Back when his direct superior stuffed Tang Xiu into the team, Zhu Long thought it was a ridiculous move as such a weak chicken would only affect the overall strength of his team and that the guy wouldn't play any role whatsoever. But those two previously absurd ideas turned out to not only have saved them a lot of troubles but also made them realize that they had gained some harvests from the ideas instead.

However, he was afraid that Tang Xiu would be full of himself, so he just put the robotic parts into the military bag and said his flat approval without being salty. Due to the weight problems, he discussed it with Firedevil for a while and then decided to hide the military bag containing the robotic parts in the covert corner of the corridor and then bring it when returning back.

"Keep moving forward."

Zhu Long inhaled deeply and took the lead towards the interior. At this moment, he had discreetly taken out the mini pistol and his cold eyes observed the surroundings. Even the slightest sound could cause him to be alert.

A large number of statuaries cast of steel could be seen in the s.p.a.cious hall in front. The moment Tang Xiu's vision landed on those statues, his expression immediately changed to a strange expression. These statues seemed to be randomly placed but those who were well versed in array formations could easily see that they were placed in some particular, elegant positions, even forming a simple array.

It was a kind of maze!

The moment someone entered the s.p.a.ce between these statues, he would be lost inside the formation and they would never come out unless they were lucky to find the correct route. Of course, such a chance was even less than the probability of winning a lottery.

'Technology and yet with an array involved?'

'The combination of these two products of civilizations showed that the race that left behind this three-star vestige had a very advanced civilization. Although this one is far from the much higher civilization beings, it's still several folds more sophisticated than the current civilization on Earth."

Tang Xiu inhaled deeply and saw Zhu Long who was about to enter the maze. He quickly reached out to grab his arm and said in a deep voice, "This vestige is bogged down with perils and dangers, so let me lead the way ahead. Strong perception can sometimes detect the dangers earlier and be a bit useful."

At the moment when Tang Xiu grabbed his arm, Zhu Long struggled to let loose his arm, but much to his shock, Tang Xiu's grip was like steel pinchers and he felt pain due to his struggles. Had it been an average person, he could've easily broken free.

'He's quite strong," sighed Zhu Long inwardly. He nodded without a word and let Tang Xiu take the lead.

Firedevil came to his side and looked at Tang Xiu's back as he lowered his voice and asked, "Zhu Long Capt., is this brat all right? We don't need cannon fodder here."

"He's good. Let's go, we'll know later," answered Zhu Long. "Let's not be too far away from him. We can immediately act to save him if there's any danger ahead."

In the front, Tang Xiu's pace suddenly came to a halt as he looked at the four people following behind him and said in a heavy voice, "I sense some dangers here and we seem to have come across something terrifying. Follow right behind me, look at the spot I step and don't fall behind. It's best to follow my footprints here."

Zhu Long was a cautious man, so he focused heavily on the warnings after Tang Xiu finished speaking. Electrolady and Aquababe were also ones who never joked in face of dangers and nodded, indicating that they wouldn't act recklessly. It was Firedevil instead who still brought the military backpack and carried the birdcage who held some contempt in his eyes.

The statuaries occupied a large s.p.a.ce the size of a regular football field. These statues were rarely in the shape of a human, but mostly in the forms of various beasts such as wolves, tigers, leopards, pigeons, sparrows, and many others beasts no one had ever seen.

"Hmm?"

Firedevil, who followed in the rear among the five had his eyes lit up all of a sudden. He immediately walked toward a statue a few meters away from the left. The statue was a rainworm-like one but had some strange features in that it had eight legs with many streaks of multicolored lines on its back.

"Don't move!"

Tang Xiu, who was at the front, was keenly aware of Firedevil's action. He turned around and growled lowly before he instantly hurled towards Firedevil. What made him angry was that the position of the statue in front of him instantly changed after his feet left the correct route of the array arrangement. As he stopped moving, he fully powered his fist and heavily slammed the floor three meters on the left.

BANG…

Layers of air rippled as though s.p.a.ce was warped and distorted. The statue in front of Tang Xiu's vision returned to its original state as his figure flashed at lightning speed at the same time and instantly appeared in front of the vacant-looking Firedevil. He grabbed the guy's shoulder and forcefully dragged him back behind Aquababe.

"What just happened…"

Firedevil looked around with confusion and finally looked at Tang Xiu.

"I originally thought this team of Elementalists has good discipline and will act with prudence inside this dangerous vestige. I never thought you were so arrogant and stupid," said Tang Xiu apathetically. "Obey my orders if you don't wanna be lost inside this place forever. This will be your first and last warning. There will never be a second time that I will save you again!"

Having said that, he quickly pa.s.sed by Aquababe, Electrolady, Zhu Long, and returned to the foremost position. Even if the trio looked puzzled, he didn't explain anything more.

