Chapter 1: Inner Universe

The sun had set, crimson clouds pressing over the mountain peaks, illuminating the dense forest below.

Suddenly, a violent commotion erupted from the forest; countless birds took flight, circling overhead in alarm.

Gazing toward the source of the noise, they saw an abrupt clearing amid the dense woods—or rather, a massive crater over a hundred meters in diameter.

No, calling it a crater wasn’t quite accurate.

For there was no meteor within the pit, nor any trace of impact from heavy debris.

The entire giant hollow formed a perfectly smooth hemisphere.

Whether soil and gravel, root systems, or the scattered stones embedded in the crater walls, every cut surface was unnaturally smooth, as if not carved by impact but swallowed by some unknown force.

In truth, that was exactly what had happened: all matter within a hundred-meter radius centered on the crater’s circular cross-section had vanished.

Only a single silver glow hovered at the sphere’s center, pulsing faintly as if contracting and expanding with the passage of time.

Then, at a certain instant, the air above the crater twisted violently; the silver point stretched and elongated, gradually coalescing into a human shape beneath the dim yellow sunlight.

Soon after, the silver light faded, revealing a tall human form emerging from within.

The man stood roughly one meter eighty-five tall, his face delicate as a boy’s, his muscles sharply defined and stacked like a flawless golden-statue sculpture.

Yet his perfect proportions felt unnatural, especially the skin exposed on his cheeks and body—impossibly smooth, utterly blemish-free.

This was not a trait any human could possess.

Now, this inhuman boy floated steadily in midair, limbs outstretched, eyes closed, black hair stirring without wind, radiating an indescribable aura.

At the moment of his arrival, that aura spread instantly, sweeping across ten li in every direction.

Every living thing that sensed it—from ants nesting in the soil to colossal beasts tens of meters long—fell helplessly to the ground, trembling in fear and confusion.

Then, at a certain moment, the floating boy opened his eyes.

Instantly, the terrifying aura that had blanketed ten li vanished in reverse.

All creatures on the ground froze, slowly lifting their heads, gazing around with bewildered eyes, as if still unable to grasp what had just occurred.

“This is…”

“A new world?!!”

Gazing at the lush, vibrant forest ahead, the boy’s once-blank eyes brightened; a flush of uncontainable excitement and joy spread across his delicate face.

“Finally… finally, I’m in!”

The boy danced wildly with delight.

At the same moment, the silver light on his skin fully retracted; the force keeping him aloft vanished abruptly, turning his ecstatic cry of joy into an unexpected shriek.

“Ah—huh?!”

The expected thud never came.

The naked boy climbed out from the bottom of the fifty-meter-deep pit, slapped his buttocks, and turned around in surprise.

Indeed, the crater’s base remained smooth stone, with no trace of impact—as if his body had no weight whatsoever.

But that was impossible, for he could clearly feel the gravitational pull of this planet beneath his feet…

The boy frowned, then suddenly sensed an extremely faint external energy appearing within his inner world.

His mind stirred; he closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his inner universe.

Moments later, he opened his eyes, a clear smile appearing on his delicate face.

“So that’s how it is…”

The boy’s name was Lin Yu, a transmigrator who had experienced two reincarnations.

During his first transmigration, he accidentally encountered a newly born world, merging with it entirely—his soul replacing its will, his body becoming the universe’s vessel.

In a sense, Lin Yu had become a being comparable to a dimensional demon god.

But he possessed only memories from his previous life, spanning a mere twenty years, and knew nothing of his own existence.

With such exalted status, he could only drift eternally in the empty void beyond his world.

The endless void was silent and dark—an absolute prison for Lin Yu, who carried memories of Earth.

He refused to accept this fate, so he sank his consciousness into his inner universe, striving to understand and master the powers that were already his own.

Gradually, Lin Yu gained preliminary control over certain aspects of his authority.

With these powers, he could actively guide his inner universe, drifting through the boundless void.

Upon discovering this, Lin Yu was ecstatic, and immediately embarked on a journey to seek the myriad worlds.

But he did not yet know that this void operated under entirely different spacetime rules than the myriad worlds.

