The strike of Fang Lin's fist against the center of the archaic crucible generated an ear-splitting resonance, like a giant bell ringing across the ancient badlands. The spatial veil shimmered violently, fractured into a thousand glowing spiderwebs, and dissolved into a blinding cascade of ethereal sparks.
As the light subsided, the bedrock beneath their feet parted with silent, majestic grace. A broad, spiral staircase carved from seamless obsidian stone descended into the depths, radiating a cool, ancient breeze that carried no dust, no decay, and no scent of rot.
Lin Wan let out a long, quiet breath, her eyes reflecting the glowing runes that lined the descending shaft. "The outer barrier is open. Follow me closely, and do not touch the walls unless I give the word."
They descended into the earth. The passage went deep, piercing through thousands of feet of solid rock until the staircase suddenly opened up into a realm of breathtaking grandeur.
Fang Lin stopped in his tracks, his eyes narrowing slightly as he took in the sight.
They were standing on an elevated observation terrace looking out over a vast, subterranean chamber known as the Spatial Nexus Hall. The ceiling soared hundreds of feet above, completely obscured by suspended, floating orbs of liquid starlight that cast a soft, silvery radiance over everything. Carved entirely from deep-sea obsidian stone, the floor of the hall was an intricate, pulsing maze of etched Qi-vein channels. Though dormant, the channels still held faint, sapphire traces of ancient spiritual essence.
There were no physical transport carts or crude mechanisms. Instead, floating array runes hovered in stasis throughout the air, silently preserving a space that felt less like a workshop and more like a sacred temple of an ancient era.
"Remarkable..." Lin Wan murmured, her voice filled with quiet reverence as she stepped up to the edge of the terrace. "This is not merely a forge. It is an immortal nexus. Look at the wall inscriptions."
She gestured toward a massive wall of spirit-metal to their right, etched with soaring, archaic script that glowed with a faint, amber light. Lin Wan closed her eyes briefly, channeling a thread of Earth Qi into her divine sense to decipher the ancient dialect.
"The grandmaster who built this place placed a terrifying restriction on the entrance array," Lin Wan said, her eyes reopening with a look of serious contemplation. "The array is calibrated exclusively for Core Formation cultivators. Anyone weaker would be instantly crushed by the spatial pressure once the inner halls activate. But more importantly... if a Spirit Manifestation expert or someone higher attempted to force their way inside, their massive spiritual weight would cause the entire spatial lock to violently collapse, destroying the ruin and everything within it."
Fang Lin nodded slowly, keeping his persona intact. "A precise safeguard. It ensures only Core Formation cultivators can enter, while keeping greedy powerhouse sects from plundering it by force."
"Exactly," Lin Wan agreed. "Now, look ahead. That is our way deeper."
At the far end of the Spatial Nexus Hall stood a colossal Spatial Gate, suspended between two towering pillars of dark spirit-alloy. The gate itself was a massive, ring-shaped slab of dense metal engraved with complex spatial runes. However, it was visibly tilted and locked out of alignment, jammed against the massive gravity-field formations that held the pillars in place.
Lin Wan glided down the terrace stairs toward the gate, her boots clicking softly against the obsidian floor. "The spatial currents decayed over the millennia, causing the levitating gate to drop out of its spiritual track and trigger the emergency gravity locks. I need to re-route the floor's Qi-veins to release the locks, but once the array unseals, the sheer gravitational weight of that gate will collapse unless someone physically forces it back onto its track."
She looked at Fang Lin, a glint of genuine expectation in her eyes. "Can you handle the weight?"
Fang Lin stepped up to the massive, tilted gate. He could feel the terrifying, concentrated gravitational force radiating from the spirit-alloy. To a normal cultivator, pushing against a gravity-locked immortal structure was akin to trying to lift a mountain.
"Start the array," Fang Lin said simply.
Lin Wan didn't waste another breath. She unslung her Thousand-Year Violet-Iron staff, planting its base firmly into the central floor node. Pure, vibrant Earth Qi surged from her body, traveling along the staff and fanning out into the etched floor channels. With meticulous precision, her fingers danced through the air, weaving array seals to manually direct the glowing sapphire currents through the dormant runes.
*HUMMMMMM!*
The floor beneath them lit up like a starry sky. The amber runes on the pillars flared brightly, and with a heavy, metallic groan, the gravity locks around the Spatial Gate disengaged. Instantly, the multi-ton ring began to plunge toward the obsidian floor, threatening to crush the array channels beneath it.
Fang Lin moved.
He planted his feet, shattering the top layer of stone beneath his boots, and slammed his bare hands into the base of the falling spirit-alloy gate. His Asura Flesh surged, muscles coiling like steel cables beneath his skin as he unleashed the full, terrifying physical force of his Greater Mastery body. A brief, controlled burst of Fire Qi flared around his shoulders to mask his true strength under the guise of an explosive body-art.
*ROAR!*
With a low, guttural roar, Fang Lin pushed upward. The sheer, kinetic violence of his lift defied belief. The massive, multi-ton Spatial Gate ground to a violent halt in mid-air. Sparks of compressed spatial energy rained down around him as he physically hoisted the colossal structure several feet into the air, forcing it back onto the levitating track suspended between the pillars.
Lin Wan's eyes widened in sheer astonishment as she watched him hold the mountain-like weight. Acting instantly, she slammed a final Earth seal into the central node, locking the levitating array in place.
*CLANG!*
The Spatial Gate locked into its track with a booming echo, floating smoothly as a shimmering, translucent portal of spatial energy unfolded in its center.
Fang Lin stepped back, exhaling a hot cloud of white mist. He wiped a trace of sweat from his forehead, his expression calm. "It's open."
Lin Wan looked at him, her respect for his monstrous physical prowess reaching a new peak. "Your body cultivation is truly terrifying, Mu Tie. Without your raw strength, no array master alive could have passed this gate alone."
"We complement each other," Fang Lin replied gruffly. "Let's move."
Beyond the Spatial Gate lay a suspended levitating platform, designed to transport cultivators across a deep, pitch-black chasm toward the inner forging chambers. They stepped onto the platform together, the smooth spirit-metal floor glowing faintly under their feet.
Lin Wan reached out to touch the control rune on the platform's balustrade. "If the spatial flow is correct, this platform should carry us deeper into the complex..."
However, the moment her Qi touched the rune, the ancient, unstable spatial currents of the hall suddenly violently convulsed. The liquid starlight orbs on the ceiling flickered frantically, turning a dangerous, crimson hue.
*CRACK!*
A jagged, crimson tear of spatial distortion erupted right through the middle of the levitating platform. The spirit-metal structure shattered in an instant.
"Spatial collapse?!" Lin Wan cried out, her Earth Qi flaring as she attempted to leap back toward the Spatial Gate terrace.
Before Fang Lin could reach out to grab her or stabilize his own footing, the spatial rift beneath his feet expanded into a powerful vortex of gravitational pull. The platform fractured completely, swallowing him into the pitch-black abyss below while pushing Lin Wan back onto the upper terrace.
"Mu Tie!" Lin Wan's voice echoed distantly from above as the spatial veil snapped shut behind him.
Fang Lin plunged through the dark, rushing wind of the subterranean abyss, completely isolated from Lin Wan's divine sense.
He was separated from Lin Wan for now, which meant that he would not need to hide his true abilities.
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