As the flames turned the weeds in the courtyard to ashes, Watson, hiding at the entrance of the building, looked as ghastly as a demon. If everyone had only harbored suspicions about Watson before, now seeing his expression, they could confirm that Watson’s demeanor was definitely not normal.

Before the leader could answer Watson’s question, Zayne suddenly spoke up, "Watson, take a few steps if you’re okay."

The team members standing outside the courtyard felt perplexed upon hearing Zayne’s abrupt request.

However, upon hearing Zayne’s request, Watson frowned and then pretended to be in pain as he spoke to Zayne, "Brother three, I twisted my ankle. Just now, I had to run here desperately because Zayne set the fire without regard for my safety. It took me so long, and now my leg hurts too much to move. Otherwise, could you send someone to come in and help me?"

Hearing Watson still asking for others to enter the courtyard to assist him, the other team members outside, even the slowest among them, realized that something was definitely wrong with Watson inside the courtyard.

Even now, the people outside the door did not know what danger Watson had encountered inside the courtyard, nor whether the Watson they were seeing was still the team member they knew.

However, since they had already reached the courtyard door and had set fire to all the weeds inside, turning them to ashes, they couldn’t justify not going in at this point.

Just as the leader was about to arrange for Zayne to go inside and probe the situation, Zayne spoke up again, "Brother, go to my toolbox, and bring me the folding fan."

At Zayne’s command, Zayne first paused, then instantly understood what Zayne intended to do.

Because he knew that whether or not there was still danger in the courtyard, and no matter if the others would enter later, he and another reserve member would definitely need to investigate inside.

Though the weeds that originally grew in the courtyard had been burned to ashes, no one knew what other dangers might still be lurking beneath the thick layer of plant ash.

Upon hearing what Zayne asked him to take from the toolbox, Zayne clearly understood Zayne’s purpose. With Zayne’s reminder, before entering the courtyard, Zayne would at least be able to eliminate some potential dangers.

Zayne quickly took some short wooden sticks from the toolbox and brought them to the courtyard door, where Zayne skilfully joined them together.

With the assembly process progressively completing, and as Zayne unfolded the fan blades, a very simple hand-operated fan appeared outside the door.

After the makeshift fan was assembled, Zayne dusted his hands off and then turned to Zayne, "Come on, give it some muscle, as much as you’ve got. The faster you spin it, the cleaner the courtyard floor will be, and the safer it’ll be for you when you go in later."

Although Zayne heard Zayne bluntly say that he still had to venture inside, he felt very grateful to Zayne at that moment, for regardless of Zayne’s intentions, his actions undoubtedly increased Zayne’s safety for when he would enter the courtyard.

After Zayne stepped back, Zayne firmly grabbed the handle of the fan and started to vigorously rotate it.

With Zayne’s effort, the fan blades began to spin wildly, and a gust of strong wind blew into the courtyard in an instant.

The fierce current generated by the fan rushed towards the plant ash left behind after the fire subsided, and as the wind swept through, the ash on the ground started to swirl into the air.

The purity brought by fire was instantly buried beneath the flurry of plant ash.

Perhaps it was because the wind was blowing from the door inward; despite the courtyard being engulfed in a blizzard of swirling plant ash, rendering visibility to near zero, not a speck of ash drifted towards the entrance where they stood.

As Zayne continued to agitate the fan, most of the plant ash was blown into the sky, and the courtyard seemed like a chimney venting smoke, with grey-black currents continuously rising towards the heavens.

Maybe the explorers standing outside the door hadn’t noticed these details, but Zachary, hovering in the air above, seeing the ash that, even though blasted upward, seemed to be bound by something and still only floated above the courtyard, understood that the place was still very strange.

When the plant ash near the entrance had been blown away, and they could see the blue-brick ground in front of the indoor door, Watson, who stood at the building’s entrance, was covered in dust.

But what was truly chilling was that, although the building behind Watson was still very dilapidated and unclean, the exterior of the building had not been touched by a single speck of the plant ash.

In the midst of such conditions, with Watson already coated with plant ash while the building immediately behind him remained untouched, this occurrence was definitely not normal.

However, even with this anomaly noted, it was of no help to the current situation. After all, everyone had already concluded from Watson’s behavior that the structure inside the courtyard was no ordinary building, so to encounter more weirdness now seemed almost normal to the others.

Looking at the now clean area near the entrance door, everyone turned their attention back to the leader, eager to hear his next instructions.