Chapter 533: Chapter 533
Han Yu lifted his gaze.
High above the plateau hung a moon unlike any he had ever seen.
It was enormous, close enough that its light cast moving ripples across the landscape. Yet it was not whole. A great wound split it from one edge to the other, like a celestial scar that bled faint red light into the world below.
A deep, instinctive dread filled him.
He knew where he was now.
The Slaughtered Moon Divine Blood Sect's true stronghold.
Their sacred homeland.
The heart of the nightmare itself.
The first thing Han Yu noticed after the initial shock faded was the coldness in the air. It was not the type that bit into the skin, but the kind that seemed to cling to the soul itself. The plateau stretched endlessly beneath his feet, black and glossy as if it had been carved from obsidian.
A faint red haze hung above the ground, shimmering softly under the light of the blood-streaked moon that loomed in the sky.
Han Yu instinctively turned his head to take in his surroundings.
Massive mountains encircled the area like slumbering beasts, their outlines shrouded in mist. From their peaks, long waterfalls of glowing crimson liquid fell endlessly, disappearing into the shadowy valleys below. The place radiated an ancient power, as if countless sacrifices had soaked the soil until it had turned black and hungry.
But before he could properly take it all in, a sharp voice called out from behind him.
"Move along! What are you gawking at, Outer Court worm?"
Han Yu froze for half a second.
The voice carried the arrogance of authority, one of someone higher in rank. He forced his body to remain still, then inclined his head slightly, concealing his irritation behind a mask of obedience. Without saying a word, he stepped aside, letting the man pass. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ novelꞁire.net
The speaker gave him a cold look before walking ahead, his black and red robes shimmering faintly with an design that marked him as an Inner Court disciple. Han Yu's eyes followed him briefly, noting the man's steady gait and the faint metallic scent that lingered where he passed.
He exhaled softly and resumed walking.
More disciples were arriving through the same portal Han Yu had stepped from. One after another, they appeared on the black plateau, their expressions ranging from awe to fatigue. The air buzzed faintly as the teleportation array continued to activate, each pulse of energy accompanied by a deep thrum that vibrated in the chest.
It was only after walking a few paces farther that Han Yu finally saw it, the heart of the platform itself.
Before him sprawled the largest teleportation array he had ever witnessed. It was carved directly into the plateau's surface, a vast circular pattern made of intertwined lines of silver and blood-red inscriptions. The runes pulsed rhythmically, each beat releasing waves of spiritual pressure that made the surrounding air shimmer.
Han Yu's breath caught.
The array stretched for nearly a full kilometer, easily large enough to contain an entire sect assembly. Tens of black stone pillars surrounded its perimeter, each one as tall as a small pagoda. Floating above the tops of these pillars were blood-red crystalline spheres that emitted a steady glow, their surfaces alive with swirling motes of light.
Even from a distance, Han Yu could feel the energy radiating from them. It was suffocatingly heavy, pressing against his meridians and making his Qi sluggish.
"Moon Blood Crystals."
He recognized them immediately, though these were unlike the smaller pieces he had seen before. These were colossal, each nearly as large as a human torso. The crystals vibrated with refined power, clearly modified through a process far more advanced than the crude refinement methods known to most sects.
Han Yu's eyes lingered on them.
If he could refine even one fragment of those crystals, his cultivation might advance by an entire realm. The sheer density of spiritual energy within them was monstrous. Yet here they were, being used only to power a single teleportation array large enough to transport ten thousand people at once.
He thought of his own sect, the Twin Leaf Peak Sect and tried to imagine them creating something of this magnitude. Even with all their resources, it was doubtful they could sustain such a feat.
The fortune required to operate an array of this size was immense, almost absurd.
As he studied it further, a faint flicker caught the edge of his vision. Far across the plateau, beyond the array's outer ring, a thin red light shimmered faintly in the distance.
Han Yu narrowed his eyes.
At first, he thought it was another array, but the more he stared, the more familiar it appeared. The light wavered, shifting slightly as though it were being projected from far away. Then he saw the outline, the rising pillar of crimson energy that cut through the horizon like a vertical wound.
"The Beacon?" Recognition struck him.
The same red beacon he and the others had entered through earlier.
'But how can I still see it from here?' Confusion gnawed at him.
He took a step closer, trying to gauge the distance, then realization dawned upon him with chilling clarity.
If he could still see the beacon from this side, it meant that the beacon and by extension, the inner realm itself was now part of this world. It had not simply teleported them from one location to another within the hidden domain.
'The entire inner realm has been moved!' Han Yu's thoughts raced.
That meant the Slaughtered Moon Divine Blood Sect had managed to transport the hidden realm itself out of the lesser void and anchor it within the real world. The feat was unthinkable. Such a task would require an unimaginable amount of power, far beyond the capacity of a few cultivators, no matter how skilled they were.
He felt his heart sink as another possibility formed in his mind.
If this was the case, then the sect's domain was not just hidden within their world anymore, it might be located somewhere else entirely.