ebookland Chapter 562's summary and analysis are necessary.
Chapter 562's summary and analysis are necessary.
The feeling of urgently escaping from a mental image is definitely no less exhilarating than the dizziness experienced when entering one.
As consciousness returned, the golden-haired fox girl almost sprang up from the chair, landing on the soft cushion Alice had prepared beforehand, thus avoiding a tumble onto the solid floor.
Chi Xue wasn't in good condition either; her face was ashen, and she instinctively wanted to vomit rainbows. Fortunately, Moira reacted quickly and used a silk thread to pull the trash can away from her, preventing her from vomiting rainbows all over the isolation ward.
Before Alice and Meteor could even react, the commotion from the monitoring bed became even more exaggerated:
"Waaaaaaahh ...
Hyacinth suddenly sprang to her feet, instinctively striking a gun-wielding pose. With the electrocardiogram monitoring electrodes still attached to her body, she nearly had the expensive machine torn to pieces by the sudden movement.
Once again, Moira reacted swiftly—his psychic threads firmly gripped the monitor, protecting the equipment at the last moment.
Marigold seemed much calmer, but she still sat up in terror from her hospital bed, her face pale and breathing heavily, her cold sweat almost soaking the sheets, as if she had just woken up from a nightmare.
A brief silence fell over the intensive care unit.
Hyacinth stood frozen on the hospital bed, frozen in the same pose she had in her dream when she last raised her gun.
Heartmoon Fox lay on the cushion Alice had prepared. Because she had fallen backward and injured the base of her tail, she was now gently massaging her tailbone.
Jinmai stared blankly at the unfamiliar intensive care unit in front of her, let out a long sigh, and lay back on her pillow.
Chi Xue was still hugging the trash can and vomiting rainbows.
"..." "..."
Alice and Jack exchanged a glance, then shrugged simultaneously, speechless.
……
Five minutes later.
"You probably just have temporary spatial dizziness. Meteor has experienced similar symptoms before when she frequently traveled between the Eastern and Western hemispheres, where gravity is opposite. Just go back and find a jump rope or go to the trampoline and jump around a bit."
"Okay, thank you, doctor."
Chi Xue leaned back in her chair, receiving a professional consultation from Liu Mu, the "Lancet".
Hyacinth and Marigold sat side by side on the observation seats next to the water dispenser, each holding a paper cup filled with warm water, recounting what had just happened in their mental world.
"Those shadows are incredibly skilled! They're very accurate with their shots, but they're still not as good as our tanks," Hyacinth chuckled.
"And Marigold learned to drive very quickly; she learned it completely after reading the driver's manual just once!"
"Hehe... not really... the tank's driving system is actually very simple, and it uses magic to omit many troublesome steps. You only need to control the joystick."
Marigold blushed slightly, feeling a little shy from the praise she received from her senior.
The black Alice, who called herself Jack, carefully recorded what the two were saying, while Alice listened with shining eyes.
The golden-haired fox girl sat side by side with Meteor not far away, silently watching everything that was happening in the isolation ward.
"So that means..."
Upon hearing Su Tianqing recount what she witnessed during her final escape, Liu Xing stroked her chin thoughtfully and said...
"Miss Xinyuehu, you suspect that Garuda's true form has already infiltrated Rongcheng, but it has been temporarily blocked in the 'dimensional rift' by your and Chixue's mental world... Is my understanding correct?"
"I can't say whether it's right or wrong, but... that's roughly the idea. I think someone who knows more about magic can explain it in more detail."
Su Tianqing nodded and answered with a wry smile.
Regarding her knowledge of magic, Su Tianqing could openly admit that she was a pragmatist, only knowing how to use it and what effects it might have, but not understanding the specific operating principles.
Based on the information she gleaned from exploring the three dreamscapes, Su Tianqing felt she had roughly deduced the most plausible possibility at present.
Garuda is located in Chengdu.
However, it does not exist physically somewhere in Chengdu, but is hidden in a place that no one can detect—the so-called "dimensional rift".
It hides in the narrow space between the mortal world and the astral plane, silently observing everything in the mortal world and the world of mental images, and then uses its ability to drag people into illusions to capture its victims.
The scene in the dark corridor at the end made him feel the terrifying pressure from the fully formed astral behemoth... mysterious, eerie, indescribable, and he didn't even know where it was located.
The series of image transitions then confirmed his own suspicions, leading to this conclusion based on the possible solutions provided by Rabbit.
As for what Rabbit said about "hidden in dreams"...
What kind of grand dream could possibly contain a fully-formed astral behemoth?
The phrase echoed in Su Tianqing's mind as she muttered to herself, her brows furrowing.
"If Garuda really is hiding in that crevice, then how does it choose its victims?"
Chi Xue's voice reached her ears, bringing Su Tianqing back to her senses. She looked at her.
She had fully recovered from the intense dizziness of being forcibly removed from the mental world, and as she sipped warm water, she walked over to the discussion group, saying this.
"Whether separated by the celestial dome or the barriers of the mental world, they are essentially barriers between planes, making it extremely difficult to accurately select a victim under such circumstances."
"Yes, I've been thinking about that too," Su Tianqing sighed, helpless.
