Chapter 95: Chapter 95

The sky above Lotus Pavilion was... wrong.

A dull overcast hue blanketed the ruins below like a mourning shroud, and the very air pulsed with the aftertaste of calamity.

The once-sacred sect—famed for its graceful cultivation techniques and spiritual harmony—was now a graveyard of shattered bridges and crumbled stone pagodas overgrown with vines.

Tian Shen stepped cautiously beside Elder Su, boots crunching over broken ground.

The still ponds were filled with black algae. The wind carried no birdsong.

"So this is what’s left of the Lotus Pavilion."

Tian Shen muttered, surveying the devastation.

Elder Su nodded slowly, her sharp eyes scanning the surrounding pillars that jutted out of the earth like broken ribs.

"It was once among the Top ten powers."

"And now? Reduced to a cursed echo. The fall was sudden. Unnatural."

She paused, her voice trailing off as she knelt beside an altar stone. Her fingers traced the statues.

Tian Shen tilted his head.

"You think a cultivator caused this?"

Elder Su’s lips pressed thin.

"No. Something else. A phenomenon... or an artifact awakening. Something powerful enough to fracture the realm’s fabric itself."

But she stood up with her sleeves rippling like silk banners, the quiet fury in her aura enough to make Tian Shen shut up.

They arrived at the heart of the Lotus Pavilion—a massive open space where concentric rings of marble once surrounded a lake of enlightenment. Now, the lake was dry.

The center of the space held a crater.

Tian Shen approached the rim and squinted down. The edges glimmered faintly.

"Spatial disturbance. Someone opened a gate that never closed properly."

She reached into her sleeve and pulled out a small talisman. It flickered with unstable light.

"This is Spatial detection Talisman," she explained as she used it. "Used to stabilize teleportation formations."

The Talisman brightened up for a while, then cracks appeared in its surface.

"It’s cracked," Tian Shen said, leaning in.

"Not unless it was overwhelmed."

Tian Shen’s gut twisted. He took a deep breath, letting his Spirit Sense expand across the courtyard.

A pressure pushed back—like diving into cold water filled with hands that didn’t want to be touched.

He pulled back, grimacing.

"Yeah. That’s cursed, alright."

Then the ground trembled.

A low vibration rippled through the earth.

Elder Su immediately raised a barrier, pushing Tian Shen behind her as golden runes spiraled from her fingertips.

The crater in the center lit up—symbols appearing along its edges, each glowing one after the other.

One. Two. Three. Sixteen.

A formation long dormant was waking.

Tian Shen’s eyes widened.

"I know," Elder Su was almost speechless.

"Something else triggered it."

The runes pulsed once more—and then a column of violet light exploded upward from the crater, ripping the clouds above like a spear of fate.

Elder Su’s expression shifted from stern to concerned—and Tian Shen had seen enough to know that if she was worried, it was very bad.

But the light bent—reached—like it chose him.

And then the wind howled.

And the ground beneath Tian Shen’s feet split open.

Elder Su reached out with a flash of golden chains, trying to snare him.

But the violet light coiled tighter around him like silk threads spun by a mad spider. His body lifted off the ground, spinning as his form began to fade.

She called out, her hand mere inches from his boot.

"Don’t resist it! Let the flow guide you! If it’s a realm tunnel—anchor your identity!"

"WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEA—!"

Gone without even an echo.

Elder Su stood alone now, staring at the flickering violet space that closed behind him like a petal falling shut.

"Wait for me, Tian Shen."

Elsewhere, A place unknown.

Tian Shen landed hard.

His body slammed into soft grass, but the impact still knocked the wind out of him.

He coughed, rolling onto his back, gasping like a fish.

The sky overhead was a strange swirling tapestry.

"Where the hell am I...?"

His voice sounded... off. Childish.

The land around him was alien. Floating boulders drifted across the horizon, tethered by glowing vines.

The sun didn’t shine—it loomed, large and almost sentient, pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat.

He stood shakily, checking his limbs.

No injuries. Spirit intact. But his storage ring was flickering. Its contents wouldn’t open.

Then something moved.

A ripple in the trees ahead.

He turned—and saw a figure standing beneath a warped willow tree.

