Eldritch Horror Theatre - Ch. 34: The True Wall of Sighs
As soon as Fu Qian's words came out, the brother who sought his appraisal shuddered, nearly dropping the item in his hands onto the ground.
"Hair? Have you ever seen hair that even a sword can't cut?"
After steadying his emotions, this brother was clearly getting a bit angry.
"Special hair."
Fu Qian remained expressionless.
He had absolutely no intention of scaring this guy, but he also had no interest in making up a lie.
It was just unfortunate that the thing this guy was treating like a treasure was indeed a clump of hair.
It was just that the surface of these hair strands flowed with a special luster, making them look as if they were alive.
As for why this guy couldn't see something so obvious, Fu Qian had roughly guessed the answer.
When killing the Spawn of the Evil God, he had experienced a similar incident before. Out of everyone, only he could see the words on the Notebook.
There was a high probability that it was still related to Inspiration. What this thing looked like in the eyes of others might not be the same as what he saw.
However, what this brother just said gave him a very effective piece of information.
There was more of this hair the closer they got to the inner part of the ruins. Therefore, by simply following this trail, it would be very easy to determine the direction they came from.
Which was also the direction to leave the ruins.
Ji Liushuang had clearly been paying attention to the commotion over here, and Fu Qian's answer naturally fell into her ears.
Although the claim that it was hair also caused her to frown slightly, she didn't directly question it. Instead, she subconsciously surveyed their surroundings.
This one is quite perceptive.
Fu Qian praised inwardly.
The next moment, Ji Liushuang's expression shifted. With a swish, she stood up and drew her longsword, a sharp sword aura howling outwards.
A patch of water-like darkness had, at some unknown point, snaked its way along the ground to the group's feet.
At the closest point, it was about to crawl onto a girl's foot, but fortunately, it was severed by Ji Liushuang's strike.
"Throw away the thing in your hand!"
Having landed a successful strike, Ji Liushuang shouted towards their direction.
The boy who asked Fu Qian for the appraisal froze for a moment before reacting, feeling subconsciously reluctant to part with it.
But Ji Liushuang's words carried a natural authority, which ultimately made him throw the item away.
However, the moment the hair left his hand, the fine strands on it suddenly straightened like needles and wrapped towards his hand.
A sword gleam flashed again. Ji Liushuang had arrived in front of him at some point, swinging her sword to sever the hair strands.
Even with such a rapid reaction, several strands of hair had already pierced deeply into the boy's hand. His entire right hand instantly lost all color.
"Fire."
Ji Liushuang spat out a single word. The boy woke up as if from a dream. Heat instantly gathered in his hand, as if a flame was burning. The hairs that had embedded themselves into his flesh were burned out.
"Thank you!"
His face was ashen by now, and he thanked her with utter sincerity.
If it wasn't for Ji Liushuang's decisive action, the consequence right now would probably be far worse than his right hand just feeling weak and powerless.
Ji Liushuang simply nodded slightly, but her eyes were looking in another direction.
At some point, Fu Qian, who had originally been sitting there, had vanished without a trace.
At this moment, several screams rang out. A tide of black, fine threads was already surging up from multiple directions.
...
These people really don't know the meaning of caution, do they? They knew something was wrong yet still came this far in.
Fu Qian lamented as he threaded his way through the fog.
He had noticed the anomaly behind the ruined wall even earlier than Ji Liushuang, but he chose not to intervene, instead using the chaos to break away from the team.
In his view, although these hairs were bizarre and bloodthirsty, the team should be more than capable of handling them.
To him, the mission was the absolute priority.
The most ideal scenario would be to just walk out in the opposite direction and complete the mission.
Although, judging from past experiences, the probability of that happening was practically zero.
He didn't encounter any obstacles along the way. Without spending too much effort, Fu Qian found himself at the edge of the ruins.
At this location, the various broken walls and debris had become extremely sparse, and the fog had faded to almost nothing.
Still, he didn't see any substantial barriers.
Is this it?
Fu Qian frowned. The ominous premonition in his heart made him slow his pace.
The next moment, his body bumped into some kind of obstacle.
Looking at the empty space in front of him, Fu Qian reached out a hand and pressed it against the place where he was blocked.
What his hand met was a smooth surface, as if there was a completely transparent barrier in the air.
It seems this is the boundary of The Furnace.
He thought back to the anomaly he saw in the Warehouse—that massive sphere.
Is this thing a spherical barrier enclosing the entire ruins?
Fu Qian quickly formed a hypothesis.
If that was really the case, even though it was an inanimate object with no lethality, his intuition told him it would be quite troublesome.
Let's try the most basic method first.
When facing the unknown, testing, summarizing, hypothesizing, and verifying—this was the most scientific cognitive method.
Even if the existence of this thing wasn't very scientific.
Flexing his fingers, Fu Qian adjusted his breathing and threw a punch right at the barrier.
The barrier didn't tremble even a bit, nor did it emit any sound.
The rebounding force nearly made his blood vessels burst; it felt like he had punched a mountain.
As expected, brute force won't work.
Although he had used at most seventy percent of his strength just now, judging from the feedback, it was impossible to break this thing with his own power.
Fortunately, Fu Qian hadn't held much hope for that to begin with, so he didn't feel much disappointment.
Next, with the mindset of just giving it a try, Fu Qian fired two Air Bullets at the barrier.
The Air Bullets whistled and smashed against the barrier, failing to stir up a single ripple.
This thing was ridiculously tough; it felt like it had already surpassed the category of being "sturdy", showing absolutely no reaction whatsoever.
Looking at the world outside that was close at hand, Fu Qian furrowed his brows.
From the conversation between Ji Liushuang and the others, he knew they had discovered this ruin by accident while out on an expedition.
And they hadn't encountered any obstruction when entering this place later. This meant that unless this barrier had just appeared, it should allow one-way passage—entering from the outside would pose no problem.
Does it repel specific targets? Organic lifeforms?
Fu Qian picked up a rock and threw it at the barrier.
Halfway through its flight, the rock undoubtedly hit the barrier and fell straight down.
It seemed that whether it was a living creature or an inanimate object, the effect was the same.
You can only enter; you cannot leave.
Fu Qian seemed to understand how all the weird and bizarre things inside the ruins got there.
This is a big problem!
Crucially, judging from the situation just now, there were obviously hostile creatures inside. Whether he could just stay here and figure out a solution was hard to say.
While thinking, Fu Qian turned around and called out in a certain direction.
"Come out."
Five seconds later, a middle-aged man slowly walked out from behind a half-broken stone stele.
The man clapped as he walked, looking at Fu Qian with admiration.
"Very impressive. To think you could actually sense my presence."
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