I don’t know why the other side would chase me all the way here, nor do I know if there will be other pursuers from the "Evil Land"...
But Wen Xishu must first get through the current situation.
"Sorry, crossing over is a cruel thing. Although my arrival led to your death, if I hadn’t come, you wouldn’t have survived, right?"
"I am Wen Xishu. From the moment I arrived, my glory belonged to both of us."
"I don’t know if this old man was summoned by you, but I’m sorry, my journey cannot end here."
This is what Wen Xishu was saying to "himself" in his mind.
Next, Wen Xishu had three choices in front of him.
Red, white, and black, three teacups.
He had to determine which cup of tea was harmless to him.
He couldn’t choose the teas for resurrection or rejuvenation. He could only choose the one that increased longevity.
Since he had recently tested that the Compass was interfered with here, Wen Xishu couldn’t use the Fate Compass to help himself screen through.
He had to rely on his methods.
"Don’t rush... even if there’s no pattern to follow, I still have a one-third chance of survival, which is much better than a slim chance, right?"
Wen Xishu began to observe.
"If I choose this cup but find it’s not my preferred tea, can I change it?"
"You can. But you can only drink one," the old man’s voice was stiff.
Wen Xishu said:
"Then I choose this cup."
Wen Xishu first chose the white cup.
He opened the white cup, and the aroma of tea overflowed. At that moment, Wen Xishu felt slightly intoxicated.
He had an urge to drink the tea in one gulp.
But this time, Wen Xishu didn’t care about his own feelings; he cared about the old man’s reactions.
The old man’s head gently shook, clearly resisting something.
Wen Xishu covered the cup.
"Sorry, I don’t like it. I’ll change it."
Wen Xishu opened the red cup.
The tea leaves in the red cup were as crimson as blood, but the aroma was even stronger. The old man’s body also began to shake slightly.
Wen Xishu immediately said:
"Alright, this one doesn’t taste good either. My luck is really bad. I’ll change again."
Third cup, black cup.
The tea seemed ordinary; though it had a fragrance, it wasn’t as strong as the previous two cups.
Wen Xishu didn’t sense any change in the old man’s body.
"I’ll take this one."
The old man’s tone remained calm and dead:
"Drink it."
Wen Xishu couldn’t refuse.
He certainly could choose to resist physically, a powerhouse at over forty floors in the Slaughter Tower would be a monstrous level in the Deceit Tower’s 29th floor.
But he had no Anti-Magic Value, making it hard to resist mental invasions.
Fortunately, Wen Xishu could still play by the rule requirements.
He didn’t hesitate and drank the tea.
As the black tea was swallowed by Wen Xishu, the old man sighed:
"Others will still come looking for you. Don’t climb the tower, don’t climb the tower, don’t climb the tower."
The old man’s figure disappeared.
A prompt appeared in Wen Xishu’s mind.
[Your longevity has been significantly increased. You will be less affected by diseases.]
He chose correctly.
With the old man’s disappearance, Wen Xishu noticeably started sweating.
The increase in longevity meant a change in constitution.
But for Wen Xishu, who had endured extreme fear and was finally free, his body had some natural reactions.
Like sweating.
"Evil Land..."
"Is my crossing over not as simple as I thought?"
Wen Xishu couldn’t understand this result.
In his view, everything happened so naturally. One moment he opened his eyes, and he became Wen Xishu, a death row inmate who could only extend his life by climbing the Deceit Tower.
He quickly adapted to this identity but never thought about the causes and effects.
Thinking back now, could it all be part of a conspiracy? Did Wen Chaohua desire to give his brother power through some ritual?
But the ritual went awry... bringing him here instead?
Shaking his head, Wen Xishu decided to head to Carriage 04. These conjectures were pure speculation, without any foundation.
He could only hope that someday, he might find clues.
As for why he chose the right tea, it was because the old man smelled too much like death. He judged the old man was already dead.
And the talisman on the old man’s forehead was a method meant for the dead. The living would usually carry talismans in their purses or pendants. Only the dead had them on their foreheads.
So Wen Xishu concluded the old man was already dead. He, like the native Wen Xishu, inherently desired resurrection.
Facing the rejuvenation and resurrection teas that could change states, the old man would react.
But the longevity tea, the old man used "he" as a pronoun.
If "you" represented the native Wen Xishu, then "he" represented the crossed-over Wen Xishu.
So the longevity tea had no allure to the old man; it was meant for the living.
Leveraging this, Wen Xishu found the tea beneficial to him from the three cups.
With the old man gone, Wen Xishu could now enter the fourth carriage.
He remained cautious, always searching for differences.
After ensuring there were no differences and confirming that he still couldn’t interact with anyone else in Carriage 03, Wen Xishu entered the fourth carriage.
[Do you want to go to the next carriage? Yes, No.]
Wen Xishu chose Yes.
The door opened, and his figure once again submerged into the white light.
At that moment, Wen Xishu noticed... the scene had changed. Clearly changed.
He didn’t enter Carriage 04 but rather Carriage 03.5.
Yes, this carriage was 03.5.
This carriage had seventeen rows of seats, but all the seats were empty. No passengers or attendants.
[You have successfully passed two strange carriages. Congratulations on reaching the resting area.]
Resting area?
Wen Xishu seemed to understand the purpose here.
Although he saw no other passengers here, Wen Xishu saw something he longed to see.
A phone.
In the seventeenth row, Wen Xishu saw five seats with five phones.
The sixteenth row also had them, but all phones from the sixteenth row to the fifteenth and fourteenth rows had sealing tapes.
Only the five phones in the seventeenth row were not sealed, indicating they were likely usable.
Wen Xishu thought for a moment and seemed to understand.
"It looks like this is a temporary resting area to contact and share information with other partners."
In the preset difficulty level, it didn’t expect one person to remember all the details of sixteen passengers.
So this was actually a cooperative project.
The maze train had multiple starting points, each starting at Carriage 01.
Each starting point’s endpoint was Carriage 016.
But the sequence of strange carriages encountered might be different for everyone.
For instance, Wen Xishu’s Carriage 02 was the rule carriage of the human trafficker after becoming weird.
But for Nissen, Xiaojin, and others, it might be another carriage.
However, if Wen Xishu passed Carriage 02, he could tell others what to do when encountering the human trafficker rule carriage.
Similarly, others could share their information about the strange carriages they faced to provide Wen Xishu with clues.
Wen Xishu found it somewhat interesting.
He didn’t know which of the five phones corresponded to whom. Thinking for a moment, he picked up one phone and said into the receiver:
"Hello, can you hear me? Can anyone hear me?"
Wen Xishu wasn’t sure if the other side would hear him or if they had to be in "Carriage 03.5" to answer the phone.
But soon, Wen Xishu got a response.
"Wow? Brother Shu? Where are you! Why is your voice coming through the broadcast?"
Wen Xishu rejoiced; it was Xiaojin!
Xiaojin answered his call.