Chapter 146: Not Following the Routine
It's too late for Shu Li to regret now.
How could he have known that a beautiful decorative bead could actually be the trigger of a trap.
My body is still falling, and I don’t know where it will fall. Will it be broken?
He struggled to flap his wings, trying to slow his fall, but the suction was too strong and it was of no use.
Shu Li didn't want to give up, so he opened his mouth and chanted a wind spell.
"Great Wind God Wendis Inol, I am Sperian of the Fairy Forest. Please grant me the power to fly—"
Sadly, the wind god did not hear his prayers and the spell failed.
Farm, who was lying in his arms, shouted, "It's no use. Magic is forbidden here! You'd better pray to the great God of Fire to prevent yourself from being smashed to pieces!"
Shu Li thought quickly and suddenly thought of something. He withdrew his original power and his body burst into a dazzling light. In an instant, he turned back into his small size.
Without support, Farm suddenly fell freely.
It roared: "Why did you become smaller?"
Shu Li yelled back, "I don't want to be broken into pieces!"
The large and small bodies have different densities, and are subject to different buoyancy and resistance of the air. The small body's falling speed is significantly reduced, so there is still a glimmer of hope.
He spread his wings again and made a gliding motion, using as much cushion as possible.
As it turned out, his choice was correct.
The suction force below weakened, and his falling speed slowed down. When he was about to reach the bottom, he flapped his wings at a high frequency and landed safely.
His feet touched the ground, and he staggered two steps before steadying himself.
"Baji——"
The little monster spread its bat wings and fell to the ground, hitting its chin and crying out in pain: "Ah ...
Seeing that its skin was thick and tough and could not be broken by the fall, Shu Li looked up and looked around.
This is an empty secret room with a sealed passage above. There are rock walls on all sides and a half-meter-high stone pillar in the middle with a sea moon stone embedded on the top for lighting. There is a gradually dimming magic circle on the ground, and the air is surprisingly plentiful.
When the light of the magic circle dimmed completely, the force that attracted them disappeared. He flapped his wings, flew into the air, and circled the secret room.
Farm climbed up and covered his sore chin with his fat and short front legs.
"Don't fly. You can't get out unless you break the mechanism."
Shu Li stopped flying, landed next to the little monster, and asked, "Can you crack the mechanism? As long as you leave this secret room, you can return to the temple?"
"Of course it's not that simple." Farm jumped a few times, came to a wall, and pointed at the relief pattern on it. "Unlocking the mechanism is like putting together a puzzle. When you put the pieces in the right place, a door will open. Outside the door is a large maze. You can only leave if you find the right path. But..."
It hummed twice, "Don't think the maze is easy. It's filled with countless mechanisms and traps. One wrong step and you'll be crushed to pieces."
Shu Li looked up at the relief on the wall in the light of the sea moon stone.
This is a moving puzzle carved from stone, five meters long and four meters wide, divided into twenty pieces, with an extra space at the bottom.
To solve the puzzle, you have to slide the tiles. However, each tile is a one-meter-wide square, which is not easy to move without using magic.
"Have you been here before?" Shu Li asked Farm. As the guardian beast of the underground palace, he should be familiar with the mechanisms.
It has been almost three hours since he came out, and he has to go to Wanaku to steal the number three fruit at midnight, so he has no time to waste here.
Farm shook his head. "Of course I—didn't!"
It bared its teeth at Shu Li and complained, "I've never seen a goblin as stupid as you. I told you not to touch things, but you still did!"
Shu Li's cheeks flushed slightly as she embarrassedly defended herself, "I didn't know that every decoration had a hidden meaning."
"I'm telling you the truth. All the valuable treasures in the underground palace are hidden with traps." Farm swung his tail, his golden eyes fixed on Shu Li meaningfully. "You should be thankful that you didn't touch those valuable decorations along the way. Otherwise—they would have been snapped!"
It swung its claws and made a head-cutting motion.
Shu Li pursed her lips innocently.
His purpose was to find the fire spirit, not treasure hunting. Out of respect for the God of Fire, he naturally would not touch the rare ornaments in the underground palace, and only dug out some Sun Crystals.
The Sun Crystal is not an ornament and there was no danger when digging it, which means it is a valuable item.
