Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

Something suddenly grabbed Alex's leg. "What?" he looked down to see that it was a vine expending from the bottom of the right wall. 

SLASH

He didn't waste any time and cut it immediately before walking forward. However, in the next step, there were two vines. One that grabbed his left leg and another that grabbed his right arm. 

Alex pulled out the vine on his arm and cut away the one on his legs. However, after moving one-step move, 3 vines grabbed him. 

Then 4, then 5. No matter how much he pulled, every next step, there was another vine added to the pile that pulled at him. Thankfully, he had a strong body and a sword, so he cut all the vines as he moved forward. 

*****

A man with a spear saw that his leg was grabbed by a vine. He stabbed the spear in the vine and cut it away. But then, he took another step, and 2 more vines appeared. 

The space was narrow and he couldn't move his spear. He used his left hand to use the spear and cut the vine, and then used it to cut the vine on his right hand. 

As he walked more, the harder it was to move. At some point, 7 vines appeared. 1 for each of his legs, 2 for each of his arms, and 1 for his spear. 

He couldn't move anymore, but he struggled. He used his entire cultivation base and managed to tear away the vines on his left leg before moving forward. 

STEP

8 more vines suddenly appeared, grabbing the man at every location. The man tried to move, but 14 vines were too much for him. After 1 minute, the staff flew down and cleared the vines before declaring that he was disqualified. 

*****

"Burn, B*tch, Burn," Yang Ma cried as he burned everything around him. The walls were surprisingly fireproof and didn't take any damage, however the vines were plenty charred. 

*****

A girl moved water as a rotating blade on either of her sides which cut away all the vines. 

*****

Another participant realized that it was stepping that caused the vines to appear, so he stopped stepping and flew the rest of the way. 

*****

Different people found their own way to complete the pathway full of vines.

Alex finally escaped the Vine nightmare. Now he was staring at another nightmare that was probably just as nightmarish.

Ahead of his was wetlands that he would have to walk in. There were wires hanging from everywhere that seemed to be tied to some sort of mechanism that he didn't dare invoke. 

He stepped forward and put his feet into the wetlands. At first, he didn't feel anything, but then, his feet sunk very quickly. 

"Sh*t, Quicksands," Alex realized. "Why the F*ck is there quicksand in a Maze run? Isn't this supposed to be a normal Maze run," Alex asked. He tried to move his legs out and barely got it out after a lot of force. He stumbled backward and fell on his butt. 

'Sh*t. So I can't walk, and I can't fly?' Alex thought as he looked at the hundreds of hanging threads. He absolutely didn't dare to touch them. 

'I'm on a quicksand. Think fast, Alex,' he said to himself. "The only way to not get dragged into quicksand is to flop down on your back. In that way, your body has enough surface area to not drown."

"Can I flop down here?" Alex thought, but the answer was no. "Wait, what if I imitate it instead of actually flopping down."

Alex slowly got down on his knees and took a deep breath. Then suddenly, he placed one of his arms on the surface. Surprisingly, it felt like solid ground to him. 

He placed another arm and it too was very solid. 

"Yes! Fluctuating Friction Dance works. Increasing my friction does help me from drowning," he thought. 

PING

Suddenly, he heard something. He heard it from his backside. Alex quickly turned around to see a lady catching the talisman that was falling off his body. 

Somebody had managed to sneak up to him while he was distracted and stole his talisman from his back. The girl immediately started running sideways, but Alex wouldn't let her. 

He immediately disappeared from where he stood and appeared right behind the lady and he used his own red talisman to touch one of her talismans. 

PING

The woman had a horrified face when she realized what had happened. Alex caught the falling talisman and jumped into the quicksand. Only this time, he had the proper techniques ready.

He crawled on his hands and knees and tried his best to stay lower than the bells. 

"Stop," the lady cried and followed after him, but as soon as she jumped in and saw her palms disappeared inside the ground. She too realized what it was. 

"What? Quicksand? Why?" she couldn't understand. She tried to pull her arm out but that was very hard. As she tried to pull her arm out, more and more of her body was swallowed by the quicksand. 

"What's going on? Help!" she cried out, but nobody came to help. Alex looked right at her but decided to do nothing. 

She was halfway deep into the quicksand when a staff flew down and brought her out of it. "You are disqualified for not moving for more than 1 minute." 

The girl tried to beg, but the staff heard none of it. Alex turned his head from her to the other ones who were crossing this part of the maze. 

The people were far away and he couldn't see what was happening very clearly, but he could see almost all of them flying without any delay. 

Alex could finally focus on his quicksand crossing right now. Once again, he got onto his arms and knees and followed the way out. 

This time, he didn't have any disturbances to account for his distraction, so he easily crossed the entire section of the quicksand by himself.