Chapter 3: Apocalyptic Scenery (Part 1)

This was a space on the verge of collapse. Despite its impending destruction, it had existed for thousands of years. When Li Ran’s team rushed into the Luotian Ruins, he quickly reached a conclusion. No one knew more about spaces than him; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to create such a powerful weapon as Break the Boundary. Even Qi Wu Zhen was far behind him in terms of spatial understanding. Without Li Ran, they would never have reached the Star Sacrifice Site.

The entire space was grayish, with a huge crack in the sky, eerily suspended high above. That’s how they had entered earlier—through that crack, which resembled a tear in a piece of white paper. Guo Shier looked up at the sky and said, “This passage seems to have been forced open by someone, and it hasn’t disappeared. It’s fixed here. I can’t figure out who could do such a thing. I don’t have that kind of power.”

Qi Wu Zhen said, “If it’s human-made, then that person must be stronger than me!” It wasn’t easy for her to admit someone was stronger than her—such a person must be extremely powerful.

Li Ran nodded and said, “Mm, it’s likely human-made, but I don’t think it was done by one person. Maybe a group of people. If it were done by one person, haha, that would be unbelievable—even I wouldn’t be a match. Perhaps the three of us combined could confront them, but I really can’t imagine who could have such terrifying strength.”

Guo Shier said, “Hmm, if such a person really exists, then the Tianling Clan must be very strong.”

Selin was confused and asked, “Are you saying… this huge crack was made by humans?”

Bolong said, “That’s impossible. I’ve never heard of anyone being able to create such a huge crack in the sky. It’s too exaggerated.”

Guo Shier replied, “Nothing is impossible. Haha, anything is possible—we just haven’t seen it yet.” He added, “Even if it was created by a group of people, the ancient Tianling Clan was far stronger than the current one. I’m now very interested in the Luotian Ruins.”

Li Ran asked, “Weren’t you interested before?”

Guo Shier shook his head. “At that time, I didn’t really care whether I was interested or not. At least I wasn’t very interested in what the Tianling Clan did. But from this space crack, it seems the ancient Tianling Clan was quite remarkable. Besides, I came here mainly to see if Master Kumu had also entered.”

Li Ran nodded. “Mm, if Kumu arrived earlier than us, he might have already entered.”

Guo Shier said, “I’ve always had some doubts.”

Qi Wu Zhen asked curiously, “What doubts?”

Guo Shier said, “When we were in the canyon, where did the people in front of us go? You have to know that those spatial rifts aren’t accessible to ordinary people. By the time we arrived, there wasn’t a single exploration team in front of those rifts. Could it be that when we got there… the rifts just appeared?”
Li Ran said, “That’s the only explanation. There’s no other way out, and we didn’t see any teams either. If those spatial rifts have existed for days, I’m sure many teams would have been stopped.”
There wasn’t just one huge rift in the air; there were also many smaller ones, along with massive ravines on the ground. The entire landscape was twisted and bizarre, with a cliff rising straight into the sky as if the land had split into two sections, one higher and one lower, making the terrain even more peculiar.
Desolate and dark, the land seemed to have been ravaged by an invisible giant hand several times. Only some weeds could survive tenaciously, and the branches of some huge trees lay scattered on the ground—all dead trunks. Among the gaps in those dead trunks, clusters of pale green wild grasses stubbornly emerged. There were no animals, only a few insects, and not even any birds. It was truly a desolate place.
After observing for a while, Li Ran said, “Be careful everyone. I think there are many natural dangers here. I’ve rarely seen such a desolate place—it’s even more dangerous than the areas we encountered when we left the Spell World. Those places were much more stable. This space is on the verge of collapse, and there will be many dangers we can’t predict.”
Qi Wuzhen agreed, “Mm, be careful.”
Guo Shier asked, “Cerislin, do you know how to get further down?”
Cerislin replied, “I’m not sure beyond this point. It’s my first time here too. This area should be the edge of the Luotian Ruins. It’s said the central area is where the real dangers lie. This place is still relatively safe.”
Guo Shier nodded. “Well then, will you stay at the edge to explore, or come with us into the central area?”
Cerislin and Borong hesitated for a moment. By now, they both understood that with their current strength, going any further would be beyond their capabilities. Staying at the edge was fine, but once they went deeper, they would have to rely on Li Ran and the others for protection. Yet they also knew clearly that if the dangers they encountered were too much even for those three, they would have to rely solely on their own strength—there would be no one else to count on.

