Chapter 131: The Twisted Realm

As the adventure page opened,

after scanning the empty page, Gune was not surprised.

The adventure page showed no adventure events nearby.

This was not strange.

From the fact that one could only enter after a life-and-death duel outside, it was clear that this Elemental Forbidden Ground was not a place to pick up treasures.

It was clearly some kind of dangerous 'trial' ground. Of course, this was only Gune's initial guess.

Just entering cost a life-and-death price.

If one wanted to obtain more treasures later, it would certainly require paying a great price.

Those invaluable treasures could not have been simply thrown into some corner by the Old Man of the Strange Sea, waiting for a lucky person.

The legendary equipment, esoteric tomes, and even the supreme Divine Crown mentioned by the Old Man of the Strange Sea should only be obtained as rewards after layers of tests and assessments.

As for whether this was true, Gune was not sure; he could only take it step by step.

In the dark environment, Gune quickly climbed toward the peak above.

About a minute later,

Gune stopped in his tracks, looking at the surrounding scene, a strange feeling rising in his heart.

"Here... I seem to have just been here."

"I clearly remember that cluster of one large and three small round stone pillars, and that patch of 'black-tooth fruits' I glanced at twice."

"Even if the scenes overlap, the degree of overlap is too high!"

After a moment of thought, Gune lightly stamped his foot.

With a "crack!" a small piece of rock was shattered by Gune's foot.

Then Gune continued forward.

A minute later,

Gune stopped.

After his gaze swept over the one large and three small round stone pillars and the "black-tooth fruits,"

Gune looked down at his feet.

The cracked rock marks were clearly visible.

Gune had returned again.

Closing his eyes, Gune carefully sensed his surroundings.

The World Essence touched the entire world and slowly extended outward.

Soon, a feeling of the world being twisted pervaded Gune's heart.

It was as if the entire world in the darkness was twisted together; this was completely an inwardly curled twisted realm, with no way out.

Gune was completely trapped on this desolate and dangerous rugged slope.

...

In another place of darkness,

having killed over a dozen strange creatures—giant boars five or six meters long, over three meters tall, with scales, tusks, and steel-needle-like bristles—

the Dragon Slayer Sigurd caught his breath, then looked at the dark area around him.

His expression grew increasingly grave.

"What the hell is this place? No matter whether I go up, left, right, or even down, I always end up back here."

"And those giant boar-like creatures came in waves: three in the first, four in the second, and now five in the third, each wave stronger."

"Fortunately, these giant boars seem to have some strange dragon bloodline, so they don't pose much threat to me. But this can't go on; I must find a way out quickly."

After absorbing the strange bloodline power of the five slain giant boars, a dull "oink-oink" sound came from the darkness; this time there were six giant boars.

"Go!"

With a leap, Sigurd began searching for a way out.

...

In a valley,

Nigel frowned deeply.

The four peak sixth-tier giant pythons before him had been slain.

Yet in the darkness, more giant python beasts seemed to be appearing.

His sharp eyes quickly swept through the surrounding darkness.

"It should be some kind of restricted area; I must find a way out or meet certain conditions, like killing dozens of these pythons, or using strong perception to find an exit."

"Unfortunately, my perception is not strong, so..."

Nigel's sharp gaze swept over the giant pythons gradually approaching in the darkness.

At this moment, five peak sixth-tier giant pythons slithered out of the darkness; these five were stronger than the previous ones.

"Kill!" With a leap, Nigel charged at the pythons.

...

In the quiet darkness,

after a careful and detailed perception, Gune suddenly opened his eyes and looked toward a dark area to the side.

"This direction... seems not completely twisted. Let's go check it out."

Following the World Essence's perception of the entire world, Gune quietly moved forward along the untwisted direction.

In the darkness, he moved unhurriedly, guided by the World Essence's perception.

Because Gune, closely observing the surrounding scene, noticed that as he followed the World Essence's perception, the scenery had completely changed from before.

Clearly, Gune had found the way out of this trapped place.

The further he went, the sparser the surrounding jungle became, replaced by rugged rocks.

Gune was not in a hurry; he strictly followed the path perceived by the World Essence and walked steadily.

After about seven or eight minutes,

a rugged path within the mountain appeared before Gune.

This rugged mountain path looked very much like the stone slab steps carved out in steep mountains in the human world.

After carefully examining the stone steps, Gune stepped onto them.

"There is no twisted feeling going up or down these stone steps. If I'm not mistaken, this should be the path leading upward."

"I wonder if others are also trapped in twisted spaces and will eventually reach these steps."

"If so, I could climb up and guard the final intersection, holding the pass against all comers, and kill any enemies that arrive."

"If not, it would just be a waste of my time."

"Judging by the Old Man of the Strange Sea's previous practice of not allowing loopholes in one-on-one duels,"

"guarding above would likely be futile."

After a moment of deliberation, Gune quickly climbed up the stone steps.

Just as Gune had climbed about a hundred meters,

"Swish!"

A strange vine-like tentacle shot out from the darkness on one side, like a sharp arrow, toward Gune.

It came extremely fast, but fortunately, Gune sensed its presence as soon as it moved.

The combination of World Essence and his powerful soul perception domain allowed Gune to clearly grasp any subtle movement around him.

"Whoosh!"

A Magic Blade Cursed Seal flew out quickly.

The trajectory of the Magic Blade Cursed Seal did not directly block the vine.

Instead, it circled around the vine's attack, then curved around and struck the middle of the vine's body with a fierce slash.

With a "chi!" sound,

the vine was cut in two at the middle by the Magic Blade Cursed Seal.

The severed rear half of the vine quickly retracted into the darkness.

The severed front part, over twenty meters long, writhed wildly on the ground like a severed python.

With a move of his puppet secret thread, Gune pulled the vine over.

"Very high toughness; if it were just a regular first- or second-level mid-rank curse, it would be almost impossible to cut." After a brief feel, Gune roughly understood the characteristics of this yellowish-brown vine.

"Fortunately, my Magic Blade Cursed Seal is a peak mid-rank curse, and upgraded to level five; cutting it is no problem."

"Even if more vines appear, I can easily cut them by adding some Destruction Essence or Darkness Essence."

Gune had just thought this casually.

But when he climbed another forty or fifty meters up the stone steps,

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Three yellowish-brown vines swiftly lashed out from three directions, faster and thicker than the previous one.

Indeed, speak of the devil.

While quickly casting spells to attack the three vines, Gune's eyes twitched slightly.

"Could it be... the higher I go, the more there are?"