Chapter 41 You Still Do Not Realize the Seriousness of the Situation

That's easy for you to say! It could be full of danger, people are actually going to die here, you know!

We already suffered casualties from just two monsters outside, and you still want everyone to push deeper inside?

Fu Qian's words instantly provoked a strong reaction—or rather, a strong wave of opposition.

Venture deep into the ruins...

Li Weixuan pondered for a moment, then looked at Ji Liushuang and the others.

"What do you think?"

"If we don't want to sit here and wait for death, entering the interior to find a way out is our only option."

To everyone's surprise, Ji Liushuang's attitude was unexpectedly resolute.

"And the sooner the better, while most people still have their stamina. Dragging this out any longer is just a slow death."

This one certainly doesn't hesitate to make decisive calls! Fu Qian praised her silently.

"Isn't the risk just too high?!"

At this moment, Yuan Xin suddenly chimed in.

"This ruin reeks of bizarreness everywhere. We have no concept of what we might encounter inside, so charging in blindly like this is simply too reckless."

It was a rare instance of him holding his ground, and he was actually contradicting his own goddess?

Fu Qian looked at Yuan Xin with a hint of amusement, only to find the latter glaring coldly back at him.

I overestimated him; it feels like he's just unhappy to see Ji Liushuang agree with my proposal.

"We haven't reached the point of having no way out yet. Some people are carrying injuries, and it feels like it would be wiser to rest and recover here for a bit."

Huang Zhaoyan, standing nearby, quickly chimed in.

Just because he and Yuan Xin usually had friction didn't mean he didn't care about his own life.

"As long as they don't receive our messages for a few consecutive days, the people outside will definitely notice something is amiss.

Once they send someone to investigate, we can coordinate from the inside and outside to figure something out together. The situation is far from being that desperate."

"To stay and recuperate while waiting for rescue in a place where you have no idea what danger you might encounter next—what on earth are you thinking? Do you have any idea how far the Academy is from here?"

Ji Liushuang sneered and shot back without the slightest bit of politeness.

Seeing everyone arguing in a chaotic mess, Li Weixuan furrowed his brows deeply.

With high skills comes boldness, and he personally leaned towards entering the interior to investigate. However, lives were at stake; as a competent leader, he certainly couldn't ignore his students' opinions and act arbitrarily.

"Idiots."

At this moment, Fu Qian shook his head.

"What do you mean by that?"

Huang Zhaoyan had barely dared to look at Fu Qian since a moment ago, but now, being directly called an idiot, it was impossible for him not to react.

"Have you all ever considered one question?"

***

Fu Qian glanced around the circle.

"This place has obviously existed for a very long time. Why is it that none of you have any records or information about it?"

This...

Fu Qian's words successfully plunged everyone into deep thought.

Put that way, it really was strange. It was true that this location was remote, but after so many years, for such a perilous and peculiar place to have zero rumors or mentions whatsoever defied logic.

"Could there be such a possibility?"

Fu Qian watched the reactions around him with satisfaction.

"The moment you set foot in this place, your existence in the outside world was erased."

Huh?

The group froze in unison.

"Is that hard to understand? Then let me ask you: has anyone ever heard of people going missing here?"

"Not to my knowledge."

Ji Liushuang's eyes turned vacant as she murmured to herself.

"Then how do you explain the pile of hair and arms we encountered? Judging by those two alone, the victims are numerous."

"So the reality is, once you step in here, all information regarding your existence in the outside world is wiped clean. No one will be able to remember you or perceive your existence—not your family, your friends, or your lover.

Mind you, this isn't death; it's erasure. They won't even retain their memories of you.

Even if a freshly taken wedding photo hangs by your bedside, your closest loved one will still look right past the you in it, merely wondering why they accidentally bought two sets of tableware."

Fu Qian blinked at Ji Liushuang.

"Fair beauty, there is a distinct possibility that at this very second, your parents have already forgotten they ever had a daughter like you."

...

"Nonsense, how is that possible?"

"Simply absurd!"

"Alarmist nonsense! I've never heard of such a thing in my life!"

The picture painted by Fu Qian in his calm, narrative tone was far too bone-chilling, prompting everyone to subconsciously refute it.

Could it really be like this?

Ji Liushuang bit her lip. Now that she thought about it, certain things indeed defied explanation.

Such a bizarre place—everyone had done thorough homework before setting out, yet they hadn't uncovered a single shred of relevant information.

Unless it had been intentionally concealed by someone...

But if what he said was true...

Imagining herself completely vanishing from her parents' world, leaving behind not even a shred of memory, even someone as strong-willed as she found it hard to breathe.

***

"So, give up those futile fantasies. No one is coming to save you."

Fu Qian delivered another fatal blow.

"Unless you run out yourselves."

...

In the end, Li Weixuan was the first to snap back to reality. Seeing that everyone had fallen completely silent, he took a deep breath.

"This place is indeed bizarre, and sitting here waiting to die is not a solution. From this point on, everyone follows me to investigate the interior of the ruins."

This time, no dissenting voices arose—or rather, no voices at all.

Nailed it!

Fu Qian snapped his fingers, extremely satisfied with the current outcome.

No matter what, for the initial exploration of the interior of the ruins, Li Weixuan was a powerhouse brawler he couldn't afford to abandon, so this bunch had to come along.

Strictly speaking, of course, what he had just said was still just an unverified hypothesis.

Yet human nature being what it was, whenever you offered an explanation for something—no matter how absurd—people would inevitably find themselves pondering its possibility in the absence of any other answers.

The more you thought about it, the more terrifying it became.

Along the way, the team plunged into a depressed silence. Everyone looked utterly desolate, their morale plummeting to -99.

Fu Qian had successfully managed, single-handedly, to push the team's morale to the brink of collapse.

Li Weixuan wasn't as calm on the inside as he appeared on the surface either. However, as an absolute apex expert, he fully leveraged his strengths and successfully converted his inner unease into rage.

Wielding a long sword temporarily requisitioned from a student, he spearheaded the advance almost the entire way, unleashing a tempest of sword qi upon anything that moved.

The eerie, venomous hair-monsters and the nimble, vicious hands—monsters that had previously posed massive troubles for the team—were all shredded into powder beneath his peak Tier-4 tyrannical sword energy.

The efficiency was so high that even Fu Qian abandoned any thoughts of stealing kills.

The students trailing behind were struck dumb with terror; already mentally dazed, they were now utterly petrified by this god-like might.

Under the leadership of a berserk Li Weixuan, the group forged ahead almost irresistibly, plunging straight into the heart of the ruins.

The interior was even more bizarre than the periphery.

All kinds of buildings were stacked layer upon layer, squeezed together in an incomprehensible fashion. Stretching as far as the eye could see, it looked like a massive holiday travel rush, making it impossible to even find a pathway, forcing them to walk across rooftops in many areas.

Aside from the hair and hands seen previously, a new type of creature had appeared here: massive white centipedes.

Looking closely, every single segment of the centipede's body was composed of human skulls.

Their deformed cranial jaws hung wide open, biting down relentlessly onto the top of the skull below, continuing layer upon layer in an endless chain.