Chapter 1098: Chapter 1098: Twisted Land
“Sayaka, Shajina, Sona, Little Baobao, Bubbles… all of you who are not good at fighting will stay out here. Uncle Kenser and Yelsen, please help take care of them. Also, Lilina, you stay too—don’t pout, every team needs a healer, just in case sothing happens, right?” With the uncertainty ahead, I decided to proceed cautiously, first determining who should remain in a safe place and leaving the two Divine Race mbers, who are not weak and are good at protection, along with Lilina, whose support is significant, to help as temporary bodyguards (the main reason is I fear that if I take Lilina along, she might cause so mischief). “The rest, prepare to enter.”
No sooner had I finished assigning roles than Little Baobao jumped out. She clung to , wrapping her arms tightly around my neck, and babbled a lot in an urgent tone—unfortunately, the only thing I understood was when she called ‘Daddy’.
“She says she wants to co along; she’s looking for her Sister Kite.” Bubbles looked at helplessly, then tried hopping to pull her daughter off my neck. But everyone knows that this ‘child’s mom’ is only one ter tall herself, and Little Baobao is just as strong, so the final result was that two identical lolis hung on like candied haws on a stick, with Little Baobao gripping her old man’s neck while Bubbles was tugging at her daughter’s little legs, both swinging in the air.
“Be good and wait outside with everyone.” I struggled quite a bit to pry Little Baobao, who was hugging like an octopus and had mastered the clinging skill to the max, off my body. The little girl, not entirely willing, was held by Bubbles, and she seed to understand my firm attitude. Being usually obedient, Little Baobao could only pout and mumble a few complaints before sensibly nodding her head.
Bubbles, holding her daughter who was the sa height, gave a look filled with an odd sense of dissonance, like a newlywed wife sending her husband off to war: “Don’t worry, child’s dad, I’ll take good care of our kid…”
If I weren’t so pressed for ti, I really would want to give that girl a good smack first!
When entering the Hall of Gathering, Lin, who uses a shield as her only weapon and whose enormous strength is evident, took the lead as the natural Tank. As a Dragon God, she is innately magic-immune and physically robust, only weaker in using Holy Light compared to the Light God System’s garrison officer role. Lin has always been an unshakeable second Tank in the Dingdang Team, so with Yelsen, the excellent at shield, left outside, Lin naturally beca the vanguard. Following Lin were Bingdisi, adept at violently breaking defenses, Monina, skilled in rapid assaults, and Qianqian, with lightning-fast reflexes, to ensure the team always had the initiative and was immune to ambushes. Others were in the middle, with Big Sister and I bringing up the rear. This was deliberate, as Big Sister’s Misfortune Reversal Aura can be thought of as a super shield with invincibility and 100% rebound effect. In case of ambush from the back, even if we didn’t react in ti, it wouldn’t matter—the enemies would almost all be gone in the first round. It could be said that with Qianqian, who always secured the initiative, and Big Sister, who was immune to surprise attacks, at the front and back respectively, the whole team was essentially invincible. And the reason I was with Big Sister at the rear was—Miss Lin thought I was getting in her way.
Clearly, even the venomous tongue of the tsundere Lin Xue wouldn’t usually put forward such a baseless reason, so when she pushed to the back of the team like this, she must have been fine-tuning the future path again. So despite complaining a bit, I obediently went to the very end of the team.
A group of leader-level figures entering an abandoned ancient building in such a large formation, with Lin already confirming earlier that there were no enemies in the hall, might seem like overkill, but it was quite necessary: we’re potentially entering the highest military center of an Old Empire sky zone, and if a battle breaks out here, everyone would face the top forces of the Old Empire’s 15th Day Zone besides the Emperor and Military Commander. Just imagining the three hundred Commanders at the Shadow City Headquarters can give you an idea—that’s basically facing dozens of Pandoras in combat power. With such a potentially existing threat, being cautious is a must.
“There’s only a thick fog ahead, through which you can barely make out that the surroundings form a tubular channel,” Big Sister frowned as she scanned the area. We had already moved a few hundred ters past the entrance—this distance alone exceeded the area the Hall of Gathering seed to cover from the outside. “Lin, you didn’t ntion there’s such a long passage here?”
In the mist, the figures in front were faintly visible, but fortunately, everyone present had ans of perception beyond the naked eye. I used ntal scanning to confirm everyone’s condition was normal. There’s a sensation here… almost like detachnt. Every step forward felt like moving further away from a familiar reality. But when I focused my senses, that feeling disappeared again. I shook my head, casting away the illusion.
The voice of the Dragon God Girl arrived with a delay of a few seconds from not far ahead: “I just ran straight in at that ti, didn’t seem to notice the surroundings… And when I ran out later, all I cared about was running forward.”
“Ah Jun, I feel sothing’s strange.” Big Sister suddenly nudged my arm and whispered, “My Misfortune Reversal Aura has been lightly active, as if there’s sothing around, but I don’t feel any attack being rebounded.”
