My Crazy Upgrade System-Chapter 81 - 80: Cracking the Puzzle
After making a lap around the area, Yi Tianyun discovered there was nothing there. It was just as the others had said; apart from the Trial Stele in the center, the rest of the place was completely empty.
Wandering around aimlessly was just a waste of time.
He immediately returned to the Trial Stele. Just as he got back, a beam of light vanished, followed by a ray of light descending from the sky. An object landed in a disciple’s hands.
The disciple excitedly caught the martial arts manual. After a closer look, however, a dejected expression appeared on his face. "A mid-grade Human Level martial art, not an Earth Level one..." He shook his head, finding it a great pity.
Although a mid-grade Human Level martial art was quite good, everyone who came here was aiming for an Earth Level one. Naturally, he was a bit crestfallen not to get one.
When he saw Yi Tianyun walking over, he got scared and quickly put the manual away, scurrying to the side. Without the protection of the beam of light, he was vulnerable. It wasn’t unheard of for someone’s martial art to be stolen.
If the other party was powerful, all one could do was swallow their anger and accept the loss. The most crucial part was that they only had one chance. If their reward was stolen, they would leave empty-handed. Coming back next year was useless; everyone only got a single opportunity. Once you left, you couldn’t re-enter.
This was reflected by the Token. After entering, the energy in the Token was completely depleted. It would only slowly recover after leaving, taking about one or two years to return to its original state.
If they could come and go as they pleased, they would have taken turns entering long ago instead of sitting here meditating.
After receiving their martial arts, they would either begin cultivating them immediately or stay here to train. The concentration of Spiritual Power here was higher than outside, so they were all eager to cultivate for a while. It was a rare opportunity.
Yi Tianyun merely glanced at him, completely uninterested, and found a spot to sit down and meditate. Only then did the disciple breathe a sigh of relief. ’Thank goodness Yi Tianyun isn’t interested in me. I wouldn’t even know how I died otherwise.’
After Yi Tianyun sat down to meditate, he was immediately enveloped by a beam of light. A moment later, he felt his consciousness being pulled into the Trial Stele!
He then felt as if he had entered an Illusion Realm. All around him were stone steles stuck in a vast expanse of yellow sand, a very peculiar sight. Each stele was inscribed with different content.
Yi Tianyun walked over, examining the steles one by one.
"Heaven-Transforming Palm..."
"Celestial Cloud Palm..."
"Illusory Light Palm..."
...
As he looked over the steles, he found they were all names of martial arts—specifically, offensive ones, not any Body Techniques. The steles only showed the names of the martial arts, with no mention of their grade or effects.
This meant that picking a good martial art could only be judged by its name. Before coming, he had learned a little about the Celestial Sinking Ruins. The main point of entering was to choose a martial art. However, after a martial art was chosen, its stele would disappear forever, never to appear again.
Therefore, once an Earth Level martial art was taken, it would be gone for good. There was no point in memorizing a name and coming back for it later; it would be completely gone, so remembering it was meaningless.
However, Yi Tianyun had no interest in this place. He was more focused on completing his main quest. ’How can I control the entire Celestial Sinking Ruins from here?’
’How can I complete the quest?’
Yi Tianyun frowned as he walked on. The number of martial arts before him was simply staggering. However, he believed the vast majority were Human Level. It wasn’t surprising that the expert who created the Celestial Sinking Ruins would possess so many Human Level martial arts.
For a first-grade faction, Human Level martial arts were decent, but for high-grade factions, they were garbage.
After wandering in a large circle, he still couldn’t find a single clue. There were no hints to begin with, and just staring at this massive pile of steles revealed absolutely nothing.
’Looks like I’ll have to use my trump card...’
A glint flashed in Yi Tianyun’s eyes, and he immediately activated his "Luck Aura"!
He had no other options left. Relying on this, his Luck Level instantly skyrocketed fivefold! Based on his one hundred points of Karma Value, this was equivalent to a 500-fold increase!
Of course, Luck Level wasn’t actually calculated that way. After all, his Karma Value had been zero before, yet under the Luck Aura, he’d still had a romantic encounter and stumbled upon other good things. Everyone has a hidden, latent Luck Level, though whether it’s high or low is an unknown.
However, with the bonus from his Karma Value, his Luck Level naturally soared. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so eager to complete quests that awarded Karma Value.
After activating the Luck Aura, Yi Tianyun didn’t touch any of the steles. Instead, he just wandered around randomly to see if anything would change. But after making a large lap, he still saw no difference. Just like before, everywhere he went, there was just a pile of steles, completely unchanged. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
He even glanced around and saw some of the exact same steles as before; nothing was different.
’That’s strange. Is even activating the Luck Aura useless this time?’
Yi Tianyun frowned. ’Don’t tell me my Luck Level isn’t high enough?’
He walked another circle and found it pointless, so he could only deactivate the Luck Aura. In the end, he had no choice but to resign himself to picking one of the steles. No matter how much he wandered, he couldn’t get out of this place. No matter how he ran, he always ended up back in this same area, completely unable to leave.
Just as he chose a stele that looked agreeable and was about to touch it, his hand suddenly shot back as if he’d received an electric shock.
’Wait, if this is a Maze Array, then these steles must be the cores of the array!’
Yi Tianyun stood up, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the area. A solution diagram quickly formed in his mind, and he soon locked onto the key to breaking this Array—the stele right in front of him!
Yi Tianyun slapped his thigh and cursed, "Son of a bitch! No wonder it felt useless! My luck led me to this one from the start! What a waste of my Madness Value!" He was heartbroken over it. He had wandered in a huge circle only to find the answer was right in front of him all along, wasting a ton of Madness Value in the process.
’But the solution isn’t to touch it, it’s to destroy it!’ He immediately aimed a fierce punch at the stele. With a loud BOOM, the entire stele was smashed into countless pieces.
After the stele shattered, the surrounding environment rapidly vanished. The yellow sand, the other steles—everything disappeared. A moment later, he found himself in another special environment: a tranquil island under a blue sky, surrounded by an azure sea.
’So destroying it really was the way in. The difficulty was pretty high, it seems. If you don’t solve the outer Maze Array, you can’t get in here. Those who don’t understand how will just have to choose one of the martial arts outside.’
Yi Tianyun shook his head. If he had chosen to touch it, he probably would have just obtained that martial art instead of entering this place.
It seemed that even if you were lucky enough to find the right target, it was still meaningless if you didn’t complete the task according to the rules.
Anyone else would have tried to touch it, not destroy it. Even if they were lucky enough to choose the correct stele for breaking the array, if they touched it instead of destroying it, they would have still failed in the end. It’s possible, however, that doing so might have rewarded them with an Earth Level martial art. Regardless, it was still the correct stele.
But Yi Tianyun wouldn’t stop there. He was going to obtain the entire Celestial Sinking Ruins!
