Demolishment is nothing special. However, under normal circumstances, there would be news of it beforehand. Most importantly, Capital City was already quite large and had plenty of undeveloped lands around it. The sudden construction of a new district seemed rather unreasonable.

As it turned out, Capital New District was not a necessity. The entire district appeared abandoned with hardly any news coming from it. After the demolishment, its residents were pitifully few and seemed to be isolated. With that, it turned into an urban legend.

Combined with what he knew, it was not a difficult guess.

"Indeed, it's in the Capital New District." Qin Baichuan dejectedly. "In order to stabilize the Void Realm over there, we've suffered great losses."

"Void Realm. Is that what we're naming that otherworld? Apart from heavy casualties, what else does it give us?"

"This you'll have to ask Old Lin. He knows more about it." Qin Baichuan directed the conversation to Lin Tianxiong. Ye Lingchen shifted his attention there as well.

Lin Tianxiong had a pensive look in his eyes. "It's been about a decade since I've gone to the Void Realm."

Ye Lingchen was shocked. He did not expect Lin Tianxiong to have entered the Void Realm. After that, he went into deep thoughts. When he first met Lin Tianxiong, he was seriously injured and it was Ye Lingchen that healed him.

After a moment's pause—

"Well, there's really no point hiding this from you. Based on your strength and talent, you're definitely qualified to enter the Void Realm." Lin Tianxiong calmed his emotions, then laughed, "From the various signs, the Void Realm should be the Celestial Realm of the transcended recorded in legends."

'OMFG!'

Ye Lingchen did not expect Old Man Lin to say something like that after brooding for such a long time.

"Celestial Realm? The place where one becomes an immortal by tearing through space?"

"That's very possible." Lin Tianxiong nodded in agreement. "First of all, Hell's Gate matches the concept of tearing through space. Most importantly, the Void Realm and the legendary Celestial Realm have very similar traits!"

Ye Lingchen needed to organize his thoughts. According to the legends, tearing through space required one's cultivation to reach a frightening level before one could break through the barrier between space and ascend to the Celestial Realm. If that was the case, why did the spatial barrier open up on its own?

Could it really be the Celestial Realm?

"What are the special traits of the Void Realm?" Ye Lingchen's heart was racing.

"Abundance of spiritual energy!" Lin Tianxiong's eyes were emotional. "It's so abundant that when I first entered the Void Realm...no, I didn't even enter the Void Realm. I was just standing guard outside of Hell's Gate. Back then, the spiritual energy that permeated from the Void Realm was enough to make one tipsy with just one breath. After staying there for some time, my entire body felt like it was transformed. I achieved the Inner Force stage from that."

Ye Lingchen breathed in deeply, subconsciously licking his lips. If the spiritual energy leaking from Hell's Gate was already that amazing, then just how terrifyingly dense would it be in the Void Realm? He could not help but take a look at his own island. 'Damn it, this island is probably incomparable to the Void Realm.'

If he were to cultivate in the Void Realm, that would be awesome.

His eyes brightened up. At the moment, his cultivation progress had slowed down significantly. If not for using supplementary elixirs, the Void Realm would be his only viable option.

However, Lin Tianxiong then added, "Within the Void Realm are many dangers. Ever since Hell's Gate opened up, those unknown lifeforms would pour out like locust swarms. Regular people can't stand up against them and could only guard the entrance to Hell's Gate with firearms, making up for it with firepower and countless lives!"

Perhaps triggered by his past trauma, Lin Tianxiong's eyes turned red as he said with a hoarse voice, "Batch by batch, countless people died."

The atmosphere suddenly turned somber. Ye Lingchen then asked, "What's the result? Can we enter?"

"Impossible."

Lin Tianxiong shook his head. "Outside, we can still use firearms to kill the enemies. Upon entering the Void Realm, firearms would cease to function. Under those circumstances, humans are just helpless lambs in a slaughterhouse. We've tried to enter the portal, but the cost was just too great!"

