Chapter 111: Looking Forward to Our Next Meeting

In an instant, a violent, explosive power surged through Su Mu. His muscles bulged involuntarily. With a sudden burst of strength, his legs acted like coiled springs, fracturing the earth beneath his feet as he launched himself into the air, charging straight toward Mu Cheng without the slightest intent of dodging.

The two figures met in midair, both carrying an indomitable momentum. Beneath them lay the scrambling, piling masses of Headless Ones.

Mu Cheng sneered inwardly. Su Mu had to be crazy to try and match a Silver expert blow for blow in such a desperate situation. All the better—he would just kill the boy himself!

His gleaming silver metallic arm was pushed to maximum output. The inner walls of the metal heated up, emitting a crimson glow that distorted the surrounding air with its intense temperature.

Su Mu was equally unwilling to show weakness. He pushed his Great Force Bombardment Punch to its absolute limit, the muscles of his right arm expanding as he swung forward with terrifying, roaring momentum.

"Die!!"

Boom!

Amidst Mu Cheng's savage roar, the metallic fist and the human fist fiercely slammed into each other.

But the moment they made contact, Mu Cheng realized something was wrong. Su Mu's fist didn't carry the slightest bit of force!

However, he didn't have time to overthink it. Either way, taking this punch head-on meant certain death for Su Mu. This was the absolute confidence of a Silver expert!

Bang!

Su Mu flew backward like a fired cannonball. With his vengeance finally achieved, Mu Cheng threw his head back and laughed wildly. He let the surrounding Headless Ones attack him; he didn't care. He only wanted to kill Su Mu.

But in the very next second, Mu Cheng's smile froze. In his line of sight, the backward-flying Su Mu looked completely unharmed. He executed a graceful midair turn, casually stepped off a Headless One's neck, and fled rapidly into the distance. In the blink of an eye, he bounded onto the high walls surrounding the plaza.

"This is impossible!!" Mu Cheng, now entirely submerged by Headless Ones, hastily deactivated his Self-Destruct Program. He chased after Su Mu like a madman, wildly swinging his icy metallic arms and sweeping away countless Headless Ones with every strike.

"An Artifact! It's a defensive Artifact!" He realized the crux of the issue, suddenly understanding everything. This was all Su Mu's scheme. He had pretended to risk his life while exerting absolutely no strength at all, deliberately letting himself be blasted away just to escape the encirclement!

No wonder Su Mu dared to clash head-on—he had a defensive Artifact!

High atop the wall stood a tall, slender figure. He rested his Snakewood Cane against the edge of the wall, smiling down at Mu Cheng, who was being swallowed by the sea of Headless Ones. The sun's radiance spilled over him, casting a long shadow on the ground as a gentle breeze fluttered the hem of his clothes and the Crimson Heart hanging at his chest.

Below the wall were countless scrambling Headless Ones, stepping over each other's bodies to climb up inch by inch.

"Su Mu!!" Mu Cheng roared hoarsely from within the pile of bodies. He struggled continuously, reaching out from the mound of Headless Ones in an attempt to climb free, but there were simply too many. He was quickly buried once more.

"You can't escape! This is a dead end! Once they kill me, they'll go after you!"

Atop the wall, Su Mu smiled faintly, completely ignoring Mu Cheng's threat. With an elegant and unhurried expression, he gently pushed up his Tinted Glasses. "Thank you for everything you've done, Mr. Mu. I was... thoroughly entertained. I look forward to our next meeting."

With that said, Su Mu waved his hand as if bidding farewell to a friend. He turned and looked toward the Black Fog beyond the high wall.

His sight couldn't pierce through the Black Fog at all; it was deadly still and silent, like a pathway leading straight to Hell.

"You want to go into the Black Fog? Hahaha... you'll die! No one has ever returned alive from the Black Fog, no one!"

Without even turning his head, Su Mu said, "I won't trouble you to worry about that, Mr. Mu. Just as I could pull you into the Nightmare World, I have long since figured out a way to escape the Black Fog. So... goodbye."

"What? You have a way? That's impossible, you must be..."

Mu Cheng's words came to a screeching halt as Su Mu took a flying leap, plunging into the Black Fog and vanishing without a trace.

...

...

Amidst the endless Black Fog, Su Mu looked around in surprise. He wasn't surprised by the Black Fog itself, but rather by the Nightmare he had just escaped.

There wasn't much to see in the Black Fog; it felt like being submerged in a bottomless sea, surrounded by ethereal black mist with extremely low visibility.

What was truly worth looking at was the Nightmare from just moments ago. It was a massive, glowing white bubble, its surface faintly reflecting the scenes from within—the barren Headless One city and the flashes of explosions that sent countless Headless Ones flying. However, because he was viewing it through the bubble, the images were heavily distorted and blurred.

"Are all Nightmares contained in bubbles like this?" Su Mu clicked his tongue in wonder. He had never thought about stepping outside the boundaries of a Nightmare to observe it from the exterior. To think that Nightmares were actually encased in bubbles!

This Nightmare bubble was incomparably massive. The light it emitted faintly illuminated the surrounding Black Fog, allowing Su Mu to barely make out the nearby scenery.

He turned his gaze downward. By the light of the bubble, he could see what lay beneath his feet.

It wasn't earth beneath him at all, but a layer of brown rock—completely bare, devoid of any vegetation, scattered only with loose rubble.

He raised his head and looked toward the top of the bubble. Relying on its light, he saw what lay above in the Black Fog. There was no sky at all; above the top of the bubble was yet another layer of brown rock!

A rock layer beneath his feet, and a rock layer above his head. Su Mu even felt as though he were standing inside some hollowed-out mountain, only this space was filled with endless Black Fog.

Gradually, a clear understanding of the Nightmare World's structure formed in his mind. First of all, there was no sky here; the space where the sky should be was covered by a rock layer, and the ground was also a rock layer. The space between the two layers of rock was filled with the Black Fog. And the so-called Nightmares were the bubbles floating in the hollow space between them—one bubble represented one Nightmare.

"Amazing!" Su Mu found this exploration of the unknown utterly fascinating. If he hadn't personally walked into the Black Fog to take a look, who would have ever guessed that the Nightmare World had such a structure?

Just then, an eerie scene unfolded. The surrounding Black Fog churned and surged, quickly blanketing and obscuring the bubble. The ambient light grew dimmer and dimmer until it finally vanished completely.

Vanishing right alongside it was the Headless One Nightmare bubble.

Su Mu tried to look for it, but when he walked over to where the bubble had just been, he couldn't find a single trace. It was as if it had teleported away.

He guessed that the space within the Black Fog was highly likely distorted and chaotic. The disappearance of the bubble meant that he could never go back.

He had lied earlier about having a way back from the Black Fog. He only said it to ensure Mu Cheng died with unresigned grievances.

However, whether he could return wasn't important. What was important was whether the inside of the Black Fog was interesting.