Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Strange Wall

Fang Nian and Duan Rui exchanged a glance. Duan Rui then walked over to inspect the wall, and after feeling around for a while, she managed to locate a hidden white button embedded within it. She pressed it; the wall itself showed no obvious change, but the sound of interlocking gears echoed through the room.

A moment later, the room suddenly shook, and thick white mist began to billow from the corners. Simultaneously, the doors and windows slammed shut.

“Not good. We’ve fallen into a trap,” Fang Nian said. His sense of smell was exceptionally keen; the mist was thick with the scent of ether. If they were enveloped by it, they would lose consciousness almost instantly.

He turned, intending to seize the officer, only to discover the man had vanished, his figure no longer present in the room.

Duan Rui was astonished that even someone as astute as Fang Nian had been deceived. They had both let their guard down.

“What should we do now? There’s ether in the mist,” she asked. Unbeknownst to her, she had begun to rely on the man before her. Unlike before, when she would have tried to solve the problem herself, now her first instinct was to seek Fang Nian’s advice.

Fang Nian remained calm, surveying the room’s furnishings. It was simply arranged: aside from a single bed, there was only an old European-style desk.

The officer was no magician; he couldn’t simply disappear. Moreover, Fang Nian had stabbed him three times in the leg, causing significant blood loss. Yet the bloodstains hadn’t moved from their original spot—they had vanished right where he’d last stood. That meant the officer must have disappeared nearby.

With this in mind, Fang Nian crouched down to examine the bed, searching for any hidden mechanism. He spent some time but found nothing unusual. By now, the white mist had filled half the room, forcing Fang Nian and Duan Rui to crouch low, covering their mouths and noses with their clothes.

Failing to find anything on the bed, Fang Nian imitated the officer’s seated position on the floor, quickly replaying every detail of the officer’s movements in his mind.

Suddenly, Fang Nian recalled with delight that the officer’s right hand had tapped the floor three times when Fang Nian wasn’t paying attention. His keen observational skills had recorded this detail clearly.

He knelt down, pressing his ear to the floor, listening intently while tapping about, searching for a hollow spot beneath the boards.

When he tapped the third area, the sound was noticeably more hollow than before. Clearly there was a mechanism below. Fang Nian, copying the officer, tapped lightly a few times.

Sure enough, after several crisp taps, there was a click and the bed shook. Fang Nian inspected it and found it was a trapdoor; if someone crawled into the space below, the trapdoor would lock itself again.

Fang Nian, energized, wedged the bedding into the trapdoor to hold it open, then leapt down.

The space beneath was not what Fang Nian had expected. He had assumed it would be a simple tunnel, but it was far more than that—a passage tall enough for an adult to stand upright.

He observed the area further: the bricks and tiles of the tunnel were infused with silver powder, making it naturally bright despite the absence of lighting.

Fang Nian and Duan Rui jumped into the passage, and Fang Nian reached up to close the trapdoor behind them. The seal was tight, keeping the white mist at bay and ensuring their safety, at least for now.

The tunnel was tall but narrow, making it extremely cramped for the two to stand side by side. Fang Nian was unfazed, pondering their next move. Duan Rui, however, was unsettled—this was the first time in her life she had shared such a confined space with a man.

She bit her lip to mask her embarrassment. “Should we… should we go after him?”

Fang Nian was momentarily distracted by her awkwardness, and felt a bit embarrassed himself. “There’s no need. I think we’ll have another chance to meet him. No need to rush.”

With that, Fang Nian squeezed past Duan Rui and took the lead. “They should soon defeat those soldiers and the unit will move forward smoothly. Since we’re trapped here, we shouldn’t just wait around. Let’s keep moving; this tunnel should lead somewhere.”

“I’ll go ahead—follow me and keep an eye on what’s behind us. There could be more traps.”

He strode forward, and Duan Rui, responding with a soft affirmation, obediently followed. If Jin Jinhui and the others could see Duan Rui’s demeanor now, their jaws would drop in astonishment.

They followed the passage and soon reached its exit. When they pushed open the slightly ajar door and stepped through, they were stunned by what lay before them.

It was an enormous room, several hundred meters long, with a ceiling over ten meters high—equivalent to three or four stories. Along the right wall were countless hatches, resembling the doors of refrigerated morgue vaults, sending chills down their spines.

Duan Rui stared in awe, incredulous. “Is this really part of the train carriage? I can feel the train vibrating, but this just doesn’t make sense.”

Fang Nian was equally mystified. From their journey so far, they had traversed several carriages, each differing in size and design. Yet when they looked out at the exterior of the train, it appeared completely ordinary, with nothing unusual.

“Could it be a technology called spatial compression? I’ve read descriptions of it in some ancient texts.”

Fang Nian nodded. “Yes, it’s possible. Spatial compression is nearly impossible in ordinary society, but perhaps it’s feasible here in the hunting grounds. Still, it’s only theoretical. If your grandfather truly mastered it, I doubt he wouldn’t have taught you.”

“Let’s not dwell on it. We don’t have much time—we need to keep moving.”

Duan Rui was genuinely fascinated by spatial compression, but seeing Fang Nian’s resolve, she reluctantly put it aside—escaping was their priority.

They exchanged a glance, noting that the room number on the wall was eighteen, which meant they had crossed several carriages via the passage.

Now, they could hear nothing from outside, indicating Luo Li and the others were still far away.

Their immediate task was clear: they had to determine what secrets were hidden within the walls of this room.