Han Yu looked back toward the distance, where the crimson pillars of light still burned faintly against the horizon. The earth continued to quake, but his attention was now divided between the collapsing land and the invisible wall before him.
"Trapped in a collapsing realm with no exit," he muttered bitterly. "Wonderful."
He placed his hand against the barrier again, feeling the faint pulse of energy beneath his fingers. For now, all he could do was test it further and hope that sowhere along this invisible wall, a weakness or passage could be found.
But deep down, as the ground continued to shudder beneath his feet, Han Yu could not shake the uneasy thought that maybe the barrier was not keeping him out of sothing... but rather, keeping him inside.
Han Yu stared at the invisible wall for a long mont, the faint shimr on its surface barely visible to his naked eyes.
The air here felt dense, heavy with a strange static pressure that clung to his skin. He pressed his palm against it once more, and the barrier pulsed faintly in response, sending back a dull echo that made the hairs on his arm rise.
If this really was the boundary of the real tomb, then he needed to know exactly what he was dealing with. Simply standing here and waiting would accomplish nothing.
’I need to see if it is limited or not.’
Taking a deep breath, Han Yu steadied his thoughts and lifted himself into the air with his halberd. The weapon floated steadily under his feet as he began to ascend along the barrier’s edge.
For the first few minutes, the ascent was easy.
He could still feel the invisible wall beside him, like a smooth glass surface that stretched upward endlessly. Occasionally, he would touch it lightly, letting his hand glide against the unseen texture.
It felt faintly warm, as if it was absorbing so of his energy each ti he brushed against it.
Minutes passed. The forest below turned into a blur of green and gray, and the eerie silence grew deeper the higher he went. The air itself seed to hum faintly, carrying the distant vibrations of the earthquakes that still rattled the world beneath him.
After nearly ten minutes of flight, Han Yu began to notice sothing strange. Each breath grew heavier, each motion more difficult. His Qi was draining much faster than before, far more than what simple flight should consu.
He gritted his teeth and tried pushing higher, but it was as if the air above him was made of thick syrup. Every attempt to rise further only made his Qi drain faster. It was a losing battle. His output simply could not match the overwhelming energy consumption.
Finally, he was forced to stop. Sweat rolled down his forehead, and his breathing ca unevenly. He floated in place, staring at the faintly rippling air around him.
"So... this is as far as I can go," he muttered quietly. ’If I were a Nascent Soul cultivator, I might be able to go farther up...’
While cultivators could fly, there was still a limit to the altitude they could reach. For Core Condensation realm cultivators, reaching the 500 ter mark was already great. Beyond that, they simply didn’t have a strong enough cultivation to force them to move up.
Only Nascent Soul cultivators could go above a thousand ters, but even they would hit a limit. It was said that only Immortal Ascension realm cultivators were strong enough to resist the pull of the world, and leave it, finally ascending into the outer space.
But those were far-fetched thoughts, and Han Yu needed to focus on reality.
He placed his hand on the invisible barrier once more, letting his spirit sense flow gently through his palm.
"Hmm... This is not as I thought."
The barrier felt strange, neither flat nor jagged, but slightly curved. His curiosity sharpened.
Slowly, he began to descend, keeping one hand against the invisible surface as he went down. The faint curvature beca more and more obvious the longer he followed it. The barrier wasn’t straight at all; it curved inward, following a smooth arc.
By the ti he reached the ground again, Han Yu was certain of it.
"This... isn’t just a wall," he said aloud, staring into the empty air. "It’s a do."
He frowned in thought. A barrier of this scale, one that completely enclosed a region wasn’t sothing simple. He had read about do formations before, large-scale protective barriers used by top sects or powerful clans.
They were among the most efficient defensive formations for sealing an area completely, both above and below. Even the Twin Leaf Peak Sect had a barrier of the sa kind protecting it and the sa could be said for other top sects.
This also ant there was no way to dig his way out. Even if he tried tunneling through the earth, the barrier would continue underground, forming a perfect sphere.
Han Yu sighed heavily, rubbing his temples. "So I’m inside a cage."
Still, he was not one to give up easily. If he couldn’t go over or under, then perhaps there was a weakness sowhere along the ground. Every formation, no matter how perfect, had a core or a flaw. If he could find even a small fracture, he might be able to exploit it.
Landing softly, he began walking along the barrier’s edge, tracing his fingers against the invisible surface as he moved. His spirit sense probed outward again and again, but each ti, it was repelled by the sa impenetrable resistance.
No matter how he tried, his perception could not pierce even a fraction beyond the wall.
"Great," he muttered bitterly. "Can’t see through, can’t go over, can’t dig under. What’s next?"
His patience began to fray. A spark of irritation flared within him. If there was no weakness, then he would make one.
He clenched his hand tightly and let his Soul Qi rise. The familiar silvery energy began to gather around his arm, swirling and condensing along his palm.
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