“Stop!”

  “What are you doing!?”

  “Don’t touch that orb!”

  At the very instant Qin Yi’s hand was about to brush the yellow sphere, several furious shouts exploded through the chamber.

  The nearest few reacted without hesitation, flashing forward to block him as if facing a mortal enemy.

  “Fellow Daoist, think carefully!” Jin Suan stood firmly before him, refusing to yield an inch. “We only have two chances. We cannot waste one so recklessly!”

  “Have you lost your mind!?” Shi Meng roared, temper flaring. “You know nothing, yet you want to gamble on some baseless luck? If you want to die, don’t drag us with you!”

  Even Mei Ji’s face was tight with urgency. “Stop right there! If you dare act rashly, I won’t forgive you!”

  Seeing their reaction, Qin Yi understood.

  They were truly afraid.

  Afraid he would make a blind decision and condemn them all.

  So he stopped.

  Under their furious gazes, he slowly turned around, spread his hands, and smiled faintly.

  “Why so anxious? I only wanted to take a closer look at the lock, to see if there’s a clue we’ve overlooked. There’s no need to panic.”

  “Who’s panicking?” Mei Ji snapped, arms crossed, her expression dripping with disdain. “We’re preventing a fool from making a decision he doesn’t understand and getting us all killed.”

  Qin Yi’s smile did not fade.

  “In your eyes, I’m a fool?”

  “Are you not?” she sneered. “You confidently claimed there must be clues in this room. And yet we’ve searched for so long and found nothing. Doesn’t that prove you were wrong from the start? That you misled us? How clever can someone like you possibly be?”

  Qin Yi remained calm.

  “I already told you. If you can’t find a clue, perhaps it’s because it’s hidden too deeply. Or perhaps the clue has been before your eyes all along, and you simply failed to see it.”

  Mei Ji’s contempt deepened.

  “Then tell us. Where is this invisible clue?”

  Qin Yi’s gaze swept across the group, then settled upon the massive stone door.

  “The clue is on the lock,” he said evenly. “If there’s nothing anywhere else, then the only possibility is it.”

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  “The rule says we have two attempts. That statement itself is a clue. Now, I intend to use one of those attempts to uncover another clue.”

  “What nonsense!” Shi Meng barked immediately, eyes blazing. “You haven’t found a single piece of evidence, yet you want to waste one of our precious chances on your ridiculous guess? Absolutely not! That makes no sense!”

  “Exactly!”

  “Why should we trust an unfounded speculation?”

  Voices rose in protest. Nearly everyone turned against Qin Yi.

  Yet even under such collective hostility, he showed not the slightest trace of panic. Instead, he let out a faint, disdainful laugh.

  “That’s why I said you’re all fools,” he said quietly, though every word carried clearly. “If you had let me act earlier, you’d already be out by now.”

  “But it doesn’t matter. I can see it clearly. Without me, none of you will ever leave this place.”

  “So stay.”

  The instant his words fell

  “You’re courting death!”

  “How arrogant! Who do you think you are?”

  “Don’t think we won’t kill you! No one would know!”

  Murderous gazes locked onto him.

  But Qin Yi remained unmoved, his smile sharpening.

  “Very well. I hope you find your own way out. But if you fail, and you come begging me for help…”

  “By then, I won’t be as agreeable.”

  With that, he turned and walked to a corner of the chamber, sat cross-legged, and closed his eyes as if everything around him no longer concerned him.

  The others burned with anger, yet could do nothing.

  They could only leave him aside and regroup.

  “What do we do now?” You Ying asked, his indistinct face clouded with worry.

  “What else?” Shi Meng growled. “We keep searching! I refuse to believe there’s nothing in a chamber this large!”

  “But we’ve already searched multiple times,” Su Xiaoxiao said helplessly. “We even scraped the cracks in the walls.”

  “We must think of another way,” Mei Ji insisted.

  “What way?” someone retorted. “Surely not like that lunatic suggested, destroying an orb first?”

  “Of course not!” Mei Ji snapped. “We’ll figure it out ourselves. With so many of us, are we really going to rely on him?”

  Time passed.

  Qin Yi remained seated in the corner, watching coldly.

  The group’s heated discussions gradually turned into repeated, painstaking searches.

  Each round more meticulous than the last.

  They left no stone unturned, no tile unchecked.

  And still, nothing.

  Eventually, frustration seeped into the air.

  Even Shi Meng, stubborn as he was, began rummaging through the mountain of white bones piled in one corner, examining them one by one as though some forgotten clue might be hidden among the remains.

  At that sight

  Qin Yi finally laughed.

  A soft chuckle.

  In the confined chamber, it sounded harsh.

  “How could the clue possibly be among those bones?” he drawled. “It’s obvious they were just like you. They found nothing and were trapped here until they starved. Looking for answers in fools like them… doesn’t that make you even more foolish?”

  “Shut up!”

  Shi Meng’s furious roar echoed as he strode over like a raging tower of iron.

  He loomed over Qin Yi, eyes blazing, fists clenched.

  For a moment, it seemed he might strike.

  Yet Qin Yi did not flinch.

  “Stop trying to intimidate people,” he said coolly. “Something here suppresses us. Your body is no stronger than an ordinary mortal’s now. If we truly fought, you might not even defeat me.”

  “And even if you killed me, you still wouldn’t get out. In fact, you’d lose your only chance.”

  Shi Meng trembled with rage.

  He raised his massive fist

  And smashed it into the stone wall beside Qin Yi.

  A dull boom resounded.

  The wall remained unmoved.

  Blood seeped from his knuckles.

  His fist had stopped mere inches from Qin Yi’s face.

  But he had not struck him.

  Only then did Qin Yi smile.

  He rose slowly, brushed dust from his robes, and addressed the group who had clearly run out of options.

  “So,” he said lightly, “have you finally given up?”

  “Then do as I suggested. Destroy one orb first.”

  “If a new clue appears afterward, that proves my guess is correct.”

  “And if I’m right, I can lead you through the rest of the trials here.”

  “But in return, from that point on, you must follow my arrangements without question.”

  He spread his hands.

  “That is my proposal.”

  “As for whether you cooperate…”

  “That decision is yours.”

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