Chapter 332: Went Too Far—100,000 Heavenly Lord Believers March On The Demon Realm
Wei Hang was instantly dumbfounded.
He remembered there being four forks here. Why was there not a single fork now, only a patch of ornamental plants blocking the way in front of him?
No.
That should not be.
It was only the second fork. There was no way he had remembered it wrong.
But the scene before his eyes could not lie.
Had he underestimated the Chen Clan’s labyrinth last night and carelessly remembered it wrong?
Or had he missed one fork?
This was the only possibility he could think of, and he began to lose faith in himself.
But faced with the ornamental plants blocking his way, he could only choose not to believe himself. At least the reason was not that his strength was trash, just that he had misremembered.
Thinking this, Wei Hang immediately retreated and started looking for other paths, quickly turning into another route.
Even if he had missed the second fork, he definitely would not get the rest wrong. As long as he found the place with four forks at a corner, he could continue following the route onward.
So, for the moment Wei Hang could only run around inside, searching for that place with four forks.
Finally, after several consecutive forks, he found a corner with four forks. He carefully recalled the video he had recorded; this should be the place.
Among these four forks, he should take the third one. After going in, there would be three new forks.
Wei Hang went in, but when he reached the new forks, he was dumbfounded again. There were only two new forks ahead, not three at all.
He was wrong again.
This…
Wei Hang had a bad feeling. He might be lost and trapped.
He subconsciously looked at the special device installed ahead. Seeing the QR code on it, he knew that scanning it would show the correct path.
No… He hurriedly shook his head.
He was a professional maze player and had even cracked the path map. How could he let himself get trapped?
That place with four forks just now was wrong.
Then he had to find another place with four forks.
As long as he found one that was correct, he could follow the subsequent path out.
After dashing aimlessly through more than ten paths in a row, he finally found another turn that had four forks.
This time it had to be right, surely?
He rushed at full speed into the correct route, but after going through the “correct” path, he was stunned to find two trees side by side ahead, blocking the way.
It was a dead end.
Damn, wrong again.
He quickly backed up the way he came, when suddenly he inexplicably sneezed several times in a row.
This made him frown. “For no reason… who is cursing me?”
At this moment, there were indeed people cursing Wei Hang, and it was more than one or two.
Liu Yifei was one of them, cursing loudly, “Damn, what kind of trash path map did that bastard Wei Hang make? What a scam!”
When his turn came to enter, he had gone in full of excitement with the path map in hand, telling his girlfriend to wait for him to bring back the bonus.
Because he needed speed to compete for first place, he had not brought his girlfriend in with him. Otherwise, he would definitely be slowed down.
Who knew that when he followed the path map, it stopped matching at the third fork.
There were clearly two passages up ahead, left and right, and he was supposed to go right.
But what did he see? There was only a passage to the left. On the right were a few trees and wilderness beyond; there was no path at all.
He thought he had gone wrong and went back, and then somehow the paths stopped matching entirely.
He was directly trapped.
The key thing was that he had not gone the wrong way; he had followed the path map exactly.
The path map had a problem.
On another side, Huang Tao was also cursing loudly. “Despicable. That Wei Hang is shameless. He must have known in advance about the fifty-thousand bonus and set this up online.”
He had also followed Wei Hang’s path map and found it went wrong after only a few forks, and he ended up lost and trapped.
It showed that the path map was flawed.
This was definitely one of Wei Hang’s strategies.
Everyone, influenced by the wrong path map he had posted, got trapped, so no one could compete with him for first place.
As he was thinking this, he saw two people walk over, with anxious expressions. Clearly, they were also trapped.
“Brother, you stuck too?” one of them asked instinctively.
Huang Tao nodded helplessly. Seeing the path maps in their hands, he could not resist complaining about Wei Hang. “Stop looking at that path map. That guy Wei Hang obviously knew about the activity in advance, so he made that map to trick everyone. Once everyone gets stuck, no one can compete with him.”
The two listened and felt it made sense. How else could they explain this? They could not help but start cursing too.
