"Automaton, what happened? Also, everything hurts holy shit," I grumbled as I tried to figure out what was going on. Everything was too dark and too quiet.
"L…ord…"
The words came broken and stuttering as if a mechanical error had happened.
I traced around the dark area around me only to find the Automaton sprawled on the ground unable to move or function.
I got closer and tried to wake him up.
"What's wrong? C'mon, buddy, wake up," I said.
Some Qi, figments, and bits of it sparked inside the automaton's glass eyes and it said, "Critical energy failure, cannot self sustain…"
I immediately pulled out a Saint Qi crystal that I had on me and placed it against the automaton's chest.
The automaton absorbed the Qi from the crystal but almost immediately stopped himself.
"Lord, don't waste this precious resource on me, you will need it to self-sustain," he said.
"What's going on, it's just a piece of Saint Qi, I have plenty more," I replied.
"Good, that means, you'll live a bit longer than I anticipated…"
"That sounds hella ominous, I can't remember what happened, what's going on in here, the sound of wind has died, the whole world feels lifeless for some reason, and why is the pagoda without any light? Wasn't there an artificial sun right here?" I asked.
The automaton began booting more of its functions as it said, "We're inside the serpent. The offensive that the sword spirit had launched exhausted a lot of the Lord's Pagoda, and now that we're inside the serpent's stomach…our future looks bleak, it isn't allowing any energy in, so we cannot function."
"Wait hold up, inside what thing's stomach?"
"The Primordial Dragon Serpent, it had eaten the Lord of Lords Pagoda. And us inside it."
"And I suppose we can't teleport out?" I asked.
"No, the serpent's size is enough to mess up everything regarding spatial displacement, not to mention it's constantly seeping every inch and ounce of Qi the pagoda produces. I've shut down all of its functions, but we won't last at this rate."
"Damn," I said as I thought about how to deal with this issue.
"Can we see what's outside? Or even go outside the pagoda," I asked.
"Yes, it shouldn't be enough energy release for the serpent to notice us, it must had thought that we had died once we were inside it," the Automaton said, "But if you were to cause it to notice that you live still, it may act in accordance to get rid of us."
"Good, show me then," I said.
The Automaton then displayed a holographic screen that showed nothing but darkness at first, until the 'light' began adjusting and I was too stunned to speak.
We were technically inside the stomach of this serpent, but here… it didn't look like a stomach whatsoever.
Entire continents were 'swimming' in stomach fluids. There was even a starry sky.
How is this even possible?
But soon I came to realize something, this creature's size is immense to a disgustingly preposterous size. Seeing a few continent-sized pieces of dirt wasn't that strange, but the strangest thing was… they held life. Yes, actual human life…
As the pagoda zoomed further in, I was able to see people, cultivators, markets even and some going on their daily lives as if living inside the stomach of this creature wasn't that worth mentioning.
"The hell is going on in there?" I mumbled.
"The Primordial Serpent God consumes planets for sustenance. And if any cultivator survive the feast, it remained inside, with so much material that a planet possesses, it is no wonder that a civilization was created."
"This is actually insane," I muttered, "A world within a body… an actual living, breathing world."
"Are you planning on visiting it?" asked the Automaton.
"Do we have any other choice?" I asked, "Those are continents, and those are people, that means that there are materials and herbs. And I need a lot of spiritual herbs. The last fight had its toll on me, My Dantian is cracked, and several of my meridians are fractured. My body is no longer able to regenerate as fast as it could," I said "Not to mention that my skin itself feels as brittle as sand after drying… my body is damaged critically so, and I don't have the means to repair it right now," I said.
"Then if the Lord wishes, you may leave to visit, if by some chance you find a planetary core, bring it to me," said the Automaton.
"What is that?" I asked.
"It is the heart of a planet, it is as small as a human's fist, but it radiates energy so great it can give birth to a planet itself. The Planetary Core that was sustaining the Lord of Lord's pagoda is in is throwing it last, and will not last longer than a couple of years at best. Once the core dies down, the entire facility of the pagoda will emerge to the world and suffer its effects," the automaton said.
"But how can we even find something like that here," I mumbled.
"Actually this may be the best place to find one, this serpent eats planets, so by some chance we might find an intact Planetary Core."
"Damn, I'll see what I can do," I said.
"Don't see, you have to find one, otherwise we'll be stranded here until the end of times…"
"No pressure…" I grumbled as I left the pagoda.
Just as I emerged outside, and was high above the continent-sized pieces of half-digested planets, I was pulled down by a gravitational force so great that I felt I was about to be squashed on impact.
But just as I rapidly approached the ground of a giant forest, the gravitational pull began receding faster and faster, to the point I was able to use my own qi to push myself afloat.
Then soon, I slowed down to a halt and arrived safely to the ground.
The whole area was full of long strange looking trees, it was hard to see using one's own eyes so I spread my divine sense around me.
There was a putrid smell to this area, like the smell of vomit, but I suppose that it was normal since I'm literally in the stomach of a creature.
Yet, the grass grew, the wind blew and birds flew all over.
This dead-to-be-expected place seemed to have more life than I thought. But thinking about it, how long would it take for this creature to finish digesting an entire planet, it should be tens of thousands of years. So no wonder a civilization exists.
Just as I was thinking about where to go, a couple of cultivators arrived at my side almost immediately swords at the ready and pointed at my neck.
"Who are you? Where did you come from?" one of them asked, the bigger-sized one of the two, he had an ugly scowl on his face, and the massive scare cutting from the corner of his forehead all the way to the side of his chin wasn't something that would make me say this man was good looking. Not to mention that it was hard to see any part of his skin that didn't have a tribal tattoo on it.
The other wasn't much of a looker either, he had several scars all over his tattoo-covered body, and one of his eyes was missing, still, he carried a rusty-looking sword as if it was his most prized possession.
"Dang Ho, let's just kill him. Look at what he's wearing, he must be from a wealthy island," the second guy said.
"We kill later, we know who he is now!" the first man said. "Of which tribe you come from, foreigner!" he said.
"No tribe," I said.
The two looked at each other in confusion and then asked me, "You lie!"
"I'm not, I don't belong here, I was just roaming the vast expanse until the serpent ate me," I said.
"Serpent? Vast expanse?" the man named Dong Ho muttered and then nodded, "I understand," he said.
"What do you understand brother Dong Ho?" asked his companion.
"This man… is crazy," he said.
…
I kept opening my mouth and shutting it trying to say something about how incredibly stupid these two people are, but then I thought for a second and asked.
"What is this place?" I asked them.
"See I told you he is crazy, he must have hit his head while sneaking in on our Tiger Warrior Lands…"
"Okay, so I guess this place is called the Tiger Warrior."
The smaller of the two bonked Dong Ho on the head, "Now he knows what this place is! You idiot, why did you tell him!"
The other man named Dong Ho apologized and said, "Now you know where this is, we must kill you so you don't tell the others!" he said.
I facepalmed from the sheer idiocy of the two and asked, "Do you know that you're all inside the stomach of a serpent?" I asked.
The two of them looked at each other in utter confusion.
"You probably don't, I can't blame you, you were probably born and raised here, with all of this around you being the only thing you knew, so you took it for granted as the real world. Frogs in a well… I suppose that is the closest analogy," I sighed.
"We're not Frogs! Frogs live on the other island! We're Tiger Warriors!" the big guy Dong Ho exclaimed proudly.
'I'm gonna have a headache…'
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