Daxiong understood immediately, panting heavily as he said, "I know what you mean. You two go after the one upstairs; I'll stay here and guard."

I didn't say much either, just clapped him on the shoulder before heading up the stairs with Nie Chuan.

However, after climbing just a short distance, I noticed that slender little thing had stopped not far ahead, hopping around as if deliberately taunting us.

Because of the poor lighting, we still couldn't make out its exact appearance.

Anxiety surged in my chest, and I rushed forward again, intending to pin the creature down and teach it a harsh lesson.

Yet, as we charged up, it darted away with incredible speed, continuing its climb upward.

Even though Nie Chuan and I had rested for a while, the toxic air in the confined space had still taken its toll; our bodies quickly felt overwhelmingly fatigued.

And every time we stopped to catch our breath, that annoying little skinny thing would be flailing its arms and legs not far in front of us.

"This guy seems determined to see his diversion tactic through to the end. We should probably go back and check on Daxiong; chasing it like this isn't working," Nie Chuan said to me then.

Just as we were about to turn back, Nie Chuan suddenly added, "Wait, look at where that creature is standing—isn't that the railing only found on the top floor? Could it be we've already reached the roof?"

I looked up and sure enough, the gaunt figure was standing before a railing, and behind it, there seemed to be an exit.

The slender creature was still on the platform, gesturing wildly at us, looking utterly smug.

I glanced down the stairwell; the secret room was no longer visible. I turned to Nie Chuan with some worry. "If we go out, what about Daxiong? I'm not worried Daxiong will be beaten by a group of skinny guys, but we can't just leave him trapped alone in the labyrinth, can we?"

Nie Chuan shook his head. "There's no way we're abandoning Daxiong. Getting out of the labyrinth is hard, but getting in is easy. Once we figure out what's going on with this exit, we can definitely find Daxiong again by returning to the labyrinth."

I still had reservations and looked back one last time before sighing. "Alright, let's go."

Nie Chuan nodded and took the lead up the stairs.

I followed closely behind him.

But just as we stepped onto the final flight of stairs, something strange happened.

We were moving forward, the incline gradually rising, but as we walked, our vision suddenly plunged into darkness, and then we realized we were actually going down.

The moment of darkness lasted less than half a second, making it extremely hard to notice.

I figured this phenomenon had been constantly surrounding us, but we just hadn't noticed before.

The only reason we detected it this time was because we had a point of reference in front of us: that small, thin creature.

When the darkness suddenly descended, the creature, which had been facing us, suddenly appeared behind us.

Previously, when we walked on the stairs, lacking a reference point and possibly affected by some gas in the air that could cloud the mind, we became confused about whether we were ascending or descending, moving forward in a daze, yet perpetually oscillating between two or three steps.

Thinking about this, I felt I should be grateful to this skinny thief who stole the mask; if it hadn't served as our reference, we might not have discovered the labyrinth's mechanics so quickly.

As for why we suddenly turned around, I suspect it was mostly because the stairs themselves were rotating—perhaps the staircase was located inside some living entity or surrounded by a colony of organisms, allowing it to subtly shift direction without our awareness.

Even if every flight of stairs could change direction, the rooms on each level remained fixed. This meant it was only a matter of time before we found our way out.

With this realization, my urgency faded. I stuck my tongue out at the skinny creature upstairs, then turned to Nie Chuan. "Let's go back for Daxiong."

Nie Chuan was clearly surprised. "Why? We're almost out. Why give up now?"

I shook my head. "It's not that simple. As long as we keep moving forward, the stairs will reverse direction, meaning we'll never reach the top floor. But I have a plan ready; it just requires cooperation from all three of us."

Nie Chuan frowned, clearly astonished that I had found a way to crack the labyrinth so quickly. He immediately said, "Fine, let's go back for Daxiong right now."

With that, Nie Chuan excitedly started walking downstairs, but I didn't follow.

Nie Chuan only noticed I wasn't trailing him when he reached the bottom of that flight of stairs. He turned back and asked me, "*? Why aren't you coming?"

I looked around. "I just wanted to see if the stairs would prevent us from going back too. It seems they have no intention of stopping us."

My initial thought had been this: if Nie Chuan was turned around halfway down, it would prove the stairs actively block descent. In that scenario, since there was a distance between us, I could observe the reversal process. At that precise moment, I would rush toward him, and as the stairs began to reverse, I would suddenly walk backward, while Nie Chuan simultaneously turned and walked backward as well. This coordinated, inverse motion might allow us to break the rule preventing downward travel.

Then, if Daxiong were present, he would stand perfectly still in the middle. When one of us reached the bottom and the other reached the top, the staircase, trying to compensate for the error in its rules, would reverse again. At that point, I, being at the very top, would be transported to the bottom. With just one small step forward, I could exit that section of the staircase.

Daxiong's role was crucial because by standing stationary in the middle, he would continuously present the illusion of an imminent breakthrough to the mechanism. No matter how fast the staircase mechanism could rotate, it couldn't effectively manage both ends and the center simultaneously.

Since the principle for descending is established this way, the principle for ascending is the same—one simply reverses the logic.

In truth, this breakthrough method could potentially be executed by two people, but requiring both to pivot simultaneously near the midpoint resulted in a high failure rate and considerable time loss.

However, given the current situation where the stairs weren't blocking our descent, the complicated maneuver was unnecessary.

It made sense, really. If a fish is about to jump free of the net and deliberately swims back in, what fisherman wouldn't be pleased?

As we walked down the stairs, we realized we had only climbed about six flights, but due to the stairwell's rotations, it had felt like we traversed over twenty stories during our pursuit.

When we returned to the opening near the secret room, Daxiong was standing there anxiously waiting for us.

Seeing us return, he said dejectedly, "Those monkeys took all the masks."

"Monkeys? You mean those skinny things are monkeys?" I asked.

"Yes, monkeys. They were incredibly fast; we couldn't catch them. We'd grab one, and another would slip away. So, we lost a lot of masks," Daxiong lamented.

I patted his shoulder. "It's alright. The masks weren't ours anyway. Losing them is fine as long as you're safe."

"So where did those monkeys go after taking the masks?" Nie Chuan asked.

Daxiong pointed toward the stairs. "They all ran downstairs."

I frowned, looking down into the dark stairwell. Chasing them now was clearly impossible.

Recalling the smug way the creatures had been gesturing in front of us earlier, they truly must have been monkeys; Daxiong certainly hadn't been mistaken.

But what use would these monkeys have for the masks? I genuinely couldn't fathom it.

In Japan, monkeys are regarded as highly spiritual creatures, even more so than in China. Chinese monkeys are mostly trained by park staff and have picked up habits like stealing small items or money, whereas Japanese monkeys, it is said, possess a certain Buddhist nature.

Once monkeys become too intelligent, discerning their true intentions becomes extremely difficult.

I decided I needed to enter the secret room first to see exactly which masks the monkeys had managed to take.