“Holy crap, so that’s it!”
“No wonder we kept getting trapped even while following the map. That bastard.”
Huang Tao nodded in agreement. “Exactly, what a bastard.”
Having identified the same enemy to denounce, the three immediately became closer and decided to team up.
After all, being trapped alone was miserable. In a group, at least they could discuss.
Soon, the three ran into two more tourists who had teamed up.
Those two were trapped as well, so after chatting a bit, Huang Tao’s trio could not resist complaining about Wei Hang again.
Everyone reached another consensus: that guy was a bastard.
After that, the three-person team became a five-person team, and they moved forward together.
Since they had already fallen for Wei Hang’s big scam, they no longer thought about taking first place. They only wanted to get out.
If they could still snag a small ranking, even better.
But while the idea was good, reality was harsh. They were completely trapped, unable to find a way out.
Especially at one series of consecutive bends: they kept going straight ahead, but ended up at a dead end blocked by a pile of rocks.
When they tried to go back the way they came, they were shocked to find the original path had disappeared.
What had been a single passage straight through had now become two paths.
They began to wonder if they were hallucinating.
One person quickly said, “Our mental pressure is probably too high. Why don’t we scan the QR code and ask for help? I feel like we have no hope of placing anymore.”
Huang Tao sighed. “Scan it. If we keep wandering like this, I feel like I’m going to lose my mind.”
The man nodded, went over, and scanned.
A moment later, the special device bracelets for Huang Tao and the others all vibrated, like their phones on vibration mode, only with a stronger buzz they all felt clearly.
They picked up the special devices and saw that one help request had been used.
Also, a guiding icon appeared on the screen. It should indicate the path.
But when they saw the guidance arrow, all five of them were stunned, because the indicated direction had no path at all. A tree so big it would take several people to encircle it stood blocking the way.
More importantly, when they went around to look, there was only grass and forest behind the tree, with no path whatsoever.
“Is this a joke?” one of them blurted.
Another frowned. “Maybe the device is set up wrong. After all, it’s the first day this project is open. It happens.”
“Something’s off.” As a dedicated Chen Clan onlooker, Huang Tao had watched many of the Chen Clan’s mysterious phenomena videos. Even though most people online did not believe those, he knew they were real.
So would the Chen Clan make such a basic mistake on the first day their illusion array project opened, with the special devices malfunctioning like this?
Of course, this situation was possible. After all, the Chen Clan excelled at cultivating the Dao, not this kind of technology.
But what if it was not a basic error?
Huang Tao felt his heartbeat speed up.
Perhaps the Chen Clan’s illusion array was not as simple as people thought.
He subconsciously walked up to the big tree and reached out his hand toward it.
This scene drew the others’ attention; they did not understand what he was doing. But the next second, they all could not help staring with wide eyes.
Huang Tao’s eyes were shining.
His hand went straight through the big tree.
The tree did not obstruct him at all.
Then his figure passed through the tree and vanished from sight.
This sight made the other four stare in horror.
They must be seeing things, right?
The next second, they saw Huang Tao, face full of excitement, come back through the big tree and appear before them. “Awesome. The Chen Clan’s illusion array is seriously awesome. This tree is fake. It’s like an illusion in a movie. This is a real illusion array.”
At this point, they did not need Huang Tao’s explanation to understand what was going on.
Someone had already copied him, stepping through the big tree and disappearing in front of them.
The rest could not hold back either. They all ran into the tree and vanished on the spot.
Once they passed through the tree and turned around, they saw that there was no big tree at all, only Huang Tao who had remained behind.
Huang Tao also passed through the tree again and regrouped with the others.
They were all in shock.
What they had thought was a simple illusion array they could easily break turned out to be this terrifying.
If they had not scanned the QR code for help, who would have believed such a thing was possible? They would have died in there without ever finding the way out.
“We’ve been stuck in the wrong mindset.” Huang Tao could not help sighing. “The Chen Family Head can turn feng shui into scientific verification, and we actually thought the illusion array he set up would be simple…”
The others all agreed.
