Chapter 422: The Ancestor of Scammers

Chapter 422 The Godfather of Trolling

"These two, one a demon and the other a ghost, should be two peas in a pod. Yet it seems they can't go a single meeting without squabbling," another elder remarked with a smile, shaking his head as if long accustomed to it.

"Demons and ghosts—their bickering is just their love language!" Ghost Elder said smugly.

The masked Island Lord remained silent, while the elders below spoke without restraint. Frankly, after spending so long on Dark Demon Island, seeing the same few faces no matter how you looked at it, what grudges or grievances could there really be? It was just idle chatter to pass the time.

"Crank up the difficulty," the masked Island Lord suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse and strange. He glanced at the Ghost Elder of the Hungry Ghost Path and said coolly, "The highest level."

At the Island Lord's words, all the elders immediately fell silent, even the most unruly Ghost Elder wiping the grin off his face.

There was no need to question the Island Lord's demand. The Ghost Elder bowed respectfully and replied, "Understood!"

......

On the crimson steps, Old Wang ascended steadily.

Walking this solitary path through the void, surrounded by ghostly howls and demonic shrieks echoing endlessly in the emptiness, he occasionally saw bloodstained hands reaching out from the sides of the steps, groping for his legs or tugging at his ankles.

Illusions and hallucinations could be terrifying, especially when standing on steps with no railings and a bottomless abyss on either side. Unfortunately for this "test," the subject was Old Wang.

The Insect God species naturally pierced through illusions—all mirages were but flowers in a mirror or the moon reflected in water to its eyes. Even if his vision could be distorted, his perception remained unclouded. In simpler terms, his heart was unshakable, his nerves thick as steel...

This ordeal path, Old Wang had initially thought, would take a long time. The glowing light at the end might require ten days or even half a month to reach. Yet, after only about twenty minutes, the path came to an end.

Perhaps even this hell realized he felt no fear or disturbance?

Calmly, Old Wang looked at the massive door at the end of the steps. It resembled the gate of the Hell Path—tall, majestic, and seemingly weighing as much as mountains. But this time, with just a light push, the door swung open effortlessly.

Peering inside from the doorway, all he saw was a blank white void, as if nothing existed. Wang Feng stepped in, and behind him, the steps and the massive door vanished instantly. He now stood in a cramped space.

"Cramped" referred only to the sides—the path ahead stretched endlessly into the distance. It was a narrow alley barely wide enough for one person, with a ceiling less than three meters high. The winding, shadowy passage ahead curved into obscurity, turning at a bend about a hundred meters away, its destination unknown.

Since he was here, he might as well proceed. Old Wang walked forward and, upon reaching the bend, found a T-junction. Both sides offered identical passages—just as narrow, barely allowing one person through, with the same three-meter ceiling.

A maze?

Old Wang pondered for a moment, then pulled out a small object and casually carved a mark at the corner.

He randomly chose a direction and walked in. Another hundred meters, another turn, another T-junction. Wang Feng left another mark.

After about eight such turns, he reached another T-junction. Reaching out, he touched the wall—just as he expected, the first mark he had made earlier reappeared here...

For anyone else, realizing they had been walking in circles in such a gray, oppressive space with identical passages might have sparked panic or even despair. But Old Wang only grinned.

This was a maze—and an extraordinary one at that. It was called the Coiling Dragon Eightfold Array, its complexity far surpassing even sixth- or seventh-tier combined runes. It was a relic beyond the era of this continent. Forget understanding its principles—even memorizing the solution outright would be beyond most people's capabilities.

The so-called Coiling Dragon Eightfold Array was divided into eight major sections. To pass through, one had to traverse its thirty thousand possible paths countless times, choosing the correct path at every turn. These pathways interconnected like interlocking mechanisms—one wrong step, and the entire array would shift, forcing the solver to start over from scratch...

Old Wang finally understood what the "Hungry Ghost Path" truly meant. Was this maze designed to make people wander until they starved to death? Though it claimed only thirty thousand possible paths, every three paths formed an intersection. Even without accounting for mistakes, the number of possible correct routes far exceeded a hundred thousand. At a hundred meters per path, that amounted to a million meters—over a thousand kilometers! Given the limited supplies a normal person could carry, even a single wrong turn would be enough to starve them to death.

