Chapter 286: The Path Behind Is Cut Off, Only the Path Ahead Remains

Kamikawa Mitsu's brow twitched.

Chie really did pick right—his path to the opportunity lay in the right corridor.

It's just... the way she chose the path... he really didn't know whether to say she was lucky, or that she was a child of destiny—using that method, she actually picked the corridor where the opportunity lay.

Looks like the opportunity is his for the taking.

Kamikawa Mitsu led Kamikawa Chie into the right corridor; the remaining people present hesitated, then all headed for the left and middle paths.

"Those who took the right corridor are really pitiful—they won't get anything."

"Hehe, good thing we're clever. We waited for Mr. Kamikawa to pick first, then we chose, avoiding the most terrifying opportunity-grabber."

"Opportunities can be skipped, but you can't just toss your life away."

The people present wore clever smiles, chatting as they walked into the other corridors.

Clearly, they were afraid to share a path with Kamikawa Mitsu, because Kamikawa Mitsu was no ordinary person—he was a Transcendent, a god-and-demon-level Transcendent. Competing for an opportunity against someone like that was nothing but seeking death; even if they truly encountered an opportunity, it wouldn't be their turn to get it.

Most importantly—would Tamamo-no-Mae's opportunity be ordinary? Impossible. Even gods and demons would likely be green with envy.

Such an opportunity, naturally, one wouldn't want to let slip out for him to know. And if they walked the same corridor as Kamikawa Mitsu, once they encountered the opportunity—even if others didn't compete with Kamikawa Mitsu for it—to prevent the opportunity from leaking out for other god-and-demon Transcendents to learn of, the simplest method would be to silence them.

The dead are the easiest at keeping secrets.

Realizing this, no one was willing to share a path with Kamikawa Mitsu.

As for Kamikawa Chie's livestream, it shut off after entering the third corridor.

On the other side.

The other two corridors were undergoing something eerie.

In the left corridor, the long hallway stretched straight ahead. People had walked two or three kilometers without reaching the end. Looking far ahead, they couldn't see the terminus—pitch-black, as if leading to hell and the netherworld, like the maw of an abyss devouring all things.

The group could only rely on the flashlights and lighters they'd brought for illumination.

Four kilometers... five kilometers... ten kilometers...

As the journey grew longer, their expressions slowly shifted from excitement and agitation to exasperation and discomfort, and finally to irritation.

"Damn, how long do we have to walk before there's an end?"

Someone complained, patting their flickering flashlight.

At ten kilometers, the flashlights they'd brought were nearly dead. If they still couldn't reach the end, they'd have to grope their way forward blind.

Mid-sentence, the person couldn't help turning to ask the person beside them.

After walking ten kilometers like this, strangers could chat their way into acquaintances—otherwise you'd die of boredom here.

"Haros, you said this walk has no end in sight—how about we make a bet like... huh? Haros?"

Speaking as he turned his head, he found Haros was gone at some point.

He shone the flashlight backward; behind him was empty.

The corridor behind was dim, with nothing there—the light couldn't even reach the end, as if even the light itself had been devoured.

That person's footsteps couldn't help but pause.

He'd assumed Haros had lagged behind to tie a shoelace or something, but that didn't seem to be the case.

Did he run ahead?

"Hey, Haros, did you walk up ahead?" the person shouted loudly. His voice was loud, echoing through the corridor, the reverberations rolling on and on.

The people present couldn't help turning to look at him.

Yet not a single person responded.

He shouted again—still no answer.

That person froze, and so did the others present. Shouting that loudly, even those at the very front should have heard—there was no way the one named Haros couldn't have heard; he should have responded by now.

Darkness and the unknown are the two things humans fear most.

In this pitch-black corridor, with the unknown ahead, now one person not responding—anyone would feel something was off, feel a chill down their spine.

"Hey, the one called Haros—if you're there, say something, don't play hide-and-seek." someone in the group called out.

The others also spoke up one after another.

Still no answer...

The atmosphere suddenly fell silent, deathly stillness spreading everywhere.

That person swallowed, raised the flashlight, and hurriedly walked toward the group ahead, shining it on each person in turn:

"Haros, stop joking around—this isn't the time for jokes, come out now."

There were only so many people present, all in one corridor. For someone to hide was impossible, so finding a person didn't take much effort.

But by the time that person reached the very front, he still hadn't found Haros.

The other had vanished as if evaporated from the world, disappearing from the corridor without a sound or trace.

At this moment.

The corridor was silent to the extreme—so silent that even breathing and heartbeats seemed audible.

An eerie, horrifying mood spread among the crowd.

How could a perfectly fine person just disappear? Did they wander off and fall behind? Impossible—there's only one path, no matter how you wander, where could you go? So if they didn't fall behind, how did the person vanish...

"Wait—where's Miri?!"

Suddenly, someone in the crowd shrieked, completely detonating the eeriness and horror and pushing it to its peak.

The shouter's face was pale with fright—he'd discovered his companion was also gone.

Like a chain reaction, every person shuddered violently, frantically checking the people around them.

They didn't check and not know—once they checked, horror struck the world.

Besides Haros and Miri, several other people had vanished...

Panic became the dominant atmosphere here—irreplaceable, unchangeable.

Horror. Terror.

Every face present turned deathly pale; no one dared press forward, and they all wanted to turn back—but the moment they began to back out, they discovered the passage behind them was gone.

The retreat was cut off; only the road ahead remained.

At the same moment.

In the middle passage.

There was none of the strangeness and oppression of the left-hand passage, nor any long, dim corridor—only cheers and leaping joy, and a vast, spacious great hall.

The walls of the great hall were cast from some unknown crystal, carved all over with strange patterns that gleamed with golden light; like the rippling veins of a watery marsh, each shift gave off a hazy, prismatic radiance, as if the Dao itself had been made manifest and transmuted into light, guarding the great hall through ten thousand eternal years.

Within the hall, divine radiance blazed bright, as if a million stars of the heavens had gathered here, bursting forth in dazzling splendor and releasing magnificence—these rays of light emanated from all manner of rare treasures and wondrous objects.

If any beings from other realms—such as Glass Puppets or Nether-Eroding creatures—were present, they would surely recognize these rare treasures.

Heaps upon heaps of treasures, thousands upon tens of thousands, piled into mountains; any single one taken out would be enough to drive the denizens of the Void Demon realm, the Nether-Erosion realm, the Myriad Wastes realm, and others to madness and frenzy in their scramble to seize it—every one was a supreme treasure, and any one at random could spark a war among gods and demons.

Yet now they were tossed into this great hall like rubbish, scattered everywhere, heap upon heap.

"This…"

Everyone present was so激动 they could not speak; even the elite squad captain Maike, whose temperament and self-control far surpassed the ordinary, felt his blood surging, as if his very veins were about to burst, his body trembling with excitement.

Divine medicines, divine weapons, divine artifacts—everything one could wish for was here.

If one could obtain all of this, even a pig could cultivate into a god or demon.

The next second.

A man, his eyes red, laughed wildly, no longer able to think rationally, and charged toward a set of golden divine armor at the very front: "Hahaha, I want it all!"

The distance was very close—just two meters ahead—a few steps and he'd be there.

Seeing this, how could the others bear to merely stand and watch? They too prepared to pounce upon the heaps of treasures.

"Ah!!!"

In less than an instant, a scream of absolute terror rang out, first from the very man who had acted first and lunged at the golden divine armor.

Immediately after.

Every person who had pounced upon the treasures let out a scream—without a single exception.

……8)