Yan Zaizen felt the entire world echo out constant ripples of spatial might. It was as if he was in the middle of a symphony hall, the raging waves of sound causing his entire body to tremble. Even he felt overwhelmed.
"What is this?" Yri, who was still somewhat injured, cried in shock. She regarded the various ripples of space with a solemn gaze, her entire body trembling just the same. The degree of spatial might being funneled into this brief area was far too vast to resist.
"Noooo!"
"Argh!"
"My body, my soul, my heavenly shrine?!?! WHAT'S HAPPENING?!" A low-level cultivator shrieked as he felt the impacting surges of might on his body. His entire existence was experiencing a harsh breakdown from its very seams. Within moments, he began to crudely deconstruct. His soul, body, and heavenly shrine started to fragment and dissipate into particles.
The scene frightened everyone. They could barely move, but many used their cultivation base to fiercely resist the incoming waves. Despite that, all those below the Heavenly Commander level in might started to experience those heart-grinding effects.
Yan Zaizen and Yri were far too strong, so they weren't subjected to this unknown force. Instead, a faint ward of heavenly might and celestial power encapsulated their figures. Only then did the waves cease influencing their bodies.
"Save me!" The old man, of an indistinguishable race, cried out towards Yan Zaizen. He was a seventh-floor Heavenly Genesis Realm expert, a figure at the Heavenly Commander level, but his ward of heavenly might was constantly rippling. It started to weaken and become fractured. While he kept sending tremendous amounts of his heavenly might to stabilize it, the rate at which it fractured only increased.
Yri exclaimed, "The spatial ripples are causing feedback on this area of chaotic spatial power. We're surrounded by them, and the ripples are only growing stronger." The ripples in the distance were truly surrounding them endlessly, and they couldn't leave due to the immense pressure on their bodies.
It was truly like being within an isolated sound chamber and the volume only continued to be gradually increased.
Yan Zaizen didn't panic. Instead, he analyzed the various spatial ripples. After a while, his eyes became dark as he said, "A foreign force has locked down the entire city. They're forcefully using various void shifting means to bypass their own sealing mechanisms. This is what's causing the ripples."
Despite his deduction, he couldn't stop it. "We need to leave," he abruptly said. He felt the Non-Entity's instinctual sense batter him with waves of incoming danger. If he didn't leave now, likely, he won't get the chance again.
Yri nodded. As for the figures who were suffering all sorts of unjustified deaths, she couldn't do anything about that. In fact, Yan Zaizen couldn't either. He had tried to send these people into the Meteor Ring, but he found out that the interference sealed even that. It seemed all sorts of spatial means were restricted.
"How do we leave?" Yri had already exerted her celestial cultivation base to the maximum, yet defending was difficult, not to mention moving. She was only a Ninth Phase Celestial Monarch, and that was barely able to contend with weak Heavenly Creation Realm experts at the Minor Heaven Phase.
Yan Zaizen was quiet, his mind calculating fiercely. With his newfound Paragon Soul Realm, his ability to think was accelerated by a thousand-fold. Within a matter of milliseconds, he had already plotted out and rejected a few methods.
"Hold on to me," Yan Zaizen said. Yri didn't hesitate, she dashed into Yan Zaizen's embrace and held him tightly. Despite her mad devotion to take a chance and reincarnate several billion years, she didn't have a death wish. She didn't want to die.
Feeling her trembling body, Yan Zaizen calmed his breathing. If it was anyone else, perhaps they wouldn't be able to leave. However, who was he?
He exerted the full might of his heavenly shrine, and its most unique aspect: Mimicry! The Laws of Mimicry can replicate all things. It was all things and all things were it. It was nothing and nothing was it. If he could mimic the rampaging spatial ripples, draw upon their power to exit the Spatial Void, then he should be able to do the inverse.
In theory.
If not, he had a second solution.
As he thought this, his heavenly might transformed into spatial might and replicated the intricacies and frequency of the spatial ripples. With Yri at hand, he used his hand as a spear and tried to puncture a hole into the spatial void.
Despite his immense power, his hand only created a contortion. It was as if his hand had gripped rubber. While it bent, it didn't break.
The protrusion in space deepened, and yet he couldn't penetrate.
"Shit!" He cursed for a moment but calmed down. The instinct from the Non-Verse was rising to untold levels, even influencing his emotions and state of heart. It screamed for him to leave.
Dao of Sovereign Ascension!
He fully evoked his Dao, using it to forcefully stabilize his chaotic thoughts and panicking emotions. Right now, he needed to trust in himself. To trust in his Dao.
He switched up methods, changing from brute force into going with the flow. He gripped Yri tightly, her head pressed into his chest, and his arm wrapped around her waist. At the moment, it seemed as if she was melting into him.
Yri felt the warmth from his body and felt strange. This was the first time she was so close to a male in a non-combat setting. Despite the perilous situation they were in, she found it quite nice.
Yan Zaizen deeply inhaled and held his breath. The entire aura of his body changed, and so did Yri's. At this time, all the cultivators below the Heavenly Commander level had turned into particles, while those above were nearly dissipated. Only those with higher cultivation bases could resist the forceful pressure.
In a fraction of a fraction of a second, Yan Zaizen and Yri started to become semi-transparent. Their bodies no longer were subjected to the effects of the rippling waves. In fact, they seemed to become one.
Woosh!
Becoming a wave, he took Yri and fled. He couldn't penetrate space, so he could only use physical means. He was flying at his maximum speed while within this mysterious state of existence.
They soon left the city.
A few minutes after, all cultivators had perished with none remaining. The spatial ripples started to reach a crescendo as objects started to penetrate them, exiting from the spatial void. These were skyships of grand design and made from magnificent materials.
There were tens of thousands of these ships exiting, carrying various people on board. The ships were varied, obviously belonging to different forces. A few even gave off an aura of celestials.
When they finally all exited, the world regained its calm, but the lock on space remained. On one of these ships, a crimson ship that exuded a dense aura of blood and flames, a middle-aged man flew into the sky. He was dressed in a crimson and golden imperial dragon robe often donned on my mortal emperors.
"You all are quite vicious, don't you think?" His voice was deep, powerful, and loud. It echoed into the surroundings with mocking within.
That being said, his words went unheard. There were groups with several ships and a few with only one, yet not one responded. Instead, they were all quiet.
The man revealed a calm look, undisturbed by their lack of reply.
Woosh!
Abruptly, a ship took off. They were smaller than most and silver in color. The materials of the ship seemed to contain deep spatial might within, allowing them to soar swiftly through the void.
This ship seemed to evoke the changes of every ship as they followed without wasting a single picosecond. They were closely tailing this ship relentlessly, as if they were chasing it down with a mission.
The crimson-robed man laughed with disdain, "Seventeen region hegemonic level powers arrive, and yet we follow the weakest ship. How useless we all are." As he said those words, he returned to his ship and they shot off as well, following the others.
After they left, three gigantic worldships arrived. They were the size of planets, and they stalled for a single moment before they took off in the direction of the skyships.
A chase of epic proportions had just begun.