Mi Jinglun privately admitted that with his current abilities, there was no way he could open a gateway large enough to pull the
Outside the Returnless Stronghold, the Ninth Rank Ancestors hadn't abandoned those fortress passes because their Small Worlds couldn't bear the mass of a fortress — rather, they hadn't been able to open a gateway vast enough to contain one. Forcing such a gateway open would have caused severe damage to the Ancestors, and back then the human race was in dire straits. Every shred of an Ancestor's strength was precious beyond measure. So though those fortress passes were extraordinarily valuable, they'd had no choice but to leave them behind inside the Returnless Stronghold. Now, that loss had become the
However, while those passes had been abandoned back then, the core of each one had been extracted. The cores used to forge the
Mi Jinglun was now quite curious — how would
He wasn't the only one curious. Every Eighth Rank warrior in the
Under the gaze of the crowd,
Even for him, forcibly absorbing something so enormous carried great risk. If the gateway to his Small World opened too wide, his foundation would drain away rapidly.
Instead, he simply hovered above the
The center of those ripples was the
The blurring intensified as time passed, until eventually, even the Eighth Rank cultivators straining their vision to the utmost could no longer make out the Platform's true form. All they perceived was that the void beyond had layered itself into shifting, churning folds.
Among the crowd, warriors like Zhao Yebai — those who had inherited
This was a technique of the Dao of Space. Those who had never cultivated the Law of Space could hardly perceive what was truly happening.
"Rise!" On the
In that instant, the very space in which the
Mi Jinglun's eyes widened in sudden understanding, and he couldn't help but laugh.
Such a technique could indeed only be performed by a warrior who had cultivated the Dao of Space. No one else could hope to replicate it.
Mi Jinglun now had a vague idea of what
Sure enough, as the Law of Space continued to surge, the severed block of space began to tremble violently. With each tremor, it compressed — shrinking inward, folding upon itself.
Tremor after tremor, contraction after contraction — over the span of more than an hour, what appeared before everyone's eyes was a roughly table-sized, rectangular object. It resembled a pane of flawless glass, pristine and unblemished. And embedded within that pane of glass was a miniature
Such a pane could already be called a World Shard, though it was not one formed naturally. Rather,
He could refine entire worlds into Heaven and Earth Beads. Carving off a fragment and refining it into something like this was child's play by comparison.
Had he continued, he could have compressed the glass even further. But it was large enough as it was. He tossed the table-sized pane casually into his own Small World, then produced an
The
The crowd filed aboard. No special instructions from
Mi Jinglun returned the cupped-fist salute with a solemn expression. "May the road ahead be safe, and may you all return soon!"
"Depart!"
Mi Jinglun stared after the warship's direction, watching until the massive vessel vanished from sight. He remained silent for a long time.
With this departure, six thousand soldiers set forth. Who knew how many would return alive.
He looked back. The space from which the fragment had been carved was already filled with the chaotic currents of the void. It would probably take many years before it recovered.
Mi Jinglun then turned toward a certain direction and bowed deeply. "The matters here are concluded, and your presence is no longer required. However, the time has not yet come. I respectfully ask the Ancestor to remain hidden a while longer."