Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

It was not very accurate to say that he did not see it, because Li Yao had been dizzy since he ‘fell from the sky’ and did not see the inside of the entrance clearly.

However, according to Li Linghai’s experience and the memory pieces of Black Star Emperor Wu Yingqi, there should be an almost perfect ball of mercury inside the tomb of the Supreme Emperor, which was floating in the sky like an eternal moon. The Supreme Emperor had built a forward base around the ‘entrance’, and so had Li Linghai. He had stationed his camp right below the entrance all the time. Therefore, Li Yao should have been able to see its coordinates when he entered the tomb.

Of course, the precise coordinates of the Tomb of the Supreme Emperor were in the depths of the four-dimensional universe. Amid the raging tides, its entrance appeared and disappeared in the three-dimensional universe. Chances were that it had already ‘disappeared’ in the three-dimensional universe.

But the possibility was slim. According to Li Linghai, the harsher the astronomical environment outside was, the larger the crack in the three-dimensional universe would be, and the more stable the entrance to the tomb would be.

This time, they had calculated the coordinates of the entrance and arrived before the tomb was opened. How could it be closed so quickly?

“What is going on exactly? Why is everything different from the exploration experience of Li Linghai and Wu Yingqi? If there is no exit, will I and the entire exploration fleet be locked in this godforsaken place for decades or even hundreds of years until the next ‘exit’ appears in the three-dimensional universe?”

Li Yao was soaked in sweat.

Even though the environment here was very suitable for the survival of human beings, considering the capability of the experts here, it would not be difficult for them to survive for decades. However, the idea that all the elites of human beings in the Pangu Universe would be sealed here for decades was still too absurd.

There must be a way out. Let’s see what this place is exactly!

Li Yao made up his mind and put the broken Giant God Soldier back into his Cosmos Ring before he leapt into the air.

“Chirp chirp, chirp chirp chirp!” Although Little Black had a round head and a cute appearance, it had been in the form of ‘Black Wing Sword’ for decades. It was one of the fastest flying swords in the Star Glory Federation. Naturally, flying in the air was not a problem for it. However, it turned into a streak of blackness and enveloped Li Yao, accelerating him to the maximum.

One kilometer, two kilometers, three kilometers, five kilometers!

Li Yao accelerated. The land below his feet gradually blurred. The green forest, the blue ocean, and the red mountains were as distinct as chessboards.

Li Yao was dying to know whether or not he would break out of the atmosphere or even break through the clouds if he kept accelerating toward the sky, so that he could get a clear view of the tomb.

Or maybe, he would touch an invisible barrier, like most world fragments.

But what happened next was beyond his expectation.

When the earth and the ocean below his feet were covered by clouds that looked like a thick fog, and a brilliant starry sky was about to appear above his head, he suddenly felt that the magnetic field of the universe had flipped over. He felt that his head was heavy, and his feet were light. He was jumping upward, but he was falling at an accelerated speed.

What the hell!

Li Yao’s pupils constricted violently. The clouds above his head parted, revealing a land that was exactly the same as the one below his feet a moment ago! Yes. He remembered the demarcation line of the seashore, the wilderness, the jungle, and the mountains very clearly. Judging from the shape of the demarcation line, it was exactly the land that he had just set off from!

How? How was it possible? He was supposed to be jumping upward. How did he end up falling down? How did he end up in this place when he had started from this place?

Floating in midair, Li Yao stared at the ground more than a thousand meters below his feet in a trance.

Taking a deep breath and gritting his teeth, he changed his direction and flew toward the sky again, back the way he had come.

As it turned out, after flying for about half a minute, he experienced another reversal of the magnetic field. The attraction force below his feet suddenly turned into a force above his head. He went from ‘rising into the sky’ to ‘falling from the sky’, and ‘should be below! was still the familiar land.

IIII

Li Yao was dazed for a moment. He flew to the horizon at the highest speed, while he observed the land and drew a map of the place.

If the tomb of the Supreme Emperor was really a planet, judging from the gravity and the natural environment, its mass and radius should be similar to those of Empyrean Terminus and Heaven’s Origin. It should be no larger than twice the size of Empyrean Terminus and Heaven’s Origin.

With Li Yao’s current Cultivation, it was not difficult for him to circle around such a planet.

However, weird things happened again.

