Chapter 120: 118: The Hole in the Inner World

118: The Hole in the Inner World

"What would happen if I couldn't control my negative emotions?" Li Nuowei asked, his caution tinged with curiosity.

"To them, we would become very fragrant and very tempting," Xin Junmao said meaningfully.

Li Nuowei fell slightly silent. On the road while traveling together with Xin Junmao, he would occasionally receive thoughtful care from Xin Junmao; the other person's sincere, seemingly unfeigned attitude made him faintly lower some of his defenses.

When they reached the low-housing area of the city, a place where high-rise buildings were rare, Li Nuowei suddenly discovered that this place was full of red and black colors. Above the sky, which resembled a wrinkled red curtain, there were several gaps of varying sizes on one side. On every gap, dark green lines were tightly clinging to them, as if trying to pry them open or perhaps preventing them from closing. He could not help but be suspicious and fearful, pointing at those holes and asking, "What are those?"

"Those are Space Channels," Xin Junmao said, a look of complexity appearing in his eyes. "I have said that there are some other Abnormal creatures in this world. The world we humans inhabit, as well as other races in the universe, can summon them through rituals. But this world has an exceptionally overbearing, greedy, and gluttonous Dominator. Once someone starts a summoning ritual, no matter who that ritual specifies to summon in this world, in the end, only that Dominator will respond to them."

"Those holes are 'non-healing' Space Channels that the Dominator of this world forcibly held open with its body when a summoning ritual was held on the other side to open a Space Channel, in order to prevent the channel from closing."

"Since it can hold open a channel, why doesn't it just crawl out through one of them?" Li Nuowei only felt it was somewhat incredible, and he marveled at the power of that Dominator who could even open space-time with "brute force."

Xin Junmao: "That is why I said the other party is greedy; the Dominator's body is incomparably massive. Do you know why I said before not to drink the water of this world, and even more so, not to go near the water areas of this world? Because the water areas of this world are actually the Dominator's body. All the water in this world, from the surface or underground, is connected together. Think about the area the oceans occupy on the surface of Earth, and you can imagine just how massive the Dominator is."

"This greedy fellow wants to open all the Space Channels in this sky so that its body in this world can reach all parts of the universe simultaneously. She wants to directly swallow the life of the entire universe."

Li Nuowei was shocked by this explanation, and then he asked how the other party knew about such things.

Xin Junmao, however, smiled and said, "I have a 'friend' who is a good eater; she once explained it to me like that."

Li Nuowei was very curious about Xin Junmao's friend, but he did not press further. Instead, he changed his train of thought to other questions, "Could it be that our way out is actually to pass through a Space Channel?"

"The young man has good intuition," Xin Junmao teased, nodding as he said, "That's right. There are Space Channels at the borders of this city, but the Space Channels of this world are very strange. Usually, only the mental consciousness of external creatures, or simply put, their souls, have the possibility of entering here. And the more 'tattered' the physical body in reality is—preferably a dying life—the easier it is for their souls to reach here as long as there is a Space Channel gap near those lives."

"So, I guess the reason you were able to appear here is most likely because there is also a hole near the Real World you are in, and your physical state is mostly poor, which is why you had the opportunity to come here."

There is a "hole" near the place where I am?

Is there a transport channel near the city of Liuhua Port?

Li Nuowei felt as if he had been electrocuted; his whole body trembled, thinking: Could it be that the hole refers to the Space Channel left behind after the ancestors of that isolated island held the ritual to summon the sea monster? Then... is the physical entity of the sea monster actually the Dominator of the Inner World?

Guessing that he might have discovered the truth, Li Nuowei not only lacked the excitement of clearing the mist to see the sun, but instead, it intensified the fear and chaos in his mind; he was practically going crazy.

"We're here," Xin Junmao pointed to the entrance and exit of a highway station where flesh and blood were intertwined. Behind the entrance and exit was a half-circle irregular space gap, like a Tunnel, only the inside of the Tunnel was pitch black, and one could not see the end at a glance.

Around the gap, dark green lines were supporting and pulling it open; those lines extended from underground, their source unknown.

Looking at that pitch-black "Tunnel," Li Nuowei's heart was pounding. He suddenly felt somewhat unsure whether he should walk inside, and even more unsure what the consequences of going inside would be.

At the same time, after seeing those dark green lines at close range, Li Nuowei became increasingly certain that the sea monster entity beneath the Liuhua Port Air Raid Shelter, that Soul-Devouring Mire, was of the same root and origin as these irregular dark green lines.

Li Nuowei had already deeply experienced how terrifying that mire was. Now, to have him rush into a "Tunnel" supported and guarded by dark green lines—wouldn't that be equivalent to having him go deep into a dragon's den and a tiger's lair?

Then he might as well just end himself.

Li Nuowei looked left and right, trying to find a tool that would allow him to die more normally.

"Don't be afraid, just run with me," Xin Junmao saw Li Nuowei's retreat, patted the other's back, and comforted him, "At worst, you just die once."

Li Nuowei silently looked at the other person, feeling that this person's brain was actually not much different from his own; he reckoned they were both a bit sick.

Seeing the other party so confident, Li Nuowei decided to trust him once. Anyway, if he died, he could start over, and if he was harmed by the other party, he would have plenty of opportunities to slaughter the other party after starting over.

"Stay close," Xin Junmao said after observing the area near the Tunnel for a while and confirming there were basically no Abnormals. He immediately whispered "Run" and led Li Nuowei toward the hole.

Whoosh—

The moment the two approached the hole, those dark green, unidentified long objects that looked like lines suddenly moved, extending tentacles and wrapping toward them.

Li Nuowei stared fixedly at Xin Junmao, who was running in front; he wanted to see how the other party would deal with such a situation.

However, Xin Junmao just kept leading the run in front without making any moves, seemingly having no intention of resisting at all.

Just as Li Nuowei was disappointed, a lump suddenly bulged on Xin Junmao's back, like an inflated meatball. The meat wall of the meatball burst, splashing out foul-smelling plasma. Arms that grew and extended infinitely from the palms reached out from the meatball, grabbed those dark green "lines," and tore at them. Subsequently, the tips of those arms transformed into huge mouths, swallowing the "lines" that had been torn off.

Li Nuowei looked in astonishment at this bizarre and grotesque scene, and then he saw a faceless female body with a well-proportioned figure and dressed in flamboyant clothes grow out of the meatball. She wanted to let out a roar, so a mouth with torn skin gradually manifested on her elongated face.