They went down a flight of stairs and soon saw the third level— Iron Tree Hell.
In the spacious tomb chamber, about the size of a basketball court, stood an iron tree in the very center. Every branch and leaf on the tree was like a sharp knife. Many corpses had their backs pierced by the iron tree and hung on it, dried into human mummies by the wind.
The trees were covered with corpses, including many female corpses dressed in white with their black hair hanging down, which looked particularly eerie.
Xiao Lou stopped in his tracks, wondering what kind of mechanism the Iron Tree Hell might have.
Surely we can't just hang them up there?
Tang Ci sent out his mechanical ant to scout ahead. As soon as the ant took two steps forward, the iron tree seemed to have a spirit. Suddenly, it stretched out long iron chain vines, grabbed the two ants, and hung them upside down on the tree!
Ants, made of metal, were instantly shredded into mud by sharp branches and leaves.
Xiao Lou: "..."
Are they really going to hang them on the tree?!
Tang Ci: "..."
It's a real shame about his ants, but thankfully this card can summon a lot of mechanical ants, so losing only two doesn't have a big impact.
Lu Jiuchuan cursed The Diamond-Suit Guardian as a pervert again in his mind, then looked at Yu Hanjiang: "With your skills, do you think you can dodge that?"
"It should be possible. My military knife can cut through iron like butter, and these vines are made of iron, so I can cut them directly with it. But it's still too dangerous to take you through." Yu Hanjiang's expression was extremely serious: "Is this level a step sensor? If we don't touch the floor, can it sense where we are and hang us upside down from the tree with the vines?"
"I'll give it a try." Tang Ci had a lot of mechanical cards in his hand, including mechanical ants for scouting and mechanical spiders for attacking, as well as aerial machines— drone arrays.
His drone formation can carry out large-scale bombing of designated areas, and can also be used as a stealth reconnaissance aircraft or a small transport vehicle, making it a very versatile device.
Tang Ci only dispatched two drones to fly into the air.
If there were a stepping mechanism on the ground, the iron tree would automatically sense the location as soon as someone steps on the floor, sweep the target away, and hang them on the tree—then all you have to do is avoid stepping on the floor.
But as it turns out, they were too optimistic.
The drone, flying in the air, was swept away by a vine as strong as an iron chain as soon as it entered the area of the iron tree, and was instantly reduced to a pile of fragments.
Tang Ci said helplessly, "It won't work. This is a 360-degree sensor with no blind spots."
It's even more exaggerated than modern high-tech intelligence.
So why would such a bizarre mechanism appear in an ancient tomb?
Xiao Lou couldn't help but want to complain as well.
Guardian rubbed his temples, took a deep breath to calm himself, and looked up at the strange tree. The iron tree in front of him was covered with corpses; if one were to be accidentally caught in its chains, they too would become one of those hanging corpses.
Moreover, this iron tree is extremely thick, making it impossible for anyone to damage it.
While Yu Hanjiang's military knife was said to be incredibly sharp, capable of slicing through the iron chains that flew towards them, it couldn't possibly cut an iron tree with a diameter exceeding 5 meters in half. Moreover, no one knew how many iron chains the iron tree would throw at them at once; charging straight through was simply too dangerous…
Xiao Lou thought about it carefully and said, "Since this is a sensor mechanism, there are only a few types: pressure sensing, where the iron tree can immediately detect our location when we step on the floor; sound wave sensing, where the iron tree's chains can accurately lock onto our location as long as we make a sound, such as footsteps or breathing; and visual sensing, where if the leaves of this tree had eyes, it could immediately tie us back to the tree wherever we go and stab us into a sieve with a sharp knife."
The teammates turned around and looked at the largest tree they had ever seen in their lives.
The rusty trees were laden with corpses. The rust on the iron was probably due to oxidation from blood flowing on it. Besides the mummified corpses that had been dead for a long time, there was one other body hanging in the trees...
It seems he died not long ago.
As a forensic doctor, Xiao Lou is very sensitive to the time of death. He discovered that a female corpse was hanging at the top of the iron tree. She was wearing a neat black short-sleeved shirt and jeans, and her hair was tied in a ponytail. She was hanging upside down on the tree, and a sharp branch had pierced her chest. Her face was full of terror, and the body had not yet decomposed, nor had there been any obvious signs of livor mortis.
Xiao Lou felt a chill: "Look, the female corpse on top... she must have died within half an hour."
Lu Jiuchuan was clearly taken aback—everyone was struggling with how to get through the mechanisms on this floor, but Professor Xiao was actually studying the time of death of the corpse hanging upside down on the iron tree? Was he treating the Diamond Secret Room like a heart room?
However, after carefully considering Xiao Lou's words, Lu Jiuchuan immediately came to his senses: "The time of death was within half an hour. You mean, this person just entered the maze not long ago?"
Xiao Lou's expression turned serious: "It's very likely Hunter."
Everyone: "......"
As Guardian has stated, for this World Weekly Routine, all teams will enter parallel escape rooms independently, with all players participating in the scoring and ranking, and the number of eliminations determined by a bottom-ranking elimination system.
In other words, their team will not encounter other Challenger teams in a maze.
On this iron tree, 99% of the corpses were dressed in white, with long hair hanging down and pale faces, like hanged ghosts.
These must be the evil spirits punished by Iron Tree Hell.
The corpse hanging at the top was completely different from the others in terms of clothing, appearance, and manner of death. More importantly, her skin wasn't as pale, and the places where she had been pierced by sharp branches were even...bleeding.
She is a human being.
Only Hunter can enter this maze.
Lu Jiuchuan felt a chill run down his spine; "My jinx really came true! The Hunter Organization actually tracked us down to the maze we're in, but they probably entered from a different spot than us, so this woman died in Iron Tree Hell?"
Xiao Lou nodded, looked up at the female corpse, unsure whether to feel sad or relieved. He remained silent for a moment before saying, " Finding Hunter's body in Iron Tree Hell at least proves one thing..."
He looked at Yu Hanjiang and said seriously, "In the conflict between Hunter and Challenger, the four Guardians should maintain a neutral stance. Hunter has to solve puzzles and overcome obstacles just like us when entering the maze, and the little diamonds girl didn't go easy on her."
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "Yeah, they wanted to kill us in the Diamonds maze, but they were killed by the Diamonds ' traps instead. However, the Hunters who came to track down Ninth Brother must have been quite strong, yet they were killed by the iron tree here... It's obvious that we can't force our way in."
Or should we just turn back and find another way?
But if we turn back, all our previous efforts will be wasted, and everyone is unwilling to accept that.
Just as he was hesitating, Xiao Lou suddenly said, "I have an idea that we can try."
Seeing him take out a card, everyone calmly looked at the iron tree: "This iron tree should be an intelligent mechanism with vision, sound waves and pressure sensing. Once it enters its sensing range, not even a mosquito can fly away. Therefore, we must make it completely undetectable."
The teammates' eyes lit up—
The card Xiao Lou played was: Invisibility Cloak.