Frankly, this level of difficulty was beyond human capability. But who was Old Wang? He was the code monkey behind *Glory of the Nine Heavens*! Solving mazes? Please—he was the one who designed them, the ancestor of all tricksters!

Not only was this Coiling Dragon Eightfold Array one of his original designs in *Glory of the Nine Heavens*, but even if it weren't, with his sixteen-core brain, he could crack its pattern in no time flat!

The eight marks he had left earlier by always turning left were the key to breaking the array. They marked the starting points of the Coiling Dragon Eightfold Array, which could be interpreted as the Later Heaven Eight Trigrams. The third mark he had just touched, labeled "3," indicated that the current array was in the "Li" (Fire) position. The entrance was due south, and the exit should be due north—the "Kan" (Water) position...

After a brief moment of calculation, he mapped out the complete route in his mind. Now, as he walked, he no longer turned left blindly. Instead, at each T-junction, he alternated between left and right, sometimes even backtracking. More astonishingly, he moved at an incredible speed, practically sprinting through the hundred-meter passages in the blink of an eye. For anyone else, there’d be no time to think—but for him, he had it all figured out. He raced forward with unwavering confidence!

It has to be said that someone with two Heavenly Soul Pearls is just unstoppable—unlimited soul power for protection, they can afford to be downright reckless! Coupled with the Gale Sprint Rune on his legs, those thirty thousand avenues, a hundred thousand configurations, a journey spanning over a thousand kilometers… Old Wang blasted through it in less than ten hours...

When he turned the last corner, the predictable T-intersection ahead was gone. The gray wall blocking the path had vanished, replaced by a spacious, brightly lit hall.

Swish!

Old Wang dashed forward in a single stride.

The array shattered. The passage behind him disappeared instantly, and Wang Feng found himself in a vast hall. Directly ahead stood the next gate of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, adorned with two ferocious beast heads—the Realm of Beasts.

Glancing back at the vanished passage and then at the two snarling beast heads ahead, Old Wang once again expressed his disdain for the aesthetic tastes and interests of the bigwigs of Darkmoon Island.

This is it?

He wasn’t in a hurry to push the door open. After running for a full ten hours, even with the Heavenly Soul Pearls protecting him, his thighs were starting to cramp, and his stomach was gnawing at him.

Old Wang raised a hand and yanked out a hefty pack of grub from the oil lamp, stuffing it into his mouth.

Crunch, crunch… Zing! Zing!

Two sudden sounds of ice spikes shooting through the air—a winged, one-eyed monster was struck down by an ice wasp mid-flight, accompanied by Old Wang’s muffled words as he chewed: "The hell? Peeping without paying?"

...

Though Wang Feng had seemingly spent ten hours running through the passage, in reality, only a few minutes had passed.

Meanwhile, in the Six Paths of Reincarnation shrine, the six Darkmoon Elders exchanged bewildered glances.

The Ghost Elder’s Coiling Dragon Eightfold Array… Let’s be real—that place wasn’t meant to be brute-forced. It was designed to temper the willpower of Darkmoon Island’s disciples. For those undergoing the trial, the Ghost Elder would directly provide the correct path—nothing more than a sequence of "left, right, back." But the problem was, there were endless permutations! If you misremembered or took a single wrong step, the array would shift, and you’d basically be trapped, left to starve until the trial’s time limit was up, at which point the Ghost Elder would drag the half-starved disciple out personally...

Honestly, a journey of over a thousand kilometers, tens of thousands of path sequences to memorize, and only the easily confused options of "left, right, back"—even with the correct answers laid out in front of you, hardly anyone could pull it off. Among Darkmoon Island’s current disciples, only the irreverent de Broglie had ever completed it once. Even Momosang, the most steadfast and highly regarded by the elders, had only managed to get about fifty thousand steps right at his peak...

But this Wang Feng! No one even told him the answers, yet he broke the array and got out—and in just ten hours of Hungry Ghost Path time?

