Chapter 1154: Air

"Jiu... Jiu-jie..." Qiu Shiliu asked in a daze, "Did you see it... that thing that just darted out..."

Bai Jiu was silent for a long time on the other end before her faint voice came through: "I saw it."

"You saw it too? I thought I was hallucinating... That thing just now..."

"Shiliu." Bai Jiu cut him off immediately. "Don't say anything. Open the door behind you."

"Huh...?"

"Now." Bai Jiu said it in a tone that brooked no argument.

"Okay... I-I understand..." Qiu Shiliu didn't ask why and quickly turned to open the door. On the other side was an old, rundown house.

"Don't think about anything. Go inside right now." Bai Jiu said again.

Jiang Shi clearly saw that Bai Jiu's expression was grave, as if she was extremely tense.

But from the sound of it, Qiu Shiliu had already escaped the danger, so Jiang Shi didn't know what Bai Jiu was worried about.

"Okay, okay, Jiu-jie, that really scared me to death just now... You saw it too, that woman came out and directly..."

"Don't...!"

The moment Bai Jiu spoke, Jiang Shi's left eye plunged into darkness, as if something had gone wrong with the space where Qiu Shiliu was. Then, a cry of alarm echoed out.

"Oh no..." Bai Jiu held Jiang Shi's head, looking left and right, but all she could see was pitch-black darkness and rustling sounds; Qiu Shiliu's figure was completely invisible.

"Jiu-jie... what's wrong?" Jiang Shi asked.

"That silly girl, Shiliu..." Bai Jiu said anxiously, "She forgot that she's only floating in mid-air by 'yì niàn'. If she believes she'll fall, then she definitely will."

According to Bai Jiu's thinking, when Qiu Shiliu entered this space, she subconsciously believed she was in the vast universe, so her subconscious had instilled in her the ideas that "people can float" and "you can't breathe."

"Ah?!" Jiang Shi was stunned after hearing this. "Then Shiliu..."

Both of them realized the situation was serious and fell silent. After waiting for a long time, they finally heard Qiu Shiliu's voice coming from Jiang Shi's left eye again—

"Damn, that scared me to death..."

"Thank goodness... Shiliu..." Bai Jiu's suspended heart eased a bit. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Jiu-jie, thanks to you..." Qiu Shiliu replied. "Good thing you told me to open the door quickly—that decision saved my life."

After the rustling sounds on the other side of the image, Qiu Shiliu's face reappeared. It looked like she had put the small "duì jiǎng jī" inside the door and managed to light up her surroundings.

From the tiny image, Bai Jiu noticed that Qiu Shiliu was clinging to the ground with both hands. Behind her was an endless starry sky, but a pair of hands had reached into the door, as if hanging off the edge of a cliff.

Qiu Shiliu pulled with all her strength, inching forward bit by bit through the door, pulling herself back from the brink of falling. Then, panting heavily, she turned and firmly shut the door.

She slowly stood up and looked at the ordinary building in front of her.

"What is it?" Bai Jiu asked. "My view is limited; I can't see clearly."

"It's..." Qiu Shiliu didn't know how to describe the house in front of her, as it was just too ordinary. "Jiu-jie... how should I put it... Have you ever seen those 'pò miào' that show up in TV dramas? It's something like that..."

"'Pò miào'?"

"Yeah... pretty much..."

Qiu Shiliu walked slowly forward, looking at the bare room. It was spotlessly clean, with only a stove made of bricks and a bed of straw, and nothing else in the way of furniture.

"Be careful. If anything happens, tell me," Bai Jiu said.

"Don't worry, this place looks... really... too..." Qiu Shiliu furrowed her brow, thinking for a long time before settling on the word, "too safe."

With that, she went to the other side of the room and saw a rusty blue iron door.

She slowly reached out and pushed the iron door open. Warm sunlight poured into the room, spilling over the floor, the walls, and Qiu Shiliu's face.

Qiu Shiliu's eyes widened gradually, and she froze in place almost instantly.

The house was situated on the midway slope of a small hill, and looking down from there, she saw a scattered array of earthen houses, as if evening had already fallen. Some of the houses had smoke rising from their chimneys, and people bustled about, their voices lively and noisy.

Qiu Shiliu swallowed hard, then lifted her nose to sniff. In an instant, a rush of fresh air filled her lungs. The dizzying oxygen spread through every cell in her body, awakening her dormant form as if even her pores were opening up in that moment.

Her eyes turned red in a flash, and when she reached up to touch her face, she realized tears had unknowingly covered her cheeks.

"Shiliu... what's wrong with you?"

Qiu Shiliu knew she didn't want to cry, but the feeling was overwhelming; her tears flowed freely, and her whole body trembled.

"Jiu-jie... I... I don't know how to say it..." Qiu Shiliu replied, choking back sobs. "It feels like I'm really alive. I'm watching the sun set... I'm breathing the air... I'm seeing the smoke from cooking fires... In front of me is a small mountain village."

"Breathing... the air...?" Bai Jiu was a bit confused. "Haven't you been breathing all along...?"

"No... Jiu-jie..." Qiu Shiliu tried hard to express what she was feeling. "As soon as you breathe here, you realize that everything you've breathed for all these years was fake... Just one breath is enough..."

Bai Jiu's eyes flickered after hearing this, and her lips moved slightly as a strange idea formed in her mind.

She only hoped Shiliu wouldn't discover this idea, or else...

"Jiu-jie... have I... escaped?"

Bai Jiu froze at those words, and her hands holding Jiang Shi's cheeks tightened slightly.

Yes... a strange space that could lead anywhere—why couldn't Qiu Shiliu go straight to the real world?

Any real world would do... She should be able to live properly there, right?

Rationally, Bai Jiu wanted to deny Qiu Shiliu's answer and tell her, "You're mistaken; it's all fake." But emotionally, she hoped Qiu Shiliu could truly escape. She had no reason to stay here and suffer anymore.

If she could really stay there, even in an isolated mountain village, she would be the first person ever to leave this place.

A tangle of emotions spread through Bai Jiu's heart, and after just a moment, she made her choice.

"Shiliu, forget about Xuanwu. Find a way to just..."

"Jiu-jie, I think I'm really close to Xuanwu's secret now." Qiu Shiliu interrupted. "Tell me what to do."