Chapter – 107 - Slimy Barrier Membrane

The three of them stared at him in astonishment and suspicion. What did he mean that they had come from the outside? And what was it about them not having any memories. Nanate looked down, thinking about the strangeness he had often associated with this land ever since he had his memories. Did this mean that someone had deliberately wiped out their memories? He looked at Beibei, who also seemed to be deep in thought. Kunwa too looked agitated.

The toddler glanced at them helplessly. It seems he had found out why there was no connection between the girl and her contracted beasts and servants. He looked at the other four. Strangely, only one of the humans did not have any contract with the girl. The other three were all bound to this girl with one form of contract or the other. However none of them seemed to remember anything about it!

He didn't want to think about the other two already hiding within her. One had an exceptionally strong aura, and he was scared of it. The other was forever trying to suck him in as soon as stepped close. Treacherous being!

Beibei sighed. Looks like she had been on the right track. However, no matter how much she tried, she couldn't break through this barrier which was placed around their memories. Even when she knew that her memories were being forcefully bound, she couldn't do anything about it. The person on the other side was definitely very strong.

"Tell us more about this Outside. What do you mean that this is not a real world?"

The toddler sat down cross legged in the air in front of them, looking very serious and grave. The three felt their lips twitching. The cuteness of the chubby cheeks seemed more pronounced, as his lips pouted in all seriousness!

"I do not know exactly what happened. At that time I had just developed my consciousness. Which means that I could see and feel and understand. But I didn't yet have a spirit body, so my sense were limited to the vicinity of where I was.

However, I did realize that something very evil and dangerous was slowly eating away all forms of life and spirit around the lands. I could hear the constant crying the grieving of the beasts, creatures, humans and even the spirit bodies. And I could also feel something dangerous moving about, absorbing all the essence of life from the lands.

At that time a large group of extremely powerful cultivators suddenly came to the area where the seven mountains used to be. They were discussing about something called a 'Space Time Dimension', and what all elements they needed to put inside the space time dimension. They walked all around, analyzing the mountains.

They were very powerful, and they soon realized my presence. So they decided that having me in the dimension they created would be very beneficial. I would ensure the absorption of a large amount of spiritual energy from the outside, which in turn would keep the dimension alive.

I cannot explain what they were really talking about. I still do not understand all of it. But I do know that this place was something which they all created with all of their essence and powers. And then the entire valley, with the seven mountains, river, and all flora and fauna were dug out from the lands, and placed inside the dimension they created. Along with my spiritual consciousness.

And since then I have been here. I only know that these lands are not real. But I have no idea how to return back to the original world."

Beibei and the boys stared at the ancient toddler for a long, long time, slowly digesting all the bewildering information they had just been bombarded with. For a long time, the only sounds were the sounds of the cracks forming and growing on the earth below, the flow of the miasma as it shuffled lightly over the earth, strange calls of beasts which could only be heard but never came forth before them.

Beibei pondered on these things for a long while. Then finally coughed twice to clear her throat.

"Exactly how long has it been since this place was made?"

"That....is difficult for me to say. I am a spirit body. I do not see time the same way as you humans do. But it has been a very, very long time. When I was brought in I only had spiritual consciousness. It takes a very long time to develop a complete spiritual body from that state. Even when Monmona had placed me on the Light Pillar Triad to control the entrance to the portal, I had already learned how to walk."

The three looked at each other speechlessly. It was one thing to have understood there was something wrong with their memories. It was a different thing to suddenly realize that the very place they had been calling their lands, was actually an artificial reproduction! Then.....if the lands did not exist in the first place.....did it also mean that the people did not exist?!

Beibei shook her head quickly to discard all negative and useless thoughts. This was the very reason she had accepted the mission to take a look at the End Points. She had wanted to use this mission to figure out what was wrong with their memories, and what was going on in the lands. The more she moved in the direction she had aimed at, the more the threads which had twisted themselves into a pile of knots, were slowly starting to disentangle themselves.

"Fine. Let's stop here. Too much information will make us more and more confused. We need to focus on what we are going to do next. Maybe this journey will help us figure out what all is going on in these lands."

