"Holy crap!" The Fatty was startled by the illogical scene. "What is this stuff?! Did we walk into a haunted house?"
As he spoke, Zhang Qiling, still holding Wu Tianzhen by the collar, dodged a charging transparent figure.
Clearly, there was more than one transparent figure inside. They were scattered throughout the palace, and for some unknown reason, they suddenly began darting around them.
As they moved, the dust that had been compacted by their footsteps instantly turned into extremely dry, loose particles. These particles were like falling suns, baking everything around them with scorching heat.
"I get it!" Wu Tianzhen, who had been held by Zhang Qiling and lacked any dignity of independent movement, suddenly glimpsed the fire marks on the walls and shouted, "The dust in here was dried by these creatures within the half-hour since Whale Island surfaced!"
"And that fire, the reason the marks only exist inside the palace is because the great fire was entirely caused by these unknown creatures within the palace!"
The Fatty, with his considerable agility, didn't need to be carried like a dog by Xiao Zhang. He was now hopping left and right, using the shadows cast by his flashlight to maintain a semblance of balance.
"So what, Mr. Wu?" he grumbled, kicking away a charging transparent figure. The heat from it seeped through the sole of his shoe, burning his foot. "After all that talk, aren't these just, you know, hot ghosts?"
"Not ghosts," Zhang Qiling interjected, negating the Fatty's guess.
Although there were indeed strange, ghost-like creatures in this world, and they had encountered the legendary ghost walls beneath Changbai Mountain…
This creature was definitely not a ghost. Setting aside their scorching heat, which defied the eerie nature of ghosts, their visible shadows were enough to prove they were not phantoms.
Just then, a shadow suddenly appeared on the wall from the left, and Zhang Qiling instantly retreated to dodge!
But the moment he was about to stop—
A massive heat wave struck him from the front!
…No, besides the one from the left, there was another transparent figure in front of him that hadn't revealed its shadow!!
In an instant, Zhang Qiling flung Wu Tianzhen behind him with the collar, and with his other hand drawing an arc in the air, he unsheathed the Black Gold Ancient Saber, turning the blade sideways and striking the transparent figure hard with its back!
The touch of the saber felt slightly sharp, as if the blow had landed directly on the transparent figure's skull.
The charging transparent figure was sent flying like a fly! A slight gust of air was stirred, and Zhang Qiling followed the airflow, only to see the shadow of the transparent figure that had just been struck reappear on the bluestone brick wall not far away!
This is…
Zhang Qiling turned his head. Directly in front of him, in the direction the transparent figure had just charged from, stood the Fatty!
…The transparent figure's shadow could be cast on the bluestone bricks, but not on the Fatty's back?!
"...I understand!" At this moment, Wu Tianzhen, who had been tossed around but hadn't stopped thinking, stubbornly raised his hand.
"These things aren't transparent at all, it's just that our eyes can't see them!"
"Human eyes capture images by receiving reflected light, but the light we can recognize is only visible light!"
"These transparent figures' bodies do not reflect visible light, so we cannot see them and think they are invisible. But in reality, they are constantly reflecting invisible light that we cannot receive, which causes shadows to form on the bluestone bricks!"
"Logically, we shouldn't see shadows formed by reflected invisible light, but the Fatty's back didn't cast an image just now. This means there must be something wrong with the bluestone bricks; they are actually made of a special material sensitive to invisible light!"
Wu Tianzhen spoke a long string of words, almost gasping for breath. But the moment he paused to catch his breath, his body suddenly felt lighter, and he was flung into the air!
Wu Tianzhen: ???
By the time he realized his aerial acrobatics were due to being thrown by Xiao Zhang, his body stilled, and he was caught by Black Glasses at his landing spot.
Looking back, Zhang Qiling had one hand free and was wielding the Black Gold Ancient Saber, delivering a dimensional strike against those annoying transparent figures!
It was clear that Xiao Zhang's favorability towards invisible people had dropped to negative after that bout of dodging. Now, he was taking them down one by one, aiming for their skulls with every strike, utterly ferocious.
…Honestly, this was a difficult maneuver. After all, these transparent figures were all over two meters tall, requiring some skill from Xiao Zhang to ensure every blow landed on their skulls.
Wu Tianzhen entertained these rebellious thoughts and couldn't help but chuckle. But as he was engrossed in watching Brother Xiao perform his agile combat, his body was lifted, and he was held by the collar of his back by Black Glasses.
Looking up, he saw Black Glasses grinning, revealing a row of white teeth that gleamed eerily under the flashlight's beam.
Wu Tianzhen: …Wait, I'm in his hands now?
Before he could comprehend his miserable predicament, Black Glasses suddenly let out a low chuckle and actually—
Swung him around?!
"Holy crap!!!" Seeing a shadow almost overlap with his position and feeling the heat of a furnace on his face, Wu Tianzhen let out a national curse and kicked out!
He hit, but at the wrong angle, and his ankle was still severely burned with a sizzling sound.
"Damn it, Black Glasses, are you crazy?!" Wu Tianzhen was swung and tossed around like a mace by Black Glasses. Some transparent figures he managed to kick away with a burst of potential, but others he couldn't react to and slammed into directly, being burned almost every second.
Although Black Glasses used his strength skillfully, ensuring he wouldn't be burned to death or seriously injured, Wu Tianzhen still felt uncomfortable after this ordeal.
It wasn't just physical discomfort, but also—
He felt like he was going to vomit!!!
Zhang Qiling smashed another transparent figure's head, heard the "ahhh" screams, and looked over, seeing the two of them in a "clingy" situation.
…Black Glasses had promised him he would train Wu Tianzhen.
…Is this his teaching method??
Zhang Qiling: …A bit absurd.
He originally intended to intervene, but he "pleasantly" discovered that under Black Glasses' torment, Wu Tianzhen was actually improving rapidly, quickly going from being burned nine out of ten times to being burned seven out of ten times.
He thought for a moment and chose to look away and pretend not to see.
Wu Tianzhen's angry shouts grew louder. Zhang Qiling felt a pang of sympathy, but considering he had to grow, he silently pulled down his hood.
Then, a moment later, he heard a strange "gag" sound!
He turned his head abruptly. It was Wu Tianzhen, in his extreme anger, choosing a mutual destruction tactic. With a final flip, he grabbed Black Glasses' arm and… let it all out!
"???" Black Glasses never expected this move. Although he dodged in time, he still faced those things directly. After a moment of silence, a ferocious smile gradually spread across his face.
Then, visibly, the speed at which he swung increased.
Wu Tianzhen: Damn it, I'm going to fight you to the death!!!