"Number One, does the seventh floor maze have any other dangers besides disorienting direction?"
On the stairs, Fang Ming turned his head and asked Number One. This guy had been here so long, and with his temper, he must have tried the seventh floor.
"The seventh floor?" Number One climbed on the handrail and began to recall his past experiences. "To be honest, this great master once braved the seventh floor, killing gods and buddhas along the way, but unfortunately, I still failed in the end."
"Oh? What happened in the end?" Fang Ming asked as he walked ahead.
"That's a long story," Number One scratched his head and rubbed his butt with his long saber. "The seventh floor was designed by the Professor as a large maze, not only to confuse the directions of the upper and lower floors but also to set up numerous traps. Intruding sha seeds would be held there until the Professor cleaned the maze once every ten years, when they could be released."
"I went deep into the maze before, and encountered many high-level sha seeds along the way. I don't know why they all wanted to escape to the lower floors, but they were all trapped inside the maze in the end. Over time, many sha seeds simply settled in the maze. Combined with the large number of sha seeds entering, the maze has formed a purely sha seed world."
"Hmm? You mean there are many sha seeds on the seventh floor?" Fang Ming stopped, surprised.
"Not many, but very many! The Professor's ten-year cleanup only removes some who are willing to leave. The Professor doesn't care about most of them who don't want to leave the maze. Over time, there are at least tens of thousands of sha seeds on the seventh floor!"
"So many?!" Fang Ming was surprised again, but he had seen much of the world. The sha seeds in Baimu Village were no less than these. The sha seed at the bottom of the old well alone was more than in the seventh floor.
However, he was still shocked. Baimu Village was in the White Mist World, and he could understand having many sha seeds, but what kind of place was the eighteenth floor? The old urban area of H City, a real-world urban area!
Fang Ming dared not think about the chaos that so many sha seeds could cause if the eighteenth floor were destroyed. The entire H City would be annihilated in an instant!
"That's why I'm not very willing to come to the seventh floor. If it weren't for this little beauty next to you, I'd be dead before I'd come up again," Number One said timidly, glancing at Nannan. It knew that with this girl around, the seventh floor wouldn't be dangerous for them.
Fang Ming looked at Nannan, and Nannan looked at Fang Ming.
"With Nannan here, isn't going through a maze a piece of cake?" Fang Ming praised. Nannan's eyes happily narrowed into crescent moons upon hearing this.
Nannan patted her small chest, "Don't worry, Fang Ming, Nannan will protect you."
"Haha," Fang Ming chuckled. "Let's go, let's go. I can't wait to fight those sha seeds!"
The person and two sha seeds quickened their pace, and soon, a faint white light appeared in their eyes—the exit to the seventh floor!
...
On the seventh floor, Zhang Sheng and Liu Cheng were sitting on the ground, chatting aimlessly. For them, this was the only safe place in the entire eighteenth floor.
Suddenly, footsteps sounded from the stairs.
Zhang Sheng stood up in shock, "Something is coming up from the sixth floor!"
"Liu Cheng, prepare to attack!" The two quickly raised their guns, staring nervously at the stairwell, a fine layer of cold sweat forming on their foreheads.
In this building, they were the only humans. All the others were various monsters! The one coming up the stairs was obvious...
Finally, two figures slowly emerged.
"Open fire!"
"Bang, bang, bang..."
As soon as Fang Ming came out of the stairs, he saw two guys aiming guns at them before he could react. He quickly transformed his tentacles into a shield to block. Bullets hit the scale shield, shattering scales and embedding themselves in his tentacles, making Fang Ming wince in pain.
Fortunately, none of the bullets penetrated the scale shield to injure Fang Ming himself.
As for Nannan, her hair instantly enveloped her, and all the bullets fired at her were directly deflected, not even breaking a single strand of her hair.
"It's the tentacle monster from the sixth floor!" Liu Cheng exclaimed in horror. He recognized Fang Ming and frantically pressed the trigger of his gun.
The combined firepower of the two, coupled with the narrow terrain of the stairwell, suppressed Fang Ming's movements for a time, making the two slowly relax.
Zhang Sheng remained relatively calm and shouted to Liu Cheng, "We'll attack and suppress it in turns, force it back. Its defense can't completely withstand it yet..."
Zhang Sheng's words suddenly stopped. He looked down at his chest in disbelief. A fist-sized bloody hole suddenly appeared on his chest.
Liu Cheng exclaimed in horror, "Zhang Sheng, you... what's wrong?"
"Be... careful..." Before Zhang Sheng could finish speaking, his head flew off his neck, and in an instant, he was decapitated.
"Zhang Sheng!"
Liu Cheng stared blankly at the scene, his attacks halting. Zhang Sheng... died so easily?
Seeing the attack stop, Fang Ming retracted his tentacles, stood up, shook off the bullets stuck in his tentacles, and looked at the person in front of him with icy eyes.
He hadn't expected these guys to have ambushed him! If his tentacles hadn't evolved the ability to form scale shields, this sudden attack would have definitely injured him, and with bad luck, he might have even been killed!
