99 Seeking the Secret Path

After a few days of constant cultivation, Wuying had finally absorbed all of the remnant cores. Fortunately for him he already possessed a strong cultivation base, as this allowed him to contain this large quantity of energy within his Neidan's gravity. He could slowly contemplate this energy's mysteries for years to come once it had become a part of his Neidan, as it would also integrate with the World Tree that would grow from the Neidan in the future, giving him untold benefits for the rest of his life. Though there was no hope of actually growing a Neidan World Tree on this planet, he would form the complete seed during his Houtian realm and solidify this energy as a part of his very being.

After Wuying was finished absorbing the energy he also collected the scattered remains of the most powerful creatures. As beings who were able to play host to such a miasma their bones would certainly be deeply connected to the Dao and would also be of great worth for centuries to come. Though most of the bones in this strange space had already lost their connection to their original Dao due to the miasma, the stronger hosts had all been Heaven blessed geniuses whose connection to their Dao had been almost impossible to wipe from their bones.

Yun also went around and checked all the rooms they could access to see what sorts of things might be within, but it appeared that this space was simply too old and no treasures had survived the powerful corruption of the miasma. This was certainly disappointing, as such powerful individuals certainly must have been blessed with great treasures, but it also provided Yun the chance to really discover how large this space was.

The distortion of perception in this place was even stronger now that the miasma was gone, and walking the halls told her that it was simultaneously enormously massive and relatively small. Even her physical perception of distance was skewed by this strange effect, but she could tell from the amount of time she spent on this task that the true size of this place must be in the order of thousands of kilometers at the very least.

After she had checked what seemed to be every room in the space she noticed one more room with a strange door near Wuying's location. This room was located right in the middle of the long wall across from where she had entered through the distortion and had some lights on the door in a strange pattern. Walking towards the door, Yun could constantly see more and more lights on it. Each step she took lit up dozens of lights until the door was a star-field instead of a door.

Reaching out her hand to touch this field, Yun was astonished to find that the door was actually not a door, but a view of what was beyond it. She was looking at a massive field of stars in empty space instead of a door. Stepping up to the threshold, she observed the space in front of her while holding the walls beside the door carefully. After confirming it posed no threat to her she reached out a foot and waggled it a bit, seeing if there was a surface to touch.

Flop! Yun's foot impacted a solid surface, but to her mind it looked like it was simply empty space. She crouched down and applied pressure to the surface her foot had landed on and found that it was strong enough to hold her weight many times over, so she stepped out onto it.

Whoosh!

The moment her body left the doorway entirely she felt a strange change around her. Stars gathered densely beneath her feet and formed a sort of pathway, and if she looked back she got the same feeling as she did when she was on the other side of the door, that the space there was a flat surface and had lost all dimension. She reached back and passed her hand through it to confirm she was able to return before she began to follow the star-path forwards.

After a few minutes of walking along the star-path Yun found that the stars in front of her seemed to form a strange sort of outline, again it felt flat from where she was, but as she neared it became more and more dense. The outline was strangely in a star diagram shape, with many points, and it was repeated above with each point of each shape being connected by a vertical line. In front of her was a space where two of the peaks had been connected horizontally and the lines between them had been erased, leaving a doorway into this strange star-space.

With such a strange thing in front of her, Yun hesitated a little bit. She moved forward reluctantly and eventually placed her hand on the wall beside this new door, but the interior of the space was still just a flat view of the outline. Reaching her hand forward to the doorway she was able to pass through it as before with no issue.

Once again fortifying her will, Yun stepped forwards into the space and was nearly blinded by what she saw.

Within this strange space was an enormous room, and the walls and ceiling of the room looked almost like obsidian, but studded with many stars. In each wall the stars formed a specific constellation, and in each constellation there was a star that shined more brightly than the others. Some constellations were on multiple walls, but different stars were lit up.

Yun, in a daze, walked towards one of the nearby walls to look at it, but as she drew within a few meters of that wall the stars began to shift and move into the shape of an arched doorway, eventually leaving an empty space. Yun reached out to touch it once again, but this time found that when her hand went through the gap it became extremely cold suddenly.