As the lush greenery unfolded like a movie within the altar, the distant horizon began to darken, and a black line slowly moved across the sky, casting a huge shadow on the earth.
The Boss Coal cried out impatiently, "Where's the passage? Where's the passage home? Hurry, we're about to fall into the Spacetime Deep Well!"
Qingmu walked to the willow branch that had been planted in the ground and sat down. Looking at the newly sprouted leaf on the branch, he said, "Once it grows into a tree, we can go back."
"Caw? Wait until it grows into a tree?" The Crow paused for a moment, then cried out in a mournful voice, " Guagua... By the time it grows into a tree, my Ruhua will be old! My braised pork knuckle... it'll all be covered in mold... Guagua..."
Qingmu gently touched the tender willow buds again, sensing the countless connections that the new green brought to his distant hometown. In his mind, he saw many delicate willow branches swaying in the wind, like a green curtain, which could be lifted with just a gentle touch to enter his long-lost home.
Unfortunately, his outstretched hand couldn't reach the willow branches; he was always some distance from the curtain. He felt it was somewhat like the boundary of a dream, as if crossing from one dream to another. If your Mental Power isn't strong enough, sometimes you can see the existence of a dream next door, but you can't touch its boundary, you can't cross over.
"A hundred years is indeed a long time for a tree, but we will soon be covered by the Spacetime Stasis Zone. A hundred years here would only take a few days on Earth, maybe even just one day," Qingmu said.
"So, Ruhua won't age yet! Braised pork hock... it's still edible in winter... but it's better to put it in the fridge, or just make a new one... a hundred years... um..."
The Crow tilted its head and thought for a moment, then suddenly cried out in terror, "Caw! Ruhua, we won't grow old, caw! In the Spacetime Stasis Zone, we'll die, caw!"
"Therefore, we need to hide outside the Spacetime Stasis Zone." Qingmu said, standing up and returning to the center of the altar, grasping the Soul of Wood.
"Outside? You mean that room where the helicopters are parked... that time bubble?" Crow looked around. "Finding that bubble would be ideal, but I find the Swordfish's hangar suspicious."
"Oh?" Qingmu asked with a smile, "Why?"
"What a coincidence," said the Crow. "Why is the time bubble exactly in one room on a ship? Why in the same place both times? Why...?"
It thought for a long time but couldn't come up with anything else, then cried out, "Why is there a time bubble?"
Qingmu laughed, "Because time-space bubbles can be made, just like braised pork hock."
"Huh? You can eat it?" The Crow flapped its wings, then realized that Qingmu wasn't referring to the 'eating' attribute, so Guagua awkwardly at the sky twice, "I mean... it's all, uh... craftsmanship, yes, craftsmanship!"
Qingmu nodded. "They are indeed all craftsmanship."
With that, he yanked the Soul of Wood from the ground. The towering tree in his consciousness shattered into fragments like a broken image and vanished.
The floating boulder crashed down as if it had lost some kind of support, startling the Crow who shrank their necks Guagua cawed wildly.
"Don't be afraid, they will return to their original positions. We're standing in the middle; there weren't any stones here originally," Qingmu said.
As the boulder fell, the entire space rumbled and trembled. Qingmu closed his eyes, carefully sensing the changes in his mind caused by the spatial cracks formed during the tremors through his Soul of Wood.
Back when the giant moon appeared in the sky, he noticed the peculiar shape formed by the floating stones on the altar and the altar itself. Mrs. Larry had also said it was formed by two pyramids stacked opposite each other. But what was strange was why it wasn't the two pyramids with their apexes facing each other, to match the meaning the symbol was meant to convey, but rather two pyramids inserted opposite each other, creating a spatial overlap?
Now he knew that the overlapping part was a special space. This space was likely intentionally left behind by the original builders or designers of the altar to eliminate the effects of the Spacetime Stasis Zone.
If that's the case, the power of the altar's builder is truly inconceivable. To be able to cause the altar to fall into Spacetime Stasis Zone every time it's activated is not just a matter of mental ability, but rather the mutual influence between mind and matter. It's hard to imagine how terrifying someone would be if they mastered the direct influence of mind on the material world and possessed sufficiently strong Mental Power.
The dark line in the sky drew closer, Sun was isolated by shadow, as if it were blocked by thick, dark glass.
Before the shadow covered the altar, all the stones fell back to the ground. The area where the two void pyramids overlapped originally had two layers of space. After the stones fell back to the ground, this area became a normal space, and the extra layer should have Annihilation. However, due to the close connection between this space and the Mental Power Field, the fragments from the Annihilation of the space were captured and collected by Qingmu with the Soul of Wood, forming a new spacetime bubble.
Due to the dissipation during Annihilation, this spacetime bubble is much smaller than the original superposition of the two pyramids, and is about the same size as the Swordfish's hangar.
The black line moved overhead, completely enveloping them in shadow. They felt as if they were in a strange world, like living in a crystal house, where the outside world felt both real and unreal.
Qingmu slowly walked up the steps of the altar, and the entire surreal space seemed to move with them. Standing on top of the altar, one could see the trees and weeds in the distance rapidly decaying and flourishing again, as if watching a nature documentary at high speed.
"Caw! So that's how it is! When did you become so smart?" The Crow tapped Qingmu's head, somewhat incredulous.
Suddenly, it remembered something and exclaimed, "Croak! So, that bubble on the ship was also man-made? Wow, I knew it was too much of a coincidence! But... how did they do it?"
"Sufficiently strong Mental Power is enough." Qingmu gently stroked the Soul of Wood in his hand. "Without the Sacred Staff, I don't think anyone's Mental Power could be that strong."
" The Sacred Staff? But wasn't the Soul of Fire in Ronald Cohen's cabin?" the Crow asked, puzzled. "The Time-Space Bubble is in the hangar, how do you explain that?"
"When we saw them, they had already fallen out of the Spacetime Stasis Zone, and the time-space bubble was no longer needed." Qingmu recalled while pondering, "Perhaps it was after they fell out of the Spacetime Deep Well that Ronald took the Soul of Fire back to his room and wrote that last message... But what was his purpose?"
"What? But he died of old age!" The Crow shook its neck vigorously, ruffling its feathers to show how utterly incomprehensible this was. "And then there's..." it cawed, "And where did that time bubble come from? Why is it still in the hangar?"
Qingmu said, "Don't forget, what we saw was only half a Soul of Fire."
"Isn't the other half on Earth?"
"That's what Ronald said; we can't verify whether he's telling the truth or not."
"You mean that half of it was hidden in the hangar? And... Guagua!..." The Crow seemed to have realized something terrible, "There's someone hiding in the hangar?"