Am I the only one who didn't ascend?

Chapter 580: The Delusion in Reality
"Please wait a moment. There is a strict security check procedure here. You need to hold a valid token to make the two generals on both sides close their eyes."

In front of a corridor leading to the underground, Zhang Yu promptly called out to Wang Luo and Song Hui who were walking in front, and then took out an exquisite bronze seal.

The moment the bronze seal appeared, the two generals Heng and Ha, who were like decorative sculptures on both sides of the corridor, suddenly came to life, turned their heads and glanced sideways, casting cold glances at the newcomers, with even more murderous intent in their eyes... However, after confirming that the seal was correct, the two generals Heng and Ha slowly closed their eyes and returned to their original motionless posture.

"After that, we can continue to move forward." Zhang Yu said with a hint of hesitation in his tone, "The ruins of the illusion are in front of us. Although these ruins have been put into the Rongcheng workshop to assist in production, they do not belong to the workshop. In fact, they belong to the Zhuwang National Treasure. Therefore, the workshop is not responsible for providing security, but the Youcheng Military Academy. The two statues are actually borrowed from the Military Academy. They are extraordinary in power..."

Song Hui asked coldly: "So what exactly do you want to say? Be brief and concise."

Zhang Yu replied: "...Although I have been deeply involved in the construction of the workshop, and have personally visited most of the workshop facilities and am familiar with the inside story of the workshop. But I have never been here before. I have never seen what the ruins look like, and even the talisman in my hand that opens the door is the first time I have used it."

Wang Luo suddenly realized: "No wonder you were a little nervous just now. Um, you, the person in charge, didn't come because you wanted to avoid suspicion?"

Zhang Yu sighed, "Fu Hong invited me out of retirement as a guest official. His reasons were of course very reasonable. Although the Zhang family has made the greatest contribution to Rongcheng Workshop, it is by no means a one-man show for the Zhang family. The position he can be arranged in the upper echelons is limited. But no matter what, since he is a guest official, he must fulfill his duties as a guest official."

Wang Luo nodded, and as he walked into the long corridor, he asked casually, "Do you have any complaints about such a loving father and filial son?"

Zhang Yu paused for a moment, then sighed, "How can I not blame him? But rather than blaming Fu Hong, I blame myself more for being blind and not being able to see his ambitions."

Wang Luo smiled and made no comment, while Song Hui glanced at him with a wary look in his eyes.

Zhang Yu also knew that this statement might not convince people, so he quickly avoided the topic and continued, "Although I haven't been here in person, I still remember the construction drawings of the underground part. There is a water curtain in front of us. After crossing the water curtain, we will officially enter the core area of ​​the ruins. It is said that as long as you stand in the area, you will be affected by the ruins."

"What kind of impact?"

Zhang Yu shook his head with some shame and said, "Although I have read the relevant reports, I really couldn't understand them, so I didn't pay much attention to them. But considering the effect of the Delusion-Breaking Water Curtain, it should probably make people have hallucinations, right? However, no matter what the side effects are, they shouldn't be too strong. After all, this was approved for production after a strict review by the Taixu Mansion..."

Wang Luo smiled again when he heard this: "You seem to have a lot of confidence in this kind of bureaucracy."

Zhang Yu was startled. Just as he was about to answer, his expression suddenly changed: "Please, please wait a moment, Master Wang!"

Wang Luo also noticed something strange at this time. On the left side of the winding corridor, in front of a half-open door, there was a bracelet with a unique shape. The material and craftsmanship of the bracelet were ordinary, but the small silver plate tied to the chain contained a unique aura.

This type of bracelet is usually used to commemorate some major events. From the light exuding from the silver medal, one can vaguely see a few proud words.

"Specially presented to the second place winner of Feiyuanlu Heaven and Earth Domination Battle, Bloodthirsty Prince (Zhang Fuhong)"

The owner of the bracelet was clear at a glance, but the chain had obviously been damaged after a violent fight.

So Wang Luo turned his head to look at Song Hui, only to see that the latter had naturally raised his burning right hand without any instructions. Although the fire was still fierce, it was burning steadily. Obviously, there was no special risk here, and the risk of death was not here.

At this time, seeing that the two people around him did not say anything, Zhang Yu could not help but rush to the front, picked up the bracelet with one hand, and pushed open the half-open door with the other.

Behind the door was a messy utility room, where dozens of boxes of specially made talisman paper, cinnabar and other consumables were piled up, as well as a large number of workshop-specific spiritual stones and spiritual leaves. One box of spiritual stones had been roughly opened, and there were still a few fragments left on the ground.