Firedevil's face instantly flushed and recalled the changing scene a while ago. Fear bred inside him. But Tang Xiu's reprimand without mincing his words left him embarra.s.sed and feeling great shame. If it wasn't for what Tang Xiu had just done, he would've moved to slap him dead!

"Mind your own business! I can rely on my own strength if I b.u.mp into dangers, mind you," rebuked Firedevil indignantly.

Tang Xiu ignored him and kept advancing forward but made up his mind that he would never rescue Firedevil again if this guy were to get swayed by his own thoughts and decided to deviate from the route he had chosen.

Zhu Long frowned and looked at the back of Tang Xiu as he asked, "What just happened, Tang Xiu?"

"For your information, I still have another special ability. I know Feng Shui array formation arrangement," answered Tang Xiu without looking back. "This place may look like a s.p.a.ce with statues and no less. But it's arranged in a form of an array formation, and even worse, it's the most troublesome maze array. Unless someone has enough strength to break the array with brute force, they will never know they have been trapped inside the maze. The chance of them surviving the predicament is close to nil."

This place is a maze? And he's well versed in array formation?

Zhu Long's face hugely changed and a chill ran down inside him. Tang Xiu's words made him faintly realize that this fellow was somewhat a bit unfathomable.

Electrolady exchanged glances with Aquababe with a likewise shocked expression. They were all Elementalists and with the higher level of connections they had, they naturally learned some knowledge about Feng Shui array formation. Only, little did they think that Tang Xiu would understand the Feng Shu array formation.

Could it be that… he's also a very powerful Feng Shu expert?

If so, then it was no wonder that their immediate superior, Duanmu Lin, forcibly stuffed Tang Xiu into their team, and even complied to Tang Xiu's excessive demands.

But Firedevil's expression turned a lot uglier at this moment. Tang Xiu, who he had been looking at with disdain and contempt, had just saved him once. He felt like his face had been completely swept away. More so after learning that this guy turned out to be a Feng Shui expert, who comprehended the essence of the array formation all of sudden, which was something that he could hardly accept.

Seven-plus minutes pa.s.sed by, and Tang Xiu had led the four people through the statuaries field and arrived at a three-meters wide pa.s.sageway. Tang Xiu looked at the door in the front cast in steel that completely sealed off the pa.s.sage and immediately released his spiritual sense to detect the interior behind.

Zhu Long wore a complicated expression as he watched Tang Xiu. He knew very well that every one of them arriving at this point so easily was all because of Tang Xiu. It must be noted that China sent nearly 100 people for the first exploration of this three-star vestige and finally reached this point as well. But the number of people still alive was less than 20, yet only one of them survived after pa.s.sing through the statuaries field and the attack from the robots and was heavily wounded before escaping.

Hence, all the contempt he had towards Tang Xiu had now completely vanished. Although he believed that Tang Xiu's combat prowess was not that good, his special abilities were something that they urgently needed nonetheless.

"Tang Xiu, we need to find a way to open this door if we want to keep going forward. Else, we won't have much to gain from our endeavor to explore this place." Zhu Long's expression twinkled. He was somewhat hoping that Tang Xiu could find the way to open the door.

Tang Xiu calmly smiled in response. He had already figured out the method to open the steel gate after observing the surroundings with his spiritual sense. In order not to expose this special ability, however, he deliberately looked around and finally stopped in front of some runes inscribed on the steel wall in front.

It was a conglomeration of connected line sequences that were shaped in a dragon pattern. If one didn't carefully observe it, they wouldn't notice that the dragon had one eye missing, its eyeball. Under the gaze of Zhu Long and the rest, Tang Xiu reached out to the spot of the missing eye and pressed it.

Bzzzt… thud…

A resounding mechanical sound occurred and the tightly shut steel door slowly split open from the middle, revealing a wide corridor that appeared in front of their eyes.

Zhu Long and the rest were overjoyed and there was admiration in their eyes when they looked at Tang Xiu. Their happy complexion, however, instantly solidified the moment they clearly saw the situation inside the corridor. They even subconsciously backtracked a few steps as though venomous vipers were blocking their path while they put on vigilant stances as though preparing for formidable adversaries.

Tang Xiu slightly frowned, watching the robots on both sides of the corridor. The corridor of just tens of meters unexpectedly had 18 robots, each with a robodog at their feet.

"Electrolady, Aquababe, it's your turn."

Tang Xiu walked to the side and his expression looked calmer.

Electrolady and Aquababe exchanged glances and then nodded at each other. The latter then formed water dragons, whereas the other unleashed lightning sparks and blitzed quickly towards the robots.

Spark… Spark… Spark…

Electricity sparks splashed in all directions, blasting toward the 18 robots and robodogs, shutting down all of them quickly, while pungent black smoke then floated inside the pa.s.sage.

Tang Xiu paced forward a few steps and lightly said, "Let's go ahead! There should be some interesting things in front if my guess is correct."