Monster Paradise

As the five stepped out of the Dimensional Whirlpool, they soon arrived in an expanse of nothingness.

Lin Huang saw a gigantic black hole in the void before them, like a massive eyeball hovering in the air. He could not help but feel a trace of awe and admiration rising within him.

It was his first time seeing the real Abyss.

Prior to this, he had seen pictures and video documentations before and had even imagined a great deal. However, now that he had seen it in person, the sense of awe still remained.

What was strange was that he had the vague illusion that he seemed to be watching an endless, massive living creature, even though the black abyss ahead was merely the entrance to the Abyss proper.

“Do all of you have this feeling that the entrance looks like an eyeball staring at us?” Lin Huang could not help asking.

He faintly recalled something that he used to always hear—if you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss will also gaze into you.

“Everyone has that feeling when they see the Abyss for the first time. It’s just an illusion,” Saber9 explained calmly from where he was off to the side, “You won’t have this feeling when you come again.”

“Why does such an illusion happen?” Lin Huang felt he did not quite understand.

“No idea, it’s the same for everyone.” Before Saber9 could speak, Virtuoso answered the question directly, “There’s no need to dwell further on this matter.”

At that moment, the small, skinny Lan Ling raised her arm weakly, “I-I know…”

Lin Huang and the rest looked at her.

Only then did Lan Ling murmur softly, “I-I’ve seen related research papers.

“To put it simply, in reality, the Abyss comes with an extremely subtle mental suppression, which causes fear in one’s subconscious mind. Therefore, our subconscious mind views it as a great threat, resulting in such an illusion the first time we see the Abyss.

“As to why this illusion only happens the first time, the explanation in the study was that our subconscious minds become accustomed to the mental suppression from the Abyss after the first visit. As the fear has been removed from the subconscious mind, we no longer see it as a threat.”

Although Lan Ling’s explanation sounded reasonable, Lin Huang still felt he was not convinced.

At that moment, Tu Tong could no longer contain himself and finally joined in the discussion.

“I’ve seen an explanation on the internet which garnered many likes. The thread said that the Abyss is a gigantic living creature that’s in deep sleep mode. Each entrance is actually one of the creature’s eyes. These eyes subconsciously examine everyone who enters its body. Therefore, we have the feeling that we’re being stared at.

“As to why we only experience this feeling the first time we see the Abyss, it’s because this scrutiny comes with a memory function—it only targets strangers. If the person were entering the Abyss for the second or third time, they would pass this scrutiny by default.”

After listening to this, Lin Huang felt Tu Tong’s explanation was more convincing to him. Just when he was about to agree, he heard Virtuoso’s straightforward, mocking voice from the sidelines.

“Only you would believe this nonsense, Tutu.”

“This explanation has certainly gone viral on the internet, but it’s false.” Off to one side, Lan Ling nodded and explained, “The biggest galaxy discovered throughout the history of the universe is merely the size of three star zones. That’s the size limit of a life form.

“Meanwhile, the Abyss occupied at least one-fourth of the universe, and this is only the part that’s within the universe. Its complete form might even be bigger than the entire universe itself. Based on size alone, it can’t possibly be a life form. Even if it’s an existence above lord-level, it would be impossible for it to control such a gigantic body.

“Also, judging by its mass, there’s no life structure that could bear such a massive body physical body without collapsing. Even a combat cultivator powerhouse above lord-level in the archaic epoch couldn’t maintain a functioning body of such mass.”

Lin Huang fell silent. Although Lan Ling’s explanation made a lot of sense, he felt that Tu Tong’s explanation might be possible as well.

“Alright, time is precious. Let’s go in.” Virtuoso did not bother to waste more time on this topic and directly interrupted the discussion to put an end to it.

However, they did not seem to realize that they were the last person who had the right to say that time was precious.

If they had not wasted everybody’s time and met up with them half an hour late, they might have hunted for a few rounds in the Abyss already.

Virtuoso extended their hand to Lin Huang as soon as they were done speaking.

Lin Huang was startled for a moment but immediately responded. The conditions for entering the Abyss might involve randomly teleporting the individuals who entered.

Under such circumstances, all of them had to maintain bodily contact to be teleported as a unit, so that they would not be separated.

Once he considered this, Lin Huang extended his hand, grasping Virtuoso’s right hand.

He then stretched out his right hand to hold Saber9’s left hand on the other side.

“Don’t think of anything once we enter. Just keep flying ahead,” Virtuoso’s voice came through very soon.

They said this mainly for Lin Huang’s benefit since the rest had been to the Abyss before.

Hand-in-hand, the five of them headed together into the black abyss of the entrance.

Lin Huang could only feel that they were getting closer and closer to the black abyss. In front of him, everything was pitch-black. When they finally entered the darkness, they were unable to see anything at all.

However, he followed Virtuoso’s reminder before, which was to follow his feelings and keep flying forward.

Lin Huang secretly calculated the time—almost over a minute later, they finally saw a ray of light appearing not far away.

The five of them flew towards the source of the light at once. As they got closer, the light became brighter as well.

Eventually, they exited the darkness completely.

Lin Huang cast his gaze over where they were. The sky was dark, and in front of them was an expanse of black earth. He had no way of determining his location.

Right as he was going to spread his Divine Telekinesis, he suddenly heard a voice transmission from Virtuoso.

“Hide your aura, don’t release your Divine Telekinesis for now.”

Although Lin Huang had no idea what happened, he heard the seriousness in Virtuoso’s tone, so he did as they said.

At that moment, he finally became aware that the rest had somewhat unhappy expressions on their faces.

“What happened?” Lin Huang hastily enquired through voice transmission.

“The normal entry time of each Abyss entrance should be ten seconds,” Saber9 replied calmly through voice transmission.

“Ten seconds?! But our entry this time took at least a minute, right?” Lin Huang could not help frowning. Although he had no idea what had caused this, he knew that something was definitely wrong.

“Perhaps someone did something while we were being teleported, or perhaps it’s the after-effects of Lord powerhouses in combat. I personally hope it’s the latter,” Virtuoso explained very seriously, before adding, “If it’s the former, there’s a high possibility of the five of us dying here.”