Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 979: In the Crevice

When Song Ying realized what had happened, Luo Qiu’s figure had completely disappeared into the endless abyss below. She wanted to stop him, but it was already too late.

"Song Haoran!" Song Ying cried out in terror, calling the only person in this mirrored world she could rely on. "What should we do?"

"Wait," Song Haoran said calmly, glancing at Alaya. "Since even she has to follow Luo Qiu’s orders, what are we worried about?"

"But this..." Song Ying was about to say something.

Song Haoran shook his head, signaling her to be quiet. Despite not being particularly authoritative, Song Ying reluctantly nodded.

But her gaze remained fixed on the abyss, her worry deepening.

She... had many questions, so many things she wanted to clarify.

Suddenly, Song Ying realized why Luo Qiu had no interest in staying with the Song family... If he had such an unimaginable power behind him, how insignificant must the Song family be to him?

Song Haoran, however, walked toward Alaya with his hands behind his back. The typically reckless heir of the Song family now appeared quite relaxed—though not flippant as he usually was when talking to women.

"Alaya," Song Haoran finally reached Alaya and smiled. "This should be the Sanskrit pronunciation of the name Alaya, right?"The girl with blue hair and eyes floated up, her body slowly turning to face Song Haoran, though she didn't speak.

Song Haoran suddenly became serious, to the point that Song Ying also felt this wasn’t the usual uncle. He asked, "Can I keep the memory of this encounter?"

Upon hearing his question, Song Ying suddenly turned around. She remembered something Alaya had said... everything would be erased, the rules would start over, and the memories of all those involved would be altered.

【Denial: Request denied. Matters regarding the mirrored world and its sub-admins must not be disclosed.】

It seemed Song Haoran wasn’t surprised by Alaya’s response, as if he had expected it. Boldly, he continued, "What if this is an order from Luo Qiu? Will you still erase our memories?"

Alaya replied slowly: 【Denial: The root authority has not issued any explicit instructions.】

Song Haoran remained relaxed, even smiling as he said, "But how do you know he won't give that command? Right now, he isn’t here, and we can’t be certain, can we?"

Alaya fell silent, her blue pupils slowly expanding as if she were contemplating.

Song Haoran pressed on, "Of course, I can’t be sure whether he would agree to this. My concern is that he might not agree, and yours is that he might."

Alaya suddenly responded: 【Denial: The root authority has the power to issue any command to sub-admins. All commands must be obeyed. Sub-admin Alaya, number 003, does not experience concern.】

Song Haoran was taken aback, then helplessly said, "So it’s just me worrying... But as of now, neither you nor I can be sure, that’s a certainty, right?"

For the first time, Alaya nodded, 【Affirmative.】

A smile finally appeared on Song Haoran’s face. "So, we can’t make a decision until he returns. As for the current situation, we can only maintain the status quo, right?"

Alaya didn’t respond.

Song Haoran, feeling like he had succeeded in his plot, smiled slightly—though he didn’t know that Song Ying was actually growing increasingly worried. This wasn’t the harmless little girl seen on the streets; Alaya possessed incredible powers, even capable of creating people.

Song Haoran, the heir of the Song family, truly lived up to his name for recklessness!

He turned back to give Song Ying a reassuring look, then turned back to Alaya and said, "There’s something I’m really curious about... Earlier, a few of the Joans mentioned encountering you in other timelines. And you carry an ID number, so can I assume that there are identical versions of you in different timelines, just with different numbers?"

Alaya didn’t respond.

Song Haoran just smiled, "So, I can assume my guess is correct, right? How many versions of you are there?"

Alaya still didn’t respond, but this time, she stretched out her arm toward Song Haoran and opened her palm.

Song Haoran’s heart skipped a beat, but being used to big situations, he had mastered the ability to remain calm even when facing a massive challenge. He whispered, "Did I ask something I shouldn’t have? If so, I apologize and promise never to ask about it again. How about that?"

Boom—!

Suddenly, an explosive sound erupted.

At this moment, Song Haoran released the hands behind his back, his expression changing slightly. The source of the explosion was the phone he had been holding behind his back.

Looking at the broken phone pieces scattered on the ground, Song Haoran’s smile turned into a wry one.

Who said little girls are easy to fool?

...

...

Here, there was no light, no visible sources of illumination, yet everything could still be seen clearly, albeit in dark tones.

Sound seemed to travel here, though there was no air, creating a vacuum-like environment. Strangely, in this vacuum, the human body felt no pressure and had no trouble breathing.

It could be said that breathing wasn’t even necessary to survive here, because this place was beyond time itself.

The crevice between dimensions, a place where time is forever paused.

After falling through the entrance of the mirrored world’s abyss, Luo Qiu allowed his body to free fall... Though time didn’t exist here, his senses remained intact.

At this moment, the number he had been silently counting in his mind had reached two hundred and three.

Finally, he stopped falling, his feet landing on a floating piece of barren land in this seemingly rootless dark space.

If we compare the resistance from the mirrored world’s contact with Luo Qiu and the club to a sponge placed in the middle of a radio signal, then here in the dimensional crevice, it was as if two sponges had been added.

The signal was still almost full, so there was no need to worry.

"This should be the place," Luo Qiu said, looking up—he had fallen vertically, and the person who had fallen from the steel platform should be somewhere in this area.

Of course, if this dimensional crevice was constantly shifting, things might have changed.

Luo Qiu tried to observe his surroundings and suddenly looked in one direction. "Is it over there?"

Just as he was about to move toward the direction he was looking, a giant figure suddenly appeared behind him!

There was no light here, only visible objects, so no shadows were cast. Otherwise, Luo Qiu would have been covered by the shadow of this enormous figure.

