Feast

Chapter 48: Feast

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

Fu Qian checked the rewards from the two super-gods. To his surprise, [Clear Dream] was another ring!

Though, saying "another" might not be entirely accurate, because while Tyrant's Fist was ring-shaped, it was classified as a weapon.

Compared to Tyrant's Fist, Clear Dream's appearance was much more conventional.

The silver-white metal band was intricately carved with complex patterns, and the flat surface of the ring was inlaid with tiny gems, forming a swirling nebula.

With a slight movement, an ice-blue light flowed, ethereal and dreamlike.

Making people within a certain range fall into a dream felt a bit like hypnosis. The special part was likely the "shared dream" aspect.

Making a group of people have the same dream? Inception? That's somewhat interesting.

He couldn't think of any immediate uses for it, but the ring itself was quite beautiful, so Fu Qian directly put it on his other middle finger.

Next, Fu Qian turned his attention to [Feast].

[Feast: Greatly enhances life activity. Cannot be deactivated after activation.]

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

Judging by the name, he'd thought it was a skill similar to draining corpses for health. But looking at the explanation, the target of Feast seemed to be himself.

Greatly enhances life activity?

Fu Qian was a little confused. His current life activity already seemed quite high; how much higher could it get?

And the part about it being irreversible after activation sounded rather serious.

Another path of no return!

Unfortunately, Fu Qian was a very curious person. After a few seconds of hesitation, he convinced himself and chose to activate the skill.

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

Simultaneously, Fu Qian felt ripples of vibration spreading within his body, quickly sweeping through his entire being.

Bones, muscles, tendons – the ripples echoed in every location, finally overlapping on his skin, creating waves of resonance.

After a long while, the fluctuations slowly subsided.

"Seems like there's no obvious change!"

Fu Qian clenched his fist. He didn't feel any significant increase in strength.

The next moment, he had a sudden intuition and threw a punch into the air.

A gust of wind whistled. After his fist reached the end of its swing, his index finger suddenly straightened. With a sound of tearing air, his index finger extended by a full arm's length, becoming a finger gun.

I think I understand what this "life activity" means now.

Fu Qian retracted his finger and took a deep breath.

With a shrieking sound, a gaping maw opened on his chest, revealing countless sharp fangs within.

Just as he suspected!

What previously required considerable effort could now be done in an instant, without even needing to tear open a wound first.

Fu Qian quickly returned to his normal state, basically confirming the changes [Feast] had brought him.

If Thug Form had removed the upper limit of his human strength, then Feast had removed the limitations of traditional forms.

He could now freely manipulate any part of his body to change its form without worrying about his body collapsing.

Amazing! Though a bit twisted!

But at least it made the effort worthwhile.

Overall, Fu Qian was satisfied with his gains.

After checking his rewards, he chose to replay the incident.

Just now, he realized he had overlooked something.

The notification of containment failure only appeared after he had left the barrier, which was understandable.

However, he clearly remembered the scene when [2-292] had leaked before.

When Wen Li's Sanity Value collapsed and she lost her chance to advance after Wen Xiuxian was killed, he had directly received a quest failure notification.

Comparing the two, it actually indicated something – he still had a chance to complete the containment until he walked out of the barrier in a collapsed state.

This meant there must be a way within the Furnace to relieve his mental collapse.

Quickly fast-forwarding to the end, Fu Qian watched himself, who had already walked out of the barrier, completely collapsed both physically and mentally.

His body was severely deformed, covered in human faces trying to escape, so clear that he could discern the expressions on them.

The faces included both men and women, and many could be matched one-to-one with the blood-faced figures from Feng Yunhong's self-detonation earlier.

But something seemed to be missing!

Fu Qian frowned, rewinding to the instant Feng Yunhong detonated himself. He observed closely and indeed discovered an anomaly.

After Feng Yunhong exploded into a storm of flesh and blood, a strange mark appeared on every bloodstain spreading everywhere, shaped like four hands rotating counter-clockwise.

This...

Recalling Feng Yunhong's state when he was first encountered, even Li Weixuan didn't notice his abnormality, which indicated that he had suppressed the consciousness of these bloodstains very well.

Feng Yunhong clearly hid some secret. With the help of some special method, he could suppress mental breakdown to a certain extent, preventing himself from falling into a state of delirium.

This was probably why he had roared that his actions at the time were reckless.

It seemed that this time he had to find a way to communicate with him in depth.

After repeatedly reviewing it several times and confirming that he had no omissions, Fu Qian decisively touched the Mist Door again.

[Consumed 1 Sanity Value, attempting containment again, current Sanity Value 54]

[...1%...5%...15%...50%...75%...99%...100%, containment scene loading complete]

"Strange, is this place on the map?"

Yuan Xin's voice came from the front. Half of a broken wall appeared, and the team began to discuss resting in place again.

"Let's get started!"

Fu Qian stretched, and under the incredulous gazes of a group of people, he moved directly from the back of the team to the front.

"Fu Qian, is something wrong? Don't change formation without permission."

Yuan Xin, who was talking to Ji Liushuang, noticed his unusual behavior and shouted unhappily, but the latter ignored him.

"I'm talking to you!"

Yuan Xin's anger flared, and he reached out to grab Fu Qian's shoulder. He didn't expect his vision to blur and his hand to grasp empty air; Fu Qian had already moved several meters away from the team.

"I'll go ahead and scout."

Fu Qian didn't even turn his head, his feet didn't stop, and he stepped over the broken wall blocking the way.

Fu Qian moved away, and he didn't even look at Yuan Xin from beginning to end. Yuan Xin was stunned for a moment, then felt a surge of shame and anger.

However, he wasn't so provoked as to lose his composure. After taking a deep breath, he looked at Ji Liushuang with a questioning gaze. She hesitated and shook her head.

"Fu Qian doesn't seem to want us to follow. To be safe, let's rest in place as planned and find a way to notify Dean Li later—"

Before Ji Liushuang could finish speaking, her eyes instantly froze.

From the shadows, a cluster of black spikes suddenly shot out from behind the broken wall, densely firing towards Fu Qian's back.

A gasp erupted, but Fu Qian's back seemed to have eyes. He gently stomped his foot on the ground and leaped forward again, narrowly dodging the sneak attack. His body quickly disappeared into the thin mist.

The nine-person team stood frozen in place, and after a while, they reacted and jumped away from the broken wall.