The multicolored innate true essence appeared cold against the dark lake water, floating above their respective weapons as they attacked the very top of the Heavenly Flood Palace. Human experts who had not yet reached the Innate Golden Core realm watched from the sidelines. Teng Qingshan noticed the three monks from the Mani Temple: "The masters of the Buddhist Sect are indeed peculiar; there is a faint golden glow emanating from that purplish-red iron rod."

RUMBLE~~~

The structure of the top vibrated violently, and a faint cyan-green halo quickly flowed along the edges of the newly formed gap.

The opening blasted open by the twelve supreme experts was nearly one and a half zhang wide.

"Everyone, the opening is shrinking! Hurry and get inside!"

As Ying Haojiang’s voice fell, the first wave of the twelve supreme experts surrounding the opening jumped down in quick succession.

"Quick."

"The opening is getting smaller!"

Innate experts shouted these words while swiftly leaping downward one after another. Teng Qingshan naturally followed the crowd, quickly plunging into the opening on the roof. By the time Teng Qingshan jumped, the opening had shrunk to barely one zhang wide.

The moment his feet touched the ground, Teng Qingshan immediately darted to the side. Those jumping down after him landed exactly where he had just been.

"Pitch black." Teng Qingshan surveyed his surroundings, finding himself and his group flanked by walls made of cyan-green material on both sides. Everyone was situated in an alleyway with a fork ahead. However... whether it was the walls or the ground, everything was uniformly made of that cyan-green material.

"This place... it feels like the snow map alleyways from the CS game in my past life." As a top-tier assassin, he naturally needed to know basic social knowledge, even social etiquette, which was essential for disguise. Since the CS game was quite popular during Teng Qingshan's previous life, he had played it several times and had a general understanding of it.

In this Heavenly Flood Palace, it was utterly dark; perhaps others couldn't see clearly. But Teng Qingshan, possessing the strength of the night, could see perfectly well.

Cyan-green ground, cyan-green walls, cyan-green ceiling, a perfectly straight alleyway—a completely sealed environment. Here, there were no reference points to discern direction.

"For an Innate expert, even with excellent sense of direction, weaving through this place a few times would likely make it impossible to tell east from west!" These thoughts flashed through Teng Qingshan's mind instantly; it had only taken two breaths since he landed. Clearly, his processing speed was extraordinarily fast.

"Everyone is down!" Teng Qingshan looked up; the opening had now shrunk to only three feet wide.

Within the Heavenly Flood Palace, fifty-three human experts were gathered in one of the pitch-black alleyways.

"There's no water in the Heavenly Flood Palace!" A master from Sun-Shooting Divine Mountain exclaimed in surprise.

"Senior Brother, what's so strange about that? Didn't the 'Beast King' Wu Hou already report when he rushed into the Heavenly Flood Palace that there was no water inside?"

"Of course, I remember, but Junior Brother, what's strangest is that we blasted an opening above us, so why didn't the water flow down through it?"

Previously, due to the absolute darkness, everyone in the Heavenly Flood Palace was highly vigilant, fearful of some monstrous beast. Yet, they failed to notice this detail.

If there was an opening, why hadn't the water poured in?

"It's true." Teng Qingshan looked up; the opening was now only the size of a watermelon, with a faint cyan-green halo flowing, but still no water descended.

Teng Qingshan took a deep breath.

"Such fresh air!" Teng Qingshan felt even stranger in his heart. The Heavenly Flood Palace’s main gate was wide open, and they had blasted a hole in the top, yet no water entered. Furthermore, a grand palace submerged underwater should be perfectly sealed. But why... was the air also so fresh?

Teng Qingshan frowned as he observed his surroundings; everything seemed truly bizarre.

"This is the method of Emperor Yu!"

Ying Haojiang swept his gaze around. "Stop the pointless chatter. What matters now is finding Emperor Yu's treasure, obtaining it, and getting out of this place. Third Brother, you few, disperse and check the surrounding situation."

"Understood."

Six black-clad enforcers from the Ying family scattered, only able to vaguely see ten zhang ahead by relying on the innate true essence halo radiating from their bodies. With no water inside the Heavenly Flood Palace, everyone could see farther. If they were in the lake water, they generally could only see a few feet around them.

"Junior Brother, you four go check around," the white-haired Yuwen Liufeng from Azure Lake Island calmly instructed. Immediately, the four Innate Solid Core experts dispersed to explore.

The various factions were not rushing to run around randomly; instead, they cautiously began exploring the surroundings first.

"Brother Qin Lang, let's go look too," the white-robed youth 'Liu Xiu' couldn't help but suggest exploring.

"Mm."

Teng Qingshan immediately moved forward. This alleyway was perfectly straight, leading to a cross-junction twenty zhang ahead, beyond which was a dead end. Teng Qingshan didn't need to walk there; he could see the sealed wall thirty zhang away with a single glance. It completely blocked the alley.

