Chapter 1049: Secret of the Cloudy Sky

The stretch of emptiness was boundless and stretched for as far as the eye could see. When would they reach the end?

The most annoying part wasn’t that there were no beasts, nor was it the abominable nature of the environment. The most frustrating part was that there was absolutely nothing in their surroundings. It was completely empty, and they could do nothing at all.

“This… Big Boss An Lin, this place feels a little bit off.” Lan Xiaoni—who was following behind An Lin—couldn’t help but make a remark.

An Lin rolled his eyes. “Isn’t that blatantly obvious?”

“But… I just want to say something, even if it’s nonsense. The emptiness is so scary…” Lan Xiaoni had a nervous expression as she glanced around at their surroundings. It looked as though she was afraid that something life-threatening would suddenly leap out from the emptiness.

An Lin: “…”

Sometimes, extreme silence could also be terrifying.

One would develop the fear of suddenly being attacked.

“Let’s continue forward,” An Lin said resolutely. “I’m sure that this place doesn’t stretch on forever.”

Lan Xiaoni nodded and continued following behind An Lin.

Whenever she felt nervous or afraid, she would glance at the white-clothed figure before her. This reliable male’s figure was able to alleviate her anxiousness somewhat.

So what if the enemy was strong? Big Boss An Lin would be able to pummel them with a single strike of his fist!

The two of them continued flying through the boundless sea of clouds.

One hour, two hours…

Twelve hours, one day…

There was nothing, still absolutely nothing!

An Lin silently stopped his brick kinesis flight. “This is impossible,” he said solemnly. “How can a ball realm be so big?”

Lan Xiaoni scratched her head. “Well, the unique property of the realms of each ball does differ after all…”

“With the amount of distance we’ve flown these past few days, we would’ve been able to fly around Earth a few times already! Even if we line up all the Xiangpiaopiao[1] that people consume, it still won’t be as long as the distance that we’ve flown! This Small World can’t be that large!”

Lan Xiaoni looked at An Lin with a dumbfounded expression. “Say what?”

An Lin: “…”

Oh, right… I forgot that this mermaid doesn’t know about Earth-related matters.

Lan Xiaoni’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Say, do you think this place is like the place that we first entered? Maybe we need to activate something to cause some changes to occur in this realm…”

An Lin fell deep into thought. “Unlimited Blade Works[2]?”

Lan Xiaoni was dumbfounded. “Say what?”

An Lin: “…

“That place was very similar to here. It was also a boundless stretch of land. I could only exit that realm after I activated the Sword Burial Necklace and absorbed all the dead swords.”

An Lin paused for a moment before continuing, “In fact, the number of dead swords there was nowhere near as much as it looked. We’ve been flying for ages, and it’s possible that we’ve been flying over the same stretch of the sky over and over again.”

Lan Xiaoni was astonished. “So, you’re saying that we’re going around in circles?”

An Lin pursed his lips. “Yeah, something like that…”

He glanced at the fluffy white clouds and said, “This place is most likely a trap like that. Perhaps we’ve been flying over the same stretch of the sky this entire time!”

An Lin and Lan Xiaoni both fell silent.

If this was really the case, then what could they do?

Before, An Lin had the Sword Burial Necklace. Now, however, he had nothing at all. In other words, they were still lost…

“Sigh… Perhaps we’ll be able to discover something if we fully understand all the matter and void in this realm. However, that’s impossible…” Lan Xiaoni murmured softly as she sat down on her gigantic flying shell.

Fully understand all the matter and void in this realm?

An Lin was momentarily dazed upon hearing this. Then, his eyes gradually lit up.

“Heh, who said that’s impossible?” An Lin grinned.

Lan Xiaoni turned her beautiful eyes toward An Lin. “It can’t be, right?” she yelped in astonishment. “Could it be… that you can also achieve such a task?”

Countless stars and galaxies suddenly flashed across An Lin’s eyes. Immediately afterward, his eyes became clear, reflecting the entire heaven and earth.

Divine Simulation Technique!

A colorless fluctuation instantly rippled out hundreds of kilometers.

Regardless of whether it was the shapes of the white clouds, the currents of the airstreams, or the flow paths of the vital energy, all the information about this realm started funneling into An Lin’s mind.

Climate, space, matter…

Everything about this place was clear before An Lin’s eyes!

“I’ve got it…”

An Lin’s eyes gradually returned to normal. However, his face had become especially pale.

“Big Boss An Lin, are you alright?” Lan Xiaoni asked anxiously. She was given a fright by An Lin’s suddenly weakened aura.

“I’m fine.” An Lin retrieved a high-rank spirit pill from his storage ring and gulped it down.

The Divine Simulation Technique was an extremely exhausting technique to use, and he could only use it once per month. Otherwise, it would cause great damage to his body and even eat away at his life force.

An Lin only used the technique once, yet he felt as if all of his energy had been drained.

Anyhow… the result was a good one.

“I found the flaw of this Small World.” An Lin grinned.

“Are you really alright?” Lan Xiaoni was more worried about An Lin’s state.

An Lin nodded. “Yeah, I’m really alright. Follow me.”

He steered his brick toward some direction.

Lan Xiaoni was feeling a bit anxious as she followed behind on her gigantic shell.

After a short while, An Lin stopped at some location.

Lan Xiaoni looked around, yet she didn’t discover anything peculiar about the place.

An Lin silently drew his Evil-Slaying Sword. “To tell you the truth, both of us were wrong. Why do we keep flying above the clouds?”

Lan Xiaoni wasn’t stupid. Her expression instantly changed upon hearing this. Then, she turned her gaze toward the fluffy white clouds.

“That’s right, the path is below these clouds. It’s right underneath the clouds in this location!”

An Lin slashed his sword at the clouds below them.

A pitch-black sword projection ripped apart the white clouds and tore open a fissure, which measured tens of thousands of feet in length!

There was a white, helix-shaped spatial passageway below the layers of clouds.

“My God! How did you discover this aura-less spatial passageway?” Lan Xiaoni looked at An Lin reverently.

“You won’t understand even if I tell you. Let’s go down.” An Lin couldn’t be bothered explaining.

Lan Xiaoni: “…”

If it weren’t for the fact that she was weaker than An Lin, she would definitely charge over and give him a good pummeling.

An Lin wore a serious expression as he flew toward the spatial passageway.

The difficulty of this ball of light had already far exceeded his expectations.

If it weren’t for his Divine Simulation Technique, how long would they have been trapped above the cloud layers? This trial was completely impassable for ordinary cultivators of the Soul Formation Stage.

It felt like the difficulty increased with every successive light ball realm that they entered. This had nothing to do with the order in which they picked the light balls. It appeared as though the level of difficulties could be automatically adjusted.

They passed through the spatial passageway.

An Lin and Lan Xiaoni arrived in a different realm.

As before, this was a boundless stretch of a cloudy sky.

The only difference was that there was a real yet illusory appearing sun in this realm. It was located above the horizon where the blue sky and cloud layers met, and it dyed the clouds a fiery red color.

“This place is…”

An Lin was slightly dazed. Then, a feeling of immense danger suddenly gripped at his heart.

Two heaven-piercing swords suddenly appeared in the nearby void. It felt as though the terrifying sword intent that they exuded could even crush the heavens.

A being, which was shrouded in black mist, appeared in the void. Only its two crimson eyes were visible, and it spoke with an extremely hoarse voice. “Do you prefer life, or do you prefer death?”

[1] Presumably referring to a Chinese milk tea brand.

[2] Presumably a reference to Fate Stay Night.