That piece of snowflake, which was as crystal clear as a work of art, was pinched between Chen Yue's fingers without showing any sign of melting.

  Different from the countless snowflakes falling around, this snowflake was not only unusually delicate, but also had a faint silver luster on its surface.

  Of course, if you didn't look carefully, you couldn't tell the difference at all. Not to mention that the difference between them was extremely subtle, just the dim environment alone made it as difficult as reaching for the sky to find it among thousands of snowflakes. However, Chen Yue had managed to do it.

  "You're using this to create the pits, right?" Chen Yue shook his finger slightly and said with a smile, looking indescribably confident and calm between his brows.

  "It's been snowing constantly in the core area. No one would deliberately pay attention to such an ordinary thing, and naturally they wouldn't notice that there were such special snowflakes mixed in. In this way, of course, it's very difficult to compete with you. I couldn't win the bet. But as long as I can discover these snowflakes in advance, then don't say you can create two pits at the same time. Even if you create a dozen at the same time, I won't be afraid at all."

  Chen Yue was naturally full of confidence. The two transformations had already pushed his five senses to an extremely sharp level. He could see every detail within a thousand meters and was completely able to discover the special snowflakes hidden in the wind and snow in time and avoid them in advance.

  Silence, just like the previous silence.

  This wasn't the result Chen Yue wanted to see. Raising his eyebrows, he said bluntly:

  "That is to say, I won."

  After a long while.

  "So what?"

  Finally, an extremely arrogant voice suddenly rang out.

  Although these words weren't very polite and the owner of the voice seemed extremely reluctant to lose, Chen Yue breathed a sigh of relief.

  What he was most afraid of was that the guardian wouldn't say a word from beginning to end. The inability to communicate was the most troublesome situation. Now at least one thing could be confirmed, that is, the guardian was human.

  You should know that these guardians weren't all human. There was also a high possibility that they were super magical beasts with extremely high intelligence. If they encountered them, they could only consider themselves unlucky.

  "Kid, you're right. You won. You've passed this level. Next, you have two choices. The first is to go back. In that case, I won't hold you accountable and will even give you a small gift. The second is to continue to break through." After a pause, the guardian's old-fashioned voice continued, "I must remind you that unless you break through to the last level, don't even think about getting anything from the ruins. Humph, don't think that these levels are all simple. Unless you have the determination to die, if you hesitate, you won't be able to pass the levels. Moreover, even if you pass the levels, you can only choose one thing from the ruins. It might be an artifact, or there's a great possibility that it's just an ordinary brick."

  "Artifact?"

  Chen Yue was stunned. There were no gods in this world, so what was this so-called artifact?

  "Idiot, an artifact is a treasure that surpasses everything. Why can't you even understand such a simple truth?" The guardian reprimanded him bluntly.

  Although his explanation was somewhat reasonable, Chen Yue always felt it was rather far-fetched.

  "I'm an old man with limited time. Little idiot, hurry up and choose, or I'll send you out." Without giving Chen Yue much time to think, the guardian urged him. Moreover, it seemed that he thought the title of "idiot" was quite good, so he just started calling Chen Yue like that.

  "Damn it."

  With his eyebrows tightly furrowed, Chen Yue hesitated. This treasure hunting trip had unexpectedly turned into such a situation, which was really beyond his expectation. Since stepping into the core area, it seemed that everything had been unexpected, making it difficult to make a choice in a hurry.

  The two choices given by the guardian were very strange. It was no exaggeration to say that any rational person would choose the first one. The second one not only had life risks, but also the gift obtained after going through countless hardships might not be as good as the gift given by the guardian if choosing the first one.

  This wasn't originally a difficult choice, but Chen Yue hesitated.

  Would he be reconciled if he didn't give it a try?

  The answer was undoubtedly no.

  Clenching his fists tightly, Chen Yue said loudly, "I choose the second one."

  "Alright." The guardian's voice sounded a bit regretful. "Your friends have also chosen this one. You can choose to break through the levels together. Well, I'll go and bring them here."

  Chen Yue nodded, recalled the Frozen Rabbit, and then quietly waited.

  Under the effect of the guardian, the snowfield, which was originally full of pits and countless gullies, was filled up and soon couldn't be seen any different from before.

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  Thorne was the first to arrive. Seeing that Chen Yue was safe and sound, he was overjoyed. Immediately after that, he told Chen Yue about the performance of Poison Dragon and the others.

  "Forget it. It was bound to happen sooner or later." Chen Yue pulled the corners of his mouth and didn't care. After all, he had never regarded Poison Dragon and the others as companions, so naturally he wouldn't feel the bitterness of being abandoned.

  Poison Dragon and the others also arrived soon. Seeing that Chen Yue was safe and sound, their faces looked a bit ugly and also a bit embarrassed.

