Chapter 48: Feast

[Lucid Dream: Upon activation, causes targets within a certain range to fall into a brief shared dream.]

Fu Qian checked the two transcendent-grade rewards. To his surprise, this [Lucid Dream] turned out to be another ring!

Well, saying "another" might not be entirely accurate, because although the Tyrant's Fist took the shape of a ring, it was defined as a weapon.

Compared to the Tyrant's Fist, the appearance of the Lucid Dream was much more normal.

The silver-white metal band was hollowed out with intricate patterns, and the front of the ring was inlaid with tiny gems that clustered together to form a swirling nebula.

With a slight movement, an ice-blue light rippled across it, dreamlike and illusory.

Causing people within a certain range to fall into a dream was somewhat like hypnosis, and the special feature must lie in this shared dream.

Making a group of people dream the same dream? Inception? That sounded somewhat interesting.

He couldn't think of any immediate use for it, but the ring's design was quite pretty, so Fu Qian slipped it directly onto his other middle finger.

Moving on to the next reward, Fu Qian cast his gaze upon [Feast].

[Feast: Greatly enhances vital activity. Cannot be undone once activated.]

[The form of the flesh is unimportant; only the joy of the soul is a feast.]

From the name, I thought it was a skill similar to consuming corpses to restore health, but judging by this explanation, the target of the Feast seems to be myself.

Greatly enhances vital activity?

Fu Qian felt a bit puzzled. Well, his current vital activity was already high enough, how much more could it be enhanced?

Moreover, the condition that it could not be undone once activated looked a bit serious.

Another point of no return!

Unfortunately, Fu Qian was a person of intense curiosity. After hesitating for a few seconds, he convinced himself and chose to activate the skill.

The Feast before his eyes lit up with a soft glow and then vanished into nothingness.

At the same time, Fu Qian felt a series of vibrating ripples emerge within his body, rapidly sweeping through his entire frame.

Bones, muscles, tendons—the ripples echoed everywhere, ultimately overlapping into wave after wave of reverberation across his skin.

After a long while, the fluctuations slowly subsided.

"It doesn't seem like there's any obvious change!"

Fu Qian clenched his fists, feeling that his strength hadn't increased significantly.

The next moment, as if guided by an intuition, he threw a punch into the empty air.

A fierce wind howled. As his punch reached full extension, his index finger suddenly straightened out, and accompanied by a piercing sound of breaking air, the finger shot forward by the length of an arm, transforming into a finger spear.

I think I understand what this vital activity is all about now.

Fu Qian withdrew his finger and took a deep breath.

With a ripping sound, a massive maw opened up in the center of his chest, filled with countless sharp, jagged teeth.

As expected!

This transformation, which previously required considerable effort, could now be achieved in a split second, without even needing to tear open a wound first.

Fu Qian quickly restored himself to his original appearance, basically confirming the changes brought to him by [Feast].

If the Brawler form lifted the upper limit of his human strength, then the Feast lifted the traditional restrictions on form.

He could now freely control any part of his body to transform without worrying about a physical breakdown.

Impressive! Just a bit twisted!

Still, it was well worth the arduous ordeal.

Overall, Fu Qian was quite satisfied with his gains.

After checking the rewards, he selected the accident replay.

Just a moment ago, he realized he had overlooked something.

The prompt for containment failure had only appeared after he walked out of the barrier, which was fair enough.

However, he clearly remembered the scene when [2-292] had breached containment previously.

When Wen Li suffered a mental collapse and lost her chance at advancement because Wen Xiuxian was killed, he had directly received the mission failure prompt.

Comparing the two situations, it actually pointed to one fact—until he walked out of the barrier in a state of mental collapse, there was still a chance to complete the containment.

In other words, there must be a method inside the furnace that could allow him to undo his state of mental collapse.

Quickly fast-forwarding to the very end, Fu Qian watched himself walking outside the barrier, suffering from a dual collapse of body and mind.

His body was severely deformed, and his entire person was covered in faces trying to escape, so clear that even their expressions could be distinguished.

Among the faces, men and women could be discerned, and many of them matched the bloody faces from Feng Yunhong's self-detonation earlier.

Yet something seemed to be missing!

Frowning, Fu Qian rewound to the exact moment of Feng Yunhong's self-detonation and observed closely. Sure enough, he discovered an anomaly.

After Feng Yunhong exploded into a storm of flesh and blood, every single bloody face scattered around bore a strange mark, shaped like four counter-clockwise rotating hands.

This...

Recalling Feng Yunhong's state when they first met, even Li Weixuan had not noticed his anomaly, which meant he had suppressed the consciousness of these bloody faces extremely well.

Feng Yunhong clearly harbored some secret; by utilizing a certain special method, he could suppress his mental collapse to a certain extent and prevent himself from descending into a state of derangement.

This was likely why he had angrily roared that what Fu Qian did back then was reckless nonsense.

It seemed he would have to find a way to have a deep conversation with him this time.

After reviewing the footage several times and confirming he hadn't missed anything, Fu Qian decisively touched the fog door once more.

[Consumed 1 Sanity point, attempting containment again. Current Sanity: 54]

[...1%...5%...15%...50%...75%...99%...100%, containment scenario loaded successfully]

"Strange, is this place on the map?"

Yuan Xin's voice came from ahead. Half a broken wall appeared, and the team once again began discussing resting in place.

Action time!

Fu Qian stretched lazily, and amidst the incredulous gazes of the group, he walked straight from the tail of the formation all the way to the front.

"Fu Qian, is something the matter? Do not alter the formation without authorization."

Yuan Xin, who was communicating with Ji Liushuang, noticed his unusual movement and called out with a hint of displeasure, but the latter completely ignored him.

"I'm talking to you!"

A flash of anger rose in Yuan Xin's heart. He reached out to grab Fu Qian's shoulder, only for his vision to blur as he grasped at empty air—Fu Qian had already moved several meters away from the group.

"I'm going ahead to scout the path."

Without even looking back and maintaining his pace, Fu Qian leaped past the broken wall that blocked their way in a single stride.

As Fu Qian walked away without glancing at them even once, Yuan Xin was stunned at first, followed by a surge of embarrassment and annoyance.

However, he was not so provoked as to lose his composure. Taking a deep breath, he cast an inquiring look at Ji Liushuang, who hesitated for a moment and shook her head.

"Fu Qian doesn't seem to want us to follow. To be safe, let's rest in place according to the plan, and we'll figure out a way to notify Dean Li later—"

Before Ji Liushuang could finish her sentence, her gaze instantly froze.

In the shadows, a cluster of black spikes suddenly burst out from behind the broken wall, densely shooting toward Fu Qian's back.

Amidst a chorus of exclamations, Fu Qian's back seemed to grow eyes as his foot tapped lightly on the ground, leaping forward once more to narrowly dodge the sneak attack, his figure rapidly vanishing into the thin mist.

The nine-member team stood frozen in place, only snapping back to their senses a long while later as they scrambled away from the broken wall.