Chapter Thirty-Five: Chaotic Spatial Currents

“Kid, there’s a teleportation array to the Spirit Realm beneath this wretched place. That’s the message that infuriating old man asked me to deliver to you. Oh, right! Originally, this array had spiritual stones to activate it, but some old geezer used the array not long ago. Naturally, the spiritual stones were all consumed in the process. So, you’ll have to find your own way to solve the problem of powering the array. That’s none of my concern—I’m just the messenger. As for any other matters, I know nothing. The rest is for you to discover on your own. If fate allows, we’ll meet again! Ha ha, I’m off!”

With a long, resounding roar, the Celestial Ice Sabertooth vanished into the sky, leaving Lin Yanghao standing there, dumbfounded.

Lin Yanghao felt a wave of frustration. He thought to himself that perhaps only by reaching a higher realm would he be able to unravel these mysteries.

“So it really is a teleportation array! Ha ha!” Guided by the Celestial Ice Sabertooth’s directions, Lin Yanghao made his way underground and indeed found a circular stone platform. There were slots in the center and at the four corners—these must be for the spiritual stones.

“So Feng Batian left Feng Shihan behind and went to the Spirit Realm! But how did he even know about this teleportation array?” Lin Yanghao recalled the old man the Celestial Ice Sabertooth mentioned, and his heart told him that the old man was most certainly Feng Batian.

For reasons he couldn’t explain, Lin Yanghao had disliked Feng Batian from the very first meeting, and nothing had changed since. If Feng Batian knew what Lin Yanghao was thinking, he would probably have killed him on the spot and exclaimed, “I passed on my cultivation techniques to you, and you still ran off with my granddaughter—what nerve!”

“Husband, did Grandfather really go to the Spirit Realm you spoke of?” Feng Shihan asked anxiously.

“Yes, that’s what the enchanted beast guarding the teleportation array told me,” Lin Yanghao replied.

At that moment, a small, white, comical-looking beast leapt from Feng Shihan’s shoulder. Who could it be but the White Emperor?

Over the years Lin Yanghao, Feng Shihan, and the White Emperor had spent together, they had formed a deep bond.

“All right, let’s go quickly, husband!” Feng Shihan urged.

“Yes, let’s go!”

With those words, Lin Yanghao placed the spiritual stones into the slots of the teleportation array. Moments later, the stone platform began to hum and rotate slowly. Suddenly, a beam of intense white light shot out from the center, spreading to the edges of the platform.

The white light grew ever more dazzling, so much so that Lin Yanghao was forced to squint to protect his eyes from its brilliance—Feng Shihan did the same.

Then, Lin Yanghao felt a wave of dizziness and a sensation of weightlessness. When he opened his eyes again, the light was no longer so blinding, but he and Feng Shihan were still enveloped in its glow. There was no sign of the time tunnels or starry voids he had imagined; nothing but endless white light. The gulf between fantasy and reality was immense indeed.

The teleportation array seemed illusory, almost unreal. In the instant they passed through, it felt as though heaven and earth had become a vast expanse of mist and emptiness.

Lin Yanghao was tense—he was about to reach the Spirit Realm, a place he knew almost nothing about, and he was bringing Feng Shihan with him. The Spirit Realm was nothing like the Dragon Martial Continent; it was a world teeming with powerhouses, and he would be at the very bottom. Of course he was anxious.

Suddenly, thunderous crashes echoed around the white light, and the ground shook violently. Lin Yanghao gripped Feng Shihan tightly; she was only a mortal and could hardly withstand such chaos. Her body grew weaker by the moment.

“Shihan, wake up! We must be caught in a spatial turbulence. If we can just endure a little longer, we’ll make it through! You mustn’t give up!” Lin Yanghao called out desperately. Surveying their predicament, he wondered if this was the spatial turbulence so often described in those adventure tales. Here in the teleportation array, there was nowhere to run—if they were unlucky, they could easily die inside.

Yet the turbulence did not subside. On the contrary, it grew more and more violent, seeping into the heart of the array and engulfing Lin Yanghao and Feng Shihan in its savage currents. The White Emperor curled up in Feng Shihan’s arms, too frightened to show his face. They had no power to resist, only to endure.

Amidst the chaos, Lin Yanghao felt utterly insignificant, every moment fraught with mortal danger. Their situation grew increasingly dire.

“Husband, you must stop worrying about me. At this rate, we’ll both be torn apart by this horrific spatial turbulence before long,” Feng Shihan said in a trembling, feeble voice.

“No! What nonsense are you saying? Even if we both die here, I would never abandon you to save myself!” Lin Yanghao shouted in desperation.

The turbulence worsened, as though the very fabric of space was on the verge of collapse. The teleportation array, straining under their combined weight, was about to shatter.

“Goodbye, husband. Perhaps this will be the last time I can call you that. If I’m gone, promise me you’ll take good care of yourself,” Feng Shihan said, tears streaming down her face. Lin Yanghao was stunned, slow to react. By the time he turned, it was too late—Feng Shihan had pushed him away with all her might and vanished into the void.

“Shihan! Shihan!” Lin Yanghao peered into the abyss, but there was no trace of her. Tears rolled down his cheeks—his first tears since arriving in this world.

At that moment, the teleportation array finally carried Lin Yanghao safely out of the spatial turbulence. Yet he stood there like a man bereft of his soul, his eyes hollow and lifeless, the blow from losing Feng Shihan cutting deeper than any hardship he had previously endured. Not even the bullying of Tian Ergou or the oppression of the Tian family had brought him to tears. He had never faltered in the face of any hardship, but in matters of the heart, Lin Yanghao could not withstand the pain. It had been so with He Fang on Earth, and now, once more, with Feng Shihan.