Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

"What kind of place is this?"

Gou An immediately covered the blade with demonic fire again, illuminating the surroundings.

They then discovered that there was a huge underground space with many passageways.

Gou An sniffed around but couldn't detect anything, so he could only rely on his senses to walk in one of the directions.

After passing through the long passage, Gou An arrived in an even larger space.

They were horrified to discover that the underground cave was filled with stone bear statues.

Although each statue has a different pose, they are surprisingly similar in size.

"Are you kidding me?"

Upon seeing these things, Gou An immediately thought of the bear he had encountered at the beginning.

Could these stone statues have transformed?

The intense unease prevented Gou An from touching them; he simply moved cautiously around the stone statues, afraid that an accidental touch would activate these evil things.

Once they passed through the cave and reached the other side, Gou An immediately crawled into the passage to continue searching for an exit.

This time, the passageway led upwards, and the wind blew in from above, causing Gou An to quicken his pace without realizing it.

Finally, they crawled out of the cave and returned to the island's surface, not far from the mountaintop lighthouse.

The lighthouse on the mountaintop was still lit, but it suddenly went out the next instant.

"Huh?" Gou An was puzzled when he saw the lighthouse suddenly go out; this was the first time he had ever seen such a scene.

So out of curiosity, I went up to see what was going on.

After silently arriving near the mountaintop, Gou An did not approach rashly, as the dog demon who had just gone berserk might still be nearby.

Just as Gou An was hiding in the darkness and quietly observing, he indeed saw a dog demon climb up from the foot of the mountain and head towards the lighthouse at the top.

Gou An then hid in the shadows and quietly observed.

But they found that the dog demon had only gone halfway when it was blocked by another dog demon that suddenly appeared.

Gou An noticed that the dog demon blocking the road was the one with red eyes.

Without saying a word, the red-eyed dog demon dragged its sword and started slashing!

The dog demon, who had just climbed the mountain, only uttered a curse that was difficult to understand before turning around and running away, as if it had seen a ghost, without showing any intention of making a move.

Faced with a target that was running so fast, the red-eyed dog demon did not chase after it, but simply continued to guard the vicinity.

When Gou An saw the red-eyed dog demon wandering around the mountaintop, he suddenly remembered what the demon had just said.

If any member of the loop dies, the loop will break down, and everything will be broken!

If Gou An were to kill him now, would that break the cycle?

So Gou An quietly crept up, and taking advantage of the moment when the red-eyed dog demon was facing him, he pounced on it with his knife and slashed out.

The red-eyed dog demon immediately noticed and turned around, only to be stabbed in the face, blood flowing freely.

Just as Gou An was about to deliver the finishing blow, the red-eyed dog demon suddenly spat out black mist from its mouth, forcing Gou An back.

When Gou An used his sword energy to dispel the black mist, he found that the red-eyed dog demon had disappeared.

Gou An didn't chase after them; instead, he felt fear, extreme fear.

The worst fear is that one of yourself might suddenly appear from behind and stab you in the back.

So he immediately went down the mountain and rushed to the shore, hoping to find a vehicle that could take him away.

There wasn't a single boat on the shore, but a strange discovery was made of a large turtle sleeping on a reef.

Upon seeing Gou An, the giant tortoise surprisingly spoke up: "Fellow Daoist, give me a few spirit stones, and I'll take you away from this awful place!"

Gou An was overjoyed upon hearing this and quickly stepped forward.

For Gou'an now, anything new and not part of the cycle is a good thing.

"Can you really take me away?" Gou An asked doubtfully.

"Of course!" The giant turtle stepped out of the water from the reef and swam over to Gou An, stopping beside him. "Not much, just five spirit stones will do!"

Upon hearing this, Gou An immediately took out a spirit stone and jumped down, landing on the tortoise's back.

Seeing the turtle's wide-open mouth, Gou Anxin, the neighboring deity, threw five spirit stones into the turtle's mouth.

The next second, the tortoise actually chewed up the hard spirit stone and swallowed it.

"Hold on tight!"

After the giant tortoise had eaten its fill, it carried Gou An away.

Sitting on the tortoise's back, Gou An cautiously asked, "Brother Tortoise, could you take me to the other side?"

"There's no shore! Only islands, exactly the same islands!" The giant tortoise shook its head. "I've been trapped in this godforsaken place for who knows how many years."

"What?" Gou An exclaimed in surprise.

"I've even forgotten how I got trapped here back then," the giant turtle said dejectedly.

"Didn't you just say you could take me away?" Gou An asked again.

"Just tell me, did I take you away from that island or not?" the giant tortoise immediately retorted.

"I'm leaving, but where can you take me?" Gou An frowned even more deeply.

But the giant tortoise pointed with its brain towards the light shining through the gray fog ahead: "I'll take you to that island!"

When Gou An saw the island, he immediately shook his head and refused: "I'm not going, don't send me!"

"What a nuisance!" the giant turtle said impatiently.

Just then, a wooden boat drifted by on the river, and it looked exactly like the one Gou An had used before.

"There's a boat here, hurry up and get on, I won't carry you anymore."

The giant tortoise brought Gou An to the side of the boat and was about to dive into the water, which frightened Gou An so much that he immediately jumped onto the wooden boat.

You wouldn't know until you got on the ship, and you were shocked when you did.

There was a skeleton on the wooden boat, and judging from the bones, it was clearly a dog's!

"What bad luck!"

Gou An threw the bones directly into the river, then glided his wooden boat away from the island.

After a long time, Gou An finally saw another dark island.

So they carefully moored the boat and prepared to go aboard for a look.

But not long after they arrived on the island, a fire suddenly lit up the previously dark mountaintop?

"Huh?" Gou An was shocked.

This was the first time I had ever encountered a lighthouse lighting up on its own, so I decided to go up the mountain to see what was going on.

Because of his previous experience, Gou An was very careful in his actions.

But just as they reached the halfway point up the hillside, the lights that had been on for a short while went out again.

"That's really strange!"

Gou An quickened his pace, eager to see what was going on.

Just as he was about to reach the top of the mountain, a figure suddenly emerged from the gray fog. It looked exactly like him and had a pair of bright red eyes.

"Holy shit!"

Gou An couldn't help but curse, then turned and ran, showing no intention of fighting.

Fortunately, the red-eyed dog demon did not chase after them, allowing Gou An to successfully escape to the shore. He rowed away immediately without daring to delay for even a moment.

"Why am I everywhere?!"

Once far from the shore, Gou An felt his mind was on the verge of collapse.

But then he suddenly froze!

Why am I running away with my head in my hands, just like when I ambushed the red-eyed dog demon on the island last time?

At that time, I saw a dog demon that ran away without a fight. It turned out to be myself now?

"Aaaaaaaahhhhh!"

Thinking about this, Gou An felt like he was going crazy.

In an attempt to avoid the cycle, how do I end up falling into different cycles again and again?

This is only the trial on the eighth floor of the ancient tower. How abnormal must the ninth floor be?

And most importantly, could the red-eyed dog demon I just encountered be myself at some point in the future?

Will I go insane with bloodshot eyes in the future, and then be ambushed and seriously injured by another version of myself?