With only seven minutes remaining, anxiety steadily mounted in everyone's hearts as they began another round of brainstorming.
"A fake is still a fake in the end. The mirror might copy memories, personality, and power, but there is one thing it cannot replicate!" Zhao Chenghuang spoke up.
"And that is potential and talent. These two things are hidden attributes everyone possesses, surfacing only under specific circumstances—such as a life-or-death crisis."
The crown prince of the Taiyi Sect raised his chin and looked at the other version of himself beside him. "We fight. Whoever survives is the original."
The other Zhao Chenghuang adopted an even colder expression, his gaze brimming with disdain. "My thoughts exactly."
Hearing this, Brother Red Chicken was overjoyed. "We should've done this long ago! A good brawl solves everything."
Both Brother Red Chickens wound up an arm, ready to throw down. When it came to fighting, Fire Masters never backed down from anyone; not even the Bewitching Demons, hailed as "Ancient Gods of War," were as pugnacious as a Fire Master.
"There isn't enough time!" Guan Ya stopped the two Brother Red Chickens, her brain spinning at top speed. "Is there a quick, efficient way to stimulate potential and test talent?"
Zhao Chenghuang's suggestion wouldn't work, but the underlying logic was sound.
"With skills and items sealed, fighting really is the best approach," Zhang Yuanqing remarked with a shake of his head before falling silent, concentrating deeply.
Sun Miaomiao called out, "I have wraiths inside my body! A clone definitely won't have them."
No sooner had she spoken than the other Sun Miaomiao beside her opened her mouth and exhaled a stream of Lunar Qi, which transformed into wraiths one after another.
The first Sun Miaomiao's expression froze instantly, and she could only silently spit out her own spirit servants to prove her innocence.
"This room can replicate even us—why did you think it couldn't replicate spirit servants?" World Returns to Fire said, disappointed by Six Waters' intellect, speaking at a rapid clip. "Have you read Journey to the West? Remember the story of the Real and Fake Monkey Kings? The Six-Eared Macaque was identical to the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, and no one could tell them apart. In the end, it was the Buddha of the Western Paradise, possessing boundless divine might, who exposed the fake monkey's identity."
Before World Returns to Fire could finish, the two Brother Red Chickens chimed in excitedly, speaking over each other:
"I know this one! I know this one! The real monkey actually died back then! The real monkey was unruly and untamable, so after watching him for a while, the Buddha decided he'd never amount to anything and sent the Six-Eared Macaque to replace him! Diting was the only divine beast who could tell the real and fake Monkey Kings apart, but it saw through the Buddha's conspiracy and didn't dare expose it, so it lied and said it didn't dare offend the fake monkey, when really it didn't dare offend the Buddha behind him—"
Brother Red Chicken had just reached that point when World Returns to Fire kicked him flying, roaring furiously:
"We're running out of time! Shut up and listen to me!"
World Returns to Fire rarely lost his temper—unless he truly couldn't hold it in.
Ignoring the two Brother Red Chickens, he continued:
"What I'm saying is simple: the Buddha distinguished the real monkey from the fake, and he didn't rely on any clever tricks—he relied on absolute strength. The clones and originals have identical personalities, appearances, power, and memories. There's no way to distinguish them through tricks. Absolute strength is our only hope."
Saying this, World Returns to Fire turned toward Zhai Cai.
"Mr. Knight, you demonstrated power exceeding Level 7 just now and proved your identity. Can you unleash that power once more?"
Zhai Cai nodded. "At most one more time."
That was a desperate physical art from the Knight legacy. Every use squeezed out physical vitality. Use it once, cellular activity drops; use it twice, organ failure; use it three times, drop dead on the spot.
World Returns to Fire glanced at the time—five minutes left—and unconsciously spoke faster. "Can you attempt to break the room's restrictions? Perhaps that's the true way out."
Not far away, the two Guan Yas frowned and cut in:
"Pan's Labyrinth is a Level 8 rule-based item, and the room is part of the item. It cannot be broken through external force."
World Returns to Fire countered forcefully, "Perhaps counter-intuition is exactly what's needed."
"Makes sense!" Zhai Cai rubbed his chin and nodded. Sweeping his gaze over the crowd, he spoke in a tone that hovered somewhere between despairing exasperation and mockery, "Well, it looks like you lot are out of ideas anyway. I'll give it a shot. If it doesn't work, at least I did everything I could. If your whole squad gets wiped out here, don't expect me to pay your families any bereavement money."