Here, spacetime was not linear, but in a state of extreme chaos.

Conventional notions of direction and distance held no meaning in the void.

A thousand li could be a step away; a step away could be a thousand li.

As Lin Yu guided his inner universe through the void, he might cross billions of spacetime units in an instant—or linger for ages, still stuck in place.

Worse still, the void itself was constantly changing, with no discernible pattern.

This meant Lin Yu could not retrace his path—even if he remained motionless, the surrounding void continued shifting endlessly.

In such a chaotic place, finding another world was like searching for a needle in an ocean.

Fortunately, Lin Yu himself was a world—he carried no family, no ties to return to.

He gritted his teeth and drifted aimlessly through the endless void, unaware how much time passed, until at last, in this dead darkness, he spotted a silver orb radiating light.

The instant he saw the orb, Lin Yu sensed the vibrant life force within it.

Without doubt, this orb represented a brand-new world!

Lin Yu was stunned and elated.

He feared this hard-won world might be “refreshed” away by the ever-changing void, so he charged forward without hesitation.

But the world seemed unwelcoming; as he forcibly entered, a tremendous force from the world itself surged forth, fiercely resisting his intrusion.

How could this be allowed?!

Lin Yu had endured enough of the void’s darkness and silence—he resolved, at all costs, to enter this world.

Thus, he battled the world’s innate force for a long time.

Eventually, under Lin Yu’s relentless, reckless assault, the world yielded first, retreating slightly—allowing Lin Yu’s true body to forcibly squeeze into this world!

What followed need not be recounted; suffice it to say, upon sensing the faint new energy within his inner universe, Lin Yu finally understood why his fall had produced no sound.

For at the moment of impact, all energy—including kinetic energy—had flooded into his inner universe!

“So this is a self-contained energy absorption ability?”

Feeling the faint new energy within his inner universe, Lin Yu pondered.

The next instant, he raised his hand and pointed his index finger forward.

“Boom!”

Instantly, the kinetic energy converted from his fifty-meter fall erupted outward, churning the air at his fingertip into powerful gusts that blasted in all directions.

“Indeed, it can be expelled!”

The wind rushed against his face, yet Lin Yu smiled.

In mere seconds, he had already grasped this ability, even learning to set the type and threshold of energy absorption—and for the first time in ages, he felt the gentle caress of a breeze.

“If so, what about gravity?”

Lin Yu closed his eyes again, sinking his consciousness into his inner universe.

Soon, the black hair stirred by the wind froze midair.

Though Lin Yu still stood in place, gravity and all other gravitational forces vanished from his body, leaving him suspended, untouched by any external force.

“Got it!”

Lin Yu opened his eyes, gazing upward with sharp intensity.

The next instant, energy surged from beneath his feet.

“Ha!”

With a joyous laugh, Lin Yu shot skyward, vanishing from the crater in an instant.

From above, a figure wrapped in swirling air accelerated upward at ten meters per second squared.

Air resistance had no effect on him; like gravity, it was absorbed by his inner universe, continuously replenishing the energy he was expelling.

“Whoosh—”

The air churned violently, yet Lin Yu remained unaffected—even his flowing black hair didn’t stir.

This made his flight feel unreal, like a game character glitching, moving unnaturally in flat-plane translation.

This mode of flight offered none of the freedom he’d imagined; instead, it reminded him of his arduous journey through the endless void.

Compared to these unpleasant memories, Lin Yu longed more for the simple feeling of standing firmly on solid ground.

So he ceased absorbing gravity and resistance; his body twisted midair like a fuel-depleted missile, crashing down in an unstable, violent impact.

As Lin Yu had predicted, this fall produced no sound whatsoever.

The kinetic energy generated from his gravitational potential was entirely absorbed into his inner universe.

Yet one thing surprised him—

The landing point.

About ten li from the crater, Lin Yu’s naked body hung suspended in midair in a “wood” shape, his dark eyes wide as if seeing a ghost, staring at an invisible barrier before him.

“...What the hell?”

“An air wall?!”

(End of Chapter)