20 Palace Once More

In an instant, John found himself standing in front of the same majestic palace from when he touched the mysterious sphere.

"What? I'm here again?" he exclaimed in equal parts shock and confusion.

Once more, he found himself in this completely foreign place.

After staring at the majestic palace for some time, John started walking forward. He found himself on the familiar illuminated pathway from before. After entering the palace, he saw the same majestic statues as last time, lining the pathway as far as the eye could see.

Following the pathway for several miles, John eventually came to the same massive door as last time. Unlike last time however, the door was already opened, as if inviting him inside. John walked past the door and into the massive room. The room was the same as before, with massive white pillars dotting the interior of the grand hall. Thousands of feet in front of him, he once again saw the massive gate with the nine large chains hugging it.

After walking for some time, he arrived at the solid white gate. The same translucent orb hung high in the sky in front of the gate, the nine blood drops revolving inside of it.

Taking a deep breath, John once again walked below the translucent orb, at which point he found himself unable to move like last time. At the same time, a single drop from the translucent orb started to descend. As soon as it left the protection of the translucent orb, his eyes widened in shock.

Last time, the blood drop had an aura of pure holiness. It had been powerful and awe-inspiring, but in a warm, comforting sort of way. This time however, the holiness was accompanied by an aura so sinister that John stopped breathing for a few moments. It was as if the holy drop had been tainted by hell itself.

As the blood drop slowly lowered in front of him, John struggled with all his might to escape. He was willing to absorb another drop like last time, but the sinister aura of this blood drop was something John did not want anything to do with.

Despite his struggles, John was unable to move as he watched the drop once again fuse into his body. A wave of pain so intense that it eclipsed the last time washed over him. He could only compare this pain to when he had touched the mysterious sphere. He felt as if the blood was doing everything it could to destroy his body from within. Death felt as if it was encroaching on him.

Just as he was unable to endure it any longer, the portion of blood that radiated the holy aura activated within him, fighting against the sinister blood. After a brief battle inside his body, John felt everything return to normal. Fatigue washed over him as he once again collapsed into unconsciousness.

...

An unknown time later, the cave once again appeared in front of John as he slowly opened his eyes. After sitting up slowly, he took a few seconds to recollect what had happened to him.

"I was in that mysterious place again! The last thing I remember doing was scanning my Dantian, at which point I suddenly felt myself being drawn into that place."

John remembered that when he sent his divine sense to his Dantian, he had suddenly found himself in that strange place. Thinking of that, he hesitantly sent his divine sense back towards his Dantian to see if it would happen again. After slowly prodding his divine sense towards his Dantian, he shouted out in shock.

"What the...what is this?!"

Upon slowly sending his divine sense towards his Dantian, John was shocked to find that his Dantian was not the only thing occupying the space. Right next to his mist Dantian sat the mysterious sphere. The two objects slowly revolved around each other in an endless dance, the one object his Dantian, the other...the mysterious sphere.

"What? The sphere is next to my Dantian," he exclaimed aloud.

When he had touched the sphere back in his house, he had immediately dropped it. Not once did he take it, let alone bring it into his body. More so, he had never heard of anything else existing in the Dantian space besides the Dantian itself.

"How is this possible? Is my divine sense playing tricks on me?" he wondered as he studied the scene before him.

No matter how he thought about it, John could not make sense of what was happening. After tentatively scanning the Dantian space with his divine sense, John decided to investigate more thoroughly and sent his divine sense directly into the sphere, trying to understand what it was.

"I'm back in this place!" John exclaimed as he once again found himself in the void, standing in front of the majestic white palace.

His thoughts raced as he tried to figure out what was going on, his mind coming to a singular conclusion; the dark sphere and the mysterious place were undoubtably related. Coming to this conclusion, John tried sending out his divine sense into the void.

As soon as he did, John found himself back in the cave, his position the exact same as before.

"The palace and the sphere are definitely linked. I don't know how it's possible, but I think this palace is inside the sphere, almost like a giant storage ring. Although I've never heard of a storage ring like this," he mused before falling silent.

'Maybe my conscience or soul is inside of this space, while my true body is still in the real world. Maybe I should explore this palace. It might hold some clues as to what this place is.'

John started walking down the illuminated pathway, eventually heading inside the palace. After striding inside, he once again found himself on the pathway with statues lining both sides as far as the eyes could see.

"I'm not going that way anymore," he grumbled as he stepped off the illuminated pathway and entered one of the side halls. The side hall stretched into the distance, with massive doors lining both sides of the walls every few hundred yards. Walking up to one of the doors, John tried to open it, but was unable to do so. Walking to the next one, he tried that door as well but was unable to budge it as well.

"None of these doors are opening," he said as he continued to try all the doors in the hall. After walking for miles and miles and trying hundreds of doors, John was frustrated that not a single one had opened. Returning to the original pathway, he walked to one of the other side halls and tried all those doors.

The same as before, he was unable to open any of them.

"Is the only way forward really towards that dreadful place?" he groaned as he once again returned to the illuminated pathway. After hesitating for quite some time, he followed the pathway and eventually found himself in the massive room.

"Well, although it hurts like hell, I haven't actually died yet from that blood, so it can't be all bad," he reasoned as he looked towards the translucent orb in the distance. After quite some time, John walked forward and eventually found himself beneath the translucent orb once again.

"Hmm?" his face scrunched up with confusion.

Although he had walked below the orb like before, he was not bound like last time. As for the blood, no drops left the orb. They continued to revolve around each other in an endless dance.

"No blood drops coming this time?" he mused, staring at the translucent orb above. No matter how long he waited, none of the drops came towards him. After standing there for quite some time, John decided to look around the rest of the massive hall since nothing was happening.

As he looked around the rest of the hall, he quickly spotted large door a thousand feet to the side of the massive gate. Although the door was only a few dozen feet tall, it was still quite large.

After walking up to the door, John placed his hand on it, at which point it started parting before him. As soon as the door opened, he suddenly felt as if he had been plunged into hell. An aura similar to the blood drop radiated out of the door, but it was dozens of times stronger and far more sinister.

John could hardly breath as he stared into the room in front of him. After several seconds of being frozen in pure fear, he finally came to his senses and hastily retreated, running away from the door. Only then was he able to slowly calm down.

"What the hell? What is inside there? That aura is like I'm literally in hell, and I was only standing outside of the room," he grimmaced while breathing heavily. He had never thought that something so evil and sinister could exist in this world.

After composing himself, John turned to leave. As he was walking away however, a nagging feeling urged him to turn around. It was almost as if he were being summoned by something, the source of his nagging an external force playing with his mind. While he tried to resist and walk away, the nagging grew stronger as he did so, to the point it almost became painful.

"Really? Another secret to explore and possibly die from?" shouted John as he came to a halt. No matter how much he wanted to be away from that room, for some reason, he felt as if he was meant to go inside.

"Haaaa, what is actually wrong with me," he sighed heavily before turning around, and started walking back towards the door. No matter how he tried to rationalize it, this action of his made no sense.

"This might be the dumbest thing I've ever done. And Ive done a lot of dumb things," he said while shaking his head at himself as he once again arrived at the open door.

Then, after standing there for over an hour, John finally steeled his nerves and stepped inside the room.