Standing at the intersection of the crossroad,

Teng Qingshan looked left and right—

Still the same cyan-green walls. The alley to the left also held a fork, and the path beyond that led to a dead end. The alley to the right, however, had a full four forks, and continuing straight ahead also led to a dead end.

"A maze!"

Teng Qingshan deduced it immediately with just this look. "If I'm not mistaken, the entire Heavenly Flood Palace is likely structured like this: alleyways three zhang wide, some ending in dead ends, others branching off. Walls, floor, and ceiling are all cyan-green!"

Teng Qingshan sucked in a cold breath.

This type of maze was extremely troublesome! Generally, there was only one path to survival; all others were death traps! One wrong step, and every subsequent step would be wrong! In his past life, Teng Qingshan only practiced training in such mazes during his rest periods.

"This Heavenly Flood Palace spans at least several square miles! If an alley generally appears every twenty zhang... calculating roughly, there must be at least ten thousand alleyways inside! And that's not counting the smaller passages..." Teng Qingshan calculated the rough figure instantly, his expression shifting slightly.

Even with his memory, which had been specially trained, finding the path to life through elimination—recording routes and ruling them out one by one—might take half a year or even longer without a map. He would starve to death long before then.

"If I were to start eliminating routes from the entrance to find the single passage, it might take ten days to half a month because the alleyway at the palace entrance must be correct. But now, being inside the maze... that's troublesome."

Teng Qingshan glanced back. Yuwen Liufeng and Elder Hu from Azure Lake Island were still gathered at the meeting point. "If they want to flee, they can't do it so fast that it draws attention." Teng Qingshan hurried to the next intersection to observe, and indeed—

No matter where he looked, it was the same kind of alleyway.

"Go back!"

Teng Qingshan quickly rushed back to the original alley. Yuwen Liufeng and the elder were still there. Teng Qingshan heard the intense discussion from afar: "It's the same everywhere! Pitch black, and some alleyways lead only to dead ends!"

"It's a maze!"

"We have no idea which path to take."

"I just explored two forks, and merely turning around to look at the surroundings made me lose my bearings. If I hadn't heard the voices of this group talking here and navigated towards them, I probably couldn't have found this spot."

"The walls of this maze are all identical; it's too easy to get lost."

Some of the Innate experts were completely unnerved by the surrounding terrain after a brief exploration.

"I can see quite far with my eyes, and I have tricks for this kind of maze. But even for me, finding the true path might take a year and a half. What about them? Their eyes can't see very far..." Teng Qingshan mused. "For a maze like this, Emperor Yu must have left a map!"

Teng Qingshan’s gaze swept over the group from Azure Lake Island.

"Hm?" Teng Qingshan let out a cold smile and walked towards the assembled crowd.

...

Earlier, while instructing the four Innate Solid Core experts to explore, Yuwen Liufeng and Elder Hu had secretly given an additional order: "After you disperse to explore, do not return here when we regroup. Instead, go to the fork dead ahead and assemble there."

The masters of the other sects assumed the Azure Lake Island members were simply exploring.

In reality, they were covertly relocating. The four Innate Solid Core experts had already moved to the intersection dead ahead. Yuwen Liufeng and Elder Hu were observing the situation, preparing to find an opportunity to move.

Yuwen Liufeng and Elder Hu had already positioned themselves relatively far away, about seven or eight zhang from the large crowd. Only a few people were paying attention to them.

"Go!"

Yuwen Liufeng and Elder Hu simultaneously retracted the innate true essence radiating from their bodies, instantly becoming shrouded in darkness.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The two fled swiftly and silently to the left. In the dark environment, with no innate essence shimmering on their bodies, others couldn't see them at all. Moreover, the two had firmly memorized the route ahead, allowing them to reach the rendezvous point even without sight.

"Two from Azure Lake Island, where are you going?" A loud voice echoed through the palace alleyway, the sound reverberating continuously.

"They're running!"

"Azure Lake Island has fled!" Innate experts ignited their body halos and rushed in all directions.

In nearly a single breath, three Innate experts, including Teng Qingshan, reached the fork dead ahead. Others were like the blind, scattering in a large group towards various forks. But Teng Qingshan had seen their movement from a distance.

At this moment, the six members of Azure Lake Island were still in the alleyway.

"They are here!"

A shout rang out! A group of Innate experts quickly gathered there. Teng Qingshan watched impassively as the six from Azure Lake Island stood in the alley, their faces displaying shock and anger. They had no idea where the path ahead led. If they didn't activate their halos, they would wander blindly and easily crash into walls.

But if they activated their protective barriers, it made them easy targets for others to spot.

"How could the reaction be so fast?" Yuwen Liufeng and his group couldn't believe it.

"Why are they running?"

"It’s harder than ascending to heaven to navigate this maze! There must be a map!" Various discussions arose, and upon hearing these words, a smile naturally spread across Teng Qingshan's face.