Chapter 550

Chapter 550

Given Lancelot's high regard for the Nightmare, once Lorant confirmed that Windbreaking Horses were the most compatible partners for it, Lancelot immediately sought to have Little Qing fuse with the Nightmare. Whether from an emotional or strength perspective, Little Qing was the best choice.

Who would have thought this proud creature would flat-out reject the fusion?

This forced Lancelot to plead with the stubborn Windbreaking Horse, while Lorant watched the spectacle from the pavilion, sipping tea and utterly amused by his adorable pets.

After a long while, Lancelot finally convinced Little Qing to grudgingly accept. Watching as Lancelot led the reluctant horse toward him, Lorant patted the Nightmare resting on his shoulder. "Little one, let's try again."

The Nightmare, good-natured as ever, squirmed playfully. Lorant, taking the hint, coaxed it gently until the little creature was thoroughly soothed. Soon, it obediently approached and clung to the Windbreaking Horse's back once more.

From Lorant's perspective, it looked as though Little Qing wore a jet-black saddle.

The "saddle" quickly dissolved, enveloping Little Qing entirely.

This time, the two spent a long while working things out before Little Qing finally accepted the Nightmare's possession. A pure black Windbreaking Horse reappeared before them, but when it opened its eyes, Lorant was surprised to see that its originally pitch-black pupils remained a stormy cyan.

Lorant stepped forward, patting the creature's head and studying its unusual eyes—unlike any other possessed pet he'd seen. He marveled silently at how inexhaustibly wondrous these magical creatures were, far beyond what any ability chart could capture. They were living beings, full of unpredictable brilliance that cold data could never define.

"Looking sharp!" Lorant praised softly. "The two of you look truly dashing like this!" He petted it like a kid, an act both pets clearly appreciated.

The Nightmare Horse gave a delighted nicker, nuzzling Lorant's palm happily.

Once done with its affectionate display, it turned its head to gaze seriously at Lancelot, flicking its tail in invitation—not to Lorant, but to the knight standing further back, who beamed like a proud dad.

Lancelot was momentarily stunned by the gesture, genuinely touched.

Whenever he was with Lorant, most pets treated him as invisible—Little Qing being the worst culprit. Over time, he'd grown accustomed to being ignored.

Suddenly finding himself chosen before Lorant by his own pet was... unfamiliar.

Lorant chuckled, stepping back and nudging the dazed Lancelot forward. "What are you waiting for? They're inviting you. Go experience the Nightmare Horse's abilities—I’m sure they’ll surprise you."

Lancelot nodded eagerly, all but vaulting onto the saddle after first planting an excited kiss on Lorant. The Nightmare Horse lowered its head gracefully, brushing against Lorant's arm before turning and streaking off like the wind.

With the Nightmare's fusion, Little Qing's already unmatched speed reached new heights.

Now, paired with the Nightmare's ability to instantly transport its rider into the dream realm—a formidable survival skill—Little Qing was more than qualified to accompany Lancelot into even more perilous fronts. In fact, it was this very fusion that finally granted Lancelot access to battlefields previously deemed too dangerous by both Lorant and his parents.

Time flew as Lorant and Lancelot lost themselves in the excitement of the Nightmare Horse. But soon, urgent updates from the Blue Star Pass demanded their attention.

Unfortunately, the news wasn’t the long-awaited report of the tunnel's completion. Instead, just as the excavation neared the exit—with light faintly visible ahead—progress hit a snag once more.

Silem, in charge onsite, rushed into the tunnel to check it out. When he confirmed it was over his head, he hurried back for help.

"What do you mean the Bigmouth Book can't detect the Dimensional Hole?" Lorant frowned at Silem. "What did Caroline say?"

Silem’s expression was grim. Just when victory seemed within reach, yet another roadblock had appeared.

Since last night, not a single Dimensional Hole had been detected in the Blue Star Tunnel—despite the swarm of Bigmouth Books deployed.

That alone wasn’t the issue. Optimistically, one might assume the Dimensional Holes were simply gone. But...

Judging by the number of Dimensional Holes previously cleared by the team, this possibility was entirely real.

However, the issue was that no matter how many times they scanned, Caroline remained absolutely certain that at least one Dimensional Hole still existed ahead, unseen by everyone.

That spatial distortion was unmistakable.

Yet, no matter what, the Bigmouth Books failed to detect the direction of that Dimensional Hole, and neither could Caroline.

To confirm this, Silem suggested tossing some items ahead to test whether a Dimensional Hole truly existed.

They first brought in some wooden rods, but after rolling them forward, the space showed no reaction. At first glance, it seemed empty, with no sign of the rods being swallowed by an invisible dimensional space as expected.

However, just as everyone began to wonder if Caroline had made a detection error due to exhaustion, the live animal test overturned this conclusion.

When the first live Field Snowhare hopped forward and quickly disappeared into a certain area, all present paled.

This proved Caroline hadn't been mistaken—there was indeed at least one dangerous but undetectable Dimensional Hole right before their eyes!

If one Bigmouth Book failed to detect this mysterious Dimensional Hole, it might have been due to carelessness—a simple mistake. But when all the Bigmouth Books, knowing there was indeed a Dimensional Hole ahead, scoured the entire area up and down repeatedly and still couldn’t detect it, this could no longer be explained away as mere oversight.

As more and more Field Snowhares were sacrificed, the expressions of those present grew increasingly grim.

Based solely on the locations where the Field Snowhares disappeared, the hunting space of this Dimensional Hole was far more extensive than anyone expected.

By now, these people were well acquainted with Dimensional Holes. Anyone who had spent months continuously handling, capturing, measuring, and placing the same type of beast would develop an understanding far beyond the ordinary.

Familiarity breeds expertise, and currently, no one on the continent understood Dimensional Holes better than this group.

From their expert perspective, this Dimensional Hole was undoubtedly special—even disregarding its undetectability, it was still remarkably unique.

The exact size of this Dimensional Hole’s hunting space remained unknown and would need live flying beasts to determine, but the width along the ground could already be roughly estimated.

This dimensional space alone occupied three-quarters of the tunnel’s width—a terrifying span that would normally require two or three ordinary Dimensional Holes combined to achieve.

The reason they concluded there was only one Dimensional Hole, rather than several closely linked ones creating a shared hunting space, was that when they threw an elongated live creature sideways, its body wasn’t segmented but vanished entirely from sight.

What made Lorant's face darken further upon arriving at the scene was that when a long log was rolled along the same path where the slender creature had disappeared, the hunting space seemed to vanish again, making no move to consume the log.

Watching the log roll away slowly, Lorant looked down at Fa Meng in his arms and whispered, "Little one, can you tell what’s going on here? Is it the Dimensional Hole’s doing, or some other beast, or perhaps a special phenomenon?"

Indeed, by now, Lorant had even begun to doubt whether this dimensional hunting space was caused by a Dimensional Hole at all. After all, in a place teeming with Dimensional Holes, most would instinctively assume such a space was the work of one.

But such assumptions could often be wrong. Perhaps this was a special spatial rift, an unusual magical anomaly, not directly attributable to a Dimensional Hole. If Blue Star continued pursuing the Dimensional Hole angle, they might only stray further down the wrong path.

Before committing serious resources to address this, they needed to first identify the right direction.