Immortality and cultivation: Heaven rewards diligence, and success is inevitable.

The stone slabs were the same as those in the outer corridor, each one engraved with runes.

But the runes here are denser and more complexly arranged.

Jiang Shi used his spiritual sense to probe outwards. The maze was very large, and his spiritual sense could only cover a range of twenty feet around it. Beyond that, it was blocked by the walls.

Within a radius of twenty zhang, there are three forks in the road, each leading in a different direction.

"What are the rules of the maze?" Shui Lingxi asked. She had been so focused on taking care of Huo Lie that she hadn't checked the rules.

Jiang Shi stood up, pointed to the three forks in the road ahead, and said, "Each fork in the road corresponds to a direction of gravity. If you take the right path, gravity will return to normal. If you take the wrong path, gravity will double."

"Then how do we know which one is correct?" Huo Lie asked, his nose still bleeding, looking quite disheveled.

"Sensing the flow of earth-elemental spiritual energy, on the right path, the energy flows. On the wrong path, the energy stagnates," Jiang Shi said.

He walked to the leftmost fork in the road, stood at the entrance, closed his eyes, and began to practice the "Earth-Suppressing Mountain Technique".

He could sense that the spiritual energy was stagnant.

"This one is wrong." Jiang Shi immediately turned back and walked towards the middle one.

The spiritual energy is flowing, very faint, but it is indeed flowing.

"This is correct."

Jiang Shi took the lead, and the other three followed him into the middle fork in the road.

After walking less than ten steps, the downward force of gravity suddenly doubled.

The four people's bodies suddenly sank, as if an invisible giant hand had pressed down on their shoulders.

Huo Lie lay flat on the ground, Shui Lingxi bent over, Feng Yiran used his sword to support himself, and Jiang Shi bent his knees slightly, barely managing not to fall.

"This is...right?" Huo Lie lay on the ground, his voice muffled.

"Yes, the rule is that if you walk the right path, the gravity doubles. If you walk the wrong path, the gravity also doubles, but if you walk the right path, the gravity will return to normal. If you walk the wrong path, the gravity will keep doubling until it crushes you."

"What kind of bullshit rules are these!" Huo Lie cursed, struggling to stand up, but under double gravity his body was too heavy to stand up at all.

Just then, two cracks appeared in the wall, and two stone statues emerged from it.

They are about ten feet tall, their bodies are made of gray rock, and there are runes at their joints.

He holds a stone sword with a rough blade but sharp edges.

Their eyes are dark red, without pupils, only two orbs of light.

Stone statue guardian, early stage of Golden Core.

They are not affected by gravity.

Double gravity seems to have no effect on them; their steps are steady, and although their movements are slow, each step carries a heavy sense of pressure.

The first stone statue guarded Feng Yiran, raising its stone sword high and slashing down.

Feng Yiran's sword strike was even faster, but his sword energy was severely stretched by gravity, causing its trajectory to deviate by nearly half a foot compared to usual.

The sword tip grazed the stone statue's shoulder, chipping away only a small piece of stone.

The stone sword of the statue was already slashing towards them.

Feng Yiran dodged to the side, the stone sword struck the ground, the stone slab shattered, and fragments of stone flew everywhere.

The second stone statue guarded the river stone, sweeping its stone sword horizontally, creating a gust of wind.

Jiang Shi did not choose to take the blow head-on. A lotus rose beneath his feet, and under double gravity, the speed of his Lotus Step was halved, but it was enough for him to dodge the sword.

He circled around to the side of the statue, and the Canglan Sword pierced into the joint gap of the statue.

The divine light of Geng metal exploded at the joint, and the left arm of the stone statue broke off at the shoulder and crashed to the ground.

The stone statue felt no pain; losing an arm did not affect its attack. It swung its sword with its remaining right arm, slashing at the river stone.

"Retreat!" Jiang Shi shouted, retreating backward.

The four fought and retreated until they reached the fork in the road, where gravity returned to normal.

The two stone guardian statues stopped at the fork in the road. They stood at the entrance, their dark red eyes fixed on the four, but they did not pursue them.

A few breaths later, they turned around, went back into the wall, and disappeared.

Then the walls quickly closed, as if nothing had happened.

Huo Lie collapsed to the ground, panting heavily: "My back... it's going to break..."

Shui Lingxi squatted down to examine his injuries.

The nosebleed has stopped, but the impact of being pressed down with twice the force of gravity has left a large bruise on my back.

"No fractures, but if you're still like this in the next round, you'll have to stay outside and wait for us," Shui Lingxi said.

Huo Lie opened his mouth, wanting to refute, but seeing Shui Lingxi's eyes, he swallowed his words back.

Feng Yiran walked to Jiang Shi's side and asked him, "Can you clearly sense the direction of spiritual energy flow?"

Jiang Shi nodded and replied, "Yes. The middle path is correct, but even if you take the right one, you'll face doubled gravity and guards. We didn't take the wrong path; the test is designed that way."

"Is every right path guarded?"

"Yes, the right path has guards, and the wrong path also has guards. I guess the difference is that the right path is less dangerous, and the wrong path is more dangerous."

Feng Yiran was silent for a moment, then spoke up: "Can you find the shortest path?"

Jiang Shi and Feng Yiran together could deal with these stone statues, but no one could be sure that there were only these two.

These stone guardians may only be at the early stage of the Golden Core realm and have limited attack methods, but they are immune to injury and unaffected by gravity. If there are many of them, they can be quite troublesome.

They were distracted by taking care of Huo Lie, and they couldn't bear to leave Huo Lie here.

The only option is to find the shortest route and minimize combat!

"Sure, but I need time."

Jiang Shi closed his eyes and began to circulate the "Earth-Suppressing Mountain Technique" once more.

This time, he immersed his true essence underground to sense the flow of earth-elemental spiritual energy throughout the maze.

The spiritual energy flowed slowly beneath the labyrinth like water.

The flow rate is fast in some places and slow in others. The fastest flow rate is in the direction of the teleportation array.

Soon, Jiang Shi opened his eyes and pointed to the rightmost fork in the road.

"Go this way, it's a bit longer, but there are fewer guards around the statues."

The four regrouped and headed towards the rightmost fork in the road.

Huo Lie was being supported by Shui Lingxi, so she walked very slowly.

Shui Lingxi's companion spirit beast followed at their feet, the fragments of the Earth Spirit Pearl around its neck swaying back and forth.

Jiang Shi walked at the front, and he vaguely sensed that something was watching them.

It is not a guard, nor a formation, but some kind of higher existence.

His spiritual sense detected a faint fluctuation, the source of which was unknown, as if it came from above the maze, or as if it were seeping from inside the walls.

He didn't make a fuss; he just kept it to himself.

The four disappeared into the darkness of the fork in the road.

Behind them, on the ground at the fork in the road, the shards of stone that had just been cleaved by the stone sword were slowly gathering together, piecing themselves back together into complete stone slabs, as if some force was repairing the maze.

On the wall, where the two stone statues had disappeared, a dark red light lingered for a moment before slowly fading away.