The Voidgate was on the other side of the mountain, so Alex and Rosemist had to fly over the peaks to get to the other side. There, hidden in the fog, deep within a cave guarded by another Divine beast —a Six-Tailed Sword Snake— was the glowing purple and silver Voidgate.
Rosemist stood next to Alex as he peered into the thin sliver in the fabric of reality, through which he could see into another dimension that ran alongside their current world.
"I've been hoping to find one for a long time now," Alex said, his awed expression unchanging.
"You wanted to find one? Why?" Rosemist asked.
"I've been trying to learn more Dao of Time and Space, and as far as I know, Voidgates are the best places to learn it," he said.
"Hmm." Rosemist didn't immediately answer. "It is indeed a good place to train, but I don't know how useful this can be for you. The crack isn't too wide, and not much of the aura leaves the inside."
"That's alright," Alex said. "I can make it wider."
He walked toward the Voidgate, poked his fingers through the thin cut in reality, and pulled it apart to reveal the stunning world inside the portal.
The swirling mess of purple and silver streamed around, lighting up the cave in a vast array of colors.
Rosemist's eyes slowly widened. "You can use Space Dao already?" she asked, stunned.
"Yes," Alex said. "Is that so surprising?"
"While you're so young? Yes," she said. "You need special treasures for people to learn Space Dao. You must've e across quite the opportunity."
Alex nodded. "I did," he said.
"You have quite the good luck then," she said.
Alex smiled. He observed the Voidgate for a bit, carefully sensing the aura that leaked from it. He tried to understand the sort of aura that escaped from it.
He sensed Dao of Space, Dao of Spatial Expansion, Dao of Spatial Shrinking, Dao of Teleportation, Dao of Time, Dao of Temporal Stagnation, and Dao of Temporal Swiftness.
Alex had to mend himself for sensing so much of the aura and recognizing it so quickly. His training with the Standing Pendulum had helped him enough to recognize the three most important Time Dao. There were more Time Daos, of course, but it would take some time before he learned them all.
Alex was about to sit and see if he could sense anything else when he noticed something.
The Voidgate he had opened was shrinking.
"Hmm? That's weird," he said.
"What is?" Rosemist asked.
"The Voidgate, why is it shrinking so quickly?" he asked. "I've interacted with Voidgates before, and they don't close up this quickly. Is it because the space in the Immortal realm is much stronger?"
That was the only reason he could think of.
"Oh, no," Rosemist said. "This is something else."
Alex turned around. "Something else?" he asked.
"Remember what I told you before?" she asked. "The other side of this Voidgate is closed off. So, this side of it can't sustain itself either. Unless you use some sort of formation or script to stabilize the opening, it will naturally shrink until just a sliver of it remains."
"That's… surprising," Alex said. "Did that happen naturally, or do you think someone forced it to close?"
"Voidgates can't close naturally," Rosemist said. "They can open naturally, but even that requires some sort of trigger to happen. To close, you need outside interference."
"So there are beings out there that can just close Voidgates whenever they want?" Alex asked.
"Anyone in the upper Divine realm can do that," Rosemist said.
"Anyone?" Alex asked. "Even those who don't understand Space Dao?"
Rosemist chuckled. "It's not about knowing Space Dao. It's about making use of something that already exists."
Alex became attentive, noticing that she was about to explain something important.
"Imagine the fabric of this world to be the skin on a human. Then Voidgates are tiny cuts upon it. When the cut is too small to get infected or bleed, you don't really care. You go along your day, not even bothering to heal it. You won't even notice it until it hurts you."
"However, cut open that wound further and make it bleed, make it hurt. What will you do then? You'll treat it. You'll put on medicine, you'll bandage it."
"The Voidgates are like that. Make a big enough wound in the fabric of reality, and Heaven will heal that which has been wounded, closing the Voidgate forever."
Alex slowly nodded, finally understanding what she was saying. "So someone on the other side must've wanted to close the Voidgate."
Rosemist nodded. "Exactly."
Alex looked at the Voidgate again, seeing its shrinking size. "Inside the Voidgate, there is a path that leads to the other gate," he said. "Is that path gone now that the other gate is closed?"
"More or less," Rosemist said. "There are remnants of the old path you can follow, but it's nearly impossible to say where it stops. And if you don't know where it stops, it's better if you don't open it randomly. Voidgates are… dangerous when you have no idea where the other location leads to."
Alex nodded. "No wonder Senior Lin didn't find out where he came from," he said.
"Yes. Poor Little Lin wants to, but he can't," Rosemist said.
Alex sat down. "I've always wanted to learn about Voidgates and understand how they function. I have already learned the Dao of Space. So once I learn the Dao of Time, I can begin learning the Dao of Void. After that, I can travel through the Voidgate."
"When I can do that, I shall e back to help Senior Lin."
Rosemist couldn't help but smile warmly upon hearing that. "Little Lin would love that," she said and sat to the side. "Start your training. I will try not to bother you."
Alex nodded with wordless thanks and peered into the Void to learn the mysteries it held.
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