Chapter 215 Crossroads
Zhou Wen and Li Xuan hurriedly went over and pulled the lunatic’s hand out of the door.
When they went over, both of them had been very careful and hadn’t crossed the threshold. As long as they didn’t cross it, it wouldn’t be considered as entering the temple for a trial.
However, just as Zhou Wen grabbed the madman’s hand, he felt a strange force from inside the Trajectory Holy Temple pull him in.
Zhou Wen immediately sensed that something was amiss. He and Li Xuan had clearly held onto the madman’s hand at the same time without crossing the threshold. Why was Li Xuan fine, but he had been pulled into the door by some force?
Li Xuan reached out his hand to grab Zhou Wen, but it was too late. Zhou Wen was sucked inside and with a bang, the door to the temple automatically closed and left Li Xuan outside.
Seeing that he and the lunatic were locked inside, Zhou Wen pulled the lunatic away in a bid to head back. Typically, even if the trial had begun, he could still choose to withdraw.
However, when Zhou Wen turned around, he was dumbfounded. There was no stone door behind him. Not only so, was nothing there, but there was only a straight road leading far into the distance. At the end of the road were blue skies and white clouds.
Zhou Wen turned his body 360 degrees and immediately realized that he and the lunatic were standing at a crossroads. All four directions led straight to the horizon. Apart from the road, there was nothing else.
Neither the holy temple or stone walls existed.
“What’s happening? Is the test to get us to choose a path? But the four directions are the same. How do we choose? You need to give us some hints, right?” Zhou Wen shouted into the sky.
There had to be some creature in the temple controlling everything; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been pulled in. However, Zhou Wen didn’t hear any response after waiting for quite a while.
At that moment, the unconscious lunatic woke up. He rubbed his head and sat up, then sized up his surroundings. His face was filled with confusion.
The lunatic didn’t look as crazy as before while he asked, “What is this place?”
“Haven’t you entered the Trajectory Holy Temple twice?” Zhou Wen gave him an odd expression. He had clearly been blinded, but he was now completely fine.
“This is the Trajectory Holy Temple? Isn’t there a s.h.i.+p in the Trajectory Holy Temple?” The madman looked at Zhou Wen in surprise as though he was trying to determine if what Zhou Wen said was true.
“You saw a s.h.i.+p when you entered the Trajectory Holy Temple before?” Zhou Wen felt that something was amiss. If that s.h.i.+p was really an illusion that only the lunatic could see, it would be very difficult for him to get anything out of the lunatic’s mouth.
“That’s right, it’s a s.h.i.+p.” When he mentioned it, the expression on his face changed again, but fortunately, he didn’t act up like before.
Zhou Wen hurriedly changed the topic and pointed at the anchor tattoo on his arm. “This tattoo of yours is rather interesting. Is there any special meaning to it?”
The madman seemed to be lost as he subconsciously answered, “This was tattooed by my father when I was young. He was a sailor and he said that this was the mark of their s.h.i.+p. When I grow up, I can become a sailor like him and work on his s.h.i.+p.”
“Are there still sailor professions these days?” Zhou Wen asked in puzzlement. From what he knew, no s.h.i.+p had dared to enter the sea in the past few decades. Even if someone were to enter, they would still be Epic experts steering a Companion Beast. A s.h.i.+p wouldn’t be required, much less a sailor.
“Yes, why not? Our hometown has many fis.h.i.+ng boats that go out to sea every day to fish. It’s just that my dad’s s.h.i.+p is different. It’s a s.h.i.+p that travels across many countries and sells different goods to different countries.” The lunatic looked much more awake.
“Wait, you mentioned countries?” Zhou Wen stared at the madman with an odd expression, trying to determine if he was being fooled.
Countries were a concept before the dimensional storms. After the dimensional storms, there was only the League and no countries. Humans had united together to survive that calamity.
“That’s right. Is there something wrong?” The madman looked at Zhou Wen in astonishment as though whatever he said could only be right.
“Brother, how old are you?” Zhou Wen asked.
“Seventeen, why are you asking this?” the madman asked, puzzled.
“Then are you joking with me? After the dimensional storms, how can there be any countries? There are dimensional zones everywhere over the sea. No one in the League dares to enter the sea now, much less fish. It would be pretty good if they weren’t eaten by fish,” Zhou Wen said.
“What do you mean? What League? What dimensional storm?” The madman looked at Zhou Wen like he was looking at a lunatic.
“Alright, don’t tell me that you were born before the dimensional storms.” Zhou Wen frowned as he looked at the lunatic. He felt that this person was messing with him. Perhaps he hadn’t gone mad from the beginning
The madman looked at Zhou Wen seriously and said, “I don’t know what you mean by that. My name is Ah Lai. I was born in a town not far from the seaside named Langya Town. I came here for… to…”
At this point, Ah Lai was stunned, as if he couldn’t recall why he had come here.
Zhou Wen didn’t know if this person was mad or faking it, so he asked, “How did you know about the Holy Land and how did you come here?”
“What Holy Land? Isn’t this the Six Path Temples?” asked Ah Lai in puzzlement.
“The Six Path Temples?” Zhou Wen was also dumbfounded. He felt like he was communicating with an alien, completely at a loss as to what the man was talking about.
“That’s right. It’s the Six Path Temples. This is…” Ah Lai realized that he couldn’t recall anything. He rubbed his head, but he still couldn’t think of it.
“You know that this is the Trajectory Holy Temple, right?” Zhou Wen asked again.
“That’s right. This is one of the Six Path Temples, the Trajectory Holy Temple,” Ah Lai answered with certainty.
“Do you still remember why you came here?”. Zhou Wen continued asking.
Ah Lai thought about it, and his expression gradually turned ugly. “I seem to remember that I followed Dad onto his s.h.i.+p, then… then… We encountered a storm… After that… After that…”
At this point, Ah Lai suddenly hugged his head and screamed out in pain. Soon, he fell to the ground and twitched continuously. He pa.s.sed out shortly after.
Zhou Wen checked his body and realized that he wasn’t faking it. Zhou Wen was confused.
What’s wrong with this fellow? Is he really… Impossible… He’s only seventeen… Impossible… Zhou Wen looked at Ah Lai as countless thoughts flashed through his mind.
Since Ah Lai didn’t wake up, Zhou Wen had no choice but to think of a way out. However, all he could see was four straight roads.
Zhou Wen summoned the Mutated Lotus Flower Ant, made it carry Ah Lai, and chose a direction to walk in.