Farm said that it had never been here either. Does it really mean that I have to spend a lot of time looking for a way out?
What if... what if I don’t return to the Elf Kingdom before dawn, will the elves and friends be worried?
He doesn't want to be spanked by the Elf King!
Shu Li held her cheeks, scowling.
It’s all my fault for poking the bead out of carelessness.
What now?
What else can we do besides accepting our fate and putting the puzzle together?
Shu Li sniffed, and suddenly his eyes lit up. He flapped his wings and circled around the secret room again, flying up and down, left and right, without missing any place.
Farm thought he couldn't withstand the blow and had gone mad.
"Hey, hey - that guy - Sperian, calm down!" The little monster spread its bat wings and flew after the little elf, persuading him as he flew.
"Found it!" Shu Li suddenly hovered and stared at a certain point in the corner of the wall, his tender green eyes shining.
Farm almost bumped into him and quickly turned upward.
"Found? Found what?" It looked confused.
Shu Li pointed and grinned happily: "The vent!"
There is air flowing in the secret room, which means it is not completely sealed.
Where does air come from?
From the vents, of course.
He looked around and found a vent in a hidden location.
This vent is very small, with a diameter of only ten centimeters. It can protect against adventurers but not against goblins that are only a few inches tall.
Farm was stunned. "This...this is also possible?"
Shu Li chuckled, "Why not? No one says we have to do a puzzle anyway."
He took out a magic tube lamp, illuminated the ventilation duct, grabbed the vent with both hands, stuck his head inside, folded his wings, and climbed in easily.
He crawled five centimeters and heard Farm's anxious cry from behind: "What should I do?"
It imitated Shu Li's movements and tried to get into the vent, but its body was too fat and it got stuck.
Shu Li looked back and saw the little monster struggling to stretch its short and fat front legs.
Although this guy is about the same size as a chinchilla, he is full of solid flesh and doesn't look flabby at all.
"Please try harder!" Shu Li asked, "Can you get any smaller?"
Farm was exhausted: "I'm sealed!"
While being sealed, no power can be used.
"Then... breathe in and make your stomach smaller." Shu Li suggested.
Farm had no choice but to do as he was told. He took a deep breath and managed to move. After crawling two or three centimeters, he complained, "My scales are itchy."
"As long as it doesn't hurt." Shu Li continued to crawl forward.
There is a magic tube lamp lighting up the inside of the vent, which is clearly illuminated.
The vent was about 1.5 meters long. It was pitch black outside and they couldn't see clearly what was going on. The strong wind coming in created some resistance to their crawling.
However, for Shu Li, this little resistance is not a big problem.
Soon, he climbed to the other side of the ventilation duct. Farm climbed up and down, stopping and starting, and got stuck halfway from time to time. He kept holding his breath and breathing. It was so hard.
Finally reaching the end, it nudged the goblin in front of it with its horn. "Get out! I'm suffocating!"
Shu Li wanted to go out, but the outside of the vent looked a bit scary.
"Are you sure there is a maze outside the secret room?" he turned around and asked the little monster.
"That's what he told me anyway."
Shu Li's pointed ears flickered as he asked, "Him?"
Who is he? The one who sealed the little monster... or a god?
Farm rolled his eyes and urged again: "Hey, don't worry about who he is, just get out of here quickly, I'm stuck!"
Shu Li knew that the way ahead was the only way. He put away the magic lamp, crawled out of the vent, spread his wings, resisted the strong wind, and clung to the rock wall next to the vent.
Seeing the goblin go out, Farm squeezed forward with difficulty, sticking his head out first, sticking out his forked tongue and panting.
Its stomach was still stuck inside, and it pressed its short little claws against the entrance of the passage, trying hard to "pull" itself out.
If it had known it had to crawl through the passage, it would not have been so greedy to eat those fruits!
“Ahhhh——”
If it regains its strength, one claw will be able to pierce the wall of the secret room.
“Ouch!”
Finally, it came out, its bat wings spread out quickly, and it climbed the wall nimbly. It turned its head and asked the goblin: "What are you doing here?"
Shu Li nodded and gestured for it to look at the so-called maze.
Farm turned his head and his animal eyes instantly stood up.
