Chapter 358: Infinite

Clang!

Brother Sikong's spirit trembled, he lost his balance, stumbled forward, and his knee slammed into the stone box.

Boom—

The entire stone chamber shook violently, as if caught in an earthquake, but Li Cheng and Zhang Fulu reacted swiftly, both pressing down on the stone box and halting the trembling.

'When desire ceases, the heart grows still. When the heart is still, the spirit is undisturbed.'

Zhang Fulu silently recited the Pure Heart Mantra to calm himself, then slowly released his grip on the stone box. 'Don't move—this box is the stone chamber we're in.'

Brother Sikong grabbed his own hair and gritted his teeth. 'What the hell is this thing?'

'In a sense, you can think of it as a three-dimensional ghost wall—or a paradox space.'

Li Cheng said calmly: a paradox space refers to geometric structures that defy spatial logic and cannot exist in the real world, such as the endlessly ascending Penrose staircase, or Escher's infinite staircases in his Dutch engravings.

This artistic style profoundly influenced later generations—for example, the movie Inception, the video game Monument Valley, and others.

'From our three heights outside the stone chamber, the ratio between the nested spaces is roughly 14:1, which matches the proportion between the stone chamber and the stone box.'

Li Cheng paused, then asked: 'Gentlemen, who among you is willing to ascend and investigate? To confirm the space above isn't an illusion but a real room.'

Of the three, Brother Sikong was likely the best at lightness skill, but he was already dizzy from the sight, his face pale.

'I'll go.' Zhang Fulu tied his short sword to his waist and looked up.

The stone chamber's ceiling was seven meters high—slightly taller than the Olympic pole vault record. Zhang Fulu scanned the room, searching for the wall with the most indentations to use as footholds for his lightness skill.

'No need for that trouble.'

Li Cheng tore off a strip of cloth from his nightwear, pinched both ends, and slowly lowered it into the stone box.

Simultaneously, a thick, black piece of fabric hung down from the hidden ceiling door of the stone chamber.

Zhang Fulu silently reached out and grabbed the fabric. Li Cheng gently pulled the cloth strip upward—the fabric rose in sync, lifting the Daoist Priest into the upper space.

'Fusheng Wuliang Tianzun.'

Zhang Fulu clenched his lips. In the upper space, his height hadn't changed, but the entire chamber appeared fourteen times larger to him—Li Cheng and Brother Sikong now stood as giants over twenty-one meters tall.

From Li Cheng and Brother Sikong's perspective, however, Zhang Fulu—now twelve centimeters tall—'climbed' out of the hidden door in the stone box on the floor.

Li Cheng crouched down, gazing down at the miniature Zhang Fulu, and said gravely: 'If you've seen the future, why don't you bow?'

The giant Li Cheng in the upper space simultaneously leaned down and shouted—the sound waves whipped up gales that flapped Zhang Fulu's clothes violently, forcing him to draw his sword and stab it into the stone box to anchor himself.

'Sir, isn't this a bit too much for a joke?'

When the echo faded, Zhang Fulu stood up reluctantly. Fortunately, he had cultivated for years at Longhu Mountain—he was a man of the Dao. Any ordinary person would have suffered a full-blown megalophobia right there.

'Sorry, I got carried away.'

Li Cheng picked up the cloth strip again, lowered it into the hidden door, and let Zhang Fulu descend.

'Phew.'

Zhang Fulu's feet touched the ground. He exhaled deeply and said solemnly: 'Now we can confirm—the upper stone chamber is indeed the stone box.'

In the upper space, he had driven his sword into the stone box.

After returning to the lower space, a faint white mark from the sword tip now pierced the top of this layer's stone box.

Proving the two spaces contain each other—within you, I am; within me, you are.

But a new problem arose: where was the exit? Or how could they escape? 'Hah! Hah!'

As Zhang Fulu and Brother Sikong were seriously pondering, a labored breathing sound rose. They looked up—

Li Cheng held the cloth strip lowered into the stone box, while he himself leapt into a rope dangling from above the chamber, looping it around his own neck, performing a spontaneous hanging.

His body swung violently, his face turning blue, as he screamed hoarsely: 'Double tap! Click follow!'

What the fuck!

Zhang Fulu and Brother Sikong thought Li Cheng had lost his mind—they rushed forward and yanked him down. Brother Sikong stammered: 'Master Pi Fu, don't do this! Whatever trouble you're in, we'll find a way together!'

Li Cheng unfastened the rope from his neck, furious: 'Cough—cough! Why'd you interrupt me? I was almost free—I could already see the auroras blazing across the sky and endless seas of flowers!'

So soul departure is called 'escaping death,' is it?

Ignoring the exasperated expressions of the other two, Li Cheng rubbed his neck and said casually: 'I've got one good news and one bad news. Which do you want to hear first?'

Zhang Fulu and Brother Sikong exchanged glances, and sighed: '…Good news first.'

Li Cheng shrugged. 'The good news is—we won't die. Food is plentiful.'

'What do you mean?'

!

'The ratio between this level and the upper level is 1:14. In the upper space, we can cut off bits of flesh, drop them into the stone box, eat the meat, and it regrows. We have an endless supply of meat.'

Li Cheng paused, then added: 'If you're worried about disability, start with dead skin, calluses, or moles. If you're thirsty, you can—'

'Stop! Stop! Stop!'

Brother Sikong's stomach churned violently—he cut Li Cheng off, grimacing: 'Even if we never starve, being trapped here forever isn't a solution! By the way—what's the bad news?'

'The bad news is we can't handle waste.'

Li Cheng's expression turned utterly solemn. 'There are no dung beetles here. The waste we produce can only pile up in the corner. If we drop it into the stone box's hidden door, it multiplies fourteenfold and rains down on our heads. Unless someone among us—whose spirit is utterly empty, who clings to stillness, who returns to nature—is willing to eliminate it on the spot.'

Li Cheng's face was incomparably solemn as he said, "There are no dung beetles here, so the excrement produced can only be piled in the corner. If we toss it into the stone box's hidden door, it'll become fourteen times the amount and fall on us from above. Unless there's some hero of an empty and still mind, who firmly abides in clarity and quiet, and returns to nature, willing to dispose of it on the spot.

What the fuck are you looking at me for?!

Zhang Fulu's scalp prickled—he waved his hands frantically: 'Let's table that for later! Master Pi Fu, you clearly have a plan already, don't you?'

Earlier in the treasure vault, Zhang Fulu had called Li Cheng an outsider—not out of idle speculation.

Longhu Mountain possessed a secret art not passed down lightly—the Art of Gazing at Qi, which could judge a person's potential by observing their intangible, invisible qi.

Li Cheng's qi was heavy as black clouds, hovering above the ground—proof his mind was deep and his connection to this world extremely weak. He was clearly not from Great Ming.

The qi of the maid beside him was crimson as blood, thick with murderous intent. At the edge of the blood cloud, it was mixed with countless chaotic, incomprehensible colors—Bilibili red, Douyin black, Thunder download blue—its composition suspiciously complex.

The aura of the maid beside him was crimson as blood, with an overwhelming killing intent; along the edges of that blood cloud were also mixed in a great many chaotic, incomprehensible colors—things like Bilibili red, Douyin black, Xunlei blue—its composition suspiciously overcomplicated.

"It's hard to say what the right approach is—I just have an idea."

Li Cheng rubbed his palms together. "Let's name this stone chamber we're in as A. And the stone chamber on the level above as B.

When I, in stone chamber A, put the cloth strip into the stone box, a larger cloth strip also drops down in stone chamber B.

During this process, how many stone chambers do you think appeared—two, three, or infinite?"

(End of chapter)