Zhang Yu was a little absent-minded for a moment. He was not a professional Qingyi, and although he could obviously see that there was something unusual in the utility room, he could not judge the details.

At this time, Wang Luo had already walked into the room. With a quick glance, he roughly deduced what had happened there.

"There was indeed a brief fight here, um, at the Jindan level, but it was very superficial and there was no order... If nothing unexpected happened, it should have been done by Zhang Fuhong."

At this point, Wang Luo could not help but frown. On the other side, Song Hui also said nothing, and the silence of these two people only made Zhang Yu panic.

"Master Wang, Fu Hong, he, he..."

"There is no danger. His fighting level is very restrained even considering his cultivation level. The only problem is that there is more than one Zhang Fuhong here."

Zhang Yu was stunned and a little bit unbelievable: "More than one?"

"At least judging from the traces left at the scene, there should have been a brief conflict between the three Zhang Fuhongs."

"Three!?"

"Yes, three independent individuals, clearly separated. It's definitely not one person holding three golden elixirs, or some kind of clone technique. The three Zhang Fuhongs fought briefly here, and the bracelet of one of them was torn, but the owner was obviously absent-minded and left the precious souvenir here without paying attention... But after walking out of this utility room, their tracks were interrupted, and I couldn't see more."

Zhang Yu was stunned for a while, then answered suddenly: "This underground part has a secret array that blocks insight, so tracking and tracing back will usually fail."

"No wonder even the traces of the fight here are incomplete. It is indeed a strictly guarded secret. I can only conclude that Zhang Fuhong is more than one person, but the details of the fight and what kind of communication they had outside of the fight are all vague... Anyway, let's move forward."

The three of them walked out of the utility room and continued forward along the corridor outside the door. Although the underground part of the workshop was huge, at least before reaching the Pohuan Water Curtain, the structure was quite simple and there were no other forks.

After a moment, the sound of flowing water was heard faintly ahead. It was obviously not far from the water curtain, but along with the sound of water there was also a low groan of pain.

Hearing the low groan, Zhang Yu's eyes suddenly widened and he subconsciously took a step forward, but soon found that his body was fixed by the powerful true energy and he could not move.

"Don't be impulsive. I'll go ahead."

Wang Luo said, passing Zhang Yu and taking the lead. Song Hui stood silently behind Zhang Yu, and after Wang Luo had walked a few steps, he reached out and pushed his shoulder, immediately freeing him from his immobilization.

Zhang Yu nodded gratefully, and his mind was soon attracted by the moaning in front of him. He spoke in a trembling voice as if to comfort himself.

"Zhang Fuhong, it shouldn't be a big deal. That kid never speaks when he's in real trouble..."

Wang Luo nodded and said, "I can tell that he is still strong, but he is really injured... So, it proves that he is probably not an illusion created by this place to respond to your expectations. After all, you don't want to see Zhang Fuhong injured, right?" Zhang Yu realized that he was actually in an illusion where he might see an illusory person at any time. He broke out in a cold sweat, but soon he realized, "That bracelet, at least that bracelet is definitely not my imagination or expectation. Fuhong himself must have been here."

"Yes, that's why I have to go and see it myself."

As they were talking, the three finally arrived in front of the Pohuan Water Curtain, and saw the corridor in front of them suddenly open up, and then a thin waterfall flowed down, covering the scenery behind. But the distance was so close that Zhang Fuhong's voice was already as if it was in his ears.

Wang Luo did not pause. He raised his hand and held up an umbrella with his invisible true energy, just enough to block the flowing water, but did not touch the illusion-breaking formation hidden in the water.

Then, he saw Zhang Fuhong, whose face was pale, behind the water curtain.

My old friend was groaning in a corner with a painful expression on his face. His right hand was broken at the wrist. Although the wound had been treated simply and he was no longer bleeding, the pain was obviously still bothering him.

Of course, in Wang Luo's opinion, although Zhang Fuhong had never suffered any physical pain, he naturally lacked resistance to this kind of physical injury...but the groaning at this moment was more on the spiritual level rather than from the body.

and so……

"Fu Hong, are you okay?!"

Just as Wang Luo was lost in thought, Zhang Yu behind him finally couldn't hold back and shouted out. Although he didn't jump over Wang Luo, he lay on Wang Luo's shoulder and looked at Zhang Fuhong with worry and concern.