  Poison Dragon had the thickest skin. He laughed loudly to ease the strange atmosphere between them. Just as he was about to come over to build up a relationship, he saw Chen Yue's cold and emotionless eyes.

  "Get lost."

  Chen Yue spat out this word coldly, then turned his head away and didn't look at them again.

  Poison Dragon's face instantly became extremely ugly. Outside, he was also a prominent figure and hadn't had the chance to be directly reprimanded like this for a long time.

  However, he was still a person of some stature and didn't erupt immediately. He just retreated with a gloomy face.

  In this way, the team was completely split into two sides.

  The guardian wouldn't consider how the two sides felt. After everyone arrived, his irritable and arrogant voice rang out.

  "Next, I'll announce the content of the second level. Starting from where you are, walk two hundred meters forward, and there will be a maze. As long as you can successfully get out of the maze, you can enter the interior of the ruins and accept my test for the last level."

  Hearing that there were only three levels in total, the expressions of several people were a bit excited. What they were most afraid of was that the guardian was so bored that he would set up endless tests and play with them, which could be seen from the previous teasing.

  "Let's go." Poison Dragon and his group gave Chen Yue and Thorne a provocative glance and walked forward first.

  Chen Yue didn't act immediately. Instead, he frowned and fell into deep thought.

  "Don't you think this second level is too simple?"

  Thorne was stunned when he heard this. He knew that Chen Yue wouldn't say things without a purpose. After calmly analyzing it, he also felt that it seemed too simple.

  "Maybe this maze is a bit special. After all, it might have been passed down from the previous civilization. For us, perhaps the difficulty will be very high."

  "Perhaps this is the only explanation." Chen Yue smiled bitterly.

  The two didn't say anything more and walked forward. After walking about a hundred meters, the wind and snow gradually decreased, and the sky began to clear up. Later, there were only occasional snowflakes falling, and the temperature also warmed up a little. All of this reminded Chen Yue of the ice lake at the other end of the core area.

  There were too many similarities between the two. The only difference was that one was a lake and the other was a maze. He didn't know if the ice lake had anything to do with the guardian here.

  The maze in front was already clearly in sight. It was an extremely magnificent and grand complex of buildings. The walls of the maze were made of ice blocks and were more than ten meters high. It didn't look like walls but rather city walls.

  At the entrance of his sight, he happened to see Poison Dragon and the others stepping into the entrance of the maze.

  "Let's go too." Thorne suggested.

  "Wait." Chen Yue stretched out his hand to stop him and frowned slightly. "We know too little about this maze. Let's ask about it first."

  Chen Yue turned his head and happened to see a silver-white snowflake falling nearby. He casually pinched it.

  "Your Excellency, the Guardian." Chen Yue knew that the other party could see them and communicate through the silver-white snowflakes.

  "What's the matter, little idiot?"

  The guardian's voice rang out as expected, which startled Thorne, who was unprepared. He didn't know there was something strange about these snowflakes. Before, he thought that the whole ruins were under the guardian's surveillance. Who knew that in fact, the guardian managed it through these special snowflakes.

  The content of the words also surprised Thorne.

  "Idiot, idiot?" Thorne opened his mouth in surprise and looked at Chen Yue with a strange look. The guardian actually greeted Chen Yue with such an affectionate title, which showed that the relationship between the two was much better than theirs.

  "Kid, it's none of your business." The guardian reprimanded him angrily.

  Thorne was speechless. Perhaps this was the first time he had been called a kid since he grew up. It felt strange while also being fresh.

  However, he didn't dare to have any dissatisfaction with this old monster who didn't know how old he was.

  Shaking his head helplessly, Chen Yue also felt that the guardian's attitude towards him was much better than towards others. But he guessed that it was because he had defeated the guardian and thus won respect, so he didn't think much about it. Instead, he tried to inquire about the information of the maze in a roundabout way.

  Whether it was on purpose or really didn't know, the guardian didn't take more precautions. Instead, he told Chen Yue a lot of information.

  This maze was indeed extremely complicated. Just listening to the guardian's description made one feel dizzy, let alone finding the exit by oneself. It was estimated that one would be exhausted by the time they found it.

  At the end of the maze was a special house. According to the guardian, it had the function of fixed-point teleportation. As long as one entered it, they could be teleported to the ruins, and he also told Chen Yue how to operate it.

  While talking, the two had already walked to the entrance of the maze.

  "Goodbye."

  With a slight exertion of his fingers, Chen Yue crushed the snowflake into powder.

  In Thorne's astonished eyes, Chen Yue pulled back his right leg that had already been stretched out halfway, and his face also became gloomy, with a faint murderous aura seeping out.

  "He's lying."

  With a gloomy face, Chen Yue said word by word.