A bonus item? Hearing Yuanshi Tianzun's question, the spirit walkers first froze, then uniformly turned their gazes toward World Returns to Fire.
The method to escape the Moving Forest had been devised by him.
According to the completion mechanics of the previous two stages, an item—a consumable—was awarded to either the person with the greatest contribution or someone meeting specific criteria.
For instance, Yuanshi Tianzun, who had deduced the mist spiders' killing pattern; or Guan Ya, whose vitality was the most vibrant and had not been anemic.
Therefore, it made total sense for World Returns to Fire to receive an item reward.
Facing his teammates' stares, World Returns to Fire frowned. "I only received 10 points. I didn't get any bonus item."
Zhang Yuanqing glanced at him, looked around at everyone, and raised his voice again: "I'll ask one more time: who has the bonus item?"
The official spirit walkers exchanged glances in silence.
None of Your Business, a man in his early thirties with the dashing charm of a younger uncle, raised his hand and phrased his thoughts carefully: "I believe that whoever received the reward, it belongs to them. There's no need to interrogate everyone."
None of Your Business assumed Yuanshi Tianzun wanted to pool the rewards together to manage and use them himself, while the recipient—World Returns to Fire—was reluctant to surrender a prize earned through his own ability.
If handled poorly, this could create major friction within the team. The official spirit walkers present secretly frowned. Most of them were captain-level figures experienced in institutional dynamics; they knew that Yuanshi Tianzun's actions risked initiating a power struggle, plunging an otherwise harmonious team into discord and conflict.
Even though Elder Shibu had instructed everyone during the online conference on the eve of the killing trial to center around Yuanshi Tianzun, follow his lead, and assist one another, inside the trial itself, organizational directives served merely as reference. No one would truly obey unconditionally.
Zhang Yuanqing nodded and looked at his teammates. "I promise I will not demand that anyone hand over the item. Everyone here can bear witness. So now, can someone answer me: who received the bonus item?"
Still, no one spoke.
Zhang Yuanqing said in a heavy voice, "You see? I gave my word, yet still no one responds."
Peony Fairy, None of Your Business, and the others all frowned. They began to sense that something was wrong.
"Yuanshi Tianzun, what are you trying to say?" Peony Fairy asked.
*So it seems whoever got the item is the traitor...* Zhang Yuanqing said in a deep voice, "We are about to reach the summit, and there are some things I need to lay out openly with everyone."
He paused, then enunciated every word:
"There is a traitor among us.
"A traitor from the Dark Night Rose."
Everyone's expression changed.
Zhang Yuanqing continued:
"To be frank, before entering the killing trial, Elder Gou from the Songhai branch informed me that the three major evil organizations want to kill me and Fu Qingyang. Dark Night Rose is involved as well, and they plan to activate spies planted within the official factions.
"Not long ago, I lay in ambush outside the exit of the dense fog, attempting to launch a surprise attack on the evil faction. Little did I know they already anticipated my move and laid a counter-ambush trap. If not for my strength, I wouldn't have made it back alive."
Hearing this, the official spirit walkers realized how perilous the situation had been, and they couldn't help exchanging glances.
So it turned out that under such immense pressure, Yuanshi Tianzun had still managed to slay Human Nature Is Inherently Evil.
"Anyone paying close attention should have noticed the leaderboard. Aside from the three people I killed, not a single person in the evil faction died while crossing the mist spiders' territory. Furthermore, they have now crossed the Reproduction Forest, yet still with zero casualties. Does that seem normal to you?" Zhang Yuanqing questioned. "If not for a mole tipping them off and reporting our hard-won discoveries to the evil faction, how could they have cleared it so effortlessly?"
With grim expressions, the official spirit walkers pulled up the leaderboard and map. After checking, they confirmed that just as Yuanshi Tianzun had said, the evil faction had once again cleared the Reproduction Forest without a single casualty.
"No wonder the evil faction picked our route. They knew Yuanshi Tianzun is great at clearing dungeons, so they wanted a free ride on our efforts!"
"Fuck! Whoever the traitor is, I'm going to skin him alive!"
It wasn't just the Fire Masters who were seething; the other classes were thoroughly enraged as well.
Zhang Yuanqing said, "Whoever received the bonus and is keeping silent is the traitor. Right now, there are two primary suspects: one is The Little Match Boy, and the other is World Returns to Fire."
