The shattered valley, the desolate ruins of streets—every scene witnessed before her eyes vanished in that instant.
Even the encroaching night itself dissipated.
An indescribable, chaotic mist billowed forth from the void, filling her entire field of vision.
The monsters and Soul-Eaters that had rendered Atoris utterly incapable of resistance were instantly reduced to puddles of liquid and wisps of mist within the fog.
They didn’t even have time to shriek.
Only a few claws, fangs, and faintly glowing crystals remained on the ground.
It seemed as though some terrifyingly powerful entity had descended.
It strangled all outsiders within its domain.
Its power was so immense that it could even block the ominous presence and curses of the night.
Gazing at the scene before her, Atoris froze for a moment.
She quickly checked her body and all her equipment.
Her physical condition was excellent, arguably the best it had been in recent times. The previously volatile extraordinary substances within her body were as quiet as a sleeping infant, and the sealed artifact on her person had completely retracted its glow. Aside from her external mechanical armor entering hibernation mode, everything else was in perfect condition.
Scanning the chaotic surroundings, Atoris’s gaze settled on the object in her hand: the ‘lantern’ that had fallen from Perseus, suspected to be an artifact from the Old World.
‘Why did the mist appear? Why did all the other monsters die, yet I’m still alive? Is it because I’m human? Heh…’
Atoris shook her head, internally dismissing that last conjecture.
However, she reasoned that none of this could have happened without cause. Reflecting, the mist first appeared precisely because she had, by some twist of fate, activated this object’s switch. Her current survival, therefore, was most likely due to holding this very lantern.
She tentatively moved the lantern, shining it forward. Instantly, the swirling mist before her thinned considerably, parting to either side.
Atoris felt her internal hypothesis solidify.
‘A summoning medium, perhaps? Or some kind of domain-type sealed artifact?’
As she pondered, Atoris quickly stepped forward, picking up the glowing crystals scattered throughout the mist one by one.
These were Soul-Eater essences, imbued with extremely high energy. Not only could they heal physical wounds and enhance vitality, but a single small, low-grade Soul-Eater essence could power a small floating castle for two months!
Carefully placing the last, fist-sized, mid-grade Soul-Eater essence into her backpack, Atoris once again observed the surrounding mist.
After searching in a circle and finding no discernible path out, she hesitated before trying to temporarily switch off the lantern.
The mist around her remained, but she noticed a light flickering in its center—a white lamp, swaying erratically within the chaotic fog.
After a brief moment of hesitation, she no longer delayed, quickly striding towards that direction.
The light appeared distant, yet after less than a minute of walking, the scene before her gradually clarified.
What greeted her eyes was a vast, abyssal void, black as pitch. It seemed to transcend all time and space, appearing close at hand, yet giving the sensation of being forever out of reach. It was as if this was the ultimate destination humanity could never attain!
In the sky, countless chaotic, block-like mists swirled in the center, piling up to form a massive, unknown structure. It was disordered and chaotic, yet possessed a strange, unsettling beauty.
Just by looking at it, Atoris felt her soul almost slip from her grasp. In that darkness, a myriad of vast entities seemed to murmur lowly, uttering forbidden languages.
When she regained her senses, she seemed to have traversed countless dimensions and arrived before that magnificent, boundless palace.
Atoris lifted her head, observing the palace gates. Inky black, unknown substances intertwined to form a script above the entrance.
‘This is… an Old World script?’
She recognized the origin of the writing but couldn’t fully decipher it. Fortunately, her right eye’s detection device hadn’t completely shut down and could still barely assist her in translation.
‘Myriad Realm… Flower Shop?’
As the electronic display on her right eye showed the translated text, Atoris’s expression became somewhat erratic, yet she resolutely stepped forward.
She understood clearly that this was an invitation from the master of this place. Faced with such overwhelming power, she had no choice but to accept.
At the very least, the other party appeared to be a communicable entity…
The colossal gates, like those of a giant, were half-ajar. She gently reached out to push them, only to find them unexpectedly light—or rather, they opened automatically.
As the scene before her came into view, Atoris swallowed hard.
Endless chaos obscured everything. Beyond the massive doors seemed to lie an infinite world.
The chaos slowly swirled, and in its center, a strange figure sat behind what appeared to be a counter.
The figure was slender and thin, seemingly devoid of muscle. Half of their face was obscured by chaos, while the exposed half was so beautiful it left her awestruck!
As the grand doors slowly opened, the strange figure rose.
In that instant, the previously calm chaos around them suddenly churned, forming a vortex around the figure.
Within the chaotic maelstrom, certain massive forms seemed to stand, three immense pillars faintly discernible.
Atoris instinctively took a step forward. At the very same moment, the piercing sound of an alarm device suddenly blared in her ears.
[Warning: Unknown signal source detected!]
[Energy calculation device activated for matching!]
[Warning: Matching failed! Target energy level overflow! Unable to calculate! Unable to calculate!]
[Warning: Multiple ultra-high energy reaction targets found! Suspected creation domain…]
The barrage of warnings left Atoris frozen in place. The next instant, she noticed where she had stepped.
