THE MARTIAL KING - Season 10 Episode 26

“What is this…”

Needless to say, Shane was terribly confused of what Zen was asking him to do.

“Just do as I say,” Zen urged him, giving him a pointed look.

Distractedly turning his back to look at Malcom, Shane gulped once he saw him staring at him with such fierceness. With no other choice, Shane sighed in defeat as he walked over to Zen and the man instantly covered his eyes with the cloth. After blindfolding Shane, Zen then asserted, “Now, move forward.”

Under Zen’s directive, Shane took his first step forward and hesitantly walked further.

“Go, keep going!”

With Zen constantly urging him from behind, Shane lost his uncertainty little by little and his speed steadily increased as he rapidly strode onward.

A hundred feet easily became two hundred, which reached three hundred in no time at all. Not a long moment after, he had walked over four hundred feet.

The young warrior was already far ahead, and his figure slowly sank into the embrace of the fog, like a stone dropping into a vast lake.

“Where am I? Can I stop now?” he asked, his voice briefly cracking due to him being slightly worried of his surroundings. In reality, Shane was not the type of person to be overly courageous in the face of something he feared. Furthermore, he was currently in the Dark Nether Cave. Who knew whether a demonic beast would suddenly jump out and swallow him in the next moment? As he was temporarily banned from using his sight, he felt his heartbeat rise erratically with the sudden realization that he was alone.

Before Malcom was about to say something as he noticed something strange, Zen stopped him. At the same time, Zen activated his life vitality to talk to Shane directly, “Go, go on! You’re very close to the finish line!”

Upon hearing the urgent voice, Shane quickened his pace significantly and rushed forward without hesitation.

From the start of his walk until the end, everyone attentively observed Shane’s movements to see if what Zen was spouting was indeed true. Loud gasps were heard from the warriors as they watched Shane walk around in a big circle before finally returning to the starting point, which was beside Zen. Once he stopped, Zen then took the cloth off Shane’s face.

The moment Shane opened his eyes and blinked to adjust his vision from the sudden brightness, he immediately saw everyone standing around him. Confusedly tilting his head to one side, he asked them apprehensively, “You…, you have been following me the entire time?”

Everyone shook their heads in denial. In fact, they had not moved even a single inch after Shane started walking.

“B-but, but..” he started to stammer. “I was walking in a straight line just now!” Shane stated in confusion, wildly looking at the other people gathered around him in dismay–they, too, were in disbelief at what they had just witnessed.

“You think you were walking in a straight line, but you were not, clearly,” the young man said indifferently, although his eyes were alight with passion. “The reason we can usually walk in a straight line is actually because we have something stationary and obvious that allows us to use it as a reference!”

Rolling his eyes at the blank expressions of the other warriors, Zen continued, “For example, if there happened to be a mountain up ahead, you can use that as your object of reference when you approach it. This way, you can maintain a straight line!”

“But in this fog,” Zen paused before lowering the volume of his voice. “All the reference objects have disappeared, as if this dense fog has become a piece of cloth covering our eyes.”

With a solemn tone, Zen then addressed all of them, “That is why we are walking in a perpetual circle.”

“So that explains it, then. Well, how come I’ve never heard of it?” Fabian asked curiously, with the others behind him nodding vehemently in agreement.

The young man did not bother replying as he shook his head desolately. It was true that in this chaotic Sea God Continent, killing was the ultimate means to survive. It was definitely not as stable and peaceful compared to the lives people led in the Central Region. In this forlorn place, there was no culture heritable. Therefore, in that moment, Zen could finally understand why they were ignorant of this simple principle.

“What should we do now?” biting her lower lip unconsciously, Esther turned to Zen and asked him with a hopeful expression on her face.

At that instant, everyone seemed to follow her lead as they all turned to look at Zen. It was obvious by the way they all regarded him with seriousness that they all saw hope from Zen. In a situation where they did not understand what was happening around them, Zen’s miraculous stunt was impressive and gave them a newfound sense of hope.

“We need to continue walking!” he declared. Unsheathing his long sword, Zen determinedly stood as he made a visible mark on the ground before choosing a direction to walk forward.

Everyone glanced at one another and their gazes became more and more resolute. Within that short moment, it was like everyone’s thoughts had been united–they placed all their hopes on Zen to get them out of the intrusive fog.

In actuality, Zen did not finish what he had intended to say earlier. As a matter of fact, he did not have any object around as his reference in the first place!

Eventually, the space ring located on his chest was the only thing that he relied on to give him a sense of direction.

The further away Zen was from the inheritance that the immortal Mist had mentioned, the ring on his chest was supposed to feel slightly colder. Similarly, the closer he was to the location of the inheritance, Zen would definitely feel a higher temperature emitting from the ring on his chest.

More so, as long as the temperature inside the space ring significantly decreased, the Jade Butterfly located in the Sumeru Space would glow with less and less flames. What this meant was that everyone was constantly distancing themselves from the core area.

In this line of reasoning, it should not be difficult for them to leave the core area upon using the space ring.

After all, the Jade Butterfly acted as a beacon for all of them.

However, Zen could not deny that this fog was truly strange, making it possible for people to lose their sense of direction quite easily. Just now, upon trying to return and walk out of the fog, the temperature of the space ring had initially decreased, but it suddenly spiked up without warning some time later. All the way through, Zen observed with trepidation that the temperature was constantly changing.

In conclusion, this only meant that they had not been walking in a straight line, nor had they been going in a circle just like their speculation. Instead, he realized with a start that they had moved sometimes left, sometimes right, sometimes far away, and sometimes unnervingly close.

It was as if they were lost in a special space!

Despite his sudden alarm at what he had just become aware of, Zen did not dare reveal the secret to the others due to the following considerations. Firstly, it was unnecessary for him to divulge it as of now, and secondly, it might even cause more panic and anxiety.

At the present, everyone continued to move forward even more cautiously. It was not just Zen alone who would occasionally drop down and make some marks, but the others soon followed his example. .

Without them noticing, five minutes had passed.

Ten minutes later, they still persistently walked forward.

Fifteen minutes later, they were still going at it, to no avail.

Although some of them started to feel tired and worn out, the warriors determinedly strode forward even after two hours had passed.

With their method, it was not long before they reached the four-hour mark.
As time perpetually ticked on and on, everyone’s heart, as well as their hope in ever finding a way out, gradually sank to the bottom.

Even though they did use their own methods to leave marks on the ground, it was to their disappointment later on when they eventually found out that the marks they had left were useless as they reappeared disorderly. For example, upon discovering the first mark and expecting to see the second mark next, they all groaned inaudibly as the sixth mark popped out in front of them instead.

In this fog, panic seized their very bones as there seemed to be a massive space maze around them.