Chapter 926

In the endless dark void, arguments occasionally echoed.

“Didn’t you say the path wasn’t far?”

“It isn’t far—it’s right there! We can already see it.”

Wei Yuan fixed his gaze and saw a soft glow ahead in the dark void; according to Rong Long, that was the original realm.

But how to get there?

Wei Yuan scanned himself with his spiritual sense—nothing was there. His current state was peculiar: he knew he existed, yet could not see or sense himself, and had no idea how to move.

The original realm lay right before him, but unless he resolved this state, he would never return. In the past, when Wei Yuan traversed the void, a flash of light would carry him instantly to a new realm. But this time, he seemed stuck at the moment of that flash.

Wei Yuan steadied his mind, treating himself as a single point, then pushed with his spiritual sense—he seemed to shift slightly, yet the distance to the original realm appeared unchanged.

Rong Long’s voice sounded in his consciousness: “This won’t work. Try casting a Dao technique first—Jin Guang Shu will do.”

Wei Yuan focused his intent, and a beam of golden light appeared in the void—the technique actually succeeded! Overjoyed, he immediately activated Yu Xu Er Xing and flew toward the original realm. This short distance should take only a few days to cover.

But after flying for a while, Wei Yuan realized something was wrong. His distance from the original realm fluctuated erratically—sometimes near, sometimes far—with no pattern whatsoever.

Wei Yuan was stunned and asked: “What’s going on?”

Rong Long had been silent for a while, and now spoke softly: “You only just noticed? Told you not to move randomly! Now you can’t stop, can you?”

Wei Yuan indeed found that even after halting Yu Xu Er Xing, he continued drifting unpredictably, his distance to the original realm still fluctuating. He tried to stop, but failed utterly—his force was either too strong or too weak, or skewed in direction; after several attempts, his speed only increased.

Wei Yuan was alarmed and hastily adjusted his control, finally slowing himself down. He quickly asked Rong Long: “What’s happening?”

Rong Long said: “Simple. Your spiritual sense has always operated within the realm, so it functions according to the realm’s rules. In the void beyond, it naturally fails. For example, you think you’re moving in a straight line—but you’re not. Actually, it’s definitely not a straight line.”

Following Rong Long’s guidance, Wei Yuan saw the golden beam he had emitted—it had become a shimmering fish, swimming randomly through the void.

Wei Yuan’s heart first chilled, but then he remembered Rong Long. After Yu Jing, he would constantly venture beyond the realm, so he was certainly no stranger to the void.

Seeing Wei Yuan’s sincere inquiry, Rong Long offered earnest instruction:

“First, to move in the void, you must truly know whether you’ve moved and what your trajectory is. You cannot trust your eyes or your spiritual sense—only the void’s rules. Hmm, you once mentioned something called ‘coordinates’ that’s useful. So now, we must first establish a coordinate system—at least three axes…”

“…To establish coordinates, first define two distinct points. Then send a beam of light from one point to the other and observe its trajectory. Send another beam, observe again…”

“…Calculate the parameters from the different trajectories, then adjust your spiritual sense accordingly. If you calculate correctly, you’ll see a straight line—you can then mark coordinates on it…”

Wei Yuan’s head spun from calculations; he halted Rong Long: “Did you do this too, back then?”

“When I first entered the void, I just stared hard and tried everything. After about half an hour of trial and error, I learned to walk in the void.”

“How did you try?”

“I just tried randomly—do it hundreds of thousands of times, and you’ll naturally get it. I didn’t know math back then—had no idea the world had all these fancy tricks.”

Wei Yuan froze, then fury surged: “You succeeded by randomly guessing, and now you want me to do math?! Is this even human?”

“I’m a witch. I don’t do human things.”

Wei Yuan had no reply. No matter how much he provoked him, Rong Long stayed silent. Wei Yuan had no choice but to continue repeating experiments, recording data, analyzing patterns, and building models.

In the darkness, beams of light kept appearing, darting about like joyful fish, swimming through the dark ocean. It was as if spring had arrived and flowers bloomed everywhere.

But occasionally, angry roars would erupt, spoiling the scene.

…

Qingming was calm, but the surroundings were anything but.

In Cui Family’s new city, the former town was now sparsely populated; those few who walked moved cautiously. More numerous were fully armed soldiers, rifles in hand, scouring the ruins in groups.

A squad of seven or eight soldiers lined up. The squad leader pointed to a circular area dozens of zhang ahead and said: “Today’s mission is to clear this zone. Finish it, and you can return to camp for dinner. Stay alert—this job costs lives!”

The soldiers responded and entered the mission zone, beginning to search the ground meticulously.

One rookie, while searching, muttered curses: “These bandits are truly vile! How did they even come up with such a cruel trick?”

The squad leader immediately shouted: “Focus! Don’t get yourself killed!”

The rookie startled, stepped sideways—and suddenly, a loud boom erupted. A puff of blue smoke rose; his lower leg was shredded, half his foot flying into the air!

The rookie collapsed, screaming uncontrollably, writhing in agony on the ground.