He relayed what World Returns to Fire had told him earlier to everyone.
Instantly, everyone stepped over to Yuanshi Tianzun's side, isolating the two.
The Little Match Boy glared at World Returns to Fire. "You're the fucking traitor, framing me like this! Do I have a grudge against you?!"
Turning to his companions, he shouted, "The reward for the Moving Forest must be on World Returns to Fire! He refused to take it out just now no matter what. Isn't it obvious who the traitor is?!"
Guan Ya asked, "Why were you touching the trees?"
The Little Match Boy frowned. "To try communicating with them, of course! Even though the plants in the labyrinth didn't seem capable of communicating all along the way, the quest prompt never explicitly stated that communication was useless. Besides, just because the earlier trees couldn't communicate doesn't mean all the plants along the way can't.
"I felt necessary attempts should be pursued, not abandoned."
This explanation was passable. While not overwhelmingly convincing, neither was it inherently flawed.
Yet compared to the boy, World Returns to Fire—who had single-handedly cracked the Moving Forest—was far more suspicious.
The reward item was almost certainly in his possession, and he had just refused to produce it.
Facing his teammates' questioning stares, World Returns to Fire took a deep breath, exercising admirable control over his emotions, and asked, "If I were the traitor, I would have handed the item over just now. Why would I do something that basically invites suspicion upon myself?"
"No!" Guan Ya poked a hole in his logic. "The spies Dark Night Rose planted in the Five Elements Alliance have evaded the grand health checks time and again. Lie-detecting items and skills at the Transcendent stage would never work on you. So you know that even if you don't turn in the item, we have no substantive evidence to incriminate you.
"And without evidence, Yuanshi won't kill you. Naturally, the same applies to The Little Match Boy."
World Returns to Fire sneered, "So what then? Unless the traitor confesses on his own, you have no way to weed him out. Aside from fracturing team morale, what good does making such a scene do?"
Zhang Yuanqing chuckled. "It does plenty of good! As long as we restrain the two of you, isn't the problem solved?"
With that, he brought out the Silencer Mask and said, "I need to restrict your freedom and keep both of you under watch. We're all colleagues here, so don't resist."
At a time like this, whoever resisted was effectively admitting to being the traitor.
Long Live the White Tiger immediately spoke up: "I have a restraining item."
"Me too," Niulanshan Little Fairy chimed in.
Their items were an iron chain and a wooden cangue, respectively.
The iron chain could bind limbs and restrict movement, while the wooden cangue could only bind the hands, but placed the target into a weakened state.
The Little Match Boy took a deep breath, his face full of indignant resentment, but he chose to comply. "The innocent need no defense!"
World Returns to Fire gave Yuanshi Tianzun a deep look. "Physical restraint is indeed a sound approach."
At Zhang Yuanqing's cue, the group bound the boy with the iron chain, and sealed World Returns to Fire using the wooden cangue and the mask.
Then, they had World Returns to Fire carry the boy on his back and lead the way forward under everyone's watchful eyes.
The group advanced toward the mountain summit. They were less than ten minutes away from the Mountain God Temple.
Approaching the exit, World Returns to Fire spoke up:
"Open your maps and take a look. The markers representing the evil faction have been advancing in an orderly fashion without any chaos or backtracking. What does that tell you?"
Peony Fairy and the others opened their maps to check. Indeed, it was just as he said, sending a chill through their hearts.
World Returns to Fire said in a heavy voice, "This shows they already know the method to clear the Moving Forest. But since we regrouped, we've all been together. If I were the mole, how could I have transmitted the information?"
*Ever since we regrouped, Guan Ya and I have been watching everyone's ears. Truly, no one was wearing an earpiece, and during this time, no one was whispering secretly either. There shouldn't have been any opportunity to pass intelligence...* Zhang Yuanqing pondered, then asked, "What are you getting at?"
World Returns to Fire shook his head. "I don't know, but my gut tells me something is wrong. I'll tell you once I figure it out."
As it turned out, World Returns to Fire hadn't figured it out even after they left the Labyrinth Forest.
[Ding! Congratulations on traversing the Labyrinth Forest. You are rewarded 30 points.]