Nanate spoke up. One glance at Beibei, and he already could tell what was going through her mind. Also, they still needed to figure out how to remove the black miasma from their bodies. Beibei turned her attention over to the two of them, not wanting to remain conflicted with unforeseen and unknown fates and knowledge.

"Hmmm.....Kunwa, I will start with you first. I will try to suck out the black miasma from your body. If I am successful....well, then you will be rid of the miasma in your body."

Kunwa felt his whole body flinch in reaction to her words. 'Here comes another round of experimentation!'. He could only hand himself over to her, and wait for the results.

Kunwa lay down on the hard ground. Beibei took a few deep breaths to calm her nerves and deepen her concentration. Her long and thin fingers hovered just above Kunwa's forehead and chest. Milky white streams of energy streamed out of her fingers and gently penetrated inside Kunwa's body.

Kunwa unconsciously wanted to reject the intruding energy, but something within him restrained his impulses. Slowly a feeling of familiarity started resonating from within him, and the warmth and calmness of the stream of energy relaxed his nerves and muscles, gently rocking him to a state of deep sleep.

Beibei focused on letting the stream of her energy follow the path of the meridians and form a continuous flow inside Kunwa's body. Once the stream of energy was flowing smoothly throughout his body, like a continuous loop, she started forcing the black miasma scattered within the meridians to follow the path of the energy and gather together at one spot.

She checked all through the body a few more times to make sure that there was no left over black miasma still hidden within the body. Then she slowly released the absorption power of her spiritual energy, absorbing all the black miasma within the stream of her own energy, and through it sucking it completely within herself.

Without pause, she followed the same pattern with Nanate, and sucked in all the black miasma into her body again. Then turning away, she lay down flat on the ground and closed her eyes to slowly process the entire miasma she had just absorbed.

Both Nanate and Kunwa was not aware that whenever she said that she could remove poison or miasma, she was actually absorbing all of it within her own body. They only knew that she had developed her own method after researching through many ancient techniques.

But Beibei dared to do this because she found something unbelievable on her body.

There was a large and complicated tattoo covering her entire right shoulder. And whenever she absorbed any elements from the outside, be it miasma or poison.....somehow, instead of affecting her body, it was directly absorbed and confined within her tattoo.

At first, only one ring of the two circles used to light up when she used her spiritual power near the tattoo. it looked like a dark greenish-black snake coiled into a loop. But now some more of the inscriptions and symbols around the tattoo had changed color. The number of symbols increased after she accidentally absorbed some toxic miasma.

However, it was not that the symbols would light up every time she absorbed something. She was still trying to figure out what made the symbols change or absorb color and what didn't. She closed her eyes, letting her spirit sense wander across her body.

As she had expected, the black miasma was absorbed by the tattoo. There was an hourglass shaped symbol at the center of the tattoo. The lower half of the tattoo immediately started filling up with a black color. It kept increasing till almost half the lower part of the hourglass was filled, then it stopped.

Beibei wondered if this meant that she needed to absorb a lot of this black miasma in order to fully illuminate the central hourglass symbol. She pondered for a long while, but finally decided against taking such a risk. The black miasma was still too scary, especially since it could control the person's mind and body.

Beibei sat up and went through the medicinal jade box, and finally pulled out a few small bottles made of Saluburs wood. This was a man-eating tree which grew in certain parts of the desert. The tree itself was leafless, and often looked like a dead tree from afar. However, the branches could grow in length, and were used for attacking and capturing people and beasts who accidentally ventured into their areas.

The tree itself was leafless and flowerless, and lived by absorbing all the essence and power of its prey. The bark had the special property of being able to retain the freshness of the essence of whatever was placed within it for a very long time.

This made it a very suitable material for many kinds of medicines and even tools and weapons. Right now the small bottles being carried in Beibei's hands contained a rather unique pill which she had formed after much researching into some of the ancient pill recipes.

This pill used the thick, slimy and mucous like saliva of the Slimy Scorpions of the Tatapa Barren Mountains on the western side of Crater of Virage. This was an essential ingredient for this pill. She called it the 'Slimy Barrier Membrane'.