Chapter 2503 - 2498: Igniting the Storm

Chapter 2503: Chapter 2498: Igniting the Storm

It’s really astonishing, my Wisdom is actually still increasing?

The "fire" Fu Qian mentioned was naturally that burning power that first appeared on the bat.

Turns out it wasn’t an exception; whether it was the old man or the Minotaur, he could see similar traces on them as well.

Most were burn marks left behind, and on a few you could even still see flickers of flame.

It felt like some common mark shared by all living beings in this place.

The bat belongs to Lady Selana, but does the flame belong to the Death God?

To the point that the fire bat he’d seen at the beginning suddenly seemed to have gained a new explanation.

Yet when faced with Fu Qian’s questions, the old man’s answer was downright subversive.

It actually only appeared recently?

Then it didn’t really sound like it belonged to the Death God’s power.

Secondly, as expected of a Wise Dead, the old man seemed to have never once believed that he and Fu Qian were the same kind.

"So when did things start catching fire?"

Fu Qian’s expression didn’t change in the slightest; he naturally kept asking.

He thought he’d hidden it well, but when he lifted his head he realized he’d long since been stared at with a meaningful gaze—an impressive reversal indeed.

Of course, on one hand it was still a classic horror-movie scene; on the other hand, for Fu Qian it truly didn’t count as a surprise.

Like he’d said earlier, what he cared most about had always been the old man’s mental state.

Otherwise he wouldn’t have casually introduced himself as the same kind at the start, yet later in their conversation made no effort whatsoever to avoid contradicting that.

For example, when learning about the dead, he’d always addressed them as "you all."

Or how he hadn’t even bothered to pretend, not even faking a single flame mark on himself.

Now it seemed the old man’s understanding of his own situation was more than clear; even regarding himself, this outsider, he saw through him completely.

Combined with the bizarre scene in front of him, all one could say was that the value of a Wise Dead was still going up.

"Just a few days ago."

Sure enough, the old man didn’t get hung up on the trivial matter of tearing off a disguise; he even seemed quite satisfied with Fu Qian’s reaction, and directly answered his question.

"Something ignited the storm, and none of the dead within it were spared."

...

A few days ago?

There’s no way Lady Selana discovered this place long ago and then just pretended she hadn’t, right?

The old man’s answer really was rather subversive.

The flames hadn’t always existed; they’d appeared all of a sudden.

And the timing was peculiar, seeming not to match Lady Selana’s disappearance very well, which reduced the odds that she was the one who caused it.

But it did seem to line up with another matter—

Lord Sorondir suddenly taking up surfing? And Kelson’s message to him.

The former’s promotion opportunity lay right here, and that hypothesis was gaining credibility.

To sum it up, this Moore in front of him first underwent some kind of change, which then drew Sorondir’s attention, and only then did this whole chain of events follow?

More and more causes and effects were being pieced together.

"Is the weather here always like this?"

But Fu Qian’s focus was a bit unconventional; from the old man’s narration, he vaguely took the storm as this place’s essential attribute.

"Of course. The storm here never stops."

The old man’s tone was firm.

"What if that living world over there clears up and the sky turns sunny?"

Fu Qian didn’t let it go so easily.

"You’ve asked a very interesting question."

The old man rarely showed surprise, and he didn’t deny the term "living world."

"This is the land of the dead within the storm; when the storm doesn’t exist, it naturally doesn’t exist either... I said earlier, death is far more than just the opposite of life."

...

The storm is even born?

The old man’s final statement was a bit abstract, but Fu Qian still extracted the key words from it.

When the weather is clear in Moore on the other side, this place simply ceases to exist?

It suddenly felt like it didn’t quite fit the usual "two worlds of yin and yang" metaphor anymore.

Of course, within this framework, the odds of encountering Lord Sorondir here rose once again.

"Thanks for sharing; this should help me verify where the fire came from... Is there anything here that’s different from what you remember?"

Feeling he’d gained a lot, Fu Qian thanked him while inviting the old man to join his spot-the-difference game.

"Someone has indeed been here... That part over there is off."

The old man didn’t disappoint, giving a clear conclusion straight away, even pointing toward a certain direction under their feet.

"You mean the one with only one horn? He is a bit special, I’ll give you that, but that can’t be the only reason, right?"

Fu Qian followed his gaze and naturally locked on a figure, but he also raised a question.

Short in stature, but with an unusually large Minotaur head on his neck; compared to the others, his appearance really was much more distinctive.

"Of course not. You tell me the reason."

This time the old man reacted differently; instead of his previous tell-all style, he stared at Fu Qian and actually asked him to give the answer.

"He’s out of sync. It’s like he’s missing someone in front of him."

The sudden test didn’t bother Fu Qian; he gave the answer almost instantly.

...

Like he’d said before, expecting some elite monster chest to spawn in a special building was a bit too much of a gamer mindset.

From the moment they entered the slaughterhouse until now, the most distinctive thing he’d found was actually that door.

The scene inside the building was bizarre, but there was no sign of anything being broken, nor any corpses fallen to the ground.

To the point that one had to wonder whether Lady Selana had ever come in at all, or if she just took one look inside and left.

But that was only on the surface; observing things was never that simple.

Along the way just now, besides checking whether the Minotaurs’ parts were intact, there was another thing Fu Qian hadn’t neglected: the rhythm of this group’s steps as they walked.

They weren’t customers, nor merchants; the only dense flow of people was those endlessly looping along some special route.

A lot of things looked chaotic at first glance, but if you watched long enough, it became easy to spot the places that were out of sync.

And the place the old man had pointed out just now was one of them.

There wasn’t any exaggerated gap left open, but that short Minotaur’s stride and rhythm always made it feel like he was carefully avoiding something in front of him.

What could that be?

Rather than some invisible person walking there, Fu Qian leaned more toward the idea that someone used to walk there.

"Yes, someone was there once, but then left... I now believe you can solve the problem of the fire. Would that be the woman you’re looking for?"

As it turned out, the old man’s view was the same. He nodded in agreement, finally withdrew his gaze, and even complimented Fu Qian.

"Highly likely."

Faced with such a direct question, Fu Qian sighed.

With Lady Selana’s personality, there’s no way she’d tolerate coming all the way to a place like this and then going home empty-handed.

She might not go as far as to boldly take a sip of blood for a taste, but she’d definitely, under the premise of ensuring her own safety, do her best to probe for some useful information.