Chapter 60: Feng Yan's Reflections

Feng Yan felt himself slowly moving, opened his eyes, and discovered he was on Chen Hao's back.

"Alright, are you awake?" Feeling Feng Yan's state, he couldn't help but worry a bit.

Feng Yan smiled, without explaining anything, Chen Hao thus slowly carried Feng Yan on his back, walking slowly; in that darkness, listening to his own footsteps, all around was pitch black, but the iron rod in Feng Yan's hand had shrunk; Feng Yan felt surprised, thinking: "Could this thing have shrunk?" He slowly put away that iron rod—no, it should now be called a small iron rod—and placed it into his pocket; the two continued walking.

Feng Yan asked, "Where are we going?"

Now Chen Hao also got lost; he opened the map, and in a moment he panicked—the map didn't have this place! Feng Yan smiled and said, "Then let's rest a bit; you can put me down first."

"Mm." Chen Hao nodded, then set Feng Yan down; as a result, Feng Yan handed Chen Hao a small iron rod, Chen Hao felt reluctant to take it, asking bluntly: "Why are you giving me this thing?"

"Take out what the Dwarf Clan Leader gave you!" Feng Yan said.

Chen Hao didn't know what Feng Yan intended to do, but still handed over the item; Feng Yan then took the metal, holding it against the dark iron rod—no, now it should be called an iron rod—and combined the two, saying to Chen Hao: "Look, how about this?"

Chen Hao examined closely; the metal and iron rod seemed to be one entity, as if that were their original form, but when Chen Hao took them from Feng Yan's hand, intending to examine them properly, he saw the two objects floating directly in midair; the metal suddenly emitted a strange blue light, the light very dim, as if it would soon disappear.

Chen Hao, seeing this scene, also curiously moved his eyes closer, observing carefully; but after a moment, the light vanished, the metal and iron rod separated again, falling to the ground with a ding; then Chen Hao bent down, picked up the two objects, and asked Feng Yan: "After all, what are we?"

"Human." Feng Yan pondered for a moment, then replied.

"But what if some things are precisely what we ourselves have caused and received?" Chen Hao asked again.

"These, we cannot stop them, right? In reality we are merely ordinary people, the most ordinary kind; we are not adventurers in a game, so whether it's sin or glory, I don't know, because I am a poor student, and also have praise, rewards, those things—I don't have them either; after coming into this game, or rather, this game gave me some thought, it let me know that even if one is a character in a game, they still have flesh and blood." Feng Yan replied again, he recalled the madman of the Lilliputian Kingdom, but his last memory was only up to the madman's expression before death, as well as his own inner anguish.

Thinking of this, Feng Yan's heart began to ache; although the act was done unconsciously, he still could not forgive himself now—the madman's final expression also made him unable to forget: the madman curled the corner of his mouth into a smile, stroked Feng Yan's head with his right hand, until Feng Yan woke up and saw that it was a dying madman, whose inner anguish was unbearable, yet the madman said: "To die for the king is also a kind of loyalty."

Thinking of this, Feng Yan stood up, feeling he had regained some strength; Chen Hao hurried over to support Feng Yan, but Feng Yan shook off Chen Hao's arm, then slowly walked forward, stopped at a place, Feng Yan first touched with his hand, then tapped the stone wall, discovered it was hollow inside, then directly drew the Black Sword and struck the stone wall with a single slash!

Boom! After a tremendous roar, a large hole appeared in the stone wall! Chen Hao widened his eyes and then ran toward Feng Yan's direction. Feng Yan braced the sword tip against the ground, barely maintaining his stance, then spat out a mouthful of fresh blood!

"Feng Yan!" Chen Hao hurried over to support Feng Yan, asking, "Has your injury not yet recovered?"

Feng Yan's mouth was full of blood; he spat the blood onto the ground, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve, speaking weakly: "What do you think? Well, I thought those guys' weapons were just ordinary stuff—who knew they'd poison the weapons? I had already gone to see the doctor earlier; he gave me a few bottles of Gold Wound Medicine and even asked if I wanted special-effect medicine—I didn't have the idle time to chat with him, so I just took the ordinary kind; as it turned out, this medicine merely neutralized the poison on the weapons, having no extra effect on wound healing—what a pitiful doctor, sigh, I'm increasingly missing the doctor from Ju Ren Guo."

Hearing Feng Yan finish his words, Chen Hao felt somewhat ashamed, lowering his head and saying: "If I had known, I would have gone with you."

"I'm not fine?" Feng Yan retorted, continuing, "No need for all this fuss—it's pointless; our current goal is what? Game victory—then I'd count as having beaten Yang Xin, and at the same time we could return to reality and live our original lives. Alright, having said that, let's go in first."

"Mm." Chen Hao nodded, supporting Feng Yan as they walked to the mouth of the hole Feng Yan had made, then continued asking, "So, who goes in first?"

Feng Yan gestured for Chen Hao to let go, then Feng Yan drew the Black Sword again, preparing to unleash a sword qi inward, but just as he pulled out the Black Sword, Chen Hao grabbed it, gesturing for Feng Yan to stop, then saying: "You're injured; I'll go—give me a red sword."

"Mm." Feng Yan nodded.

The Black Sword slowly released the Red Sword; within the Black Sword appeared strands of red smoke, which gradually gathered into a Red Sword; at this point, the Black Sword contained no Red Sword, it was pure black, and Feng Yan picked up the Black Sword, constantly thinking of Hou Fangjie.

Feng Yan lost himself in thought, while Chen Hao had already entered holding the Red Sword; before long, a fierce fighting sound came from inside.

Feng Yan walked inside and discovered it was a treasury, but unlike other treasuries, the items within were not vulgar riches but something else; the place seemed to be conducting some experiment, all around illuminated by candles, the walls made of gold; Chen Hao walked to the wall's side, thrust the Red Sword into the gold, and said to Feng Yan: "The gold here is genuine, not plated."

With a clang, a crossbow bolt was shot away; Feng Yan felt something was wrong, hurriedly entered, after going inside Feng Yan widened his eyes, as if seeing something unbelievable, his mouth opened wide but he could not utter a word; yet his tears streamed out.

However, Feng Yan's focus was not that, but rather one of the vessels inside—this item was hexagonal, appearing enormously large, extending deep underground; the vessel went deep into the earth, yet above it had a recessed layer, as if meant to contain something.

"What is this? Madman!" Chen Hao shouted.