Plop…
At first, it was like falling into the deep sea—no light, only endless darkness and extreme cold.
This place was like a space after death; even if one reached out, they could not grasp anything.
There was only a void.
Undoubtedly, this was the Inner World…
She had successfully entered.
Thanks to the unique trait of Qiu Qiqian being a Weird who did not fear the dark, she could vaguely sense that the answer they sought lay at the bottom of this space, even in this total absence of a light source.
“It seems this is that Weird’s Inner World,” Qiu Qiqian remarked from within the Mental World, gazing at the boundless darkness.
However, in the next second, a soft sensation from behind caused her mental body, and by extension Li Meng’s entire physical form, to tense up.
She did not dare to move an inch.
“Whoa… we actually made it in.”
Inside the Mental World, Li Meng had suddenly pressed herself against the back of Qiu Qiqian, who was currently in control.
She rested her head on Qiu Qiqian’s shoulder.
The softness of her chest naturally pressed against Qiu Qiqian’s smooth back with a muffled mnh.
If this were the Real World, Qiu Qiqian might have only nagged Li Meng for a bit, but… this was the Mental World!
In the Mental World, they were… completely without clothes!
In other words… in other words!
“Hmm? Xiao Qian, why did you suddenly stop moving?”
Li Meng tilted her head slightly toward Qiu Qiqian’s face, only to see a crimson flush spreading from Qiu Qiqian’s cheeks all the way to the tips of her ears.
“You, you, you… first… get off my back!”
Qiu Qiqian’s voice carried a rare, obvious trace of bashfulness, mixed with a hint of urgency.
If this were the Real World, Qiu Qiqian might have been so embarrassed that she would have started radiating heat.
Following Qiu Qiqian’s reminder, Li Meng finally noticed that, for some reason, Qiu Qiqian was not wearing any clothing.
Looking down, she could even see Qiu Qiqian’s snowy-white pair.
Then… she naturally noticed her own body as well…
In the next second, Li Meng’s face also flushed red, and she quietly pulled away from Qiu Qiqian’s back.
“Whew… I am currently controlling your body. Don’t suddenly press against me and distract me…”
Qiu Qiqian said, barely suppressing the panic in her heart and speaking as calmly as possible.
‘Why are both she and I naked in the Mental World anyway… Could it be because clothes themselves aren’t considered part of the mental body?’
“Um… I, I understand~”
Li Meng replied in a slightly bashful voice.
Afterward, Qiu Qiqian redirected her attention to the situation in the Inner World.
Regardless… they should swim downward first.
Qiu Qiqian controlled Li Meng’s body, kicking her two legs to begin swimming toward the deeper depths.
However, before she had been swimming for long, Qiu Qiqian faintly noticed scattered white spots of light in a certain area below.
‘Is it… the destination? No… those light spots are!’
When Qiu Qiqian used her Weird vision to see those white light spots clearly, she felt a wave of nausea.
It was a swarm of “tadpoles.”
A swarm of human-headed tadpoles.
The skin on their heads had turned white, swollen, and begun to peel away as if they had been soaked in water for a long time, revealing a great deal of bone-white surface.
As for the part acting as the tail… if it could even be called a tail… it was actually their spinal cord.
Moreover, compared to a normal human spine, their spinal cords were abnormally long and surrounded by a layer of translucent membrane.
Those human-headed tadpoles opened their mouths to an incredibly exaggerated width, emitting continuous, low-pitched roars.
Fortunately, they did not seem to view the possessed Li Meng as an enemy.
They simply watched with eyes that lacked pupils as Li Meng swam past them, inching deeper into the depths.
Of course, if it really came down to a fight, Qiu Qiqian was not afraid of them.
Not only was the Nether Breath emitted by those Weirds clearly inferior to hers, but if any accident occurred, she could let Li Meng take over seamlessly.
After all, she was the Most Strict Mother of Weirds.
“Those things… are ‘Drowning Savages.'”
“Li Meng, you know about them?”
Inside the mental space, Li Meng nodded and continued her explanation.
