# Chapter 2612: Xu Huo's Luck
Due to the violent impact, Xu Huo hovered on the edge of unconsciousness. In his swaying vision, he saw that wisp of ethereal thread confined within the Water Cube, moving left and right. Though its movements appeared extremely slow, the surface of the Water Cube churned violently in response. At the same time, the Water Cube had still not completely detached from his body, and this extreme tug-of-war between spatial forces repeatedly battered his body and consciousness. In just two seconds, he sank into darkness.
After he fell unconscious, his childhood personality did not disappear. Although he possessed a nearly physical body, it was insufficient to clash with spatial forces on the level of the Water Cube, so he pushed the Painting Woman forward.
The Painting Woman saw Xu Huo unconscious with blood still flowing from the corner of his mouth and grew anxious, but she had no concept of "proper handling." She raised the communicator and smashed it against the Water Cube. With a crisp sound, the Water Cube remained completely unharmed while the communicator was utterly destroyed. She discarded the remaining half of the communicator and grabbed the Water Cube with both hands, trying to pull it outward. However, since the Water Cube was connected to Xu Huo, even her forceful tugging only managed to shift him slightly to the side.
After thinking for a second, she simply braced her feet against Xu Huo's chest and abdomen while hugging the Water Cube and pulling outward. This seemed to have some effect, as the tail of the Water Cube hanging from Xu Huo's body stretched a bit longer. But this also caused him to spit out more blood, and the tail end of that wisp of ethereal thread originally trapped inside the Water Cube also leaked out from one corner of the cube, flowing back into Xu Huo's body along the Water Cube.
If this continued, the person would likely die before the Water Cube could be removed. The childhood personality quickly stopped the Painting Woman, signaling her not to pull anymore.
The Painting Woman felt Xu Huo's aura weakening and had to let go. This brief tug-of-war of just a few seconds seemed to have coincidentally brought the Water Cube and the ethereal thread into balance. The Water Cube stopped boiling, the ethereal thread ceased its swaying, and both sank back into the human body together.
"He's not going to die, is he?" the Painting Woman mouthed to the childhood personality.
The childhood personality, wearing pajamas, crouched beside Xu Huo, touched his chest where there were no visible wounds, then placed his hand over the location of his heart. He tilted his head with some confusion, then stuck half his head into Xu Huo's chest to take a look.
When he pulled his head out, there was obvious confusion on his face. He paused, then stuck his head in again. After doing this three times, he seemed finally certain.
"The Water Cube has deformed a little bit and stuck together with that spatial ethereal thread onto his heart," the Materialized Object formed into text in the air.
"Then will he die?" the Painting Woman asked with great concern. "Should we send him to the hospital? Or should we reserve a cemetery first?"
"His vitality is very strong," the childhood personality said. "Just some internal injuries, and his brain isn't damaged."
"That's good then." The Painting Woman felt relieved. She picked up the clothes nearby and covered him, then pulled out a new communicator to play games.
However, just a few minutes later, more than a dozen figures appeared on both sides of the riverbank. These were the ones showing themselves openly; those hidden nearby numbered several times more.
They did not rashly approach, nor did they speak to inquire, because neither the Painting Woman nor the childhood personality showed any intention of acknowledging them. One was playing games, the other was pulling up grass to wipe the blood from Xu Huo's face. The two guarded him on either side, each busy with their own tasks, without even a spare glance.
The Night Tour Instance claimed lives every minute and every second. The patience of the 001 Zone players was limited. When one of them tentatively took a step forward, both the Painting Woman and the childhood personality looked up. The next second, countless shredded paper and paper-folded toys instantly surrounded Xu Huo, while the childhood personality flashed behind that player, his body suspended in midair, reaching down from above to grasp the player's head... Not simply holding his skull, but driving his spiritual power-manifested hand into the player's cranium.
This player did not lose consciousness, but he could not move, because if he dared to move, his brain matter could be scooped out at any moment.
"We mean no harm," an old man with white hair spoke unhurriedly. "Before formal negotiations, I want to clarify one question: Did you truly escape from the restricted space of the Night Tour Instance?"
The childhood personality nodded.
The white-haired old man's expression relaxed slightly. "May I ask when he will wake up?"
The childhood personality shook his head.
"The situation is urgent. If his injuries are severe, we can treat him first," the white-haired old man said immediately.
"No, no," the Painting Woman interjected. "Who knows if you'll try something sneaky?"
The white-haired old man frowned slightly. "Treatment will certainly be conducted under your observation. I swear on the honor of 001 Zone that I will not do anything underhanded during treatment!"
"You're so funny," the Painting Woman asked sincerely. "I don't even know you. Why should I trust you? Unless..."
"Unless?"
"Unless you give me a city, with all the land and property deeds written in my name..." The Painting Woman's outrageous demand was cut off by Xu Huo, who sat up and said, "Enough, stop messing with them."
The childhood personality vanished on the spot. The Painting Woman happily crowded in front of him, pretending to casually wipe away the two footprints that had been revealed when the clothes slipped down.
Xu Huo pushed her hand away, took out a cleaning agent to wash off the blood and stains, and said to the 001 Zone crowd, "We did indeed come out from the restricted space, but not through the conventional method of clearing the instance. The only reason we managed to escape was by using a life-saving item. The process would be very difficult to replicate."
"However, there is one point that matches your information: the Night Tour procession indeed walks directly from the restricted space to the outside venue. There is no fixed passage. They can walk out from anywhere. Theoretically, if a Night Tour procession can pass through the passage intact, a player wearing the Night Tour suit could also do so, but there's no guarantee the player would still be alive upon exiting."
"The Night Tour procession I followed out encountered an accident. The entire procession was destroyed."
At this point, he paused and emphasized again, "The way I escaped would be very difficult to replicate. It requires not only the right life-saving item but also a bit of luck."
It was indeed luck. He didn't know whether the Water Cube had been genuinely damaged or had deliberately seized a strand of power from that space. Either way, it was fortunate that the two could temporarily maintain balance within his body. From now on, until he found a proper and feasible solution, he could no longer attempt to use spatial power, because once the balance was broken, he might either be dissolved by the spatial ethereal thread or torn apart by the Water Cube.
"I can't help with anything else. If you really want to try, you can arrange for Mental Evolvers to carry spatial defense-type super items or devices to attempt it, but the success rate is likely very low."
Quickly passing through the passage might not pose the danger of being dissolved by spatial power, but successfully passing through would also mean fulfilling the requirements of the instance's Night Tour procession. What would happen in between, no one knew.
"But my suggestion is to stall for time until the seven-day instance ends."
After hearing this, the white-haired old man said, "Thank you for your candor. However, this is a newly born non-standard A-class instance. If we don't grasp its patterns during its first opening, it might lead to even more severe consequences next time."
"Mr. Xu, if you have no immediate plans to leave 001 Zone, we can arrange for you to rest in a temporary safe house. Please understand, this is also to prevent the instance from expanding."
Xu Huo's first priority in distancing himself from the 001 Zone players' field of vision was his concern that the power from that space might collide with the Water Cube and cause unpredictable changes. Although things hadn't developed as he had anticipated, the problem was temporarily suppressed. He indeed had no intention of leaving, so he accepted their proposal.