At this moment, Zhang Fuhong heard the shouting and raised his pale face in disbelief. Seeing the three people outside the water curtain, his pupils shrank sharply: "You, don't come over!"

"!?" Zhang Yu was immediately surprised, "Why?"

Wang Luo had been planning to step over the water curtain, but he stopped when he heard this: "What do you mean?"

Zhang Fuhong said: "Touching the water curtain may make you disappear... You may not be real people."

Hearing this, Wang Luo once again carefully observed his old friend in front of him: "But you have crossed the water curtain, so you really exist?"

Zhang Fuhong nodded, then looked at the broken part of his right hand and said self-deprecatingly, "At least most of it is."

Wang Luo suddenly had an idea and said, "Boss Zhang Yu, give me the bracelet."

Zhang Yu was stunned for a moment and handed the commemorative bracelet he had picked up earlier to Wang Luo. Zhang Fuhong, who was not far away, saw the bracelet and immediately showed an incredible look.

"You, where did you pick up that bracelet? Wait, are you...real people?"

"You'll know right away."

Wang Luo said, and took a step forward without hesitation, officially crossing the water curtain. At the same time, Zhang Fuhong's eyes were about to shine brightly.

"Wang, Lord Wang, is it really you?! Is it really you!?"

Then he looked impatiently at Zhang Yu who was trembling across the water curtain, and his eyes were filled with mixed feelings for a moment.

"Dad, why are you here? It's very dangerous here..."

Zhang Yu sighed and said, "If I hadn't come, the entire Zhang family would be in danger. Since you are the head of the family now, don't you think about the consequences of this change?"

Zhang Fuhong's face gradually turned pale again: "I... I still don't understand what happened. The whole world became inexplicable in the blink of an eye."

At this time, Wang Luo had come to his side, leaned over and handed him a bottle of healing medicine, and then carefully observed every detail of his body, and asked: "It's okay, tell me everything you saw with your own eyes."

After Zhang Fuhong took the medicine, the broken part of his right hand regenerated at an astonishing speed, which was accompanied by great pain. However, cold sweat only seeped out of his forehead, and his face remained calm, as if he did not feel the pain... This made his groan just now seem quite strange.

"I... initially, I led the core team of the workshop and followed Governor Han to welcome several lords to inspect. Everything went smoothly at first. The workshop's production was better than expected. Lord Lu even praised my achievements seriously... The mutation, to be honest, I still can't tell exactly when it happened, but it should have been... less than an hour ago?"

Hearing this, Wang Luo nodded involuntarily. The timing was indeed right.

"At that time, the team came to the roof of the west building to inspect the application of the new dyeing pool. As the operator of the workshop, I personally sank into the pool to demonstrate to the kings how to quickly dye a 'blank scroll' into a usable 'painted scroll'. It was actually a bit of a show-off, mainly for the purpose of showing that even a completely unprofessional layman like me could produce a scroll in the new dyeing pool, and the efficiency of professional masters was more than ten times that of mine, and the scrolls they dyed also had a home advantage. Therefore, I didn't really need to dye any beautiful scrolls in the pool. I used the design from the pre-rehearsal and dyed the commercial street in front of the white building on Shijie Street from scratch in about thirty minutes. However, when I woke up from the pool, there was almost no one around me."

Wang Luo couldn't help but sigh when he heard this.

"So you were in the Illusion Pool at that time, no wonder."

Zhang Fuhong tilted his head in some confusion, but did not ask any more questions. Instead, he continued with his story.

"Of course I immediately realized that something was wrong, so I contacted the workshop's security personnel immediately... To be honest, the security of the workshop was actually the responsibility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the time, and the guards and experts hired by the Rongcheng Workshop were instead deployed to the periphery. But they were the only ones I could contact immediately, and then, they also appeared in front of me immediately..."

At this point, Zhang Fuhong shook his head in pain. "Now that I think about it, it was very unnatural. They came too quickly. I just thought about them coming and they immediately appeared in front of me. But for people in an empty place, any familiar face is trustworthy, so I didn't think much about it. I just asked them if they noticed anything unusual, but they all shook their heads and said they knew nothing."

Wang Luo nodded, encouraging him to continue.

Zhang Fuhong added: "Although everyone was confused about the situation around them, when there were more people around, they would always feel at ease, and when they feel at ease, they would always have wild thoughts. I was surrounded by a group of guards at the time, and I couldn't help but think that it would be great if I could find Xuewei as soon as possible."

Hearing this, Wang Luo sighed in his heart.

(End of this chapter)