Chapter 126: Spatial Passage

For the past few days, Chen Mu and Blood Heaven had been traveling together, exchanging the information they each possessed.

Chen Mu guessed that his father, Chen Haoran, had most likely reached the Immortal-Mortal Road safely because of the guidance and summons of his biological father. At that time, Chen Haoran had happened to enter the Eastern Wasteland. Perhaps Chen Yuanzhou had sensed someone arriving there and guided him, which was how Chen Haoran came to enter the Immortal-Mortal Road.

Relying on Blood Heaven’s formidable spiritual sense, the man and the demon continued searching throughout the Eastern Wasteland for the direction of the Immortal-Mortal Road.

Yet even with Blood Heaven’s spiritual sense probing the area, several days of searching yielded no progress or results. They began to suspect that the Immortal-Mortal Road had been concealed by a formation, or perhaps existed within a spatial rift.

After all, the Immortal-Mortal Road was a station along a cross-continental spatial passage. It was entirely possible that it had been built inside a spatial rift and reinforced from within.

These were merely conjectures drawn from Blood Heaven’s memories of ancient times. If they were correct, then there had to be a teleportation formation somewhere in the Eastern Wasteland—and that formation must have been built in a sufficiently secure location.

Blood Heaven therefore changed his method of searching, using his spiritual sense specifically to scan areas where spatial fluctuations were especially intense.

Sure enough, after searching tirelessly, Blood Heaven finally discovered a stretch of ruins. Within those ruins stood a teleportation formation emitting powerful spatial fluctuations.

Chen Mu secretly admired Blood Heaven’s abilities. After all, he was an ancient monster who had lived through several eras, even if he had been imprisoned inside the Dark Demon Soul Crystal until only recently.

Chen Mu cautiously examined the teleportation formation. He recalled Blood Heaven saying that teleportation formations had been developed after spatial passages. Yet judging from the situation before him, teleportation formations had already been widely used when this spatial passage was constructed. Otherwise, how could anyone have entered the spatial rift without one?

Perhaps teleportation formations had not yet been capable of transporting people between continents, and only by combining them with a spatial passage had the Immortal-Mortal Road been created.

There was no point dwelling on it. These were nothing more than Chen Mu’s own deductions and hypotheses. Since they could not be verified, he simply stopped thinking about them.

Blood Heaven crouched atop the teleportation formation and ran his fingers across it for a long while before saying to Chen Mu, “This formation can still be used. Hurry up and get on. We’re leaving.”

Hearing the reminder, Chen Mu immediately stepped onto the formation. As Blood Heaven formed a series of hand seals, the formation began to operate at once. Spatial fluctuations surged, and the man and the demon vanished from the spot in an instant.

After the scene shifted in a blink, an ancient city appeared before Chen Mu and Blood Heaven, built within a spatial rift.

Like the world outside, this ancient city was in an utterly dilapidated state. It seemed that its inhabitants had long since departed, leaving the city empty and abandoned.

Chen Mu looked around curiously at the ancient city, which was filled with the atmosphere of the distant past. Blood Heaven, meanwhile, remained deep in thought, as though recalling something.

Chen Mu asked, “This is where the Immortal-Mortal Road is located? Should we explore the city? There might still be some useful objects left behind by ancient cultivators.”

Blood Heaven was silent for a moment before replying, “My memories are somewhat incomplete. After all, I am only the remnant soul of a clone. Still, I have recalled something about the city on the Immortal-Mortal Road. When the demon race came here, they indeed launched an attack on this place. The humans living here relied on the city’s defensive mechanisms and all managed to escape. I have to admit, your human race’s understanding of grand formations is considerably greater than that of our demon race. Since you brought it up, let’s search the city and see whether there is anything useful. Though in my opinion, anything of value was probably looted clean by our people during the invasion.”

Although they knew the chances of finding any treasures were slim, neither the man nor the demon was willing to give up. They began searching everywhere for useful treasures or ancient manuals.

Unfortunately, the results were disappointing. The city had clearly been subjected to looting, destruction, and fire. Every house was as empty as though locusts had swept through it, and there were unmistakable traces of spellfire everywhere. Even after the passage of countless years, the devastation remained vivid.

It seemed their hopes of finding treasures on the Immortal-Mortal Road had come to nothing. Chen Mu and Blood Heaven therefore headed toward the city gates. Presumably, the entrance to the Immortal-Mortal Road lay beyond them.

When they reached the edge of the city, they saw nothing but darkness outside the gates. Yet a snow-white passage stretched from the city entrance into the distance, connecting the two realms. This was likely the Immortal-Mortal Road he had been searching for all along. As long as they followed it, they would be able to reach another continent.

Chen Mu swallowed. He took a step forward and stood upon the white passage of light. When he discovered that he did not fall through it, he could not help but let out a sigh of relief.

But the moment Chen Mu stepped onto the spatial passage, a tremendous pressure suddenly descended upon him, nearly forcing him to drop to one knee.

He struggled to straighten his body, then looked toward Blood Heaven in confusion, as if asking what was happening.

Blood Heaven nodded. He had thought Chen Mu might hesitate in the face of the unknown, but it seemed Chen Mu was not the sort of timid person who constantly held back out of fear.

