Chapter 1143: Inner World

Xuanwu was stunned for a long time before raising his head to look at the people in front of him.

"What are you planning...?"

Luo Shiyi was speechless for a moment and quickly turned to look at Su Shan and Song Qi.

Both of them had equally troubled expressions.

Song Qi fiddled with a stone in his hand, his mind carefully considering the situation.

It wouldn't be difficult for Qiu Shiliu to ignite herself; she had already controlled her emotions before entering Xuanwu's body.

For her, the true difficulty was stopping the ignition.

But why did Xuanwu's interior seem completely undamaged...?

Could it be that there was some trick within that space that caused Qiu Shiliu to die the moment she entered?

Su Shan's eyes widened as he stared at Xuanwu. Just as Qiu Shiliu was about to enter his body, he had clearly released "Chi Yan," but after her figure vanished, the words "Chi Yan" disappeared, leaving only "Bu Mie" covering Xuanwu.

"This situation is so unknown, it's really hard to guess..." Su Shan murmured.

Everyone stood frozen, unsure of what to do next. Should they continue the attack or wait and see what happened...?

"Ahhhhhh!"

Just as everyone was silent, a scream suddenly came from the distance.

The group turned to look and saw Ma Shier clutching a blackened arm, screaming as he ran toward them.

"Damn it, ahhhhhh!"

He gasped for breath as he reached the group, then threw the arm down in terror and panted heavily.

"What...?" Luo Shiyi asked, frowning.

"Shiyi bro, ahhhh!" Ma Shier looked utterly terrified. "I just... this arm... damn it..."

"Get to the point."

Ma Shier quickly caught his breath and pointed at the blackened arm on the ground, his voice trembling. "Just now, Shiliu's face floated inside this arm!!"

"Ah...?"

Everyone was momentarily surprised. Although the matter was difficult to grasp, it wasn't entirely incomprehensible.

"You mean 'her face floated' as in...?"

"Well... how should I put it!" Ma Shier scratched his head, trying to describe what he had seen. "Just now, Shiliu's face was like a moving tattoo on the arm... it just whooshed from one end to the other."

It seemed Ma Shier was doing his best to organize his thoughts so that everyone would believe he wasn't crazy.

After speaking, he glanced around and quickly noticed the issue. "Wait... where's Shiliu?"

"She's become a tattoo."

"Ah?"

Luo Shiyi scratched his head after saying that and asked, "Did you see Shiliu... was she alive or dead?"

"Ah?!"

Ma Shier was completely baffled by the question.

"Shiyi bro, what do you mean... are you saying that tattoo was really Shiliu herself?! She's roaming around inside Xuanwu's arm?!"

"Pretty much." Luo Shiyi replied, "But our plan seems to have some flaws, so is she dead or not?"

Ma Shier thought carefully about the face he had seen.

"If that's the case... Shiliu should still be alive." Ma Shier answered, "But her eyes were wide open, like she had seen something extremely shocking..."

"Shocking...?"

"Yeah!" Ma Shier nodded, "If her eyes hadn't been so wide, I wouldn't have been scared out of my wits..."

"If she's not dead, then why hasn't 'Chi Yan' been activated...?" Luo Shiyi voiced his doubt, then turned to look at Song Qi.

Song Qi, standing on the low roof, had heard everything clearly and quickly formed a deduction.

If Qiu Shiliu was fine but hadn't activated "Chi Yan," it could only mean her "anger" had subsided.

A "resonance" triggered solely by "extreme anger" failing to activate suggested that Qiu Shiliu had seen something incredibly strange in that space—something that had even changed her emotions.

As the group was deep in thought, they noticed a human shadow drifting through Xuanwu's blackened body, moving from left to right and soon vanishing from sight.

That shadow was Qiu Shiliu.

"Whoa..." Ma Shier pointed at Xuanwu and exclaimed, "That's exactly what it looked like!!"

Xuanwu, who had his head lowered, also saw this and immediately thrust his left hand into his own body to grab Qiu Shiliu, but no matter what, he couldn't reach her.

Only then did the group realize what it meant for something to drift through his body...

It was like an image playing on a television screen.

Xuanwu's entire body seemed like a black, three-dimensional display, constantly showing a starry standby pattern, but now a person was drifting across that starry sky.

This wasn't quite like a tattoo, because Qiu Shiliu appeared inside Xuanwu's body, not on his surface.

"So... what should we do now...?" Ma Shier asked quietly.

"Give Shiliu some time; don't rush into an attack." Song Qi said from the roof. "We have that much understanding among us."

"Makes sense." Luo Shiyi nodded, "Since Shiliu hasn't activated Chi Yan right away, it means she thinks now isn't the time."

...

It took Qiu Shiliu a long time to barely steady herself in this strange space.

The first thing she reacted to upon entering was that she couldn't breathe.

This odd space seemed to have no air reserved for outsiders, and she thought she was about to die.

But when she looked up, that illogical sense of shock hit her mind directly.

The issue of breathing was instantly forgotten.

As far as her eyes could see, countless doors floated in the dark void.

Some doors were half-open, letting out faint light from the other side. These infinite, vast doors, like the heavens and earth themselves, shimmered like a vast sea of stars in the distance.

Where did they lead?

And why were they inside Xuanwu's body?

No, instead of wondering that, she should think about where exactly she was now.

After about a minute, Qiu Shiliu snapped out of it and realized she had been breathing all along.

She was steadily inhaling and exhaling in a place with no air.

But as soon as she became aware of this abstract problem, she started to feel short of breath again.

Having been a member of "Cat" for some time, Qiu Shiliu quickly understood that her breathing here was influenced by her subconscious.

If she believed she couldn't breathe, she would die from lack of oxygen, so only when she wasn't thinking about it could she ignore the issue.

It sounded simple, but convincing herself that she could breathe freely in this space was incredibly difficult.

After all, this place looked like an endless, pitch-black void with no sky above or ground below—was it really possible for a human to breathe here?

Qiu Shiliu tried several times but still couldn't change her subconscious, so she slowly turned around, looking for something in the air to distract herself.

As she turned, Ma Shier's big face suddenly swept past her, making her eyes widen in fright.