At the moment the tadpole-shaped creature opened its eyes, an invisible ripple suddenly spread outward, engulfing Andrew Han's body and mind—including Bailey. The swirling colors remained, but his senses collapsed.
Indescribable pressure, hatred, and a torrent of unwilling, resentful emotion surged into Andrew's heart.
"Damn!"
In that instant, Andrew perceived the world as one of light and shadow—above, a bright paradise; below, a dim abyss. His body was bound by invisible chains, dragged straight toward the hellish depths beneath him.
In this scene, waves of ecstasy, extreme grief, and hysteria crashed into his mind, sweeping over Andrew without warning. The bizarre, shifting emotions—sometimes excitement, sometimes rage—made him realize something was wrong.
"Heart-force!"
"Only those above Cosmos Union can touch it!"
Andrew understood all this deeply, yet he had lost control over his body and soul—he could no longer sense the outside world.
It felt as if his heart had been ruthlessly stripped away, wrapped in layer upon layer of invisible chains. After being torn out, it was thrown into a dark abyss with no visible bottom.
In what seemed an instant—or an eternity—the scenes grew ever more bizarre and surreal. Streams of light, both real and illusory, collided and sparked waves of destruction. Within those waves, worlds seemed to be born and destroyed: chaotic landscapes merging deserts and oceans, stars inside planets, all drawn from Andrew's real experiences and memories, now fused together.
"A heart-realm illusion!"
Andrew opened his eyes, trying to break free from the invisible chains, but no matter how he struggled, he could not escape.
His heart was burning with anxiety, his mind in chaos—these were not emotions Andrew wished for, yet they kept spreading.
Falling, falling—an endless descent.
The world shook; his senses collapsed. Mountains of blades and seas of fire became piles of corpses and rivers of blood; bountiful fruit turned into heaps of bones. Even the bizarre chill of burning flames—such extreme sensations could only be governed or escaped by heart-force.
Andrew was only Void Rift-tier; his life-level was far too low. He could not comprehend heart-force, much less control it.
A raging torrent like an information stream crashed through him—billions of sensations existed at once, some utterly opposed, some complementary. Andrew could not resist; his body was helplessly dragged into the abyss below.
So close, yet so far; bubbles were reality—he could no longer tell real from illusion.
"Heart..."
"So-called heart-force is nothing but a side path!"
Andrew let his senses shift and change, but he himself remained unmoved, like a mountain. He trusted himself—trusted the dominance of his Origin Talent, Tenacity.
If his earlier guess was correct...
Tenacity means immunity—freedom from all negative effects!
"Even if I'm not qualified to control heart-force," Andrew silently exerted his power, "as long as it's a negative effect, it can't escape the immunity of Tenacity's Origin Talent. Open!"
Boom!!
His Void Rift-tier soul-true-form began to shine.
A roar born from his soul and his Tenacity talent echoed in Andrew's mind, then surged into his heart, driving out the chaotic sensations.
His thoughts spun wildly, shifting unpredictably. The heart-force from the unknown lifeform struggled with ruthless resistance, its voice deeper than a black hole, drilling into Andrew's heart: "Interesting Human life... Dust returns to dust, earth returns to earth. In the end, you will return to my embrace..."
Boom!
It was his soul, roaring!
A piercing wave of sound, a sharp low moan—his utterly confused senses snapped back to normal in an instant.
"Master."
"Master, master, wake up!"
Bailey's tearful cries rang in Andrew's ears, and what he saw was the tadpole-shaped lifeform opening its bloody maw wide.
No pitch-black abyss—
It was actually its enormous mouth.
Bailey shrieked again: "Master, master!"
There was little fear of death in its tone; instead, worry and anxiety dominated.
It had no heart, so it couldn't be affected by heart-force, but that didn't mean Bailey lacked feelings.
"Stop shouting," Andrew said, lowering his head. "What exactly is this thing? Have you figured it out?"
He could sense that this mindless lifeform possessed no real intelligence; it acted entirely on instinct, even laying distant traps purely as a natural behavior.
"Nether Wraith!"
"It's a Subspace Nether Wraith!!"
Bailey exclaimed in delight, shouting with excitement.
Nether Wraith?
Andrew's expression shifted slightly as he looked up. Inside the tadpole-shaped creature's massive maw, dozens of eyes opened and stared at him. This terrifying Nether Wraith was formed from the life-grudges left behind when the Nether Clan opened Subspace.
After countless years of accumulation and a stroke of chance, a Nether Wraith is born. If a low-grade Subspace ship encounters one without specialized counter-devices, it is doomed to die in Subspace.
The cosmic starry sky truly hides countless dangers.
Woo, woo—the tadpole-shaped creature snapped its giant mouth shut.
But it bit down on nothing!
Andrew turned and left Subspace, leaving only its cries echoing far, far away.
......
In the dark vacuum, a stream of light sped along at over a hundred times lightspeed, heading for the Grand Epoch Sect Zone.
"We're almost there."
Andrew gazed ahead at the stellar system—an endless expanse, its boundaries unseen. He was already close.
Another half light-year forward and he would officially enter the Grand Epoch Sect Zone.
"Why isn't Master entering Subspace?" Bailey muttered quietly. "Could it be he's scared of that Nether Wraith?"
Andrew shook his head and chuckled, "Nether Wraiths have incredibly tenacious life force—only Cosmos Union and above can kill them."
To control the heart and wield heart-force is one of the exclusive traits of Cosmos Union.
Starlight, Stellar Palace, Void Rift—these three evolutionary realms mark the progression from simple to profound energy use. In Spark-Heritage, they are called the Foundation Three Realms: comprehending energy, experiencing matter.