The slit theory cannot explain the precision with which Garuda drags people into dreams. All current theoretical inferences have unavoidable flaws, and further investigation must be put on the agenda.
.
"Miss Meteor, I'll leave these compiled intelligence reports to you."
"Don't worry, the Hero Association is professional in this area. We have contacted experts in the relevant fields to conduct a comprehensive evaluation, and we should be able to provide the expert group's discussion opinions tonight."
Meteor took the document handed to her by Heart Moon Fox, glanced at the neat and beautiful handwriting, and said with a smile.
—You think I wrote these words? I used the fountain pen familiar's voice input!
"Thank you all for your hard work. Please get some rest for the rest of today. I will keep you updated on the latest developments as soon as possible."
The group said goodbye on the association's rooftop.
Hyacinth Red Snow and Marigold flew away quickly. Su Tianqing and the two Alices stood on the rooftop looking in the direction they left. The fox's tail swayed slowly, and its eyes gradually narrowed.
Alice.
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
The girl blinked, tilted her head curiously, and looked at the golden-haired fox girl beside her, who looked serious and thoughtful.
"Alice, do you think Garuda is hiding in a dimensional rift... or in some unknown 'dream'?"
"This...?"
The golden and black Alice exchanged a glance, both showing hesitant and thoughtful expressions, without directly stating their answers.
"Although I didn't enter that dreamlike mental image to witness it firsthand, judging from the information you've gathered, every theory has inexplicable flaws."
"So you think so too." Su Tianqing nodded with a wry smile.
More information is needed to further deduce and explain these possibilities, but if we simply continue to passively enter the dream world to rescue the victims chosen by Garuda as we have done in the past two times, the investigation will become very one-sided and difficult.
Is there any way to take the initiative?
With the location of Garuda's true form still unclear, any proactive attack is meaningless and could even turn into delivering takeout to Garuda.
"Alright, since everyone has their own things to do, let's relax a bit today!"
Su Tianqing raised her hands, her fox tail swaying a few times, deciding to laze around for a day. But she wasn't really going to stay home completely idle; there were still some important things to do—
The Divine Stone Communication System was activated, and Su Tianqing dialed the contact she hadn't had a chance to make since noon:
Inari
A pleasant ringtone.
Su Tianqing didn't know why Inari wanted to set the theme song of a magical girl anime from ten years ago as her ringtone on her Divine Stone Communication, but considering that she was someone who jumped directly from ten years ago to the present, she silently let it go.
Perhaps this song is still quite new to her.
The call connected, and a familiar voice rang out:
"Miss Heart Moon Fox? Good afternoon."
The red fox's ears appeared on the magic screen, and it poked half its head out, waving and greeting the camera.
"Hello, Ms. Inari. What are you doing? I can only see half of you..."
"Oh? Oh dear, I'm sorry, I lent the Divine Stone to Aquamarine and the others yesterday, and it seems the projection height of the video is a bit too high. I'll adjust it a little."
Inari's face quickly appeared on the screen. He stared at the screen, carefully observed and adjusted it, and nodded in satisfaction.
"I was planning to contact you at noon, but something unexpected happened just now, so it's been delayed until now."
"The Hero Association has already told me about it and even gave me a summary file, saying they're going to have some kind of expert discussion... but I think it would be faster to just ask you directly."
Inari smiled and spoke, maintaining her usual poise and elegance, confident and composed. She always seemed to be like that.
Su Tianqing gained a completely new understanding of the Hero Association's efficiency.
How long has it been? It only took me less than ten minutes to fly from the association headquarters to the villain's rooftop, and Inari has already received my investigation summary. It's as fast as a ghost.
Taking this opportunity, Su Tianqing recounted everything she had experienced in the world of mental images to the red-haired fox in the light screen.
The fox ears on the Inari sometimes stand up high, and sometimes droop down halfway in confusion. The fox tail inexplicably matches the swaying frequency, successfully connecting to the tail synchronization channel.
When he heard the last image of the painted corridor illuminated by the flashing lights, Inari's swaying tail suddenly stopped, and he raised his hand to signal Su Tianqing to stop.
"Wait a minute."
"Could you describe the specific details of that photo corridor in more detail?"
It wasn't a difficult request. Based on her fear of the unknown at the time and her subsequent reasoning, Su Tianqing tried her best to recount all the details she had noticed.
But Inari fell into deep thought, muttering many things that Su Tianqing couldn't understand at all, such as "the uneven transformation when mental image and illusion merge and the existence proof of underlying logic." Just this sentence was enough to make this fox's head throb, so I quickly chose not to listen to her academic whispers.
I won't listen to the fox chanting scriptures.
When Inari finally looked up at her, Su Tianqing knew that she had reached a fairly reliable conclusion, and then she perked up her ears again.
"Do you have an answer?" "No."
Inari answered decisively, while Su Tianqing wagged her tail in bewilderment.
"Miss Inari, you were pondering for so long just now..."
"I've been thinking about what we're missing, and now I finally understand," the red fox girl said softly, looking up at Su Tianqing with a serious expression. "I have a way to deduce Garuda's location, but I need your and Chi Xue's cooperation."
"Let's meet somewhere secluded, a place where no one will be watching or noticing."
"For example?" Su Tianqing wagged her tail, showing some curiosity about Inari's words.
"How about the Astral Library?"