Death… And Me
Chapter 3664: Zangeshu’s Idea

Chapter 3664: Zangeshu’s Idea

Rewinding a few minutes...

Back then, when Royer talked to the twins about the Astral Tree, he mentioned one thing. The tree was so tall that it pierced through the ceiling of the Golden Palace, going out into the great void.

When the twins’ group arrived at this region and saw the Astral Tree for the first time, they understood Royer wasn’t kidding. It did indeed break through the ceiling. They could see the enormous cracks that caused some distortions to the ’fake sky’ around the tree itself.

Zangeshu had made use of this fact to come up with his idea. "The Golden Palace has existed for so long. Yet, all the Universes waited at the front gate to enter it."

He continued. "That is weird, don’t you think? I’m absolutely sure they tried to go around the Golden Palace before, trying to find some other entrance that could bring them further into the Golden Palace. But, from the looks of it, they found nothing. So much so that no one tried it this time or before."

"And now, here we have the Astral Tree, a Tree that literally breaks the ceiling and reaches the great void outside. There are huge cracks that the experts from outside should have been able to use to enter. Above all, there were plenty of experts from all Universes that knew about this Astral Tree."

"How come none of them tried to find the cracks caused by the Astral Tree?" Zangeshu made the crucial question before answering it himself. "Because even though the tree broke through the ceiling, there is definitely some kind of protection outside, some barrier or such, that prevents others from entering the Golden Palace from anywhere other than the Golden Gate."

At that time, Roan noticed a problem with Zangeshu’s theory. "Alright, I see where you are coming from. We wouldn’t really be outside. We would instead still be inside the Golden Palace’s protective barrier or whatever is there that separates the outside from the Golden Palace Territory. This tree created an opening to the outside part of the Golden Palace Territory. But it would be useless to go out through the cracks since we would have nowhere to enter the Golden Palace again. It’s not like there are many Astral Trees piercing the roofs in the Golden Palace."

"That’s the weird part," Zangeshu suddenly pointed out. "I have two theories, let me start with the first one. Did you forget? The regions of the Golden Palace always change between each opening, don’t they? At first, I thought it was due to the formations and spatial manipulation of this place. Whoever did this thing is obviously impressive. However, would such a method also transport the cracks on the ceiling?"

"This..." Even Roan went silent now. "So your theory is that the regions are actually like blocks. When the Golden Palace closes, these blocks detach themselves and rearrange in a different sequence."

"Yes," Zangeshu confirmed. "If the only thing that was moved were the regions and not the Palace blocks, this Astral Tree would have broken the ceiling of many different parts of the Golden Palace already. Yet, we heard absolutely nothing about cracks on the ceiling anywhere else other than this Astral Tree Region. After all, just how many times has this place opened?"

"That would be even more meaningless to us," Rean shrugged. "If each region is a block, and what moves are the blocks, that means there are no other entrances for us to get inside once we go out. We would be stuck outside with nowhere else to go other than coming back and using the same exit to get inside again. We would go nowhere."

Everyone else nodded. What would be the point of going out then? They would be better served using the portal.

"And that’s where my theory of the blocks might be wrong," Zangeshu faintly smiled. "Now, my second theory: At the moment, I do believe the regions rearrange themselves like blocks. As I said, if just the regions changed and not the building itself, the Astral Tree should have broken the ceiling in many other places. However..."

Zangeshu stopped for a moment and continued. "Who is to say that the Golden Palace doesn’t fix itself after every opening, sealing the cracks of where the Astral Tree was originally found during the last opening?"

Roan and the others couldn’t answer that. "If that’s the case, then the ’block’ theory would be wrong indeed. But once again, if the Golden Palace fixes itself every time, we would go out for nothing. There wouldn’t be another entrance."

"Yes, you are correct," Zangeshu didn’t deny it. "But what I want to check is how long such a gigantic opening like the one created by the Astral Tree takes to close. If my theory of the blocks is wrong, and the Astral Tree always breaks the ceiling of the places where it appears, there actually might be another entrance somewhere else. An entrance that hasn’t closed yet since the last opening. It’s just that we don’t know if this entrance would be further ahead or actually back in the previous regions."

"And why wouldn’t the other experts have noticed it yet?" Rean asked back. If such a thing were real, sure someone would have that information.

"Who knows?" Zangeshu shrugged. "The ones who found out about it might have never revealed it. Or perhaps the cracks created by the Astral Tree are concealed. Can’t you see the fake sky on the ceiling? The palace should be able to hide those cracks. Or maybe people only cared about the portals in the Astral Tree, since even an ambush was prepared here. Portals might be able to even skip regions, after all."

"So it is all a gamble..." Everyone understood. "If the blocks theory is right, there shouldn’t be another entrance. But if it’s wrong, maybe, just maybe, there is another entrance somewhere else caused by the Astral Tree in the last location it appeared."

"Exactly," Zangeshu nodded, and returned his attention to the formation runes on his workstation. "Anyway, I said what I had to say. It is up to you guys to risk wasting time looking for that entrance or not."

And so, in the end, Roan accepted the idea. They made their way up, eventually leaving the Golden Palace through the cracks created by the Astral Tree a day later.