Chapter 48#

Temple of the Burning Lamp 19#

The smell of the sea breeze was salty, mixed with a bit of iron rust, like blood.

He was in a grey corridor, covered in rust, dust, and bullet marks, where he could faintly see that the original wall was silver-white. On the side, there were broken slogans: “Defend the Third Air Route, Dedicate to the Blue Sea and Blue Sky”.

The Empress said that as long as you walk far enough on this road, one day you will return to your broken home.

In front of him was the access door to the deck, and at the end of the passage came a buzzing take-off and landing sound. On the right was the door to Dorm 407, covered with several blood-stained handprints. On the left, a sign hanging on the door read “United Front Command”, swaying precariously. It was the office of a certain commander.

Very close, within reach. He only needed to walk over and push open the door with his right hand to see the situation inside.

“Seven?”

“Seven—”

Someone was calling him, as if urging him to open the door. But he never moved, his right thumb stroking the religious pattern on the scabbard. The incongruous style reminded him all the time of where he was.

Many things, though not admitted, always exist. Or perhaps it is precisely because they truly exist that one doesn’t want to admit them.

For example, he had long decided to forget his origin, but he repeatedly saw it in dreams and illusions created by the dungeon. Another example is that he never thought of himself as a good person, but after weighing the options, he still led Molly out of the room.

But one more thing was certain.

He was no fool.

The calls from the deck became more and more urgent and frequent. The sound of rustling papers came from the office, and someone was even speaking: “The first pot should be watered once every three days, the second pot every seven days, and the third pot every day.”

Laughter also came from the dormitory: “Look, it’s watered to death!”

But he remained motionless. Gradually, everything disappeared, and the corridor ahead returned to its original appearance in the temple. A dense crowd of shadow people stood in front, and on the right was a large French window. Outside the window was pitch black, and there was a ring-sized arc in the sky, the outline of the giant curtain.

He looked at the giant curtain opening outside the window for a long time, then slowly moved the candle in his hand forward, and his shadow followed the movement, shifting backward.

A soft sound of footsteps came from behind.

“Knight Commander, I’m ready.” Molly’s voice rang out.

The footsteps got closer and closer, and the young girl’s soft breath brushed against the back of his neck.

“Knight Commander?”

Yu Feichen didn’t move his feet and moved the candle back to its original position.

The light and cool breath behind him slowly faded with his movement.

“Molly,” he said.

“Knight Commander…” A sob came from behind the washroom. This was the real Molly.

“Did you close your eyes?”

“I did…” Molly gripped the hilt in her hand and muttered. The sweet smell of popcorn came to her nose, along with the faint sound of voices and the music playing in the mall.

Looking far away, at the end of the passage was the small bookstore she loved most.

This was her world. Open your eyes, and the nightmare will be over, and she will be back.

Open your eyes…

Wait, haven’t I already closed my eyes? Then what am I seeing?

She broke out in a cold sweat and shouted: “Save me!”

Yu Feichen was well-prepared. The moment Molly spoke, he scattered the fire lizard powder behind him. The candle ignited it, and with a “whoosh,” a shower of fire like a meteor lit up the entire corridor and the washroom.

Molly’s thoughts suddenly cleared for a few seconds.

Wait!

Why am I here?

She touched her belly. All the strange feelings had disappeared, as if it had been a dream.

But just now, clearly—

“Knight Commander, I didn’t even…”

“Keep your eyes closed,” Yu Feichen said, “follow me.”

When they returned to the room, everyone had very strange expressions on their faces.

“Is it safe outside?” The Scholar’s face was extremely pale. “The smell of candles is too unpleasant, I want to go out for a walk.”

“Brother Yu, I want to go too. I can’t stay here anymore. I feel like my lungs are full of dead meat. I want to breathe some fresh air, even for a second,” Bai Song said.

Qiu Na collapsed on the table, her forehead against the tabletop, weak and powerless: “Even if I die today, die right here, I won’t let you guys go out.”

Bai Song: “You just said you wanted to go out too.”

“Thinking is one thing, but going out is impossible.”

Yu Feichen looked at the only calm Pope. Ludwig smiled with a hint of helplessness.

“Let’s go,” Yu Feichen said. “I’ll take you out.”

“Ah? Really go out?” Bai Song said. “I’m not going, I can hold on, hold on until dawn, no problem.”

“It’s not dangerous outside.”

“Really? I don’t believe it.”

“There’s a bit of it, but it can be overcome.”

