Chapter 1144: The World in Motion

Ma Twelve’s face was so enormous that it looked like a moving painting floating in the sky, nearly scaring Qiu Sixteen out of her wits.

Only after that massive face disappeared did Qiu Sixteen carefully examine the spot where it had appeared.

There seemed to be a curved hole there, allowing light from outside to seep through.

Qiu Sixteen pondered for a moment, as if grasping a faint clue, and hurriedly turned to search for the spot where she had just emerged.

But what she found were numerous fragmented holes, each spaced far apart, now glowing like countless luminous gates suspended in midair.

So, which one had she crawled out from?

In other words… from this perspective, Xuanwu’s body was composed of gates of varying shapes?

And all the attacks directed at Xuanwu had rushed into these gates, dissipating into the vast expanse of space.

She wasn’t a physical entity at all—everyone’s attacks were like throwing stones into a bottomless pit, utterly incapable of harming Xuanwu in the slightest.

Using her not-so-brilliant mind, Qiu Sixteen quickly analyzed the situation. The black regions on Xuanwu’s body weren’t constant—they only appeared whenever it was attacked.

If that was the case… wouldn’t the gates keep appearing endlessly?

An infinite expanse of space, coupled with endlessly spawning gates—Qiu Sixteen immediately understood her predicament.

Even if she unleashed the “Red Flame” here, it would merely be a fleeting spark in the void, incapable of causing any damage to Xuanwu.

“What should I do now…?”

Anxiety gnawed at her. Just as Su Shan had warned before she entered this bizarre space, they might only have this one chance, and she was the only one they could send. The others were all buying her time.

If she couldn’t make any contribution, the entire “Cat” faction would have no hope left.

Fortunately, Qiu Sixteen’s anger was far from reaching the threshold of spontaneous combustion, so she still had some time to explore.

Thinking this, she tried shifting her position in the air but found herself unable to move.

She distinctly remembered moving earlier, yet now, when she focused on “moving,” she remained frozen in place.

“Even ‘movement’ relies on subconscious intent…?”

Staring at a distant gate, she poured her focus into it, letting her gaze fixate solely on that gate. The next moment, she heard the rush of wind in her ears, and the gate in her vision grew larger, as if she were rapidly approaching it.

But Qiu Sixteen soon noticed a broken tree not far from her.

The tree was moving alongside her toward the distant gate, maintaining perfect parallel alignment.

With a shift in her will, she halted, and the tree stopped as well, still parallel to her.

Then, she turned her gaze back to the distant gate, as if testing the strange nature of this space. When she felt herself moving again, the tree nearby began moving too.

She moved, and the tree moved?

“I… think I get it…”

In this bizarre space, it wasn’t that she was moving—rather, she remained stationary while the entire space shifted around her.

The space adjusted according to her will, making the gate appear closer.

The tree, like her, was an outsider in this place. Thus, both she and the tree were actually motionless—only the space was moving.

“This place is too hard to comprehend…” Though riddled with questions, Qiu Sixteen knew she didn’t have enough time to figure everything out. Ignoring the floating tree, she continued moving forward.

As she did, she heard a sound to her right. Turning her head, she glimpsed Luo Eleven and Ma Twelve flashing past what appeared to be another gate in the distance, but it vanished too quickly to be seen clearly.

“Strange…”

Qiu Sixteen felt she was teetering on the edge of madness. In this surreal space, even gravity was absent—she couldn’t perform any action beyond turning, yet the entire world moved according to her will.

So, it wasn’t her moving—it was the world.

In the blink of an eye, the distant gate flew right before her.

Calling it a “gate” was generous—it was more like an elliptical hole emitting a dim glow, one of the less conspicuous among the countless gates. She had noticed it first only because it was the closest.

But as the gate hovered before her, Qiu Sixteen felt an unfamiliar dread creep in.

What would she see if she stepped through?

Would she still be in the “Land of Finality”?

Staring into the gate, she discerned a dim interior with vague, grid-like shapes.

Slowly, she reached out, her hand passing through the gate. The other side felt peculiar—completely different in temperature and humidity, as if she’d stuck her hand into an air-conditioned room.

After some hesitation, she withdrew her hand, then gripped the edges of the elliptical gate and cautiously leaned her head inside.

Instantly, she felt as if she’d submerged in warm water, her face enveloped in heat. With slight trepidation, she opened her eyes.

Inside was nothing but an ordinary ruined house, slightly warm, the “grids” she’d seen earlier merely the brick walls of the collapsed structure.

The place resembled a rural home from the ’70s or ’80s, with only a coal stove as a notable fixture. Even the cooking hearth was crudely built from bricks, now toppled.

Strangely, the building had no door—everywhere Qiu Sixteen looked was wall.

But she soon realized that *her* direction was the entrance. However, given the space’s odd nature, she didn’t dare step inside recklessly, lest she lose her way back.

Finding nothing else suspicious in the ruins, she pulled her head out.

If every gate here led to a bizarre room… what did that have to do with Xuanwu?

Could she really find a way to kill Xuanwu here?

“There are just too many gates…”

Frowning, Qiu Sixteen scanned the starry expanse. Nearby were gates of all shapes, while in the distance stretched an endless sea of stars, large and small.

The disorienting sensation left her directionless. Time was slipping away outside—what should she do now?

“They’re buying me time… I can’t afford to hesitate here…”