What the hell… Even these well-traveled Darkmoon Elders couldn’t help but curse inwardly. Honestly, could any of them—let alone the Ghost Elder who designed the array—break it at this speed? The Ghost Elder himself would probably need time to deduce it step by step...

When Wang Feng appeared in the surveillance hall, the six elders were momentarily stunned. And when they saw him shoot down the surveillance one-eye and toss out that baffling remark...

The elders froze, then couldn’t help but laugh wryly.

Earlier, the Ghost Elder had mocked them for failing to intercept him, but now the Ghost Elder got served instant karma. The Demon Elder secretly felt a bit pleased, but he refrained from kicking a man while he was down. A demon’s poise demands demonic grace—that was the mark of true stature. That’s why he was a demon, while the Ghost Elder was just a ghost.

With a smile, the Demon Elder tactfully avoided mentioning Wang Feng’s lightning-fast dismantling of the Coiling Dragon Eightfold Array, instead offering a mild comment on his ice wasps: "Those mutated ice wasps are freakishly smart—like, unnaturally so. Wang Feng didn’t so much as twitch a finger just now. Was it purely mental commands? That shouldn’t be possible for such low-level Spirit Beasts."

"Mind control?"

"Unlikely. He didn’t even glance at the one-eye the entire time. It was more like the ice wasps acted on their own to protect him."

"That kid’s close with the Li girl. When it comes to controlling Spirit Beasts, the Li family is top-tier… That’s not the surprising part. What’s more shocking is his ability to break the array. Did he already know about the Coiling Dragon Eightfold Array?"

"As Thunder Dragon’s personal disciple, he must have access to Rose’s extensive library. There might’ve been records of this ancient formation."

"Even if he knew about the Coiling Dragon Eightfold Array beforehand, so what? The array’s permutations are infinite. He mapped the whole damn thing after just the first few steps and never faltered. His intellect and willpower far surpass mine—just... unreal!" The Ghost Elder rarely admitted defeat, but Wang Feng’s performance had thoroughly humbled him. Frankly, his own best record was twenty hours...

He conceded, "There were rumors that the Fusion Rune he invented was actually Thunder Dragon’s work. I don’t believe a single word of that now."

Many elders nodded in agreement. "Seems the outside world has underestimated this kid."

"Heh, this guy’s attitude fits Darkmoon Island’s style—no pretentious airs. Pity. If it weren’t for the Council’s orders, we’d have recruited him in a heartbeat."

"Island Lord, since we've accepted the task to deal with him, and the disciples aren't suitable, why don't I take action covertly?" The speaker's voice was deep and resonant, full of blunt honesty. "The next trial is the Beast Dao. I can—"

"Hah..." A hoarse voice emerged from beneath the mask. "Deal with him? Who said I wanted to deal with him? Besides, fate is unyielding. If he truly is the person I suspect, even if we all bound ourselves together, whether we could actually 'deal with him' would still be a question!"

The Island Lord's voice was raspy and slow, yet in an instant, the hall fell completely silent.

"Ahem, Island Lord, what do you mean—"

"Impossible! That's just a legend!"

"Island Lord, that kid is merely at Tiger Peak—what capability does he have? When the Supreme Sage and First Teacher first emerged, he was already at Dragon level!"

The previously composed and imposing elders suddenly erupted into a clamor of discussion, their dignified aura shattered in an instant. Among the voices, there were even two female elders.

"Whether it's a legend or not, we'll soon find out." The voice beneath the mask remained calm. "The Six Paths of Reincarnation is the best proof. Without understanding its true nature, not even a Ghost-tier Peak could pass through."

The six chattering elders immediately fell silent. Indeed, clearing one or two trials could be attributed to luck or coincidence, but passing all six? Aside from the legendary figure, even the current six Dragon-level experts of the continent would struggle, let alone a mere Tiger Peak disciple. This had nothing to do with strength.

"Third Elder, use your Heavenly Eye to check the situation for us," the Yasha Elder said solemnly.

