Chu Feng passed through the luminous vortex.
But he did not return to the Ascension Stairway that connected the Hundred Refinements Mortal Realm to the Upper Realm of the Great Thousand.
Instead, Chu Feng found himself inside a massive mountain.
This mountain appeared to have nothing special about it whatsoever — even the trees were utterly ordinary. The tallest among them stood at barely over a dozen meters.
The mountain could be called supremely mundane.
So ordinary that it reminded Chu Feng of the back mountain of the Chu Family on the Nine Provinces Continent from his youth.
Though every flower, blade of grass, and tree within this mountain was perfectly ordinary, Chu Feng could sense a barrier's power sealing off this area.
The oppressive pressure of that barrier told Chu Feng that cultivators had surely left their marks here.
"What's going on? Did I travel from one world into another?"
Chu Feng was quite astonished. As a Snake Mark–level Celestial Realm Spirit World Master, his perceptive abilities were formidable.
Generally speaking, even if a space crafted by a Spirit World Master resembled the real world to a startling degree, Chu Feng would still be able to tell the difference.
Yet whether it was the wasteland from before or this mountain now, Chu Feng had found no flaws whatsoever. Both places… seemed to be real worlds.
"It's changed again."
Chu Feng turned to look behind him, and his gaze shifted once more. The luminous vortex was still there, but it had already lost its pulling force.
Chu Feng tried and discovered that there was simply no way back through the vortex. He could only remain in this world.
But Chu Feng did not leave immediately. Instead, he carefully set up a concealment barrier and hid the luminous vortex from view.
Although the vortex was currently in a closed state, he had no idea when it might switch back to an open state.
To err on the side of caution, it was better to conceal this place.
Even if Chu Feng couldn't prevent the creatures from that wasteland from crossing over once the vortex opened, he could at least stop the people of this world from entering the wasteland.
After concealing the luminous vortex, Chu Feng prepared to leave the mountain and properly explore what exactly this place was.
"Chu Feng, be careful." The Queen's voice rang out, her tone brimming with worry.
Though this mountain appeared perfectly ordinary, after what had happened on the wasteland earlier, the Queen couldn't bring herself to feel at ease.
"Let me get a look first."
The mountain was enormous. Even with Chu Feng's cultivation, he couldn't see through it at a glance, so he had to activate his Heavenly Eyes.
But even with the Heavenly Eyes, Chu Feng couldn't see the mountain's end. It was even larger than he had anticipated.
*Whoosh—* Suddenly, Chu Feng launched himself upward, intending to take to the air.
But he had barely risen a hundred meters before he dropped back down to the ground.
"Chu Feng, what's wrong?" The Queen was puzzled by his actions, yet she also sensed something was amiss.
"Egg, this place is far more complicated than I thought." Chu Feng's brows furrowed tightly.
"What exactly is going on? Have you discovered something?" The Queen grew even more worried.
"There's a restrictive force here. I can't fly at all — my strength has even been diminished."
"But this restrictive force… I didn't notice it at all before. It only became apparent after I tried to use my martial power," Chu Feng said.
"So this place is the same as that wasteland?" the Queen asked.
"Hard to say. Something is definitely off about this place, but it's different from the wasteland as well."
"Never mind. I'll explore a bit and we'll see."
Chu Feng kept his grip on the Divine Dragon Blood Scales at all times. He even drew out the Evil God Sword.
After what he had experienced on the wasteland, Chu Feng didn't dare let his guard down for even a moment. He had no intention of carelessly losing his life.