As a matter of fact, I could summon the Cloud Somersault or send us over using telekinesis, just like before.
But because the gaps between the chasms are so narrow at the walkable points, if we misstep while jumping across, we could easily fall.
Given the situation, the safest approach is to walk across the transparent slabs illuminated by the pagoda.
I approached the edge of the pit and tested the transparent bridge with my foot; it was solid enough to bear human weight, so I took the lead, putting my entire body's weight onto it.
This delicate bridge was incredibly sturdy, not even deforming, but I still worried that if all of us stepped on it, it might not hold, so I told the two behind me, "I'll go first; you cross after me." Nobita shouted from behind, "Go ahead!
If anything happens to you, we won't leave you behind." Hearing that, I felt something was off—what did he mean by "Go ahead!"?
So I turned back, shot him a glare, and said, "Don't talk nonsense, or I'll tape your mouth shut." Nobita chuckled, looking mischievous.
I sighed, held my breath, and slowly started walking forward.
Although those standing high up are forbidden from looking down, driven by curiosity—and because I’m naturally someone who doesn't fear death—I kept looking down as I walked.
Just one glance was enough to make me feel dizzy.
To be honest, an ordinary person looking down would mostly see endless, unfathomable darkness.
But with my ability to perceive the (Nen Power) of things, I saw layers upon layers of black turbulence about three or four hundred meters below.
Logically, black objects shouldn't be visible in the dark, but the before my eyes—regardless of color—emitted light.
Seeing me wobble slightly from looking down, Nobita urgently called out from behind, "Don't look down!
You idiot!" I waved him off, saying, "It's fine.
I see that beneath us isn't just a deep pit; it might be a rift in time." Nie Chuan chimed in, "Are you saying it's the kind of spatio-temporal turbulence we fell into when that giant fish chased us in the river?" I nodded and said, "I don't know where this turbulence leads.
Should we toss Nobita down to test it?" Nobita immediately protested, stammering, "You...
you guys." He intended to say something to object, but after a thought, he switched to a look of pride: "Hmph, you two can try lifting this mighty Xiong-sama up first." I ignored him because I felt something strange about those turbulent currents, as if something was emerging from within them.
Just as I had this thought, two searchlights, like those on a car, suddenly flashed brightly from the turbulence beneath my feet.
Startled, I focused my gaze and clearly saw it was the head of a train rushing upwards from below.
This phenomenon, which defied the common sense of physical motion, truly shocked me.
But what surprised me even more was that the direction this train was coming from was aimed directly at the fragile, transparent stone bridge beneath my feet.
My heart instantly sank.
I thought that if I were struck from below by this speeding train, even if I were one of the Shaolin Eighteen Bronze Men, I would be utterly pulverized!
"Toot toot..." The train emitted its characteristic whistle, as if it had spotted me and was signaling me to move.
I thought, how could I possibly move?
I could only stand frozen on the spot, covering my head with my hands and crouching down.
I didn't want to see Nobita’s and Nie Chuan’s expressions, as they must have been stunned as well.
"Whoosh..." A second later, I heard the heavy sound of the train passing, and a powerful gust of wind brushed past my ears.
A surge of relief hit me, and I said, "It seems to have passed by the side?" So I quickly opened my eyes and looked to the side, indeed seeing the train engine rush past me, followed by car after car speeding by.
At that moment, I faintly caught snippets of someone cursing at me.
Although I don't understand Japanese, I caught the word "Yakan" (night time), and I could guess what the person might have been saying: "What kind of person shows up next to the tracks in the middle of the night, asking for death?" Seeing the ordinary faces of the people on the train, I knew they certainly didn't realize they had time-traveled.
I was curious how the train passed through without smashing into the roof.
Looking up, I discovered that there were many large and small holes in the roof as well, and the holes were also scattered with spatio-temporal rifts.
The train entered from below and exited by passing through the top.
I really wanted to know if, when the people on the train saw me, I appeared suspended horizontally in the air or normally standing by the tracks.
Observing the train's trajectory, I realized that this section of track was at a curve; otherwise, the train would have headed straight for me.
While feeling fortunate, I also realized I had worried unnecessarily, as this clearly wasn't the first time an object had passed through here, and these transparent stone bridges remained intact, unbroken by the train, meaning the train tracks wouldn't hit me either.
