The crystal contained a high level of wind power.
He pressed his hand onto the crystal, and instantly his void body absorbed it. Nyris could feel the rising power within him.
As if the energy inside had opened a threshold, Nyris immediately sat in a meditation position.
He tried to bring the surging power under control. Slowly but surely, he managed to stabilize it. Suddenly, his entire void body trembled, and it was as if every cell in his body had evolved, rapidly absorbing all the energy.
All at once, Nyris's aura rose.
"So this is the peak of the Radiance stage… Now I can finally try to reach the Spark stage," said Nyris.
Don't be fooled by him only being at the peak of the Radiance stage—Nyris possessed a void body and the Dao of Space, causing his strength to multiply exponentially.
At this point, even he didn't know his exact level, but he was certain that he could now kill creatures at the Spark stage in a single strike.
As soon as his foundation stabilized, Nyris immediately moved toward the metal region. After all, he had less than six hours left.
This situation put pressure on him. "I must enter that area. It's an opportunity beyond measure for me," he said.
With a body specially attuned to space and the Dao of Space, Nyris had realized that he still couldn't access all of his body's capabilities. Something was missing—he just didn't know what. But now, a powerful desire had formed within him, as if the thing he had always lacked was right in front of him. He felt that he absolutely had to reach it.
This wasn't something that could be dismissed as a mere feeling—it was a natural deficiency of his body. The moment he even heard about it, an intense desire surged within him.
He quickly headed toward the metal region.
After 15–20 minutes, he saw the borders of the metal region. Even while moving, he continued killing monsters. Although Radiance-stage creatures weren't very effective, sheer quantity could naturally enhance quality.
A large number of Radiance-stage monsters could, in turn, generate the energy of the Spark stage.
The difference between these stages was purely energy level—there was no fundamental evolution in life form. Thus, accumulating enough energy could naturally lead to the Spark stage.
What was unnatural was Nyris's body. To advance to the Spark stage, he required an enormous amount of Spark-stage energy.
If a normal human body had absorbed as much energy as Nyris had, it would have already reached the late stages of the Spark stage.
However, Nyris's void body and sacred techniques demanded far greater energy.
Naturally, the returns were equally high. Even a Spark-stage being wouldn't be able to injure Nyris—especially since he possessed the mysterious Dao of Space.
When Nyris arrived at the metal region, he saw a mountainous area where all the mountains seemed to be made of metal. Yes, these were metal mountains.
There were countless holes across these massive mountains. Nyris also noticed black dots on their surfaces.
As he got closer, the dots grew larger. "Those are… ants? Are those really ants? Is this entire mountain range a giant ant nest?"
It was astonishing—an enormous mountain range that was actually a massive ant colony.
Nyris quickly reached the foot of the mountain. Everything became clearer.
They really were ants, each measuring between 3 to 5 meters in length.
It was a truly terrifying place. Especially since there were no humans in sight—it meant that those who had started their trial here were extremely unlucky.
"They were probably disqualified the moment they started," said Nyris.
He quickly moved into the mountain.
Ants kept appearing in front of him one after another. Since Nyris was moving through space, they couldn't sense him. Not only could they not detect him—even when they died, they had no idea what had killed them or why.
As he rushed toward a nest entrance, he beheaded every ant in his path with a single strike.
Whoosh…
Whoosh…
Vuuu…
He had already reached the entrance. A pitch-black slope stretched downward.
By sensing the surrounding space, Nyris gradually adapted to the darkness. Even if he couldn't see, his Dao of Space allowed him to perceive everything around him—even the dust in the air.
Once adapted, he moved downward again at high speed. When he encountered a fork in the tunnel, he followed the direction where the aura was strongest.
This was one of the advantages of the Dao of Space—even if someone tried to conceal their aura, unless their mastery of space exceeded his, their presence could still be detected.
He moved swiftly through the tunnels, killing any ants he encountered with a single strike.
After five minutes, just as he turned at another fork, a larger ant—about 7 meters long—appeared before him.
Despite its size, it hadn't reached the Spark stage. Nyris killed it in one strike and continued forward. However, he sensed that it was at the peak of the Radiance stage and on the verge of breaking through.
"If the ants are getting stronger, could there be multiple Spark-stage creatures here?"
A crazy idea crossed Nyris's mind. Perhaps the reason this hidden realm had never been discovered was because of these ants. Finding the general in the wind region was difficult but not impossible—but an entire ant nest? That was a completely different challenge.
"I'm not sure if there's a stage beyond Spark… but this is probably why the hidden realm hasn't been found."
Nyris continued moving through the tunnels. After a while, the number of ants increased astronomically—hundreds, even thousands.
Among them, more than a hundred were on the verge of reaching the Spark stage.
They were eating metal and extracting resources. The sight of these massive ants mining was extremely unsettling.
Nyris slowly moved toward the center of the area and began expanding his spatial perception, trying to sense the entire mountain.
Since they were ants, there had to be a queen.
As his perception gradually covered the whole mountain, Nyris's entire body reacted.
Something had caught his attention—a presence above the Spark stage.
It was a massive ant, over 30 meters long—larger than a five-story building. It was clearly the queen, but it couldn't move.
It could only remain in place and reproduce.
Around the queen's chamber were three other chambers, each containing the aura of a general.
In other words, three Spark-stage creatures were guarding the queen.
Seeing this, Nyris didn't hesitate. The power of space was one of the best abilities in large-scale combat.
He immediately gathered all his strength.
Suddenly—
Boom!
The entire mountain fell under Nyris's spatial power. Enveloping a 500-meter-wide mountain was proof of his strength.
"Collapsing Domain!" he shouted.
In an instant, the entire mountain seemed to vanish—no, it didn't vanish, it turned into dust.
A massive metal mountain over 500 meters wide had been reduced to dust under the power of space.
The weaker ants were annihilated. Only those at the peak of the Radiance stage or higher could withstand it—and even they were heavily suppressed, barely able to move.
At this moment, Nyris was threatened by three Spark-stage ants and a Flame-stage queen.
Naturally, if the queen were a fully mobile combatant, Nyris wouldn't dare attack even if he had ten lives.
But the queen could only defend and launch limited energy attacks.
Nyris immediately attacked the three Spark-stage ants. Spatial particles within his domain assaulted them from all directions.
They tried to release their own domains, but could only slightly reduce the pressure, leaving them shocked.
A human with a lower cultivation level had immobilized them.
They could only defend.
Over time, cuts began to appear on their bodies.
Meanwhile, although the queen couldn't move, she was still a Flame-stage lifeform and could launch energy attacks.
But no matter how many attacks she unleashed, Nyris managed to evade them all.
Teleporting, he appeared above one of the Spark-stage ants. A sound echoed through the spatial domain—the first ant had fallen.
With the first ant's death, the burden on Nyris slightly decreased.
He immediately turned to attack the second ant.
Soon after, the second ant was also reduced to dust under the power of space.
Now, only one Spark-stage ant and the queen remained.