Unknown cosmic deep space.
After a long while of calculations, Mona finally managed to use the manually corrected parameters to project this unfamiliar starry sky onto her divining plate, reading out its fate:
"So that's how it is, huh? …Wait, why is it turning blurry again?!"
"What's wrong?"
Nolan, who had been absentmindedly caressing her stomach, froze and asked curiously.
"Just now, I managed to read the fate clearly, but in the very next moment it suddenly shifted again." Mona adjusted the plate and cast another divination.
The results were still blurry—and worse, there was an added sense of instability.
"So what's happening now? And what did you see earlier?" Nolan pressed further.
"The result was that there aren't any planets nearby. Maybe because I'm not familiar enough with the stars in this sky, I also didn't detect anything about your homeworld, Earth.
"From the looks of it, that region was just a barren patch of the universe."
Mona gave a brief explanation, then parted her lips to continue:
"But the moment that result came out, the reflected fate began to shift."
"What caused it to change?" Nolan massaged her nylon-clad thighs gently.
After all, corrected parameters shouldn't change on their own. Something must have interfered.
"The stars' parameters were simulated manually—those won't change. But the fate reflected in the water suddenly became unstable, yet didn't disappear entirely. That's… rare."
Leaning back against him, Mona stretched out her legs and sighed tiredly:
"In theory, this sort of thing can happen, but it's my first time encountering it.
"If no one's deliberately interfering, the only explanation is that our position suddenly shifted drastically, moving us out of that star field. That would explain the unstable and blurry result.
"In Teyvat, this never happens. Even if you suddenly moved from the South Pole to the North Pole, you'd still see the same stars—the Big Dipper, Alcor, Dubhe, and so on.
"Only if you jumped to an entirely different planet, where the sky changes, would divination based on Teyvat's star map produce unstable or inaccurate results.
"That's why I had to first familiarize myself with this sky earlier. Judging by this level of instability, and assuming no interference, then we must've shifted at least a galaxy's distance!"
Hearing this, Nolan finally understood—they hadn't moved themselves, but their position in the universe had been shifted.
But this wasn't the projected space dimension from before—coordinates here shouldn't change without reason.
And since they were in an unobservable state, the odds of someone noticing them and forcibly moving them were tiny. Besides, who would even bother?
That left one possibility: the space itself was moving. And not just a little—the whole place had jumped across galaxies.
Could it be that the place he had drifted up into before wasn't just any random location?
Suspicion flickered in his mind. He spread his mental power to probe the area again, and within a hundred kilometers everything was the same as before.
Meaning their immediate position hadn't shifted, but on a far larger scale, the whole region had moved.
The truth was clear: the "space" they were in had undergone an astronomical displacement. And in a universe this vast, perhaps such strange phenomena weren't impossible.
Instead of worrying, Nolan was thrilled. The more unusual this place was, the more it was worth exploring. Hugging Mona's waist, he kissed her cheek with a grin:
"I think we might've stumbled on something just as crazy as finding an alien ship! Mona, divine again—see what's so special about this space!"
"You…!"
Mona wiped his kiss away with the back of her hand, smearing it onto his clothes, glaring at him:
"Do that again and I won't help you divine at all!"
"Hey, I was just thanking you." Nolan smiled, pressing his cheek to hers.
"Hmph!" Mona shoved his head aside and focused back on her plate.
With the prior experience, recalibrating for the altered star field was far easier. Within ten minutes, she had fixed the parameters and completed another divination.
"Well?" Nolan, as clingy as ever, leaned his chin on her shoulder, cheek brushing against hers as he peered at the water's reflection.
The plate lit with countless faint stars. Nolan, after long exposure, managed to read a little—something about… a living creature?
Could this whole space be the inside of some kind of lifeform? His eyes widened in surprise.
"The divination result shows… we're inside the stomach of some enormous creature."
Mona fell silent. What sort of being had an internal cavity like a universe itself?
"Oh? So it's not a space-lifeform after all?" Nolan realized his guess was off—but it hardly mattered. Just encountering a creature this massive was already absurd enough.
So the darkness wasn't cosmic dust blocking starlight—it was the creature's stomach wall!
That was beyond anything he expected.
Earlier, even when extending his mind over a hundred kilometers, he hadn't touched the wall. Meaning this creature's stomach alone exceeded a hundred kilometers in size.
For something so colossal, how powerful must it be? If he could defeat it, the Adventure EXP would surely be massive.
(T/N: He said the same thing about Stormterror too!)
He probed again, stretching his perception to two hundred kilometers, and finally brushed against something like a solid wall.
Clearly, that was the stomach lining of this creature.
"Well? Do we keep exploring?" Mona dispelled her divining plate and turned to him.
Because of the closeness, her warm breath brushed against his cheek as she spoke.
"Before exploring… let me thank you properly first."
Nolan suddenly kissed her, toppling her down onto the barrier's "floor."
"Mmph!" Mona pushed hard against his shoulders. "Get off me, idiot! You're heavy—my stomach's gonna be squashed flat!"
Her knees pressed against his back as her flushed face and angry voice spilled out.
Being pinned like this, in such a bizarre place, was unbearably embarrassing!
"Fine then—you sit on me."
Nolan rolled them over, pulling her on top of him instead.
"You… hmph! Who said I'd do that kind of thing with you here?" Mona, cheeks burning, leaned over him and bit his ear in protest—punishing this shameless man.
