Inside the void fissure.
The talisman Long Tutian had used was simply too fast. Lin Xiao had not even managed to see anything clearly before the ball of light enveloping him completely dissipated.
There was no doubt he had already been carried five thousand li into the fissure.
Fortunately, he had not encountered any restrictive formations along the way.
Nor did this space seem to possess any mysterious power that would randomly teleport entrants to different locations.
Otherwise, the force he had felt would not have been limited to just the talisman’s energy.
Yet when his vision finally cleared and he was instantly stunned by the scene before him.
Everything was a vast expanse of white. The flat ground was covered in white rubble. As far as the eye could see, only at the very edge of his vision, several hundred or even a thousand li away, could he faintly make out larger white rock formations.
The rubble beneath his feet looked as though it had only just been shattered; the fracture lines were still fresh.
“Could this have been caused by the ten colossal abominations?”
Lin Xiao turned in a circle. Apart from the direction he had come from, every other direction was nothing but rubble. The ground itself was perfectly flat.
In places not covered by loose stones, the surface consisted of slightly uneven stone slabs.
It appeared the entire ground was made of stone. There were no mountains, no hills, no plants, no trees.
In other words, there was absolutely nothing here to use as cover. A Martial Saint approaching from one or two thousand li away would spot him instantly.
Lin Xiao’s brows knitted tightly.
Leaving aside whatever dangers might lurk inside this space, Zhan Meng and Ji Lian would definitely pursue him for the sake of the floating heavenly palace.
Martial Saint speed was terrifying. Five thousand li would not take them long at all.
Otherwise, Long Tutian would never have risked sending him into the fissure and telling him to seek survival here.
The endless white rubble stretched in every direction. Even if he flew elsewhere, there was nowhere to hide. A Martial Saint sweeping the area would find him in no time.
His only hope now lay in the faint rock formations he could just about see ahead.
At this moment, Lin Xiao silently regretted losing the Void Heavenly Phoenix Wings.
If he still had them, he would not be this helpless; his ability to escape would have increased dramatically.
“Fine, I’ll gamble everything!”
Lin Xiao clenched his teeth. Circulating both vital energy and spiritual power, he flew forward at maximum speed.
Flying in a straight line was the easiest path to predict, but he had no alternative.
Fortunately, those distant rock formations were still faintly visible. At a distance of a thousand li, they were not too far.
If they had been several thousand li farther, the two Martial Saints would probably arrive before he could reach them, leaving him no time to hide.
After a short while, the rock formations in Lin Xiao’s vision finally grew clearer.
At the end of the rubble field stood layer upon layer of white rock walls, rising from the flat ground like a series of barriers.
They were not perfectly straight like man-made walls. Some layers were separated by one or two zhang, others by three or four zhang, or even dozens or hundreds of zhang. Some sections joined directly together.
The height of the walls varied too: some were a dozen zhang tall, some only a few zhang, and some merely a few cun.
But none of the tallest exceeded a dozen zhang.
Further ahead, more of the same wall-like white rock layers stood in irregular rows.
The entire place had no sun, no moon, no trace of life, only rock. It was a world paved entirely with stone.
For someone like Lin Xiao who cultivated petrification arts, seeing such an ocean of stone made him want to try absorbing some, to test the quality of the rock here.
If it was even slightly decent, the sheer quantity could greatly improve his Heaven-Sealing Stone Hand.
But the current situation allowed no time for such thoughts. He plunged straight into the rock-wall zone.
He needed to fly deeper, then change direction to evade the two Martial Saints. If he was too slow, he was finished.
Hiss!
The instant he crossed from the rubble field into the rock-wall area, Lin Xiao suddenly felt movement from the Heavenly Eye within his body. An inexplicable energy seemed to flood his entire frame, reaching every inch of his skin.
A faint sensation of warmth flowed through him.
“What is happening?”
Lin Xiao was puzzled. He continued flying forward while thinking.
The deeper he went, the stronger the warm current from the Heavenly Eye became. Yet by the time it reached his skin, it had weakened again, leaving only the same gentle warmth on the surface.
“Could there be some kind of power here, and the Heavenly Eye is resisting it?”
Full of doubt, Lin Xiao recalled that the Heavenly Eye had shown no reaction while he was among the rubble, only activating here. He could not help but speculate, “Before this area it was all rubble. Could the entire region from the entrance up to here originally have been these white rock walls, and the ten colossal abominations shattered everything on their way deeper because the mysterious power grows stronger the further one goes?”
Of course, this guess assumed the Heavenly Eye was instinctively protecting its host.
It was equally possible the Heavenly Eye had simply grown “greedy” again, or some other reason he did not yet understand.
As long as there was no immediate danger, that was the greatest blessing.
Lin Xiao continued flying forward at top speed.
After penetrating only a few dozen li into the rock-wall zone, he dropped low and veered diagonally to the left.
Continuing straight was too obvious. Martial Saint speed was simply too great. He had already covered more than a thousand li, but who knew how many thousands the two Martial Saints had already traversed.
If he kept going straight a little longer, they would probably arrive.
His only option now was to hide among the rock walls while putting more distance between them.
Thanks to the Heavenly Eye, his aura was completely concealed. The two Martial Saints could not track him by presence.
Perhaps these rock walls would allow him to evade their search.
Of course, if they possessed Long Tutian’s special detection methods or could track him by scent like Monk Budong, then he was doomed anyway.
But such abilities were rare.
Hiss! Hiss!
Yet barely had Lin Xiao turned and flown a short distance when two lightning-like blurred figures appeared far away on his left horizon, entering his sight.
“What?”
His heart lurched.
Those two figures were none other than Zhan Meng and Ji Lian.
He had not been flying for long at all. How had the two Martial Saints caught up already?
Six thousand li, crossed in such a short time?
He had known Martial Saints were fast, but not this fast!
Now the situation was dire. They had already appeared in his vision. A Martial Saint’s eyesight far exceeded his own; they must have spotted him long before he saw them.
With their speed so vastly superior, how could he possibly escape?
“Lin Xiao, hand over the floating heavenly palace!”
Even before they arrived, Ji Lian’s thunderous shout rolled across the distance.
Lin Xiao kept flying forward while pulling out the floating heavenly palace and hurling it high into the air behind him. “Take it!”
The fist-sized palace shot backward in a long arc.
His only hope now was that the two would fight over the palace and momentarily forget about him.
Otherwise, escape was impossible.
Sure enough, the moment they saw the palace, both men’s eyes flashed. Their speed exploded, and they instantly plunged into the rock-wall zone, racing toward the flying treasure.
Hiss! Hiss!
Yet the very instant they entered this rock-wall region, something strange things began to happen.
