Chapter 248 The Underworld Labyrinth and the God of Wind (Second Update, 5800)

The Seventh Layer: Hurricane Cliff.

This layer probably represents the God of Wind and the area of the former Wind Era. Of course, it may not be completely interconnected. After all, the labyrinth is more of a 'netherworld' that stores the information of those eras rather than a replica of the initial era.

Yes, the netherworld. That's how Su Zhou viewed the labyrinth.

At first, because of the strange viewpoints brought about by various entertainment cultures, games, and novels on Earth, Su Zhou really thought that the labyrinth was a dungeon that appeared at the end of the world, simply used to fight monsters and level up. But as he understood more about the Tartarus world, he discovered that the elements of the labyrinth were extremely clearly related to the netherworld and reincarnation represented by the Silent Lord.

First of all, the labyrinth is located underground, and the creatures that live in it are very likely the reappearance of the souls and biological information of past era lives. Living in the labyrinth is indeed living in the netherworld. It's just that because the outside world has fallen into a state of dead silence, the entire world has become a dead and silent netherworld in a sense. That's why these underground netherworlds have opened up connections with the surface and interconnected with each other.

Moreover, the God of Water and the Narwhal people were also obviously resurrected from the labyrinth. When they died, they were obviously not completely destroyed by the era transition process. The remaining part was preserved in the labyrinth, and when the earth returned to the netherworld, they came out again to communicate with the outside world, and then fought and killed each other.

This is, in a sense, a war between the netherworld and the present world, and also an element that has appeared in some myths.

In addition to the related elements such as the underground and the netherworld, reincarnation is also very obvious—the era is transitioning, a new era is being born, and the old era gods are also resurrected. Even if it has nothing to do with elemental reincarnation, this process itself is a symbol of reincarnation.

Therefore, Hurricane Cliff, and the seventh layer of labyrinths all over the world, most likely represent the netherworld of the ancient Wind Era.

And the magical beasts that live in Hurricane Cliff are very likely the intelligent life of the original Wind Era.

However, according to what Su Zhou has seen, these magical beasts are mostly giant insects, which made him secretly ponder, could it be that the God of Wind is also some kind of giant insect?

"Just don't let it be a cockroach..." He muttered this obviously unlikely guess, and thus crossed the entrance and exit of the seventh and eighth layers, a secret place, a subterranean hot spring between two cliffs.

High-temperature water vapor of several hundred degrees permeated the vicinity of the huge hot spring. The spring lake, which was hundreds of meters long and wide, was already boiling. It spewed out from a fissure, forming a jet of hot air dozens of meters high.

Even a transcendent being who could withstand this high temperature would probably not deliberately enter it to explore unless it was necessary. After all, being hit by this high-temperature steam was like branding the skin on a red-hot iron rod.

But Su Zhou felt like he had taken a hot bath when he passed through it, and the gaps between his scales were cleaned. He couldn't help but take the opportunity to rinse himself inside, only to hear Yala, who was resting, complain: "The water quality is a bit hard, Su Zhou. If you take a shower here, your scales will grow scale."

"As a dragon, you must pay attention to maintaining your scales and not live such a rough life."

"Really?" Su Zhou, who felt it was a bit of a fuss, was slightly startled: "Is it that particular?"

"Of course!"

The particular snake and the not-so-particular person soon passed through a high-heat underground water area. Here, they could even hear the sound of magma flowing.

The Eighth Layer: Mist Domain.

Filled with a mysterious spiritual mist that can block spiritual induction and spiritual energy perception, it is still extremely dense, but at this time, Su Zhou can perceive that this is the power of the God of Water.

It was the power of the God of Water that blocked others' perception of the situation on this layer.

And now, Su Zhou, who had devoured the evil soul of the God of Water and obtained the greatest degree of affinity with the power of water, could easily break through the barrier of the God of Water's divine power and easily explore this labyrinth.

Even, he had a faint feeling that a force was guiding him to a certain direction.

This was very much like a sign of some horror game premonition and flag, but naturally, Su Zhou was not afraid—the God of Water had been killed by him, what could the power He left behind do to him? He would put this sentence here first, and he would take it back when he got slapped in the face.

Along the way, he didn't encounter any magical beasts, nor did he encounter any crises. Following the guidance, Su Zhou arrived at an ancient building complex without any problems.

