Within the Maze Realm, a wind arose, and this wind was far from ordinary.

Amidst the breezes that enveloped his body, Jiang Wang sensed a subtle, complex impurity, one that did not belong to the element of wind itself. It was incredibly faint; had he not been observing everything with the utmost vigilance at that moment, he likely would have failed to perceive it.

Perhaps “impurity” was not the right word, for these “attachments” possessed no physical form.

He pondered for a long time, then roughly discerned that they were things of an emotional nature. Engaging his divine soul’s hidden snake to probe further, he finally confirmed that they were indeed related to the cultivators who had perished in this realm’s battles.

They were not complete souls, nor some form of remnant spirit, but akin to a type of obsession – an attachment that, in the Maze Realm, had nowhere to return and was unwilling to simply dissipate.

It was only then that he made the connection: today was the Fourth Initial of the Fourth Month, the annual Sea Sacrifice Day.

The cultivators of the Near Sea Archipelago were currently offering sacrifices to the sea, welcoming the heroic spirits home with pious rituals.

To die in the Maze Realm was to lose one’s soul.

Not merely the destruction of the physical body while the divine soul remained, but the loss of the divine soul trapped alongside the perished body.

While the physical body still existed, it was easy to lose one’s way; how much more so when only the divine soul remained and the guidance of the Starlight Sacred Tower was lost?

Some souls were lost entirely, body and soul obliterated. Others were trapped in the Maze Realm as obsessions, wandering without anchor. It was similar to Guan Yan’s wisp of true spirit drifting in the Origin Realm of the Forest Sea, yet not entirely the same.

These thoughts were even more fragile than a true spirit, and held no possibility of reshaping themselves. (Indeed, in Jiang Wang’s understanding, a wisp of true spirit already lacked the possibility of reshaping, yet Guan Yan had defied his cognition.)

But it was believed that if they could be summoned back to human territory, these thoughts, originating from those brave individuals, would have a chance to re-enter the cycle of reincarnation.

If they could not endure until the guidance of Sea Sacrifice Day, they would merely vanish into smoke, losing all possibilities. Thus, in the Maze Realm today, this gentle wind stirred.

They could carry nothing away, nor would they change the Maze Realm. They were simply homesick souls, ultimately seeking return to their homeland.

Jiang Wang attempted to relax his control over his own body. The result was that his body did not fall in a straight line; instead, it rose for a distance, then after a long while, drifted to the left before finally beginning to descend.

Of course, this so-called up, down, left, and right was merely in reference to his own posture.

This movement trajectory held no regularity, simply following the inherently inverted and chaotic rules of the Maze Realm.

As he controlled his body to fly forward, every increment of distance covered was not simple. He was doing his utmost to adapt to the Maze Realm, to ensure that he could fully unleash his combat power within it. His true strength was already inferior to Granny Bi Zhu’s; to be suppressed further by his lack of adaptation would be akin to seeking death.

Fortunately, this process was not overly difficult. His control over Dao Yuan had long since reached a remarkably refined degree – a harvest reaped from his previous “exchanges” with True Persons. This allowed him to quickly adapt to the peculiarities of the Maze Realm. The Dao Yuan within his body could respond to external changes at any moment, enabling him to move as if on level ground.

By this time, he already knew what those black points he had seen upon first falling into the Maze Realm were: mostly massive stones. They varied in shape and orientation. Due to the same inverted and chaotic relationships, using these giant stones to determine direction was impossible.

Fortunately, he had the Finger Compass. In this short time of exploring the Maze Realm, Jiang Wang had sighed with relief at this fact more than once.

Some of these giant stones even had diameters of several hundred *zhang*, appearing in Jiang Wang’s view entirely like small islands. Yet, they were not the so-called “Floating Islands,” and no humans survived on them.

This suggested that the composition of a “Floating Island” was not simple. It was absolutely not merely an island suspended in the air; certain necessary conditions must be met.

Otherwise, the Ding Wei region should not have only one Floating Island.

Jiang Wang ascended to observe the giant stones. Their quality was very ordinary, not the kind of suspended stone he had seen in the Suspended Temple. Their ability to float in the air was merely a result of the Maze Realm’s peculiarities… This led him to abandon the idea of collecting some corner pieces of stone as material to take away.

The surfaces of the giant stones were mostly bare, with practically no living things; trees, soil, and the like were absent, only occasional patches of moss.

There were no traces of human habitation.

Furthermore, those who battled in this Maze Realm, except for large armies forming arrays, were all cultivators of the Outer Building realm and above. They were either fighting or resting on Floating Islands, with no need to reside in these places.