I was so busy pulling myself out of the passage that I didn't pay attention to the situation outside. Now that I took a closer look, I couldn't help but shiver.
Outside the secret room is a huge underground cave with no end in sight. There are rugged rocks above and an unfathomable abyss below. Hundreds of stone pillars rise from the ground, arranged in disorder, and connected by thick chains, forming an intricate maze.
Thanks to the sea moon stone inlaid on the top of the stone pillar, they could see the whole picture of the underground cave.
Shu Li swallowed.
Did the temple owner rob the mermaids? Otherwise, where would he get so many sea moon stones for him to waste?
"Do we have to go through the maze to find the exit?" he asked the little monster, "Can we go back to the temple after we get to the exit?"
The roots of the mother tree are rooted in the outer wall of the temple, and one can only reunite with the mother tree by returning to the temple.
"Uh... maybe..." Farm hesitated.
Shu Li looked at him suspiciously. "Are you really the demon beast guarding the underground palace? Why don't you know anything?"
Farm was angry: "I only guard the upper part, not the lower part."
Unable to obtain useful information, Shu Li had to figure it out on his own.
There is no way up to the secret room, and it is impossible to return the same way. Outside is an intricate maze with an unknown exit.
After weighing the two options, Shu Li decided to walk through the maze.
Since the designer went to so much trouble to create an underground maze, it must have a purpose, otherwise it would be a waste of the designer's efforts.
Fortunately, Shu Li was not an adventurer who broke into the underground palace, but a little fairy with wings.
As long as he flew against the wind, he didn't have to follow any routine.
He tried a magic spell, but as expected, it failed again.
Seeing the goblin's spell fail again, Farm advised, "Don't struggle. Magic is forbidden in the entire underground."
The maze is specifically used to trap invaders who break into the temple. Wouldn't it be ineffective if magic could be used?
"Then - let's fly!" Shu Li suddenly let go of the rock wall, flapped his wings, and flew towards the first stone pillar.
"Wow! You just flew like that?" Farm hesitated for a moment, then let go and flew away.
The air in the underground cave was flowing fast and the wind was strong. Shu Li flapped his wings vigorously against the resistance and was blown to and fro several times. It took him a lot of effort to reach the first stone pillar.
"Phew—I'm so tired!"
The little monster lay down on the stone pillar, panting with its tongue hanging out.
Shu Li was exhausted. Just one pillar had taken ten minutes to fly, and there were hundreds more to come. How much longer would it take?
He could fly in a straight line, but the distance between the pillars also increased.
"Hoohoohoo—why is today Sunday? Why do I have to accompany a little goblin into an underground maze? Aaaaaa—"
Farm kept complaining, scraping his chubby little paws on the ground.
Shu Li couldn't stand the harsh sound of its claws scraping against the ground, so he threw a fruit to it.
Farm quickly hugged it and started eating it with a "smacking" sound.
Shu Li decided to release the original power.
Although magic is prohibited here, there is no restriction on fairies from growing bigger or smaller.
A light came on, and his body expanded rapidly, from a tiny guy a few inches tall to the size of a normal human teenager.
Bending down, he picked up the little monster that was chewing the fruit, flapped his broad wings, and flew towards the second pillar.
Sure enough, flying was much easier this time.
Without having to fly by himself, the little monster nestled comfortably in Shu Li's arms, eating fruit and giving orders.
"Fly there, fly there—yes, that pillar—"
"Don't fly off course, the exit isn't this way!"
"Wow, the wind is so strong here, hold on! Don't somersault, I'm going to fall—"
The little monster kept chattering in his ears. Shu Li's forehead was bulging with veins. He could no longer bear it, so he reached out and pinched the little monster's mouth. The world was finally quiet.
“Hmmmm???”
The little monster struggled with its mouth pinched.
"Don't move, or I'll throw you down." Shu Li threatened.
The little monster glared at Shu Li accusingly, but Shu Li remained indifferent. He groped his way forward according to his own way and ideas.
After an unknown amount of time, he saw a rock wall opposite him. On the rock wall was a large platform with a magic circle engraved on it.
"Exit! There's the exit!"
The little monster shouted excitedly after its mouth was freed.
"I saw it." Shu Li pinched its mouth again.
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