Chapter 1669: Eyes on the Doorway
"What!" The three from Sha Chuan reacted strongly, immediately going on alert. Nie Xuan also quickly took out a square glass box, shook the quicksand inside, then placed it flat on his hand, observing the flow of the white sand.
The sand spread across the box moved in their direction, with some of it gathering into five dots, representing the five of them.
"There are no other people or things present." Nie Xuan put away the prop and turned to ask Xu Huo, "Did your spiritual power detect something?"
"I haven't released my spiritual realm." Xu Huo frowned, but the chilling sensation of being watched from behind hadn't disappeared. After hesitating for only a second, he made a snap decision, "We need to retreat immediately."
Without giving the others time to react, he grabbed Sha Chuan and Wei Xiaoyi, who were behind him, and took a single step covering two hundred meters.
Nie Xuan, carrying Tian Zhengjiang, followed closely behind, but both of them only managed that one step.
Two hundred meters was the limit of their ability to move using spatial power within this space. However, when they stopped, both Xu Huo and Nie Xuan's faces turned grim.
They had definitely retreated more than two hundred meters, but in front of them was the same doorway with the eye pattern they had passed earlier.
Exchanging a glance, both silently retreated again with their companions, this time another two hundred meters. But as their feet touched the ground, the doorway still appeared before them.
Sha Chuan and the other two also understood the situation and immediately said, "Could we be under some kind of spiritual interference?"
They instinctively looked at Xu Huo, as he was the only Mental Super Evolver here.
"Can't be sure." Xu Huo had a vague feeling that was the case, but rationally, he knew it was hard to justify.
First, spiritual power generally doesn't persist after leaving a person. A spiritual space like the one in Fresh Flower City in Zone 001 was built on the foundation of a prop.
Second, even if spiritual power could persist, it shouldn't be "alive."
The spiritual space in Fresh Flower City was fixed; it exerted its power equally on everyone who entered. But this space felt like something was following them. There was no one here, so this feeling of a "living thing" shouldn't exist.
Looking at the eye on the doorway, even though it was shaped like an eye, that didn't mean it could actually "stare" at people.
"Try again," Nie Xuan said.
Xu Huo nodded. This time, they chose to go forward first and then retreat. Although they ended up back at the doorway, both attempts were smooth. However, when they tried to retreat further towards the entrance, they were returned to the doorway.
"Is this some kind of save point?" Sha Chuan asked. "Once you pass it, you can only come back here?"
"Since we can only go forward and not back, why not go ahead?" Wei Xiaoyi suggested.
In truth, if Xu Huo hadn't pointed it out, they wouldn't have felt any effect at all. The game platform was still clear. If worst came to worst, they could retreat to the station.
Xu Huo had already equipped several life-saving props. This seemingly targeted spiritual pressure was indeed troublesome, but like the others, he didn't want to leave just yet.
So this time, they picked up the pace, following the path left open by the active spatial rays and moving forward another five hundred meters.
The scenery around them didn't change. To avoid touching the chaotic, dense spatial rays, they didn't examine the doorways of the buildings on either side. But as they continued, the prickling sensation of being watched returned.
Xu Huo suppressed the urge to release his spiritual realm, tugged at a spatial ray, and pushed aside an invisible, thick barrier blocking his side. Then he walked a few steps to the nearest doorway.
Sure enough, there was another eye above this doorway.
"It must be the problem with these eyes," he said. "Going inward isn't affected, but getting out is impossible. We're trapped here."
Sha Chuan and the others exchanged glances. "Is it that serious?"
Although they had been blocked at the doorway earlier, they didn't truly feel trapped. The space was chaotic, likely due to some spatial anomaly. Using props or jamming devices might solve it, but they had refrained to maintain spatial balance. Otherwise, they could just take a detour, like they had been doing all along.
"This isn't just a spatial issue." Xu Huo glanced at Nie Xuan. He should understand clearly: once an uncontrollable force appears here, it's no small matter. The fact that spiritual power could interfere with them without a living person present was already abnormal enough. That's why Xu Huo had tried to turn back immediately after discovering it, and sure enough, they couldn't.
They couldn't go back, and the feeling of being watched persisted here. This meant the eye pattern had another meaning. The more times the pattern appeared, the deeper its influence on them might become. This meant continuing forward carried significant risk.
The influence of spiritual power isn't something that can be avoided through sheer willpower. In the spiritual space of Fresh Flower City, Xin Rong nearly turned to stone, and he was a Mental Super Evolver.
Nie Xuan's face darkened. "So if we stop here, we can stay clear-headed, but going further risks being trapped."
Xu Huo nodded.
Nie Xuan fell silent for a moment. He hadn't expected this thousand-meter journey to be so difficult. If the increase in eyes represented a stacking of spiritual interference, the risk would double going forward. He needed to decide whether to take the gamble.
"You're not planning to go on?" He looked at Xu Huo again.
Xu Huo gestured left and right with his eyes. "Let's try the sides. But this will disrupt the current state of the spatial rays and could cause a chain reaction."
A spatial barrier formed by rays can be understood as a glass-like shield. The thicker the shield, the stronger the barrier. A barrier created by a Super Evolver controlling spatial rays might be like double-paned glass, while one created by a prop could be like reinforced bulletproof glass. With a higher-grade prop, this glass could even block attacks from high-level props.
If this glass were thickened to the thickness of a wall, then expanded to the size of a building's facade, it would be equivalent to a building—not easily broken or moved.
But if this glass became as thick and large as a building, or even the size of an island or a city, then even props couldn't easily destroy it. If a spatial barrier of that scale were semi-fixed or floating in the air, it wouldn't just be hard to destroy—its movement or collision could cause a catastrophe.
Xu Huo and his group were essentially walking through such an environment. They couldn't see the full size of the spatial ray constructs with their naked eyes, but based on the maximum range of rays they could sense, there were likely many such spatial barriers stuck around them.
"Barrier" might not be the right word; "spatial island" or "spatial entity" might be more appropriate.
Xu Huo's suggestion was to try nudging the smaller ones and explore the interiors of the buildings on either side.
(End of Chapter)