Lu Yuan nodded, a hint of approval in his eyes.
"So whichever possibility it is, it's good news for both of us."
"You just need to hold on. I'm confident I can get you out."
Frey parted her lips.
She wanted to ask how exactly he intended to get her out. Was this his world? What made him so certain?
But as she looked at the man before her, at those black eyes shining with confidence in his somewhat gaunt face, she swallowed her questions, little by little.
In the end, she asked nothing.
What difference would asking make? She had no choice left but to trust him.
Still, Lu Yuan was certainly right about one thing.
If his reasoning held, she might not suffer contamination. That meant she could still be saved.
As soon as that thought emerged, the fear gripping Frey's heart miraculously loosened a little. Her reason, which had nearly buckled under the strain, seemed to find a point of support and steadied somewhat.
She nodded firmly and followed Lu Yuan.
The two continued deeper into the fog.
There was no sense of time, no direction, nothing to guide them. All they could do was walk, endlessly walk. Eventually, even the concept of time grew hazy. Neither knew whether they had been walking for an hour, two hours, or longer.
The sudden change came without warning as they trudged on in that numb state.
The fog around them and in the distance, which had been drifting slowly, abruptly froze.
It neither thinned nor thickened. It simply stopped completely, like flowing water freezing into ice in an instant.
A moment later, the fog far, far away seemed to encounter something and burst outward in every direction.
"Hm?"
Lu Yuan and Frey noticed the anomaly at the same time.