Enveloped by thick gray-white fog, the Shadow Fiend Fragment sank slowly like a dead leaf stripped of all momentum.
Absolute silence surrounded it. Only the fog's own churning produced a low, mournful moan, like an undercurrent in the deep sea.
Ming Xin's consciousness hovered between wakefulness and unconsciousness. The searing pain in his soul and his utter exhaustion were like two mountains, pinning what remained of his lucid will at the edge of an abyss.
He did not dare fall completely asleep. The black figure's shriek and dark crimson gaze hung at the edge of his senses like icy thorns.
Though he had temporarily escaped direct pursuit, his instincts told him the danger had not gone far. This seemingly boundless sea of fog might not be an ideal hiding place.
His sense of time had completely failed here. It might have been hours, or perhaps only minutes, before the Shadow Fiend Fragment finally touched "bottom."
It was not solid ground, but another form of "existence."
A soft, viscous "sedimentary layer" formed from countless tiny particles of matter, congealed energy currents, and indiscernible wreckage.
The fragment sank into it. After descending slowly for some distance, it was finally wedged between several larger, sharply angled hard objects and came to a stop.
The light here was even dimmer. The fog above blocked most of the faint glow from the ever-changing sky.
Only scattered substances within the sedimentary layer emitted dim phosphorescence or traces of energy-light, barely outlining the vague shapes around them.
Silence. A silence more profound than above. Even the fog's mournful moaning had become distant and indistinct.
This environment instead allowed Ming Xin's taut nerves to relax ever so slightly. Cautiously, he extended his perception outward to examine the sedimentary layer.
The composition of the sediment was extraordinarily complex. There