Joe Di never imagined that entering this Void Rift would mean spending thousands of years within it. The first few hundred years were bearable, but after that, he began trying to escape from this endless rift.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, he would either be crushed and severely wounded by the Void Rift's edge, or forced back into the rift itself.
For Joe Di, the first thousand years inside the Void Rift were the most agonizing. After a millennium, he finally gave up; with his current strength, there was no way to escape. He let the turbulent currents of the rift sweep him deeper, and decided to settle down and focus on cultivation.
Since he couldn't break free, he might as well work hard to improve himself. Perhaps when he reached the Unity Realm, he could finally leave this place.
At first, Joe Di's secluded cultivation was only to consolidate his God Origin, temper his Spiritual Sense, and strengthen his meridians.
As time passed, Joe Di's constantly pressured Spiritual Sense, refined through Mindforge, gradually formed a protective shield around his consciousness.
By then, there was always a pile of high-grade God Crystals around Joe Di. He even drew Divine Spiritual Energy from the Supreme Ley Line in the Ninth World, forming a cocoon of energy around himself.
With enough Divine Spiritual Energy to aid him, Joe Di's cultivation finally began to rise, albeit slowly.
......
Joe Di suddenly awoke from his deep cultivation because the oppressive force of the Void around him abruptly vanished.
At this moment, Joe Di felt a profound sense of relief, as if a person long burdened by heavy iron weights on their feet was suddenly freed—a lightness so real it felt unreal.
Boom! The raging seawater burst apart, and Joe Di instantly felt his spiritual sense and essence completely sealed. Yet the spiritual sense he had forged in the Void Rift was tough beyond compare; in just a few breaths, he shattered the restraints and spread his awareness outward.
He was surrounded by endless seawater, right in the middle of it all.
Is this the Void Sea? Is the Void Sea connected to that Void Rift?
Joe Di immediately burst out of the water, and beneath his feet appeared a Superior Artifact vessel.
Standing on the vessel, Joe Di swept his spiritual sense outward again. He quickly realized this was not the Void Sea, but a completely unfamiliar place.
He was not far from the shore, and with the vessel's propulsion, it took only an hour for Joe Di to arrive at the coastline.
Upon reaching the shore, the restraints on Joe Di’s spiritual sense vanished entirely. To his delight, he discovered his spiritual sense had more than doubled compared to before entering the Void Rift.
He circulated his cosmic laws, and his essence flowed smoothly, resonating with a powerful, deep sound. His Stellar Nexus was now solid and vast, like the starry sky itself.
His cultivation had finally broken through the peak of the Dao Origin Realm, advancing to Dao Origin Perfection. Not only that, his foundation now felt solid and weighty, free of any instability.
Joe Di reflected inwardly. Although he had spent thousands of years in the Void Rift, it had not been in vain. If he had tried to stabilize his foundation through ordinary secluded cultivation for thousands of years, he doubted he could have achieved such solidity.
Now, all he needed was the right opportunity to break into the Unity Realm. He still had dozens of drops of Billion-Year Divine Essence—resources that could support his breakthrough to the Unity Realm.
Letting out a long breath, Joe Di swept his spiritual sense over his surroundings again, eager to figure out where he was.
Judging by the spiritual energy here, this was definitely not the Immortal Realm. It must be the Dao Realm, or a realm of similar rank. What puzzled him was the desolate landscape—bare earth and endless wastelands, nothing but barren soil and rocky flats as far as the eye could see.
Activating his spiritual sense movement, Joe Di quickly left the coast behind.
After just the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Joe Di stopped. Within his spiritual sense, he detected a pungent, bloody odor—a scent he found oddly familiar, as if he had encountered it somewhere before.
Before Joe Di could recall where he had experienced such a stench, an endless swarm of insects swept past the edges of his sea of consciousness.
Joe Di’s heart sank as he extended his spiritual sense even farther, probing the distance.
Sure enough, Joe Di saw even more insects—large and small, each with a bizarre shape. Some were so grotesque they could make one’s skin crawl. Anyone with a fear of crowds or clusters would find it impossible to adapt here.
In that instant, Joe Di understood exactly where he was. If he was right, this was the Swarmlands. Back when he first ascended to the Dao Realm, he had guarded the Wormhole Gate for a time. Not only that, he had ventured into the Wormhole itself, and the scent he smelled now was exactly the same as those insects inside.
The Swarmlands stretched as far as the eye could see. Within Joe Di’s spiritual sense, he even spotted some rare artifact materials, but seeing the dense swarms of insects crawling over them, he quickly lost all interest in collecting anything.
Things were different now. Joe Di possessed all kinds of high-grade artifact materials. From the rings of Fang Yuan and the Kunpeng clan cultivator, he had gained not only a trove of divine herbs but also countless precious materials for artifact refinement.
Though the artifact materials in the Swarmlands were rare, they no longer held any interest for Joe Di.
As for how to leave the Swarmlands and return to the Dao Realm, Joe Di wasn’t worried. He knew the insects of the Swarmlands constantly sought passage to the Dao Realm, and that passage was the Wormhole Gate—the channel connecting the two realms.
Carefully concealing his presence, Joe Di began searching for the Wormhole Gate within the Swarmlands.
He dared not reveal himself. Even though he could now contend with Unity Realm experts, if he were exposed, he would be instantly engulfed by the endless tide of insects in the Swarmlands.
Just because he could move freely here didn’t mean he was safe. If the insects detected his presence, their sheer numbers would make escape impossible. No matter where he went, swarms would converge on him from all directions.
Finding the Wormhole Gate in the Swarmlands wasn’t difficult. After observing for three months, Joe Di discerned a pattern.
Each mid-month, swarms of insects would surge in a single direction. Joe Di secretly followed them, and after half a month of travel, he witnessed a scene that left him stunned.
A colossal vortex funnel appeared before him, with endless insects pouring into its depths. Though Joe Di didn’t know why the insects rushed there, he could guess that the Wormhole Gate lay beneath the funnel.
After observing for just half an incense stick’s time, Joe Di didn’t hesitate—he followed the swarm and slipped into the vortex funnel.
Inside the vortex funnel, all manner of insects swarmed about. As soon as Joe Di—a lone human—entered, he immediately drew their attention, and countless insects surged toward him. Even those not yet in the vortex funnel rushed in after his arrival.
Joe Di knew that fighting here would be pointless—even if he battled for a hundred years, the insects would only multiply. His only option now was to dash straight for the Wormhole Gate.
The vortex funnel wasn’t long; in just half a quarter of an hour, Joe Di set foot on solid ground. Beneath him stretched a plaza nearly ten thousand feet across, teeming with insects of every kind. At the plaza’s edge was a pitch-black entrance, where swarms of insects gathered, waiting for the right moment to rush inside.
Without waiting for the endless tide of insects to catch up, Joe Di dove straight into the pitch-black entrance. The insects that had been waiting nearby surged in after him.
Even those insects that hadn’t intended to enter were drawn in by Joe Di’s presence, flooding into the entrance after him.
[Irrelevant author’s note skipped per guidelines.]