"Ahhhh!"
"Urg-urgh…i-is it…urgh…"
"Daddy! Mommy! Daddy!! Mommy!!"
The dreadful, spine-tingling wails of the citizens of the World Between the Fold were endless, filled with the pain of loss and injury. The Solar Star that granted them brilliance with each passing day had unleashed a torrential downpour of hellish rays that sundered the world, and the three cities' defenses had been erected too late. It was simply far too sudden and unexpected.
The consequences of their belated response were death, destruction, and hopelessness. Many died. More was hurt.
Out of the three cities, the City of Voyage suffered the worst, and the City of Guardians faced the least damage and loss of life. The City of Voyage had lost their Worldly Saint, Xu You, and their leader, so they were left unprotected after the backlash until Su Nianzu, the Lord of the City of Guardians arrived to exert his secondary degree of authority to erect the barrier and defenses.
But this was only after he had ensured his city was safe from destruction, so he was delayed. Su Nianzu cursed Xu You for getting trapped but also realized that they had lost one of the remaining Core Nodes within the Sealed Regions. This was problematic.
After settling down the situation and giving orders to the remaining elites still alive, he scoured the World Between the Fold to find Liu Yinlan and Zhangjie Wushu. The former had established the defenses in the City of Endless but hadn't stayed there. The latter had helped reduce the damage to the City of Guardians, helping him ease the protection efforts, but had immediately left after he headed to the City of Voyage.
It took him a few minutes before he found them both, standing at what could be described as a corner of the World Between the Fold, or the foundation of the Endless Void Mirror, and they were close together as they observed a strange phenomenon beneath them.
When he arrived beside them, they glanced his way for a brief moment and then returned their focus to the phenomenon below. Curious, he restrained berating them as he followed their spiritual senses.
"Another Time Vortex?" Su Nianzu was stunned. The phenomenon below was a chasm, smaller in size, and silver in color, that heavily resembled a Time Vortex.
"No; this is a Spatial Vortex," Zhangjie Wushu corrected. The two were highly similar in structure, but one was composed of time energies and the other was spatial energies. The Time Vortex existed since the inception of the Sealed Regions, but this Spatial Vortex was a newly formed territory. Much like a Time Vortex consisted of Past, Present, and Future Time Energies in total sporadic chaos, Spatial Vortexes were a mixture of Fixed, Stable, and Chaotic Spatial Energies.
Su Nianzu furrowed his brows.
"It's growing," Liu Yinlan said with an underlying tone of joy that she couldn't restrain.
"Growing?" Su Nianzu inspected the Spatial Vortex and realized that it was indeed growing by an inch every few seconds. His heart throbbed from this discovery. As a Worldly Saint with profound knowledge of space, he realized the cause of such a change.
"It's devouring the Endless Voyage Realm?" The World Between the Fold was the physical body of the Endless Void Mirror, and the Endless Void Mirror stabilized the space that they resided in, the World Realm referred to as the Endless Voyage Realm. This was the differentiation.
The Spatial Vortex was a part of the World Between the Fold, and it was devouring the latent spatial energies of the Endless Voyage Realm, growing ceaselessly.
Like cancer.
Zhangjie Wushu's eyes narrowed sharply. "If this continues…"
Liu Yinlan finished her thought for her excitedly, "the Sealing Array will decrease in effectiveness and the Endless Voyage Realm will vanish."
"...does that mean?" Su Nianzu's heart trembled at the implication of Liu Yinlan's words.
Zhangjie Wushu closed her narrowed eyes, taking a deep breath before exhaling a turbid breath of pent-up anxiety. "The Sealed Regions will lose its ability to restrict foreigners from entering. Moreover, the Sealing Array's prohibition of Mystic Heart Intent will be lifted."
"And that's just the beginning," Liu Yinlan's eyes glinted with elation and killing intent, a chaotic mixture of the two that painted her expression in an interesting grin, one that gave her beauty another type of charm of madness.
"..." Silence reigned supreme for several minutes. Should the Sealing Array begin to lose its effectiveness and the Endless Voyage Realm would be slowly devoured, then the entirety of the Endless Voyage Realm's inhabitants, Celestial and Humans, Destined and Seekers, will be allowed to enter.
Boom!
Su Nianzu shot off.
After an hour, he came back with his armor stained in glistening blood, leaking from the various openings of his body. While he expected this result, he still tried.
"The Endless Voyage Realm is sealed off; I can't exit." Those words were spoken in the deepest voice of his suffused with vexation. Not even he, a Worldly Saint, could escape. Why?
"Of course," Liu Yinlan began to say casually, "the Endless Void Mirror registers this Spatial Vortex as a world-ending threat and has sealed it within the Endless Voyage Realm. Not only will it replace the Endless Voyage Realm, but it won't let us escape out into the greater world until it's either dealt with or genuinely contained. So like my descendants…"
"We're trapped." Zhangjie Wushu now finished Liu Yinlan's words as she opened her eyes and gave her a sidelong glance.
Su Nianzu took a deep breath and healed himself, the blood dissipating and his aura stabilized. "Any ideas to deal with it?" The Spatial Vortex had already grown to a certain extent during their conversations. It was clear that it'll grow to an absurd level and devour everything eventually, like a gaping maw of a ravenous beast.
If they could deal with the Spatial Vortex, they could solve this issue.
