The dizzying sensation of the divine soul being dragged away arrived, lasting even longer than the previous time.
Li Nanzhu and her four companions felt the world spin around them, as if they were plummeting through an endless void. Even their consciousness suffered a brief blur.
When that nauseating feeling of weightlessness finally vanished, the five of them staggered to steady themselves. The sight before their eyes made them instantly catch their breath.
Silence. Absolute silence.
They stood within a circular hall that was vast beyond imagination.
The dome of the hall was so high it remained unseen, vanishing into a chaotic darkness.
Surrounding them were smooth, mirror-like curved walls that rose as a single, seamless piece, extending upward until they too were lost from view.
The walls possessed a dull bronze luster and were covered in a dense, dizzying array of complex runes. These runes were not static; they flowed and changed at an extremely slow pace, like living creatures.
Beneath their feet was a floor of the same material, cold and hard.
There were no obvious exits in the entire space, nor were there any light sources. However, a uniform and somber dim light, originating from nowhere, allowed them to barely see their surroundings.
What was most heart-wrenching was the 'stillness' here.
It wasn't that there was no sound, but rather... a 'stillness' that felt as if sound itself had been stripped away.
They could hear their own hearts thumping wildly in their chests, the rustling of blood flowing through their veins, and even each other's slightly rapid breathing due to tension.
Beyond that, everything was silent.
No sound of wind, no sound of water droplets, no sound of mechanisms operating—nothing at all.
This extreme silence created a massive sense of oppression, as if the entire world had been isolated.
"Is this... the second trial?" Duan Xianxing spoke subconsciously. However, something bizarre occurred—he clearly opened his mouth and felt his vocal cords vibrate, yet not a single sound came out!
It was as if an invisible, gaping maw had swallowed all noise.
Duan Xianxing's expression shifted, and he looked at the others in alarm.
Jiang Yifan, Zhu Yinxi, and Feng Weilan immediately discovered the anomaly as well. They tried to speak, only to meet the same result.
This space prohibited the transmission of sound!
Li Nanzhu's heart sank, and she immediately attempted to communicate via divine sense: 'Second Senior Brother, Fourth Senior Brother, can you hear me?'
However, her divine sense was like a stone dropped into the ocean. The moment it left her body, it was swallowed and dissipated by the invisible walls, unable to be transmitted even an inch!
Even divine sense communication was prohibited!
The five of them looked at each other, seeing shock and solemnity in one another's eyes.
Unable to communicate through speech and unable to connect through divine sense, the five of them instantly became five 'isolated islands' in this bizarre, silent hall!
From the very beginning, this second trial had stripped away the team's most basic method of coordination—communication!
Zhu Yinxi quickly calmed down. He rapidly performed a series of hand signals, gesturing for everyone to stay calm and not separate, then pointed toward the surrounding walls, indicating they should first investigate the environment.
The five of them stood back-to-back, forming a defensive formation, and began to move carefully along the curved walls, observing closely.
The runes on the walls flowed and changed. While they seemed disorganized, they held a faint, profound pattern.
Feng Weilan attempted to decipher them, but the runes were too complex and ancient, and because they were constantly changing, it was impossible to understand their meaning in a short time.
Li Nanzhu focused more on the floor and the structure of the space.
She discovered that the floor was not perfectly flat; it featured extremely subtle, almost imperceptible lines. These lines seemed to correspond with the runes on the walls.
The entire circular hall was empty. Aside from the walls and the floor, there was nothing else.
Where was the exit? What were the requirements of the trial? How could they pass?
Everything was a mystery.
There were no rules provided, no time limit, and not even a clear 'enemy' or 'obstacle.'
The only 'obstacle' was this suffocating silence that stripped them of their ability to communicate, along with this seemingly flawless, enclosed space.
This sort of unknown was more unsettling than a clear danger.
Jiang Yifan tried to touch the wall lightly with spiritual energy. The energy vanished into the wall without a sound, failing to trigger even a single ripple, as if it had been devoured.
He then tried to attack the floor, but the result was the same. The material here was unimaginably hard and could absorb all energy.
Duan Xianxing gestured, asking how they were supposed to get out when this ghost of a place didn't even have a door.
Zhu Yinxi pondered for a moment before signaling everyone to stop. He then pointed to a section of the flowing runes on the wall and then to the corresponding lines on the floor, using his hands to simulate the actions of splicing and combining.
Li Nanzhu understood his meaning: the second senior brother believed that the key to passing might lie in uncovering the hidden connection between the wall runes and the floor lines. Perhaps they needed to find a way to rearrange these flowing codes to trigger a mechanism and open the exit.
But without the aid of language or divine sense, how could they unify the awareness of five people to collaboratively complete such a precise and complex decryption?
Every rune might be changing, and every operation could trigger unpredictable consequences.
Just then, Li Nanzhu's eyes suddenly lit up as she thought of a method!
She immediately retrieved a talisman brush and a stack of blank talisman paper from her storage bag. She spread the talisman paper on the cold floor, crouched down, and gripped the talisman brush tightly. After dipping it in a bit of spirit ink, she prepared to write down a message on the paper.
The gazes of Jiang Yifan and the other three were all focused on this brush and paper, their eyes carrying a glimmer of hope. This was the most direct method of communication they could think of for now.
However, before she could finish the first character—even before that single drop of ink could fully spread across the paper—without any warning or sound...
The talisman brush in Li Nanzhu's hand and the talisman paper beneath her, which bore only a single mark, silently turned into extremely fine ash, like embers ignited by an invisible fire and then instantly cooled.
The entire process was incredibly fast, leaving behind not even a wisp of smoke.
The talisman brush and talisman paper decomposed and vanished into thin air right before their eyes, as if they had never existed. Even the unfinished ink mark had completely disappeared.
Li Nanzhu's hand remained in the writing posture, frozen in mid-air. Her fingertips seemed to still hold the sensation of the brush handle instantly annihilating.
Jiang Yifan's hand also paused, his face showing a look of disbelief.
Duan Xianxing, Zhu Yinxi, and Feng Weilan saw this scene as well, and their expressions instantly turned incredibly grim.
Even written communication using paper and pen was prohibited!
It seemed a certain absolute rule existed within this space: any form of information transmission was forbidden. Sound, divine sense, writing... every medium capable of carrying information and achieving communication was thoroughly erased here.
The five of them stood where they were, looking around at the deathly silent bronze hall, a chill rising from the depths of their hearts.
Unable to speak, unable to transmit voice, unable to write.
They were trapped in a true 'Domain of Silence.'
How could they collaborate? How could they break the situation?
The five of them looked at each other again, their eyes filled with unprecedented solemnity and... a hint of bewilderment.
Rate on N.U.
