THE MARTIAL KING, VOLUME 6 - Season 16 Episode 86

Over thirty seconds later, the square pillars of light disappeared once again. Simultaneously, all the giant stones began rolling one more time.

Now that everyone clearly understood the rules of the stones’ movement, they all felt slightly more at ease.

These stones only rolled along the squares of the ground. So long as the squares where they stayed were not in line with the stones, they could avoid the pillar of light.

Boom!

With that, the stones were no longer arranged in a row but instead were scattered and rolled out in every direction.

The eight surviving warriors now followed the rolling of the stones, constantly adjusting their positions.

“We can stand here!”

“Don’t stand there! A huge rock is rolling over! That place will be blocked soon.” “Come here!”

After the warriors found their new ‘safe spots’, they stopped moving and quietly waited for the giant stones to shoot out the square pillars of light.

Although the stones were all in a row just then, one row of squares were the ‘safe spots’.

In this moment, all the square boulders were in chaos—their safety spot was split apart.

Whoosh!

As the boulders rolled, Zen didn’t seem to be in a hurry to find his safe spot. Instead, he was shuttling back and forth between the boulders to examine them.
Since a stone was attacked by the short martial artist from the Blessed Buddha Land, a grimace remained on each side of all the square-shaped boulders.

“The key must be in the grimaces,” Zen spoke as his eyes frantically swept across the area.

“Boom!”

The moment all the boulders stopped rolling, Zen’s eyes flashed.

“Is there something different about the grimace on this boulder?”

Albeit faint, he could see that the color of a grimace on the boulder was slightly different from the others—on the other boulders, the grimaces were simply black lines, but the one on the bottom of the square boulder before him was dark red in color.

But just as Zen tried to move in closer, the stone turned over so that the red grimace was facing the ground. It was then impossible for Zen to lift it up and get a closer look.

At this moment, all the boulders kept still. Left without a better choice, Zen had to give up and find a safe spot nearby. He stood firmly where he was and continued to ponder.

Buzz…buzz…buzz…

Light pillars shot out from the four sides of all the giant rocks simultaneously. The forty-three giant, square rocks shot out a total of a hundred and seventy-two light pillars in four different directions.

Zen glanced at the terrifying might from within these pillars, and then he furrowed his brows and continued staring intently at the huge rock not far away.

The light from the pillars lasted for about thirty seconds before they gradually dissipated. Following this, all the boulders began rolling again.

Zen’s eyes were still fixated on the huge square boulder which now rolled itself over to expose the side facing the ground.

“The dark red grimace… Is it gone?” Zen’s brows knitted in confusion. The one clue he had gone through so much to find disappeared just like that.

This time, all the huge rocks rolled toward one side of the hall—it became clear that they all wanted to line up in a row again.

“One is missing here!” the ogre roared. The other warriors had no time to pay attention to anything else as they rushed toward that direction.

And Zen was no exception. After the boulders connected in a row, the only safe spot was that single gap.

The previously separated crowd stood together once again.

“Did you find anything?” With that, Janet could tell that Zen was looking for a solution.

“At the bottom,” Zen answered, “there seems to be a dark red grimace—it’s different from the others.”

“Really?” Janet’s eyes lit up upon hearing this. “Find that grimace and smash it into pieces!”

Although the tests in each Hall of Causality were different, one of the halls Janet had entered before was rather similar to this one. The key to working it out was finding a dragon sculpture among thirty three stone pillars and breaking it into pieces.

“That dark red grimace seems to have been deliberately hidden by these huge rocks. They even know how to change position to hide it,” Zen said, sounding helpless. “Even if we find it, we won’t be able to break it in time!”

“You’re right.” Janet’s small nose wrinkled slightly as she fell into deep thought.

“No matter what, let’s find that dark red grimace first,” a Demon Night woman said.

To that, everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

After gradually getting used to the rhythm of the rolling boulders, everyone grew calmer.

When the square boulders finally dispersed, they were no longer in a hurry to find a ‘safe spot’ to stay safe. Instead, they kept getting closer to the square boulders. Because at that moment, the square boulders were no longer trying to crush them.

Whoosh…whoosh…

One after another, figures began circling the enormous boulders.

“I saw it. It’s this piece! There is indeed a dark red grimace!” the ogre shouted out in excitement. “But it was pressed down by this giant boulder.”

As the ogre finished speaking, all the boulders shot out square beams of light once again. Originally, Zen wanted to rush over, but the square beams of light in front of him blocked his path.

Although he couldn’t see the dark red grimace this time, he managed to prove his hypothesis—at least, he could be sure about that.

The key definitely lay in the dark red grimace, but these giant boulders seemed to have their own thoughts. When they rolled, they would always hide the dark red grimace below them, and each of the forty three square boulders had six grimaces on them. That meant they had to find the red grimace among a total of two hundred and fifty-eight of them.

This was not an easy task.

Soon after, all the huge rocks once again lined up in a row, giving Zen and the others an opportunity to gather.

Everyone’s eyes met with each other, hoping that someone would think of a solution.

“I got one! But it’s kind of stupid,” Zen offered.

“Please tell us,” the Demon Night woman uttered. At that point, so long as Zen’s suggestion didn’t involve any risk of death, they would do anything.

“Who has the means to set up a trap?” Zen asked the crowd.

Hearing his words, the warrior wearing a round hat flicked the brim of his hat and smiled faintly. “I can do it.” With a gentle wave of his hand, three purple bamboos as thick as his little finger appeared in his hand. He sprinkled them lightly, and the purple bamboos fell to the ground and stood up on their own.

“They won’t work at all!” Zen shook his head.

“They’re purple thunder bamboos. When they explode, the impact…” The martial artist clearly wanted to continue going on about his bamboos, but Zen merely ignored him. How could he be willing to explain to this guy in such a rush?

Under the crushing pressure of the boulders, the purple thunder bamboos would be easily crushed to pieces.

What Zen needed was a trap similar to a divine texture—he had a suitable divine texture in his mind, but right now, it was impossible for him to inscribe one.

At this moment, some of the warriors were still left confused, but Janet and the short martial artist got a good idea of what Zen was planning.

As a square boulder continued to roll along, one side would eventually face the ground, covering the dark red grimace.

Then, they could set up traps all over the floor of the hall. So long as the grimace could turn over, it would get caught up in the traps when they were activated at the same time.

Although it seemed pretty stupid, it was an effective method.

“I can do that,” Janet said with a smile. “I can summon the Lofty Wood Texture!” With a flick of her fingers, a tiny bit of mysterious texture appeared on the two squares, one in front of her and the other behind.

With only a single thought, she made thorns spread out from the texture. Such was one of Janet’s most outstanding skills.

“I can do that too.” The short martial artist offered a nod before clasping his hands together. A bolt of thunder from the palm of his hand struck the ground next to him, creating a texture of lighting onto the square.

Not knowing where the square boulders would be moved, this foolish method was time-consuming and exhausting. Because it was necessary to fill in every square in the hall with traps.

But no one could come up with a better idea.

As they dodged, the two summoned their skills to set up traps on the squares of the ground, laying them out in rows.