Volume 3
163 A Lone Man and Woman
"Get off me!" I kicked him. Rolling my eyes, I added, "You try it yourself!"
He fell onto the cold floor and simply lay there. He used his arms as a makeshift pillow for his head before he looked up and asked, "Seriously though, where's this place?"
My heart sank a little. I almost forgot about this while trying to make fun of him! Should we have been wasting time like this?!
"You don't know this place?" I responded coldly as I looked around me, my eyes eventually landing on his face.
Gaoqin Jiuye looked confused. "Would I have asked you if I knew? Should I know this place then?"
I stood up silently and slowly. Looking up, it was just pitch darkness.
Around us was a blanket of white, and only Gaoqin Jiuye and I were in the middle of this whitewashed hall. Turning around, I looked at the wall behind me. There was a huge screen on that wall, but nothing was playing right now.
"This is the Great Hall," I said each word slowly.
Gaoqin Jiuye's smile froze.
"You're saying, this, is the Northern District?" He stood up.
I smirked as I glanced at him. "Why're you pretending that you don't recognize the Northern District? Aren't you a soul splitter?"
He looked at me with a serious expression. "I'll ask you again. Is this the Northern District?"
I frowned. "You mean to say as a soul splitter who originally came from the Northern District, you don't even recognize the Great Hall?"
Putting his hands in his pockets, he looked around him. "I've told you this before, I've left the Northern District a long, long time ago. I've never been back here ever since I left for the Southern District. What do you think 'a long, long time ago' means?"
"You said that too when we were in that crack in space previously. You said the same thing when I asked how long you've been in the Split Zone."
I had no idea why I suddenly said that.
"How do we exit this Great Hall?" Looking up at that darkness, Gaoqin Jiuye changed the topic abruptly.
I laughed. "How would I know something that even the soul splitter doesn't? Li Wen previously said that the darkness above is where soul splitters rest, but seems like that isn't the case, since the both of us actually fell from there."
Following Gaoqin Jiuye's gaze, I looked up at that mysterious black hole which seemed to be endless.
"Li Wen? She said soul splitters rest there?" Gaoqin Jiuye asked as he pointed above him.
"That's right."
"Ha, as a soul splitter, I didn't even know I actually rested there." Gaoqin Jiuye's laugh was laced with sarcasm.
Looking at that darkness, I asked, "I remembered it correctly right, that we were both sucked into a python's stomach? So why would we fall from that hole above?"
"How would I know."
"Don't tell me?! This hole here has something to do with that python?!"
"How would I know."
"Good heavens, is that black hole the python's stomach itself? Or does the python's stomach lead to that black hole?"
"How would I know."
"God! If the python's stomach leads to this black hole, then wouldn't the black hole be its anus?! That would be so disgusting!"
Thousands of possibilities were floating in my head, and I felt disgusted at that thought.
"How do we get out of this Great Hall?" Gaoqin Jiuye could no longer be bothered to entertain me on this.
"How would I know," I responded immediately with his previous answers.
He decided to ignore me for real this time as he walked towards a large space in the direction of the window at the end of the hall.
Tsk tsk. I tutted disapprovingly as I followed behind him.
Before moving, I turned and looked at that screen again. It was gray with nothing on it. I gave myself a bitter smile. Why would I even hope to see my family on that screen? Would I still dare to face them?
Suppressing the emotion in me, I caught up with Gaoqin Jiuye. We reached the end of the hall rather quickly. This was somewhere new to me. Opposite that wall with the screen, a huge window was on this wall in front of us.
There was only white fog outside the window, and nothing else could be seen outside of a three-meter radius. Looking out, we could not see anything else but that fog.
"There's nothing here." I stuck my face to the glass in an attempt to see farther.
"Let's go out and have a look," Gaoqin Jiuye said.
"How do we go out? There doesn't seem to be any doors here." I looked around. There was nothing in this empty Great Hall but this window.
"You mean we won't be able to leave just because there's no door?" Gaoqin Jiuye scoffed. With a quick gaze, the air around us started rumbling! The air currents turned into sharp air cones as they flew towards that glass window!
I took in a breath at how unceremonious that seemed. Sadly, only a loud sound was produced, and the glass did not even crack a little.
Gaoqin Jiuye obviously did not expect for this to happen, and he even let out a breath in surprise.
"I'm not seeing things right?"
I replied, "Nope."
With another chilly gaze, the air started roaring around us again! As the air currents cleared up, the glass still looked as good as new!
I let out a laugh, not minding Gaoqin Jiuye's angry glance. I focused my MF onto my palms and placed them against the glass.
The MF felt like water in my palms, and controlling one's MF was just like controlling water inside one's body. Though it was rather difficult, I've gotten better at manipulating my MF especially after all the recent battles.
I froze as I finally received some feedback on my MF.
"This… this glass, I think it can absorb MF?"
Gaoqin Jiuye asked with a frown, "What?"
"Try it. Focus your MF on your palms and put some pressure on it to feel it."
After trying it for himself, Gaoqin Jiuye said, "I think you're right. But instead of saying it absorbs MF, it's more accurate to say it cancels out the MF."
"What's happening here? Yu Liang and Song Lu exited from this wall previously, and according to them, just behind that veil of fog are huge doors labeled 'Heaven', 'Ghost' and 'Exit'. Why aren't there any doors here and why can't we pass through even with the use of force?"
"Are we locked up in here?" Gaoqin Jiuye gave me a mysterious smile as he looked up at that black hole, and then back at me.
My hairs stood on ends as he said that.
"Don't hope for any role-play here. I'm a very proper person." I looked Gaoqin Jiuye in the eye.
He regarded me with disdain before walking back towards the middle of the Great Hall.
"Hey, you're going to give up just like this? Not going to try again?"
He answered me lazily, "What else can we do? It's obvious we can't exit from that window. Instead of wasting energy on that, why not just lie down and take a rest."
He already lay down before finishing his sentence. I glanced at him, and he looked like he could fall asleep any second.
An endless white welcomed me as I looked around the empty space. Looking up, there was only that seemingly endless black hole.
Gaoqin Jiuye seemed extremely comfortable on the floor, looking like this has nothing to do with him and he was not going to care even if the world was in fact going to ruin.
I glanced at him again, before finally deciding to sit on a stone somewhere near him.
"When did you learn to ignore everything just like Nie Zun. Let me tell you, you're already unpopular because you're so cold. If you continue acting like a lazybum just like Nie Zun, you might never be able to find a girlfriend."
I just wanted to ridicule him.
However, I did not expect silence.
My back was facing him initially, but I decided to turn around since the silence was rather unsettling.
I met Gaoqin Jiuye's eyes as I turned. He was already up in a casual sitting position. He was looking at me, not moving an inch.
I subconsciously held my breath as he seemed a little weird like this.
A light flashed in his eyes as he asked, "Why am I being like Nie Zun? Why is it that, in your eyes, I'm always being like somebody else, acting like somebody else?"
"Li Shen, I'm Gaoqin Jiuye. I'm not Gao Qi, neither am I Nie Zun."
His lips then turned up in an arch.
"Li Shen, are you confused about who I am all this time, and how you should be acting towards me?"
I was momentarily stunned. "What do you mean?"
He leaned in, closing the distance between us.
"In your eyes, do you have any inkling or impression of what Gaoqin Jiuye is like as a person? Do you even recognize Gaoqin Jiuye as an individual?"
"You are asking such a funny question. No matter how mental I am, it's not to the point where I can't tell that you are you."
I responded coldly.
"Is that so?" He smirked. "If you weren't confused from the get-go, judging by your personality, I'm afraid you might've chosen differently every time you fought against me."