The route Jiang Wang had chosen was based on the plan made by the Finger Compass: a large circle encompassing the vicinity of the Ding Wei region’s sole human Floating Island.

This route could be seen as a sphere, with the Floating Island as its center. Jiang Wang’s path of advancement traced the surface of this sphere.

The reason for choosing this approach was that, putting himself in Granny Bi Zhu’s shoes, he could easily arrive at a judgment: the sooner Jiang Wang was killed, the better.

He hoped to eliminate Granny Bi Zhu as quickly as possible, but when Granny Bi Zhu also harbored this hope, he instead needed patience.

Searching for a needle in a haystack was clearly not a good choice. For Granny Bi Zhu, who held the advantage in strength, guarding near the Floating Island was an easier method to “capture” Jiang Wang.

Because Jiang Wang would have to go to the Floating Island to “resupply.”

This “resupply” was not merely about resources – magical tools, Dao Yuan stones, medicines, and the like – but lay in a most important problem: “alienation.”

Cultivators had discovered long ago that prolonged stays in the Maze Realm would cause their bodies to be unconsciously “changed” by it. This was not the strangeness of growing extra heads or hands; this “change” was extremely subtle, even fundamentally undetectable.

This was because the interaction between life and environment was, in essence, a continuous process of subtle influence.

Only those who had stayed in the Maze Realm for too long would, upon returning to human territory, experience reactions to varying degrees. They had already become less adapted to the human world!

In mild cases, a period of rest was sufficient. In severe cases, permanent changes could even occur!

Declining combat power, loss of control over Dao Yuan, inability to sense Yuan force, even painful breathing…

This kind of change was precisely what was called “alienation.”

Cultivators in the Divine Arrival realm would not experience “alienation,” because their golden bodies and jade marrow could easily lock down their own changes.

However, the warriors conquering the Maze Realm were not all Divine Arrival powerhouses.

The method to resolve “alienation” was also very simple: spend a period of time on the Floating Island to rest before the body became alienated, perhaps staying for a night. If one could focus on cooperating with the environment for recuperation, this time could be shortened further.

To some extent, the Floating Island was quite like a small human enclave. Returning to the Floating Island was like returning to human territory.

Precisely because the Floating Island held such significant meaning, it became a life island for humans in the Maze Realm. The number of Floating Islands, therefore, could represent the strength within a certain area.

Jiang Wang chose to circle the Floating Island for two reasons: firstly, to avoid a head-on confrontation with Granny Bi Zhu before he had fully adapted to the Maze Realm. Secondly, to test Granny Bi Zhu’s decision.

Granny Bi Zhu wanted to eliminate Jiang Wang as quickly as possible. She, of course, also knew that Jiang Wang urgently desired to complete his absolution to return to Tian Ya Tai and retrieve Zhu Bi Qiong.

The problem before her then became: how high was the priority of Jiang Wang killing her? With the abundant resources Jiang Wang carried, might he not complete his absolution before alienation occurred? Was it possible that he would not need to go to the Floating Island at all, and instead complete his objective directly and leave?

No matter how cunning Granny Bi Zhu might be, these problems were inevitable, and these entanglements would certainly arise.

Her greed towards Jiang Wang had been displayed too nakedly; it was absolutely impossible for her to let Jiang Wang go in the Maze Realm. As long as this point was grasped, a relatively accurate judgment could be made.

Jiang Wang could even deduce the likely range where Granny Bi Zhu was lying in wait. She would not stay too close to the Floating Island, because if she were too near, Jiang Wang could very likely escape into the Floating Island during battle. Mutual killing among human cultivators was not permitted on the Floating Island.

But she would also not stay too far from the Floating Island; being too far made it easy to overlook things.

Therefore, she ought to be circling in a smaller circle within the larger circle Jiang Wang was tracing.

It was not even necessary to be circling; simply setting up “eyes” at the boundaries of this small circle would suffice.

However, in those initial days of lying in wait, she would certainly not encounter Jiang Wang.

After that, she would fall into a state of entanglement: should she continue to stake out Jiang Wang, or take the initiative to attack?

Taking the initiative to attack might cause her to miss Jiang Wang going to the Floating Island to resupply. But if she continued to lie in wait, who was to say that Jiang Wang had not already successfully completed his absolution and left?

This kind of entanglement would torment that old granny moment by moment. The longer the time passed, the more indecisive she would become.

The opportunity Jiang Wang was waiting for was precisely at that moment.