"Where are the others? Where are they hiding?" Fang Ming walked up to Liu Cheng, his tentacles wrapped around his neck and slowly tightening, his voice cold and angry. He was truly furious!
He had no enmity with these people, yet they always tried to kill him. It was unbearable.
"Let go... let go of me," Liu Cheng struggled painfully, dropping his pistol. He tried to pry off Fang Ming's tentacles with his hands, but it was useless. The gap in their strength was too great.
"Speak! Where did they go?"
"Cough, cough, cough... I'll speak, I'll speak, let me go first." Liu Cheng begged for mercy, his face already turning green from suffocation.
Fang Ming loosened his grip. Liu Cheng collapsed on the ground, clutching his neck and coughing violently.
"Speak!"
After a moment, Liu Cheng confessed the movements of Old Six and the others in detail.
Fang Ming was surprised, "They just went into the maze?"
Should these people be called fearless, or brainless in their actions? But thinking about their usual behavior, Fang Ming sneered.
"Let's go." Assured that there were no more ambushes around, Fang Ming let go of Liu Cheng and walked directly towards the maze entrance. Nannan glanced curiously at Liu Cheng. This was the second human she had seen. She had thought all humans were as powerful as Fang Ming.
Perhaps Fang Ming himself hadn't realized how thrilling his actions had been from Baimu Village until now. Even Nannan secretly admired him.
Liu Cheng, seeing that the ferocious monster Fang Ming had let him go, felt a great sense of relief.
Suddenly, he felt a chill on his neck.
"What's going on? Why is the world spinning?" This was Liu Cheng's last thought.
Number One sneered as he looked at the corpses of the two humans on the ground. With such weaklings, where did they get the courage to attack Fang Ming?
"Hey? Wait for me!" Number One quickly followed Fang Ming, stepping into the maze before them again, but this time its mindset was completely different.
...
Eighteenth Floor, Eighteenth Level.
This floor was not large, only the size of a basketball court. It had been converted into a huge laboratory. Two figures were standing there, facing a display screen. The movements of Fang Ming, Old Six, and the others were displayed in detail.
"Is that the Son of God?" asked an old man in ancient attire.
"Yes, that is the Son of God I painstakingly cultivated. You know what to do next?" another old man said calmly, staring at the screen.
If Fang Ming saw him, he would exclaim. This old man was none other than the principal he had met in Baimu Village!
"Is the Son of God really that special? Can it really fight against the white mist?" The ancient-clad old man looked solemn. The appearance of the Son of God meant his time was running out, and he couldn't help but be cautious.
"Fang Daolong once said that the only thing in this world that can fight against the white mist is the Son of God. This is the key to the Son of God's metamorphosis. It must succeed at all costs! Otherwise, it will just be an additional fierce sha, which will be of no use to our plan. Do you understand?" The principal's tone was serious, clearly attaching great importance to the eighteenth floor.
The ancient-clad old man sighed and looked at the sha seeds being cultivated around them. Without exception, all these sha seeds were kept in pairs, and each pair looked identical.
"I have been trying here for hundreds of years and have finally fulfilled the Prince's request. I will do my best to ensure the plan is implemented with 100% success."
The principal shook his head, "I don't want you to do your best, I want you to succeed! Otherwise, all your master's thousand-year preparations will be ruined, and our identities will be exposed, leading to certain death!"
The ancient-clad old man nodded, "Even if I have to risk my life, I will ensure the Son of God transforms smoothly."
"Do all those humans need to be eliminated?"
The principal looked at Old Six's movements and shook his head. "Don't kill the leader. He is someone I designed to lure here. As for the other insignificant ones, find a way to kill them all to prevent any factors that might affect the plan."
The ancient-clad old man nodded and began to control the maze and sha seeds on the seventh floor, silently surrounding Old Six and the others.
"I need to go see that painting. That guy is a bit unstable," the principal waved his hand, and a crack opened in the void, from which wisps of white mist drifted out.
"Haven't you dealt with him yet?" the ancient-clad old man asked doubtfully.
The principal shook his head, "He's a tough nut to crack. It's easy to kill him, but difficult to make him obedient. I'll be coming here less often recently. If there's any problem here, notify me immediately. I need to hurry to make that painting obedient."
The ancient-clad old man nodded, and the principal stepped into the crack and disappeared.
...
Seventh Floor.
Old Six, relying on the compass in his hand, narrowly avoided several waves of sha seeds. It had been almost half an hour since they entered the maze, and they hadn't encountered a single monster, which was good news.
"Sixth Master, which direction should we go now?" The group stopped at a fork in the road. Old Six held the compass and began to determine the direction. The needle of the compass slowly began to turn.
Old Six had modified the compass's perception range, so it would now only sense monsters within a hundred-meter radius. Following the compass would effectively avoid monster attacks.
"Let me see." Old Six stared at the compass needle, which slowly pointed to the right path, indicating a monster on the right, and they had to go around it.
"Go left," Old Six said.
"Wait!" Suddenly, Old Six let out a soft sound, stopping everyone. The compass needle slowly pointed to the left again, and then began to spin randomly!
Cold sweat broke out on Old Six's back. "Run! The monsters are surrounding us!"