253: Unexpected circumstances

Although Chen Du had some intel after entering, he instinctively looked around.

As the intel stated, this was a passage about five meters high and wide. For someone of Chen Du's height, it was a spacious and well-ordered passage.

It was precisely for this reason that the character 'fang' (square) was used in its name.

Inside Sifang Cave, just like outside, the rock walls were the same color, but their material was definitely different, because the rock walls inside glowed!

The light was not strong, even a bit faint, but with all the rock walls glowing collectively, the passage appeared very bright.

Although the mission content only provided a map of the Low-Risk Zone, Chen Du had seen maps of all four zones earlier in Martial Arts Room 1, so he knew that after the four of them entered, they would all be in a passage.

The lengths of the four passages were 10,000 meters, 20,000 meters, 30,000 meters, and 40,000 meters, corresponding to the Low-Risk Zone to the Ultra-Risk Zone.

The passages were not straight but twisted and turned in various directions, leading to unknown places. These lengths were personally traversed by the pioneers of the High Martial Civilization.

It was indeed as marked on the map; there was no danger within the passage, which was one of the reasons they dared to send Chen Du in.

If it were a place with a very high mortality rate, even if they knew there were resources inside, it would be impossible to send a Genius of Chen Du's caliber.

The High Martial Civilization had sent people through all four of these passages without encountering any danger. The choices after exiting the passages were the key, as there were too many options.

The unknown dangers had led the High Martial Civilization, which was in a state of talent shortage, to abandon further exploration. But now with a map, they naturally wanted to take a gamble.

Pat-a-pat-a......

Chen Du's feet stepped on the solid rock Surface. He was not in a hurry and even walked a bit slowly. There was no time limit for this mission, and he didn't know how long he would stay here.

Chen Du's mission was to explore Sifang Cave as much as possible, to understand what was inside the cave, or what its purpose once was, where it led, and so on.

In short, it was to explore freely to the best of his ability, so Chen Du planned to go at his own pace.

At this point, he had completed half the journey, which meant he had walked 5,000 meters.

He had been observing this passage the entire way, but unfortunately, these rock walls had no special features other than glowing. Almost every few meters, Chen Du would run his hand over the surrounding rock walls.

The 'surrounding' here referred to the left, right, and top. Chen Du did this to see if there were any hidden doors similar to the intersections, but unfortunately, there was nothing.

The hard rock walls rendered all his conjectures false.

Soon, Chen Du finished the remaining five thousand meters and arrived at a fork in the road with many choices, which was also the endpoint of the High Martial Civilization's previous exploration.

A long row of passages, identical to the one he had just walked through, appeared before him. Chen Du carefully counted them from left to right, and as stated in the data, there were 99 in total.

Chen Du named these passages from left to right as No. 1 to No. 99. The route marked on the map was exactly Passage No. 78.

The end of this passage was what Chen Du initially thought was an egg. Later, after the map was divided, he realized it was not an oval egg.

Instead, it was a stone mill similar to those used in ancient times for grinding soy milk. As for its specific appearance or what it actually was, he would only know once he saw the real thing.

Because the map was very rough, composed entirely of lines, it was difficult to be certain; only simple things like routes could be clearly seen.

However, just as Chen Du was about to approach Passage No. 78.

Thump-thump......

Chen Du felt a very faint sound, like a heartbeat.

That's right, this sound wasn't heard, but felt!

It was like being in a very quiet environment and feeling your own heartbeat.

This sudden change made Chen Du freeze on the spot. Fortunately, years of combat in Crystal Space prevented him from panicking in such unexpected situations.

After a few seconds of calm thought, Chen Du was surprised to discover that the source of this heartbeat sound was actually his own right arm!

That is, the Earth Qilin Right Arm he had grafted!

An arm naturally has no heart; this beating was like a pulse.

Qilin Civilization!

These four words instantly popped into Chen Du's mind. He had previously speculated that only the three former Overlord-level Civilizations or the current three Overlord-level Civilizations could cut off a Level 30 Eternal Frost Civilization's skin to make a map.

Now that his right arm suddenly reacted, Chen Du instinctively guessed that this map was related to the Qilin Civilization, and perhaps even drawn by them!

But there was one inexplicable point: the passage was too small. A height of five meters meant that most Qilin alien race (foreign races) couldn't even enter.

It was precisely because of this reason that everyone at the time hadn't considered that the map-makers were the three former Overlord-level Civilizations or the current three Overlord-level Civilizations.

Because a five-meter passage was too small for many creatures, only suitable for humanoid creatures.

Generally speaking, humanoid creatures would not be very tall, except, of course, for the Giant Civilization.

Chen Du felt the faint beating in his right arm and continued forward. When he stood at Passage No. 78, marked on the map, he stopped, his brows slightly furrowed.

The beating in his right arm had become even stronger!

And this intensity wasn't because he was close to Passage No. 78; it seemed to be because he was closer to the right side!

Is there something on the right?

Chen Du looked around, carefully observing, but saw nothing special.

Immediately, to verify whether his guess was correct, Chen Du quickly moved to the left.

"Indeed."

Chen Du said in a deep voice.

As he moved further to the left, the pulse-like thumping sound in his right arm gradually weakened.

After several back-and-forth tests, Chen Du finally determined that the demarcation point was Passage No. 60.

Passage No. 60 was the starting point of that pulse-like thumping sound in his right arm, though it was very faint, requiring Chen Du to specifically stop and feel carefully to detect it.

Starting from No. 60, moving continuously to the right, that is, past No. 61, No. 62, and so on, the rhythm and strength of the beating would gradually intensify.

Chen Du was now certain that this Sifang Cave was definitely related to the Qilin Civilization, but he couldn't determine whether this relationship was good or bad, or something else entirely.

Chen Du himself was here to explore. The High Martial Civilization had only figured out some rules here and compiled four route maps; no one could answer his question.

Then, deciding to go all out, he followed the sensation in his right hand. Chen Du also wanted to know which passage had the strongest beating.

Thus, he moved all the way to the right, eventually stopping in front of a rock wall.

Chen Du looked at the rock wall before him with a solemn expression, then glanced to his left. That was Passage No. 99!

That is, the last passage marked on the map.

"Could this rock wall in front of me be the invisible Passage No. 100?!"

Chen Du muttered to himself, reaching out his hand with a hint of speculation.