Zhangjie Wushu looked down and stared at the ever-growing Spatial Vortex. It was similar to the Time Vortex, a byproduct or mutation of the Endless Void Mirror, a Heavenly Treasure, but far more chaotic and aggressive. "Only the minor authority of the Law of Space can resolve this or the Ascended Sovereigns."
"..." Liu Yinlan and Su Nianzu.
The minor authority of the Law of Space! This meant fully nurturing and awakening a Law Seed of Space! As for the Ascended Sovereigns intervening, they were figures that certainly wouldn't move until the situation needed them. For some reason, for the last five thousand years, the Ascended Sovereigns have essentially never communicated with the Endless Voyage Realm.
It was as if they had all tacitly agreed to leave the Endless Void Mirror be. The City Lords have tried to send messages and receive updates or explanations, but they merely obtained succinct messages from the Mystic Overlords under their charge, essentially saying to stay on mission and prevent the compromise of the Sealing Array with their greatest efforts.
They couldn't even get into contact with the incarnations left behind by them. It was clear that something had happened in the background in these last five thousand years that caused them to sever communications. It wasn't an issue since nothing was happening, but now…
While the trio was Worldly Saints, possessing god-like powers, the Endless Void Mirror was created by those Peak figures, vastly exceeding them by more than three stages of cultivation. It wouldn't be an understatement to say that they were mere ants before the Ascended Sovereigns.
The Time Vortex and the Spatial Vortex were both products of a Heavenly Treasure, and they weren't even Heavenly Saints, not even coming close to that level of power.
Zhangjie Wushu once again eyed Liu Yinlan, "You must be happy." She mockingly remarked without holding back her ill tone.
"Happy? To be honest, I'm concerned for the citizens." Liu Yinlan said, but her quivering smile betrayed the extreme joy she felt. She didn't need to hide it so why do so?
"When the Sealing Array weakens to the point we can enter the Sealed Regions, we'll just make a new Endless Voyage Realm inside the Sealed Regions to ensure an easy transition. They have a Supermassive Solar Star with a non-attributed Mystic Radiance Belt, after all. Considering what we suffered here, the Endless Voyage Realm is complete trash." With the second node destroyed, the fuel that remains could only maintain the Sealing Array, not provide them with any resources.
The World Between the Fold could be considered a Desolate World Realm.
"WHAT?!" Su Nianzu was taken aback, causing his armor to jolt with metallic clangs. A Supermassive Solar Star with a non-attributed Mystic Radiance Belt? This was the first time he'd heard of it.
Zhangjie Wushu's eyes widened slightly.
Liu Yinlan shook her head, "The Sealed Regions' resources are grossly abundant, massively underused by the inhabitants living there. You two are restricted from seeking out information about the Sealed Regions; in fact, everyone except Destined is, and even they are restrained by Mystic Oaths to never speak of it to non-Destined, so none of you know the circumstances of the Sealed Regions. Of course, I could tell the so-called Overseeing Guardian and his deputy, if I wanted to. Now that you know a little, maybe you'll share my concern about the safety of the citizens."
After saying that, she vanished. She was going to return to the City of Endless and make her preparations. The time was approaching for her to slaughter that bastard. It seemed that all her schemes to obtain freedom had been pointless thanks to the efforts of Trueborn. Unfortunately for them, after they enter the Sealed Regions, they'll be eradicated as an obligation to 'protect' the Sealed Regions, a part of their oaths.
Their successful assault after tens of thousands of years of effort will eventually lead to their unavoidable deaths—karma is quite the bitch.
It was true—not even Trueborn predicted the Spatial Vortex would manifest, a result of various factors that heavily involved Wei Wuyin's tribulation and actions after. As for the Mystic Oaths, the ones that stipulated the Worldly Saints' stay in the Endless Voyage Realm would be inadvertently voided due to its inevitable erasure.
Without an Endless Voyage Realm, the binding oaths would vanish just as well. While they can't escape back to the World Beyond the Fold, they could enter the Sealed Regions until the Ascended Sovereigns took action.
"If the Sealed Regions have a Supermassive Solar Star with a Non-Attributed Mystic Radiance Belt, then…" Zhangjie Wushu couldn't contain the surprise in her voice. The longer such a treasure existed, the richer the world.
If it was only for a thousand years, then so what.
But what if it was five thousand years? Eight? Ten?
The resources would be to die for.
The thought caused a barely suppressed burst of greed to flourish in her heart. What she didn't know was that the Supermassive Solar Star had been present for nearly thirty thousand years! The efforts of the former Imperial Clan, the rulers of the Imperial Martial Starfield, shortly before they were usurped and driven out.
Su Nianzu didn't know this either, but his eyes glinted beneath his helmet. The two exchanged gazes briefly, and then, without a single need to communicate, they reached out and poured Spatial Power into the Spatial Vortex.
It began to grow! And grow! AND GROW!!
This wasn't harming the nodes or betraying their position! After all, neither of them was obligated to protect the Endless Voyage Realm, but the World Between the Fold, unlike Liu Yinlan and Xu You! They were either special guests invited by overseers, such as Zhangjie Wushu—officially recognized as Su Nianzu's deputy, or overseers to ensure that the Ascended beings were given regulatory oversight, like Su Nianzu!
Far away, flying towards her city, Liu Yinlan formed a wickedly devilish smile.