Build an ancient-level power in the nightmare world

Chapter 105 The Labyrinth

Directly in front, the slightest breath caused subtle disturbances in the airflow, which were clearly visible to Chris's deliberately broadened perception.

He could only see a cat's paw with soft flesh and covered with short, pure black fur, but he was certain that it was the black cat named Little Black Tower.

After all, in his opinion, such a coincidence was unlikely.

Deep within the Rockwell family's private territory, it's unlikely that a second stray black cat would appear out of thin air.

The tree wall that appeared out of nowhere was indeed strange. The thick branches were tightly intertwined, with only a few gaps and holes showing, making it stand out from the scattered trees around it.

But his spiritual intuition gave no warning.

Chris stroked the Guardian Ring once more, hesitated for a moment, and then activated his Spirit Vision.

He scanned the tree wall, even carefully exploring the dark depths of the entrance, but found no unusual energy fluctuations or strange sights.

Only then did Chris belatedly realize that he had completely lost touch with the main group searching for the cat and could no longer even sense their presence.

However, thanks to his precise ability to sense airflow, he wasn't worried at all about getting lost in this woodland.

Moreover, this tree wall was clearly planted and cultivated intentionally by humans.

To allow the branches of living trees to intertwine and grow into such a tree wall in a way that is both complex and aesthetically pleasing, it would require countless skilled horticulturalists and decades of long-term maintenance.

Judging from the sheer size of this tree wall, which seems to stretch as far as the eye can see, and considering its location, it could only be the work of the Rockwell family.

After all, in this territory, only they have such financial resources and authority.

Chris had no idea why the Rockwell family would build such a hidden wall in this woodland they patrolled daily.

He sensed the rhythm of the airflow and discovered a hidden area behind the tree wall.

A thought suddenly flashed through Chris's mind: Could this be a maze built with living trees?

In his past life, he had seen many mazes of trees in aristocratic manors on television.

But those mazes are not even a tenth the size of the one in front of us.

Chris was frowning, pondering how to lure the cat out of the shadows by the entrance.

The exposed black cat paw suddenly lifted up, its paw pad facing him, as if gently beckoning.

The next second, the cat's paw quickly retracted into the thick darkness.

Immediately afterwards, a slender black cat tail swept across the ground, vanished in a flash, and disappeared completely into the depths of the entrance.

The cat turned and ran deeper into the maze.

Seeing this, Chris instinctively strained his senses to the maximum, intently capturing the air currents created by the cat's running.

His left hand suddenly clenched, the icy touch of the Guardian Ring on his palm, and a clear hesitation flashed in his eyes.

If this tree wall was indeed built by the Rockwell family, Constance, as a direct descendant of the family, could not possibly be unaware of such a large building.

But why didn't she mention him at all when she asked him to help find the cat?

Moreover, she had previously stated that the woodland was patrolled periodically.

So, there must be quite a few people who know about this tree wall.

If the black cat couldn't be found anywhere else in the woods, the servants who had gone with him to look for it should have realized that the cat might have hidden behind a wall of trees.

Having figured these points out, Chris suppressed his doubts and stopped hesitating.

He calmed himself down and used the power of the holy seal within him to the limit he could currently control.

The cat ran extremely fast, its footsteps so light they barely touched the ground. At this moment, in his perception, the distance between them had increased to a full two hundred meters.

This was the limit of the distance at which he could barely detect the airflow moving around it.

If we don't catch up now, we'll really lose them completely.

Chris immediately stepped forward, straightened his shoulders, and moved quickly toward the narrow entrance to the tree wall.

As he squeezed in, he activated his spiritual vision once again, scanning the branches on both sides of the entrance.

There were still no signs of anything unusual, which put his mind at ease.

The tree walls on both sides of the entrance have intertwined branches that extend inwards, stretching for more than a meter, like a natural porch.

After Chris squeezed through the narrow entrance, the previously dim view suddenly became much brighter.

Facing the entrance is still a dense, impenetrable wall of intertwined tree trunks.

But the treetops overhead were no longer as tightly wrapped as the outer branches, and the gaps between the branches and leaves were much wider.

The midday sun shone through the gaps, illuminating the path beneath our feet, making it noticeably brighter than outside.

He turned his head to look at both sides.

There was a two-meter-wide dirt road on each side, the surface of which was flattened by footsteps, and the soil still carried the dampness of the forest and was covered with many fallen leaves.

Thick layers of decaying leaves piled up on both sides of the road, showing no signs of being tended to, and there were no fresh footprints on the road, indicating that no one had entered recently.

Chris's gaze suddenly fell on the intersecting tree trunks in the middle of the tree wall.

He then discovered that there were fist-sized gaps between the branches, which Little Black Tower, with its petite size, could easily pass through without being blocked by the tree wall.

But he can't.

He could only move forward along the fixed path enclosed by the tree wall.

Moreover, the black cat that saw him just now didn't seem to be attracted by his scent or come closer to him as Constance had described.

This is completely contrary to the original intention of Constantine in bringing him here.

In this way, he was no different from the other servants who were looking for the cat.

If we continue chasing aimlessly like this, we'll never catch the cat.

Chris stood still, not immediately following the direction of the airflow he sensed.

He approached the tree wall and peered through the gaps in the branches at the other side. At the end of the gaps, there was still an impenetrable tree wall.

He finally realized that this place was a huge maze surrounded by living trees.

