Chapter 1139: The Three-Dimensional Door
Song Qi slowly took a step forward.
He knew that even if Xuanwu was pitiable, she was ultimately their enemy. If Xuanwu didn't die today, the only ones who would die were all the members of "Cat" team.
After all, for Xuanwu, death was the only release. She had long since ceased to be human, yet she continued to endure inhuman torture.
Su Shan lowered her head, looking down at her feet. She noticed a fragment of Xuanwu's heart had flown up unnoticed and landed right beside her shoe.
The reason she could instantly recognize it as a piece of "heart" was that it was pitch black, writhing and twitching on the ground like a worm.
Su Shan saw a faint glimmer of light emanating from it, barely revealing the shadowy outlines of the two Chinese characters—"IMMORTAL".
A thought suddenly struck her. She widened her eyes, taking in every object in the vicinity.
Wherever her gaze fell, in every corner, the shadow of "IMMORTAL" flickered. Xuanwu's heart had been shattered into countless pieces, each piece becoming an individual black worm. Though seeming fragmented, these worms were still connected, pulsing in unison at the same moment.
In other words—the "heart" was still functioning.
Even though it had been split into countless fragments, it continued to beat rhythmically.
It was just like Xuanwu's arm. Though Ma Twelve had taken it far away, it could still launch independent attacks, controlled by Xuanwu's will, as if some invisible force connected flesh and organs together.
Su Shan lowered her head, pinching the worm-like, pulsing fragment of Xuanwu's heart between her fingers. It indeed showed signs of life, throbbing in rhythm with countless other fragments. It wasn't that Xuanwu had no heart—rather, her heart was everywhere.
What exactly connected all these fragments together...?
As she pondered this, the ground assault team had already launched their offensive.
"Giant" Tortoise, "Forgetful" Luo Shiyi, "Immortal" Jiang Shi, and "Shuttle" Cui Shisi simultaneously stepped into the ground battlefield.
These individuals employed the most straightforward, direct methods of violent assault. What caught Su Shan's attention most was Cui Shisi's attack style.
She wielded two strange weapons that looked like small hula hoops. Using her "Spirit Vision" for a closer look, Su Shan saw that both hula hoops had been imbued with the power of "Shuttle."
"Cat" team's coordination was flawless. Jiang Shi picked up Cui Shisi's hula hoop and began circling Xuanwu.
Cui Shisi's fist would strike into the hula hoop in her own hand, instantly emerging from Jiang Shi's hula hoop. This was the brilliant application of "Shuttle."
This bizarre attack caught Xuanwu off guard for a moment. Unfortunately, Xuanwu possessed "Immortal," rendering these punches completely harmless—some even penetrated straight into Xuanwu's body.
Seeing this, Tortoise activated "Giant," enlarging Cui Shisi's unpredictable fists the moment they appeared. But at most, it only forced Xuanwu back a single step, achieving nothing more.
But Su Shan, watching from the rooftop, slowly narrowed her eyes.
"Shuttle..." she murmured the word.
Because in some ways, Cui Shisi's fist emerging from another hula hoop was no different from Xuanwu's severed arm.
Both had separated from their original bodies yet could still move freely.
"Wait..." A vague realization dawned on Su Shan. Her brilliant eyes fixed on Xuanwu for a long moment, as if detecting something.
What if the "Immortal" covering Xuanwu... was actually a form of "Shuttle"?
All attacks directed at her body were transferred away by the "Shuttle" covering her—transported to... some other space.
That would mean even if her limbs were severed, the "Shuttle" effect would persist, forcibly re-establishing a connection between the severed limb and the main body.
Su Shan felt that no one in the entire "Land of Finality" had ever analyzed Xuanwu's ability from such a seemingly scientific perspective. Even just contemplating this concept made her head spin.
She looked down again, pinching the heart fragment in her hand. It was a three-dimensional object, yet there was still space within it. If she attacked this fragment with a toothpick, the toothpick might fall into the heart fragment, drifting into its vast, starry sea.
"This is too abstract..."
Su Shan closed her eyes, analyzing Xuanwu's current state.
A body that looked as radiant as a starry sky, arms capable of falling into thorns...
"I think I understand..." Su Shan said. "Right now, she's like... a three-dimensional... door?"
This baffling statement was heard by Officer Li and Song Qi. Both instantly looked puzzled.
"A three-dimensional body, yet it can be entered like a door, allowing things to 'shuttle' to other locations..." Su Shan explained. "That's it..."
"Any countermeasures?" Officer Li turned to ask.
"I don't know if you'd call it a countermeasure... but I've got a bold idea," Su Shan replied. "It might be just as futile, but it could also be a brilliant move... Since I've never encountered this situation before, I can only try to solve abstract problems with abstract methods."
"Go on," Song Qi said. "As long as there's even a chance to break the deadlock, we can give it a try."
Upon hearing this, Su Shan fixed her gaze seriously on Xuanwu, then raised her finger, pointing at Xuanwu's pitch-black body.
"What do you mean...?" Officer Li asked.
"I want to go inside and take a look," Su Shan said.
After she spoke, both of them froze in shock.
"Xuanwu's body is like a door or a cave—it can swallow and take away objects. So can it swallow... people?" Su Shan said with a serious expression. "What would happen... if someone went inside?"
Silence hung in the air for about ten seconds before Song Qi slowly came to his senses.
"You... hold on..." Song Qi said. "Does this strategy of yours sound right...? I'm not quite following..."
"I want to jump into the vast starry sky within Xuanwu's body and see for myself," Su Shan said. "I want to know where the things swallowed by her body actually go, and what kind of space is inside."
"No... wait..." Officer Li paused. "I think I understand what you mean, but it still doesn't seem right..."
"Why?"
"Maybe it's like you said... there's something strange about the space inside her body..." Officer Li paused again. "But it's like facing a shark. Destroying a shark's internal organs can kill it quickly, but no one chooses to get swallowed by a shark first before killing it."
"That's because the risk of being swallowed by a shark is too high—certain death for a human," Su Shan countered. "But what's inside Xuanwu's body is unknown. We can't use our experience with known things to infer unknown things."
Song Qi thought carefully about Su Shan's words and felt it was indeed a strange breakthrough point.
However, the person to carry out this mission couldn't be Su Shan. They needed someone else.
"You can't go. I know a suitable candidate," Song Qi said. "When she gets angry, her entire body turns into a sea of flames. She seems the most suited for this mission."