The Third Elder lifted her hood, revealing herself to be a woman—astonishingly young and beautiful, resembling a girl of seventeen or eighteen, hardly the terrifying elder of Dark Demon Island one might imagine.

Chanting an incantation, a golden vertical eye slowly opened on her smooth forehead. Light projected from it, forming an image before the group. Yet...

The image was nothing but a vast expanse of mist—utterly unreadable, utterly indiscernible.

The Third Elder ceased her spell and shook her head. The others were speechless.

A mere Tiger Peak disciple even the Third Elder couldn't perceive? What was going on?

The beast heads on the gate loomed high—this was the Beast Dao.

Using the Beast Dao to symbolize beastmen wasn't discrimination. In ancient texts about the Six Paths, the so-called 'Beast Dao' was originally called the 'Path of Divine Beasts.'

'Beasts' existed in this world long before humans, even once counted among the 'gods,' ruling the land alongside the deities of the Eight Tribes and the Sea People. But after an ancient war between light and darkness, many beast gods perished in the frontlines, their power diminished, and they fell from divinity. The entire beast race was gradually marginalized. By the time of Wang Meng's era, the rise of humans further encroached on their remaining space, pushing this exclusion to its peak. For a long time, revered beast gods were slandered by humans as 'fallen deities' or 'fallen angels,' their deeds twisted into monstrosities, vilifying the beast race into the universally reviled state they endure today. Even the original 'Path of Divine Beasts' in the Six Paths was renamed the derogatory 'Beast Dao.'

Like the Hungry Ghost Path, Old Wang merely gave the Beast Dao's gate a light push, and it swung open effortlessly.

Inside was a flat, spacious hall—no hordes of beasts blocking the way as one might imagine. Instead, the space was filled with floating cards.

These cards, roughly human-sized, depicted images of beast gods: the legendary Ten Great Beast Ancestors, the Valkyrie, the auspicious Qilin beast—all gleaming in gold. Yet there were also darker ones, like the gluttonous Taotie or the devouring Void-Desolation, the fallen beast gods and apex dark creatures recorded in ancient texts. Like opposing forces of good and evil, they stood in pairs, facing the golden beast god cards.

The floating cards rotated freely, always turning to face Old Wang no matter where he moved.

Beyond this, the gate to the fifth trial, the Asura Dao, stood directly opposite—but it remained shut. A push yielded no response; clearly, certain conditions had to be met first.

"Fallen Angel runes and Beast God Transformation runes interlaced... This is a combined rune array." Old Wang discerned the pattern, a smile forming. "A risk-free trial, much like the weakened beastman culture today... But the rune inlays are flawed—their sequence, position, and orientation are all wrong. Only when all rune cards are perfectly paired will the next gate open."

Murmuring to himself, Old Wang casually flipped a beast god card, aligning it with its paired demon god card.

A clattering sound followed as all the combined runes reacted—some pairing up, some turning back-to-back, others shifting positions—instantly plunging into chaos.

"Fifth-order minor Fallen Angel runes, sixth-order Beast God runes, arranged in thirty-six pairs of beast gods and demon gods, interlocking and counterbalancing. Every flipped card triggers a reaction in all others, rearranging them according to set rules..." Old Wang mused. "To align all cards perfectly, one must account for every variation. With luck, it might only take a few thousand flips..."

Where the Hungry Ghost Path tested array-breaking, this trial tested comprehension of rune combinations—a single move affecting the whole. Mastering such dynamics to harness the runes' power was already advanced knowledge in combined runes, let alone involving a fifth-order and sixth-order rune, their combined difficulty rivaling ordinary seventh-order formations.

Frankly, even the elder overseeing this place only memorized a mnemonic solution. Fully grasping its principles was beyond him—this clearly exceeded the current understanding of runes in the Nine Heavens World. Any runemaster from the mainland, even a former master like Hawkland, might need at least ten days to two weeks to pass, and only because the variations weren't excessive and failures carried no penalty, allowing slow experimentation.

But who was Old Wang? Testing him on runes? And with just a seventh-order formation? The answer was obvious—when it came to runes, he was the father of all runemasters on the continent!