Someone had already taken out a mobile phone to record this miraculous scene, but when they opened the camera, the screen showed only snowflake patterns. They could not record anything.
Seeing this, Huang Tao guessed, “There must be some kind of energy sustaining such a miraculous illusion array. Under the influence of this power, some functions of electronic products will definitely be affected.”
“Yeah.” The person had no choice but to put the phone away, then said, “With an array like this, it’s going to be very hard for us to get out.”
“We still have to try.” Huang Tao suggested, “Let’s follow this path and extend our hands along the sides as we go. Maybe we’ll find other illusory spots.”
The others agreed. One by one, they moved forward, feeling around the surrounding trees, plants, and piles of rocks as they walked.
But they soon realized how foolish this was. The illusion array’s range was too big; this method would take an unknown amount of time, felt almost useless, and consumed a lot of physical strength.
“This method is too stupid.” Even Huang Tao could not help complaining. They could only continue walking normally. But before long, they realized they were trapped again.
Helplessly, they scanned the QR code once more. This time, however, scanning the code only produced garbled symbols.
“Why won’t it scan?” one person frowned.
“Let me try.” Another tried scanning with their special device, but again only got garbled output. It could not be used.
“So now it really is a malfunction, right?” someone else said.
Instead, Huang Tao tried reaching his hand forward.
When his hand passed straight through both the device and the tree, the others gaped.
This too…
Once Huang Tao stepped through, he arrived on another path. Looking back, the tree holding the device was gone.
For the rest of the time, Huang Tao and his group were tormented and frustrated, yet unable to resist experimenting.
Each time they got trapped, they had to scan a QR code to ask for help. After getting help, they felt the urge to try things their own way again, got trapped again, and had to scan again…
And so on, cycling endlessly…
Huang Tao’s group was at least willing to scan for help. Some people were just hard-headed, like Wei Hang.
He was already drenched in sweat, his clothes soaked, anxiously searching for the correct route.
As a professional maze player, he refused to believe he could be stumped by this little labyrinth.
To be honest, he really wanted to slap himself for overlooking the situation at the second fork. If the second fork had not gone wrong, things would not be like this.
But he still had not found that four-fork turn.
He had already found two turns with four forks, but the positions were wrong and did not match the subsequent paths.
Suddenly, after turning a corner, Wei Hang saw the scene ahead and almost cursed out loud. It was yet another dead end, with a pile of rocks blocking the way.
Just as he was fuming, he saw something terrifying. A hand stretched out from the pile of rocks, almost reaching right in front of him.
Startled, Wei Hang stumbled back and fell to the ground. He wondered if he was so exhausted and drained that he was hallucinating.
Otherwise, how could something this bizarre appear inside a pile of rocks?
Before he could react, several people crawled out from the rock pile.
He stared, eyes wide.
“Hey, isn’t this that bastard Wei Hang?” Huang Tao said in surprise.
“Damn, it really is him,” another chimed in.
“We got screwed by his path map. Never thought we’d run into him,” a third reacted.
“Forget it. He’s a victim too. He had no idea the Chen Family Head set up this kind of illusion array,” Huang Tao said, shaking his head. “Right now all the tourists are using his path map. He’s going to get cursed out by a lot of people.”
From this, Wei Hang understood that these were tourists, and the reason they could come out of the rock pile was because of the array.
He scrambled to his feet, walked over to the rock pile, and passed straight through.
“How is this possible???” Wei Hang cried out.
He had always thought the Chen Clan’s labyrinth was just an ordinary maze attraction. Who would have imagined it was like this?
Who could possibly break this?
When he stepped back through the rocks again, he found the tourists looking at him with playful eyes, full of mischief, even closing in around him.
“What are you doing?” Wei Hang panicked.
“We all got screwed by your path map. Letting you scan a few more QR codes is not too much to ask, right?” Huang Tao looked at him teasingly.
The illusion array was terrifying, but using the QR code for help too many times would be humiliating.
Especially since, at the Chen Clan’s screen, people could use your name to check how you broke the array. If friends or colleagues came later and checked out of boredom, would that not be embarrassing?
