The ripples on the water surface continue to spread.
The next moment this world began to shatter.
The gray-white halo above the head cracked like thin ice, and the light shrank inward. The rib-like stone pillars on both sides of the arcade were broken into pieces by invisible forces and then flew into the void outside the dome.
The stone platform under his feet was spinning crazily, Lin Ze's stomach was churning, his legs were nailed to the spot and he dared not move. He couldn't tell whether it was his feet that were shaking or his own brain that was shaking.
In a daze, he heard Sirius say something, but the voice was stretched into a strange sound line, distant and vague.
The water surface suddenly stood up.
The shallow pool formed a wall of water, and the figures of the three people were reflected on the wall.
The silhouettes of the three people are under a gray sky, with endless flat land underneath. There is an arch on the flat ground, and three people are standing in front of the arch.
The three people in the picture are also looking at the wall of water. There are still walls of water within the wall of water, and there are arches within the arches. The infinite matryoshka dolls are getting smaller and smaller, until in the end there is only a blurry black dot left.
Everything around is changing. The stone platform is at Transfiguration, stretched from a circle to an ellipse, and then twisted from an ellipse into a diamond shape. The edges and corners of the edge are flowing down like melted wax, solidifying into an unknown geometric shape.
Everything is changing, like the world in a kaleidoscope, becoming blurred and colorful.
Only that tree remained in a withered state without any change.
Lin Ze stared at it, feeling an indescribable nausea surging in his stomach.
The world around us is being kneaded, stretched, and folded.
The dome above the head is like a piece of paper being pulled from both sides. The silvery white light spots are stretched into strips of light, and the strips of light are twisted into spirals, gathering from the edge of the field of vision toward the center.
The stone pavement under my feet began to peel off piece by piece like a snake shedding its skin.
It's hard to describe the feeling. It's like watching a painting being erased and repainted bit by bit, or like an old radio turning the knob back and forth between frequency bands. The picture and sound are torn apart and reorganized in the same second.
When everything stops again, everything is back to where it started.
The silver-white light spot on the dome has also returned to its original height.
The water surface is still as peaceful as before, like black jade.
The stone wall in the middle of the water disappeared.
Instead there is a person.
The man was floating about a foot above the water.
A ball of extremely soft light enveloped him, and the outline of the edges was very blurry.
No facial features could be seen, and no male or female could be distinguished. Only a rough outline of a human body could be discerned, with hands hanging by his sides and his head slightly lowered.
That feeling is very strange.
Just like when you walked into an empty room before and saw nothing, but the person in front of you appeared very unexpectedly, and you were very accustomed to thinking that this person should be here.
Lin Ze found that his legs were a little weak. He did not suppress the dragon scales that were about to move under his skin, but they could not appear for a long time.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The sound swayed in this space without being swallowed or echoed, like a leaf dropped on the water.
The halo trembled slightly, as if someone inside sighed softly.
Then the three heard a voice.
A voice that was indistinguishable from male to female, with a very clean texture, as warm and moist as jade.
"You shouldn't be here."
Sirius took a step forward, the soles of his boots stepped on the water, and the ripples hit the light. The halo seemed to have been blown by the wind, and fine ripples appeared on the edges.
"What are you?" he asked.
"I am all things, your cognition, and my existence depends on your thinking..." The person in the light group said a difficult riddle.
Lin Ze frowned and looked at it.
The human figure in the light group tilted its head slightly, as if it was also looking at him.
"Where is this?" Mia asked softly.
The human figure slowly raised a hand and pointed behind him.
Behind it, on the originally empty water surface, a slender crack suddenly appeared, extending from the water surface to the dome. A blackness deeper than night surged in the crack, and nothing could be seen or illuminated.
"As you can see, here is "Other Side"."
After saying this, the human figure in the light stood still, like a frozen sculpture.
Lin Ze stared at it for a few seconds, his mind racing rapidly.
The word "Other Side" is not new to Wizarding World.
In the Middle Ages, a wizard named Bo'erdun wrote a book "Notes on a Journey Through the Underworld" which caused a sensation in Wizarding World.
It described the structure of the seventeen levels of hell in a lavish way, and it was later discovered that all of them were hallucinations caused by his taking too many drugs.
Lin Ze took a step forward. The water was up to his ankles. It was cool but not biting. "Then who are you?"
The human figure in the halo tilted his head slightly and seemed to be smiling.
"I just said that."
"When you come, I will appear. When you leave, I will disappear."
The figure raised a hand, palm facing up, and a blur of light and shadow appeared in the palm.
The light and shadow changed rapidly, first turning into a castle, then into a forest, and then into a dark corridor, "Whatever you think I am, I am. Wherever you think this is, this is where I am."
Mia looked down at the water at his feet and suddenly said, "So this is not the real entrance to "Other Side"?"
Lin Ze was stunned for a moment. Based on what the figure said before, he roughly understood what it meant.
Sirius squatted down and took a handful of water. After the water leaked out from between his fingers, nothing was left on his palm. Even the water stains dried very quickly.
"Is this water real?"
"If you think it's true, it's true." Lin Ze imitated Guangtuan's tone and said.
Sirius glared at him.
"Why did you just say we shouldn't be here?" he asked.
The soft light surrounding the figure flickered on and off, like a lamp that was almost out of oil.
"Because whoever comes here can never go back."
After saying this, Sirius's hand unconsciously touched the position of the wand on his waist.
"Everything you see now, including yourself, is false. This place has its own rules. From the moment you enter, you are not allowed to leave."
Lin Ze frowned.
"It?"
The human figure in the light ball pointed at the crack behind it.
"It, or rather, what's behind it."
Lin Ze stared at the crack, and the darkness in the crack kept surging.
"What if we insist on leaving?"
"You can try it."
The human figure even had a gentle smile in his tone when he said this, like an elder who knew the outcome was watching the younger generation show off.
Sirius stepped back and walked back, the soles of his boots making a series of rapid snapping sounds on the water.
Just when he walked fifty meters away, a white light flashed, Sirius disappeared, and the next moment he returned to the same place.