That was a strange temple complex that was different from human aesthetics, but could still feel a sense of 'magnificence' and 'grandeur'.

This temple was cast entirely from a translucent light blue crystal. There were no obvious doors, but there were entrances everywhere, presenting a strange sense of transparency where the top, bottom, left, and right were all entrances and passages.

Rather than being located in the underground mist, it was obviously more suitable to appear in the quiet sea, floating between ocean currents.

Su Zhou could vaguely imagine the scene of countless swimming schools of fish entering this temple floating in the sea from all directions.

But this imagination was only fleeting, and he had already strode into it.

In the temple, there were many reliefs and statues carved from light blue crystals placed along the way, seemingly telling an ancient story. Su Zhou naturally started watching from the beginning, and then followed these reliefs, entering the core of the temple little by little.

[In the very beginning, the world was filled with hurricanes and darkness, and everything was chaos and nothingness]

The relief uses messy crystal lines to represent hurricanes, and dim dark blue crystals as the background to represent darkness.

[Then, water condensed in the wind, and water turned into rain, filling the chaos. This initial torrential rain fell for seven thousand days and nights, causing the chaos to recede, and the sea was born as a result]

[The god walks in the sea, swimming in the afterglow of the hurricane and the last heavy rain]

You can see a giant whale statue swimming out of the gray mist, and also reliefs representing torrential rain and the sea. Su Zhou can naturally see that the giant whale is the God of Water, but the crystal on the top of its head is not that big yet. Compared with the crown shape in the back, it is like three small dots.

However, he was a little strange: "There isn't even a trace of fighting with the God of Wind? That's right, the God of Water also said at the end that He was the first generation God of Water in this most recent reincarnation. It is estimated that He was a new life born in the new era. The God of Wind and the other previous generation gods have already finished fighting, and there are no winners—but in that case, where did He get the information about the previous generation God of Water from?"

But soon, the relief explained this question for him.

[At the end of the ocean, at the bottom of the seas, the god measures the size of the world for all living beings, divides the territory of the nine seas, and names each race]

[After completing all the work, the god received the blessing of the world, that is, the Lord of the Nine Seas and Oceans]

On the relief, a giant whale roams around, naming every new seabed creature it encounters, giving them names in the language of the Water Era—next, there is a long string of statues, including Shell People, Whale People, Fish People, mermaids, and many other marine races.

Su Zhou patiently looked at these statues one by one, and then, he saw that the God of Water obtained something emitting light at the deepest part of the ocean. It was impossible for the relief to show it too clearly, but after the God of Water obtained this thing, the crystal on the top of its head became even bigger, like a crown.

That was probably the moment when He was crowned a god.

The following reliefs and statues were nothing more than various achievements of the God of Water when He ruled the world, such as building huge underwater cities, coordinating peace between all races, and creating a huge alliance of revered god nations. The civilization progress of the Water People was not very fast, but they also developed magic processing technology in the Middle Ages, which could convert seawater into solid water crystals for various building and tool manufacturing.

They even created huge tidal waterwheels in the movement of ocean currents to collect and accumulate the power of ocean currents.

In the end, Su Zhou didn't see any information worth mentioning, which immediately disappointed him: "Is that it?"

It's not that he didn't admire and marvel at the civilization of the Water Era, but after all, an era had already passed. What Su Zhou needed most now was information related to saving this world and breaking the cycle of eras, that is, information about the beginning and end of the era.

And obviously, the Water God Temple would not engrave the scene at the end of the era here, and there didn't seem to be any information describing the beginning of the previous era either.

"You might as well take another look."

Just as Su Zhou was preparing to go back and take another look, Yala also gave the same suggestion, which made Su Zhou nod slightly: "As expected of you!"

Yala: "Ah? Well, as expected of me!"

Although she didn't understand why, the snake spirit was obviously not the kind of snake that would be humble.

And on about the fourth viewing, Su Zhou finally noticed a clue.

"Wait, how did this big whale appear?"

He grasped that sense of wrongness: "Water was born in the wind, which means the end of the Wind Era and the beginning of the Water Era—that's right, but how did this whale appear?"

Even jellyfish only appeared billions of years after the Earth was born. Taking a step back, it is a magical worldview that doesn't need to think about species evolution. There can be world information transmission, void transformation, and heaven and earth breeding... But just the birth of the God of Water is also a very worthwhile thing to talk about.