At this point, Nobita and Nie Chuan stopped worrying about the bridge's load-bearing capacity and cautiously walked over, asking if I was alright.
I wiped the cold sweat from my brow and said I was fine, then allowed them to help me stand up.
"Let's discuss things after we reach the other side," Nie Chuan said.
"If a second freight train comes by, we might really get hit." After the three of us mutually supporting each other made it to the opposite shore, we found that this so-called opposite shore was merely a strip of land about one meter wide; one more step forward meant another bottomless pit.
The three of us frowned, because now we were surrounded by bottomless, turbulent pits on all sides—front, back, left, right, up, and down.
Any unexpected incident now could see us sucked into the turbulence.
Just as I thought of an unexpected incident, Nobita suddenly let out a cry.
I rushed to ask what was wrong, and saw him pointing above him, saying, "Look!
What is that thing?" His flashlight beam shone on a spot overhead, and when we looked up, we saw the light illuminating an utterly bizarre human face.
The creature's entire skin was black, like a corpse that had been left too long in a morgue and was about to decompose.
But its eyeballs were enormous and bulging, taking up almost half its face, and the sharp teeth crisscrossing its mouth had pierced through its own lip skin, making it look extremely terrifying.
The thing hung upside down from the ceiling like a bat, staring at us with its pair of bell-like, huge eyes.
Nie Chuan didn't hesitate, drawing his gun at the fastest possible speed and aiming it at the monster.
However, the monster remained motionless, hanging there like cured dried meat tacked to a roof during the Lunar New Year.
The thought of preserved meat made me feel nauseous; if this thing counted as dried meat, I never wanted to eat that kind of food again.
"They don't seem to have good eyesight," Nobita said, waving his flashlight in front of the thing.
I nodded, as I too had noticed that the beam from the Wolf Eye flashlight had absolutely no effect on its sight; such a strong light hadn't even caused the creature to blink its huge eyes.
"Is this thing alive or dead?" Nie Chuan began to question.
But Nobita countered, "Of course it's alive, because I just saw it crawl out of that deep hole in the ceiling." "Crawl out?
Are you sure?" I asked.
Nobita confirmed, "Yes, it seemed to have something in its mouth when it crawled out.
Its mouth isn't moving now, so maybe it finished eating." Nie Chuan frowned and said, "This thing is too disgusting.
No, I have to shoot it down." As Nie Chuan raised his gun to fire, just as I was about to stop him, I heard a "whoosh" sound beside my ear—another train was emerging from the deep pit below.
We quickly dodged to the side to avoid being sucked in by the powerful winds whipped up by the train.
Simultaneously, we watched the train slip into the deep hole right next to the monster.
At that exact moment, the monster performed an action that astonished us.
It sprang forward suddenly, leaped onto the roof of the train, clung tightly to it, and then burrowed into the spatio-temporal turbulence along with the train.
After the entire train had passed, Nobita asked, "What's the deal with that thing?" I shook my head and said, "I don't know, but I have a bad feeling." Nie Chuan lowered his gun and stated, "I think we need to take a trip through the spatio-temporal rift.
I'm afraid this creature might harm the people on the train." Nie Chuan then looked at me, seemingly seeking my agreement.
I frowned in thought for a moment and said, "What if we can't get back?
Xie Yuting is still missing." Nie Chuan frowned, considered it, and replied, "Alright then, let's find the person first.
We can check the spatio-temporal rift when we return." I nodded in agreement and then told the two, "Let's go.
We'll follow the pagoda to the top of the Ghost Building first." Saying this, I summoned the pagoda again to fly ahead and light the way for us, and we proceeded along those transparent stone bridges toward the staircase on the opposite side of the room.
As we walked on the transparent stone bridges, we saw all sorts of strange objects rushing out of the deep pits: discarded soda cans, people jumping from buildings, birds, cars, and sleeping infants—it seemed the turbulence in this room led to many places in the world, but whenever a living person passed through, they were unaware they had time-traveled; it just seemed like passing through a tunnel to them.
Furthermore, we noticed that the monsters with large eyes, resembling the dead, would jump onto any human mode of transport they saw passing by and cling to it, traversing back with them.
After about an hour, led by the pagoda, we finally reached the staircase on the far end of the room.
Before going upstairs, we looked back again and spotted even more bizarre floating objects.