"Phew~"

Chris slowly exhaled a breath of air carrying the scent of decaying leaves and dampness, suppressing the urge to give chase, and finally made his decision.

He planned to go back the way he came and tell Constance everything about the black cat getting into the tree wall maze.

Instead of venturing into this completely unknown labyrinth on your own.

He wasn't afraid of getting lost in the maze.

The airflow flowing through the gaps in the tree wall carried the unique dampness and rotten smell of the maze's interior, completely different from the wind at the outer entrance.

As long as it doesn't exceed his perception range, he can always find his way back by following the differences in airflow.

Even if there is absolutely no breeze here, he can use the power of the Holy Seal to create his own flowing air currents to mark his route.

Having considered all possible escape routes, Chris turned sideways, preparing to return to the entrance via the path he had come from.

But just as he turned to face the maze corridor on the right, he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye.

In the shadows at the far end of the corridor, a small, dark figure crouched quietly, motionless.

The other person only showed half of their face, and their round eyes were facing him. In the depths of their vertical pupils, against the backdrop of the dim environment, Chris could clearly perceive a faint, almost fluorescent purple rhythm.

Upon seeing this, Chris's movements suddenly froze, and even his breathing stopped for a moment.

His pupils dilated slightly as he stared intently into the cat's eyes, trying his best to see if the purple hue was real, an illusion caused by the light, or a figment of his imagination born from the astrology in his dream.

But the next moment, the black cat quickly turned around and disappeared into the shadows around the corner like a black shadow.

Chris reacted instantly, pushed off with his feet, and ran as fast as he could to the corner where the black cat had been sitting.

Before reaching the corner, he turned his head to look in the direction where the black cat had disappeared.

But what you see is still a straight, maze-like corridor, more than ten meters long, surrounded by a wall of trees.

There wasn't a trace of a black cat on the deserted road.

Even the thick layer of fallen leaves piled up on the road was so smooth that there wasn't a single trace of being stepped on or run over.

He squinted, extending his senses to their maximum to detect the airflow in the corridor, confirming that the end of the corridor ahead led to a fork in the road to the left.

But at that moment, Chris's expression froze again, a chill ran down his spine, and he suddenly realized something.

Just now, the black cat that his perception was firmly locked onto was still two hundred meters away in the depths of the maze, and its aura did not move at all.

Moreover, he could not sense any other living being breathing or airflow disturbances within his perception range.

What exactly was that black cat with purple eyes that appeared around the corner just now?

Chris began to feel a vague unease.

But his spiritual intuition still gave no warning of danger, not even the slightest fluctuation.

He stood there for a moment, pondering, and then activated his spiritual vision again.

This time, he held nothing back, boldly and meticulously scanning every inch of the surrounding tree wall and every fallen leaf, refusing to overlook any unusual detail.

A moment later, Chris deactivated his spiritual vision, his brows furrowing even more deeply, his eyes almost overflowing with doubt.

The surrounding trees, walls, ground, and air were all normal, with no trace of unusual energy.

But this excessive normality made him feel that the black cat from earlier was particularly eerie.

No, we absolutely cannot go any deeper.

The chill on his back grew stronger, and he even began to suspect that the cat's paw he had initially seen at the entrance to the maze did not belong to Little Black Tower at all, but to this strange black cat.

Perhaps, from the very beginning, he never found the real Little Black Tower; from the very beginning, he fell into a trap.

Looking back now, the cat's paw that was raised towards him at the entrance to the maze, as if beckoning...

This was not an unintentional action at all.

The other party was clearly deliberately luring him into this maze.

If that black cat was indeed some extraordinary creature he had never encountered before, what was its purpose in leading him in?

Why choose this particular Rockwell family maze?

What role did the Rockwell family play in this matter?

Chris's thoughts raced, and suddenly Constance came to mind.

At the party, she inexplicably asked him to help her find her cat. Now, looking back, every detail seems a bit off.

Although the black cat was almost identical to the image he had seen during his astrological dream last night.

But Chris suppressed his curiosity and decided to leave immediately.

This is the safest and most reliable approach at the moment.

He had finally escaped his mortgage and had only recently embarked on his holy path; his good days were just beginning.

There's no need to risk exploring things you know nothing about just for a cat of unknown origin.

Finding the black cat had entered the maze was enough to satisfy Constance.

The black cat didn't pounce on him like it did at the last tea party; he couldn't catch it, and there was nothing he could do.

With that thought in mind, Chris completely suppressed all his thoughts, slowly turned around, and walked back towards the entrance he had come from.

But after taking only two steps, he froze on the spot as if nailed to the ground.

"Where did the entrance go?"

Chris stared intently at the direction where the entrance used to be, but there was no trace of it left, not even a crack.

He rushed over, only to find a wall of trees, just like the rest of the surrounding area, made up of thick, tightly interwoven trunks.

Moreover, the gaps and holes between the trees and walls, large and small, had been completely filled with a viscous, cold, and eerie black substance.

He could no longer see anything outside through the crack; not even a breath of wind could get in.

Chris looked up sharply and saw that the trees that made up the tree wall were growing wildly upwards in his line of sight, reaching infinite heights until their tops pierced straight into the clouds, stretching as far as the eye could see.

He frowned, gritted his teeth slightly, and slowly lowered his head, somewhat unable to believe what he was seeing.

When he looked up again, the tree wall had returned to its original height of seven or eight meters, but the next second, it began to climb upwards at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"this……"

Chris's throat moved, and he swallowed the little saliva he had left.

He was trapped.