Luo Qiu sensed the change and turned around.

At the same time, a deafening roar echoed, and in front of him stood a creature several times larger than an extinct dinosaur. Its appearance resembled a western skeletal dragon from fantasy novels, but its body—especially the exposed bones—was lined with deep brown muscle tissue.

Its head, like a triceratops, opened a massive bloody mouth, and the sound came from there.

Not only that, but behind this giant monster were countless similar creatures—though they were much smaller in size than the massive one.

Yet, their overwhelming numbers made them even more terrifying, seemingly surpassing the quality of the individual creatures.

"You’re the creatures from the dimensional crevice that Alaya spoke of... Void Abyss Demons?" Luo Qiu looked up, inspecting them.

The structure of these creatures was very strange, leaving Luo Qiu with an indescribable feeling. This was his first time entering the dimensional rift, and he didn’t know much about the place.

However, as soon as he entered the rift, it felt similar to entering the third basement floor of the club, the room with the altar. It was similar, yet different—there was an odd and subtle feeling.

But now was not the time to think about these things, as the giant creature in front of him, along with the countless smaller ones behind it, were probably aiming for Luo Qiu himself.

"Quiet down, I'm just here to find a few people," Luo Qiu said calmly.

The giant creature before him suddenly roared, its massive mouth opening wide, capable of biting Luo Qiu in half with a single snap.

"I said, quiet down."

It was as though someone had pressed the pause button on a video—the enormous creature froze in place, still with its mouth open.

This state lasted for what seemed like almost ten seconds, though time didn’t flow here. Luo Qiu could only estimate the duration by his own perception.

Slowly, the creature retracted its neck and began backing away step by step.

After a while, the giant creature had moved far away from Luo Qiu—its enormous size meant each step covered a great distance!

Once it had retreated a sufficient distance, the massive creature lay down and fell asleep. At this moment, changes began to occur in its body.

Its entire body seemed to turn to stone, and the smaller creatures hovering above descended one by one, attaching themselves to the stone-like body, becoming irregular little rocks of various shapes.

From a distance, it would appear to be an ordinary stone mountain, and no one would realize that it had once been a terrifying, colossal monster.

"I'm just here to find a few people, and once I do, I'll leave," Luo Qiu said as he looked toward the distant stone mountain. "I’ll probably leave from the same spot, so I’d appreciate it if you all remain quiet for a while longer."

The "stone mountain" seemed to have truly turned to stone, and there was no sound from it anymore.

"Well then, I won’t disturb you."

Luo Qiu turned and with a small leap, jumped off the floating wasteland, vanishing from the spot.

"Seems like there's almost no gravity here..." Luo Qiu thought as he disappeared.

Not long after—due to the time standing still here, Luo Qiu could only judge by his senses—it wasn’t long before two figures slowly descended from above, entering the vast floating wasteland.

A man and a woman.

The man appeared to be in his thirties, dark-skinned and muscular, exuding immense pressure. The woman, on the other hand, radiated a delicate aura, her every gesture seeming to captivate anyone who looked at her.

"This should be the place... the wave we sensed earlier," the woman observed, scanning the surroundings. "Based on the intensity of this wave, it must be at least a complete Void Ancestor level."

The man nodded and also surveyed the area. "This is a desolate part of the rift. How could a complete Void Ancestor exist here?"

"Who knows?" the woman stretched lazily.

Her soft and delicate demeanor, coupled with the lazy air she gave off, seemed to stir the man’s instincts, making him avert his gaze slightly.

The woman gently covered her lips, a playful glint in her eyes. "I didn’t expect King Solomon, praised by the world, to be shy sometimes."

The man, Solomon, frowned slightly, clearly displeased.

However, his attention soon shifted to a massive stone mountain in the distance. He quickly said, "Daji, the jokes can wait. We’ve found our target."

With that, Solomon jumped, landing in front of the massive stone mountain.

The woman, Daji, smiled slightly, watching him go. She yawned lazily again. "Such a humorless man... it really makes me nostalgic for the past. Zhou..."

She shook her head, realizing that her thoughts were impractical—though time was frozen here, it couldn’t flow backward.

She also leaped gracefully, quickly reaching Solomon’s side. But at that moment, Solomon stood motionless before the stone mountain, staring intently at it.

"It seems like quite a good hider," Daji remarked, raising her head to look at the far end of the "stone mountain." "Could it be that it frequently disguises itself as a mountain and hunts this way? If that’s the case... Solomon?"

She furrowed her brow, glancing at her companion, only to see him frowning, staring fixedly at the "stone mountain."

"Solomon, what’s going on?"

"It’s scared..." Solomon placed his hand on one of the "rocks" at the bottom of the mountain and turned to Daji. "There’s no doubt about it—it's trembling... as if afraid of something."

Finally, the delicate woman gasped in surprise. She knew that Void Abyss Demons, like the one before her, were purely instinctive creatures with no emotions.

So, what could possibly scare and even make the Void Abyss Demon tremble, especially one at the complete Void Ancestor level?

"And what's even more astonishing..." Solomon said solemnly, "I’m touching it now, but it’s not reacting at all... Daji, have you ever seen such a submissive Void Ancestor?"

"Probably... only the mount of that one Lord from the Hall of Thrones," Daji said, visibly moved.

Daji (妲己): Refers to a historical and mythological figure from Chinese history. Daji was a concubine of the last king of the Shang dynasty, King Zhou, and is often portrayed in Chinese legends as a seductive and malevolent figure, contributing to the downfall of the dynasty. The name is associated with beauty, cunning, and evil in many stories.