Chapter 1147: The Finger
"Alright!" Qiu Shiliu nodded. "With Ninth Sister here, I feel reassured. But you just said... where exactly did I slip up?"
"It should be a problem with the 'direction of movement,' not 'please bring the most important door closer to me'..." Bai Jiu pondered. "That wording is too vague. I suspect it might be able to reveal the ultimate secret of the 'Land of Endings' to you, but we don't need that kind of information right now."
"Ultimate secret...?"
"Yes. Only the 'ultimate secret' is the most important thing to everyone. But right now, we want to kill the Black Tortoise, or find its weakness."
"So you mean..."
"I think..." Bai Jiu replied seriously, "it should be 'please bring the door most important to the Black Tortoise closer to me.'"
"I see..."
Qiu Shiliu's mouth squirmed within Jiang Shi's eye, but soon a troubling thought struck her.
"Ninth Sister..."
"What is it?"
"I want to ask you something." Qiu Shiliu's ethereal voice drifted, sounding hesitant. "How come... from your perspective, I've bizarrely appeared in Jiang Shi's eye, but from my perspective, you've appeared out of nowhere inside the Black Tortoise's body..."
"That's right." Bai Jiu nodded.
Even though it was abstract from both sides, that was how it had happened.
"I want to confirm... am I going crazy?" Qiu Shiliu's voice trembled. "How can I be sure that what I see through this hole isn't some illusion inside the Black Tortoise that's meant to deceive me?"
As her words fell, Bai Jiu and Jiang Shi both fell silent for a few seconds.
Indeed, in the current situation, how could they prove that what they were seeing wasn't an illusion?
"Your doubt is reasonable." Bai Jiu paused. "From your perspective, we could indeed be an illusion."
"Right now, even my breathing depends on sheer willpower." Qiu Shiliu continued. "In this state, it's easy for me to slip into madness. So I really hope you're all real... I need real teammates to strengthen my conviction."
"I have an idea." Bai Jiu said.
"What...?"
"Theoretically, you should be able to touch me." Bai Jiu extended a finger. "If I'm not mistaken, your finger can reach out through Little Jiang Shi's eye."
"Hey?!" Jiang Shi was startled. "Wait... Miss, hold on!!"
Qiu Shiliu thought there was some sense in that. Even though the image might be a bit creepy, it was the only way to confirm that Bai Jiu and the others weren't illusions.
With that thought, she slowly reached out her hand, probing toward the hole in the air. Her finger gradually disappeared into the void, feeling a cold touch on the other end, as if reaching into another space, or dipping into water.
Bai Jiu admitted to herself that the scene before her was indeed too disturbing.
On Jiang Shi's helpless face, one eye still had a tear hanging, while from the other eye socket, a slender finger extended.
That finger twisted and moved on Jiang Shi's face like a worm.
Bai Jiu thought to herself that it was fortunate this was happening to "Cat." If it had been any other "participant" without memories, they would have gone mad by now.
"Nin... Ninth Sister..."
"Little Jiang Shi, does it hurt...?" Bai Jiu asked with concern.
"No, not really..." Jiang Shi replied. "But this is terrifying... My right eye can see a finger sticking out of my left eye!!"
"Be good, close your eyes."
Bai Jiu stepped forward, gently touched Qiu Shiliu's finger, then picked up a pinch of sand from the ground. After "liquefying" it, she dripped it onto Qiu Shiliu's fingertip.
"Shiliu, I not only touched you, but I also left you a mark that only I could make." Bai Jiu said. "Rest assured, we are not an illusion."
Whether Qiu Shiliu heard her or not, her finger trembled slightly, then slowly retracted.
Soon after, her eye appeared again, and from the look in it, some of her fear seemed to have diminished.
"Little Shiliu, go ahead. Maybe this time, killing the Black Tortoise really depends on you." Bai Jiu said.
"Wait... Ninth Sister, there's something I still don't quite understand..."
"What is it?"
"If I change doors... how will I communicate with you?" Qiu Shiliu hesitated. "I'll end up in some other place, won't I? Then I won't be able to find you."
Bai Jiu thought for a moment, realizing this was indeed a problem.
The next door Qiu Shiliu was going to was "the door most important to the Black Tortoise." This command would definitely take her away from her current location.
What would happen then? Would she still need Bai Jiu's guidance?
Under such uncertain circumstances, even if Qiu Shiliu really found what was most important to the Black Tortoise, how would she proceed?
"Well..."
"How about this..." Qiu Shiliu thought. "Ninth Sister, just like Sister Shan did, you can tell me a few possible scenarios in advance, and I'll handle it myself when the time comes."
"No..."
Bai Jiu thought for a long time, and a strange idea popped into her head—
"Shiliu, can you take this 'door' with you?" she asked.
"Huh...?" Qiu Shiliu was startled.
"I mean this circle of light in front of you..." Bai Jiu thought further. "Can you move it?"
Qiu Shiliu felt that Bai Jiu had raised a question she had never considered before. Could these strange doors actually be moved?
"You... wait a moment."
After saying that, Qiu Shiliu pulled back slightly, then reached out her hand.
From Bai Jiu's perspective, Jiang Shi's eye no longer showed strange patterns; it had simply turned pitch black.
The next second, a flesh-colored thing covered Jiang Shi's eye, and then it turned black again.
"Wow! Ninth Sister, you're a genius!" Qiu Shiliu's voice came intermittently from the other side. "This thing can really be taken away by me..."
"I thought so too..." Bai Jiu nodded. "Without a doubt, someone around here has even used these teleporting doors to build something, so they must be movable."
"That's great now!" Qiu Shiliu's voice became clearer. "It's like I'm holding a phone and video-calling you."
Jiang Shi was stunned at these words, then looked up. "What does 'video-calling' mean?"
"Don't pry into adult matters, kid." Bai Jiu patted Jiang Shi on the shoulder, then looked back into his eye.
In Jiang Shi's eye, Qiu Shiliu's face was visible. Just as she had said, it was like a display screen for video calls. If you looked closely enough into Jiang Shi's eye, you could make out Qiu Shiliu's silhouette.
"Ninth Sister, I'm going. Let's work together from inside and out, and see what this Black Tortoise really is."