rod's arm with the top of her char siu bun.

"."

The saying that half-dragons inherited part of a dragon's nature really wasn't wrong.

Rod gently set Tally down.

Taking Xia Li's damp little hand, they walked out of the broken house together.

(End of this chapter)