Ye Tiancheng steadied himself with the little fox on his back and asked, "Little fox, are you ready? Which direction do you think I should go now?"
The little fox heard Ye Tiancheng's question and immediately adjusted his state. "I'm mainly thinking about Brother Fatty. Quite some time has passed, and the longer we delay, the more dangerous it becomes. We must rescue Brother Fatty."
Ye Tiancheng agreed with the little fox's sentiment. The little fox then quieted down, and Ye Tiancheng waited without hurrying him. After a moment, the little fox indicated a direction. Ye Tiancheng turned and confirmed with the little fox.
The little fox sensed, fumbled, and found Ye Tiancheng's head, then held it with both hands. Ye Tiancheng was momentarily stunned but then realized what the little fox intended to do. He yielded to the little fox's gentle force, his head following the movement of the little fox's hands, turning towards a very precise direction.
"Is it this way?" Ye Tiancheng adjusted and confirmed with the little fox again before starting to walk forward, speaking to the little fox as he went.
"I think your method is quite good. If you feel the need to change direction later, or if I veer off course, just remind me like this, understand? Try to focus your attention. Besides sensing and reminding me of the direction, don't think about anything else. Unless it's absolutely necessary to speak, don't talk, okay?"
Feeling the little fox nod, Ye Tiancheng allowed the little fox's hands to hold his head and followed the little fox's guidance as they walked through the forest. To prevent the little fox from losing his balance on his back due to the act of holding his head, Ye Tiancheng used his hands to support the little fox, ensuring he remained securely on his back.
It had to be said, the little fox's sensing ability was quite remarkable. In this strange land where they had been inexplicably teleported, there were no paths in the forest. Previously, to find their way through the forest, they had to weave left and right through the gaps between trees to walk smoothly.
However, with his eyes covered, the little fox could not see, relying solely on his senses to guide Ye Tiancheng. All along the way, they encountered no obstacles, not even needing to detour around them.
Or rather, the act of detouring around obstacles was something the little fox could accomplish with great ease, relying only on his senses.
But Ye Tiancheng did not feel at ease for long. After walking for a considerable period, they finally encountered an obstacle that the little fox's senses did not circumvent – a large tree.
Facing the tree, which was easily as thick as two people could embrace, Ye Tiancheng stopped, looking at the tree with some hesitation. The little fox sensed Ye Tiancheng's pause and asked, "Brother Ye, did something happen? Why did we stop? Is there a problem?"
Ye Tiancheng thought for a moment and then confirmed with the little fox, "Little fox, sense it again. Are you sure it's this direction, not even slightly off?"
His hesitation was not without reason. The tree stood firmly in front of him. Ye Tiancheng lightly kicked the trunk with his foot. The tree was real. If he continued walking straight at his current pace and ran into the tree, he would be even more foolish than the rabbit in the story of "waiting by the stump."
The little fox became a little flustered, wondering if his senses had gone awry. However, for their sake, he quickly calmed down, sensed again, and then, holding Ye Tiancheng's head, reconfirmed the direction.
Before the little fox had even confirmed the direction, Ye Tiancheng had turned in another direction, wanting to see if it was a problem with the little fox's senses or with the illusion.
But when the thick tree trunk appeared in his vision again, Ye Tiancheng had to resign himself. He quickened his pace, thinking it would be fine to just walk around the tree. Unexpectedly, just as he was about to detour, the little fox corrected his direction by holding his head, preventing him from going around.
Ye Tiancheng was stunned and couldn't help but ask the little fox, "Are you sure? I... I can't go around? I must walk straight forward?"
Hearing Ye Tiancheng say this, the little fox hesitated. However, his senses indicated that he absolutely could not deviate even slightly. His intuition told him it had to be this way. "Is there an obstacle ahead? My intuition tells me I absolutely cannot detour; I must walk straight. Could my senses be mistaken?"
Ye Tiancheng immediately reassured the little fox, "Don't worry, nothing's wrong, little fox. Look, we've walked for so long without encountering any obstacles. Your senses are not wrong, and there's no obstacle ahead. Just continue sensing the direction as usual."
"It's just that there's something on the ground ahead that I don't really want to step on, but it won't affect anything if I do. It's fine. Just keep guiding me." Ye Tiancheng looked at the tree trunk in front of him, sighed inwardly, and didn't dare to show any of it on his face.
He had to trust the little fox. If, according to the little fox's senses, there was no obstacle in front of them, and if they were indeed in an illusion, then many things they saw with their eyes might not be real, but merely illusions that didn't actually exist.
