Chapter 34: The True Wall of Sighs

As soon as Fu Qian spoke, the man who had asked him for the appraisal trembled, nearly dropping the object in his hand.

"Hair? You’ve seen hair that even a blade can’t cut?"

After steadying himself, the man was clearly a bit angry.

"Special hair."

Fu Qian remained expressionless. He had no intention of scaring the man, but he had no interest in fabricating lies either. It was just unfortunate that what this guy was hoarding like a treasure was indeed a clump of hair. The only difference was that the surface of these strands flowed with a peculiar luster, making them appear almost alive. As for why it was so obvious to him but not to the others, Fu Qian had already guessed the answer. When he killed the spawn of the Evil God, he had experienced a similar event where he was the only one who could read the words in the notebook. It likely had to do with "Inspiration"; what others saw might not be what he saw.

However, the man’s words had provided a very useful piece of information. This type of hair became more prevalent the deeper one went into the ruins. By following this trail, it would be easy to determine the direction from which they came—and consequently, the way out of the ruins.

Ji Liushuang had clearly been paying attention to the commotion, and she had overheard Fu Qian’s answer. Although the mention of hair made her frown, she didn't directly question him; instead, she subconsciously scanned their surroundings.

*She’s quite sharp.* Fu Qian praised her silently.

The next moment, Ji Liushuang’s expression shifted. She rose abruptly, drew her long sword, and a sharp, piercing sword aura whistled out. A tide of black, flowing like liquid, had snaked its way along the ground to their feet without anyone noticing. It had almost reached the foot of one of the girls, but was severed by Ji Liushuang’s strike.

"Drop what you’re holding!"

After her successful strike, Ji Liushuang shouted toward the man. The boy who had asked for the appraisal hesitated for a moment, clearly reluctant. But Ji Liushuang’s command carried an inherent authority, and he finally tossed the object away.

However, the moment the hair left his hand, the fine strands suddenly stiffened like needles and lashed out toward his hand. Another flash of sword light—Ji Liushuang had reached him in an instant and sliced through the strands. Even with such swift reflexes, several hairs had already pierced deep into the boy's hand, and his entire right hand instantly drained of color.

"Fire."

Ji Liushuang uttered a single word. The boy, as if jolted from a dream, gathered heat in his hand. It felt as if flames were burning, and the hair that had already embedded itself into his flesh was seared out.

"Thank you!"

He was pale as a sheet, offering his sincere gratitude. If not for Ji Liushuang’s decisive intervention, his condition would likely have been far worse than just a weak, numb right hand.

Ji Liushuang merely nodded slightly, her eyes fixed in another direction. Without her noticing, Fu Qian, who had been sitting there, had vanished into thin air. At that moment, several screams erupted; the tide of black filaments began surging in from multiple directions.

...

"These people really don't know the meaning of caution. Knowing something was wrong, they still ventured this far in," Fu Qian mused as he wove through the mist.

He had noticed the movement behind the broken wall earlier than Ji Liushuang, but he chose not to intervene. Instead, he took advantage of the chaos to slip away from the group. In his view, while these hairs were bizarre and bloodthirsty, the team should be capable of handling them.

For him, the mission was the priority. Ideally, he would simply walk back the way he came and complete the mission. Though, based on past experience, the probability of that was near zero.

He encountered no obstacles along the way. Without much effort, Fu Qian found himself at the edge of the ruins. In this area, the scattered ruins were sparse, and the fog had thinned to almost nothing. Still, there were no physical barriers to be seen.

*Is that it?*

Fu Qian frowned, an ominous premonition causing him to slow his pace. The next moment, his body collided with an obstruction. Looking at the empty space before him, Fu Qian reached out and pressed his hand against the point of resistance. His palm met a smooth surface; it seemed there was a completely transparent barrier in the air.

*So this is the boundary of the furnace.*

Recalling the anomaly he saw in the warehouse—that massive sphere—was this thing a spherical barrier enclosing the entire ruin? Fu Qian quickly made a deduction. If that were the case, even if it were an inanimate object without lethality, his intuition told him it would be quite troublesome.

*Let's try the most straightforward method first.*

For unknown things, testing, summarizing, hypothesizing, and verifying—this was the most scientific way to gain knowledge. Even if the existence of this thing wasn't very scientific at all.

Flexing his fingers, Fu Qian regulated his breathing and threw a punch at the barrier. The barrier did not tremble in the slightest, nor did it emit any sound. The rebound force nearly ruptured his blood vessels; it felt as if he had hammered against a mountain.

*Brute force won't work, as expected.* Although he had only used about seventy percent of his strength, the feedback made it clear that breaking this thing with his own power was impossible. Fortunately, Fu Qian hadn't held high expectations for it, so he felt no real disappointment.

Next, as an experiment, Fu Qian fired two air bullets at the barrier. The air bullets whistled through the air and struck the barrier, but they didn't stir even the slightest ripple. The thing was absurdly resilient, perhaps even beyond the definition of "sturdy"—it didn't even react.

Looking at the world just inches away, Fu Qian frowned. From what Ji Liushuang and the others had said, they had stumbled upon these ruins while out on an expedition. They had entered without any resistance, which meant that unless this barrier had just appeared, it likely allowed one-way passage; entering from the outside posed no problem.

*Does it reject specific targets? Organic life forms?*

Fu Qian picked up a stone and threw it at the barrier. Halfway there, the stone struck the barrier without fail and dropped straight down. It seemed the effect was the same for both living and inanimate objects.

*Can only enter, cannot leave.*

Fu Qian felt he finally understood how all these strange things inside the ruins came to be.

*This is quite a big problem.*

Crucially, given the current situation, there were clearly hostile entities inside. It was uncertain whether he could even stay here to find a way out.

While thinking, Fu Qian turned around and called out toward a certain direction.

"Come on out."

Five seconds later, a middle-aged man slowly emerged from behind a broken stone monument. The newcomer clapped his hands, looking at Fu Qian with admiration.

"Very good. To think you could actually detect my presence."