Fu Qian's subtle little gesture clearly pleased Ess.
She merely shot him a slightly reproachful glance, then stopped bothering him and turned back to speak quietly with Charlotte, whose expression was rather poor.
As for the tiny little incident behind him, the Sage paid it no mind. He followed Brother Round Card, who was leading the way, his steps steady.
After they entered the secret passage beneath the Invisible Road, there were far fewer forks, and no sign of any corpses. For a while, their progress was quite smooth.
Meanwhile, the green eyes overhead had grown visibly denser. They even seemed to twinkle like stars.
"Wait."
The next moment, the Sage suddenly called a halt.
As they ventured deeper, the atmosphere in the group had grown increasingly tense. Now everyone obeyed orders without question, and nobody said a word.
The group was in a chamber much more spacious than the passageways they had come through, though it was still not especially large.
The most striking thing at its center was a stone statue kneeling on the floor, both hands covering its face.
For a group of intellectuals, wasn't that pose a little too humble?
The statue was still astonishingly tall, its head nearly touching the ceiling.
Even from the entrance, Fu Qian had to crane his neck to look up at it.
In the dim light, he could still make out the statue's rather contorted face. Both hands covered its eyes, pressing its face out of shape.
A full circle of chairs surrounded the statue. They were all empty, and Brother Round Card had already checked them one by one.
They looked like seats for some important figures.
But Fu Qian was more interested in their design.
From here, every chair looked different in size and style, as though custom-made.