But if they didn’t follow in, they might miss the chance to improve their strength. Soon, Cericlin made up her mind. This woman had a tendency toward madness; to improve her strength, she cared about almost nothing, not even her own life. She said, “I’ll go!”
Guo Shier took a slight pause before saying, “Once we’re in, if danger arises, I can’t guarantee your safety. If I can’t rescue you in time or don’t have the ability to do so, don’t regret it.”
Cericlin replied cheerfully, “I won’t regret it. If I die, so be it!”
Li Ran praised, “Good!” He admired this kind of reckless determination. Cericlin’s character was even fiercer than Borong’s.
After much hesitation, Borong finally said, “I won’t go in. I don’t want to hold you back.” He had no confidence at all in his ability to survive inside.
Cericlin sneered, “Coward!”
Borong was furious but didn’t retort. He said to Li Ran, Qi Wuzhen, and Guo Shier, “Thank you for taking care of me along the way. Goodbye!” He didn’t even glance at Cericlin. To him, she was just a madwoman, and there was no point in arguing with her.
After Borong left, only four people remained in the group, but their strength had increased slightly. With one less burden, they could move more freely and efficiently.
Traveling on the Luotian Continent came with many restrictions. For example, spatial rifts would appear from time to time in the air and on the ground. At any moment, a cliff could collapse, torn apart by a large spatial rift, and anyone careless enough could be crushed to the ground. That was still considered relatively safe. The most dangerous ones were the spatial rifts with immense gravitational pull—once sucked in, almost no one could escape.
As they walked back and forth, the four of them slowed down increasingly, each of them feeling deeply anxious. Just earlier, a gust of wind had blown, and they had clearly seen a mountain turn to dust silently. The entire mountain disappeared suddenly, followed by intense tremors as the ground rose rapidly. In just over ten minutes, a hill dozens of meters high had formed. It was likely that another large mountain would appear here in less than two days.
A strong smell of rock and soil filled the air. Guo Shier couldn’t help but curse, “It’s fucking terrifying… What kind of wind is this? It can destroy a mountain in an instant?”

With Li Ran’s knowledge, he too couldn’t determine what that thing was. He shook his head and said, “I don’t know what it is. It doesn’t seem to be wind… It disappeared too quickly and was extremely powerful. But if we encountered it, we should be able to protect ourselves.” He glanced at Seraphine, who was still in a daze, realizing that with this strange force, the three of them could escape, but without help, Seraphine would surely die.

Seraphine’s heart was pounding. She had clearly seen the mountain disappear. Though she didn’t know what force had caused it, she knew she absolutely couldn’t resist it. At this point, she wasn’t sure whether forcing her way forward was wise, but having come this far, there was no turning back. Along the way, they hadn’t encountered anyone, only many dangers. If it weren’t for Guo Shier and the others warning them, she probably would have died several times already.

As they went deeper, dangerous situations arose almost constantly, becoming more frequent and more perilous. What was even worse was that none of them knew what danger they would face next or whether they could withstand it. Just like before, if the four of them had arrived at that mountain by chance, Seraphine would have lost half her life even if she hadn’t died outright.

Guo Shier knew Seraphine wanted to back down, but he said nothing because there was no way to retreat now. Anyway, they had to press on despite the difficulties.

Li Ran pointed to a nearby area and said, “Let’s go this way and bypass that huge rift.” No wonder only experts could enter the ruins—there were hardly any paths here, only ravines, cliffs, and countless spatial fissures. A slight carelessness could lead to disaster. To get through, one had to be able to fly, even just for a short distance; otherwise, it would be impossible to reach the destination. Even flying vehicles wouldn’t work, as they saw broken fragments of such vehicles along the way.

The four of them carefully flew over the huge rift, which was likely formed by a spatial collapse. It was about a hundred meters wide and a kilometer long, with streams of cold air emanating from it. They found a relatively narrow spot to fly through and conducted some simple tests beforehand to ensure a safe passage. No one knew what strange things lay within the rift. The conditions here were unpredictable, so they had to test things first to feel confident, which slowed down their progress.

They crossed the large cracks and continued forward. By this point, the four of them weren’t sure if they were on the right path—no one had been encountered since they started, aside from many broken remnants of flying vehicles, most of which appeared very old. There were also human bones and skulls, unknown to whom they belonged or when they died there, along with some shattered weapons. They were very unfamiliar with the Luotian Continent and only knew a general direction, so they had no choice but to keep moving forward.
After about a day of walking, Li Ran said with a wry smile, “It seems like we’re taking a new path, not one that others know.”
Guo Shier said straightforwardly, “A new path isn’t a dead end. As long as we can reach the Luotian Ruins, that’s what matters—after all, that’s our destination.”