“What nonsense are you talking about, Brother Yu? Who doesn’t know that going out means death.” Bai Song said. “There must be something outside tempting us to go out. I just realized, Brother Yu. Molly was talking to me fine half an hour ago, how did she suddenly feel like she was suffocating? Besides, she’s in a bad mood and hasn’t eaten or drunk for nearly two days. Outside is a trap for monsters, Brother Yu!”

Bai Song became more and more agitated as he spoke, but suddenly let out a sharp cry: “I’m so hungry! I want to go to the dining table and find something to eat!”

“Shut up,” Qiu Na’s voice was weak as a thread, “I’m really starving… I can’t go out, I can’t go out…”

Yu Feichen looked at the room full of people leaning every which way, weak and powerless. Compared to them, even Ludwig, who was rooted to the bed, didn’t seem so lazy.

“I’m serious,” he said, “go out, now.”

“Go where?”

“The atrium.”

“You don’t want to live until tomorrow?”

“Staying here is how you won’t live until tomorrow.”

Bai Song looked like he had lost his parents: “It’s over, even Brother Yu has been affected. We won’t live.”

The Scholar, however, said: “Is there any reason?”

“The reason is that you’ve all been affected by illusions.”

Qiu Na was thinking clearly: “Yeah, we are indeed being affected, so aren’t we resisting? No matter what happens tomorrow, at least survive tonight.”

“Let me remind you of something,” Yu Feichen said.

“What?”

“Based on how much the giant curtain is closing, how short will the distance between tomorrow morning and noon be?”

“Very short… right.”

The sun has to emerge from the giant curtain opening to count as early morning.

“How long does it take to get from here to the atrium?”

“If everything goes well, twenty minutes to half an hour.”

As if struck by lightning, Qiu Na suddenly shivered, and Bai Song’s eyes also widened.

“At night, the giant curtain is still closing slowly. it will shrink to a state where it cannot hold a complete sun. That is to say, as soon as morning arrives, noon is almost here… in the worst case, as soon as the sun appears, it’s noon!” Bai Song said.

“If we wait for the sun to come out before we head to the atrium, it might already be too late. Why didn’t I think of that before!”

Everyone was shocked. You have to know, what the old man in the cloak said was not only to survive until tomorrow but also to reach the atrium before noon!

Seeing that they had reacted, Yu Feichen also saved some breath. There was indeed something outside, most likely those black shadow people were creating illusions for them, tempting them to go out. And this illusion was not particularly realistic, just enough that everyone was confused but could still try to resist. At this time, everyone’s thoughts would be on resisting the illusion, desperately hypnotizing themselves to stay in the room, not to go out until dawn, and not to let others go out and take risks.

The result of self-hypnosis is missing key information and going further and further down the wrong path. This is also the most dangerous part tonight. If everyone were strong-willed, they might spend the whole night encouraging each other and struggling to resist.

At the beginning, even he himself was almost fooled by Molly—after seeing something was wrong, he wanted to firmly keep her in the room.

But Molly’s willpower was unusually weak, and her sudden suicidal behavior made him feel particularly suspicious. Even if she really needed to go, and couldn’t save face, she could have gone to the pitch-black room next door. Why insist on such a distant washroom?

Therefore, the core of the illusion is not to lure people to a dangerous place, but simply to “go out.” After going out, it will continue to lure from another angle, causing people to make dangerous moves.

The direction was so clear that it couldn’t help but make one think. Coupled with the fact that he already wanted to know more about the shadow monsters, after preparing his trump card lizard powder, he took her there.

As expected, although it was dangerous outside, there was still a possibility of survival, and the pitch-black night sky seen outside the French window made him suddenly wake up. Tonight, “staying” is instead a dead end.

“Kill me,” Bai Song said, banging his head against the table, “why is it so hard?”

Qiu Na, who had already collapsed on the table, also murmured: “How interesting, I almost died. This scheme is too convoluted.”

The Scholar was even more terrified: “Then are we going to the atrium in the dark? How? Can we still live?”

Bai Song: “I finally know what it means to ‘reach the atrium alive’.”

As for Molly, she was completely out of it, her arms crossed, her eyes full of panic.

Only the Pope was still calmly watching everyone’s discussion.

Yu Feichen just watched him quietly. Seeing that the discussion was over, His Holiness finally arrived late and returned to his position as leader, making a final decision: “Make a plan and depart as soon as possible.”

Yu Feichen returned with a questioning look: “First of all, will you be asleep or awake?”