Then again, considering what Chen Mu had done during this period, Blood Heaven realized that he had been overthinking things. Which of Chen Mu’s actions had not been outrageously bold? Not only was he vengeful to the slightest degree, he had shown no concern at all for the collapse of the Three Empires’ balance when slaughtering those major sects. He was practically a walking disaster.

Blood Heaven therefore answered his question. “This is spatial pressure. Since our cultivation levels are currently too low, we cannot withstand it completely. But that is also a good thing. Don’t you practice body refinement? This spatial pressure is an excellent opportunity. As long as you can keep walking beneath it, you can temper your body. The road is long, and if you can persist for a month, I guarantee that your strength will improve significantly.”

Blood Heaven had meant it only as a joke. He smiled and shook his head, then stepped onto the white spatial passage as well, allowing his body to endure the baptism of spatial pressure.

Thus, the man and the demon began their long journey through space.

Within that spatial passage protected by white light, Chen Mu and Blood Heaven walked until exhaustion blurred their sense of time. Had it been several days? Several dozen? The white-lit passage cut through the endless darkness, and the monotonous scenery was so dull that Chen Mu gradually became bored and restless.

But whenever he thought of reaching another continent, his spirits rose again, and he continued forward.

Outside, the sun rose in the east and sank in the west, though no one knew how many days and nights had passed. Within the spatial passage, however, the scene never changed. After flying onward for what amounted to half a month in the outside world, the man and the demon finally saw the exit ahead.

After walking beneath that crushing pressure for more than a month, they finally emerged from the tedious spatial passage.

The moment Chen Mu stepped out of the passage and left the region of intense pressure, he gave a great shout. At last, he had broken free of that crushing force.

In truth, he had grown accustomed to the pressure by the time he reached the halfway point. His physical constitution was quite impressive, after all. Having cultivated the Ancient Desolation Nine Tribulations Scripture, the strength of his body surpassed even that of ordinary cultivators at the Nascent Soul Realm.

Upon leaving the spatial passage, they found themselves in what appeared to be another abandoned city. It was merely much smaller than the one in the Eastern Wasteland, and the circumstances were likely similar.

It seemed that in ancient times, during the war between humans and demons, the Yuan Yao Continent had been far more prosperous than the continent they had just reached. The ancient Yuan Yao Continent must once have been a powerful and flourishing land, but after enduring both the war between humans and demons and the war between humans and monsters, it had declined into its present state.

They found the teleportation formation leading out of the city. After the scene shifted, the man and the demon were transported to a desolate mountain.

The teleportation formation on the outside had been placed inside a cave. Weeds grew everywhere, and it appeared that no one had visited the place for a very long time. It had probably been forgotten by history, with no one remaining who even knew of its existence.

Moreover, the two discovered that the teleportation formation seemed to have been damaged. Although it could be used to transmit people outward from within, it could no longer be used to enter the inner passage. The damage was clearly man-made, which meant they would never be able to rely on this formation to return to the Yuan Yao Continent.

After leaving the cave, Chen Mu inhaled deeply, savoring the fresh mountain air. He had finally escaped that snow-white spatial passage. Having stared at white light for more than a month, he had practically suffered spiritual contamination. Now, seeing this expanse of green, he immediately felt refreshed and at ease.

Chen Mu turned toward Blood Heaven and asked, “What do you plan to do next?”

Blood Heaven pondered for a moment before replying, “I need to find my race’s stronghold on this continent. But I have no clues at all, so for now, with nothing else to do, I can only travel with you.”

Chen Mu had the same intention. He was unfamiliar with this place, and having another companion would make it easier to deal with danger.

Even so, Chen Mu remained constantly vigilant around Blood Heaven. Blood Heaven had seized the body of a member of the demon race. As the saying went, those who were not of one’s kind could not be trusted. Although Chen Mu knew Blood Heaven would not harm him for the time being, he could never afford to become careless.

The two therefore descended the mountain together. Since they had just arrived and knew nothing about the area, they needed to reach a town and learn more about their surroundings.

As it happened, disciples of a sect were stationed on this desolate mountain. It seemed to be a forbidden area belonging to that sect.

At the instant Chen Mu and Blood Heaven emerged from the teleportation formation, spatial energy surged violently and stirred ripples through the surrounding vital energy. The sect disciples guarding the mountain were all startled. Since the desolate mountain was a forbidden area of their sect, no one should have been able to appear there.

Now that fluctuations of vital energy had arisen within the mountain, it meant that someone had appeared there. Although the mountain was a forbidden area, it was not particularly important, so the sect had not dispatched any especially powerful disciples to guard it. The strongest among them possessed a cultivation level roughly equivalent to the peak of the Origin Core Realm.

Although they were only at the peak of the Origin Core Realm, this place was clearly no remote backwater like the Yuan Yao Continent. Chen Mu had no idea how powerful cultivators at the Origin Core Realm were here.

The disciples therefore climbed the mountain warily, intending to investigate the fluctuations of vital energy. After all, trespassing into another sect’s forbidden area was an act of provocation.

Although this forbidden area no longer held much value, legends claimed that a spatial passage from ancient times had once been left behind there. That was why the sect still stationed people to guard it.