Chapter 53

“`

When it was Feng Yunhong’s turn, his voice was filled with despair.

The original vortex of flesh and blood had faded until it was almost invisible, and the accumulation of decades was exhausted by Fu Qian.

And with it, the consciousness of each Transcendent contained within disappeared into smoke.

A complete and utterly opportunity-less Annihilation.

“What did you say just now?”

In the face of Feng Yunhong’s unwilling roar, Fu Qian suddenly spoke.

“You’ve suffered unimaginable pain for many years, so I could never beat you, right?”

“Here, let me show you what real pain is.”

Following the connection with the flesh vortex, Fu Qian channeled an endless stream of psychic shock into Feng Yunhong’s body.

Ah!

The beast-like roar resounded as Feng Yunhong’s consciousness experienced intense fluctuations instantly.

Half a minute later, he let out a groan on the edge of collapse.

“You… who exactly… are… you?”

“Fu Qian.”

In the face of the dying man, Fu Qian still maintained the posture of a victor, declaring his name with intonation and pauses.

With a surge of even more intense emotional fluctuation, Feng Yunhong could no longer hold on and dissipated completely, his words of unwillingness echoing for a long time.

“You charge for this, too?”

Indeed, the joys and sorrows of humanity do not communicate!

Fu Qian felt a moment of poignancy; the man seemed to have misunderstood something.

However, he had absolutely no sympathy for Feng Yunhong.

Not to mention this fellow was a ruthless being who had surpassed humanity more than a dozen times, having hunted down more than twenty lost lambs.

Just to think that over the years, this fellow used this stone chair as a sedative every day, yet failed to realize the chair’s true nature.

One can only say, when you were given the opportunity, you was just useless!

And as the last bit of noise disappeared, the vortex of flesh completely merged into the body, Fu Qian opened his eyes and slowly rose from the stone chair.

From the outside, he seemed no different from before, not even a noticeable increase in strength.

But only he knew that he had changed completely.

Looking at his hand, he was sure that he was in a delicate state, like an invisible barrier of some sort.

The specifics were hard to explain; to a certain extent, it was a bit like the philosophical concept of “I think, therefore I am.”

That is, he existed here only when he was aware of himself.

If he let go, his existence would spread and merge with the entire ruins.

Fu Qian turned to look at the stone chair.

If he guessed correctly, this thing was essentially the manifestation of the rules within the crucible, a high-tier embodiment of the Bizarre Great Fissure.

The name “crucible” implies the refining and restructuring of life energy that enters it to achieve an elevation of life forms.

The Palm Monsters and Skull Centipedes were merely the lowest forms of restructuring.

He had underestimated it before; Transcendents like Feng Yunhong and himself, who couldn’t be “digested,” were instinctively expelled by the crucible, treated like ambergris.

On the other hand, the crucible still held the potential to digest them.

The premise was to be willing to withstand the shock—that is, to sit there, completely let go of one’s consciousness, and accept the baptism of that terrifying stream of information.

Just like he had done.

At this moment, Fu Qian confirmed that he was on some level homogenous with the crucible.

Now, it was time to complete the mission.

Before leaving, something shiny caught Fu Qian’s attention.

It was Feng Yunhong’s long halberd.

Fu Qian picked it up and weighed it in his hand, then casually planted it next to the stone chair.

He had no interest in pole arms.

Coming out of the underground chapel, no matter what kind of monsters were on the way, they completely ignored him, showing no reaction and allowing him a smooth, unobstructed path.

Borrowing the mysterious connection with the crucible, Fu Qian quickly found Ji Liushuang and her party.

At that moment, this group was groping along the edge of the crucible, searching for an exit.

“`

Three teams had already gathered together, their numbers fewer than last time, suggesting there had been more casualties.

Broken arrows rained down from above as Archer Brother began testing for potential vulnerabilities higher up.

However, most people clearly despaired, their eyes brimming with aimlessness.

Fu Qian moved forward without stopping and realized that everyone seemed oblivious to his arrival, their gazes empty as they swept over him, as if they were looking at air.

This condition was truly peculiar.

The creatures being oblivious to him could be explained by his assimilation into the furnace, them mistaking him as one of their own.

But the same behavior from the group before him was rather intriguing.

Fu Qian remembered the furnace’s effect of erasing external information and wondered if it was a similar property?

The eyes clearly saw, but the mind didn’t register the sight, so no reaction followed.

To confirm his guess, Fu Qian chose to walk directly through the team.

As he passed through the line of people, only Li Weixuan frowned slightly and looked around alertly.

Indeed, unless the difference in realm was too vast, noticing an anomaly seemed very difficult.

Now, the barrier stood right before him.

Fu Qian reached out and touched it.

If last time he was ejected, this time he was absorbed.

Fu Qian felt as though he had become a part of the barrier itself, like a droplet joining the ocean, able to move through it with ease.

It seemed he could clock out now.

“Director Li, I still think we should explore the interior of the ruins,”

Just then, Fu Qian heard Ji Liushuang quietly conversing with Li Weixuan.

“Although it was my idea to look along the edges for an opening, it seems like a wasted effort now.”

“Moreover, Fu Qian is still inside; we should check on his situation no matter what.”

“He acted on his own, completely disregarding the safety of others; I don’t think we are obligated to risk ourselves for him!”

The opposing voices emerged unsurprisingly.

The girl had the right intentions, though she didn’t know he had just passed right in front of her.

Li Weixuan agreed with Ji Liushuang’s opinion, but the dissenting voices in the team made him hesitant.

After all, the current situation was too bizarre, and rash action was far too risky.

Moreover, according to Ji Liushuang’s description, the behavior of the student called Fu Qian was also peculiar.

Fu Qian had been ready to leave, but paused at the scene before him and decided to shout directly at Ji Liushuang.

Ji Liushuang was in a heated debate with Yuan Xin and a few others when she suddenly felt something and looked up toward a particular spot.

Although it was clearly empty, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was beckoning to her.

Brushing aside the others, she walked forward as if guided by a phantom, touched something, and then turned around in disbelief.

“There’s… a hole here?”

Even as she spoke, Ji Liushuang couldn’t believe it herself.

But on her hand, she really felt a smooth opening, large enough for a person to crouch and pass through.

At her words, the crowd was initially stunned, then swarmed over in an instant.

A way out had indeed been found!

After confirming that the passage was real, under the coordination of Li Weixuan and Ji Liushuang, the excited group proceeded through the passage, one after another, escaping the despairing prison.

Ji Liushuang insisted on being the last to leave.

As she passed through the passage, she quickly picked up several stones and piled them up as a marker, thinking of leaving a sign for Fu Qian, who had not yet emerged.

However, seconds later, she looked with some confusion at the markings on the ground, unable to recall why she had made them.

At that moment, the escapees cheered thunderously, and Director Li called out, quickly leading them away in the opposite direction.

After the group had gone far, Fu Qian floated down from the barrier.

Using his connection with the barrier, he had just tried to create a path on it, and to his surprise, it worked.

One could only say that Ji Liushuang had secured a chance for survival for the group.

[Containment Successful]

At that time, the awaited prompt finally sounded.