“In Inner Worlds created by Titan Grade and Storm Grade Weirds, the space itself extends almost infinitely. Since the powerful Weird doesn’t utilize the entire space… these kinds of Weirds are generated in the ‘Periphery,’ the parts the master of the Inner World hasn’t shaped.”
“Their individual strength is generally at the Violent Beast Grade. Their only purpose is likely to consume remnant life force or… to devour those who are accidentally dragged into the Inner World and happen to land in the Periphery.”
“Wait… what do you mean by that?”
Realizing the implication, Qiu Qiqian’s control over Li Meng’s body faltered for a moment, and her diving speed slowed.
“Yeah… the master of this Inner World… is likely Titan Grade, or even… Storm Grade.”
***
After diving for an unknown amount of time, Qiu Qiqian finally saw a membrane that looked like the surface of water.
She kicked her legs hard and “leaped” directly through that membrane.
Immediately after, as if pulled by gravity the moment she crossed the membrane, Li Meng began to fall.
However, before that could happen, Qiu Qiqian had already adjusted her direction in time, landing steadily on the ground.
“Whew… this should be the place. Li Meng, we can swap back now.”
“Okay~”
With those words, Qiu Qiqian separated from Li Meng’s body once more, returning to her own form.
As she emerged, she shook her body from side to side, likely readjusting to her own shape.
As for Li Meng, once she regained dominance over her body, her pupils returned to their previous gray color… complete with the faint blue rings used to peer into the flow of Nether Breath.
Together with Qiu Qiqian, she surveyed the space before them.
What they saw was a very standard hospital corridor.
On one side of the hallway, metal chairs for waiting were lined up against the wall.
Above the two layers of the doors were signs corresponding to different clinics, such as pediatrics and internal medicine.
The entire corridor was remarkably clean.
There were no bloodstains like in a horror movie, no severed limbs—it was so clean that… there wasn’t even a single person.
She looked up and found that the membrane that had served as the entrance had long since disappeared.
There was only a vast, white ceiling, and the LED lights above were quite piercing.
“Are we… back in some hospital in the Real World?”
Qiu Qiqian subconsciously asked after seeing the clean and tidy hospital corridor.
Even though she knew that even with the brain of a Violent Beast Grade Weird, this place was absolutely not reality.
The entire space… was still filled with that chaotic and violent Nether Breath.
Compared to the Periphery earlier, the Nether Breath here was even more concentrated.
Then, as if to refute Qiu Qiqian’s guess, Li Meng suddenly lifted her foot and stomped down.
Her powerful strength, combined with her radiating Nether Breath, directly “peeled away” the hospital’s glamorous disguise.
The original metal benches instantly became weathered and rusted, revealing inhuman flesh and blood beneath.
The tiles on the walls collapsed one after another, and countless skinless arms reached out from within, attempting to grab any living thing in the corridor.
As for the clinic rooms… they were perhaps the only things that didn’t change much, if one ignored the shadow-like, lanky monsters walking out of them.
“Fine, I take that back… It seems that glamorous hospital just now was merely a front.”
Looking at the scene before her, Qiu Qiqian felt a bit disgusted, but she did not feel any sense of panic.
After all, the person beside her was the Most Strict Mother of Weirds.
“What do you say? Are we going to fill the entire Inner World with Nether Breath this time too?”
Qiu Qiqian asked, her tone suggesting it was the natural course of action.
“No, not this time.”
“Huh?”
“The Inner Worlds formed by Titan Grade Weirds are far larger and more resilient than those of the Evil Spirit Grade.
Covering it with my Nether Breath would take too much time and be too inefficient.”
“So… I’m choosing the other method I told you about before, Xiao Qian.”
Li Meng raised her hand, extending her index finger and thumb to form a handgun gesture aimed at the Weirds that were already rushing toward them via flickering movements.
And then…
Bang!
A stream of pure white Nether Breath instantly erupted, swallowing every Weird and every trace of their Nether Breath in its path.
At the same time, just like before, it remodeled the areas it passed through into a proper appearance.
“In that case… let’s head this way first.”
Li Meng smiled, pointing toward the corridor ahead that now looked no different from a real hospital.