In that case, the tree in front of him was likely just an illusion created by the illusion to prevent people from finding the correct path. After all, anyone would choose to detour when faced with such a large tree directly in front of them, which they could actually touch.
If he tried it once and guessed correctly, it would mean his guessed direction was correct. This place had many illusions to confuse their senses, and only by relying on the little fox could they find the right way.
If he guessed wrong, it would just be bumping into a tree, and it would also eliminate one possibility, saving them from wasting more time here.
Countless complex thoughts swirled in Ye Tiancheng's mind, but in reality, it all happened in the blink of an eye. Ye Tiancheng did not want to affect the little fox's senses, so he did not truthfully convey any of the sights his eyes could see to the little fox.
Having made up his mind, Ye Tiancheng closed his eyes, prepared himself mentally, and repeatedly hypnotized himself, telling himself that there was no tree in front of him and that the way forward was clear.
Then, under this psychological suggestion, Ye Tiancheng closed his eyes and, following the direction indicated by the little fox, walked forward with his head down.
One step, two steps, three steps... ten steps! He had walked through. It was real. He and the little fox had found a way to break through the predicament. The little fox's senses were not wrong; it was his vision that had deceived him!
Ye Tiancheng knew very well that before he closed his eyes and walked forward, the trunk of that tree was extremely close to him. Even though he was mentally prepared and took smaller steps than before, he absolutely could not have walked ten steps without hitting the tree trunk without changing direction.
However, he had not hit the tree trunk. He had already walked ten steps but felt no obstacle. This meant he had passed through the large tree, the one he had confirmed was real and even physically touched.
Ye Tiancheng slowly exhaled, and the heavy burden in his heart finally lifted. This also allowed him to follow the little fox's guidance with greater confidence.
Afterward, when they encountered similar situations, Ye Tiancheng no longer spoke to ask, to avoid affecting the little fox's judgment. Instead, he would directly close his eyes, perform some mental suggestion, and walk straight into it. Indeed, many things were illusions, and vision was the most deceptive.
Even though Ye Tiancheng knew this, he could not simply abandon his vision completely. Because Ye Tiancheng knew he still had to protect the little fox, he couldn't keep his eyes closed all the time; he still needed to see.
He needed to see if any danger was approaching, distinguish between reality and illusion, and look for other clues. In short, all these were reasons why he could not abandon his vision.
But no matter how vast the illusion was, and logically, the illusion shouldn't be this excessive, or rather, after filtering out all illusions, the path they were taking must be the fastest. Therefore, this path would eventually lead somewhere.
Finally, under the little fox's guidance, Ye Tiancheng once again arrived at the edge of the large blue lake. They were already standing on the lakeshore, and with just one more step, Ye Tiancheng would be stepping into the lake.
Ye Tiancheng stopped. The little fox was still holding Ye Tiancheng's head, guiding him. Sensing Ye Tiancheng's pause, he did not immediately question it.
This was because Ye Tiancheng had stopped many times along the way. Out of trust in Ye Tiancheng, as long as Ye Tiancheng did not speak, the little fox would not say anything, to avoid any errors in his senses.
However, this time, Ye Tiancheng paused for too long, and the little fox could no longer resist asking, "Brother Ye, why aren't you moving? I feel like we're almost there, really very close. This stretch of road should only take a few more steps to be completely over."
Ye Tiancheng wanted to turn his head to look at the little fox, but he remembered that the little fox was holding his head to guide the direction, so he restrained the impulse. He simply took a breath and replied, "It's nothing, just a little tired. Just taking a breather."
"You just said you feel like we're almost at our destination? That it's ending? Can you be sure? How much further do we have to walk, roughly?"
The little fox pondered for a moment and said, "There's no way to give a definitive answer, but I feel like it's very close, like the exit is right in front of us."
Ye Tiancheng nodded and said no more. "Alright, let's keep moving forward then. I've rested enough, little fox. Let's continue."
As he said this, Ye Tiancheng directly closed his eyes, no longer looking at the azure blue lake. He secretly warned himself that their journey so far had not been easy, so he absolutely could not open his eyes again on the road. He absolutely could not until the little fox said they had reached their destination.
What the eyes saw was not necessarily real, but once seen by the eyes, it would be judged as real. If he opened his eyes and saw this lake, then the lake would become real, and they would both fall into the lake.
If that happened, they would both be doomed. Perhaps waiting for them in the lake was the monster that had chased the fake Fatty earlier.
With his eyes closed, Ye Tiancheng took a deep breath, his eyelids tightly shut, and resolutely stepped forward, moving only according to the little fox's guidance.