Chapter 733: Space Maze
No one dared to move. If they moved they were likely to touch these spiderweb-like space cracks that were all around them, and upon touching one, one would be seriously injured.
Spatial fractures were extremely dangerous and could very easily be fatal. On the other side of them, the great dao was present, it was an energy so primordial that almost none could stand against it. Only someone who had gained the strength of an Overlord could withstand this energy, and it was also because of this that only Overlords were able to move to other galaxies. Only Overlords were capable of withstanding the void that lay outside the galaxy.
Even someone as strong as Hui Yue was nothing but an ant next to these energies, and feeling them so close, he felt his back grow cold, and his palms turn sweaty.
"Enter the Universe Box once more," he said with a sigh, and all the others instantly nodded their heads. They could not wait for the space cracks to mend on their own, there was simply far too many of them, and the space where he was had truly been torn asunder.
Hui Yue sighed. He knew that going through these web-like cracks would require his full attention. He needed to be focused and not disturbed by anything. He had to ensure that he and his friends did not perish here.
In front of him was a maze-like structure. Although he could avoid some of the cracks and move forward, it was dangerous. Some of them were miniscule while others were massive in size.
The smallest were the most dangerous ones since they could easily be missed when one was moving forward and looking for them. If one came into contact with such a spatial fracture, then one would be lucky if just some of the body ended up being severed.
The realization made Hui Yue hesitant. He did not fear anyone, but now he was facing something much more dangerous than any enemy out there. In some way this was as deadly as meeting an Overlord as the likelihood of surviving was not big at all.
Hui Yue pulled himself together. He knew that being scared would not help; he knew that he needed to be braver than ever before, more decisive than he had been before, and ruthless not only to others but also to himself.
He was walking down a path of no return. He could choose to stay where he was, simply waiting for the void to restore itself, but the likelihood of this happening within a short time was not much. The fabric of space had simply been damaged way too much by the explosion, and this impact had caused so much damage that it would take years to be restored. Hui Yue simply did not have the time to wait a couple of years in the middle space for this to happen.
Hui Yue looked around with vigilant eyes observing how the fractures were laid out. He was fairly close to the center of impact, and this was also the place where most of the large tears were located.
Looking into the distance he saw that the cracks got smaller and smaller, but they intersected often, making them troublesome to cross.
Hui Yue took a deep breath and with very slow steps started to move towards the areas where the tears got smaller and smaller.
Every time he got close to spatial tear, he felt his entire body shudder, and he hurried away. Although he had not come into direct contact with the energy that leaked out from behind these fractures, he still felt the aura of it, and this aura was enough to make his strong body feel like pudding.
Hui Yue understood just how dangerous this was, and because of this he went in a large circle around the fractures, but as he got further away more and more cracks appeared. They were smaller, but there was a lot more of them. At the start, it had not been a problem to avoid them because there had not been too many; they had been large but few.
Now there were many small ones, and moving forward took much longer. The speed he moved with was getting slower, but since these tears were smaller, they also leaked less energy, causing their aura to be weaker. Hui Yue did not have to circle too far around them any longer.
Hui Yue walked for a full day with his mind pushed to the limits. Although he had walked for a full day, he only reached a third the way through the damaged area of space.
He continued to send out his soulforce. It was impossible for him to sense what was within these space cracks, but his soulforce would vanish in different places showing that there was a tear present. Even if Hui Yue could not see them, his soulforce found every fracture that was around him, and his movements, although slow, were somewhat safe.
The only problem was that this required Hui Yue to constantly use his soulforce. He relied on it by constantly spreading it around him.
Every time it came into contact with a spatial fracture it would be absorbed, and he would lose some of his soulforce. For this reason, he was forced to consume soulforce restoring pills like candy. He constantly ate pills to sustain himself, yet after a day and a half, he had already reached his limits.
Hui Yue slumped down. He had sensed that the use of the Spirit Cleansing pills had stopped working and his soulforce was on the verge of collapsing. If he did not stop now, he would severely injure his consciousness instead.
He had found a location where there were no space cracks around him, and he slumped down. The best way to restore soulforce was to sleep, but he dared not sleep in the middle of all these cracks. If something were to happen, then he would be doomed.
