Chapter 113 Even Thieves Have Their Code

Inside the art gallery, an announcement began.

"Dear guests, due to unforeseen circumstances, this building will be evacuated immediately! Please..."

At the same time, Ning Shuyin clearly felt a distinct sense of abnormality in the surrounding space.

Originally, the special spatial time sequence shaped by that "colorful black" particle began to be overlaid without any regularity.

creak—

Crack—

A series of cracking sounds came from all directions.

The interior decoration of the art gallery was originally designed to accommodate the distorted and reconstructed structure. Now, the curved plasterboard, decorative strips, and even some of the paintings on the walls have lost their support from the distorted gravity and have begun to become unstable.

Various cracking and shattering sounds came from the air.

With a "thump".

A large painting, ten meters high, fell down.

Then, more decorative panels, like dominoes, began to fall from the center of the exhibition hall, as if crushed by a giant hand of space.

The once spectacular spatial phenomenon is now filled with various kinds of smoke, dust, and rain of debris.

The "cocoon" where Ning Shuyin and Zhou Zhiheng were located, which originally had a soft and ambiguous halo, began to flicker. Each flicker was accompanied by a huge suction force.

That force that wanted to drain people's hearts seemed to want to drag everything inside this "cocoon" into an unknown abyss.

Zhou Zhiheng's body trembled. The gentle and dreamy look in his eyes was washed away by a sense of crisis.

He also clearly felt this increasingly strong suction. Even if the change in space was caused by the instability of that higher-dimensional particle, it shouldn't be like this.

He reached behind him and touched a button, then immediately slammed it down.

The previously closed exit has been opened.

He was drugged. The drug made him involuntarily want to be close to Ning Shuyin. However, at this moment, he couldn't care less about the clamoring desire for intimacy within his body.

He used almost all his strength to push Ning Shuyin, who was in his arms, toward the exit.

"Let's go!" His voice was a little hoarse.

The sudden push made Ning Shuyin stumble. Instinctively, she reached out and grabbed the edge of the exit, then used the momentum to turn around, trying to pull Zhou Zhiheng out as well.

"Zhou Zhiheng, come out!"

She reached her hand behind her, but only grasped a cold void!

Zhou Zhiheng's figure was being pulled by an invisible force, hurled deeper into the "cocoon." There lay a source of darkness that could not be seen.

Ning Shuyin only remembered the shattered light emanating from those purple eyes.

The next second, the "cocoon" trembled again. The surrounding light went out instantly, plunging her into complete darkness.

The sense of spatial distortion reached its peak. Ning Shuyin felt as if she had been thrown into a high-speed spinning washing machine.

Her body was completely weightless. She was being pulled by a tremendous force, and was about to fall deeper into the cocoon.

Just then, she felt a tightness on her wrist.

"Zhou Zhiheng?" she called out.

But there was no answer. The large hand grabbed her firmly and pulled her out of the darkness that was about to engulf everything.

The moment her feet touched the ground, the cocoon behind her completely disappeared.

She had safely returned to the brightly lit exhibition hall. Looking around, the interior decorations were broken and scattered all over the floor, making the once luxurious exhibition hall look like a ruin.

The entire building structure has been restored to its original normal state, with a flat ground, beams and walls, without any distortion.

"Little guy, what happened to you that made you look so disheveled?" A familiar, teasing voice rang out.

It was Caesar who pulled her out of the darkness!

"How did you get here?" Ning Shuyin asked, her breathing steady as she looked at him warily.

The blond man in front of them held a transparent oval device in his hand, within which the "multicolored black" was suspended.

This elliptical device should be a dimensional compression box.

"You stole something?" Ning Shuyin immediately realized.

Caesar shrugged noncommittally, not giving her a direct answer, but instead led her to a corner in the collapsed building where there was some overhead cover.

“You denied being a space pirate when you were on the starship!” Ning Shuyin glared at him.

