Moving Forward

Shen Fei stood there a while longer before Nie Li finally stirred beside him. His body swayed slightly at first, as though he were slowly being drawn back to reality from a deep dream. Then he blinked twice, eased half a step back, and raised a hand to his forehead.

He rubbed between his brows twice, slid his fingers down the bridge of his nose, and let out a long breath, as though exhaling everything that had been weighing on his chest for so long.

Lu Piao had long since grown anxious waiting. The moment he saw Nie Li move, he hurried over, caught his arm, and asked, "What happened? You stood in front of that stele for so long, and we couldn't wake you no matter how much we called. Did you see something, or did something trap you? You scared us half to death."

As he spoke, Lu Piao turned to glance at Xiao Xue and asked her, "You saw how Nie Li was just now, right? Standing there without moving, like a stone statue. I called him several times, and he didn't react at all."

Xiao Xue nodded and said she had indeed seen it. They had called two or three times without any response, and she had been about to go over and pull him away.

As she spoke, she looked at Nie Li and asked, "What exactly happened just now? That didn't look like an ordinary lapse in attention. It was more like something had latched onto your soul force."

Nie Li lowered his hand from his forehead. His face was a little paler than before, but his eyes had regained their clarity.

He looked at Lu Piao, then at Xiao Xue and Du Ze, before finally sweeping his gaze over Shen Fei and Xiao Ning'er. "It wasn't anything serious. I just came into contact with a trace of intent left on the stele's surface and got drawn into it for a while. I saw a few fragmented images."

He paused, as though weighing his words, before continuing, "This gravestone must have been left by a mighty expert from ancient times. It's hard to say exactly which era it came from, but it's at least several hundred years old."

"There was originally quite a lot inscribed on its surface, but most of it was deliberately destroyed. Those gouges are deep, as though someone repeatedly scraped it with a sharp weapon. The surviving fragments of information are too scattered to piece together anything complete."

Even after hearing his explanation, Lu Piao was still uneasy and pressed him further. "Then what did you see in there? How did you suddenly get pulled in out of nowhere? What was on that stele that could hold you like that?"

Nie Li shook his head. "I can't really explain it either. The images flashed by too quickly and were too fragmented, as though someone had deliberately broken them apart and stuffed them into the stone. I could barely make out a few blurred figures. They seemed to be depicting something, or perhaps recording fragments of someone's life, but the gaps were too severe to connect any of it."

Du Ze had stood beside them without saying a word, but now he suddenly asked, "Then what does this gravestone being here have to do with the Black Prison World?" His voice was quiet, but his question was direct, as though he had turned it over in his mind for a long time before speaking.

Nie Li glanced at him and said, "I can't answer that right now either. But since this stele stands in the Black Prison World, it certainly wasn't placed here for no reason. Either it points the way, or it marks some important location."

Xiao Xue added, "Then do we keep going, or note down this location and leave it for later?" Nie Li thought for a moment and said, "Keep going. This stele isn't going anywhere. Once we've explored what's ahead, there'll still be time to come back and study it."

After speaking, he glanced at the gravestone again, as though checking whether what he had sensed earlier was still there.

Then he withdrew his gaze and brushed the dust from his hands, his tone returning to normal. "All right, we've finished looking. Let's keep moving. We should still have quite a distance to cover, so let's not linger here too long."

Although Lu Piao was still curious about exactly what Nie Li had seen, Nie Li clearly had no intention of explaining further, so he stopped pressing him.

He turned, patted the dust from his trouser legs, and looked down the passage ahead. "Let's go, then. Before some more Red Ghosts pop out and block the way."

Xiao Xue laughed beside him. "Can't you say something auspicious for once? That pack of Red Ghosts only just ran off, and you're already hoping we'll run into another wave."

"I'm not hoping for it," Lu Piao said. "I'm preparing in advance. What if there really are more? Better to know what to expect than scramble around when the time comes."

Xiao Xue and Du Ze got to their feet as well and checked their equipment. Du Ze tucked the Fine Iron Needles inside his robe, then felt for the dagger and medicine pouch at his waist to make sure they were still there before moving to the middle of the group to wait.

Nie Li took one last look at the gravestone, then turned and headed down the passage ahead.

Lu Piao hurried after him and walked at his side, still going on about what had happened. "What exactly was carved on that stele? Could Emperor Kongming have left it? There was another stele back in Gulan City. Could these two be part of a set?"

Nie Li didn't answer him directly. He only said, "It's too early to tell. Once we get back, we'll organize what we saw and compare them. Thinking about it now is just blind speculation."

Nie Li walked over to Shen Fei and asked, "You sensed it too, didn't you?" Shen Fei nodded. "This time definitely won't be peaceful." Nie Li said nothing more and continued forward.

Shen Fei stood at the rear and glanced at Xiao Ning'er. She had steadied herself against the rock wall. Her face was still pale, but her breathing had settled, and her legs had stopped trembling.

Noticing Shen Fei's gaze, she nodded to him to show that she could walk. Shen Fei didn't carry her on his back again. The two followed side by side at the rear of the group, treading over the grayish-white sand as they headed deeper into the passage.