Li Yao had noticed that the land and the ocean here were both slightly curved, like the surface of a planet. But when he set off from the east coast of the continent, crossed the continent and the west coast, and crossed a vast ocean, he had returned to the starting point without even circling the planet once or even a quarter time!

The magnetic field here was too chaotic for him to distinguish between east, west, south, and north. However, assuming that the journey was in the east-west direction, the situation in the north-south direction was the same. Li Yao had planned to look for the ‘Antarctic’ and the ‘Arctic’, but after a moment of dizziness, he returned to the starting point.

“Alright. If the interference of the magnetic field was not so intense that it jammed my brain, my crystal suit, and Little Black’s navigation system at the same time, it would’ve been the legendary ‘Ghost Hits Wall’.

Li Yao pondered for a moment and said, “Or, let’s put it in a more sophisticated way. The concepts such as ‘space folding’ and ‘space distortion’ were intentionally disrupted by somebody who set up a maze that nobody could get out of. Well, it’s not unusual that the maze was used as a shield for the ‘black wall control hub’.

The problem was, the last time Li Linghai and Wu Yingqi explored this place, it was not like this.

At that time, the Mausoleum of the Supreme Emperor was no different from ordinary world fragments. It had a fuzzy boundary, and its structure was very stable. It looked harmless and honest.

Could it be that something, something, or even… someone had activated a certain system or defense measure deep inside the tomb?

Whatever it was, it gave Li Yao an ominous feeling

“No wonder Ding Lingdang and the rest didn’t return to the outside to look for me after setting up the forward operating base. It’s because the space here has been distorted, and they can’t find a way out.”

Li Yao continued pondering. “However, is space the only thing that has been twisted?”

While exploring north, south, east, and west, Li Yao took a lot of pictures with high resolution and collected a lot of climate and magnetic field data.

The gift he had received from the ‘lightning life-form’ not long ago gave him a sensitivity thousands of times higher than that of a pigeon. His perception and understanding of the magnetic field could infer a lot of things from the traces of the anomaly.

Li Yao noticed that, in this small, enclosed world, there was not just one climate system, but dozens of entirely different environments.

The place where he landed was indeed peaceful and pleasant.

But some other places were covered in snow and ice.

In other places, including the depths of the ocean, volcanoes were erupting. The plate movement was extremely intense. What was weird was that, no matter how intense the climate and the geological changes were, they did not affect the neighboring areas nearby at all. Even though they were only a hundred meters away from each other, with the volcano eruption on one side, the earth was shaking, and the mountains were shaking, the other side was covered in snow, and the icebergs were absolutely still.

“That’s impossible.”

Li Yao inputted all the climate data he collected into his brain and made a complicated calculation. Then he came to a very absurd conclusion. “The environment of this world is simply like the different stages after the birth of a planet. The most obvious is the content of various constituents in the air. Some areas are like the stages when a planet has just been born, which are filled with fatal venomous gas. Some places are too high in oxygen, like the early years of the primeval era when plants were just born. Some places have relatively normal air, which is the most perfect stage for a habitable planet.

“However, isn’t the flow of air the strongest? The atmosphere here has obvious convection. How can the air on one side belong to a primitive planet, the air on the other side belong to a desolate planet, and the air on the other side belongs to a modern planet? It-it doesn’t make any sense!”

Li Yao could not figure it out at all.

He made bold assumptions and verified them carefully. At first, he imagined that there was an invisible barrier in the air that blocked the air in different areas and created different ‘labs’.

But what about the air, the abrupt changes of the magnetic field, and the discontinuity of the crustal movements? What kind of barrier could make the earth shake a hundred meters away and everything calm down?

Besides, such an assumption was too simple and crude. It seemed to be completely inconsistent with the exquisiteness, perfection, and shock that the ‘black wall maker’ had established at the entrance.

It was the approach of human beings, not a super civilization that could build a ‘black wall’.

“What kind of place is this exactly? I feel like I’m on a different planet every minute!”

Li Yao mumbled to himself.

Then, his body stiffened, and he shivered coldly.

Yes. Different planets. The immaculate world in front of his eyes seemed to be made of hundreds of different planets!

“Is—is it possible?”

Li Yao asked himself softly, “Cut the ‘space’ from hundreds of different planets as if it were a cake and put it back together without leaving any traces of joints?”

“Let’s put it in a simpler way. The so-called Tomb of the Supreme Emperor, ‘Gold Holy See, Heaven’s Horizon’, is not a world fragment but a collection of hundreds of other world fragments?