Chapter 2

Xia Ruofei vaguely remembered that when his grandfather was still alive, he would often play with this scroll, which seemed to have been around for quite some time. However, apart from that, Xia Ruofei had never discovered anything particularly special about it over the years.

He even vaguely remembered that when the scroll was opened, it revealed a painting. The content of the painting was very simple, seemingly just a patch of grass and a clear spring.

When he was young, Xia Ruofei had curiously asked his grandfather about the origin of this painting, but even his grandfather was not very clear about it. He only knew that it had been passed down from their ancestors.

How could such an unremarkable scroll suddenly emit a golden light?

"What's going on here?" Xia Ruofei muttered to himself as he reached out to pick up the scroll, his face tinged with curiosity, and slowly opened it.

However, today was different from before. The moment Xia Ruofei unfurled the scroll, the golden light intensified. Immediately, he felt a powerful pulling force from within the scroll.

Then, his vision blurred as if the stars had shifted, and in the next moment, he found himself in a completely unfamiliar place, much to his shock.

This was too bizarre.

The instinct of a special forces elite made Xia Ruofei subconsciously assume a defensive stance and quickly scan his surroundings, hoping to find a safe hiding place to avoid being caught off guard.

However, he soon realized that his current environment was almost entirely open, with no place to use as cover. He was standing on a patch of black soil, which was about one acre in size, and he could see the edges in all directions.

Beyond one acre, there was a pale blue mist, which Xia Ruofei's eyes could not penetrate to see what lay beyond.

In the center of the black soil was a clear spring, with water bubbling up to form a small pond about one meter in diameter.

Next to the pond grew a plant that Fang Yang could not identify, about one foot tall. The plant had long, strip-like leaves about two fingers wide, which were lush and green, exuding a vibrant vitality.

Of course, the most eye-catching was the flower growing on the plant.

The flower had only three petals, each of a different color: blue, yellow, and red.

Despite its simple structure of just three petals, the flower gave a sense of vivid beauty, as if it contained some profound truth of the universe.

Even Xia Ruofei, still in a state of shock, couldn't help but linger his gaze on the flower for a few seconds.

However, he quickly refocused his attention—this was not the time to be distracted.

He had clearly been searching for a first aid kit in his rental apartment just a moment ago, so how did he suddenly end up in this strange place?

The black soil was surrounded and above by the pale blue mist, which obscured his vision.

Therefore, Xia Ruofei's immediate priority was to find a way out and leave this place.

So, after regaining his composure, the first thing Xia Ruofei did was to walk to the edge of the black soil.

The black soil was roughly circular, with a diameter of about 28 to 29 meters. Soon, Xia Ruofei reached the edge, where the pale blue mist met.

He tentatively extended his hand, and quickly discovered that the mist seemed to be an invisible barrier, a soft yet resilient force blocking his hand.

Xia Ruofei, not one to give up easily, took a few more steps and tried again at a different spot, but the result was the same.

The pale blue mist appeared very thin, yet it not only blocked his vision but also formed an invisible barrier that was impossible to penetrate, though it had no harmful effects.

"What should I do?" Xia Ruofei muttered to himself, "There's no way out at all..."

With no other options, he returned to the small pond in the center of the black soil.

Suddenly, Xia Ruofei's eyes widened, and he quickly looked around. The more he looked, the more astonished he became.

"This... This looks just like the content of that painting!" Xia Ruofei couldn't help but mutter to himself.

A circular patch of black soil, a clear spring in the center, a nameless plant by the pond, and the pale blue mist surrounding everything...

Xia Ruofei remembered that when he was young, he had seen this scroll. Apart from the lack of green grass on the soil, everything here was exactly the same as the painting he had seen!

"Could it be... I'm inside that painting?" Xia Ruofei had a bold idea.

Xia Ruofei was startled by his own thought, but the more he thought about it, the more he believed it was possible—after all, the dramatic change had occurred because of the scroll's strange behavior when he opened it.

Xia Ruofei, who had served in the military for many years and received materialist education, felt as if his worldview was collapsing at that moment.

He stood by the pond, dazed, for a while.

Xia Ruofei, who had undergone the rigorous training of the Lone Wolf Special Forces, had an incredibly calm mind and never lost his composure. However, such a peculiar experience still left him momentarily bewildered.

After a long while, he thought of a serious problem—how to leave this place?

For a special forces elite to be trapped in a painting with no way out was truly a huge joke.

Xia Ruofei smiled bitterly to himself:

"Heaven... Could I be trapped here for the rest of my life... I want to get out!"

As soon as he said this, Xia Ruofei felt his vision blur again, and the familiar pulling and dizziness returned. In the next moment, he found himself back in the messy rental apartment.

In his hand was the scroll.

Xia Ruofei's mouth dropped open in surprise.

"Is it voice-activated? Is that even possible?"

His gaze involuntarily fell on the scroll in his hand. The scroll still looked ordinary, with an old, worn-out appearance that exuded a sense of age.

Xia Ruofei carefully examined the content of the scroll, becoming even more convinced that he had indeed entered the painting.

As a special forces elite, he subconsciously remembered many details.

For example, the plant by the pond that he couldn't name, and the flower with only three petals, which was vivid and beautiful.

Now, Xia Ruofei could easily find that plant in the scroll, and the flower, even the veins of the leaves, were exactly the same as what he had seen by the pond.

A painting that contained a hidden world, an independent space!

Even the usually calm Xia Ruofei couldn't help but become extremely excited.

This was a real treasure!

...