At this moment, Evan Chu felt like crying but had no tears. In this pitch-black spatial black hole, trying to sense those stones flying by at breakneck speed was enough to make his head spin—and now, those stones were getting bigger and bigger.
He wasn’t just sensing a few meters around him—he had to sense hundreds of meters to pull off teleportation. Teleporting was already fast, but these stones were even faster. If he collided with one, even if he survived, the pain would be unbearable.
No matter how hard it was, Evan had to keep sensing. Right now, his eyes were basically useless—he could only rely on his ears. Whenever a stone flew by, the sound of the astral wind was extra loud. Evan had figured this out after long observation.
Gradually, Evan pushed aside his complicated feelings and calmed down. Instead of focusing on the energy light points inside the spatial black hole, he started paying attention to those stones speeding by.
Soon, his mind started reacting. He pictured each stone as a black dot and slowly extended his spiritual sense dozens of meters to sense them.
Gradually, more and more black dots appeared in his mind, all moving around and disappearing, then reappearing. Evan started to figure out a pattern—if he could expand his spiritual sense even further, he’d be able to teleport forward.
How far he could extend his spiritual sense depended on his soul power. Right now, Evan could stretch his sense a hundred meters in the spatial black hole—that was his limit, and it left his head feeling foggy.
This kind of soul power overload made Evan feel like he just couldn’t take it anymore. Slowly, he had to shrink his sensing range down to eighty meters.
“Evan, boosting your soul power isn’t something you can do overnight. You’ll have to keep grinding in this spatial black hole to level up.”
Time here moves super slowly. If a day passes outside, it’s like a whole month in here. Once you’ve spent a month in the spatial black hole, you’ll notice things start to change.
Just focus on building up your soul power. Once you can sense a full five hundred meters, you’ll be able to teleport out of here.
Evan Chu sank into despair again. One month in here was just a single day outside. Sure, that was a good thing for him—but expanding his spiritual sense to five hundred meters? That’d probably take three to five years, minimum.
Right now, Evan had no other choice but to keep sensing, over and over. After tens of thousands of attempts, his spiritual sense could finally reach two hundred meters—and he wasn’t getting hit by those crazy-fast stones anymore.
He was making obvious progress, but Evan just couldn’t feel happy about it. Five hundred meters was still a long way off, and by now, he was sick of this endless cycle of sensing.
“Giving up means failing. You think it’s easy to be strong? Without grinding through endless suffering and life-or-death trials, you’ll never make it. Stick with it, Evan—you’ve only spent three days in the real world so far. There’s still plenty of time.” The Sword Spirit chimed in.
Evan was shocked when he heard that—three days in the real world was three months in here! He’d spent three months nonstop just sensing, and he wasn’t even sure how he’d managed to hold out this long.
“Don’t forget your responsibilities. Your mother is still suffering in the Dragon Shrine—this is how you act as her son?” The Sword Spirit started guilt-tripping him about his duty.
Just thinking about his mother suffering made Evan’s heart ache. He had way too many burdens—he had to get out of here, fast. So he threw himself back into the painful grind of sensing.
When he finally opened his eyes again, half a month had passed outside. For him, it was more than a year. But at last, Evan had finished the task Luna gave him.
His spiritual sense was now insanely strong—he could see everything within five hundred meters as clear as day in his mind. He’d mapped out the speed and trajectory of every stone perfectly.
Right now, Evan Chu could practically see every stone as if it were right in front of him. With a single thought, he activated teleportation—his whole body vanished from where he stood and reappeared five hundred meters away.
As he kept moving forward, the stones got thicker and the astral wind grew fiercer. Evan felt like the wind was so intense, he had to use Earthshift just to hold it off.
He had no idea how long he’d been advancing, but soon the stones started thinning out. Suddenly, a powerful sense of majesty appeared before him. At this point, teleportation was getting tough—he could only jump three hundred meters at a time instead of five hundred.
“Evan, this should be where the Spatial Spirit Vein is. The energy here is off the charts, so be careful. This is the spot where you’ll break through to the fifth layer of your Starforge Body. Get ready to ‘enjoy’ some soul-crushing pain!” the Sword Spirit said.
“Enjoy it, my ass! Wait till I restore your body—then I’ll show you what real enjoyment is. If I don’t wear you out for three days straight, I’m not Evan Chu.” Evan grumbled to himself.
“What was that? Say it again if you’ve got the guts!” snapped the Sword Spirit. Instantly, Evan felt a stabbing pain in his mind—he knew Luna was messing with him, so he quickly begged for mercy: “I didn’t say anything! Please, don’t torture me more. Isn’t the pain coming up enough?”
“Smart move. Try it again and see what happens,” the Sword Spirit warned.
The pain faded, and Evan started inching forward again. Now, his teleportation distance barely hit a hundred meters at a time. The farther he went, the harder it got—the astral wind was so brutal it could tear his skin open.
But that kind of damage wasn’t enough. If Evan wanted to break through to the fifth layer of his Starforge Body, he needed an even harsher, more brutal environment. Only by surviving a life-or-death trial could he level up.
Gritting his teeth, Evan kept pushing forward. Suddenly, a glowing object appeared ahead—a faint white light, but he could see it clearly.
“What is that thing? Why’s it glowing?” Evan wondered.
Driven by curiosity, he kept inching closer. Now, even expanding his spiritual sense a hundred meters was a struggle. Evan really wanted to know what that glowing thing was, but he couldn’t figure it out, and the suspense was killing him.
He thought about asking Luna, but after her last prank, he decided to keep quiet and just inch toward the glowing object.
After moving a few hundred meters, Evan found himself forced to stop. By now, he looked even more primitive than a caveman—his clothes were long gone, and his body was covered in wounds, some so deep you could see his pale-golden bones.
Evan knew that if he went any farther, he might really die here. So he hurriedly pulled out a green solid from his storage ring and started absorbing it—time to break through to the fifth layer of his Starforge Body…
PS: What’s that glowing thing? Care to guess? Either way, it’s something game-breaking—if you’ve been paying attention, you know it’s been foreshadowed!