In the chaotic ocean, the three immense pillars gradually became clearer. It seemed as though countless terrifying gazes from an infinite distance were fixed upon her, sending shivers down her spine.
The electronic warning in her ears threatened to explode, frantically urging her to leave. The data displayed on her right eye’s invisible detection device had long since devolved into strings of garbled code.
As if anticipating all this, the figure smiled softly.
“Welcome! Are you here to buy flowers, esteemed guest?”
The words, as refreshing as a spring breeze, reached Atoris’s ears. In that instant, all her detection sensors overloaded, followed by a deafening boom.
All her electronic detection equipment declared itself废弃—scrapped—in that very moment!
****
It was already past nine in the evening.
Having sent his great-granddaughter back to her sect and, incidentally, discussed life with her sect leader, Qin Tian returned to this place by riding the clouds and mist.
On his way back, he encountered White Sword Immortal, a heroic figure from the great war beyond the domains. Even an elder expert like Qin Tian held immense respect for them.
When he learned that their old dao injuries had healed, Qin Tian was shaken to his core.
Unfortunately, White Sword Immortal was in a hurry, seemingly having an urgent matter to attend to. Qin Tian only had time to greet them and exchange a few casual words.
‘Strange,’ he thought.
He walked the same path from the morning several times, yet each time he found himself in a peculiar dead end.
Moreover, such a secluded place should be a favorite haunt for rogue cultivators and various heterodox entities, but he hadn’t sensed a single trace of a cultivator so far.
However, he soon relaxed, realizing that where a fierce tiger resides in the forest, other small animals naturally dare not approach.
This indirectly proved that the heterodox individual living here was indeed extraordinary.
Just the unintentional emanation of their aura was enough to deter other heterodox beings, which sparked a slight anticipation in Qin Tian.
Ever since the Human Emperor’s rise, within the borders of Huaxia, powerful demons and heterodox beings not affiliated with any organization either submitted or were systematically eliminated. The rest had fled overseas.
In recent years, he rarely encountered powerful heterodox entities capable of challenging him within the country. Of course, he dared not provoke the great demons in places like Kunlun and Tu Shan Qingqiu.
Because with his representative status, any reckless action could easily ignite a war between immortals and demons.
Especially those demons from Kunlun—they were the most shameless, always ganging up in fights and constantly stirring up trouble, forcing their Immortal Alliance to clean up their messes!
If it weren’t for the Lord of Kunlun backing them, the Immortal Alliance would have long since dismantled Kunlun!
A lawless bunch!
In any case, Qin Tian was quite interested in encountering a seemingly formidable opponent, a rare occurrence.
After several attempts, he simply gave up, soaring into the sky to survey the area.
He then astonishingly discovered that the flower shop from the morning, along with the entire alley, had vanished from this area.
Where the alley had been, the surrounding buildings seemed to have shifted inward, perfectly engulfing the alley without a trace of abnormality.
It was as if such a flower shop had never existed.
If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes today, he truly wouldn’t have believed that a flower shop could exist in this place.
Observing the area carefully several more times, Qin Tian slowly furrowed his brows.
‘An illusion? It doesn’t seem like it.’
A mere illusion, no matter how clever, would leave a trace, and wouldn’t escape his spiritual sight.
‘Could it be some heterodox secret art?’
“The Grand Pure One divides into Three Pure Ones, the Three Great Officials determine the Three Souls, Heaven, Earth, and Man combine with three fires, grant me the Heavenly Eye to perceive Yin and Yang!”
As the incantation concluded, countless ancient, blurry symbols appeared in Qin Tian’s eyes. In the depths of his pupils, a faint golden light shone.
The Heavenly Eye, one of his most prized divine abilities, was rumored to be able to pierce through all illusions in the world when cultivated to its highest level, repelling all evil and even traversing reincarnation.
Although Qin Tian had only cultivated it to the first major completion, it was enough for him to see through most traps and clues laid by evil heterodox practitioners.
It was precisely because of this that his enemies often met an inexplicable end, without ever understanding why their arrangements had been seen through.
The world before his eyes gradually took on a faint golden hue.
Innumerable footprints of different colors, densely packed, appeared on the ground within his sight.
These were traces left by energy.
The color of the traces varied depending on the cultivation method, and the depth of the footprints varied with the profoundness of the cultivation.
Generally, deeper footprints belonged to those with lower cultivation, while shallower ones had two possibilities: either beginner cultivators or heterodox beings, or those with extremely high cultivation like himself, who could control every inch of their power.
However, compared to all this, Qin Tian was currently even more astonished by something else.
“How can there be so many?”
Looking at the countless footprints of various colors and depths before him, Qin Tian’s brow slowly knitted together.
According to his rough estimate, there were at least a hundred discernible types of heterodox energies, yet currently, the entire Huaxia nation didn’t even possess that many categories of heterodox beings.
Furthermore, many of the heterodox energy signatures within these footprints were completely unheard of to him.
More importantly, even with his first-level Heavenly Eye activated, he still couldn’t see through the flower shop’s concealment.
This caused a strange unease to inexplicably surge within him…