Chapter 2698: The Powerful Painting Woman
The poison took some time to take effect. Xu Huo wrestled with the giant monster for a while longer before this colossal beast finally weakened and collapsed to one side. It wasn't dead, and the poison wasn't even enough to completely restrict its mobility, but it sensed the tide turning and felt the urge to retreat.
The giant monster pushed through the woods and ran, but after just a few kilometers, it slammed into an invisible barrier. Blocked, it swung its palms and pounded wildly. Half a minute later, cracks appeared on the barrier. With one final headbutt from the monster, the barrier shattered completely, revealing a pitch-black space before them.
The giant monster hesitated, then suddenly tilted its ear to listen inside. Without a second thought, it turned and fled, not even bothering with Xu Huo, who was still on its head.
Xu Huo stood atop the heaving skull, but his gaze remained fixed on that black space. In less than a minute, towering waves surged out from within, sweeping across the forest where the monster had been with overwhelming force.
Not to mention Xu Huo, even a creature of the monster's bulk couldn't stay steady. And as the torrent rushed through the forest, countless sea beasts appeared!
Xu Huo was slammed by several giant sharks in succession. Only after cutting off the octopus tentacles wrapped around his defensive barrier did he use the Spiritual Gate to reach the water's surface.
He barely managed to escape the water when a sudden suction force seized him, pulling his entire body skyward. He was only a few dozen meters above the water when gravity abruptly reversed, and he plummeted toward the sky!
Now the sky had become the ground, and the forest submerged by the black sea had turned into the sky. Xu Huo, falling midair, glanced at the suspended seawater above, steadied himself as best he could, and looked downward.
He was falling fast, but this space seemed endless. A blue backdrop floated with wisps of white clouds, with nothing to grab onto and no ground in sight. It was as if he was simply descending continuously in an empty environment.
Seeing no end, Xu Huo used his Spiritual Power to halt his fall.
He stood in midair. When he looked up again, the black ocean above had vanished.
This kind of patchwork environment felt more like the space around the Dimension Train tracks. Could the Box Carrier's castle really be connected to spaces from other dimensions?
Just as he was trying to break through the space, a massive "shadow" suddenly extended from above his head. The "shadow" kept falling. He watched for a while before realizing it was a hoof.
Xu Huo's brows twitched. He immediately moved upward and grabbed hold of a corner of the shadow.
Sure enough, the moment he touched it, the shadow stopped sinking and jerked upward!
Xu Huo was pulled out by the Painting Woman. He turned back—the place he had come out of was indeed a painting: a vast sky and a black ocean drawn as a single line.
"How did you find me?" he asked the Painting Woman.
"I was playing in the painting anyway," the Painting Woman said, pointing to another landscape painting nearby. "I came out of this one and suddenly saw you falling from the sky."
"I also saw those two birds in the painting. They were splashing around in the water, having a great time."
Xu Huo was silent for a moment, then asked, "Did you run into the Stone Lion and Yan Jiayu?"
The Painting Woman nodded, indicating that Yan Jiayu was upstairs, trapped in a corner space of a room. A painting had fallen nearby, and there were people inside it too.
"Did you find an exit?" Xu Huo pressed.
The Painting Woman shook her head. But she hadn't made no progress. Unlike her last solo escape attempt, even though she hadn't found an exit, a puppet had told her that she could get out through the belly of a roly-poly toy.
She was now looking for that roly-poly. It wasn't in its own room, so she had been darting through every room and every space. She hadn't found the roly-poly, but she had found Xu Huo and the others.
This was the advantage of being a prop. And as a Super Item, as long as she wasn't explicitly targeted, the Painting Woman was almost the same as the other living props here.
"Let's get Yan Jiayu out first." Whether it was a space or a Container Item, Xu Huo had no intention of going back in. He put on the plush suit again and went upstairs with the Painting Woman.
There were far fewer puppets in the hallway than before. They got up easily.
But getting Yan Jiayu out was a bit trickier. Although the Painting Woman knew there was a corner space inside the wall, she didn't know how to get in or how to get Yan Jiayu out.
Xu Huo had to knock and tap on the outside, trying to get Yan Jiayu's attention.
But with the space partition, he couldn't tell what was going on inside.
The painting that had trapped Qi Cong, Zhu Bu, and the others had been taken by Yan Jiayu earlier and had now fallen into the Painting Woman's hands. Getting them out wasn't hard. She reached in and pulled them all out in a few moves.
But unexpectedly, Zhu Bu and Hong Xi, who had gone in later, had parts of their bodies assimilated by the painting. Both of their arms and limbs had turned into something like stone. When the Painting Woman pulled them out, their arms fell off and shattered.
Seeing this, Qi Cong quickly felt himself all over. Only after confirming he hadn't been petrified did he breathe a sigh of relief and comfort the two, "At least it didn't hit a vital spot."
Zhu Bu and the others were indeed lucky. If the Painting Woman hadn't found them, they would have died in the painting.
"Yan Jiayu is trapped in the wall space." Since they were all out, Xu Huo called them over to help.
Zhu Bu was a Spatial Evolver. He tried to manipulate the Spatial Power above. It wasn't completely ineffective, but the effect was minimal. He didn't have the strength to deconstruct the space layer by layer.
Xu Huo took out "Dead End." "This device can damage similar devices to a certain extent. It's effective against Spatial Power, but it has limited uses. We need to pick the right spot."
"Can you sense where Yan Jiayu is?" he asked the Painting Woman.
The Painting Woman touched the wall, then pointed to a spot and mimicked Yan Jiayu's standing posture.
Xu Huo looked around at everyone before raising "Dead End" and striking the spot next to where Yan Jiayu's hand would be.
A crisp "ding" sounded, and a hole appeared in the wall. The space barrier inside the wall also fluctuated. The originally impenetrable space wall showed a gap. Zhu Bu took the opportunity to widen the gap further and indeed saw a kangaroo foot lying horizontally there.
The black Materialized Object flowed into the space wall, grabbed the foot, and pulled hard.
The person was dragged out, but not from the position the Painting Woman had indicated. Yan Jiayu was standing upright inside the wall. Xu Huo and the others were on her right side, seeing her right hand. At that position, combined with her hand being placed incorrectly, "Dead End" had pierced through her abdomen.
Looking at the two holes piercing the plush suit from side to side, and the fact that she wouldn't wake up, Xu Huo and the others turned their heads toward the Painting Woman.