Elder Storm Hawk nodded before replying to his question. "Yes, there are two layers of space."
She shrugged and said, "There might even be more than one. I don't know, and I am in no place to know."
Arthur exclaimed in awe, "Wow."
Then he said, "Now that I think about it, where do secret realms come from? How can they occupy so much space and not be seen on the surface at all?"
As he asked these questions, he remembered what the first lecturer who taught him formations had said about the teleportation arrays having more than three dimensions of height, width, and length.
He didn't understand what the man had meant back then. Actually, he didn't think much of it because the man looked deranged.
He thought the man was losing his mind, and what he said about teleportation arrays having more than three dimensions were the ramblings of a madman. But now that he knows that there are at least two layers of space, the man's words begin to possess some credibility.
Meanwhile, Elder Storm Hawk answered his questions. She said, "Secret realms are created from the root of the Ethera tree. The roots are the source of mana in the world of Ethera and are present throughout the world. But they are not seen on the surface because they are in the hidden layer."
While she was speaking, they appeared to have crossed a particular threshold because the sun disappeared and the world became dark.
What was worse than the all pervasive darkness was the thick fog surrounding them. This fog blocked the perception of his divine sense.
Even if it were night time, he would still be able to see with his divine sense because he doesn't need only visible light to see the world. But this fog blocked everything and made the whole world completely dark to him.
Even sound was blocked too. So it was as if he and Elder Storm Hawk were standing in nothingness.
The only source of light in this darkness was the blinking ID card. Elder Storm Hawk was still following the blinking card.
He saw this and her lack of fear at the change in their surroundings, so he said, "Am I correct to assume that all of these is normal and we are in no danger?"
She replied, "Yes. We are about to reach the entrance now."
His heart, or the life seed that took the place of his heart, finally settled after getting that confirmation. His fear left him. Then it was replaced by curiosity.
Without the need to fear for his life, he became curious about their surroundings. In particular, he was curious about the fog around them.
He said out loud, "This fog is not normal. I wonder what it is made from."
As he said that, he focused his senses on the fog and tried to understand its structure. What he saw were tiny balls of darkness mana held together by some vibrating shapes and strings which formed a large net.
What he saw made the world change in his sight again. The whole world became submerged in a large terrifying net. It made him look like a fish caught in a fisherman's net.
But more than the visual impact, there was also the mental impact. His mind was struck with a barrage of information from the net.
It was all his fault. He was trying to understand it, but the net was way out of his league.
The information the net contained was far too much for his little mind to comprehend. His attempt to understand it could only end in failure.
The impact on his mind caused him to swoon and flop down. It was so bad that he was teetering on the edge of being unconscious. If not for the fact that he was riding on Roar, he would have fallen from the sky.
As it is, he lay on Roar's back listless and with a headache that was threatening to split his head into at least four pieces.
When his mind recovered a little bit, he grumbled aloud, "Maybe Thor was right. Maybe the sect is doing too much to defend the entrance of the inner sect."
He just realized that the fog was the effect of an array. It was just the effect, not the array itself. So it was similar to the tip of an iceberg.
But even the tip he saw was very big. The fog was so large that it appeared to be large enough to cover the entire outer sect.
He couldn't understand much from it, but from what he could tell, the fog was created by the bewildering array. As for the space shuffling array, he still hadn't caught a whif of it.
But even if the space shuffling array doesn't exist, he can be sure that the Blood Skull sect is running at least two large and powerful arrays meant to protect the sect.
The first large array is the barrier shield that isolates the outer sect from the world. The second large array is the bewildering array. Both of them must be consuming a lot of energy stones which made him remember what Thor had said about the Blood Skull being overprotective.
But then he remembered what he and Elder Storm Hawk had done with the Milton family and said, "I guess we need many layers of protection after offending so many enemies."
From what he can tell, the Blood Skull sect has a lot of enemies. He believes that this warrants them being extra careful and protective of the foundation of the sect.
While he was thinking this to himself, they finally reached the entrance to the inner sect. The entrance was blocked by a large hall similar to the teleportation halls that is used to exit the outer sect.
He and Elder Storm Hawk had to enter the teleportation hall and be inspected first. Their identity had to be confirmed before they were allowed to go through the entrance of the inner sect.