Target Point

Once I'd done so, I noticed that Jue Zhu had been watching me. "You got it too, huh? I figured you would."

"I think I understand a few more things, too. This labyrinth, or this 'level' of the labyrinth, is divided into discrete sections. You said you also got a location from it?"

Jue Zhu nodded. "And did you find a jade slip before that, that gave you information about one of the labyrinth's sections?"

"Yes, at the dead-end closest to where I started."

"So did I. It's reasonable to assume that the mural encodes information similarly to how a jade slip does, but in this case, it's pointing to certain locations in each section. And that information will only translate itself for us if we already have the information about each section."

"Makes sense. The obvious question is, what is at these points?"

I nodded. "The next objective is clear. Shall we go?"

Jue Zhu shook his head. "I need to stay here to reestablish communications."

"Reestablish?"

The aide spoke up then. "The Communication Stones' connection was cut when you all entered this space, but it can be restored. You just need to touch the two halves of each stone together again."

"I see. Then, I'll be able to contact you again now." I took out my stone and Jue Zhu took out the one that corresponded to it. We touched them to each other, having them form a perfect whole for just a moment. Then, I sent a message through it, to test that it indeed worked.

"All right. I'll go investigate the location in the section I came from. I'll let you know what I find."

Jue Zhu nodded, and returned a message. "I'll let you know when I've met each of the others."

The teacher aid cleared his throat. "There's one more thing you should know, if you're heading back out. I'm sure you've noticed that there aren't the usual sorts of materials handy to use for wilderness survival in this place. There are lots of challenges at each dead end. A few have consumable treasures, some have map data, as you've already discovered, and many have supplies that take the place of what you'd usually gather from your surroundings.

In the late 7th and early 8th Earth Realms, you can survive without things like food and water a little more than twice as long as a mortal. So, you should have plenty of time to find some, but sooner or later you're going to want to find some."

"Very good to note, thank you." With those polite words, I set off back the way I came. On the way to the location I'd marked, I stopped at a few other dead ends. These held buildings that were similarly maze-like to the first one, but they had a lot fewer beasts than the swarm of scarabs. Too, those magical beasts were mostly the same species that had been in the previous places we'd hunted, except they were all of the 7th Realm. Some of them were slightly different species, at least I thought they were. At the top of these were small rooms that indeed held food supplies, water, and everything one would need to build a fire.

After I'd cleared 3 such caches, the next one had more scarabs. In spite of not really expecting them, I was more ready for them this time. I avoided injury more at the initial rush, then dealt with the groups on three maze floors without needing to use my sword at all. Then, I had an awkward moment when Jue Zhu tried to tell me that he'd made contact with Kunlun Jong while I was in the middle of dealing with the Bladehorn Scarab and its group. I couldn't even reply to him because of course I wasn't going to take the stone out of my inventory.

This time, only half a dozen normal scarabs caught up with me, since I'd concentrated on thinning them down from the start. Of course, that meant the Bladehorn itself was able to take more punishment, and it was able to use much greater strength against me without being badly wounded. Suddenly, I was about ten times more grateful that Jong had insisted I still sparred with him on the regular, since even though I never came very close to beating him, the experience had helped me develop quite a few ways to overcome a strength gap, and I was especially able to put them to use against the purely fundamental way the chief scarab used its horn. When it was done, I decided I didn't even need to use a healing pill.

The prize there was a trio of green pills which, according to what the System Inventory analyzed, would greatly boost a cultivator's Resilience for an hour. Once I collected the spoils and myself, I "called back" Jue Zhu.

"I was in the middle of fighting more scarabs, so I couldn't respond right away. I'm close to the point of this section indicated by the mural. From what I've found in fighting locations on the way, it looks like assuming the difficulty of battles in an area corresponds with the quality of rewards is a good working hypothesis. In other words, if you're short on regular supplies, go for the ones that aren't as hard to get through as the scarabs, or whatever you faced to get map information. The consumable treasures are in areas that have the same sort of difficulty as the ones holding map data."

"It was scarab things for me and Jong, getting our pieces of the map too. I don't know if there will be other types just as hard, but it's something to watch out for. I'll pass your advice along."

"I'm going to rest up a little while, then head for the map point. Tell Jong hello from me."

About ten minutes later, I turned the corner leading to the dead end that I'd marked in the Atlas. As I'd expected, a building was immediately in view in the distance, and even from far away I could tell it was different from the others. As I came closer, it was clear that it wasn't just different, but quite a bit larger and much more ornate in design and decoration. A set of stairs led to the entryway, past a set of twelve statues, each one a depiction of a different type of snake in incredible detail, that acted as pillars at the end of a large awning.

"Jue Zhu, I see what's at the point, and it's definitely something major. I think it's safe to assume whatever's inside will be harder than the scarabs. From this point, it's best to assume I could be fighting for my life in any given moment, until I contact you again."

"That's reasonable. I'll wait for further word from you."