Chapter 35 – Illusory Strings

The Tidis family, like any ancient noble lineage, had a set of family precepts passed down through generations. Initially, there were only a dozen or so, containing the valuable life experiences of the first family head, serving as admonitions and teachings for future descendants.

However, as generations passed, the precepts grew longer—each family head who had weathered great storms wanted to leave their mark on the family precepts, and they did just that.

Many years later, the Tidis family added this line to their precepts, which could no longer fit on a single piece of parchment: No matter the circumstances, when encountering something unknown, you must, must restrain your curiosity!

It was signed by Lin Wei Tidis.

This precept naturally had its origins, and it all stemmed from Daniel’s scream.

“Daniel?”

Lin Wei, carried by Duan Yu, floated in the air and pushed open Daniel’s door.

Daniel’s back visibly shuddered as if startled, and he quickly turned around. Seeing the two of them at the door, he let out a long sigh of relief: “It’s you two… come here quickly…”

The two entered the room and approached Daniel, noticing his pale complexion. In front of him floated a small, thin black fragment.

The fragment was a deep black, with smooth, rounded edges, roughly triangular—with one corner slightly longer than the others.

“We just returned and heard you screaming,” Lin Wei frowned as he looked at the fragment. “Was it because of this?”

Daniel, still shaken, nodded: “This… when I touched it, I had a terrifying hallucination.”

“Hallucination?”

“Yes—while organizing the miscellaneous items in my ring, I dumped everything out, and this was among them.” Daniel looked weak and dejected. “The moment I took it out, I felt something was off with my mental energy, and then it floated up!”

“It was just an inconspicuous piece in my collection, and it had never behaved like this before. So, I couldn’t help but touch it, and then—I had a hallucination! It was ten thousand times more terrifying than any mental attack I’ve ever experienced!”

Lin Wei looked at the fragment quietly floating in the air and asked Daniel, “What kind of hallucination? How did you get it?”

“No, I don’t want to recall it again,” Daniel shook his head vigorously. “It felt like an indescribable creature was opening its fangs to devour me… You should know, I’m not a cowardly person, but it brought about a truly horrifying scene. This was found by a classmate of mine during an adventure. They thought the material was special, so they brought it back and gave it to me—they knew I liked collecting all sorts of things.”

“Tsk,” Lin Wei shook his head. “But it seems to me, you’re not exactly a brave person either.”

With that, he reached out toward the small black fragment.

Daniel, who had just calmed down a bit, quickly retreated a few steps as if avoiding something terrifying. Watching Lin Wei’s actions, he gloated, “You don’t believe me, do you? Just wait—I can already see you being scared out of your wits, rushing out the door, and then tragically falling to the ground!”

“Unfortunately,” Lin Wei calmly held the small object, opening his palm to reveal the fragment lying quietly on it. “—there was no fanged creature. I didn’t see anything.”

“Huh?” Daniel looked at Lin Wei’s hand holding the black fragment in confusion.

The small object felt cool to the touch, but its texture was very fine, and it was almost weightless. It was clearly not made of stone.

Lin Wei held it and suddenly felt that its shape and weight were somewhat familiar.

He shifted his fingers a few times to hold the fragment, and finally, when he loosely held it between his thumb and index finger, his slightly furrowed brows relaxed as he tried to recall something: “Daniel, I think I recognize this little thing.”

“This is something even an alchemist doesn’t know the use of!” Daniel exclaimed in surprise.

“Well,” Lin Wei said, “if my guess is correct, it’s forgivable that you, as a learned alchemist, don’t recognize it.”

“What is it?”

“It’s something that exists on the continent,” Lin Wei raised his left hand and held it above his right hand, which held the fragment. “If you’ve ever played the court harp on the continent, you’d know that sometimes you need a small plectrum… like this.”

His right hand moved slightly, mimicking the motion of plucking a string, and then his eyes widened suddenly—the moment he made the motion, it felt as if a taut string had actually been plucked!

Lin Wei, puzzled, wanted to confirm it, so he raised his right hand again. But before he could lower it, his wrist was suddenly grabbed by Duan Yu.

“Stop!”

Unfortunately, the warning seemed to come too late.

Much later, when Lin Wei recalled this moment, he sighed—some things always happen unexpectedly, leading to unforeseen consequences, and even the most perceptive people couldn’t foresee them.

Lin Wei trusted Duan Yu’s judgment, so he really intended to stop.

But at this moment, his hand was no longer under his control. Instead, it was being pulled and pushed by another force. Even though he resisted with all his might, he could only make his fingers tremble slightly, unable to change the trajectory of the motion—and even Duan Yu’s grip on his wrist couldn’t stop it.

Plucking a string was a subtle motion, so the entire process was completed in an instant. Lin Wei once again felt, unmistakably, that a string had been gently plucked—and even emitted a long, resonant note.

“What are you doing…”

Before Daniel could finish his sentence, he saw Lin Wei’s body lurch forward violently, as if pulled by a tremendous force—a gray-black vortex appeared before him, churning wildly, growing larger and larger, and in the blink of an eye, it swallowed Lin Wei and Duan Yu, who was standing very close to him and in physical contact with him.

The two disappeared before his eyes, and Daniel couldn’t react for a moment.

Because he had retreated those few steps earlier, he wasn’t affected by the gray-black vortex—in fact, after swallowing the two, the vortex quickly vanished without a trace.

The green-robed alchemist stared blankly at the now empty room, struggling to pull a shred of clarity from the muddled void in his mind. His hand, hanging at his side, nervously gripped his robe as he muttered, “Damn it, another hallucination.”

With that, he looked at the spot where the black fragment had been floating—there was nothing there.

His face instantly turned extremely pale: “No…”

A while later—perhaps a short while, perhaps a long time, he couldn’t tell—the door of the room was quickly pushed open again, clearly by someone in a hurry, just as it had been when Lin Wei opened it moments ago.

Still in a state of confusion, Daniel turned his head: “Lin… Schneider?”

The newcomer narrowed his eyes as he examined him. The man wore a blue magic robe, his eyes a pale silver, and his face was familiar—it was Schneider, the appraiser he had met at the Trade House.

But now, Schneider looked very different from his usual self.

His pale silver eyes swept around the room, then closed tightly. When they opened again, his gaze landed precisely on the spot where Lin Wei and Duan Yu had been moments earlier.

“Nice to see you again, dear Daniel,” he turned his head, his tone devoid of any lightness or cheer. “I sensed something unusual. You need to tell me what just happened here.”

“No,” Daniel shook his head vigorously, regaining a bit of composure. “Schneider, a temporary appraiser hired by the Trade House wouldn’t just barge into a hotel and start interrogating guests… You need to give me a plausible identity.”

Meanwhile, Lin Wei’s mind was just as blank, if not more so, than Daniel’s.

In that instant, he had fallen into the gray-black vortex—dragging Duan Yu with him.

Everything went black, and when he opened his eyes again, he and Duan Yu were plummeting wildly—surrounded by gray-black mist, with countless fine cracks flashing within. The cracks were extremely thin but filled him with dread—as if they led to an endless void.

Just a glance at the cracks made him feel as if they had opened on his own body, bringing sharp pain.

“Damn it…”

He realized that something extraordinary had just happened.

The scene before him was eerily similar to the soul passageway within the Gate of Contracts!