secret dice.

Chapter 523: The Ship of Theseus

"I think!"

Luo Jun looked into his master's eyes and answered solemnly.

Elder Yuan nodded with satisfaction: "That's right, since we have embarked on this path of cultivation, we must set our goal at the top. Whether it is the peak or the immortal, we must have the confidence to surpass it!"

Luo Jun was also overwhelmed with emotion when he heard this: "Master, what do you mean by asking me this? Do you think I have the capital to challenge Yuhua now?"

Although Luo Jun had fought with Yuhua before, the situation was special at that time and his condition was not perfect, and the Nine Provinces Strange Beggar obviously did not take him seriously. Now, Luo Jun has broken through to the ninth level of Peiyuan Realm, and his various attributes have improved a lot. His strength is no longer what it used to be. If he meets that old beggar again, Luo Jun really has the urge to go up and fight him.

Elder Yuan shook his head: "On the contrary, I asked you this to set a rule for you."

"Before you truly gain the ability to condense your mind, you must never challenge the transformation!"

"Absolutely not?" Luo Jun frowned: "What does this mean?"

"It means exactly what it says." Elder Yuan nodded and said, "I am not negotiating with you. If you still recognize me as your master, this is the master's instruction. No matter what happens, you must not conflict with the Yuhua Realm!"

"What if it's Yuhua who comes to my door?" Luo Jun recalled the time when he was bullied by the strange beggar from Jiuzhou, and felt somewhat resentful.

"Then run!" Yuan Lao said, "If you can't run, then admit your mistake, apologize, kowtow and admit your fault. In short, as long as you can calm the other party's anger, you can do anything, just don't get into a fight!"

"This is a bit too cowardly..."

"It is never too late for a gentleman to take revenge!" Yuan Lao warned: "When you have no strength, the so-called dignity is worthless. When you have enough capital, no one will dare to disrespect you!"

Luo Jun looked at Master Yuan and saw concern and determination in his eyes. He finally nodded: "I understand. I will obey your orders!"

Luo Jun didn't have to challenge the transformation. If his master hadn't asked him, he wouldn't have thought about this question.

He was a little puzzled as to why the master suddenly told him this... Was he afraid that he didn't know his place and would commit suicide on his own initiative?

Are you kidding? Everyone knows that Yuhua is the pinnacle of this world. Why would he, who is at Peiyuan realm and has lost his mind, go looking for trouble with those land immortals?

This old man is really worrying too much.

After finishing the topic, the master and disciple continued to move forward and soon arrived at the door of the black shop.

Ling Jian was not brought this time, and Luo Jun had already taken out the three gold ingots in advance. This shouldn't anger the owner again, right?
The master and the disciple made some preparations. Old Yuan put on the Bagua Brass Knuckles, Luo Jun held the ingot in one hand and took out the wall-building wand with the other. The two men slowly walked forward and carefully knocked on the door.

After a while, the iron gate slowly opened, and a head stretched out from it. Unlike the previous two, this head belonged to a very beautiful young woman.

Not only did he have beautiful features and fair skin, he also wore delicate makeup, and he even didn't have the disgusting tumors on his head. Because the door blocked the view of his body below the neck, people couldn't help but wonder if this was really a person, and not the disgusting monster that looked like a big hand?

"What do you two need?" The woman's voice was pleasant to the ear, but her tone was very cold, without any emotion.

"We are here to trade." Luo Jun shook the gold ingot in his hand.

The woman nodded: "So you are a guest, come in..."

As she said that, she opened the door.

To Luo Jun's disappointment, the body behind the door was still that disgusting big hand, but the woman's head was growing on the ring finger.

The master and the apprentice walked into the store. The beautiful head took the product brochure and asked, "What do you want to buy?"

"You want food? Ten portions." Luo Jun took out some money. The beautiful head took it and quickly took out ten food packages from the sundries and handed them to Luo Jun.

When Luo Jun took it, he could feel something moving in the bag, and even heard a rustling sound.

After putting the food into the smart equipment bag, Luo Jun exchanged for a map.

"Don't you want to buy some high-end goods?" The beautiful head asked, "You have so many gold ingots, don't just use banknotes."

