When we told the students about the strange phenomenon in the corridor, everyone looked dazed. Liang Yingwu sighed, “Let’s rest first, then think of a way out.” Sitting down, a wave of hunger washed over me. I felt for the compressed biscuits in my pocket, resisting the urge to eat. Calming my mind, I started to analyze the strange occurrence. I believed that whether the rope hanging in mid-air was a shared hallucination between Liang Yingwu and me, or something real, this corridor had proven not only to have the ability to deceive but also to possess genuine “power.” This power could resist the combined pulling force of Liang Yingwu and me, keeping the rope perfectly still. This force, from the moment we noticed something was amiss at the entrance of the Cave of Bones until we reached the second corridor and saw the rope in mid-air, was felt clearly by both of us. Together, we exerted a force of about a hundred kilograms, yet the rope didn’t move an inch, revealing just a hint of this power. Besides holding the rope, what else could this force do? Was it confined to the corridor, or could it extend into the Cave of Bones? No one knew. What was more troubling was that the rope had initially been straight under the tension between Liang Yingwu and me; when did this third force intervene, and we didn’t feel a thing? I shared this conjecture with Liang Yingwu, who remained silent.
Lu Yun, however, offered a completely different perspective. “There might not be a force holding the rope. If the corridor can affect our sight and touch, could it also influence other senses?” As soon as Lu Yun spoke, there were gasps in the darkness. Her suggestion was that Liang Yingwu and I, along with the watching students, might have all been under an illusion. If that were true, our last shred of trust in ourselves would be gone. The scariest part was that such a theory indeed had real-world possibilities. If all our actions here were not entirely under our control, what I saw as lifting my hand might be an illusion, believing I was running hard when I hadn’t moved at all, or reaching to rub my eyes when I might actually be digging them out… I couldn’t imagine further.
