# 1859
Chapter 1859: Light Cone
According to Lin Qiye's initial plan, this maze should have no path leading to the "future." Everything was merely time fragments radiating outward from the point where the Gate of Truth was destroyed a hundred years ago... In other words, the starting point of this maze corresponded to the "present."
However, after hearing Lina's description of this maze, Lin Qiye became uncertain... Since this was an inverted pyramid, its topmost layer should occupy the largest area. Yet Lin Qiye had been pursuing downward paths all along and had done very limited exploration of the topmost layer. Who could guarantee that in the unexplored regions of this inverted pyramid's highest level, there wasn't a path to the "future"?
After hesitating for a moment, Lin Qiye picked up Lina and walked toward the direction where he remembered the "3" to be.
As he stepped onto a patch of ice, a "3" appeared beneath his feet. Lin Qiye looked back—he could see all the numbers he had personally carved, because here, time was more advanced than all the past.
Yet around the "3," there were no other sword marks, because after arriving here, Lin Qiye had turned back to explore the direction of the "past."
Following his original method, Lin Qiye began to explore forward, left, and right in sequence, carving marks on the corresponding ice surfaces based on the sword-mark numbers he could see.
"-1.25", "2.5", "4", "2.75"...
As the sword marks spread outward, Lin Qiye walked farther and farther in the opposite direction of the "past."
But scanning across the entire ice plain, less than half of the surface now bore sword marks... In other words, near the maze entrance, Lin Qiye still had vast areas unexplored.
He moved continuously around the river that led into the maze, but most of the numbers he carved still began with "-". Time passed, and before he knew it, the largest number he had found had become "37."
When Lin Qiye stepped onto the last unmarked ice surface, he looked back—all the numbers were now visible in his field of view.
He gently carved a number on the ice beneath his feet: "38".
This was the farthest "future" Lin Qiye could find... But when he finished, nothing unusual happened.
The cold wind swept across the lifeless ice plain. Amidst the dense array of numbers, Lin Qiye stood motionless.
"Alas..." After an unknown duration, he let out a long sigh.
It seemed his idea was wrong... There was nothing at the end of the "future."
Perhaps breaking this deadlock could only come from approaching it from a different angle.
Just as Lin Qiye was deep in thought, Lina's eyelashes fluttered beside him. After a moment, she slowly opened her eyes.
"You're awake?" Lin Qiye's voice came.
Lina propped herself up with one hand, struggling to sit up on the ice. Her face was somewhat pale.
"Where are we?"
"Near the maze entrance. Time is most fractured here—even Vishnu couldn't find us."
"Oh..."
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine... Just a bit of spiritual power overdraft. I need time to recover." Lina rubbed the corners of her eyes.
Seeing this, Lin Qiye asked with curiosity, "How did you manage to summon King Arthur?"
"He allowed me to summon him... Besides, this Excalibur inherently possesses a portion of temporal ability, connecting his past self with me and allowing me to调动 his power. The only downside is my body can't sustain it."
"No wonder..." Lin Qiye nodded.
Lina's gaze swept across her surroundings, catching sight of the sword marks everywhere. Confusion appeared in her eyes: "What are you doing?"
"Searching for the end of the 'future'..."
Lin Qiye explained his reasoning. After consideration, she shook her head:
"This method alone won't work... Time fragments don't exist only on a plane—they're three-dimensional. For instance, above us, beyond a few meters, exists another time. Using this exhaustive method to find the end of the 'future' would require far too much time and effort."
Lin Qiye froze, then looked up at the emptiness above. His brow furrowed: "I see... If that's the case, the workload is indeed too massive."
But then, as if remembering something, he looked at Lina. "Doesn't your Excalibur sense the flow of time? Can you find the direction of the 'future'?"
Lina thought for a moment. "I'll try."
Her slender fingers grasped the hilt of Excalibur. Eyes closed, she sensed for a moment, then uncertainly pointed above Lin Qiye.
"It seems... directly above you. I'm not sure how high."
Directly above?
Lin Qiye looked up at the sky. Chaotic light and shadow also shrouded the space overhead, enough to make one dizzy at a glance.
"Let's check it out." Lin Qiye spread his wings behind him, pushed off with force, and his figure shot upward. Lina, clutching Excalibur, followed closely!
Five meters, ten meters, one hundred meters, two hundred meters...
As altitude increased, Lin Qiye passed through countless time fragments. A light dizziness flickered repeatedly, giving him the illusion of losing all sense of direction, but he endured the discomfort and flew straight upward!
Just as he passed through a time fragment, a mysterious glimmer flashed, and both figures vanished simultaneously!
...
Lin Qiye felt his vision blur. The surrounding world transformed into black and white.
At this moment, even gravity vanished. A weightlessness clung to his heart. He flapped his wings and looked back—countless drifting time fragments twinkled silently in this black-and-white world.
From a distance, these time fragments gathered together resembled a light cone. The apex of the light cone was a shattered portal. Countless time fragments were released from this portal, spreading outward. The farther from the portal, the more fractured and dense the time became.
If one viewed it from an inverted perspective, it wasn't much different from Lina's description of an inverted pyramid.
"So this is the full picture of the Temporal Maze..." Lin Qiye gazed at the light cone before him, murmuring to himself.
As he had suspected, the entire Temporal Maze had formed from the destruction of the Gate of Truth a hundred years ago, piercing through a century of history. They had just been穿梭 through these time fragments one after another.
Lin Qiye flapped his wings, carrying Lina from the light cone's edge, constantly approaching the Gate of Truth at the apex. If they wished, they could even directly enter any time fragment from here.
"What exactly is this place?" Lina stared blankly at the scene, her eyes filled with incomprehension.