Nolan felt the warmth and softness on his ear, and without thinking, he kneaded Mona's equally soft hips, chuckling:
"Alright then, let's head back first. Exploring this cosmic beast will need some preparation anyway."
The girl kept her focus on biting the ear of the bad guy bullying her, not answering.
A spatial rift opened beneath them, and in the next moment, Nolan and Mona appeared directly back on the bed.
Sensing trouble, Mona tried to get up, but Nolan was faster—flipping her and pressing her down again. When she tried to cry out to alert the girls outside, he firmly sealed her lips.
"Mmm! Mmph!"
The great astrologer Mona could only squirm and make muffled noises.
An hour later, Mona, finally yielding to Nolan's persistence, was flushed with irritation. With a huff, she didn't bother changing clothes and stormed straight out, heading to the hot spring baths to clean herself.
One look at her and everyone knew Nolan had been up to mischief again.
To "punish" him on Mona's behalf, the girls dragged him to the hot spring too—while soaking, they made sure he received a fitting penalty!
But Nolan noticed his cultivation progress had risen slightly, and he secretly wished for more punishments like this.
---
At dinner, he shared the discovery he and Mona had made.
Aside from Lisa and Sucrose, who wanted to study the cosmic beast's blood, the other girls—being non-scholars—weren't too interested.
Collecting the blood wasn't difficult, and Nolan himself was curious about what sort of creature could grow so huge and move across galaxies.
So after the meal, he returned to the massive beast's stomach, set up multiple shields for safety, then dropped the unobservable barrier. Using his sword intent, he pierced the stomach wall and filled a large container with its blood.
To such a titan, this was less than a scratch—it didn't even feel it, and no attack came.
The blood collection was smooth and uneventful.
But to guard against curses, viruses, or unknown pathogens, Nolan partitioned a large sealed section of the Wonderland Space to serve as a laboratory.
The lab, placed on the third floor, was completely isolated on a spatial level, ensuring nothing could escape.
After Mona divined the sample to confirm safety, Lisa and Sucrose donned protections and entered to study it.
Nolan also appraised it with the affection skill from Yae Miko. The result:
[Blood of the Swarm] : Blood from a special colossal swarm-creature. Its ability to transport energy far exceeds that of its kin, allowing similar organisms to survive within it.
But since the creature was so powerful, the appraisal gave little more detail. Better safe than sorry—they layered on every protection.
Even though in Wonderland Space there was no aging, disease, or death—so even viruses or curses couldn't harm them—precautions were still necessary.
Otherwise, if such pathogens clung to them and followed them back to Teyvat, it could cause a massive public health disaster.
The Greater Dendro Archon seemed particularly interested in cosmic life and offered to join Lisa and Sucrose in their research, which they gladly welcomed.
Their initial results would take several days.
Nolan decided to let them study first before confronting the beast again—once a fight broke out, blood collection would be far harder.
Better to wait until they finished their analysis, then see if he could harvest some Adventure EXP.
Scholars' passion for research was boundless. After requesting leave from Acting Grand Master Jean, Lisa and Sucrose couldn't wait, beginning experiments through the night.
To keep them in peak condition, Nolan infused them with large amounts of Harmonized Energy—enough that they could go days without sleep and feel no fatigue.
As for the Greater Dendro Archon, her soul had not yet taken physical form, so she couldn't store Harmonized Energy.
---
The Next Day
This was the day they had planned to escort Nilou into the desert for inspiration.
That morning, Nolan crawled from the warm bed and checked on Lisa and Sucrose's progress. Seeing their research was going well and might yield results that very night, he left them breakfast and encouraged them to keep at it.
After breakfast, Lumine and Paimon went to help Nahida. Meanwhile, Nolan teleported to Liyue Harbor, escorting Yanfei to Inazuma to continue her law consultations.
Only then did he teleport to Sumeru, greet Nahida at the Akademiya, and head out of the city to the meeting spot with Nilou.
There were still ten minutes until the appointed time.
He arrived early, thinking Nilou might do the same. He didn't want to make a girl wait.
Lumine and Paimon had wanted to join too, but since Nahida needed their help, they would explore the desert another time.
Sure enough, about five minutes later Nilou arrived—dressed differently from her performance attire last time.
Of course, she wasn't dancing today but trekking the desert, so her clothes had changed.
Her red hair was tied into twin ponytails, a white sun hat embroidered with violet flowers on her head—a Sumeru craft.
She wore a white long-sleeved dress, with flat boots suited for desert walking.
Supplies like water and food were no doubt tucked into her Vision's storage space.
She seemed well-prepared.
"Eh? Adventurer, why are you here so early?" Nilou spotted him from afar and jogged over.
"I just didn't want you to be the one waiting. So I came early." Nolan explained casually, then smiled:
"Looks like Dehya's going to be the last one. Let's wait for her."
"Mhm."
Nilou's fair face lit with a sweet smile, and even the sunlight slipping through the brim of her hat seemed to dim before it.
The two waited a bit, and right at the agreed time, Dehya finally showed up. She crossed her arms with a sigh:
"Of course—I came on time and I'm the last one. Nilou, being a girl, I expected you'd come early, but you too, huh?"
"I don't know why, but that sounded a lot like bias against men… Forget it. Since we're all here, let's get going!"
Nolan gave a helpless smile.
(End of Chapter)
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