So they could not be the only ones embarrassed.
Wei Hang was a professional maze player and also an internet celebrity. He had to be dragged into this with them so they would have an excuse, right?
From then on, they used Wei Hang’s special device to scan QR codes. Whether they were stuck or not, whenever they saw a code, they scanned.
“What the hell are you doing?” Wei Hang’s cries soon echoed.
…
Inside the illusion array, more and more tourists entered, and more and more of them discovered the anomaly, realizing that Wei Hang’s path map was useless.
As time passed, more people gathered near the labyrinth, many watching the exit curiously, wanting to see who would be the first to break out.
The exit was located along the left edge of the entrance, on the outer rim of the labyrinth, connected to a passage that led up the mountain.
On the other side, that passage linked back to the labyrinth exit.
Those who emerged from the labyrinth could follow the passage back down to the foot of the mountain. As they came out, Chen Clan staff would take back the special device bracelets, scan them with a computer instrument to record their completion data, then clear the bracelets and hand them over for other tourists to use.
But the waiting tourists watched for a long time and did not see anyone come out. This did not seem right.
Especially since everyone had the Chen Clan’s labyrinth path map. It should not take this long for someone to succeed.
That included Wei Hang, the one who had drawn the path map.
But since they had not gone in and did not know what was happening inside, they had no idea.
After this long wait, they finally saw several people coming out through the exit passage.
“It’s Wei Hang!” someone shouted.
“It’s really him. Let’s go take a look,” another chimed in.
A crowd of tourists quickly surrounded them. They saw Chen Clan staff taking back the special device bracelet and scanning it on a computer instrument to upload Wei Hang’s data into the database.
An internet celebrity pointed his phone at Wei Hang with a grin and started an interview. “Wei Hang, you’re the most famous maze player in the country and even drew the Chen Clan labyrinth path map…”
Hearing this, Wei Hang cut him off excitedly. “No, don’t trust that map. Everyone, seriously, listen to me.”
“Uh…” The interviewer looked at Wei Hang’s agitation in confusion and hurriedly said, “Haha, Wei Hang is just joking with everyone. He’s afraid you’ll all use the path map to break the array. I’m sure this time he must have earned the ‘Chen Clan Illusion Array Solo Breakthrough Commemorative Plaque,’ and the fifty-thousand bonus is in the bag.”
Those words only made Wei Hang feel even more awkward.
Gasps rose from the crowd as information appeared for Wei Hang on the nearby screen: QR code help requests: 132 times.
“…” Wei Hang sighed silently. Those bastards had scanned every QR code they saw, whether they needed help or not.
Utterly humiliating.
“Ah… this…” The interviewer also felt awkward when he saw it. He coughed a couple of times, stopped the interview, and turned to look elsewhere.
Wei Hang coughed twice too and glanced off to the side.
Fine. You do not make things hard for me, and I will not talk. Otherwise, I will roast you.
Still, he did not forget the serious matter. He took out his recording phone and spoke into it. “Damn, something went wrong inside the illusion array. Everything I filmed on my phone turned into snowflake patterns. And this array is nothing like I imagined. Inside, you cannot trust what your eyes see.”
“Because it might be an illusion, a perfectly real illusion. Can you imagine a hand reaching out from a pile of rocks and then a few idiots walking out from inside?”
“The Chen Family Head set up a true illusion array. It’s something that should not exist in reality.”
Anyway, he had already embarrassed himself, so he had to ride the wave of popularity. Otherwise, his shame would have been for nothing.
His words immediately caught the attention of that interviewer, whose curiosity exploded. Were these things he described really happening?
However, instead of going back to Wei Hang, the interviewer turned to Huang Tao and his group. “You were the first batch of tourists to come out and the first to experience the Chen Clan illusion array. Can you tell us what it’s like inside?”
Huang Tao and the others heard the question and were ready to talk; their desire to share these strange events kicked in, and they all began to speak.
“The Chen Family Head set up a real illusion array. Inside, do not trust your eyes.”