From entering the Labyrinth Forest to exiting, clearing the three intermediate stages had awarded a total of 60 points.
On the leaderboard at this moment, Yuanshi Tianzun still held the top spot with 398 total points.
Second place was A-Yi at 190 points.
The others on the list each gained 20 points, leaving the rankings largely unchanged.
Point gains inside the labyrinth were fixed: clearing each stage awarded ten points.
Stepping out of the Labyrinth Forest, bright moonlight poured down everywhere. Ahead stood a temple constructed from piled boulders, rough and primitive in style, yet exuding an imposing grandeur.
Outside the temple lay an open clearing, free of weeds and trees. Empty and clean, it was barren save for a few flat stones lying horizontally across it.
This clearing had likely been used by the monkey tribe to worship the Mountain God.
The archaic Mountain God Temple stood quietly atop the mountain, bathed in moonlight against the backdrop of a clear night sky and lush, layered forest canopy.
Zhang Yuanqing and the others picked up their pace, crossing the clearing and ascending the crude stone steps into the Mountain God Temple.
The interior was spacious and rustic. Six thick stone pillars supported the vaulted ceiling, which was pieced together from large, thin stone slabs. The pillars themselves were stacked stones bound with mud.
Though crude and primitive, the mountain monkeys had indeed mastered basic principles of architecture.
Their intelligence was remarkable.
At the far end of the hall stood an elevated altar. Atop it stood a stone statue, vaguely female. Her facial features were indistinct, and she lacked carved clothing altogether, but the monkeys had painstakingly emphasized physical traits to convey that this Mountain God was female:
—A prominent chest!
In her hands, the statue held a staff woven from vines, its head embedded with an emerald-green gem.
Zhang Yuanqing led the group before the statue and reached out to touch the staff.
An invisible barrier blocked his movement. At the same time, a quest prompt rang out in his ear:
[Ding! This item cannot be touched!]
*A background set piece that spirit walkers can't interact with? But Side Quest Three mentioned that the evil cultivator sent lackeys to seize the Mountain God's staff... Can only the Mountain Ghost faction take it?*
Just as Zhang Yuanqing was pondering this, he heard Jiang Jingwei shout:
"There are paintings here!"
Everyone followed her voice. Jiang Jingwei was holding a "torch," standing by the wall and yelling while pointing at the murals on the stone.
The murals were weathered and faded. Most consisted of simple lines sketched with limestone, with a few splashes of color here and there, drawn in an extremely abstract style.
The group studied them carefully for a long time, deciphering and guessing before finally piecing together the murals' story.
It depicted a battle between the Mountain God and an evil cultivator. A powerful evil cultivator had rampaged through a city, bewitching the living inhabitants and gathering them together. Then, the stick figures on the mural began collapsing one after another, covered in blood (dyed using red berries).
Their blood pooled into a reservoir of gore, inside of which a pair of black eyes opened.
Just as people were dying en masse, the Mountain God descended with staff in hand, engaging the evil cultivator in fierce combat and successfully slaying him.
Afterward, the Mountain God erected "high walls" around the city, severing all contact between the city and the outside world.
"Strange. The mural shows that the evil cultivator was already killed by the Mountain God, so what was her purpose in sealing the city?"
"The evil cultivator seemed to be performing some kind of ritual. Those eyes in the blood pool... could the Mountain God's reason for sealing the city be to keep those eyes from getting out?"
"Must be. That's why our main quest is to reach the Lost City."
The group discussed in hushed tones.
Just then, Asano Ryo said loudly:
"The evil faction is almost here."
The official spirit walkers opened their maps to check. The evil faction had already crossed the Moving Forest and was very close to the exit of the Labyrinth Forest.
Zhang Yuanqing immediately said, "Let's head outside and prepare to fight... The other two teams haven't arrived yet, but they aren't far from the summit either."
The other two teams were advancing a bit slower; after all, neither had Yuanshi Tianzun among their ranks.
"Hopefully they'll arrive soon..." Peony Fairy sighed.
Otherwise, their team was bound to suffer heavy casualties.
Right then, someone let out a sneer:
"Don't worry, you won't need to fight. This stage is already in the bag for the Mountain Ghost faction."
Hearing this, everyone turned to look.
The speaker was Tone-Deaf. Standing by a stone pillar away from the crowd, a cold smile played on his lips as he produced a palm-sized miniature forest sandbox.