Moreover, it is precisely this kind of seemingly simple setting that may be the key to the truth behind this world.

"Also, how come the abstract special effects behind this whale look a bit like gray mist?"

Gray mist is the peculiar natural phenomenon that is now engulfing the entire world. According to the feedback from the reconnaissance team sent by the previous duke, the edge of the world has now been completely shrouded in gray mist.

Although the gray mist does not have any lethality, and humans will not have any negative reactions after entering it, there is no life in the area, only inorganic substances such as pure sand and rock are left.

But now, Su Zhou carefully observed the relief, and he could see that if the abstract things in the relief were regarded as gray mist, then the original form of the God of Water was that giant whale, as if it was born from the gray mist—it was a creature born from the gray mist at the beginning of the world!

Similarly, Su Zhou could also suspect that all the creatures born at the beginning of the new era were also directly conceived by the gray mist, and they were all relatively complete, mature bodies without evolutionary defects! Only in this way can it be explained how the creatures in this world can develop at least a civilization in a short era of one or two million years.

"In that case..."

At this time, extremely vivid images appeared in the mind of Su Zhou, who was frowning tightly: An era ends, and the gradually appearing gray mist begins to shroud the world that has already been transformed into the netherworld, in which there are almost no living things. Then, the era is switched and transformed, and the new world is born in the chaotic mist, and this gray mist will also give birth to creatures of the new era according to the subsequent derived era attributes, and then dissipate and leave...

In addition, with the 'netherworld labyrinth' that records the civilization of each era, and even ecological circle information, then the essence of the era transition in this world... the incarnation of the Silent Lord in this world...

Thinking like this, hiding the doubts in his heart, Su Zhou no longer continued to watch the reliefs along the way, and he walked all the way to the very center of the temple.

In the very center of the magnificent mist temple, there is a huge circular hall, and all four sides of it are passages, but some are embedded in the ground, and the center of the entire hall is a statue floating in the air by magic.

Obviously, this is a temple designed to welcome the Water People who come from all directions in the water. From a human perspective, it is indeed a bit difficult to understand, and the environment of the labyrinth also cannot completely reproduce its charm.

Su Zhou raised his head, and he could see that the small Water God phantom completely condensed from magic power floating in the air, and couldn't help but nod slightly: "Is this the power He left here? Although the amount is not huge, this completely materialized spiritual power is really of very high quality."

Su Zhou has always been straightforward, rational analysis, although the magic power left here by the God of Water does not have spiritual intelligence to control it, that excessively high quality of spiritual power is like a living creature, possessing its own life and can interact with the surrounding spiritual power. He felt that even the God of Water when he fought with him at the beginning probably didn't have such high-quality spiritual power.

If the other party took back this part of the power, the God of Water could probably regain a certain amount of overlord power—in that case, no matter how indignant and angry Su Zhou was, he would probably only be beaten to the ground and his bones would be gone. After all, in transcendent battles, except for the Green X-Men Sai X-People Asura, being angry is useless.

...It seems that there are a lot of people for whom being angry is useful?

"Sure enough, it's the 'Lord of Water'."

At this time, Yala, who shared Su Zhou's vision, nodded: "This God of Water probably swallowed some initial creation element essence left over after the birth of the Water Era at the beginning of the era, so he was able to achieve the 'Overlord' realm without any inheritance and starting from scratch."

"The part of the power He left in this temple is a little bit of the essence of the 'initial water element'. If He takes it back, it can really exert a little bit of the power of the overlord level, and has the majesty of a god."

"Huh?" Suddenly, Su Zhou's gaze towards this group of water light became fiery: "Does that mean that if I take this thing, I can also accelerate my becoming an overlord?"

After watching the memories of the Dragon King of Tianchi, and the scattered memories in the evil soul of the God of Water about His heyday, Su Zhou was really envious of the power of the overlord realm. Moreover, if he had the power of an overlord, then as long as Su Zhou arrived on this trip to the Tartarus world, not a single innocent person would die.

But the snake spirit shook its head. It was now nestled in a depression of scales that Su Zhou had specially created for it, lying extremely comfortably: "The realm of the Lord of Water is ultimately achieved by relying on external objects, and cannot be regarded as the most orthodox overlord."

