In a series of bone deformation sounds and rising black smoke, twelve symmetrical black arthropods spread and grew again, the pitch-black bone armor gradually covered the surface of the body, and the sharp bone spurs flashed with blood-colored cold light—Shirley returned to the form of a ghostly demon again.

She was adapting to how to control her two forms at an astonishing rate, becoming more and more comfortable with the body, and the whole process was more like it was already infiltrating the depths of her mind and limbs, and now she was just gradually "recalling" it.

Slightly moving the arthropods behind her to assist walking, and turning her hands and feet again, Shirley nodded with satisfaction: "It's a little more reassuring to be in such a ghost place." ”

The dog raised his head and glanced at Shirley, who was now much taller than him, and then his body was suddenly enveloped in a swirling cloud of smoke, as if melting, shrinking and merging itself into the shadow beside Shirley.

Duncan watched this scene silently from the sidelines, and waited until Shirley's form stabilized before stepping forward and saying, "I thought you would resist your demon body—after all, such a drastic form transformation is a very ...... for ordinary people Something that challenges the three views. ”

"It's all in the deep sea, and you still care if it looks good?" Shirley poked the stone on the ground with the knot behind her, and said with a nonchalant expression, "I'm a ...... Oh, I'm a 'pragmatist' – make sure I'm safe to live and then think about whether I'm going to be alive or not. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with this demon body, it is very capable of fighting, it can also resist fighting, and it is very useful in the deep sea, if there is any drawback, it will absorb the remains of dead demons uncontrollably, evil ...... It still feels a little nauseous when I think about it......"

As soon as her voice fell, a dog's head came out of the shadows under her feet: "...... Actually, I think it tastes pretty good - Shirley, don't you really want to taste the bone I brought you? ”

Shirley did not hesitate: "Don't, it's unpalatable!" ”

Duncan watched the scene silently, and a smile finally appeared on his face.

"Then all we have to do is find the 'Shadow Lord,'" he began, bringing the conversation back to the point, "There are countless floating islands here, and the whole space is much larger than we expected at the beginning—dog, can you be sure where we are?" ”

The dog's head came out of the shadows again, and Ah Dog looked around very seriously, and nodded slightly to the captain: "This should be the upper layer of the barren ring belt - the area closest to the 'starry sky', if my judgment is correct, we need to go 'down'." ”

Duncan looked curious: "Down?" ”

Dog nodded, then exchanged words with Shirley, and then came to the border of the broken wasteland, looking at the boundless chaotic darkness below.

In the long void below the floating islands, the chaotic starlight became fainter and fainter, and more floating islands could be vaguely seen floating in the darkness, but at the very bottom of all the darkness, something else could be dimly seen...... It's flickering.

At first, Duncan thought it was another "starry sky" hanging from the bottom of the deep ocean, but he soon realized that the faint points of light were faintly shimmering on the surface of some incredibly large structure...... Lamplight.

Faint points of light, almost shrouded in darkness, were arranged in the distance, vaguely outlining the sinuous branches and a "trunk" at the center of all the branches, which was a little denser and slowly moving as if it were a living thing.

Duncan stood at the edge of the shattered earth, quietly staring at the dim and dense point of light, he couldn't tell how far it was from here to below, nor could he judge the scale of the "essence" behind the point of light, but just by such a cursory observation, he could imagine what kind of behemoth it was.

"That's the Shadow Lord, the 'mother' of all demons, and the fate of demons after death," Dog said in the shadows, his voice with a hint of inexplicable emotion, "At the very bottom of all the broken islands, his limbs spread to the end of the entire deep sea, and his visible physical parts alone are equivalent to dozens or hundreds of city-states, and the invisible parts—the ends of those tentacles, which pierce the deep sea' bottom', which extends all the way into the subspace, cannot be calculated and judged in any mathematically logical language.

"Every second, a myriad demonic matrix grows out of that dark abyss - they are like light smoke that leaves on an irregular invisible wind." The bottom', and through a series of discontinuous spatial faults, they are sent to the floating islands above, they devour each other, and in the process turn into various entities, and then fight endlessly, and the dead demons are turned into smoke and mud again, and after a short or long wandering, they return to the abyss below, absorbed by the Holy Lord, and the cycle continues.

