[You will only have a few seconds to enter the barrier before it is completely closed. So you better be prepared to make a run for it.]
Shen Yuan nodded as he stepped forward slowly while increasing the intensity of the Qi he was infusing the spike with until it started to glow completely silver.
“Now!” He shouted as he pushed the spike with all his might toward the barrier, but little he expect that the spike would make a hole in the barrier before it could even unleash its full strength, making him stumble forward as he crossed the barrier.
But the spike’s power was all used up as it gave one last flash of light before dimming down, yet it also annihilated a lot of the eerie Qi from the surroundings.
Shen Yuan hurriedly stood up as he assessed his surroundings for any apparent threat, but he soon heaved a sigh as nothing came into his view.
He then looked at the spike in his hand, which slowly turned into dust as it flew away from his hand together with the wind.
“That was quite powerful. Did I overestimate the barrier of the Mystique Realm or underestimate the power of this treasure?” He wondered as he observed his surroundings closely, his guard raised to the maximum in the new environment.
[The spike was powerful enough to puncture a hole in a world barrier; this Mystique Realm’s barrier is nothing.]
Shen Yuan nodded and finally glanced down to see what he was standing on, “Red dirt?”
He whispered as all he could see was red dirt in his vision, stretching to the horizon.
He decided to walk forward in the desolate land, “Why is there not a blade of grass here? Not even something unique to this environment. Does the Qi really not support any kind of life?”
He couldn’t help but ask himself as he saw the condition of the land.
He continued walking for a bit until, BAM!, he struck a wall, “Huh? What the-” He jumped back as he put a hand on his sword, ready to draw while he stared ahead.
“Did I hit empty air?” He muttered to himself while glancing left and right to see what he struck into because all he could see in front of him was an empty wasteland.
He cautiously took a few steps ahead, standing in front of the place where he struck before.
He raised his hand a little and placed it in front of him, measuring the place before his eyes widened as he softly whispered, “A barrier…or an illusion?”
As soon as he whispered the word, the whole world started cracking as fissures appeared all over the place. Shen Yuan unsheathed his blade to be ready for any surprise attack.
But as the fissures grew larger, he realized that he was inside a giant room, where the crack in space was located, but the room was locked from all sides except one, where the wall was missing.
As if someone frequently used it, Shen Yuan glanced down to see the debris of the destroyed wall all over the place. He softly poked it with his sword to take a general guess of the other party’s strength.
But to his surprise, the rock didn’t budge an inch, much less being pierced by his sword. He frowned and put more force into his attack until the blade bent, but the rock refused to budge.
Shen Yuan took a deep breath seeing this. He knew he was in trouble as he slowly started to retreat from where he came from, but all of a sudden—
As if waiting for this moment, the cracks in space started closing. He felt his heart skip a beat at this sight as he sprinted towards the crack at his full speed, yet the cracks began to close faster and faster as he closed the distance.
And soon, the entire crack closed, leaving him alone in this place. His breath quickened as he knew he had to act fast before something unforeseen happened.
He looked towards the exit before slowly moving closer to a wall. He started walking slowly from there as he didn’t want to meet up with whoever was the owner of this place.
The fallen debris made it clear that it was not something he could handle, so he started to look for a way out.
‘Fuck fuck fuck! Why does this shit always happen to me? Was I born unlucky?’ he wailed inside his heart while slowly moving towards the exit.
Which he soon reached as he poked his head outside the broken gate to see a large corridor, which was lit with torches that burned brightly with green flames.
He started walking slowly, ‘Hmm…this place is only slightly bigger than the average mansion. Whose is this anyway? And this level of concentration of that eerie Qi…’
He felt his Qi being suppressed in this place as the concentration became far too high for someone of his level to bear but if anyone else of his level were here, then this eerie Qi would have corroded that person down to their bones.
But he didn’t think further as his pure Qi was enough to handle this level of eerie Qi.
He continued to walk through the corridor as he changed paths multiple times, “Weird…no mansion guard and no maid here.”
He soon found a place where various things were high on display, his gaze landed on them as he felt a pressure far higher than what he could handle on his own.
He felt his entire body being suppressed from merely being in their presence as he gritted his teeth and used his will to stand straight.
But just then, his bloodline stirred as if provoked by the residual energy from the items on the wall.
He soon felt his bloodline releasing its own aura and clashing with the pressure of the items, but it helped him immensely as he felt free from the pressure.
He gazed intently at them and murmured, “Skulls…of higher level beasts. Far higher than anything that I have encountered before.”
He realized they were the skulls of beasts stronger than even the Sect Leader of the Radiant Lotus Sacred Sect.
But that didn’t intimidate him as he felt that he had a high chance of running away unscathed from the Sect Leader.
But it raised his vigilance to the next level as he averted his gaze from the wall and headed forward.
He continued walking and weird places kept popping up. One was a place where a lot of tombstones were erected, and another place was filled with rotten corpses of cultivators.
Shen Yuan paused here as he felt a familiar aura from the bodies, “Hmm? They are Qi cultivators like me…” He muttered as he saw them, but soon shook his head as he headed ahead once again.
He soon came in front of a massive door, which seemed to have been standing there since the beginning of time. His expression turned solemn as he walked forward slowly.
As he observed the gate, he noticed faint carvings on top of it, which seemed to have been worn down due to the long passage of time.