He turned and strode toward the wall that had supposedly become the exit. A brass-colored glow surfaced over his body once more, his muscles bulging into defined blocks as his height reached two meters.
The Single-Inheritance Knight broke into a sprint, pulled back his right arm, and slammed a fist into the wall embedded with hexagonal mirrors.
Thud!
His fist seemed to strike tempered glass. Distinct ripples washed through the air, followed by a succession of sharp cracking noises from Zhai Cai's fist and arm—the sound of shattering bones.
Yet the mirror-clad wall remained utterly motionless, without a scratch.
The hope in the eyes of the two World Returns to Fires dimmed instantly. His theory had failed, and he couldn't come up with another idea for the moment. Intense disappointment and anxiety left his mind a tangled mess, incapable of calm thought.
"Character cards!" Guan Ya suddenly said. "A character card cannot be replicated. That is the clones' only flaw. But for now, I can't think of a way to verify them."
Character cards were bound to the soul and normally invisible; only during a level-up would the mark of a character card emerge on one's forehead.
And in their current environment, leveling up on the spot was out of the question.
"Who says there's no way!" The other Guan Ya raised her brows. "Clones cannot enter the Spirit Realm."
She glanced at her boyfriend.
Zhang Yuanqing's eyes flared with light. Without character cards, clones naturally couldn't enter the Spirit Realm. As the sect master of Return of the Dead, he could pull members into a faction dungeon. Whoever could enter the Spirit Realm would be the original.
Those left behind in the room would be the clones.
Apart from the two Brother Red Chickens, all the other faction members grasped Guan Ya's meaning. Overjoyed in an instant, they turned to look at Zhang Yuanqing.
Right after, however, they watched the expression of Yuanshi Tianzun, their sect master, shift from delight to solemnity, from solemnity to disappointment, and finally into overwhelming anxiety.
Zhang Yuanqing shook his head. "The Spirit Realm can only be entered once a month, and we only have three minutes left. It's meaningless."
He had just tried, only to find that his status panel, just like the inventory, could not be opened.
If the status panel couldn't open, the faction panel—an auxiliary feature of the status panel—naturally couldn't be opened either.
A rule-based item might not be able to prevent the opening of a Spirit Realm dungeon, but all it needed to do was seal his panel.
Although the sect master hadn't stated it outright, everyone present was smart enough to understand his implication that this method wouldn't work. A wave of crushing disappointment washed over them.
And alongside it, despair.
They were all experienced Spirit Realm walkers who had even cleared S-tier dungeons, but in an S-tier dungeon of the Saint stage, they still had a fighting chance of survival. This Dominator-tier rule-based item, however, inspired pure despair.
Just one among its many rooms had left these Saints completely helpless.
Even a Dominator of the Knight class, even Yuanshi Tianzun, hadn't been able to devise a way through.
Such was the terror of a Dominator-tier item.
"Only three minutes left," Sun Miaomiao said, knitting her small brows and biting her lip. "Jumang, everyone, trust me! I'm the real Sun Miaomiao! Help me kill this fake!"
"Pah! You're the fake! Yuan—Jumang, Chenghuang, what are you waiting for? Attack her! Kill her!" The other Sun Miaomiao stamped her foot in frustration.
With identical strength between clone and original, winning a one-on-one duel was nearly impossible without teammates.
"Miaomiao, I'll help you!" The loyal Brother Red Chicken stepped forward, looking distressed. "Which one's the real you? If I kill the wrong one, the Taiyi Sect will hunt me to the ends of the earth!"
Both Sun Miaomiaos pointed at each other simultaneously: "She's the fake!"
"We truly can only take a gamble," World Returns to Fire said. "Everyone, if you believe me, help me kill the clone. If you believe the clone, kill me. We have to make a choice either way—it's better than waiting around to die."
"A fifty-fifty chance—definitely worth gambling on," the other World Returns to Fire sneered repeatedly. "You imposter."
Arguments broke out among the teammates, the atmosphere turning knife-edge tense. Second by second slipped away, and soon only two minutes remained.
At this moment, even the cynical Single-Inheritance Knight furrowed his brows and sighed. "What terrible luck, running into such a sickening dungeon."
He would much rather have encountered a combat-oriented trial. In that case, with his Dominator-tier combat strength and Jumang's Dominator-tier items, they could definitely have kept the team alive.
Unlike now, where he had broken through his own dilemma with ease yet was powerless to save his companions.
If the team was wiped out here, he would be completely on his own in any subsequent trials requiring group cooperation.