Since this was the case, then the next best was to enter meditation. Hui Yue sat down and closed his eyes. He entered his core where he looked at the nine caves that had followed him since his rebirth.
As he looked at them his face was dumbfounded. Six of them were empty; these had belonged to the red wolf, the blue monk, the green pearl, the celestial wings, the red mountain, and the black figure. One was open, it was the shining star, and two were closed, but upon closer inspection, Hui Yue found that although two were closed, one of them had an entrance that was crumbling.
His mental projection that was within his core rose to his feet from his sitting position, and it went towards the cave’s entrance. He placed a hand on top of the entrance and slowly pushed.
This contained no strength as it was only a mental projection, and everything happened in his mind, but slowly the cave entrance started crumbling to pieces, revealing a large hole.
Spurred on by the curiosity for what was within this cave, Hui Yue started tearing down the cave entrance. He had no idea what would be waiting for him, but he had gained so many benefits from all those lives he had merged with so far, to merge with one more would without a doubt prove beneficial to him.
Slowly the entire cave entrance was broken open. This was a different way of opening the caves than before, but it proved that it was as beneficial as ever. Inside the cave was a drop of blood.
This drop of blood swirled around itself and had a layer of hazy mist surrounding it.
The instant Hui Yue laid eyes on it he knew what it was; this was Cai Jie's sworn brother. As to why he knew, he could not say.
Reaching out his arm he went through the mist of blood and touched the blood drop.
The moment he touched it, he felt a cool feeling flow through his body. He felt no increase in his strength, but this cool feeling spread throughout his entire body. His mind which had been aching from overuse calmed down.
His headache vanished, and he felt revitalized. It was as if he had been reborn. "Could it be that this drop of blood, Cai Jie's friend, has some insane sort of restoration power?" Hui Yue could not help but wonder.
"I could ask Brother Jie, but I have no proof that this is his sworn brother yet. I don't know how long it will take before I can merge with my past memories, and even then I know nothing about him. I think the best would be to wait with telling brother Jie until I have actually merged with the memories."
Hui Yue felt how his soulforce was rapidly restoring itself; he felt slightly lightheaded from how fast it was regenerating.
Still, this was a great benefit. He sat down in meditation once more while relying on his connection with the drop of blood and soon, after only a few hours, had he managed to restore himself to his peak condition.
Without this drop of blood, it would have taken him at least three times as long to restore himself.
As Hui Yue stood up and opened his eyes, he did not sever the connection with the drop of blood. Instead, he continued forward with his soulforce spread out and slowly made his way further and further into the depths of the spatial fractures.
He was getting closer and closer to the edges of the of the larger space cracks. Soon he would be free from this area of space, and he would be able to once more return to the Gate of Retribution.
Slowly making his way through the cracks, Hui Yue sometimes would come a little too close to the tears and could feel the dreadful aura of the energy within the outer space.
Finally, after two whole days, he made his way out of the space maze, but he was astonished as he reached the outside as he suddenly saw other experts appearing within the maze-like area.
He even saw the remnants of some cultivators who had failed in their endeavor to enter into the maze, having perished from their curiosity.
When Hui Yue reached the outer layers of the maze, everyone looked at him with greed.
"You there!" one of them called out as he lifted a sword and pointed at Hui Yue, "What treasure appeared here for the space to be torn asunder?!"
"Don't think that you can keep it for yourself, share it with us already! Tell us is there more left behind?"
Hui Yue was instantly enlightened. These experts had expected that Hui Yue had found a heavenly treasure. Only a treasure could cause such a phenomenon, but he just sighed.
"There was a battle here," he said honestly. "It was against two supreme experts, and one of them used a forbidden attack which tore apart the space and caused all this."
Hui Yue did not mention the World Ending Bead because he knew that they would not believe him, but truthfully, he did not care if they believed him or not. All that mattered to him was to escape.
The stronger experts would already have known that there were no heavenly treasures here as there were no fluctuations in the surrounding energy, something that was bound to happen if there was, in fact, a heavenly treasure present.
Still, these weaker experts were incapable of sensing this. More than that, they were searching everywhere for lucky chances, and this truly seemed like a lucky chance.
Hui Yue shook his head when he saw the greed in the eyes of everyone that looked at him. He knew that they did not believe him, but he did not explain further and returned to focus on escaping the last few layers of space cracks.