Chapter 2329: Stone Statues in the Space Crevice
Xu Huo and Nie Xuan both used their items and instruments at the first moment, with over a dozen layers of barriers blocking them, but this didn't have much effect, because a few seconds later, a chaotic force suddenly emerged from within the folded space, disrupting all the effects of their items and instruments in one go, and even sending the two of them hurtling in different directions.
In just the blink of an eye, they vanished from each other's sight, as if they had merely spun in place, and the surrounding space seemed to reset.
The undercurrent swirling around Xu Huo disappeared instantly, and behind him, the entrance was completely gone. Even the stone statues had vanished. Darkness encroached on all sides, with illumination items only able to light up a distance of three to five meters, and there was a possibility that a suddenly appearing space cut could sever that light...
"Nie Xuan!" he called out into the surroundings.
It was just a probe at first, but unexpectedly, after his voice went out, it returned as an echo behind him one second later.
"Nie Xuan!" His own voice came from another direction with a one-second delay, as if the space in front of him and behind him had folded together.
Xu Huo stood still. At least as far as he could tell, there was nothing unusual. The space he was in was merely a normal space with a relatively concentrated spatial power, just that the spatial power wasn't so easy to mobilize.
But this place was special, so his judgment might not be correct. He called out different names in different directions to determine whether the orientation of the entire space was chaotic.
In fact, after trying, he felt as if the space around him had already been divided into channels. When his voice went out through one channel, it returned from the opposite direction. Judging by the interval, the channels weren't too long.
If sound behaved like this, did it mean that even if he walked in a certain direction, he would eventually end up back in the same spot?
"...Xu Huo..." At that moment, Nie Xuan's voice came from very far away.
He paused for a moment, then moved forward in the direction of the voice, but just then, the sudden attack came again. He instinctively blocked it with the Water Cube Barrier, but as he was displaced from his original position, he inadvertently bumped into something.
Although it was just a fleeting glance, he could tell it was indeed a human hand—a single, detached human hand, as if it had suddenly reached out from some space and then suddenly disappeared.
What was that? A stone statue? Or a naturally spawned item?
After steadying himself, Xu Huo groped in that direction. Through the Water Cube Barrier, a hand actually grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the opposite side!
He activated several barrier-type items in front of him in succession, and at the same time, he opened his Spiritual Realm. Dozens or even hundreds of Spiritual Gates instantly bloomed around him. His Childhood Personality also appeared behind him, turning into a black mist that coiled around him...
The two sides struggled, and the thing behind the arm was slowly dragged out by him.
It was indeed a stone statue hidden in the space. It could still move initially, but when Xu Huo dragged it out of the space, its movements became very sluggish, and even its strength gradually diminished. Only the ferocious expression on its face didn't disappear, as if it were desperately trying to break free from him.
[Congratulations, player Passerby A, for finding an ownerless item.]
[Stone Statue in the Space Crevice: It is a semi-intelligent object that can freely shuttle through spatial crevices. It possesses a certain degree of autonomy and usually likes to hide in crevices to attack others. When no one discovers it, it can easily drag people into the spatial crevices it is familiar with, creating missing person cases where no clues can ever be found.]
[Note: Because it possesses a certain degree of autonomy, it is more suitable as an auxiliary tool.]
Xu Huo stored it in his item slot. The final assessment was a special item.
Compared to ordinary items with clear grade distinctions, the effects of special items are usually varied. Especially those that can move freely, or those with a bit of thinking intelligence like this one, can be classified as special items.
From a certain perspective, it was actually the same type as Mr. Dong and Little Pink Hat, just not as intelligent.
It could hide in spatial crevices, meaning that once released, he might not be able to find it. Seeing that its intelligence was low, it should be more suitable for placing in an instance.
Having decided its fate, over the next half hour, Xu Huo unexpectedly caught two more. After repeated contact, he gradually understood that this thing had low intelligence. When it touched the Water Cube Barrier, its mind would crash because it couldn't distinguish whether it was touching a person or space, so its reaction was a bit sluggish.
After catching three "Stone Statues in the Space Crevice," he was already very far from the entrance to the ruins. According to distance estimates, he should have reached the second layer of folded space.
After entering here, he never relaxed the Water Cube Barrier. There was always power attacking him from all around. From the initial small and light probes, to the dense attacks a few minutes later, the Water Cube Barrier showed wave-like fluctuations many times. He himself was constantly changing positions within the folded space under the rolling force.
The item rope placed in the first layer of folded space had long since broken. He had repeatedly used the Spiritual Gate to pull the distance back, but this could only barely ensure that he didn't sink too deep. What the surroundings were like, and what was happening, he still had no clue.
Feeling that he had been stranded for quite a while, he maximized the release of his Spiritual Realm, preparing to leave. But unexpectedly, at that moment, a sudden change occurred within the folded space. A powerful force surged out from beside him—as if a space had suddenly appeared, the space he was in was violently compressed, squeezing even him into a corner.
And when the two spaces squeezed together, small spaces appeared within the large space. The compressed small space repeatedly crushed Xu Huo's body, forcibly squeezing him out of the large space!
In that instant, Xu Huo was like an insect being repeatedly crushed by multiple spaces. Because the Water Cube Barrier deformed under the influence of the space, to avoid being crushed to death inside, he could only keep applying items to himself while struggling outward like a worm.
Fortunately, at the critical moment, the Childhood Personality pulled him, dragging him out of that oppressive atmosphere. But after getting out, he found that he hadn't left the ruins. Looking at the buildings not far away, he should have entered a deeper area.
This space cavity was still flooded with water. The excessively dense and overlapping buildings were clearly different from the military's original data. This space seemed to have cut the ruins into blocks of varying sizes and then stacked them together. Among the spliced buildings, Xu Huo discovered the figures of several military players. Some were still intact, while others had already turned into stone statues. All were dead.