Chapter 42

“It sounds easy when you put it like that, but we’re talking about serious dangers here—people can die, you know!”

“We’ve already had casualties just by encountering two monsters outside, and now you’re suggesting we delve further in?”

Fu Qian’s words quickly stirred up a strong reaction, or rather a strong opposition.

Heading deeper into the ruins…

Li Weixuan pondered for a moment before looking at Ji Liushuang and the others.

“What do you think?”

“If we don’t want to just sit around waiting for death, venturing further inside to find a way out is the only choice.”

Unexpectedly, Ji Liushuang’s stance was surprisingly firm.

“And the sooner the better, while most people are still in good shape. If we delay, it’s just a slow march to death.”

This one’s really decisive! Fu Qian secretly praised her in his mind.

“But isn’t the risk too high!”

Right then, Yuan Xin suddenly chimed in.

“This ruin is full of weirdness everywhere. We have no idea what we might encounter inside; diving in headfirst is just reckless.”

Sticking to his guns, is he opposing the goddess on purpose?

Fu Qian looked at Yuan Xin with interest, only to find the latter giving him a cold stare.

I overestimated him; he probably just doesn’t like that Ji Liushuang agrees with my suggestion.

“We’re not at a dead end yet. Some of us are injured, and it might be wiser to rest and recover here for a bit.”

Huang Zhaoyan quickly agreed.

Just because he had conflicts with Yuan Xin on a regular basis didn’t mean he was reckless with his life.

“If we lose contact for a few days in a row, people outside will definitely notice something is wrong.

If they send someone to investigate, we can coordinate from the inside and outside to find a solution. The situation is far from that dire yet.”

“Staying here to wait for help in a place where we could encounter any danger the next moment? What are you thinking? Do you have any idea how far the Academy is from here?”

Ji Liushuang scoffed coldly, retorting without the slightest politeness.

Watching the group descend into an argument, Li Weixuan frowned deeply.

With boldness born from talent, he was inclined to venture deeper for exploration. However, lives were at stake, and as a qualified leader, he couldn’t ignore the opinions of the students and act unilaterally.

“Idiots.”

At this moment, Fu Qian shook his head.

“What do you mean by that?”

Huang Zhaoyan, who had hardly dared to look at Fu Qian until then, couldn’t just stand by after being called an idiot.

“Have you guys considered one thing?”

Fu Qian looked around at the group.

“This place has clearly been here a long time, so why don’t you have any information about it?”

This…

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

Indeed, that’s strange. Although this place is remote, it’s hard to believe that such a dangerous and special location has no rumors or stories attached to it after all these years.

“Could there be a possibility?”

Fu Qian looked satisfied with the reactions around him.

“The moment you entered this place, your existence in the outside world was erased.”

What?

A group of people were shocked, all at once.

“Is that hard to understand? Then let me ask you, has anyone heard of incidents where people went missing here?”

“To my knowledge, there hasn’t been any.”

Ji Liushuang’s eyes were distant as she murmured to herself.

“How do we explain that pile of hair and arms we encountered? Judging by those two alone, there must have been numerous victims.”

“So the truth is, once you enter here, all information about your existence in the outside world will be erased—no one will remember you or recognize your presence, whether family, friends, or lovers.”

“Notice, it’s not death but erasure; they won’t even retain memories of you.

Even if there’s a wedding photo by your bed, your closest person will still look through you in the photo and wonder why they bought two sets of utensils.”

Fu Qian blinked at Ji Liushuang.

“My dear lady, there’s a slight possibility that at this very moment, your parents have already forgotten that they ever had a daughter like you.”

…

“Nonsense, how is that possible?”

“Absolutely preposterous!”

“Alarmist talk, I’ve never heard of such a thing!”

Fu Qian’s gentle tone painted a picture so chilling that it prompted an instinctive rebuttal from the group.

Could it really be so?

Ji Liushuang bit her lip, now thinking that some things indeed did not make sense.

In such a bizarre place, everyone had done their homework before setting out but found no information related to it.

If it hadn’t been deliberately concealed by someone…

But if what he said was true…

The thought of completely disappearing from her parents’ world, without leaving even a trace of memory, was suffocating, even for someone as strong-willed as her.

“So, give up any pointless fantasies. No one is going to rescue you.”

Fu Qian added another jab.

“Unless you run out on your own.”

…

Eventually, it was Li Weixuan who was the first to snap back to reality, seeing that the whole group had been silenced. He took a deep breath.

“This place is indeed eerie. It’s no use sitting around waiting for death. From now on, everyone follow me to explore the interior of the ruins.”

This time, no voices of protest emerged, or rather, no voices were heard at all.

Done!

Fu Qian snapped his fingers, very pleased with the current outcome.

After all, for the initial exploration of the interior of the ruins, Li Weixuan, the powerful fighter, was indispensable, so this group had to come.

Of course, strictly speaking, what he had just said was still an unconfirmed conjecture.

But often, when you provide an explanation for something, however far-fetched, people will inevitably ponder its possibility without any other answers.

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

Along the way, the team fell into a gloomy silence, everyone looking listless—morale -99.

Fu Qian had successfully brought the team’s morale to the brink of collapse with his words alone.

Li Weixuan wasn’t as composed as he seemed on the surface, but as a seasoned expert, he fully leveraged his advantage, transforming his anxiety into rage.

Wielding a longsword temporarily commandeered from a student, he led the way, and anything that moved was subjected to a deluge of sword strikes.

The mysterious and venomous hair monster, the agile and ferocious palms—creatures that had caused huge trouble for the team before were crushed to pieces under the raging sword energy of a Fourth Phase peak master.

The efficiency was so high that even Fu Qian abandoned the idea of stealing kills.

The students behind him grew even more silent, already in a daze, and were now utterly intimidated by the divine might.

Under the furious leadership of Li Weixuan, they were almost unstoppable, plunging deep into the interior of the ruins.

The inside was even more bizarre than the exterior.

Buildings of various types piled up in layers in an unfathomable manner, squeezed together, making it look as crowded as the spring rush, with barely a path to be found, and many places only accessible by rooftops.

Besides the hair and hands previously encountered, there was now also a giant white centipede.

Upon closer inspection, each segment of the centipede’s body was made up of human skulls.

The deformed skulls had their mouths wide open, biting down on the top of the next one, stacking and stretching endlessly like that.