Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 170: Chapter 170. A Door with a Puzzle

A classic depiction of heaven and hell, with the earth in between, Amon thought. In his past world, the first and the third groups were usually illustrated with angels and demons, respectively. He didn’t hear any mention of angels in this world. So, he assumed this was an illustration of Gods and Demons, with the common folks in between.

He didn’t pay the mural too much attention. It only showed that this ruin used to be a religious place. This hall could be where the followers came to have their communion.

After making his rounds, Amon spotted two other exits from this hall. One was with a door that was half broken. He could slip through the broken part and into a corridor. The corridor, however, didn’t take him far. There was another cave-in, and the path ahead was blocked.

Amon came back and checked the third exit point. This third one was right beside the podium and had an intact door. He approached and studied the door. There was no handle. The door was a stone block with a flat and plain surface.

Curious, he touched the door. As soon as his fingers touched the flat surface, he felt a mental connection. Something assailed his mind. It was like multiple people used sledgehammers and took turns bashing his head. The pain caused him to reel back. He almost fell.

Fortunately, the mental attack didn’t last long. It was only a few seconds, but it was enough to make him gasp for breath. His shirt was soaked with sweat. He looked back at the door. Something had changed. There were glowing letters on the surface of the stone door.

What’s more surprising was they were not the common letters used in this world. Instead, they were the letters from his old world. This was the second time he had found a connection with his old world.

He studied the letters. It didn’t make any sense. It was like the letters were chaotically placed around.

Amon approached the door again. On closer inspection, the glowing letter seemed to float away from the door. They were hanging in the air before the door.

He slowly moved his hands to one of the glowing and floating letters. He readied himself for another mind assault when his finger touched the letter, but he was fine this time. No headache. The floating letter, however, moved slightly as his finger touched it.

Seeing that, he tried moving his finger that was touching the letter. He saw the letter move following his finger. He stopped at the center of this mass of letters and pulled out his hand. The letter he had moved stayed where he left it. The other letters moved aside to allow space for this letter.

’An anagram?’ He thought.

It was a puzzle. He probably needed to solve this anagram before this door could be opened.

Amon grinned. For a door to have this kind of contraption, which was still working to this day, meant the room behind was nothing simple.

He sat cross-legged before the door. He took out his black aetherium stone and started cultivating. While cultivating, his eyes were fixed on the glowing letters. He experimented by moving the letters around in his mind. It was no problem for him to concentrate on two things at the same time.

The puzzle proved to be harder than expected. There was something that obscured his mind as he tried to work around the puzzle. Under normal circumstances, he would have solved this puzzle in a few minutes. But it had been hours, but he still couldn’t make sense of the words these letters could form. He thought this should be another defensive mechanism that prevented someone from accessing the room beyond.

Li Shi had contacted him a few times during the process. He pretended that he was still looking for a way through the maze above.

This went on for several days. The others were still lost in the maze without seemingly finding a way forward. During a gathering one night, Jie Mei pointed out the strangeness of the situation. They seemed to keep going forward but couldn’t find a passage down. However, when they tried to return, they easily found their way back to the holes they entered in a short time, even though they had seemingly walked ahead for hours most of the day.

They realized then they should be under the effect of an illusion. Unfortunately, there was no art or technique to strengthen the mind. Li Shi told them about some books from the past mentioning such mind techniques, but these techniques had been lost to time. That’s why people with natural strong minds were highly valued.

On the fourth day, Li Shi decided to go in as well. She went with Jie Mei since Amon vehemently insisted that he entered alone.

Li Shi was also under the effect of the illusion. She, too, couldn’t proceed further than the others. As a more experienced cultivator, she immediately understood that they couldn’t break through the illusion by continuing to walk. Once she experienced the effect, she sat down and started to meditate, just as Amon did by instinct on his first day inside this ruin. She tried to pierce the veil that was blocking her senses.

However, while Amon had successfully broken through the veil within half a day, Li Shi failed to do so. Even as a stronger cultivator, her mind was not as strong as Amon’s. She did know this fact. This was the reason she enlisted the help of students with strong minds instead of exploring the ruin herself.

After that day, she instructed the others to do the same. Amon was under the ruin, meditating to solve the door’s puzzle, while the others were meditating up there, trying to break the illusion that prevented them from going further.

After two weeks, it was Amon who broke the door’s puzzle while the others were still working on the illusion barrier.