"I plan to save them for later use." Luo Jun said with a smile, "Also, I have a question I want to ask you."

The beautiful woman glanced at Luo Jun and said, "This is not a library. I am not here to answer your questions."

"I want to ask about hunting monsters." Luo Jun said with a smile: "It would be good for you to kill more Chaos Monsters, right?"

The beautiful head blinked and said, "Okay, just ask. I don't guarantee that I can answer."

"What I want to ask is, if you are infected by chaotic creatures and start to mutate..." While asking the question, Luo Jun activated the Tianji dice and determined to get the true answer.

"Is there any way to redeem it?"

When the beautiful woman heard this question, her eyes widened for a moment and she looked at Luo Jun: "You haven't mutated, why are you asking this?"

Luo Jun picked up a gold ingot: "Do you know where this gold ingot came from? It was originally a companion of mine, but he mutated into a monster right in front of me. I had no choice but to kill him, and in the end, only this gold ingot was left."

"I could only watch him mutate, and I didn't even know how it happened. If this happened to me, how could I avoid the same fate as him? Or at least, how could I prevent myself from being infected by the Chaos monsters?"

The beautiful woman glanced at Luo Jun and finally stretched out a hand: "Give me this ingot and I will tell you."

Luo Jun hesitated slightly, frowned, and then handed the ingot dropped by Li Ying to the beautiful woman's head.

"The process of humans turning into monsters is not infection, but replacement." "Replacement?" Luo Jun was stunned.

"Have you heard of the Ship of Theseus?" said the beautiful head. "It is a ship that keeps sailing on the sea. Thanks to constant maintenance, it has never sunk. Whenever a part of it rots, the crew will replace it in time. After countless years, when every part of the ship has been replaced, is the ship still the same? If not, then from how many parts does it still remain the same ship? And from which part does it become a new ship?"

Luo Jun frowned slightly when he heard this: "You mean, the people who are infected will be replaced slowly?"

"You still don't understand..." The beautiful woman shook her head: "It's not an infection. As long as a person is alive, they will metabolize and must exchange substances with the outside world. With every breath, every bite of food, and every excretion, part of your body is replaced by substances from the outside world."

"As long as you are still in this maze, your body will sooner or later be completely replaced by the chaotic matter in the maze."

"What did you say?" Luo Jun broke out in a cold sweat. "You mean, if we don't leave this maze, we will all become monsters sooner or later?"

The beautiful head nodded: "But you don't have to be afraid. Matter is the foundation of the soul. When matter is replaced, your spirit and thoughts will also change involuntarily. You may not even be aware of this change. You will just take it for granted and accept it happily."

"No..." Luo Jun shook his head and said, "The White Shop said that this change should be related to the Chaos creatures that have been in contact. And since it is an exchange, why do some people who entered the maze together mutate while others are still fine?"

"He's right." The beautiful head smiled slightly and said, "This maze has been polluted by chaos. Those chaos monsters are the embodiment of this pollution. They are extremely concentrated chaotic matter. They will instinctively try to replace the creatures outside. The best way is to attack!"

"If it's just daily activities, replacement is still a long process. But if you're injured, your metabolism will speed up in order to repair your body. If you happen to be injured by a chaos monster, then this replacement will be further accelerated... Replacement is irreversible. If you find yourself starting to mutate and don't want to become a monster, the best way is to let your companions kill you while you still have reason, and then bring the gold ingots to me to exchange for treasures."

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At this point, the beautiful head laughed and said, "That way, your death will be more meaningful."

"Unless you can find the exit before you completely mutate. The door to reality will purify all traces of the maze."

"Don't exaggerate!" Old Yuan snorted coldly, "How do we know whether what you said is true or not!"

"I've already given you the answer. Believe it or not, it has nothing to do with me." The beautiful head sneered, "How is it? Is there anything else you want to buy?"

"Wait..." Luo Jun asked again: "The merchant in the white shop said that if the Chaos Monster that hurt me explodes with gold ingots, then I don't have to worry about mutation. What's going on?"

"Gold ingots are the product of the chaos monsters collapsing under the rules of the maze." The beautiful head said, "You can think of it as the corpse of a chaos monster. When a chaos monster dies, the remains of its body are not its real corpse. The essence of the chaos matter is concentrated and sealed in the gold ingots, so it will not speed up the replacement of the injured."

