Chapter 397: Chapter 397

It seemed that only Jing Shu had the ability and means to find the answer through the withered tree roots; others couldn’t possibly dig with their bare hands, could they? Even the Tai Ban Snake couldn’t swallow these roots.

Jing Shu, who normally didn’t sweat, now had beads of sweat the size of beans trickling down her forehead. The deeper they went, the slower the cannibal insects nibbled at the branches, which transformed from being fragile to incredibly tough and resilient. Jing Shu had to command all her cannibal insects to gnaw with all their might.

The bright red juice grew increasingly dense and dark, turning a blackish-red. It became so viscous it formed strands, almost solidifying into crystals.

Jing Shu wasted none of it, collecting all this viscous, stringy liquid into her Magic Cube Space. When it finally crystallized, it signified that her all-night effort had reached its culmination.

DING! The sound made Jing Shu’s very soul tremble.

The cannibal insects continued to gnaw at a layer that resembled bark. Countless insects struggled for half an hour just to make a small crack. Finally, the leading cannibal insect, carrying silk, reached the glowing space.

At last, Jing Shu could clearly see what this central thing was.

It looked like an endless vista of stars and, simultaneously, like a black hole inexorably devouring all surrounding life forms. The several red-black crystals dazzled Jing Shu’s eyes. In such a small place, they seemed like the heart of the tree itself, encased within the black hole. Touching this black hole could certainly lead to another world! Jing Shu felt.

But in that instant, all approaching matter turned to the dust of time. The cannibal insects, at a speed visible to the naked eye, rapidly grew, aged, and withered. They decayed just like the withered tree, as if they had lived for hundreds of years, before finally crumbling to dust and vanishing into ash!

The surrounding cannibal insects, even those fed with diluted Spiritual Spring, couldn’t withstand time. In just a breath, these insects rapidly died of old age, dried up, and turned to ash, disappearing into the black hole.

Even the silk, reputed to be incorruptible for a century, began to turn slightly yellow. Jing Shu didn’t know how fast time flowed within this black hole. She only saw where the cannibal insects had reached. I have to get that fist-sized, red-black crystal!

Without any hesitation, Jing Shu used the silk to touch and directly retrieve the crystal into the Magic Cube Space. Jing Shu was fast, but she was not faster than time. She had touched a taboo!

Although she was far away, her consciousness was connected to these insects, and she was using the silk as a medium, so she suffered an even greater impact!

SPURT! Jing Shu suddenly vomited a large mouthful of fresh blood. At the same time, blood began to stream from her ears, nose, and wide-staring eyes. She felt as if she was about to burst and die!

Faintly, she heard furious roars and indignant howls. Humans can only hear sounds within the frequency range of 20Hz to 20,000Hz. The sound she heard, however, was beyond this range. It violently knocked her unconscious, and a furious collision of energy began inside her.

The Magic Cube Space, stimulated by the life-threatening danger, finally acted, lifting the seal that had been dust-covered for ages.

Jing Shu fell into a deep faint. Simultaneously, her consciousness once again arrived where the cannibal insects had reached—the place that seemed to be the heart of the withered tree, housing a black hole.

Jing Shu couldn’t see her hands or feel her own existence. It was as if she were dreaming, yet she could clearly perceive her surroundings. She gazed at the small black hole, and a flood of information filled her mind. She understood then that she had just navigated the Gate of Life and Death.

Why was this so? Because she had just touched the forbidden. She had touched the door to four-dimensional space and had almost entered it. She had nearly exploded and died!

As is well known, two-dimensional space consists of length and width, forming a flat plane. Three-dimensional space is where we humans exist, composed of length, width, and height. Objects in three-dimensional space always possess these three dimensions.

So, what is four-dimensional space? It is three-dimensional space with the addition of time. We refer to four-dimensional space as time.

All living organisms can sense the next dimension, but they cannot alter it. For example, ants live in two-dimensional space; their world is a flat plane with only forward, backward, left, and right. Even if you let an ant climb your leg, in its world, the height of your leg is just another plane. Humans, however, perceive this as a three-dimensional space.

Similarly, observing a person from four-dimensional space is like seeing a straight line connecting their birth to their death. One could fast-forward or rewind freely within this timeline. We humans, however, can only perceive the passage of time; we cannot "walk" within it.

Why would Jing Shu explode and die upon touching four-dimensional space?

It’s simple. When we bring a two-dimensional paper figure into three-dimensional space, it collapses because it lacks three-dimensional support; its internal organs would be exposed. This lack of an extra dimension results in a sudden collapse.

Jing Shu, a being from three-dimensional space, had recklessly touched the door to four-dimensional space. Lacking four-dimensional support, she would have died instantly, just like her cannibal insects, unable to withstand the pressure and the ravages of time.

But, at the critical moment, the Magic Cube Space unsealed and upgraded, saving her.

So, why could the Magic Cube Space save her? Because the Magic Cube Space is a product of six-dimensional or even higher spaces. It provided Jing Shu with a support point in four-dimensional space! It was like giving ants the concept of ’height’ and giving Jing Shu a support point in ’time.’

This must be why Jing Shu’s mind had suddenly become filled with so much information.

So, there really are four-dimensional organisms! They absorb the ’time’ from all the creatures on this mountain. But because of dimensional differences—just like humans are also beings within four-dimensional space but exist on the time axis, only able to perceive its passage without truly interacting with it—these four-dimensional beings can only steal time from the third dimension through such methods.

Though her mind was flooded with so much information from that powerful existence, Jing Shu could only grasp a rough understanding due to dimensional limitations. In any case, the Magic Cube Space had saved her from exploding and had also repaired her. As for what was used for the repairs... When I saw that the crystals I’d collected in the Magic Cube Space had shrunk significantly, I realized that the red, condensed crystalline essence must have been what provided me the four-dimensional support point, right? ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭⟡𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦⟡𝘯𝘦𝘵

If that’s the case, does going to the door of four-dimensional space again mean I’m now Undead? I don’t even know what that red crystal stuff is. I only took the largest one from the center, and that entity seemed furious, didn’t it?

Jing Shu felt an intense, throbbing headache surge, becoming unbearable. She could no longer resist and passed out. As she did, the world within the Magic Cube Space began to reshape itself. After Jing Shu’s efforts over the past six months, the Magic Cube Space had finally upgraded again.