A gift from Lady Nepheli.
The runaway director of the Institute of Curses at the academy had enjoyed a pleasant conversation with him the last time they traveled together to the Long Night a thousand years ago, and had left him this small keepsake.
She had even briefly explained the item's core property: it could resonate with the other eye in his possession, making it a special kind of occult pager.
At the time, he had given Lady Nepheli high praise for this little trick.
Whether to accept it, whether to call, whether to answer, and how to respond...
The interplay around such an item had been full of strategy and probing.
That was exactly why he had taken it out of the Warehouse earlier.
And less than a few hours later, it had actually started making a fuss.
Such an unspoken understanding made ignoring it seem almost like a sin.
But Fu Qian really did ignore it. Casually toying with it, he walked out into the endless night.
Lady Nepheli seemed quite persistent.
It was late, but Fu Qian's pace was unhurried.
With precise control, he kept the time and distance of every step remarkably consistent, turning his stride into an unusual sort of timer.
Yet when the timer reached its three-hundredth step, the resonance still showed no sign of stopping—and Fu Qian still ignored it.
They had once brewed tea and discussed heroes together, after all. This was undeniably a rather decisive rejection.
But Fu Qian had ample reason for it: how was he supposed to respond?
He hadn't installed that feature module yet, okay?
With his senses completely shut off, more than half the equipment on his body couldn't be activated, let alone something with such an intense mental aspect.
That was right. It didn't even