In the following days, Angel stayed in the Vine House and went nowhere.
Although he himself did not leave, he sent Toby out of the Lost Forest once to deliver a message to Lobal and others outside, telling them to wait for his return in the Green Forest Domain.
When Toby returned, he also brought back a reply from Lobal and the others.
Lobal and the other wind creatures had no complaints. Even Cubic waited obediently outside. On the contrary, Dangross was clamoring to enter the Lost Forest. Naturally, Angel ignored this, treating it as the occasional tantrum of a spoiled child, choosing to disregard and tolerate it.
Besides having Toby deliver messages, Angel spent most of his time in thought.
He kept pondering whether there was a way to bypass the Spatial Tempest and take a look at the Treasureland.
Even if he could only see from afar, he wanted to know if Treasureland still existed at all.
If it were still there, it would at least calm him down; if Treasureland had already been completely destroyed by the Spatial Tempest, he could make an early decision to leave.
However, despite his intense contemplation, he couldn’t come up with any method.
Not to mention entering the Spatial Tempest, it was impossible even to let his spiritual power into it.
Time flowed by in bitter meditation.
Three days later, on a clear night.
Angel sat statue-like in front of a painting, unmoving. His mind was filled with swirling thoughts, imaginative and boundless ideas, yet no matter how novel or outlandish these ideas were, they were like a gust of wind dissipated before even rising in the face of the unshakable Spatial Tempest, utterly ineffective.
Angel rubbed his somewhat tense temples: "Is there truly no way at all?"
No external factors, no intrinsic values, the Spatial Tempest was like an eternal canyon in front of him, impossible to cross.
This even made Angel start questioning: Could the Spatial Tempest be the fluke in the grand scheme of fate?
Did Feng fail to calculate the occurrence of the Spatial Tempest?
Frustration, helplessness, and confusion.
"Alas..." Defeated once more by this unsolvable puzzle, Angel couldn’t help but sigh.
He felt he had sighed more in the past few days than in the entire preceding year.
Just then, a chilly wind seeped through the woven walls of the vines, lightly blowing into the room. The gentle moonlight, fractured and torn by the vine cracks, cast a patchwork glow throughout the room.
Angel shivered in the cold wind, his muddled thoughts clearing slightly.
He thought, since he couldn’t come up with anything at the moment, rather than sitting here in helpless sighs, he might as well go out, get a breath of fresh air, and calm down.
With this in mind, Angel stood up, pushed open the creaking vine door, and walked along the thick stems of the vines.
As soon as he stepped out, he saw the high clouds beneath the night sky, rolling in with the blowing night wind, like a tidal wave rushing from afar. In an instant, the garden atop the vine tower, which was originally clear and distinct, was covered by richly nuanced clouds, forming once again the breathtaking Cloudtop Garden.
Toby, who had been napping in Angel’s pocket, was also awakened by the sudden cold wind from outside, looking at the tide-like clouds with excitement, chirping, and fluttering through the rolling mists.
As clouds paved the ground and the stars filled the sky, while Toby’s eyes were captivated by the pure beauty, Angel leaned against the door, gazing at the very tip of the vine tower.
Behind the Vine House, there was another slender vine, three meters taller than the rooftop, currently tightly coiled by a green snake. If not for the raised snakehead, it would be totally indistinct from the vine, as they seemed to merge seamlessly.
That green snake was, without doubt, Nami Midori.
During Angel’s three days at the Vine House, Nami Midori had come three times, each time arriving at night and leaving by dawn. It didn’t disturb Angel, merely coiling atop the vine tower, gazing at the starry sky.
Just as the first time they met, gazing at the stars in wonder.
Angel didn’t know why Nami Midori was so fond of watching the stars. Perhaps, as it said, looking at the vast starry sky made it feel its own insignificance more deeply, kindling a greater desire to escape the plight of insignificance. And this became the driving force behind Nami Midori’s relentless practice.
Angel quietly watched Nami Midori, pondering insignificance and greatness, while the snake stared at the starry sky.
This calmness lasted for a long while.
Angel didn’t greet Nami Midori. Instead, as he felt a bit clearer, he prepared to return to the Vine House to continue looking for possibilities from different angles to enter the Spatial Tempest.
Before re-entering the Vine House, Angel glanced at Toby in the distance.
Originally intending to ask Toby if he planned to keep playing or come back with him, what he saw made Angel frown.
Toby, wearing a pure white lace nightdress, fluttered through the mist like a little elf, but for a moment, Toby suddenly froze, hesitantly gazing at a certain spot, eyes flickering with familiar confusion.
Angel noticed Toby’s gaze and, knowing Toby so well, immediately sensed something was wrong.
Following Toby’s line of sight, there was nothing but wafting mist, nothing visible.
Just as Angel felt puzzled, an imperceptible gaze quietly settled upon him.
"This feeling... it’s that observer!" Angel immediately understood what was happening.
The fourth time that hidden creature he had been waiting for had finally come!
Moreover, judging from Toby’s condition, the observer might have initially focused on Toby until Angel glanced over, which shifted the gaze to him. Otherwise, Angel reckoned he wouldn’t have sensed the presence of that gaze.
In previous instances of being watched, Angel’s reactions had been swift and intense, but this time he was much calmer, showing no movements, his eyes as serene as if nothing had happened.
Yet beneath the calm exterior, there were hidden ripples echoing one after another.
Since Angel was already leaning against the door, he naturally used the Vine House as a medium, releasing a wave of information slowly and steadily.
Others couldn’t see it, but Nami Midori, the creator and owner of the vine tower, sensed it first.
Nami Midori didn’t react excessively either, merely directing its golden vertical pupils towards the shared line of sight of Angel and Toby.
However, like the memory from the last time with the floating flower, nothing was found within Nami Midori’s sight.