“Lightly active?” I had so understanding of Big Sister’s power, “A hostile target? Inside the thick mist?”
“No, it’s not hostility, but the surrounding space might have adverse effects on us, be careful.”
As Big Sister spoke, she strengthened her power, causing the few people nearest us to quicken their pace involuntarily and distance themselves: the chilly breeze at the back certainly doesn’t feel good…
Big Sister’s Misfortune Reversal Aura is an enviable passive skill, reacting to any external threat without missing anything. Any external interference that could cause “misfortune” (that is, sothing the protected person does not wish to suffer or that causes trauma) to those within the aura will be reversed. For instance, if you shoot at a target within the aura, and getting shot is obviously a kind of misfortune, then the bullet will be reversed. It might encounter a Nokia, or Sicaro’s face, or even a miniature wormhole. One way or another, it will inevitably turn around and fly back at the shooter, as long as there’s a possibility within the multi-universe for the bullet trajectory to change, even if it’s theoretically probable with zero chance of happening in reality, it will occur under Big Sister’s power, making the attacker reap what they sow. That’s the so-called reality-distorting Misfortune Reversal Aura. Of course, this reversal has its limits and continuously drains Big Sister’s spiritual power. Attacks with an “impossibility of error” attribute will have significant resistance to reversal. However, with Big Sister’s current power, a threat must at least reach Leader-level Apostle or mid to advanced God attacks to penetrate this aura. This reversal doesn’t require Big Sister’s personal involvent and works like a highest-level, flawless intelligence judgent. Often, Big Sister uses it as a targeting radar in dangerous areas, similar to Sandora’s Soul Taker Halo. Currently, this aura is showing a slight active tendency towards the surrounding space without launching a counterattack – I reminded everyone through our Spiritual Connection to stay vigilant, and received Sandora’s response: “Rest assured, it might be a spatial distortion issue. I don’t sense any ntal activity around, at least there’s no enemy.”
After advancing over a hundred ters, completely unexpectedly, the seemingly endless light mist suddenly vanished. I found myself standing in a vast space with no trace of the so-called light mist behind , just a long, fragnted floating bridge hovering in the chaotic darkness, with an entrance emitting white light at the end: the passage I ca through.
Standing by my side was Big Sister, while not a single shadow of the others was in sight…
In front of was a fantastical, bizarre space where neither sky nor ground was visible, only a twisted “sky curtain” with dark hues of deep blue and purple shrouding the view. These deep blue and purple bands drift, intertwine, rge, and separate against the pure black backdrop, like a layer of oil floating on black ink. Below this eerie sky curtain lie countless floating platforms and giant rocks. These floating platforms have streamlined contours, many shaped like crescent moons, at least confirming they were creations of the Old Empire’s Mysterious Side. Between these floating platforms and giant rocks are broken sections of staircases or hallways. The interwoven, fragnted staircases float in mid-air, twisting, andering, overlapping like a tangled ss, connecting all those haphazard floating platforms. After seriously observing this chaotic, yarn-like structure for quite so ti, I finally determined that these floating platforms and staircases are overall spiraling upwards, twining, coiling, extending to a point in the sky indistinguishable by the naked eye.
“Pale” is the primary tone of these spatial entities. Throughout the space, only the twisted Chaos Sky boasts vibrant colors; the rest, such as the airborne platforms and broken staircases, are made from a whitish material between tal and stone. This monotonous color assails the senses, causing unrest. And what we’re standing on, in fact, is just another floating platform, albeit a larger one.
“Where did everyone go?” Big Sister looked around bewilderedly. In this vast and eerie chaotic space, it was just her and ; the main force seed to have evaporated, stirring unease in one’s heart.
“The Spiritual Connection hasn’t been interrupted,” I focused my spiritual power, “thankfully, everyone’s alright. Sandora, where are you guys?”
“Ah Jun, where did you go?” Sandora’s voice sounded almost simultaneously with mine, and then we both paused and spoke again in unison, “You go first—never mind, I’ll go first then…”
“Enough with the couple’s show!!” Bingdisi’s exasperated voice finally cut in (I was actually wondering why that female hooligan took so long to speak up), “Let say this first—where the heck did you all go! Chen, right now next to there’s only your treasure of a wife and that idiot Dragon God. Your wife is scribbling ‘I was here’ on every rock around, and that idiot Dragon God almost smashed the platform we’re standing on. Where are the others? Can we swap out these two treasures for so that aren’t so troubleso?”
“Big Bro, I’m hanging out with the dumb sister here,” Visca’s voice followed closely behind, “and Sister Lin Xue is here too. The dumb sister wanted to blow up the nearby platform to see if any enemies would show up, but Sister Lin Xue stopped her! She’s a dummy, right?”
“Let just say, Visca is talking to you while holding two cannons.” Miss Lin casually sold Visca out.
