Chapter 382 - Hell of Mirrors
The fourth level of the 18 hells, the hell of mirrors was said to have many mirrors that allowed people to see the sins they committed during their lifetime. The six people walked forward a certain distance and ran into a mirror head on.
The entire hell of mirrors allowed everyone to see themselves clearly. There seemed to be no path behind the mirrors. Yu Hanjiang reached out to push lightly against one but he couldn’t move it at all. Xiao Lou observed carefully but didn’t find any mechanisms in the mirrors.
The team members had question marks above their heads. “How do we open this?”
Xiao Lou thought for a moment before pulling out the yin yang mirror from his pocket. Their mirror happened to be the yin mirror which could shine into the underworld… He used the yin yang mirror on the mirror wall in front of them and found a hidden passage inside one of the mirrors. Why could Xiao Lou think of using the mirror to open the mirror wall right away while they couldn’t think of it?
The other team members except for Yu Hanjiang had this mentality. Yu Hanjiang was accustomed to Xiao Lou’s familiarity with various mechanisms and immediately walked in after the passage appeared in the mirror wall. Everyone followed him and they soon discovered that they had entered a mirror maze.
There were mirrors to the front, back, left and right which clearly reflected their images. Some of their reflections were deliberately distorted and looked like ghosts. Walking in such a mirror maze with the Night Pearls was really scary.
Old Mo’s heart trembled. Just now, he saw that his entire face in the mirror was covered with blood and he almost burst out swearing. These strange mirrors deliberately distorted everyone’s facial features and bodies and some of them even added bloody effects. It felt like an evil spirit was bleeding tears…
Xiao Lou also saw himself distorted in the mirrors on his left and right. Everywhere he went, these distorted images would follow like a shadow. This mirror maze was too torturous. It was an intricate maze with many side roads. In addition, there were mirrors to the front, back, left and right with some scary mirror images appearing from time to time. They walked for a while like headless flies and ended up back at the start.
Lu Jiuchuan frowned. “This mirror maze curves around. Can we find the way?”
Everyone looked at Old Mo who had the best ability to find the path. Old Mo took a deep breath. “Blame me. I just saw myself bleeding in the mirror and was so shocked I forgot the route. Cough, let’s go through it again while I draw it…”
Xiao Lou suggested, “Old Mo, don’t you have the dyeing card? Can’t you cover all these mirrors?”
Mo Xuemin’s eyes lit up. “Yes, I was too nervous and forgot about this.”
He had picked up the Color Elements card. In the Endless Seas World Weekly, he used it to dye the sea water.
After entering the mirror maze again, Old Mo dyed all the mirrors on both sides of the first section of the path green. The surface of the mirrors was covered in green dye, making the function of the mirrors useless. Naturally, there were no more scary shadows distracting them.
Lu Jiuchuan smiled. “This is really a method. We can use paint to deal with mirrors.”
They felt like an illegal gang coming to the door to collect debts, walking all the way while splashing paint on the mirrors. If the mirrors were conscious… they would probably want to vomit up blood at this point. Old Mo splashed the scary mirror maze with colors, turning it into a colorful children’s playground.
Everyone walked through the colorful maze and Old Mo quickly drew a map. “This should be a square maze with four ‘田’ characters grouped together. The exit is in the upper right corner. Our vision and psychological states were affected by the mirrors just now but the maze itself isn’t difficult.”
Old Mo led the team to quickly move out of this small mirror maze. White fog began to appear faintly in front of them and the surrounding temperature was getting higher and higher.
Xiao Lou explained, “It is the fifth level, the hell of steaming.”
They looked at the white fog in front of them and couldn’t help stopping. It was like a huge sauna.
Liu Qiao was a science student and recognized this steam to be very similar to the steam used in her high school experiments. She hurriedly said, “Don’t touch the steam. The temperature should be 100 degrees Celsius. If we pass through the steam then we won’t just be burned. We’ll be cooked.”
Everyone naturally didn’t dare try such torture as being steamed alive. In addition, they didn’t know how big the hell of steaming was in front of them. If they rushed in, there might be no return and they would collectively become steamed human flesh.
Xiao Lou glanced at Lu Jiuchuan. “We can only cool it down. Brother Jiu, can your ice sword freeze the steam?”
Lu Jiuchuan shook his head. “No, it can only freeze living creatures, not the air. Otherwise, I would’ve frozen the scissors just now.”
So what should they do? None of them seemed to have a card that froze things. How could they pass such a hot hell of steaming?
Tang Ci abruptly thought of a way. “My drones are resistant to high temperatures so I should be able to try it.”
He summoned a drone which flew through the white steam and sent back a lot of useful information. Tang Ci looked at the numbers displayed on the screen and said, “The temperature is 100 degrees Celsius and the ambient humidity exceeds 70%. This hell of steaming is around 100 meters in length. There are no cards for cooling so we can only force ourselves through.”
For example, there was Ye Qi’s teleportation card which allowed them to teleport 50 meters. 100 meters was teleporting twice.
They would be exposed to the steam at 100 degrees for two seconds. They might not die but they would be burned. Still, they could endure it. Unfortunately, Ye Qi wasn’t present and they didn’t have any other fast-moving cards. If they stayed in the steam for a long time, they would burn their entire body…
They were worrying about what to do when Tang Ci summoned four robots. They were very similar to the robots in sci-fi movies and had No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 on their chests.
They came in front of Tang Ci. It wasn’t known what Tang Ci did but the chests of the four robots suddenly opened and turned into four sets of armor. Tang Ci explained, “Everyone, go in. This is my mechanical armor. It might be awkward to move in them after wearing them but fortunately, the material is similar to the metal of the drone. It can withstand high temperatures.”
Everyone, “……”
Mr Tang had so many treasures in the bottom of his box!
Yu Hanjiang took the lead in entering the metal armor. Once the armor closed, there was a transparent window in front to see the road. Xiao Lou saw the imposing sight of Yu Hanjiang wearing the armor and couldn’t help laughing. “You are like a future mech warrior.”
Tang Ci told them, “The battle armor lasts only 10 minutes. It can protect against bullets and high temperatures. We must act quickly.”
They did indeed become very clumsy after wearing the armor. They made a loud sound every time they took a step and it was awe-inspiring to listen to. The four ‘mech warriors’ slowly walked through the high temperature hell of steaming for five minutes. This ‘coat’ might’ve prevented everyone from being burned but they still felt hot inside it.
After leaving the hell of steaming, everyone immediately took off the metal armor and took a big breath of fresh air.
Just then, Ye Qi’s voice entered Xiao Lou’s mind. “Professor Xiao, we passed the second level which was a Bodhisattva puzzle. We thought we would see a Buddha level after we finished but in fact, heavenly beings can’t see Buddha. Instead, we returned to the original splitting of paths of the six realms of reincarnation.”
Xiao Lou was stunned. “What?”
They returned to the beginning? How could this be?
Proofreader: Paranoid Kitten & Fictional Reality