Blind Box World - SSS-Rank Eye of Truth

Ethan did not immediately approach the gate.

He circled the plaza, inspecting each of the twelve metal pillars in turn. The Eye of Truth detected no active offensive mechanisms, but the streams of energy within them still existed.

All of them flowed toward the gate at the center.

Ruo Yan did not simply stand there and wait either. She raised one hand, controlling a wooden puppet as it left the formation and slowly moved forward.

The puppet took ten steps.

There was no reaction.

Twenty steps.

The gate remained completely still.

When the puppet was only about three meters from the watery surface, a ripple suddenly appeared across the gate.

Boom!

An invisible force instantly pulled the puppet off the ground.

Instead of flying straight toward the water, it was yanked upward, as though the direction of gravity had been reversed in an instant. Its wooden body slammed into the empty space above before disappearing through the gate.

The energy thread connecting Ruo Yan to the puppet immediately pulled taut.

She raised both hands, trying to maintain control.

"The gravity on the other side is different from here!"

The puppet had not been destroyed.

Ruo Yan could still sense it, but the position being transmitted back to her was extremely chaotic. Sometimes it seemed to be above her, sometimes it was falling below, and occasionally she even felt as though it were directly behind her.

Ruo Yan gritted her teeth and immediately pulled the thread toward herself.

But the moment the pulling force increased, the gate’s watery surface formed a vortex.

Ruo Yan’s body was dragged forward across the ground.

Ethan immediately grabbed her arm. His left hand, covered by the Primordial Armor, dug deep into the stone floor, allowing him to hold both of them in place.

Laira also stepped forward and grabbed the taut thread with one hand.

She looked at Ruo Yan and said bluntly, "Release the connection."

Ruo Yan refused. "No. That is my puppet."

"If you do not let go, you will be pulled inside."

"I can bring it back."

Laira looked at her as though she were staring at someone who had absolutely no regard for her own life.

"Which is more important, you or a piece of wood?"

Ruo Yan did not answer.

But the hand controlling the thread did not loosen in the slightest.

Ethan stared at the violently swirling surface of the gate.

Light slowly appeared deep within both his pupils.

[Eye of Truth.]

The colors of the surrounding world instantly disappeared.

The gate before him was no longer a simple surface of water. Countless streams of energy twisted together inside it, forming three completely different layers of rules.

The outermost layer was responsible for pulling objects into the gate.

The second layer continuously reversed direction and gravity.

The final layer determined where the object would be thrown out.

Ruo Yan’s thread was currently trapped between the first and second layers.

If she continued trying to pull it back, the thread would be torn apart by two completely opposing gravitational forces. The puppet might be destroyed, while the backlash transmitted through the thread would strike Ruo Yan’s soul directly.

Ethan immediately said, "Do not pull."

Ruo Yan turned to look at him. "But my puppet..."

"Maintain the same amount of force. Do not increase or decrease it."

Ethan’s voice was not loud, but the calmness within it caused Ruo Yan to obey unconsciously.

Ethan stepped closer to the gate.

Laira immediately placed a hand on his shoulder, her undisguised concern clear in her voice. "Be careful."

Ethan nodded slightly.

Through the Eye of Truth, he quickly found a point where all three layers of energy overlapped.

That intersection did not exist continuously.

It only appeared for a brief instant whenever the surface of the water rippled for the third time.

Ethan stared intently at the spreading ripples.

One.

Two.

Three.

The moment the intersection appeared, Ethan immediately reached out with his right hand and touched Ruo Yan’s energy thread, then pushed it roughly half a meter to the left.

The direction of the pulling force instantly changed.

The wooden puppet trapped inside the gate shot back out.

Boom!

It crashed onto the plaza and rolled more than ten times. One of its arms had been bent backward, but the core inside its body remained intact.

Ruo Yan immediately retracted the thread and pulled the puppet back to her side. She inspected its core and joints for several seconds before finally breathing a quiet sigh of relief.

Then she raised her head and looked at Ethan.

"What did you just do?"

Ethan closed his eyes.

