"Chu Feng, this spatial rift isn't safe. The danger level is extremely high. Entering it could take you back to the Eastern Sea Region, but it could also kill you."
"However, I know you'll choose to enter it no matter what I say, so I won't try to dissuade you. But let me open the path through this rift." With those words, the Compass Immortal turned his body, preparing to dash into the spatial rift.
He intended to go first. If something truly went wrong, it would be his life that was lost. As for Chu Feng, he would at least still have a way back.
Whoosh—
But just as the Compass Immortal was about to move, a figure shot into the spatial rift ahead of him.
It was Chu Feng. Not only did Chu Feng plunge into the spatial rift, but to prevent the Compass Immortal from following, he used barrier techniques to seal the rift shut.
"Chu Feng, you stop this right now!!!"
Watching the spatial rift rapidly closing, the Compass Immortal screamed hysterically as he struggled to get closer.
But it was already too late. Chu Feng had clearly prepared in advance — the barrier technique sealed the rift in an instant. By the time the Compass Immortal reached it, the rift had vanished entirely. And with it, so had Chu Feng.
"You fool! Utterly, incomprehensibly foolish!"
"You're going to get yourself killed!!!"
At that moment, the Compass Immortal roared over and over, his emotions so turbulent that even the sky was affected by them.
Dark clouds churned and violent winds howled. In an instant, heaven and earth had plunged into darkness.
After all, spatial rifts were classified as either benign or malignant. A benign one was manageable — one could pass through safely. But a malignant one meant certain death upon entry.
What Chu Feng had just done was equivalent to cutting off his own retreat. If the rift was benign, that would be one thing. But if it was malignant, Chu Feng would never come back alive.
Hum—
However, at that very moment, the Compass Immortal suddenly noticed a faint glow emanating from behind him. Especially amid the surrounding darkness, that sliver of light was strikingly radiant.
Drawing closer, the Compass Immortal discovered that the glow appeared to be a formation. He formed a hand seal before daring to touch it.
Hum—
The moment he made contact, the light burst outward in a blinding display. And in that instant, a thread of information flowed into the Compass Immortal's mind.
"Senior Compass Immortal, this key can locate the Gate of Transformation and allow entry. Please, you must go. Only when you are safely inside the Gate of Transformation will I be at ease. As for me… I will return unharmed."
Upon receiving this message and looking back at the glow, the Compass Immortal saw that there was a key resting there — the very same key that the Tongtian Immortal had once given to Chu Feng, the one capable of finding and opening the Gate of Transformation.
"Chu Feng, you… sigh." Gripping the key, the Compass Immortal was so overcome with emotion that he could no longer speak.
So Chu Feng had planned everything from the very beginning. He had never intended for the Compass Immortal to accompany him into danger, because neither the formation on the key nor the barrier that sealed the spatial rift could have been conjured in a single moment — they had been prepared well in advance.
Though his heart was heavy with unease, the Compass Immortal did not wish to squander Chu Feng's good intentions. Clutching the key, he concealed himself within the void and began following its guidance to seek out the Gate of Transformation.
…………
As for Chu Feng, all around him in the distance lay utter darkness — yet he himself stood in the heart of a storm.
The lightning here was no ordinary lightning. It was black. Its crackling was piercing, its power boundless, as though it could cleave through anything.
The wind here was no ordinary wind. It was golden. Its howl tore through space itself, as though it could slice through anything.
As a fourth-grade Martial Emperor, Chu Feng now employed a variety of techniques, granting him a physical body even more resilient than that of an ordinary eighth-grade Martial Emperor.
Yet were he to be so much as grazed by that black lightning or that golden wind, his soul would be obliterated in an instant — reduced to dust and nothingness.
At that moment, Chu Feng could be certain: the spatial rift that Dantai Snow and the others had entered was absolutely nothing like the one he now found himself in.