"Scram back to the Moving Forest!"
As his words fell, the forest sandbox dissolved into a burst of light motes that enveloped everyone present.
In the next second, they vanished.
He was the real traitor, the operative of Dark Night Rose.
After informing the evil faction of Yuanshi Tianzun's ambush plan, Tone-Deaf had considered that if the ambush failed, the existence of a mole would inevitably come to light.
He had to prepare a countermeasure.
So he had secretly used a Musician's hypnosis ability to influence an off-guard The Little Match Boy, making him deliberately exhibit a series of bizarre actions in front of World Returns to Fire.
A hypnotized person wouldn't perceive anything amiss, completely unaware that they had been hypnotized.
And given World Returns to Fire's intelligence, he would certainly notice the boy's anomalies. If Yuanshi Tianzun really returned alive, World Returns to Fire would undoubtedly report it to him.
With lie-detecting items rendered useless, Yuanshi Tianzun would most likely take measures to restrict the suspects' freedom.
Sure enough, Yuanshi Tianzun had done exactly that.
Still, the way things developed had slightly exceeded Tone-Deaf's expectations. Originally, he had merely wanted to shift blame onto someone else.
Yet he hadn't anticipated World Returns to Fire's remarkably brilliant maneuvers later on. But that worked out even better—with another suspect in the mix, he himself stayed entirely above suspicion.
The reward from the Moving Forest had also come as a surprise to him.
After becoming separated from the others, Tone-Deaf had thought of using reference points to navigate—a common technique when trapped in mazes—though he hadn't initially expected it to actually get him out of the Moving Forest.
Coincidentally, the spot he had been teleported to happened to be very close to the exit, so by sheer stroke of luck, he had become the first person to escape the Moving Forest.
Luck was inherently illogical; no matter how smart Yuanshi Tianzun was, he could never have deduced it.
Of course, Tone-Deaf couldn't hand over the reward item. Once he received the bonus item from the Moving Forest, he knew victory was assured. He first shared his method with the Mountain Ghost faction, then stowed the item away and re-entered the Moving Forest to rendezvous with the official spirit walkers.
Although he ended up as the last one to emerge, fortunately, no one suspected him.
Everything that followed went according to his plan. Although Yuanshi Tianzun lacked a method to expose the mole, he had adopted the crudest yet most effective solution: containment!
Yet those two were nothing more than red herrings.
Tone-Deaf cast a glance at the Mountain God's staff. Since members of the Mountain God faction couldn't interact with the item, he turned around without lingering and exited the temple, standing before the entrance to wait quietly.
Twenty minutes later, the evil faction, led by A-Yi and Nothing Is Taboo, made their way through the Labyrinth Forest and emerged onto the clearing outside the Mountain God Temple.
Nothing Is Taboo spotted Tone-Deaf standing at the entrance of the Mountain God Temple right away and curled his lips into a smirk.
"Nicely done!"
Tone-Deaf nodded slightly. "The staff is inside. Go in and take it."
Hearing their exchange, the evil faction's spirit walkers were not surprised in the least; they had attended the summit and knew someone within the official team was working with them.
They just hadn't known who it was.
"So it was you all along!"
"Dark Night Rose is sinister as hell—they even managed to turn a top-eight contestant from the arena tournament!"
"Hahaha! Yuanshi Tianzun is a dead man in this killing trial!"
Chattering among themselves, they hurried across the clearing toward the temple.
Suddenly, A-Yi's amber pupils caught sight of an exquisitely crafted pair of vintage boots standing beside a bluestone ahead. Woven from bright yellow silk, they were embroidered with delicate cloud patterns.
"Why would there be boots here?"
He stopped in his tracks, speaking in a low voice.
At the temple entrance, Tone-Deaf paused, taken aback.
He didn't recall such boots being there when he arrived.
Just as he was puzzling over it, a figure materialized beside the bluestone—it was none other than Yuanshi Tianzun.
Appearing out of thin air, he looked at the crowd with a teasing grin.
"Oh, those belong to me! Sorry, I left them here, just came back to pick them up."
No sooner had his voice fallen than another figure teleported back—a tall, radiant mixed-race beauty clad in vine armor, bracers, and greaves.
Chapter 260