Weeks passed by as Dyon silently meditated. He had long since recovered his stamina, but he was seemingly waiting for something.
The ground beneath his feet shifted faster and faster as the walls of the maze continued to blend. There was no doubt that an element of danger was now very much present.
When Dyon had attempted to fly over the top of the walls, that had obviously not worked. So, what would the next logical step be? Wouldn’t it be to test to see whether the walls could be broken through? After all, if Dyon could simply burst through without memorizing a thing, it would be the easiest method by far.
However, as one might expect, when Dyon attempted to do this, he found the material of the maze walls to be easily of higher quality than his puppets! The sheer amount of wealth needed to construct such a place was something Dyon couldn’t even fathom even with his vast knowledge and intelligence. It was simply an astronomical number.
One had to know that Dyon’s puppets were made of material so sturdy that it was difficult for even a dao formation expert to harm it, and that was without any energy filtering through it at all! When Elder Daiyu shattered his 4th stage celestial puppet, it was because the arrays within it were destroyed by him first, as such, the armor could only protect its own self. And yet, even in that case, it was difficult to break.
But, this maze was completely different. Not only was the material of a higher grade, considering the energy that was constantly feeding into Dyon to stave off his hunger, and the fact the entire maze was moving, one could imagine the amount of energy available to it!
All of this taken into account, it was simply impossible for Dyon to even think of scratching these maze walls.
Initially, one might not see the problem with this, especially since the walls themselves were stationary when this trial began. However, weren’t they moving now?
In order to move forward, Dyon would have no choice but to run through these moving walls as they continuously got faster and faster. Even at the point he stood now, the walls were already moving at nearly 100 km/h. Just what speed would the achieve near the end?
And yet, Dyon sat cross legged, waiting. Not moving a single inch as the walls around him and the ground continuously moved faster.
100 km/h. 150 km/h. 200 km/h…
199.9999… km/h…
Dyon’s eyes snapped opened, his wings unfurling the very instant he felt the speed dip down by even the most minute of measures.
Dyon instantly became a blur. Although his wings were no longer supported by his soul strength, the prowess of his body was enough to reach unreal speeds.
His body twisted in the air, turning at impossible angles, narrowly dodging the constantly moving walls that threatened his life.
There was a method to Dyon’s madness, of course. The moment the maze started to move, Dyon immediately made the observation that further layers moved faster than the layer he stood on. However, this was not all he observed.
Although it was subtle, Dyon also noticed a slight deceleration in the pace the layer he stood on was moving. In fact, the change was so subtle that even Dyon’s grand teacher couldn’t help but praise him for noticing it so quickly.
When Dyon noticed this, he decided to take a gamble.
After Dyon realized that layers closer to the edge moved faster relative to other layers, the obvious observation was that since his layer was slowly down, that meant it was moving toward the center. And yet, Dyon decided to not move at all!
This would seem like the worst thing to do in this situation. What if the maze was trying to undo all of the work you had done? Shouldn’t you immediately try and fight against it as soon as possible?
However, Dyon thought beyond that. Considering the maze was circular, judging by the curve of its walls, doesn’t that mean that there was a likelihood that after it finished slowing down, it would then pick back up in speed? And when it reached its peak speed, wouldn’t that mean that Dyon was closer to the edge than he had ever been before?
Dyon knew that this was a gamble. There was always the chance that once the layer he was in reached 0 km/h, that it would just stop, leaving Dyon stranded in the middle. But, Dyon’s perception and guts told him different.
So, Dyon sat in meditation, paying attention to every minute change in the maze, and once he realized layers behind him were speed up, he knew made the right choice.
Although Dyon didn’t know it now, he had traded in weeks of waiting time for 20 years.
The truth was that the time limit of 10 years for the perfect prize should have been impossible to grasp unless you saw through the maze perfectly. Since the size of the maze was decided on the age of the one who entered, it was always adjusted such that it would take 25 years to complete. But, not only had Dyon completed the 5-year segment in a mere year and a half, he had completed the 20-year segment in three months!
Dyon’s speed burst to another level. There was no joy in his eyes when he saw the exit. He never expected to fail, and he never once felt any form of despair, as such, why would he feel happy?
The only thought in Dyon’s mind was the second trial. This time, it would be a test of his intellect and his strength.