northernbook Chapter 291 I am a little fish (46)
Chapter 291 I am a little fish (46)
The main hall is a pseudo-gate in a sense. Entering from here allows one to get close to the core of the formation. For example, 6058 and his group merged into the "fruit core" because they did not understand the rules enough.
However, this path only allows you to approach the formation, but not directly find the core of the formation.
It was precisely because they provided this clue, and because of Meng Li's caution, that they had the possibility of leaving through the fake gate.
Given the witch doctor's "no turning back" statement, the main hall is most likely already a "dead end" at this point.
If they go to the main hall again as Jingli thinks, the best outcome will be that they will find nothing there, and the worst outcome will be that they will be trapped and die in the main hall.
Back alley was where they left from the "fruit pulp," and nothing had changed except for the discovery of beggars.
The exit for life is very likely located in the graveyard.
Jingli kept thinking, her steps never faltering.
Thanks to the travel techniques Meng Li had taught him, he was able to keep up in this crucial moment.
What was truly surprising was the beggar.
Although the beggar looked bulky, he kept up with Meng Li's pace in the bronze component. If Meng Li hadn't sped up, she would have been overtaken by the beggar several times.
Jingli also observed that the beggars' behavior when running was completely different from when they were walking in the back alleys.
His legs stretched out, and his original trousers almost became shorts. Although he was running and could only be seen as a blur, the parts not covered by the fabric were still faintly visible and showed a bluish-black color.
That was clearly the part that mutated into a puppet.
Although it was expected, this undoubtedly confirms once again the relationship between beggars and puppets.
Soon, the three of them had approached the graveyard.
Unlike what I had seen before, the graveyard, which was originally just a collection of square blocks, was now filled with huge bronze golems, all of which were tilting their chins up at a certain angle, as if they were waiting for something.
The beggar, having chased after them, completely forgot about the array's core in Meng Li's hand and plunged into the "Puppet Forest." Meng Li seized the opportunity to give the array core to Jing Li, leaving behind the words:
"Prepare the remaining key points of the formation, and we'll act according to the circumstances later."
Jingli naturally wouldn't refuse.
Back to this moment, the beggar slipped into the puppet forest, as if receiving timely rain after a long drought.
Suddenly, the beggar's mouth opened wide, filling his entire head and making all his facial features appear unusually small.
The enlargement of the mouth continued, like the magnification effects Jingli had seen in the high-tech world, gradually growing larger than his head, by one or two times.
Until he reached his limit, his mouth could no longer open wide, and his originally rounded teeth turned into sharp serrations, tearing at the puppets in the graveyard with a crunching sound that made one's teeth ache.
Meng Li had somehow arrived beside Jing Li, standing shoulder to shoulder with him, watching the scene unfold before them.
It is very obvious that the flow of time has slowed down.
Jingli felt that every movement he made was resisted by time, and all his movements were broken down into frames in his eyes.
Not only his own actions, but he could also see the beggar's grime-covered, sharp teeth touching the puppet's neck, the bronze fragments exploding in an instant, and his flying spittle.
The puppets, under the beggar's movements, "opened their eyes wide" and tried to resist at an extremely slow pace, but to no avail.
Maybe a while passed, or maybe a long time passed.
With the beggar's abilities, Jingli had already lost track of time.
The sound of rhythmic, majestic, bronze-like footsteps echoed from all around, along with the war horns that Jingli had once heard, their notes lingering and distant with time.
When 6058 sent a message, Jingli felt as if her mental world had been soaked in water, becoming soft and swollen, and she couldn't open the small chat interface for a long time.
The message pop-up also took a long time to appear, as if the device was lagging.
[6058: You silly boy, what happened over there? Xiaoming said he can sense Mr. Yuan's information from time to time, sometimes strong, sometimes weak.]
There was some lag, but the lag originated from the scene's head.
[6058: If you're doing anything, please hold on a little longer; we're almost at the core of the formation.]
In just a short while, Jingli felt like she was almost suffocating.
He was not used to this speed of time and space.
Before the beggar could even finish swallowing a single puppet, the puppets that had not yet been captured by his gaping maw had already moved forward, heading towards his mortal body.
Everything is in slow motion, but it is even more suffocating because the person watching this slow motion cannot resist.
A long time passed in this spacetime dimension, and the beggar's body was shrouded in puppets, seemingly no match for them.
"Give him the remaining array nodes."
Meng Li said, then added, "Leave the head of the first formation."
That might be what is known as the heart of a puppet.
Without hesitation, Jingli took out the remaining torso, wrapped it in energy, and delivered it to the beggar.
Energy is a power higher than the forces of uncertainty. Under its protection, the puppets unconsciously avoided it, and these things successfully passed through the beggar's gaping mouth and entered his body.
Then, the beggar grew even larger, so fast that he almost broke free from several puppets, becoming twice as tall as the tallest one.
This process sounds quick, but due to the influence of time and space, it is actually very slow.
News also came from 6058.
Just as Jingli was feeding the array eye to 6058, an incomplete puppet appeared on their side, its size being the same as the space they were in, blotting out the sky and the sun.
Lu Mingguang was almost unable to resist, but then he realized that the puppet was not there to stop them, but had merged with the beggar beside them.
The puppet's power slowly merged with the beggar on the other side of 6058, and Lu Mingguang finally saw that something was faintly glowing in the beggar's eyes.
It seems to be the key point of the formation.
Lu Mingguang did not directly take out his eyes, but continued to wait.
After learning the news, Jingli shared the information with Mengli and expressed her desire to give the puppet's head to the beggar as well.
Time passed extremely slowly, and Meng Li's indecisiveness made Jing Li anxious.
"Try it."
After a long pause, Meng Li gave her response.
At the same time, she also took out a magical artifact from her storage space. Before Jingli could guess what it was, Meng Li said, "If things go wrong, I will take it back."
It seems to be a magical artifact with a recycling function.
Meng Li's voice sounded normal, suggesting that she spoke very quickly, indicating that she was also anxious.
Jingli quickly placed the puppet's head on the magic artifact, which Mengli then used to feed it to the beggar.
The beggar's head, or rather, the puppet's heart, entered his mouth, and instead of growing larger, he shrank.
The bluish-black discoloration on his body disappeared, and he became no different from a normal person.
His innocent eyes regained some brightness, and his stubble-covered, dirty face became clean, making him look like a fifteen or sixteen-year-old teenager.
The surrounding puppets also stopped attacking at that moment, as if a pause button had been pressed, and returned to their original positions, missing limbs, once again staring blankly in a certain direction.
Perhaps, that's where the moon is about to rise.