Aksai stood in front of the third spatial ripple and pondered for a mont.
Then he raised his hand. Slowly, he reached out and touched the spatial entrance with his bare fingers.
There was no resistance. His hand passed through the ripple as if he was pushing it into still water.
"Hmmm? What in the ...."
Aksai’s eyes widened slightly.
The first two tis had been different. Back then, he had needed Barrier Breaker talismans of 1st and 2nd Order just to force his way through the entrances. Without them, the space had rejected him completely.
But this ti, the barrier accepted him.
Aksai pulled his hand back and looked at it in silence.
"So it’s changed," he muttered.
He could feel it clearly. Sothing in the arrangent left behind by his ancestor had shifted. The mont he stepped into the Core Formation realm, the Myriad Worlds Painting and the Everwood Farmland seed to have loosened their restrictions.
He had more freedom now. More authority.
Aksai looked at the rippling entrance again and his eyes were filled with calm but silent excitent. It seed that, as a Core Formation Lord, he could finally start making better and fuller use of the inheritance that was ant for him.
Putting his stray thoughts to rest, Aksai focused on the current task and slowly sent his Spirit Sense inside the spatial rift that was supposed to lead him to the third world. However, the mont his Spirit Sense crossed the edge, it felt heavy.
There was resistance.
It was not violent, but it was firm, like pushing one’s hand into thick mud. Aksai frowned. He increased the strength of his Spirit Sense, but the resistance only grew stronger. It felt as if sothing unseen was pressing back.
"So it’s not that simple," he muttered.
He stepped forward and decided to enter it physically.
Spirit essence surged from his Core as he coated his body with his Core Formation realm aura. His 3rd Order Spirit Sense spread around him like a shell, protecting him as he pushed into the spatial rift.
The world twisted. In the next instant, Aksai found himself floating in endless darkness. Stars filled his vision.
Before him stretched a vast galaxy, bright and quiet at the sa ti. At its center was a planetary system not much different from the solar system of his old howorld. Several planets circled a glowing star in slow, steady paths.
Aksai felt no fear.
An ethereal layer wrapped around his body. It was gentle yet firm, shielding him from the void. He knew this was the protection of the Myriad Worlds Painting. It allowed him to exist in space without harm. It also hid him completely, masking his body, his Spirit Sense, and even his aura.
He tried to move.
One step.
Space folded.
In a blink, he had crossed thousands of miles.
Aksai’s eyes locked onto one planet that looked alive from afar. Blue and green colors covered its surface. Clouds drifted over its skies. From a distance, it clearly looked habitable.
He tried to move closer. Then he stopped.
An invisible wall stood in his way.
He reached out with his Spirit Sense, then with his aura. Both were blocked. No matter how he pushed, he could not cross that line.
Aksai’s expression darkened.
"This isn’t the Myriad Worlds Painting," he realized. "It’s the world itself."
The restriction felt old and strict. It was not ant to stop ordinary things, but outsiders. Otherworlders like him. Aksai slowly pulled his hand back.
"So I can’t enter in my true body," he whispered.
This was the first ti he had faced such rejection. The previous worlds had been open to him in one way or another. But this one was different. Very different. It seed that the civilization of this world or perhaps the World Will of this very world was way too powerful than he had initially thought.
His heart grew heavy. A world that could block a Core Formation Lord so easily could only an one thing. It was strong. Possibly even stronger than Dadangar.
As this thought crossed his mind, a chill ran down his spine. He felt it suddenly and had goosebumps. A gaze seed to have landed on him for a fraction of a second.
It was distant, yet sharp. As if sothing powerful had turned its eyes in his direction. Aksai’s instincts scread danger. Then, two shadows appeared in the void not far from him.
They were vague, almost like silhouettes made of darkness and light. Their forms were unclear, but the pressure they gave off was terrifying. Even from this distance, Aksai felt as if his Spirit Core had frozen.
They looked around slowly.
Aksai couldn’t hear anything. Space was silent. Even if they spoke, their words were lost. The sounds ant nothing to him anyway. Their language was completely foreign.
But he understood their actions. They were probably searching for him and signs of his existence. Sohow, they had sensed him.
Yet when they ca closer, they paused. Their heads turned, scanning the empty space again and again. They were close. Very close.
Still, they saw nothing. Aksai held his breath. His invisibility held.
The Myriad Worlds Painting hid him so completely that even beings like these could not see him directly. Still, the fear in his heart did not fade.
"These... they could kill without effort," Aksai thought.
Compared to them, he was nothing. His eyes flicked behind him.
The spatial rift was still there, quiet and hidden. The two shadows did not seem to notice it at all. That alone told Aksai how deep and mysterious the Myriad Worlds Painting truly was.
Aksai did not hesitate. He turned and stepped back into the rift. The void twisted once more.
In the next mont, he was back inside the Enchanted Everwood Farmland. The spatial ripple closed behind him without a sound.
The pressure vanished. The terrifying presence was gone. Aksai exhaled slowly, his back damp with cold sweat.
"That... that was close," he murmured to himself and tried to calm his heart with his breathing.
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