A dull ache appeared behind both eyeballs, but it remained within a range he could endure.

"I merely found the correct direction."

Ruo Yan looked at the gate, then at the position where Ethan had pushed the thread.

"That was all?"

"That was all."

Ruo Yan clearly did not believe him.

But this time, she did not continue questioning him. Even Laira did not need to intervene as she had before.

Ethan opened his eyes and turned toward the two women.

"This gate will not kill us directly, but gravity will continuously reverse as we enter. We must remain close together, or we could easily be thrown into three different locations."

Ruo Yan asked, "Can you see where we will land?"

"Not completely."

Ethan pointed toward the faint images beyond the surface of the water. "The other side is an independent space. Its rules are different from those here. The Eye of Truth can only see through the gate’s outer layer."

Laira looked at the floating rocks and inverted stairways on the other side, her voice as decisive as ever. "Then let us enter."

Ruo Yan glanced at her. "You do not even know what is waiting on the other side."

Laira calmly replied, "We will not know by standing here either."

Her reasoning was extremely simple.

Yet Ruo Yan could not refute it.

Ethan checked their equipment one final time.

The Primordial Armor was still functioning normally. The bags containing crystals, food, and crystallized meat were all securely fastened. Ruo Yan’s three puppets also quickly drew back into formation, standing close beside her.

After confirming that nothing had been overlooked, Ethan took the rope from the supply bag.

He tied one end around his waist and handed the rest to Ruo Yan.

She looked at the rope and frowned slightly. "You want to tie us together?"

"To prevent us from being separated."

Laira immediately raised her hand. "Tie me first."

Ethan turned to look at her. "You can fly."

"Gravity inside is chaotic. Besides, my wing has not recovered yet."

Laira spoke with complete naturalness, but Ethan knew that was not the only reason.

She simply did not want him to tie Ruo Yan before her.

Ethan did not expose her thoughts. He quickly used the rope to connect the three of them.

Laira stood at the front.

Ethan stood in the middle.

Ruo Yan and her three puppets took the rear.

After checking the knots, Ethan warned them seriously, "When we enter, do not resist the pulling force. Just keep your bodies stable. Even if you feel gravity changing, do not try to determine which direction is up or down."

Ruo Yan asked, "Then how are we supposed to determine our direction?"

"Through the rope."

Ethan touched the section of rope connecting the three of them. "As long as we can still feel one another’s pull, direction will not matter."

Laira immediately took his hand.

"I will go first."

She stepped into the surface of the water.

The gate immediately rippled, swallowing half of Laira’s body. A powerful pulling force traveled through Ethan’s arm, but he did not resist it and instead stepped forward after her.

Ruo Yan gritted her teeth and entered last.

The moment all three of them completely passed through the watery surface, the world instantly turned upside down.

Ethan felt as though he had been thrown straight into the sky.

Immediately afterward, the sky became the ground.

Left and right continuously shifted.

His body spun through the air, his internal organs feeling as though they were being pulled in multiple directions at once. The rope around his waist instantly pulled taut.

Laira was thrown to one side in front of him. Her dragon wings instinctively spread open, but the air current they created sent her spinning in the opposite direction.

Behind him, Ruo Yan suddenly shouted, "My puppets!"

The three puppets were torn from formation by the pulling force and sent flying in three different directions.

Ruo Yan immediately swung both hands. Soul threads shot from her fingertips and rapidly wrapped around their bodies.

She managed to hold on to the puppets.

But that very action caused her to lose her balance.

Ruo Yan was immediately pulled away from the rope’s axis and sent flying straight toward a large piece of stone rotating through the void.

Ethan felt the pulling force change and instantly jerked the rope.

Ruo Yan’s body changed direction at the last possible moment, brushing past the edge of the stone. Its sharp edge sliced through a lock of her black hair, sending it scattering into the chaotic space.

Before the three could stabilize themselves, gravity changed again.

All of them began falling sideways.

Laira let out a low growl and tried to spread her uninjured wing, using it like a rudder to adjust their direction. But the movement also pulled her wounded wing taut, immediately sending a burst of intense pain through her.

