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Book 7: Chapter 160: Sky Castle (3)

Madeleine and Dyon walked into the castle, hand in hand. They were greeted by tall arching structures following along a long, bright corridor that seemed to continue forever. Beneath their feet, a soft, red carpet lay, extending with the corridor.

To the sides, innumerable wooden doors shaped as semi-ovals stood unopened as well. All in all, the atmosphere was strangely inviting and dangerous at the same time.

Dyon had sent Little Rain into his inner world, unsure of what this trial would bring. So, he felt that keeping some cards hidden was for the best.

“I think this castle has either never been discovered before, or whoever did wasn’t able to survive the first door.” Madeleine said, a pensive expression on her face. “Each one of these doors, had they been cleared, would have changed color. From ancient records, it goes from this base wood color and gradually becomes darker the more people pass its trial.”

“Does that mean this is easier? Or harder?”

“It’s hard to tell. It depends on the castle as each has a different guardian. This castle’s layout is unlike the rest too. It’s just that the color change is universal.”

“A guardian, hm… Could it be that the trials really are endless? Just how much wealth did this creator have…” Dyon mumbled. “How do we earn a key?”

“It’s possible to find the key by just ignoring all of the treasure rooms and surviving to the top floor of the castle. Then, the guardian will provide a test based on our cultivation realms.”

Dyon nodded. So the treasure rooms were only based on the value of the treasure, but the trial for the key was talent dependant. What an odd system.

Dyon found many things odd about this world. First of all, why have a limiter on beasts that was slowly lifted? This didn’t seem to serve any real purpose… Well, it did. It was just that this was a purpose Dyon didn’t like very much.

What would happen if the beasts you had already just barely been scraping by suddenly became vastly stronger? If the competitors of this mystical world knew this, wouldn’t they head to the only safe place in the entire world?

These rules were essentially the creator’s way of forcing those who entered its world to partake in these sky castle trials. If you didn’t…. The only path was death! Which was oddly contradictory considering they couldn’t fly.

Since it knew that only celestials and below could enter based on the restrictions of entry, then why would the creator allow undefeatable beasts to roam at all if not for this purpose? Clearly, this creator didn’t want those who entered to steal all of his resources without benefitting him in some way.

Although Dyon didn’t like being controlled, this was one that he could forgive even though it made him slightly unhappy. Since he was benefitting from treasures this creator left behind, why not follow his rules for now? But in return… He’d wipe him clean.

Dyon grinned. “Let’s enter these treasure rooms one by one.”

“I knew you’d say that.” Madeleine shook her head with a smile, following Dyon as they pushed the first.

Immediately upon entering, the two were greeted with an unexpected view. The door behind them disappeared, leaving them stranded at the top of a narrow staircase.

All around, various oddly shaped stairs could be seen. Some were upside down, other were double-sided, and still others ran horizontally, paying no mind to the usual down and up uses of their namesake.

Aside from the stairs which shone white, everything else was pitch black.

Dyon looked to the side, peering down at the seemingly endless black hole beneath the clearly too thin stairs he and Madeleine stood on. It definitely didn’t help matters that he found that he still couldn’t fly. Although he thought of taking Little Rain out who seemed unaffected by the rules of the Mystical World, he held back.

“A puzzle.” Madeleine suddenly said.

“What do you see?”

“There’s a pattern to the stairs. Two of a similar kind are never together. At the same time, although it’s so slow that it’s hard to pick up on, the stairs are actually shifting at a one centimeter per hour pace. If we walked around blindly, that would definitely throw us off.  

“Horizontal stairs are always headed downward. Double-sided stairs are always headed upward. Upside downstairs always lean to the right. While normal stairs like ours always go to the left. In fact, we should probably note that our set of stairs is the only “normal” one… Which means…”

“We’re probably upside down as well, which means were actually going right from the proper perspective.”

Madeleine nodded, looking upward at the same time as Dyon. As expected, they found a sea of black entrenched with glowing white stairs.

When they looked back down, neither of them were surprised to see that all of the once upside-down stairs had become “normal”. Obviously, after allowing to orient themselves for a moment, the trial had suddenly flipped them upside-down as well.

Looking at each other, the couple smiled while Lilianna mumbled incoherently about not understanding anything at all.

“Shall we cheat?” Dyon spoke like a mastermind plotting an evil scheme.

“Of course.” Madeleine said brightly.

Grasping Madeleine hand tightly, Dyon disappeared with her by his side. No matter how big this trial was… Could it match the range of Dyon’s divine sense?

What the couple didn’t know was that as they shattered the trial’s record by miles, a guardian dressed in blazing red armor nearly fell from his throne on the top floor of the castle. Unfortunately, it could only watch as Madeleine and Dyon arranged the stairs perfectly, lining them up one by one until they led to a priceless treasure room.