Exploring Secrets III

The wind of the Great Abyss remained cold and thin, continuously lashing Zhang Rongfang's face as he sped along.

He beat his wings and dove swiftly, piercing through layer after layer of invisible membrane-like barriers.

Before long, he returned to the boundary on the ninth level leading to Beyond Forgetting.

Bottom Crawler was still there, eating and drinking merrily, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.

"You're back again? What is it? You look like you're in quite a hurry."

Zhang Rongfang slowly decelerated, hovering not far before him as he silently stared at him.

"Who exactly are you? This isn't the Great Abyss of the Interaction Zone where I was born. Yet I still found you in the same place. On the ninth level of different Great Abysses, there was always you."

"Always me? How could that be? What nonsense are you talking about?" Bottom Crawler had no idea what he meant. "I've never moved from here. I've been here for who knows how many years."

"You can't go up, and you don't want to go down, so you've never gone anywhere beyond this place, have you?" Zhang Rongfang said.

"You mean... you encountered me in the Great Abyss of other Interaction Zones too?" Bottom Crawler seemed to understand this time, and his voice turned grave.

"I need to verify it. I'll come find you again later."

Zhang Rongfang closed his eyes, beat his wings, and hovered in midair as he silently counted in his heart.

Before long, he opened his eyes again. Before him was no longer the Great Abyss, but a blurred, chaotic expanse—a shattered world where everything was gray.

Sky and earth were impossible to distinguish. Broken stones and clumps of soil floated everywhere.

There seemed to be no air here, only something like gelatin flowing through the