Her face turned pale.

Ethan saw it clearly.

He immediately shouted, "Fold your wings!"

Laira gritted her teeth and replied, "If I fold them, we will crash into the wall!"

Ethan turned his head and looked ahead.

An enormous stone wall was rapidly approaching.

No.

It was the three of them being dragged toward it by gravity.

Light flashed again deep within Ethan’s pupils.

Under the Eye of Truth, hundreds of cracks and the energy structure of the wall instantly appeared. Most of its surface was real stone. Only a small area in the lower-right corner emitted completely different fluctuations.

Ethan immediately pulled the rope to the right.

"That way!"

Laira did not hesitate. She thrust out a hand and released a stream of fire in the opposite direction.

The recoil from the flames instantly pushed all three of them to the right.

They shot straight toward the area Ethan had indicated.

The wall did not shatter.

Their bodies passed through its stone surface as though passing through a thin layer of mist.

Immediately afterward, gravity completely stabilized.

Boom!

Ethan crashed heavily onto a solid stone floor.

Laira landed right beside him, one hand still holding him to prevent Ethan’s body from continuing to roll.

Ruo Yan landed slightly later. Thanks to the rope around her waist, she only rolled several times before stopping. The three wooden puppets crashed down around them one after another, producing several heavy impacts.

No one spoke for several seconds.

Ethan lay on his back, looking up at the gray sky above. Countless stairways, floating islands, and inverted roads hovered in midair.

He exhaled and asked, "Is everyone still alive?"

Laira immediately sat up and examined Ethan from head to toe. "I am alive. Are you injured?"

"No."

Ruo Yan also pushed herself up. "I am not dead either."

Laira glanced at her. "No one asked you."

Ruo Yan immediately glared. "Ethan asked everyone."

The two were about to start arguing again.

But at that moment, an unfamiliar voice suddenly came from ahead.

"You three just passed through the False Wall?"

Ethan immediately sat up.

Without needing to be reminded, Laira moved in front of him.

Ruo Yan also pulled her three puppets back into formation, soul threads instantly tightening between her fingers.

Ahead of them was a large plaza in the middle of a stone labyrinth.

There was not merely one person there.

Nearly fifty creatures from many different races had gathered in the plaza.

On the left was a group of Beastkin. Most of them possessed the features of tigers, wolves, or lions. Their weapons were all extremely heavy, and their armor was still stained with dried blood, making it clear that they had survived many battles.

Opposite them were more than ten Elves dressed in magical robes. Some held staffs, while the others carried longbows. Small magic rings floated around their bodies, rotating without pause.

The final group consisted of only eight members, but all their bodies were made from gray stone interwoven with metal. Some had forms resembling humans, while the rest looked like hollow suits of armor capable of moving on their own.

All of them were staring at the three newcomers.

Especially Ethan.

A silver-haired male Elf stepped out from the crowd. He had a handsome face and a gentle smile, while a blue teardrop-shaped gemstone rested against his forehead.

He made no attempt to conceal his aura at Gold rank stage 8.

He looked at the wall Ethan’s group had just passed through, then shifted his gaze toward Ethan’s eyes.

The male Elf slowly said, "We have been trapped here for three days. More than twenty people have died merely trying to find a way out."

He placed one hand against his chest and bowed slightly, adopting a relatively friendly posture.

"My name is Aldren. I am temporarily responsible for the survivors gathered here."

Aldren’s gaze lingered on Ethan for an extra moment.

Then he asked directly, "You can see the true path through this labyrinth, can you not?"

The entire plaza instantly fell silent.

Dozens of gazes converged upon Ethan.

There was hope.

There was suspicion.

And there was greed that had only just begun to emerge.

Ethan slowly stood up.

He did not answer immediately.

Because through the Eye of Truth, Ethan had just seen something completely different from the friendly smile on Aldren’s face.

An extremely thin thread of energy extended from behind the male Elf, silently connecting to a mark that had just appeared beneath Ethan’s feet.

Aldren was not merely asking for directions.

He was marking Ethan.