Or something shaped like one.

Draped in silken cloth, her hair flowing like moonlight. Eyes shimmering with twinkle.

Tian Shen instinctively took a step back, hand near his sword.

Her voice was a harmony of tones—young and old, soft and sharp.

"Just your average Joe," he replied, managing a smirk.

"A portal took me here."

She pointed behind him.

Twisted. Tall. Bound in chains.

With something inside it.

A pulsing white crystal.

"Its calling to you," she said.

Tian Shen approached the tree cautiously.

And the white crystal in its center—

His instincts screamed danger.

Something inside that crystal... wanted him.

He stood there, staring, silent.

Then, slowly, his fingers reached out.

Just before touching it, he whispered.

"...You better be worth the detour."

Tian Shen touched the crystal.

Not a sound. Not a ripple. Not even the satisfaction of glowing special effects to mark the start of a life-changing inheritance.

The moment his fingers brushed the pulsing white gem at the heart of the chained tree, it simply... dissipated.

Turned into glimmering specks of light that scattered into the air like dust motes fleeing from purpose.

He stared at his hand, turning it over.

Still five fingers. No runes. No pain. No surge of power.

The only change was the stillness. The land around him, once shimmering with alien rhythm, now lay muted. As if it had exhaled.

But something told him...

Suddenly, the wind shifted.

He turned—and in the distance, a circular portal formed in mid-air. Soft and clear like a ripple in a lake, yet rimmed with the same violet light from before.

Tian Shen approached it cautiously.

It didn’t hum or beckon. It just was—serene, confident, as if saying, "You’ve done what you were meant to. Now go."

"...Creepy but convenient," he muttered.

He exhaled slowly, then stepped through.

The sensation was like slipping through oil and ink.

He was standing once again in the heart of the ruined Lotus Pavilion.

The crater at his feet still smoldered faintly, but the violet column had disappeared. The altar stones were cracked, the lake remained dry.

Before he could even process the change in scenery, Elder Su’s voice cut through the air like a whip.

In the next moment, she was in front of him, grabbing his shoulders with surprising force. Her usually composed expression was a whirlwind of emotions—relief, concern and slight joy.

"Are you alright? Are you injured? Did you see anything?!"

She fired rapid questions like a spiritual cannon.

"Uhh..." Tian Shen blinked. "Hi?"

He flinched slightly.

"I’m fine. I think. I touched the crystal and..."

He looked down at his hand again.

"...Nothing happened."

Elder Su narrowed her eyes.

"Explain everything. Slowly. In order."

Tian Shen gave her a full rundown.

The strange landscape. The sentient sky. The woman under the willow tree. The chained tree with the white crystal. And finally, the moment it vanished on touch and he was sent back.

Elder Su listened in silence, arms crossed.

When he finished, she tilted her head slightly.

"I mean, I didn’t exactly have time to dissect the metaphysics of the realm."

"No trap? No inheritance? No visions?"

"Nope. Just... weirdness."

Elder Su exhaled sharply, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"That was not a normal realm jump."

"I’ve studied Minor Realms and Pocket Planes for centuries. There’s always something—temporal shifts, soul pressure, Qi compression—anything. But your Spirit remains unchanged and even your attire is unaffected."

She gestured at his robes.

Tian Shen patted his sleeves.

"Guess I make a handsome multiversal hunter."

Elder Su wasn’t amused.

"It’s dangerous to treat these events lightly."

"Hey, I didn’t ask the portal to yeet me into extra dimensions, okay?"

She sighed again, and this time, her voice was softer.

"...At least you returned."

And in that moment, the silence between them wasn’t just from awkwardness. It was heavy. Weighted.

A reminder of what could have happened.

They remained in the crater, Elder Su now reactivating the cracked talisman and scanning the residual energy.

"This realm... wherever you were, it left no trace here," she muttered. "The portal collapsed the moment you vanished. The laws tried to erase the incident."

"As if trying to hide what happened."

"That tree... the crystal... do you think it implanted something in me?"

"I can’t sense anything foreign inside you," Elder Su said. "But that doesn’t mean it’s not there."

Tian Shen looked down at his chest, half-expecting a glowing sigil to appear.

Just his steady heartbeat.