Chapter 1146: Tumbling Organs
Bai Jiu was momentarily stunned by the sight, but she quickly suppressed her look of surprise.
She then smiled at Jiang Shih and asked, "Little Jiang Shih... do you feel any discomfort?"
"I...?" Jiang Shih paused, then gently sniffed. "No... why do you ask?"
Bai Jiu stared into Jiang Shih's eyes. Though her heart was full of doubt, she worried that directly voicing this bizarre situation would frighten Jiang Shih, so she didn't speak rashly.
His eyes... were they starting to heal?
Bai Jiu studied Jiang Shih's eyes again. She noticed Jiang Shih's own pupil was pitch black, while the new one that had just appeared had a faint brown tint.
Not only were the two pupils different colors, but they also moved independently on the same face. They clearly didn't belong to the same person.
Bai Jiu remained outwardly calm, but a chill ran down her spine. She felt as if there was another person inside Jiang Shih, and that person was now peering outward through his eyes.
That eye was filled with panic, confusion, and bewilderment—a stark contrast to the pain, exhaustion, and sorrow in Jiang Shih's own eyes.
This indescribable situation filled Bai Jiu with dread. Her expression slipped beyond her control, and Jiang Shih finally noticed something was wrong.
"Jiu Jie... what's wrong with my left eye?" Jiang Shih paused. "Why do you look like that..."
Bai Jiu didn't want to answer. Her expression shifted from fear to helplessness.
Whoever this person was inside Jiang Shih's body, they shouldn't disturb him when he was about to die.
That eyeball spun around for a long time, finally fixing its gaze on Bai Jiu before widening.
"Little Jiang Shih... I need to tell you something, but don't be afraid..."
Before Bai Jiu could finish, Jiang Shih's strange eye began a tumbling of organs.
The eye gave way to a nose, which then gave way to a mouth—like the rolling symbols of a slot machine, switching out in succession from top to bottom.
When the pattern settled, Jiang Shih now had one eye on one side and a mouth on the other. On his small face sat one eye and two mouths, creating an indescribably horrifying sight.
Bai Jiu raised a hand to cover her own mouth.
「Jiu Jie!!」
A familiar voice came from somewhere ethereal. Bai Jiu focused and saw that it was the mouth on Jiang Shih's eye that had spoken.
Jiang Shih was also startled by the voice, unable to pinpoint where it came from. It seemed to come from all directions, yet also from deep within his own mind.
"Who... who's talking?" Jiang Shih snapped back to alertness, looking around in panic.
But Bai Jiu just quietly held Jiang Shih's face, her expression full of disbelief.
"That voice... Little Sixteen?" she asked.
"What Little Sixteen...?" Jiang Shih was even more confused. "There's no Little Sixteen here."
「Jiu Jie!! I thought I was seeing things! It really is you!」Qiu Shiliu's voice continued to emerge from the ether.
"What's going on here, Little Sixteen...?" Bai Jiu wasn't relieved to find it was one of their own; instead, she seemed even more puzzled.
"Who's talking?" Jiang Shih muttered. "There's no Little Sixteen..."
「I should be asking you that, Jiu Jie. How did you end up inside the Black Tortoise? Who were you just talking to? Was it Tenth Brother?」
"Wait a minute..." Bai Jiu realized the situation might be different from what she had imagined. "You're saying we're... inside the Black Tortoise?"
「Yeah...」Qiu Shiliu's voice drifted out. 「You're in the space inside the Black Tortoise...」
Bai Jiu turned to look at the distant battlefield. A group of people had surrounded the Black Tortoise, but neither they nor the beast had made a move.
The Black Tortoise just lowered its head, staring at its own chest. Though the atmosphere among the members of "Cat" was tense, no one had struck.
"No... that's not right, Sixteen." Bai Jiu shook her head. "If we're being precise, only you should be inside the Black Tortoise... We're all out here..."
"Where exactly is Sixteen..." Jiang Shih felt like he was getting dizzy.
「What...」Qiu Shiliu was taken aback. The mouth on Jiang Shih's face tumbled again, finally settling into an eye. 「Only I'm inside?」
That eye looked up and down at the outside situation, quickly growing confused.
She shifted the eye away, once again placing the mouth in the opening. From Bai Jiu's perspective, it looked like Jiang Shih's left eye kept switching between an eye and a mouth.
「What the hell is going on? I'm seeing you through a little spot of light from inside the Black Tortoise...」
"Seeing us through a spot of light...?"
「Jiu Jie... what exactly is that spot of light?」
"I don't know... What does it look like from your end?"
「It's just a hole the size of a coin...」Qiu Shiliu said. 「But where are you seeing me from?」
"I'm seeing you from... Little Jiang Shih's eye." Bai Jiu answered truthfully. "Right now, it looks like you're inside Little Jiang Shih's body... Your eye is peeking out through his."
"What?" Jiang Shih and Qiu Shiliu both froze at the same time.
After several seconds, Qiu Shiliu finally spoke again: 「Jiu Jie... I'm clearly inside the Black Tortoise, so how did I end up inside Tenth Brother's body...」
Bai Jiu reached up and toyed with her twin ponytails. As one of "Cat's" famous strategists, she couldn't help in combat, but she could think through this bizarre situation as clearly as possible. It was clearly related to the Black Tortoise's ultimate secret.
"From the looks of it... this can only mean that two 'Immortals' have connected to the same space." Bai Jiu said. "It's not that hard to understand when you think about it... It's just that the chance of having two 'Immortals' together is too rare..."
「No, Jiu Jie, I don't think it's just two Immortals...」
Knowing she had found Bai Jiu, Qiu Shiliu was happy to save herself the mental effort. She poured out everything she had seen, including the countless doors of bizarre shapes leading to different spaces.
Then she summarized her theory—that the space itself moved while she remained still—and how she had ended up in front of this strange point of light.
All these abstract concepts flooded into Bai Jiu's mind at once, and Jiang Shih roughly understood the situation too.
「Jiu Jie... what do you think I should do now...?」
Bai Jiu frowned, deep in thought, and finally arrived at an abstract conclusion.
The space inside the Black Tortoise seemed to exist apart from all other spaces, and the "Immortals" happened to hold the keys to enter it.
"Sixteen... your tactics earlier had a small flaw. Listen to my instructions from now on." Bai Jiu said seriously, staring into Jiang Shih's eyes. "Right now..."
Before she could finish her sentence...