Chapter 311: Labyrinth Devourer

Chapter 311 The Maze Devourer

While all were busy gathering points.

Li Wei still paused to cultivate his magical power.

Time reached the darkness of the first day.

Though within the Endless Maze there existed no division of day or night.

Yet Li Wei sensed approximately a full day had elapsed.

The accumulation of points on the rankings had likewise slowed drastically.

Having struggled for a day, the crowd had mostly entered a phase of weariness.

Partly due to mana depletion, partly because the trials grew harder further in.

Their pace of progress was forced to decelerate.

Li Wei was meditating when he suddenly felt the maze hall quake.

Instinctively, he opened his eyes to gaze outward.

He saw a colossal maw in the distance devouring the maze; wherever it passed, the labyrinth vanished entirely.

A chill ran through him, and he hastily rose to sprint toward the next maze.

This was the Maze Devourer.

A leviathan of unknown rank.

To be caught by the Maze Devourer meant expulsion from the final examination.

This too was a component of the final trial.

Typically, the Maze Devourer would only manifest on the final day of each examination.

Li Wei never imagined his fortune so poor as to meet it on the very first day.

The Element Tower had employed the Endless Maze for finals for nearly a century.

Over these hundred years, instances of encountering the Devourer on day one were scarce enough to count on fingers.

Li Wei ran while seeking an escape route.

He must distance himself from the Devourer; choosing the wrong portal might make the next hall his final destination.

Li Wei crossed the portal, looked upward, and the Maze Devourer loomed overhead.

Only then did he clearly discern the form of the Maze Devourer.

An immensely vast, pallid white worm.

Even the grandest maze hall before it resembled a small apple, swallowable in a single gulp.

By this scale, the Devourer's bulk exceeded even the Fire Bird Garuda.

Perhaps it could rival the Mountain Beast Morpheus.

Crack crack crack!

Sounds emanated from within the maze hall.

The surrounding walls contracted continuously, aiming to crush Li Wei into a paste.

He swiftly searched for an exit and a riddle.

No riddle was found.

A thought struck Li Wei; he understood this maze hid a concealed puzzle.

This was a classic trap labyrinth.

If he failed to find and solve the puzzle before the maze shrank to crush him flat.

His sole option was to withdraw from the Endless Maze.

Then admission to the Violet Class would be beyond his reach.

Li Wei unleashed his spiritual sense, rapidly scanning for the puzzle's location.

Suddenly, he sensed something peculiar about the floor patterns.

His mind raced rapidly.

Crack crack crack!

The surrounding walls drew nearer.

The maze held spatial laws; Li Wei could not withstand contraction at the spatial level.

Before time expired, if he could not solve the puzzle and locate the exit.

Withdrawal from the Endless Maze remained the only choice.

A spark of insight flashed, striking his heart.

Li Wei understood.

The patterns on the ground were magic formation runes.

Previously he had researched the Radiant Magic Cannon, making him somewhat familiar with formation runes.

Only now, seeing the magic patterns on the ground, did he react.

"If they are formation runes, then solving the puzzle means activating the formation?"

Li Wei quickly traced the formation patterns within the intricate textures.

The surrounding walls drew closer still.

The visible patterns dwindled, increasing the difficulty of completing the formation.

The walls stood merely one meter from Li Wei.

Li Wei channeled mana into the ground beneath his feet.

Blue mana flowed along the formation runes underfoot.

Under his precise control, the mana branched out, spreading simultaneously in four directions.

Mana flowed from the floor to the walls, activating several formation runes upon them.

Finally, the runes on five surfaces coalesced into a complete formation.

Snap!

The instant the formation activated, the contracting walls halted. At that moment, the formations on either side were less than ten centimeters from Li Wei's shoulders.

Moments earlier, he would have been crushed into a pulp.

Had he activated the formation even slightly slower, he would have been pinned.

Once the formation activated, the maze walls slowly receded, restoring their original dimensions.

Teleportation arrays around also materialized.

Seeing this, Li Wei let out a breath of relief.

“Cleared.”

This was the most dangerous trial he had ever endured.

For a moment, he nearly quit the Endless Maze.

Fortunately, he had made it through.

Li Wei also realized that true danger and challenges often did not stem from powerful enemies.

But rather from the rules of the Endless Maze itself.

Li Wei glanced around and walked in the direction opposite the Maze Devourer.

He appeared inside a new maze, this time a Labyrinth Corridor.

A teleportation gate appeared at the end of the corridor.

There was only one such gate.

There was no choice but to advance.

Li Wei stepped forward, and strange four-clawed insects of various sizes surged from all directions.

“Star Worms?”

A realization struck Li Wei; he recognized the race of the four-clawed insects.

Star Worms were wondrous creatures living in the starry sky.

Astral Mages had first encountered Star Worms, bringing data on them back to the Main World.

Powerful Star Worms could devour legendary creatures.

Even the weakest Star Worms possessed extremely strong adaptability.

Such super adaptability allowed Star Worms to survive in the incredibly dangerous Astral Realm.

Li Wei sped up towards the gate, having no intention of fighting the Star Worms.

He directly unleashed Fire Release.

Yet he found the maze corridor forbade flight, rendering it impossible.

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

Countless Star Worms lunged towards Li Wei.

Forced to act, Li Wei cast a spell creating a fire snake to charge ahead and clear the way.

Weak Star Worms were directly burned to ash by the fire snake.

However, soon the fire snake could no longer threaten the Star Worms.

The Star Worms began adapting to the fire snake's attack, their pale bodies gradually turning red.

The red color spread rapidly through the Star Worm group like a tide.

Star Worms could pass evolutionary factors to each other.

This allowed the Star Worm group to adapt to the extreme environment of the Astral Realm.

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

The Star Worms passed through the fire snake, crawling quickly towards Li Wei.

The fire snake's heat could no longer burn the Star Worms to death.

Li Wei's heart stirred.

“Explode!”

Bang! Boom!

A huge explosion sound rang out, blowing the Star Worms in the corridor into pieces.

Li Wei transformed into a Flame Lord, quickly rushing through the explosion area.

Many Star Worms were blown into fragments.

Some Star Worms were severely injured in the explosion but not yet dead.

They quickly devoured their companions' corpses to obtain nutrition and energy.

The Star Worms' injuries recovered quickly, evolving new explosion-proof shells.

Newly appearing Star Worms also quickly evolved fire resistance and explosion-proof shells.

Li Wei was secretly startled.

How could there be such twisted monsters in the world?

Fortunately, Star Worms lived within the Astral Realm, isolated from the outside world by the World Barrier.

Otherwise, if Star Worms entered the Main World, they would be nearly invincible.

By the time the Star Worms underwent two evolutions, Li Wei had already reached the portal.

He rushed into the portal without turning his head back.

The Star Worms watched helplessly as he escaped.

Passing through the Star Worm Maze Corridor, Li Wei breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, a patch of darkness appeared above his head.

He looked up; the giant mouth of the Maze Devourer was right above his head.

(End of Chapter)