The surrounding space rippled violently like a water surface!
In an instant, the bright skylight pouring from overhead vanished. Salian only felt a wave of weightlessness wash over him. When he steadied himself again, he had already fallen alone into a realm of pure darkness.
Not entirely alone, though—the Puchi was still on his head.
Salian reacted extremely quickly, casting Illumination and his spatial detection sphere almost the moment he landed.
A soft glow dispelled the darkness in a small area around him. The sphere quickly scanned the surroundings, but the feedback information showed nothing at all.
His expression became extremely grim, though not merely because he was trapped in this unknown space.
Rather, in that instant of spatial transition, he had caught an extremely subtle yet incredibly pure evil magical pulse, and its source... came from the direction where his teacher Iros had been standing!
"Is it... the Divine Tree's doing?"
Salian desperately hoped this was just an accident, not something his teacher had done intentionally...
"Where even is this place?"
Regardless, the urgent priority was finding a way to escape this bizarre dark prison.
The scene of spatial transformation felt somewhat familiar to Lin Jun—similar to his own elevator, just arriving at a different location.
The culprit was obvious: Iros!
He'd used some kind of abyss magic Lin Jun couldn't understand in that final moment.
But Lin Jun didn't understand—how had Iros done it?
This should be authority control exclusive to administrators, and the dormant Divine Tree obviously couldn't have done this!
Moreover, what exactly was this elf chief archmage trying to do?
This was an extremely vast and empty space. Salian explored within it for a long time, yet the surroundings remained only emptiness and silence, as if everything had been swallowed by endless darkness.
In the end, it was only under the guidance of the Puchi on his head that he finally discovered something unusual.
This made Salian feel even worse.
All along the way, his proudly self-created spatial detection magic seemed truly inferior to this round little Puchi.
He naturally understood that their detection mechanisms were completely different, so their functions naturally had different strengths. But this embarrassing feeling of being face-tapped by the Puchi for reminders every time still made him feel like his pride, just like his head, was being repeatedly ground under the Puchi's butt.
Of course, Salian was a mature elf mage and wouldn't deliberately ignore the Puchi's hints because of personal emotions.
He suppressed the slight unwillingness in his heart, following the guidance forward, and finally discovered a massive black cube suspended in midair.
Made of some unknown material, its surface displayed an absolute smoothness, dark and lightless, just frozen there in midair, motionless, emanating an unnatural eeriness.
Lin Jun found it somewhat familiar but couldn't remember what it was for the moment.
Salian cautiously studied the cube for a long time, even casting his detection sphere again. However, in the sphere's feedback, the cube's position showed absolutely nothing, as if it were merely a nonexistent phantom.
With no other options, Salian could only risk extending a finger to attempt touching it.
However, the moment his fingertip touched that smooth surface, he let out a sharp, miserable scream. His whole body toppled backward as if struck by a heavy hammer, his hands desperately clutching his head as he rolled on the ground in agony, as if suffering some kind of torture.
Lin Jun, having controlled the Scout Puchi to jump clear in time, watched Salian's miserable state and finally found the source of that familiar feeling!
Wasn't this exactly what the "junk information" from the abyss looked like!
However, unlike the high-speed flowing information torrents he'd contacted before, the information in this cube seemed to have been forcibly fixed in place by some power.
Anyway, trying it would reveal the answer.
While Salian was still immersed in severe pain with no attention to spare, the Puchi extended a mycelial tendril and gently touched the surface of the black cube.
In an instant, a grand yet fragmented vision forcibly flooded into Lin Jun's consciousness:
Endless gray-white mist shrouded heaven and earth. As far as the eye could see, the land was decayed, completely lifeless.
In the distance, an ancient and ruined palace complex was slowly detaching from the ground under some incomprehensible force, rising into the sky, then silently collapsing and shattering, finally dissolving into nothingness, completely annihilated.
The vision's progression seemed slow, but Lin Jun could clearly perceive that the time span displayed within was probably extremely long.
With so much content, no wonder Salian was rolling in pain.
Lin Jun browsed through all the information in an instant, while Salian on the other side was still groaning in pain.
To be fair, Lin Jun felt he was already quite fortunate. Previously, those individuals who directly contacted the abyss's flowing information had their heads explode like watermelons all over the ground.
Thanks to the content in this information cube being solidified and finite, otherwise Salian's life would likely have been forfeit long ago.
After a long while, Salian finally struggled free from that terrifying impact with difficulty, collapsing on the ground, breathing weakly.
"What... what on earth is this?" He muttered unconsciously, trying to use words to dispel the shock and oppression in his heart.
However, an incredibly familiar voice came from the darkness, answering his question:
"That is the past scene of another continent beyond the sea, behind the mist. And also the future of the land beneath our feet."
Iros's figure stepped out from the darkness. He waved his hand lightly, and a clear "Clarity Spell" radiance fell into Salian's forehead, effectively alleviating the residual severe pain and chaos in his mind.
"Teacher... what exactly... is going on?" Salian asked with a trembling voice, propping himself up somewhat weakly.
Iros didn't answer directly. He only turned and walked slowly in a direction: "Follow."
Iros walked steadily ahead, Salian silently following close behind.
This scene seemingly differed not at all from countless past occasions of mentor and student traveling together, yet Salian's heart was full of struggle and helplessness.
His teacher's attitude had already made everything clear. He wanted to ask for clarity but didn't know where to start, much less dared to think about how things would develop after asking.
If his teacher truly wanted to harm him, it would be effortless.
The power gap between them was simply too vast.
Finally, Iros led Salian before another similar information cube, though this one was much smaller in volume.
Iros indicated with his eyes for Salian to step forward and touch it.
Salian took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the fear and doubt in his heart, and extended his finger again.
Unexpectedly, there was no severe headache from massive information flooding in this time. Within the cube was contained only one brief sentence:
"When the long night of all things arrives as scheduled, the Ark is both our final refuge and the beginning of a new world."
(End of Chapter)
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