“Any plants, trees, or rocks might be fake.”
“Sometimes a dead end looks blocked by a tree, but if you run into it, the tree is fake, and there’s a new passage behind it.”
“The illusion array is too difficult. I don’t believe anyone can get through. If there were traps, we’d all die in there.”
“Even without traps, if the Chen Clan hadn’t given us these special device bracelets, we’d have been trapped to death inside.”
“…”
What they said drew the attention of the surrounding tourists. Everyone was confused; their descriptions sounded more and more unbelievable.
If it was really like that, such an illusion array could have stopped armies in ancient times.
But from the way these people looked, they did not seem to be lying.
As time passed, more tourists came out, each with strange expressions. As similar stories emerged from more mouths, no one could stay calm.
The Chen Clan’s illusion array was being described in increasingly fantastical terms, but the key point was that the number of QR code help requests was extremely high.
If the array was not truly terrifying, it would not be like this.
If you said these tourists were acting, that was impossible. With a fifty-thousand bonus at stake, who would give that up willingly?
Which left only one explanation: these people were telling the truth.
The Chen Family Head had really created this kind of illusion array.
More and more people wanted to enter and see for themselves, but many had not managed to grab a first-day experience ticket and could only watch as those with tickets went in one after another.
And as the day went on, not a single ticket holder managed to break the array, which completely unsettled the onlookers.
But without tickets, they could not get in.
So at night, when the Chen Clan released the second day’s illusion array experience tickets, they were snapped up in less than thirty seconds.
That was barely enough time to click the link and enter ID information. It showed how fast people’s hands were.
At the same time, that night, with the Chen Clan illusion array already trending, the topic rocketed up the hot search list.
In particular, the tourists’ descriptions spread rapidly online.
You cannot trust your own eyes?
Trees, rocks, and plants might all be fake and can be passed through?
It was all unbelievable.
Many did not believe it, but there was one very practical question: if they could really break the array, would these tourists give up the fifty-thousand bonus?
In other words, the Chen Clan illusion array was undeniably difficult.
In the capital city, after hearing the report from Lin Dong and his colleague, Minister Ma had been closely following the news about the Chen Clan illusion array online.
What they had reported was so unbelievable that even he had doubted it.
But now, hearing that almost all the tourists in various videos described it the same way, he was finally certain of this incredible matter.
The Chen Family Head had really created such an illusion array.
Which meant they had something new to study and overcome.
Just as they had thought before: if this were used in certain border regions against people who did not understand the Eight Trigrams I Ching or mathematics, it would be a dead end.
After all, no one back then would be handing out special devices like the Chen Clan’s.
With that in mind, he hardly hesitated. He called someone in and instructed, “Go ask around at the various Daoist Sects and see how the Chen Clan arranged these formations.”
Since they had set up these formations, the Daoist Sect Daoist Priests had all participated, so there had to be a way to find out.
The next day, the online buzz about the Chen Clan illusion array grew even hotter. Tourists who had secured the second day’s experience tickets arrived early at the Chen Clan, heading toward the labyrinth entrance to wait for it to open.
While everyone was captivated by the Chen Clan illusion array, a dedicated bus sped toward the Chen Clan.
At the same time, as Chen Han was scrolling through the online hype about the illusion array, a game prompt suddenly left him dumbfounded:
【Due to Mahadra, this Demon Realm Expert, coming to the Central Plains to seek help and piously worship the Heavenly Lord of Demon Subjugation, becoming the Heavenly Lord’s loyal believer, the Heavenly Lord’s radiance now has a chance to spread to the Outer Domain.
This has triggered the Heavenly Lord’s response. One hundred thousand Heavenly Lord Believers will come to the Chen Clan in support and will travel with Mahadra to campaign in the Demon Realm, letting the Heavenly Lord’s radiance shine upon that land.
A new chapter is about to unfold!】
“???” Chen Han was a bit stunned.
One hundred thousand Heavenly Lord Believers?
He really hoped this was not a joke.
…
（Tickets, tickets, tickets）