"Of course, being injured will still accelerate mutation. The guys in the White Shop don't understand the principle behind this at all. They only know that you won't mutate immediately after the gold ingots explode, so they think you have escaped the fate of being replaced. Humph, a bunch of idiots. They are clearly protected by the rules, but they don't understand anything and have wasted great resources in vain."

"I have another question." Luo Jun looked at the beautiful woman's head: "Why do you, the Black Shop, offer a reward for those Chaos Monsters? What is your relationship with the Chaos Monsters? And what is your relationship with the White Shop?"

"This question is beyond my scope of answer." The beautiful head smiled and said, "Is there anything else you want to buy?"

Luo Jun asked a few more questions, but he couldn't get to the bottom of anything, so the master and disciple had no choice but to leave the store.

"In my opinion, we can't believe what that monster said!" Old Yuan shook his head and said, "There are many doubts in what she said. It is very likely that she deliberately released false information in order to disrupt us."

Luo Jun shook his head: "I think what she said is true."

"Why do you think so?" Old Yuan frowned.

"Intuition..." Luo Jun sighed, thinking to himself that I couldn't tell you that I had calculated my fortune in my mind and the result was very bad.

Since what this female monster said is true, even if they have enough supplies and can survive in the maze, they will sooner or later lose themselves and turn into monsters.

It seems that this maze that seems to have no time limit cannot be stayed in forever.

Luo Jun originally wanted to concentrate on his cultivation here and seclude himself for a few years before coming out, but now it seems that he simply doesn't have the time.

Now it seems that everyone, including myself, has been replaced by chaotic matter to varying degrees, but the key point is just as it was said in the Ship of Theseus, how much has been replaced and from what point on, it is not the real self, and this cannot be verified at all.

In other words, I have no idea how much time I have left.

"Master, after we go back, don't tell everyone the truth." Luo Jun sighed, "I'm afraid they won't be able to accept it. If there's another internal conflict, it will be even more troublesome."

"I think so too." Yuan Lao nodded: "What's more, I don't think that is the so-called truth at all."

"The key is what to do with Ling Jian." Luo Jun frowned and said, "According to that monster, he is beyond saving."

"Even if what she said is true, as long as we can find an exit as soon as possible, Ling Jian can survive." Yuan Lao frowned and said, "As long as there is still hope, I don't want to give up on him."

Luo Jun wanted to refute, but he suddenly remembered Yuan Lao who came to Midnight Hotel to help him.

Yes, if Master Yuan had given up on him at that time, he would have most likely died in the hotel forever... The master is the master, and he has never changed...

The two quickly returned to the crowd and told them the information they had obtained from the black shop. Of course, they concealed the fact that everyone was being assimilated, and only said that being injured by the chaos monster would cause a risk of mutation. If they wanted to save Ling Jian, they had to leave the maze and return to reality before he completely mutated.

Even so, everyone was still desperate. The problem came back to finding an exit, but at the moment, finding an exit that changed position from time to time in a huge maze that was at least hundreds or thousands of kilometers long was harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

"Don't lose heart, at least we have a way to make money quickly now." Luo Jun encouraged: "Now we have the monster-attracting incense, and I have also bought the food from the black shop. As long as we can make enough money as soon as possible and exchange for the ultimate props on both sides, we can get out soon!"

There was really no other way now, so everyone immediately took out the monster-attracting incense and opened the food packages from the black shop. As soon as they opened them, the bugs inside crawled out, causing several girls to scream.

After much persuasion, the monster-attracting incense and the strange meat were finally combined. The two materials really produced some kind of strange reaction. The strange meat originally emitted a foul odor, and the monster-attracting incense also had a strange smell. But after the two things were combined, they actually emitted a strange fragrance that not only monsters, but even humans wanted to get closer when they smelled it.

But Luo Jun didn't use it right away. The area had been scanned by the map before, and everyone knew exactly what monsters and traps there were, so there was no need to waste props. They walked a few kilometers in a new direction and came to a new area, and finally ignited this enhanced version of the monster-attracting incense...

(End of this chapter)