“Looks like everyone’s been split up,” Big Sis’s voice also appeared in the public channel, “and it’s random. Can you all see… hmm, see a floating bridge leading to an exit behind you?”
Everyone gave affirmative answers, and Big Sis nodded in understanding: “So that ans until the part with the light mist passage, everyone was together. It was only after leaving the light mist that we got separated to different exits. But we don’t know if we’re still in the sa space. If it’s just different entry and exit points, that’s fine. But if there are several parallel spaces here, that’s trouble.”
“The positioning function of the Spiritual Connection seems to be interfered with as well, so we can’t Teleport directly to other groups,” Sandora’s tone sounded sowhat frustrated, “but as long we encounter another group here, we can determine whether everyone’s been scattered across different parallel spaces.”
“Wait a minute! There’s a problem!” Bingdisi’s voice flared up again, “Chen, I have a request. Since the grouping is random, can’t we just go out and co back in once more? Can’t we randomize the groups again? Your wife has started carving family portraits on the nearby steps with that idiot Dragon, and since just a mont ago, they’ve been trying to pull into it too!”
Even soone as peculiar as Bingdisi couldn’t stay calm in the face of Qianqian’s random whimsical ideas and her desperate attempts to drag everyone along with her foolish acts. After all, Sister Bing may be an odd female hooligan by nature, but she’s not the type who’s utterly crazy like Qianqian. Really getting pulled into crouching for half an hour carving a bas-relief would definitely beco her black history. But facing Bingdisi’s unreasonable request, I flat out refused: “What do you think this is, randomizing isn’t that easy, and detaching from the team like that would get you a weakness debuff.”
“For so reason, it feels like Ah Jun has been playing way too many gas with Bubbles lately.” Big Sis glanced at suspiciously.
“Can everyone see all the staircases and corridors spiraling upwards?” Sandora said in the Spiritual Connection, receiving affirmatives from everyone. Then she made a decision, “Alright, it seems like at least the environnt around us is the sa, so everyone head to the topmost area. This space is a closed and limited structure, the suspended platforms have a final pinnacle, and we’ll et there—if we can’t et, then return to the entrance and co back after finding a way to control this facility. Also, while moving, try not to use Space Transmission or any other special abilities, to avoid any accidents, usually, Empire-built facilities have backup chanisms that can be triggered even if the energy supply is cut.”
“Understood, understood—Chen, your wife just talked Lin into jumping off the platform—oh, she’s jumped down too, fine, I admit defeat, you guys just wait, our group might arrive late, I’ll go down and see what they’re up to, maybe Qianqian spotted sothing.”
Bingdisi was the first to hang up the communication, and then everyone else indicated their group was heading upward and left the public channel. Sandora instructed to stay in contact in a private channel and be careful on the way. Finally, it was just and Big Sis staring at each other.
“That kid Qianqian…” Big Sis shook her head helplessly, lightly exhaling, “Let’s go, it looks like there’s a long way ahead.”
Indeed, the road ahead was long: this strange space constantly left one feeling bewildered. Due to the uncertainty of whether there were restrictive facilities around, even the most convenient Space Transmission couldn’t be randomly used, and even energy fluctuation-inducing travel thods like Flying were best avoided. So, we could only proceed in a conventional way. Although because of physical abilities, moving this way wasn’t very slow, the sight of never-ending, spiraling, fragnted corridors and suspended platforms made it seem like a dauntingly long path.
Big Sis and I quickly advanced on a slightly inclined floating staircase with each step already loose and separated. Along the way, we encountered segnts that had completely collapsed, so we simply sped up and jumped over them. After a short while, I couldn’t help but exclaim: “Sis, don’t I look like Tarzan?”
Big Sis, effortlessly leaping beside with a speed no less than mine, casually gave a punch: “You’re so undignified, and Big Sis is still with you.”
I chuckled foolishly and continued on. By the way, Big Sis was wearing a mid-length dress today, although the style was quite simple, it looked completely different on her. Her graceful movent across these broken stairs seed to resemble flying, but sohow I always felt like I was Tarzan…
“Do you think there’s a bottom to this space?” I glanced down and saw that below the cracks in the broken stairs were endless cascading stairs and platforms, floating in a chaotic, twisted space. Even reaching the limits of visibility, there was no end in sight for these floating fragnts: although theoretically, there must be an end.
“I might know why Qianqian jumped down,” Big Sis couldn’t help but slap her forehead, “sotis the two of you really think alike.”
I: “…” Holy crap, isn’t that a problem?!
“Wait!” After proceeding for a while, and crossing countless crescent platforms and floating stairs, I suddenly braked abruptly and shouted in surprise.
Big Sis stopped ahead, looking at curiously, “What’s wrong?”
“There’s a major issue,” I nervously felt my chest pocket, “Dingdang is gone!” (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets, your support is my biggest motivation.)
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