"I'm out of this cycle...... But this has little impact on the entire deep sea, and the devouring cycle between demons will not stop, and the 'operation' of the 'Holy Lord' will never end. ”

Duncan listened quietly to Ah Gou's narration, and did not speak in the middle, until the other party's voice fell, he nodded lightly: "Then we just need to go down?" ”

"That's the problem, 'going down' isn't an easy thing to do here," Dog looked up from the shadows and looked into Duncan's eyes, "Do you remember a very strange and difficult 'trait' in the deep sea?" ”

“…… You mean spatial discontinuity? Duncan pondered, "I remember we talked about this before, in the deep sea, 'getting to' from one location to another is a very uncertain thing, and the direction and distance are completely random here - but we haven't felt the problem all the way before. ”

"This is because we are on the island, within the confines of a single floating island, the space still follows the continuum structure that we know, but if it is separated from these islands......"

As he spoke, the dog stepped out of the shadows, picked up a piece of gravel nearby, picked it up, and threw it far into the vast darkness beyond the confines of the floating island.

The rubble disappeared in front of everyone's eyes in the blink of an eye - as soon as it left the area around the floating island two or three meters, it disappeared directly into thin air.

Alice's eyes widened as she looked in the direction in which the stone had disappeared, and it took several seconds before she couldn't help but speak, "Where did the stone go?" ”

"I don't know, anyway, there is only a small chance of 'falling down'," Ah Dog shook his head, "up and down, left and right, back and forth, in any direction, at any distance, at any landing point, it may be falling from the star space, it may have smashed on the head of some unlucky demon, of course—it may also have landed directly on the Netherworld Holy Lord." This is how entities move completely randomly as they move through the 'nothingness' zone between floating islands. ”

Duncan frowned: "...... So those 'cycles' you just mentioned, the 'cycles' between the demon on the floating island and the Holy Lord, are also random like this? ”

"Yes," Dog nodded, "everything is based on uncertainty - it may take hundreds of years for a demon born from the Holy Lord to gain an entity on a floating island, and the remains of a demon killed by its own kind and thrown into the void may have to 'fall' in the darkness for a thousand years before reaching the deepest part of the Netherlands, and this 'fall' may be ...... in either direction."

As it spoke, it looked up at the dark starry sky overhead.

"And given the scale of the Deep Sea and the infinite number of demons, we can even suspect that some of the demon substrates that were originally differentiated from the Nether Saint Body are still floating in the darkness and have not yet obtained entities, and among the earliest demons who died from fighting, there are also some who are still 'falling' in that darkness for 10,000 years, and have not yet fallen to the bottom—this is all very likely."

Uncertainty, discontinuity, a system of "chaotic loops" built on huge random events......

How weird!

Duncan frowned, and while sketching a completely anti-common sense world "order" in his mind according to Ah Gou's description, he said thoughtfully: "...... But at the beginning, the Lost Country once smashed straight through the deep sea. ”

"Yes, so this is the most terrifying thing," the dark green fire in Ah Gou's eyes shrank slightly, "In fact, compared to the matter of 'being crushed to death by a flame falling from the sky', 'a thing can fall from above, and then it will definitely fall to the bottom' that shocked the demons in the deep sea even more - demons have no mind, but at least they can live in this chaotic land by instinct, and the appearance of the Lost Country completely violates the 'rules' here, this kind of incomprehensible, unreasonable, and contrary to the law." 'Phenomenon' is what makes many demons go crazy on the spot. ”

Ah Gou paused, and his tone was extremely serious: "Do you understand what I mean?" For the deep sea, 'something can fall from above to below, and the fall process is true every time', this thing that is taken for granted in the real world is 'indescribable' here - the fall of the Lost here is not just as simple as destroying a few islands and killing tens of thousands of demons, it 'penetrates' the order of the deep sea itself. ”

Duncan thought for a moment: "...... In other words, for the sake of the physical and mental health of the demons here, I'd better stop doing anything 'falling' here? ”

"It's not for the physical and mental health of the demons - their lifestyles aren't very healthy anyway," Dog shook his head, "It's for the 'health' of the deep sea, this place is not very stable, if you smash it again, it may really leak." ”

Duncan touched his chin and didn't speak for a moment.

And just as he was trying to figure out how to solve the problem of discontinuity in the space outside the floating island, and how to get to the "bottom" where the Dark Lord was located, he suddenly felt someone tugging at his arm beside him.

He turned his head and saw Alice's large, beautiful eyes.

The puppet raised its hand and handed him a black object: "Captain! Stone! ”

Duncan was stunned for a moment, his expression a little subtle: "Eh, Alice, it's not ...... now"

He stopped suddenly.

The stone in Alice's hand...... It's the one that Ah Dog threw out just now!

(End of chapter)