“Oh?” Caesar raised an eyebrow, then smiled frankly. “Then I admit it now, I am indeed a thief.”

He opened his hand, and the "multicolored black" emitted a faint light in the device.

"However, I only stole the error that shouldn't exist here. The League caused trouble, but now they want me, an outsider, to clean up the mess."

"What mess?" Ning Shuyin asked, puzzled.

Caesar's eyes, however, held a world-weary look, as if he had seen all the vicissitudes of the universe. He asked abruptly, "Little one, do you think this universe is eternal?"

Ning Shuyin was taken aback and fell into thought.

universe……

If there is a beginning, then there must also be an end, right?

But no one can predict the future fate of the universe. Will it suffer heat death? Or collapse?

Just then, a calm and steady voice came from not far away: "The universe will come to an end, but paradoxes should not appear too early."

The two of them turned to look at the same time.

A head of flowing blue hair.

Gu Lei walked calmly out of the devastated ruins.

Beneath his feet lay broken stones and twisted decorations, yet he walked with the steady gait of someone strolling along a sunlit path.

Caesar frowned, his eyes sharp as knives: "Hmph, what are you doing here, you bastard?"

"Professor Gu Lei!" Ning Shuyin asked anxiously, "Where's Qianqian? Is she alright?"

Gu Lei smiled faintly and answered Ning Shuyin's question first: "Thank you for creating this date for us. It was unforgettable. I've already sent her home through the emergency exit. She's safe."

After saying that, his gaze swept over the golden grain of rice before turning to Caesar: "With your abilities, how far can you take it? To the Ruins of Time or beyond Chaos?"

Caesar gave a mocking smile. "If this thing didn't pose a threat to Tartarus, I wouldn't bother with the mess caused by the Alliance's bullshit power struggles."

Gu Lei neither confirmed nor denied this, but calmly pressed further: "What is your specific plan?"

Caesar seemed to ponder for a moment before speaking in a condescending tone, "I'll throw it out when I pass through the spatial interlayer. As for how far it goes... that depends on its own luck. You want me to risk my life for it? Dream on."

Gu Lei nodded knowingly.

Ning Shuyin roughly understood what he meant and was surprised. This exhibit actually had such destructive power.

These things weren't mentioned in the original work. Now that someone has solved the problem, that's naturally good.

but……

Ning Shuyin looked at the disappearing cocoon.

"Where did Zhou Zhiheng go?" she asked.

Caesar looked at her, his azure eyes sparkling.

Then he shrugged: "The purple-eyed kid? I didn't touch him. It's just that he was unlucky and went to play in that divine transformation."

"Is it because of that cocoon?"

"Yes, that thing is extremely sensitive to changes in space. I guess... it probably fell into some random spatial interlayer."

"Whether he survives," Caesar said with a wicked grin, "that depends on his luck. Maybe he'll float back on his own."

Ning Shuyin's heart sank.

Zhou Zhiheng and she entered that cocoon only because of that spray designed to ignite the romantic impulse between Su Qianqian and Gu Lei.

Moreover, and most importantly, Zhou Zhiheng is one of the core male supporting characters in the story.

His disappearance from the world could very well threaten the stability of the story world.

"Is there any way to bring Zhou Zhiheng back?" Ning Shuyin asked.

Caesar's handsome yet wicked face turned towards Ning Shuyin, and he reached out his hand.

"A solution? Of course there is. Come with me, I can take you to the backstage of the space."

"You can try to get him out there. The only thing you can do is not die in there yourself."

Ning Shuyin looked at his outstretched hand and subconsciously took a step back.

Remembering how he had tricked her on the trading planet, she was still wary of him.

Caesar seemed to read her mind: "I only helped you because you're my friend. It's also an apology for what happened last time."

Believe me or not, it's up to you.

"However, the spatial rift won't take too long to open." He withdrew his hand, looking completely unconcerned.