"Humans are too weak, to the point that we can only guard at the entrance with great difficulty. If the opponents were any stronger, we would have to resort to heavy armaments like an atomic bomb and sacrifice an entire region to forcefully shut the Hell's Gate."

"Old Lin, don't be so pessimistic. Since the appearance of the Void Realm, a lot of people have improved quickly in martial arts. After all these years, we have nurtured quite a number of experts. Perhaps we will be able to make some progress there," Qin Baichuan interjected.

Ye Lingchen nodded as he finally understood the reason martial arts training was becoming easier. It was most likely related to the Void Realm. Its existence triggered spiritual revitalization, making martial arts training much easier. If it was as Lin Tianxiong claimed to have achieved Inner Force by training outside the Void Realm, surely there would be geniuses that managed to make good progress in their training, giving rise to a number of Inner Force and Innate Stage martial artists!

"That's true. I've only stood guard outside the Void Realm for a year and managed to reach the Inner Force Stage. It's been over a dozen years now. There should be quite a number of powerful martial artists now." Lin Tianxiong nodded.

"Chief Lin, Chief Qin, don't you know how many experts there are?" Ye Lingchen asked.

He was thinking even further. The Void Realm in Capital New District had only been around for about a dozen years. However, the Void Realm on Buff Island was already there for over a hundred years. Before Buff Island, there were likely other Void Realms as well. If humans had used the spiritual energy from the Void Realm to train in martial arts, then what level would they reach after so many years?

'Damn it, even if one doesn't become an immortal, he would still be the elite among elites, most likely stronger than me.'

"Of course there are experts. However, they are considered the strongest forces of our country. It's classified and we have no authorization to get in contact with them." Lin Tianxiong seemed a little dejected. Back then, he was lucky to be chosen as a guard for Hell's Gate. If not for his damaged foundation, he would be among the top experts if he survived for all those years.

Thinking of that, he could not resist from grunting, "I'll eventually have to settle my score with Earth's Gate!"

"Old Lin, did Earth's Gate take part back then?" Ye Lingchen asked. 

Lin Tianxiong nodded. "The appearance of the Void Realm signified great danger, but at the same time provided fortuitous encounters. If one manages to secure it, then the benefits are limitless! Just like the Hell's Gate that appeared on Yagi Island, that was just bad luck for the Sun Nation. On the other hand, our Capital New District is in a different situation. Although it's hard, it's still defensible."

"Don't think that the Void Realm is just rich in spiritual energy. Places like this are really not much different from the Celestial Realm. Just about any fruit within it can be considered as a spiritual fruit. It's not hard for a person to achieve Inner Force by just ingesting one such fruit. Qin Baichuan and the others achieved their Inner Force through this. Some had even speculated the existence of celestial fruits that may revive the dead, or some fruits that could turn one into an immortal."

'Hot damn!'

Ye Lingchen's eyes immediately burned with passion. 'If I transplanted those fruits to my Miracle Island, then it'll turn into a celestial island!'

"Such a great opportunity naturally attracted the Earth's Gate's attention. They wanted to sneak in and steal from us. They were even thinking of using some underhanded tactics to have this Hell's Gate destroyed!"

From the perspective of those in power, as long as the Void Realm they faced was not too strong, then the benefits would definitely outweigh the drawbacks. Since they could not have it, then they would not sit by and watch other countries benefit from it!

"After that, a fight broke out. In the fight, I was ambushed and suffered injuries, leading to my retirement. Otherwise, I wouldn't have to be on the verge of dying for the past ten years," Lin Tianxiong lamented.

Meanwhile, Ye Lingchen was giving Lin Tianxiong a weird stare.

This old man was utterly shameless. When they first met, he claimed to be the number one expert in China that fought the enemy for three whole days and nights. At the moment, it sounded more like a melee. He was definitely filled with empty bluster. That was just too shameless.

Even the 10 years promise was most likely not a personal promise with him. It was most likely the country's might that traumatized the Earth's Gate.