Qin Feng’s deduction—the true rules!

Why was 21 minutes and 57 seconds a special time?

Because…

Qin Feng remembered clearly that the first time he extended the challenge time, it was by 69 seconds, and the second time was by 48 seconds. Added together, that was 1 minute and 57 seconds!

In other words…

When he had Grey Chicken touch the pink light orbs to extend the challenge, the refresh time for the Barrier-Breaking Blades was delayed accordingly.

"This hidden rule seems useless, but it allows for a lot of analysis…"

The Barrier-Breaking Blades were meant to destroy the afterimages of the Dream Illusion God.

On the surface, more Barrier-Breaking Blades seemed to just mean more chances for trial and error.

But Qin Feng knew very well…

The Dream Illusion God would never allow such an important challenge to be cleared by someone relying on luck!

While the chance of killing the correct target by randomly destroying Dream Illusion God afterimages with Barrier-Breaking Blades was extremely slim, one had to remember that there were over forty million challengers on the twentieth floor of the Dreamweaving Well!

Even if every person just used a few Barrier-Breaking Blades to test their luck, someone would eventually clear it by chance.

Was this what the Dream Illusion God wanted to see?

Absolutely not!

"That means if I use the Barrier-Breaking Blades to randomly kill these Dream Illusion God afterimages, the probability of destroying the correct target is absolutely zero!"

"In other words…"

"There is no true target among all these Dream Illusion God afterimages!"

"The Dream Illusion God afterimage I need to destroy isn't here—at least, not for the time being…"

This deduction gave Qin Feng a brand new line of thought.

If the target wasn't here yet, then some condition had to be triggered to make the true target enter this White Jade Labyrinth.

"Interesting."

"It seems the key to the challenge lies in those five magic circles…"

At the same time, Qin Feng realized he didn't have many options for action within this labyrinth.

One was the pink light orbs that extended the challenge time.

Another was the Barrier-Breaking Blades.

And then there were the tens of thousands of Dream Illusion God afterimages in the field.

"Right now, I'm constantly in a state of stealth, so these afterimages, which are treated as common monsters, can't find my tracks…"

"But since these afterimages are considered hostile targets, will they actively hunt me down?"

Qin Feng immediately began testing!

He found a random Dream Illusion God afterimage floating around and openly canceled his stealth state, appearing before it… As it turned out, the humanoid giant butterfly shrouded in white holy light seemed completely uninterested in him.

"It won't attack me proactively?"

"What if I attack it?"

Qin Feng raised his hand and sent a Shadow Blade over.

—

[Immune!]

—

Two large, bright red words floated above the humanoid giant butterfly's head!

The creature didn't even show a health bar, but after being hit by Qin Feng's Shadow Blade, the humanoid giant butterfly indeed turned to face him. The two pairs of huge butterfly wings behind it began to flutter, looking as if it were about to release a skill!

"Run!"

This thing couldn't be killed unless a Barrier-Breaking Blade was used…

But Qin Feng hadn't figured out the true purpose of the Barrier-Breaking Blades yet, so he couldn't just use one to kill a random Dream Illusion God afterimage.

When Qin Feng turned to flee, his speed was so high that the humanoid giant butterfly had to interrupt its skill cast and immediately beat its wings to chase after him.

"These giant butterflies can be kited!"

Qin Feng immediately drew a conclusion.

He followed up with 'Integrate into Darkness', re-entering stealth…

The humanoid giant butterfly he had provoked instantly lost its target and could only spin in place…

…

Next, Qin Feng encountered many more pink light orbs that extended time, but he didn't touch any of them.

Because he already had a faint suspicion in his heart.

When the time reached 31 minutes and 57 seconds, as expected, a fourth Barrier-Breaking Blade refreshed within the White Jade Labyrinth.

By now, Qin Feng was able to cover more than half the White Jade Labyrinth with his Original Shadow Perception.

He sensed the Barrier-Breaking Blade the moment it spawned.

However, he didn't rush over immediately because that location was too far from him, while it was relatively close to one of the magic circles…

"I'll head over when I need it,"

Qin Feng thought.

At 41 minutes and 57 seconds, the fifth Barrier-Breaking Blade appeared.

At 51 minutes and 57 seconds, the sixth Barrier-Breaking Blade appeared.

But…

At 61 minutes and 57 seconds, no more Barrier-Breaking Blades appeared. Even after another five minutes, there was still no sign of a seventh blade.

At this moment, Qin Feng was finally basically certain about many of the hidden rules of this challenge!

"Only six Barrier-Breaking Blades appeared from start to finish."

"That corresponds exactly to five magic circles plus one true target. The numbers match perfectly!"

"And the Barrier-Breaking Blades can only be used to destroy Dream Illusion God afterimages…"

"That means I need to lure the Dream Illusion God afterimages onto the magic circles and kill them."

"Only after killing five afterimages will the true target appear in this labyrinth!"

Of course, it was impossible to just kill any five random afterimages.

Qin Feng guessed that there was a high probability that 'assembly' was required!

"There are 160 different patterns in total."

"Assuming 'Afterimage A' has 30 correct patterns, 'Afterimage B' has 40 correct patterns… and so on, the correct patterns on the five afterimages should add up to exactly assemble the true final target!"

And to complete this goal, one needed to wait for all six Barrier-Breaking Blades.

If the Barrier-Breaking Blades were used randomly beforehand, the challenge would become impossible to complete.

Furthermore…

"Once the challenge time is extended, the appearance of every Barrier-Breaking Blade is pushed back."

"From this, it's clear that the more pink light orbs you touch in the early stages, the higher the overall difficulty of the challenge…"

"Fortunately, I realized something was wrong and immediately stopped touching the pink light orbs."

Now that all six Barrier-Breaking Blades had appeared, it was time to truly take action!

Of course, at this point, only about twenty minutes remained before the challenge ended. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to run to all five magic circles scattered throughout the labyrinth.

But one had to remember…

Qin Feng hadn't touched the pink light orbs before.

So there were pink light orbs appearing at intervals across the field.

He could touch the pink light orbs to extend the challenge time while running between the magic circles.

Now that all six Barrier-Breaking Blades had appeared, extending the game time would have no negative effects!

And the most crucial part was…

Qin Feng's Original Shadow Perception had allowed him to select the five afterimage 'sacrifices' he needed to destroy during that long period of time!

Those five targets were each relatively close to one of the five magic circles, wandering nearby.

Qin Feng could lure them onto the magic circles at maximum speed and then use the Barrier-Breaking Blades to kill them.

"Insane, this is too insane."

"This challenge…"

"If I hadn't happened to expand the range of my Original Shadow Perception, and if Ghost Spirit hadn't given me an Order that doubled my speed, I might not have been able to finish it in time…"

"While it might still have been possible, the time would definitely have been extremely tight."

"But now… I have plenty of time!"

After analyzing and deducing all these rules, Qin Feng felt even more chilled to the bone.

Was this Dream Illusion God even human?

Oh right, He wasn't human; He was a giant butterfly…

Of course!

Qin Feng wasn't certain yet that he would definitely be able to complete this challenge.

Because…

As time passed, the spirit effects within this labyrinth were growing stronger and stronger. Even Qin Feng was starting to feel the pressure on his spirit.

Though it hadn't affected him yet.

Still, Qin Feng didn't know how much longer he could hold out!

More fatally, while Qin Feng's deduction was logical, it wasn't necessarily one hundred percent accurate…

"Whether I live or die depends on this one move. Let's do this!"