Chapter 339: Temporal Distance

Within the dreamscape, Bubai dissolved into a puddle of ink-like black fluid. Drawn by some mysterious force, it was desperate to fly out of the dream.

It flowed endlessly, unable to touch the edges of the dreamscape, leaving it to wander blindly.

Su Mu frowned slightly as he watched the melted Bubai. He could sense that the Shadow God was summoning Bubai back to its embrace; after all, the Shadow Race was born of the Shadow God.

It was simply locked inside the dreamscape, unable to escape for now.

The influence of a god was simply too powerful. It exerted its pull even across the boundaries of a dream.

Suddenly, the Divinity of the Four Gods within Su Mu began to stir, resisting the Shadow God's aura. In fact, his soul had only avoided assimilation thanks to the presence of the Divinity of the Four Gods.

Even so, extreme, negative emotions bubbled up uncontrollably in his mind. Anyone with weaker willpower would have completely lost their sanity by now.

Fortunately, Su Mu excelled at controlling such emotions. The darkness he had vented in his dreams had long ago surpassed the limits of human imagination.

'Why is it getting closer?' he wondered, stopping in his tracks.

The Shadow God's whispers grew louder and louder, practically swallowing him like the surrounding darkness.

He even had the distinct feeling that an indescribably massive entity was standing silently behind him in the unseen darkness. Its sky-blotting hands reached out, slowly closing around him.

'Is it getting closer to me? Wasn't it sealed? Can it still move freely?'

Su Mu stayed where he was and waited. He was inside the dreamscape, so theoretically, the Shadow God shouldn't be able to touch him. There was no need to move. Of course, if the god actually could touch him, moving would still be pointless—he would just be relocating his grave.

Gradually, the whispers peaked before taking a sharp dive, growing fainter as if fading into the distance.

Su Mu's eyes flickered with sudden realization. Perhaps spatial distance didn't exist here at all—only temporal distance.

Moving through space was like marching in place; the actual distance never changed. Instead, distance shifted only as time passed.

He had spent the previous day flying through the Abyss. Given his teleportation-like speed within the dreamscape, he could have circled the entire Real World three times over, yet he hadn't touched the boundaries of the Abyss or run into a single nightmare monster.

After a full day had passed, an evil god's whispers gradually began echoing in his ears. No matter how far he tried to fly from the source of the sound, the whispers only drew closer over time. Yet when he simply stood still, the whispers eventually faded away.

While he stood completely still, his position in space hadn't changed; the only variable was time. That was what led Su Mu to this theory.

Simply put, movement was pointless in the Abyss. One only needed to stand in place and wait. With every minute that passed, a person might sink a meter deeper into the Abyss; the more time passed, the deeper they would go.

To test his hypothesis, Su Mu continued waiting right where he was. Sure enough, after a long while, the evil god's whispers of another deity began to echo in his ears. He had clearly arrived at another evil god's seal.

He didn't reveal his true body, choosing instead to wait in Dreamwalking Mode. With his current strength, exposing his real body to a god was no different from courting death.

Even the Divinity of the Four Gods wouldn't be able to protect him. It was ultimately just a fraction of a god's power; compared to a true God, it fell far, far short.

Time trickled by. Over this period, Su Mu heard the evil god's whispers of no fewer than ten different deities. He heard them so much that he practically grew used to the sound, even starting to feel a bit bored.

Finally, after a long wait, he noticed a change.

He seemed to hit the edge of the darkness. With a distinct hum, much like a diver breaching the surface of the sea, his surroundings suddenly became bright and clear.

Su Mu looked around in mild surprise. His feet were now planted on solid ground—a blood-red expanse of earth that stretched on endlessly, barren and desolate.

There was no light source, yet everything around him was bathed in a bloody hue. It was the only color in this world.

The darkness had vanished completely, leaving behind nothing but the crimson earth and a blood-red sky.

'Did I hit the bottom?'

'Is this the very bottom of the Abyss?'

This bizarre realm finally piqued Su Mu's interest. Just as he was about to explore, a faint sound brushed his ears. He looked down and realized it was Bubai.

Now free from the Shadow God's sphere of influence, Bubai had recovered.

The ink-like black fluid merged back into Su Mu's shadow, letting out a weak hum.

Although the sound was weak, his shadow faintly radiated the aura of the Gold tier.

Before long, Bubai's voice faded entirely as it fell into a deep slumber.

Su Mu smiled faintly, musing over Bubai's good luck. This was truly a blessing in disguise. Under the Shadow God's influence, Bubai's physical form had collapsed—and so had the mass of Gold Shadow Race Essence the Pope had given it earlier. The two elements had perfectly fused. Originally, they would have returned to the Shadow God's embrace as a single entity, but they had been trapped inside the dreamscape with no exit.

Now free from that divine influence, Bubai had recovered, and the mass of Gold essence was thoroughly integrated into its body. This saved a massive amount of time. If Bubai had to absorb it the normal way, it would have taken ages.

Now, all he had to do was wait for Bubai to wake up. By then, it might actually reach the Gold Grade.

Honestly, he had to thank the Pope for delivering both the Shadow Race essence and a Primal Supreme Treasure right into his lap. It was a good thing the Pope had ulterior motives, or Su Mu would have felt a little guilty taking so much.

Thump, thump, thump...

Just then, Su Mu heard a commotion behind him. It sounded like a massive weight repeatedly slamming into the earth, causing the ground to tremble faintly. He looked back and saw a giant made entirely of flesh and blood, towering dozens of meters tall.

This flesh giant looked like a human enlarged a hundred times over and flayed alive. All the muscle and tissue across its body lay completely exposed. There were two massive, bloody cavities on its face, but no eyes inside.

It wasn't moving particularly fast, but its strides were massive. It closed the distance in almost no time.

Su Mu narrowed his eyes, examining it carefully. This flesh giant was incredibly strong; the terrifying aura it radiated was in no way inferior to a Gold powerhouse.

However, the giant didn't seem to notice him. Taking massive strides, it plodded step by step toward a hill in the distance.

"Interesting," Su Mu said. He directly canceled Dreamwalking Mode and revealed his true body to see how the flesh giant would react.

The flesh giant abruptly stopped in its tracks. Its massive head turned slowly, those two bloody facial cavities locking onto Su Mu.

Roar!

Bellowing a thunderous roar, the flesh giant suddenly sped up and charged straight at Su Mu.