Yang Yu tried out the red box, Bai Jin and the others cleared the monsters, and the guards had to race against time to execute Yang Yu's orders.
The more time you waste, the brighter the red box will be, and eventually all your efforts may be wasted and forced displacement may occur.
Under Yang Yu's command, the guards were like sophisticated machines, pushing the blocks in an orderly manner and placing them in the most appropriate positions.
It took nearly half an hour for Yang Yu and his team to repeatedly disassemble and reassemble the irregular closed pattern. Finally, Yang Yu pushed the last block into the shining red box.
But, this is not the end yet.
To clear the monsters that emerged from the blocks, Yang Yu commanded the team to push the pre-reserved movable blocks to the corners one by one.
Every corner is an unknown area, and there is no other way except to explore it thoroughly.
Fortunately, Yang Yu had reserved enough movable blocks in advance, more than enough to fill the unknown corners.
The guards pushed the blocks into the corners one by one. Most of the blocks were extremely calm, but there were only four blocks that seemed to have triggered some mechanism. Three magic circles appeared on their three exposed sides, summoning big fish that were stronger than the small fish monsters.
Bai Jin and Iyas reacted instantly. Before the monsters could attack the nearest guards, they killed those fragile and high-attack monsters near the blocks.
When the last small fish monster fell, a melodious hymn sounded on the wide chessboard, as if praising the wisdom and courage of Yang Yu and his companions.
Five beams of light of different colors fell from the sky, countless sparkling magic powers gathered towards the light column, and five tall Centaur warriors appeared in the light column.
These five brown Centaur warriors are over three meters tall, much larger than the Centaurs in this world. They are extremely well-equipped and their armor is shiny.
These Centaur warriors are the guardians of the ninth level.
Yang Yu immediately gave orders to the bewildered guards nearby:
"Guards, evacuate the ninth floor. Leave the rest to us."
Hearing Yang Yu's order, the guards rushed up the stairs and left the ninth floor.
Three centaurs jumped down from the blocks, waving their axes and charging towards Yang Yu, while the other two centaurs shot arrows to provide cover.
Yang Yu slightly tilted his head to avoid the shooting of the two centaurs, then raised his sword and walked towards the three centaurs rushing towards him.
Each of these Centaurs has over 120,000 HP, over 3,000 Strength, and over 2,000 Speed. They have short-range acceleration and displacement skills such as [Short-range Haste] and [Heroic Charge], as well as control skills such as [Stick to Naraku] and [Earth Tearing], and can also use terrain to make roundabout attacks.
Facing these five Centaurs, ordinary S-rank adventurers would find it very difficult.
But such maze class guardians pose no threat to Yang Yu and his team.
It's just a slightly stronger minnow.
Yang Yu swung out his sword to block the attacks of three Centaurs and hold them back for a while. With the dual blessing of Lolos and Iyas's enhancement skills, Bai Jin released multiple powerful spells in one breath, easily reducing the health of the five Centaurs to about 5,000.
Finally, Iyas Iyas drew her bow and used the offensive holy light skill [Judgement of Holy Light] to clear the field.
"Crackling", the spoils fell from the guardian who turned into magical light.
Thanks to Toias's luck, she got a lot of good stuff when she conquered the underground maze.
In addition to ten lost pages and many rare potions, Yang Yu also got two pieces of epic equipment and two skill scrolls.
Although they are not used, they can be sold for emergency use when funds are tight.
After collecting all the spoils, Yang Yu was just about to find the way to the tenth floor when the chessboard under their feet began to shake violently.
Suddenly, the blocks arranged around began to sink slowly and entered the ground perfectly without leaving any trace.
Immediately afterwards, the chessboard where Yang Yu and the others were located began to sink slowly.
A red light flashed on the empty ground, and a phoenix pattern appeared on the flat ground.
After descending about twenty or thirty meters, the descent suddenly stopped.
The ninth floor of this underground maze directly became the tenth floor.
Without any warning, the red light in front of Yang Yu and the others turned into blue light, and a huge magic circle with a fire phoenix pattern as its center spread out in the open area.
A phoenix with blue flames burning all over its body flapped its huge blue flaming wings and flew out of the magic circle, scattering countless blue sparks.
The Flame Phoenix faced Yang Yu and the others, suspended in mid-air, and let out a melodious cry. A blue flame blew out in all directions with it as the center.
Half squatting, Yang Yu raised his shield and used [Intercept]. An illusory shield quickly unfolded and split the blue flame into two.
Luo Luosi also hurriedly created a magic shell, which unfolded around Yang Yu's illusory shield and formed a small house, completely defending against the green flames.
After the flames that fell from the sky ended, the chessboard where Yang Yu and the others were was set on fire with crackling flames.
The Fire Phoenix flapped its wings violently three times, blowing up a gust of hot wind. The flames burning on the ground formed a huge green magic circle with it as the center.
A cyan flame icon appeared on Yang Yu and the others.
Yang Yu lightly tapped his finger, and the information on the icon was revealed.
[Phantom Fire Burning Array] As long as you are on this array, you will receive continuous damage of 20 per second and will be regarded as entering the Phantom Fire Burning state. In the Phantom Fire Burning state, Strength, Defense, Special Defense, and Speed will be reduced by 20%.
Yang Yu took out the burn medicine and tried to relieve the burns on his body, but after drinking several bottles in a row, it didn't work at all.
Iyas felt that after being surrounded by this strange magic circle, her strength dropped significantly. She just stretched out her hand and wanted to use the "Dispel All" skill to remove the abnormal status of everyone, but was stopped by Yang Yu:
"Iyas. As long as we stand in this burning area, the abnormal state on us may not be dispelled. Take Lotkar, keep a distance from it, and attack."
Iyas climbed onto Lothkar without saying much, while Bai Jin had already flown high into the sky using the Air Dance Technique, chanting water magic, preparing to launch an attack.
Luo Luosi put away the straw in his mouth and said with emotion: "It really reminds me of the past. The adventure group I belong to also conquered the underground maze together like you. This Flame Phoenix is not simple. It is the third strongest underground maze guardian I have ever seen."
Yang Yu pointed to Lothkar's back to Lolos:
"It's dangerous here too. You can also ride on Lotkar's back and support us. I believe your past experience in conquering underground labyrinths will come in handy."
Driving the shell to fly, Luo Luosi smiled and said, "With your current strength, you can probably easily deal with this fire phoenix without my special support."
Yang Yu shook his head, looked up at the flaming phoenix dancing in the sky, and replied:
"That's not necessarily true."
(End of this chapter)