Chapter 594 — Corridor After Corridor

The moment Liora stepped out of the room, the sense of danger behind her instantly receded.

The sound of footsteps paused while the movements came to an abrupt halt.

As she turned around and looked into the room, she noticed that the puppets had frozen into place.

Moments later, a click rang out.

Their armored bodies melted into silvery liquid before sinking into the floor beneath them.

Within mere seconds, every knight puppet had disappeared, as though they had never existed.

Then, the room itself began repairing its damage.

As if it were a living organism, the cracks along its surface squirmed and merged together. The broken walls worked to restore themselves.

Even the disturbance in the air itself was smoothed out, and the previous peace reappeared.

Soon, the chamber looked exactly as it had when they first entered—besides the lack of items and furniture.

Seeing this, Liora’s eyes narrowed.

She briefly considered whether to enter again to investigate the puppets’ activation mechanism.

Ultimately, however, she abandoned the idea.

There was no need to take unnecessary risks, especially when there was no benefit whatsoever.

If she stepped inside now, it was highly likely that all twelve puppets would attack simultaneously.

At that point, concealing her strength would become impossible, and her identity might be exposed.

Of course, the previous encounter had already confirmed several things.

"These puppets only appeared after I collected the room’s contents. Whether I triggered a hidden restriction or merely removing an item is enough for them to appear remains unclear."

"Regardless, unless someone enters these chambers and takes what’s inside, these puppets won’t appear."

"Even if they do, they will never step into the corridor."

This realization left Liora fairly satisfied.

Casting one final glance toward the empty chamber, she turned around and resumed her journey through the corridor.

The remainder of the trip was as uneventful as before.

Most chambers remained sealed.

As for the few that weren’t, Liora had already found a solution.

She had Elaouthr push the doors open while she remained outside, collecting everything from afar without ever setting foot inside.

Although the knight puppets emerged each time and glared at her threateningly, brandishing their weapons solemnly, they soon retreated without launching a single attack.

To Elaouthr, it appeared that Liora had discovered a loophole in the palace’s defensive mechanisms.

Using this trick, they emptied chamber after chamber.

Liora, however, had a different opinion.

"I’m afraid someone deliberately altered the palace’s defenses."

"There is no way a residence belonging to a suspected Rank 10 powerhouse would possess such an obvious flaw. Even if it had, there should have been guards in the corridor too."

"Rather than protecting the palace, these puppets seem more like they exist to test those who enter and wish to obtain the items inside."

Although these thoughts occupied her mind, Liora’s actions never slowed.

She continued collecting every appliance and artifact she found, storing them within the Cosmic Sea alongside the "trash" she had gathered from the Heavenly Armor Pavilion.

Slowly but surely, the pile inside the sea grew bigger and bigger.

By the time they reached the next intersection, nearly half a world within the Cosmic Sea had been covered with the collected items.

Despite this, Liora showed no intention of stopping.

With a thought, the cosmic dust stirred, enveloping the mountain of treasures before compressing them into a much smaller volume.

Then, she continued with her plundering journey.

Unlike what one would originally think, the corridor was not truly endless.

Shortly afterward, the darkness around the pair gradually receded as they left the corridor behind them.

Another plaza-like intersection appeared before them, where countless corridors converged like the tunnels of an ant nest.

At the center of this space stood another stone statue.

As Liora approached it, she was slightly surprised to discover that it depicted someone different.

Although the identity of the previous statue had been impossible to discern, it was obvious it had represented a man.

This one, however, depicted a woman.

Her face was still blurry.

Every distinguishing feature had been erased, making it impossible to determine her true appearance.

Even if she were to appear and stand in front of her, Liora suspected that she would be unable to connect the two together.

Liora pondered this only briefly. Then, she turned her attention toward the surrounding corridors.

Compared to the previous intersection, there were noticeably fewer of them, though they still numbered in the thousands.

If she had to estimate, roughly half of them had disappeared.

The corridors themselves, however, remained unchanged.

As soon as Liora’s consciousness dove into them, they turned into bottomless abysses, sucking her consciousness in.

No further clues about them or where they led could be found.

Liora wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

Turning around, she looked toward Elaouthr.

Last time, they had chosen the corridor he suggested.

Although they had found no great opportunities, they had still encountered several open chambers, while even the knight puppets could be considered a great discovery.

Nothing truly valuable had been obtained, but to say that they had no gains would certainly be impossible.

Thinking of this, Liora did not hesitate.

Staring at this demon, who seemed particularly lucky, going from finding corpses of ancient cultivators to treasures that should have been impossible to obtain, she opened her mouth and spoke:

"Which corridor do you think we should take this time?", she asked.

Elaouthr didn’t pause at all.

Already accustomed to the question, he casually pointed toward one of the many corridors. He had no justification to choose this one.

When Liora asked him at the previous intersection, he had merely said that he had relied on his feelings.

Under normal circumstances, such a justification would have made Liora frown and wonder whether he was simply tricking her.

Yet surprisingly, she showed a great amount of trust in him at the moment.

Seeing the corridor he had pointed toward, she didn’t hesitate for long and soon entered it.

The next second, a very familiar sight entered her eyes.