"The real overlord seeks great power by himself. Whether it is the body, soul, skill, or pure spiritual power, if you break through one of these four levels, you will be in the overlord realm. Each one is very powerful, no less than, or even surpassing, the realm of this Lord of Water."

"I'm not belittling external objects, after all, the power of external objects is also power, but Su Zhou, since you have your own path to the heavens, why bother walking the old path of a defeated opponent?"

What she said made sense, and she secretly complimented herself. Su Zhou couldn't help but nod: "You're still knowledgeable, Yala. However, then this thing can't be wasted, right? How should I store it? By the way, since this thing is the residue of the initial elements of creation, will it affect the reproduction of this era if I take it away?"

"This thing doesn't have spiritual intelligence, you can just ask Elias to borrow his space ring to装 it at that time. After you cultivate your own space, you can throw it in and use it as the source of 'water elements'. Whether it's watering the Wisdom Tree or making high-end holy water, it's a good thing."

Regarding Su Zhou's subsequent question, the knowledgeable Yala couldn't help but shake her head: "Moreover, you underestimate the world's self-recovery ability. Besides, this thing is hidden in the underworld labyrinth, which means that it no longer has anything to do with the era reincarnation of the outside world, or rather, you are plucking the wool of the Silent Lord by taking this thing, not the wool of this world."

That's a good feeling. Su Zhou raised his head again, staring at the light blue, life-like magic statue floating in the air.

The giant whale seemed to be singing loudly.

Now that he had found the Water God Temple and discovered treasures of sufficient value, and also slightly analyzed the reincarnation and regeneration of this world, Su Zhou's labyrinth trip had gained enough and he set off back to the city.

And just as he walked out of the labyrinth and prepared to return to Nasser City to borrow a space ring from Elias, Su Zhou suddenly stopped.

Because, at the entrance and exit of the labyrinth, there was a very strange person who seemed to be waiting for him.

Su Zhou rarely says that people are strange, because most people in this world are not as strange as him. If he often calls his enemies monsters, then Su Zhou's self-awareness is actually a genuine freak—he is very abnormal, he has this self-knowledge, and he has always been very aware of it.

Since he is a freak, then Su Zhou will naturally not easily say that other people are monsters or strange. But this person in front of him is really too strange.

That was a grown man who looked to be in his thirties. He had waist-length gray hair, a somewhat vicissitudes face, and was considered to be handsome in a tough way. His stubble was also obvious, and he did look like an ordinary human male.

However, his clothes obviously had a sense of incongruity—whether it was the scarf, hat, or chair and boots, they all had a feeling of 'growing out of the body'!

Rather than saying that it was clothing, it was more like an exoskeleton armor in the shape of clothing, and there was no gap at the joints.

"Ah, you saw it."

And this strange gray-haired male noticed Su Zhou's gaze. He raised his head and looked up at the head of Su Zhou's huge dragon body. The man smiled, and his voice was quite magnetic: "My disguise still has flaws, as expected. If you stay in one place for a long time, the locals will always discover it, but Mr. Su Zhou, you are the first to see through it in an instant."

He was speaking in the rarely seen highest level of honorifics, which was a bit difficult for Su Zhou, who had not been studying the local language of the Tartarus world for long, to understand. So Su Zhou, based on the attitude of 'others are polite to me, then I will also be polite, and others are rude to me, then I will strike hard', very kindly replied with soul communication: "You are too polite. However, although it is a bit direct, who are you? And how do you know my name?"

"It was my temporary idea to visit without prior application. Please forgive me for the intrusion."

This gray-haired man bowed slightly to Su Zhou, and Su Zhou also returned the salute. Although one side was a monster whose hat grew out of his hair, and the other side was a dragon body of a wingless giant dragon, the two people's communication was surprisingly gentle and reasonable. If someone familiar with Su Zhou's online style saw it, such as Shao Shuangyue, she would definitely widen her eyes and her eyeballs would be frightened out.

However, just after saluting each other, Su Zhou suddenly sensed an unprecedented and extremely terrifying sense of danger.

This sense of danger was exactly the same as when facing the God of Water!

And this gray-haired man had already raised his head. He put his hand on the front edge of his hat and smiled at Su Zhou: "As you can see, my identity, according to the name of this era."

"Is the God of Wind."

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