When Ye Zichen got closer to the silver streak, he discovered that it was in motion.
Fortunately, its movements weren’t particularly fast. At the speed Ye Zichen could manage within the spatial storm, he’d likely be able to see its true form up close within an hour.
“Don’t tell me there are living things even within a spatial fault?” Since the silvery light moved, Ye Zichen naturally considered that it might be a living thing.
The only thing that made him hesitate was that, if this really was some sort of organism, wasn’t it just a little too huge?
At least from Ye Zichen’s perspective, there was no end to the silvery streak in sight.
The silver seemed to cut cleanly across the entire spatial fault.
No matter the true nature of the silvery light, Ye Zichen had decided to go up and take a look. He urged on his divine power, holding nothing back as he continuously stabilized his barrier and drew closer and closer to the light.
One pot of tea’s worth of time later…
Something happened during this time that made Ye Zichen consider retreating: the silver streak seemed to sense him, and its movements shifted; he discovered that it was now headed towards him.
Ye Zichen had already suspected that it might be a living thing, and when he realized it was approaching, he felt the urge to give up and flee…
However….
When the light got close enough to see clearly, Ye Zichen discovered that it wasn’t the animal he’d imagined at all. It was still a ways off, but it no longer looked like a silver streak. Instead, it looked more like a pillar.
Ye Zichen could only see it indistinctly, but it seemed like a structure.
Proceeding even closer, he gradually saw the streak’s true nature:
A long corridor!
Ye Zichen couldn’t tell just how long it was, but there was certainly no end in sight.
It was about ten meters tall, and silvery white throughout. The faint glow he’d seen earlier emanated from its surface.
The vicious, biting spatial storm left no marks on its pristine silver surface. To Ye Zichen, this was absolutely wonderful news. Maintaining the barrier had over-exhausted him, and despite continuously downing medicine, it took a lot of mental energy to maintain the barrier too. It was mentally exhausting. He needed a safe harbor to protect him from the winds, and give both his divine power and his mental energy time to recover.
This silver corridor seemed like an absolutely ideal choice!
Without much hesitation, just a brief check to see if it seemed dangerous, Ye Zichen entered the corridor.
“I’m finally inside.” Ye Zichen slumped on the ground and gasped for breath. The corridor was strange, now that he thought of it. The entrance let Ye Zichen in, but none of the winds outside got through at all.
The turbulent winds outside could do nothing but howl; they couldn’t damage or influence the corridor at all.
The interior of the corridor was pitch-black. Ye Zichen lit a fireball in his palm, then lingered around the entryway for the time it took to brew a cup of tea.
There were no decorations or embellishments on the walls. The corridor was completely empty.
But something about the corridor’s interior felt familiar. But then, he didn’t have the mental energy to think too much about it.
After confirming that the corridor was safe, Ye Zichen’s taut nerves finally relaxed.
When he finally relaxed after being on edge for so long, exhaustion washed over him. He took some wood from his spatial ring and made a campfire, then leaned against the wall. He felt exhausted, and his eyelids were starting to feel heavy.
Ye Zichen knew that his situation was in no way good, and he knew that no matter how tired he was, he couldn’t sleep now.
But then, Ye Zichen, who still retained a hint of consciousness, saw an afterimage just as he was about to close his eyes.
The afterimage seemed to stop before his campfire.
He tried with all his might to wake himself back up, but exhaustion washed over him like the tide, relentlessly wearing away his last lines of defense until he fell into a deep, deep slumber.
Just before he fell asleep, Ye Zichen saw a pair of pitch-black wizard boots drawing slowly towards him.
……
……
……
Upheaval City.
Ever since establishing Upheaval City, the Upheaval Alliance was on guard against the Outsider Gods, and the higher-ups’ informants were practically all stationed Outside.
Countless scouting expeditions had gone Outside in search of clues, but aside from the video from the one squadron that got wiped out, the alliance received no further information about the Outside.
The video that Su Liu’er had criticized had become the only material they had with which to understand the era-ending giant beasts.
Xiao Yumei sat within a tall tower, holding the video. Even she’d lost track of how many times she’d watched it. The technical department had also analyzed the video for data on the Ender many times over.
But the result? Su Liu’er’s criticisms were right on point. If they wanted to know the Enders’ true strength, this video wasn’t enough to make an accurate judgment.
During this time, the Divine Mountains’ imperial lords visited, and all of them saw the video too.
But their answer was the same!
Sitting in her wicker chair, Xiao Yumei’s eyes flashed with exhaustion. In order to share Ye Zichen’s worries, she’d taken on the Upheaval Alliance’s administration of her own volition.
As the vice alliance head, there were far, far too many matters for her to attend to. The genius youths of the God and Yao Realms were inside the temporal divine artifact, and she had to keep tabs on their progress. Zuo Mo and Old Lord Taijun’s pill-refining and construction needed her to follow up on them. She couldn’t get the Ender out of her head, and she even needed to go up to the top floor and calm the elemental essence spirits.
“He’s been gone for half a month already. Why hasn’t he come back?” Xiao Yumei looked out at the blue skies, her words filled with longing for Ye Zichen.
It wasn’t that she wanted him to come back and share her burdens. She just wanted him to lend her his shoulder when she felt exhausted.
And here she’d thought that Ye Zichen would be gone for a few days, a few weeks at most. Why wasn’t he back yet?
No one would have guessed that after leaving, they’d hear nothing back from him.
She silently glanced at her phone, then flipped through her and Ye Zichen’s chat log. All of it was messages she’d sent him, but each was like throwing a stone into the ocean; she got no response back.
Her time running a company in the Modern Realm had been tiring, but now…
She’d just love to go back to being an ordinary manager. She didn’t want to live in such constant mental exhaustion in this turbulent world.
“I really don’t know when I’ll finally get the chance to rest.” Xiao Yumei put her phone aside, and she couldn’t help but put her hands in her hands. She wanted to relax, just a little bit, but then….
She heard someone whooshing towards the tower, and her eyes, which she’d only just closed, popped back open. Then, she saw Xiao Yan dashing frantically in from outside. He scurried straight into the main hall.
“Sis!”
“Vice Alliance Head!” Xiao Yumei frowned at him.
“Vice Alliance Head!” Xiao Yan tried again, then pointed outside the tower, at the city gates. “That fox girl, Su Yan, wants to go Outside. Xiao Hu is at the gates trying to stop her, but…”
“I’ll go over and see what’s going on!”