As the leader of the team and the sect master, both Zhang Yuanqings took in their companions' reactions, burning with inward anxiety.
This wasn't a dungeon. Dungeons offered a sliver of hope, giving clues for Spirit Realm walkers to decipher. This was a labyrinth—and the labyrinth existed solely to kill.
Therefore, in all likelihood, no intended solution existed.
If its goal was to kill you, why leave you a lifeline?
Thus, even a seasoned dungeon-clearing expert like him felt utterly stumped at this moment.
I brought them into this labyrinth, and I must bring them back out. As their sect master, I am responsible for their lives. Think of something, quickly, think...
Character cards are one-of-a-kind and cannot be replicated, but they can't be observed... Aside from character cards, unless the others possess unique, high-tier items like my Illusion God's Heart, proving their identity is almost impossible...
So to verify their identity, we still have to rely on character cards. But the faction panel is sealed, so I can't pull them into a dungeon...
Watching the countdown while racing through possibilities, Zhang Yuanqing felt his heart pounding violently, adrenaline surging.
With his mind pushed to its absolute limits, he looked as though he had just finished strenuous exercise, sweat beading on his forehead and breath coming in ragged gasps.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind. He had thought of a way—an extraordinarily risky way.
By this time, only one minute and thirty seconds remained before the countdown ended.
"I have an idea!" Zhang Yuanqing raised his voice, drawing everyone's attention. Beneath his teammates' bright, hopeful gazes, he sprinted over to Zhai Cai and said in a low voice:
"Mr. Knight, please turn around and look away for a moment. Time is running out."
Zhai Cai appraised him for a few seconds, then glanced toward the other Jumang who was still racking his brains, before looking back. "You're the real one?"
A discrepancy had appeared between the two Jumangs: one had come up with a solution while the other hadn't. This proved there was a flaw in the replication of memories—the two were not truly equivalent.
Zhai Cai chuckled. "You really do have something special about you, just like me!"
He turned around without hesitation.
Zhang Yuanqing turned toward his teammates and barked, "Assemble!"
Without hesitation or empty talk, anchored by absolute trust in their sect master, Guan Ya and the others assembled rapidly.
Zhang Yuanqing walked up to Guan Ya first and said, "Cooperate with me. Don't resist!"
He picked one of the Guan Yas, lifted his palm, and brought it down toward her face.
His palm instantly turned jet-black, sprouting thread-thin strands like hairs that squirmed and burrowed into Guan Ya's glabella.
Guan Ya screamed in agony, feeling as if her soul were being violently torn apart. Not even a Scout's fortitude could endure such torment.
This was Zhang Yuanqing's method: leveraging the authority of the Illusion God's Heart to attempt stripping away a character card!
This was the only way to observe a character card. Furthermore, the Illusion God's Heart was a demigod-tier item; though skills like Dream Traverse and Emotion Manipulation were sealed, stripping a character card was an ability comparable to the authority of a Spirit Realm administrator. The labyrinth could not suppress it.
Amid Guan Ya's anguished screams, Zhang Yuanqing sensed the character card. He immediately ceased the extraction. Supporting Guan Ya as her legs went weak, he looked at the other Guan Ya and said:
"She's the fake. Mr. Knight, that one's the fake!"
Zhai Cai whirled around, turning into an afterimage as he smashed into Guan Ya's clone, shattering her.
"No, impossible... I'm the real Guan Ya..." Her body tore apart under the terrifying impact, blood spraying everywhere.
Everyone stared with tense anticipation at the mangled mess of flesh on the floor. A dozen seconds later, the gore dissipated into nothingness.
Brother Red Chicken let out a loud whoop, and the others perked up, finally seeing hope of survival.
Only one minute left.
With time running short, Zhang Yuanqing eased Guan Ya aside after Zhai Cai turned around, took several brisk strides, and brought his palm down toward Sun Miaomiao.
Thread-thin black strands sprouted from his fingers, squirming into Sun Miaomiao's glabella. He sensed nothing.
"She's a fake." Zhang Yuanqing struck out hard with his palm, and before the clone could react, her head exploded.
In this manner, he verified the identities of Zhao Chenghuang, Brother Red Chicken, and World Returns to Fire one by one. With the assistance of Zhai Cai and his teammates, they slaughtered the clones.
As for Jumang's clone, the Single-Inheritance Knight had crushed him to death right after Guan Ya's identity was confirmed.
Just as World Returns to Fire's clone perished, the countdown ran out.
On the mirrored wall opposite them, a door emerged.
They could leave!
Chapter 736