Startled, Chu Tianxiao quickly looked at the golden hourglass, only to find that the sand was leaking out very quickly, and the volume of the hourglass was many times smaller than the previous level!
"What's going on..."
With an hourglass like this and a flow rate like this, all the gold sand will flow away in less than thirty breaths!
Thousands of puzzle pieces, hundreds of fourth-level beasts, and... only thirty breaths!
How is this possible!
Rustle!
Quicksand is honest. Even if Chu Tianxiao doesn't believe it, the speed and sound of the flow clearly tell Chu Tianxiao - you only have thirty breaths of time. Oh no... Due to Chu Tianxiao's daze, there are only twenty-five breaths of time left!
There is no time!
Stay calm, you must stay calm!
In the previous levels, Chu Tianxiao had noticed that as the sand in the hourglass continued to drain away, the red line that blocked the beasts would become fainter and fainter... Chu Tianxiao had no doubt that if he did not solve the puzzle within the specified time, these fourth-level beasts would never let go of this little fresh meat!
The retreat route has been completely blocked. Even if it is not blocked, it is blocked by the beast, so there is no way to retreat! Therefore... Now it is really a critical moment of life and death. The more it is at this moment, the calmer Tao is!
Chu Tianxiao took a deep breath and focused his eyes. He stood there like an ice sculpture, motionless, but his mind was working rapidly.
"Impossible! It's impossible to complete thousands of puzzle pieces in thirty breaths and defeat hundreds of fourth-level beasts!"
"There must be something fishy going on in these thirty breaths!"
"Could it be that... the puzzle is completely useless in this level? Should I just go straight in?"
"No... No! That's definitely suicide! If hundreds of level 4 beasts all sneeze at me, I'll die! It won't be like this..."
"So... so, thirty breaths... exactly... wait, thirty breaths, is that the total time... In other words, the questioner has already taken into account the time I spend thinking..."
"Then, the real time... should be only a few breaths! This level is about a flash of inspiration, about sudden enlightenment! So what needs to be done after enlightenment must be very simple... simplifying the complex... Is that possible!"
Chu Tianxiao's eyes suddenly lit up, and he grabbed the puzzle pieces with both hands. His eyes shuttled through the pieces like lightning, and then at a certain moment, a smile of realization appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“That’s it!”
There is a piece that is bright in color and easy to identify, but there is no groove on it at all, which means that this piece... is not part of the original puzzle at all!
This piece is the clue!
At this time, there were still ten breaths of time before the sand would run out, but Chu Tianxiao's heart suddenly sank when he realized something was wrong - there was no red line on this piece!
"... I saw in the Secret Records of the Imperial Garden that the first chamber was extremely difficult, but I didn't believe it at first. Now it seems that it is full of traps... Are they kidding me?"
“No… that’s not right! This piece is the most obvious. Obviously, this is just a hint…” Chu Tianxiao’s mind was working rapidly, and he quickly noticed a strange pattern on this piece. Most of the fragments did not have this pattern!
Chu Tianxiao quickly pressed the pattern, and immediately, a red light emanated from it, followed by a few sparse red lights among the thousands of fragments...
There are seven pieces in total, rising slowly!
Chu Tianxiao grabbed it quickly, and within a breath, he pieced it together. It turned out to be a straight and smooth road. Before Chu Tianxiao could think about it, the assembled small puzzle flew up quickly, and fell in front of Chu Tianxiao with a plop. Then, it expanded and extended rapidly within a breath, creating a smooth road with a red glow!
All the ferocious beasts should avoid them, for fear that they will not be able to dodge in time!
At this time, there are still four breaths of time before the sand runs out!
Chu Tianxiao gritted his teeth and shouted loudly, and his figure rushed forward with starlight flashing. His Dragon Escape Technique exerted 120% of its power at the critical moment, and his whole body shot out like a cannonball. However, such an extremely fast and extraordinary technique was prone to disorder. Chu Tianxiao couldn't control himself and his body couldn't be stopped, and he directly crashed into the iron gate!
At this time, there are still two breaths of time before the sand runs out!
The smooth road was no longer stable, and the ferocious beast was ready to move. It bared its greedy fangs at Chu Tianxiao, its saliva wet the ground, and a faint, muffled roar of joy came from the tip of its nose.
"Ugh!" Chu Tianxiao yelled angrily, not caring about the bruises on his face. He did not even get down from the iron gate. Instead, he grabbed the slowly rising bottom of the iron gate with both hands like a king lifting a tripod, and exerted force suddenly!
The ancient body-refining technique, with the power of nearly fifth-level marrow cleansing, is showing its power!
Click!
The slowly rising iron gate suddenly received external force and was lifted up rapidly in an instant, passing over Chu Tianxiao's head in a flash!
At this moment, only one breath is left before the sand runs out!
Chu Tianxiao lowered his waist, not caring about the weakness of his hands, and directly grabbed the bottom again. Then, like an orangutan moving through the woods, his body flew across and swung directly over!
With a snap, the iron door fell down quickly, stirring up a cloud of dust. The greedy eyes of the fourth-level beast were blocked before they could be restrained. A burst of roars came from behind the door, followed by the crackling sound of banging against the door. But no matter how fiercely they banged, the iron door remained motionless, but there were faint golden lights on it. Every time it floated, the beast outside screamed.
It was unknown how long this noise lasted before it gradually subsided. Hundreds of fourth-tier ferocious beasts wailed together, as if lamenting that the meat in their mouths had slipped away. The sound was like the howling of ghosts and wolves, extremely miserable.
Chu Tianxiao had experienced many ups and downs in a short period of time, and escaped from the tiger's mouth. The previous fierce force exhausted all his strength. Seeing that the beast's screams were shrill but gradually subsided, he felt relieved. As soon as his nerves relaxed, he collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath...
At this moment, an old and ethereal voice suddenly sounded in the air.
"Congratulations, you have passed the outer chamber. Now let's open the inner chamber."
"The faction has advanced one level... The current level is level seven, and the highest level is level twelve."
Hearing this, Chu Tianxiao narrowed his eyes and said, "Oh? The inner secret room?"
Before coming here, he knew that the secret room was divided into two parts - the outer room and the inner room. But he still didn't expect that the difficult test just now was only in the outer room...
"According to the "Secrets of the Imperial Garden", there is usually only one room inside the secret room. If you break through it, you can reach the 'hub of the secret room'. After opening the back door, you can go directly to the main building. If you can grab the 'mark' there first, then you will have a great advantage in the final battle for the main building..."
"And the key to the 'back door' leading to the main building is found inside the secret room. It's usually in the hands of a 'guardian'... However, not every secret room has it."
"... I don't know why, but I suddenly felt a sense of panic, as if something was going to go wrong... Well, this needs to be resolved as soon as possible."
Just as Chu Tianxiao was thinking, a gloomy voice suddenly sounded.
"Hehe, this is quite interesting... Someone can actually break in here..."
There was a chill in the voice, and Chu Tianxiao was startled. Regardless of his exhaustion and over-exertion of brain power, he stood up directly, sword in hand, ready to fight.
"Who are you?"