131 Disordered (Part 2)_1
Having admired himself for just half a second, Fu Qian started examining the object he got from the Skeleton’s hand.
His time was running out; under the scorching light of the oil lamp, he could lose his ability to act at any moment, entering a state of awaiting death.
It was a blackened, round iron piece, roughly the size of a watch dial, and it appeared to have a sense of antiquity.
The iron piece was very thin, making it unlikely that it contained anything within.
Fu Qian toyed with the iron piece in his hand, then suddenly remembered something.
Turning back, he propped up the Skeleton’s head again, but this time, Fu Qian directly opened its jaw and reached inside.
When the Skeleton had screamed earlier, it seemed like there was something inside.
After fumbling around for a bit, Fu Qian pinched something out with two fingers.
It was a hefty, spherical object.
It seemed to be something the Skeleton had held in its mouth before death.
With the search over, Fu Qian examined his findings, one in each hand.
First was the stone from the throat.
About the size of a thumb, the oval surface was covered in dark red patterns, with dozens of uneven spikes interwoven throughout the twisted pattern.
If it wasn’t clearly a stone, he might have thought it was some kind of mutated tonsil.
As for the iron piece in his right hand, one side was blank, but the other, after wiping away the dirt, had a strange pattern outlined by crude lines.
Beyond these two items, there seemed to be nothing else useful in the room.
Could they be used to counteract the Discoloration State? That would require quite a bit of imagination.
Fu Qian looked back at the Skeleton, envisioning its state before death.
From its posture, it looked as though it had been holding the spiked ball in its mouth, its eyes fixated on the iron piece.
But what use was that?
After a moment’s thought, Fu Qian gripped the spiked ball tighter, and the skin of his palm was punctured by the spikes.
In the light of the lamp, the liquid that flowed out was nearly transparent.
Was this what they called Discoloration?
Recalling his mission objective, Fu Qian took a quick glance at his body.
All over, his flesh seemed to be turning transparent bit by bit, and he could even vaguely make out the bones beneath his skin.
Continuing this way, he reckoned he would soon meet the same fate as the owner of the iron piece.
At the same time, the pain in his palm made his consciousness clear.
This thing…
Fu Qian tried scratching his arm with his fingernail.
A cut appeared on his semi-transparent skin, but there was no sensation at all.
Shouldn’t sensation and reason both disappear in the Discoloration State?
Yet this stone allowed him to feel pain, thus maintaining a degree of cognition?
Fu Qian exhaled, forming a rough hypothesis of the stone’s function.
It seemed the deceased had been using it to stay alert.
What about the iron piece?
Fu Qian thought for a moment, then pushed the Skeleton aside.
He took its place, sitting down and assuming the same posture he had envisioned.
One hand holding the stone, the other holding the iron piece pattern-side facing him, he focused all his attention on it.
Almost instantly, Fu Qian felt the pattern in his field of vision start to move.
At the same time, something seemed to awaken inside him, as silent howls filled his consciousness.
The sensation of life seeping away began to slow.
From that moment until now, he had felt his heartbeat for the first time.
After an indeterminable amount of time, Fu Qian slowly opened his eyes.
The feeling of life draining away had completely stopped.
After a long exhale, Fu Qian looked at the Skeleton beside him.
This one seemed to know how to combat Discoloration and had even prepared the way, but unfortunately, it failed in the end.
[Current mission has been updated.]
[Find a way to escape the prison.]
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