Nobody noticed anything unusual at first. The stones on the walls surrounding the maze were about three meters long and wide.
The stones were only roughly polished and not particularly smooth on the surface. Basically, there were many pits and indentations on each stone, making it difficult to see any differences.
“Take a closer look at the eight or nine stones in the middle!” Billy pointed upwards and said.
“Are the concave pits on those nine stones different from the others?” Billy continued to ask.
“Hmm?” Hearing this, everyone looked up again.
“It does seem different!” Soon, Harleen and Opal simultaneously spoke up.
“Why am I still not seeing it?” Judge furrowed his brows and asked Casey beside him, “Mr Kimmons, have you noticed?”
“Take a closer look at the walls on both sides of the passage and the wall directly ahead.” Casey nodded in response.
“Except for the nine stones in the middle, the concave pits on the other stone surfaces are irregular in shape.”
“While on the nine stones in the middle, although there are irregular concave pits, each stone surface has a varying number of standard circular pits.”
“It seems to be indeed!” Judge’s eyes lit up.
At this point, everyone naturally noticed the differences in those nine stones. As Casey said, each of the nine stones had a certain number of standard circular pits. If one paid closer attention, they would also notice that the number of circular pits on each stone surface varied, ranging from one to nine.
“Boss, the number of those circular pits should represent the sequence of these stones.” Soul Chaser pondered aloud. “The current arrangement is chaotic. Does that mean we need to arrange these stones from large to small according to their sequence to pass this level?”
“The problem is, how do we arrange them?” Felicia replied, “Could these stones be movable?”
Not only Felicia, but Billy and others were also thinking about this problem. Everyone was aware that, most likely, the key to this level lay in these nine stones.
However, these stones were integrated with the walls. How could they be moved?
“I’ll try!” After saying this, Amber’s eyes narrowed, and she reached out to grab one of the stones.
She was a cultivator at the third-rank Sacred Realm. If it was just an ordinary stone, she could easily move it. However, no matter how hard she tried, there was no sign of movement from the stone.
“Could there be other mechanisms to control these nine stones?” Harleen frowned slightly and said.
“Let’s search together!” Opal instructed everyone except Billy.
Then, everyone, except for Billy, got busy again.
Billy, on the other hand, stood still, lost in thought.
Ten minutes later, everyone returned to Billy, apparently having found nothing.
“White Tiger, try to shatter the ninth stone!” Suddenly, Billy said abruptly.
“Shatter it?” White Tiger was taken aback. “Boss, these stones are enchanted with an array. I’m afraid…”
“Just try!” Billy interrupted him.
“Okay!” White Tiger hesitated for a moment, then sent a powerful palm strike toward the ninth stone.
The next moment, to everyone’s surprise, the ninth stone exploded like paper under White Tiger’s palm strike.
“Shattered?” Both White Tiger and Azure Dragon were stunned.
Moreover, what surprised everyone was that after the ninth stone shattered, the wall didn’t pierce through.
Instead, there was a gap about three meters long and wide on the wall, with the innermost part still being a wall. Obviously, the thickness of this wall was far more than three meters.
“I’ll try the other stones!” Ian Blade said in a deep voice, then sent several palm strikes toward the other stones.
However, there was no movement from the wall, not even a slight tremor.
“Honey, how did you know the ninth stone could be shattered?” Harleen looked at Billy and asked.
Opal, Amber, and others also looked at Billy with curiosity written all over their faces.
“Do you remember the first sentence in the mechanism diagram?” Billy asked everyone.
“Heaven and earth?” Frostblade said.
“Yes!” Billy nodded slightly.
“If my estimation is correct, this maze should have three similar levels.”
“Heaven and earth are the password for this first level.”
“I don’t get it!” Stout scratched his head. “What’s the secret behind these words?”
Not only Stout, but others were also puzzled.
“These are the terms of the Eight Diagrams.” At this point, Opal said thoughtfully.
“I think I understand!” Harleen said at the same time. “Honey, are you suggesting that the remaining eight stones represent the Eight Diagrams?”
“Exactly!” Billy smiled slightly and continued, “The key to this level should be to place these eight stones in the correct positions.”
“Since these stones cannot be separated from the wall, they can only be moved laterally. Therefore, there must be a space left to move these stones, otherwise, there is no way to start.”
“Therefore, I guessed that the ninth stone should be the extra one, and the result proved to be correct!”
“I see!” Everyone finally understood.
“Billy, do you know the positions corresponding to the Eight Diagrams?” Felicia asked.
“It shouldn’t be as simple as arranging them from small to large, from top to bottom, right?” She wasn’t familiar with the Eight Diagrams, so it made sense for her to be in the dark.
“Of course not!” Billy said with a smile.
“So, how do we determine the directions on this wall?” Felicia paused for a moment and continued, “Could it be based on the traditional rule of ‘north up, south down, west left, east right’?”