The Eternal Sanctum

The girl shook her head to thoroughly wake herself up, before raising her hands to lightly pat her cheeks.

Looking around her surroundings, An Fei could only admit that she had completely no clue where she sat.

The ground was radically unrecognizable compared to its previous state when the young girl had fled in the depths of the forest. All around her, for numerous meters, An Fei was unable to determine a single shred of vitality.

…it was as if she sat in the middle of a bombing site, for numerous craters taller than her had displaced immeasurable quant.i.ties of earth, gra.s.s, and trees in the midst of the clash between the python and the handle-less sword.

She didn"t see charred soil, but completely blackened earth instead.

A pungent smell of acidic corrosion instantly wafted into her nose, causing the young girl to wrinkle her forehead in disgust before aptly rising to a stand.

How could she not realize what had caused such an inhumane calamity to strike the patch of the forest in which she stood?

…was it not the python"s venom redirected onto the ground?

The gra.s.s stalks had been reduced to pools of greasy, brackish liquid that released a foul odor of forcibly decomposed materials, and the tree roots were corroded stumps compared to their once flourishing vitality and dominance.

The natural earth had been fossilized into calcium and other brittle elements, creating the wasteland in which An Fei stood.

"This… I probably shouldn"t stay here for too long," the young girl whispered to herself, readjusting the leather bag slung over her shoulder.

The pet.i.te figure quickly departed from tonight"s second graveyard of h.e.l.l, weaving through the forest in the direction of the stream of water.

As for the matter of the python, An Fei quickly shelved it under the dark crevices of her heart, hoping not to encounter it once again.

If the creature could terrorize her to this state whilst grievously injured, then when it had recovered to peak strength or perhaps advanced a step further, then…

She didn"t dare think about it.

–

On the brink of sunrise in the Shattered Star Continent, the young girl lay against the back of a tree, her head gently swaying from side to side in a gentle ballad with the dusk breeze.

An Fei"s eyes remained closed and relaxed, her stunning and beautiful countenance displaying only tranquility and peace.

The gnarled roots served as the perfect support, preventing her body from falling out from her position, but did not restrict her movements.

The faintly moist bark was the most comfortable to lean against, with the tree"s tall branches shielding her from most of the world"s elements.

After a harrowing day in the Wu Ji Forest, An Fei was completely exhausted.

The continuous exploring in search of water and fleeing from the python"s wrath without respite had sapped an enormous amount of strength from her still frail physique, causing her to wish not to open her eyes to greet the next day.

Her limbs sang their agony in response to the cheerful vitality crackling through the forest, twitching madly to ward off the gra.s.s" cajoles and taunts.

She similarly had not a single strand of spiritual essence stored within her body, having expended it all to form the second petal of the in the harsh and unforgiving environment of the Shattered Star continent.

She wished… for nothing but to recline back into her seat and rest, basking in the few rays of sunrise that would manage to penetrate through the dense barrier of branches and leaves.

Unfortunately, the young girl was destined to never relish that desire today, nor would she obtain such an opportunity until a few days afterward.

[Approach the eternal river].

Words in the Divine Script echoed from the deepest recesses of her mind, cruelly awakening An Fei from her momentary slumber.

The young girl twisted her neck to her left in drowsed stupor, her adorable mouth rippling into a small, demurring yawn.

[Approach the eternal river].

The whisper resonated within An Fei"s soul, producing a spike of heat that transfixed itself deep within the young girl"s heart, forcibly shocking her awake.

The young girl"s eyes listlessly wandered around the still-dim forest, traversing from darkened foliage after another, relishing in their diminished vitality.

[Approach the eternal river].

"I… I don"t wanna…" An Fei slurred, her lips parting to bid farewell to a ma.s.sive yawn.

"Sleep… I"m going… to slee… five min…utes…"

[Approach the eternal river].

The faint vibration within the young girl"s heart grumbled in discontent, roughly jabbing at her pitiful and overworked heart.

The continual pulses of heat dulled into a muted roar of consternation, clearly dissatisfied with An Fei"s noncompliance.

[Approach the eternal river].

A torrential flood of warmth surged through every iota of An Fei"s body, dispatching a merciless and blind whip of pain and agony to lash through her blood vessels and meridians.

The young girl toppled from her perch against the gnarled tree stump with a shriek of agony, intimately embracing the damp earth with outstretched arms.

"What… was that?"

An Fei groaned in fear and pain as she picked herself from the ground. As she dusted the remnant soil from the dense linen coat, the young girl rubbed her bosom, her mind recalling the fearsome pain that had ravaged her already feeble heart.

[Approach the eternal river].

The pulse of warmth surged in anger once again, forcing the young girl to stumble backwards for several steps before she grabbed onto a nearby tree stump for stability.

An Fei"s legs trembled as numbing sensations crawled upwards towards her heart, her vision nearly distorting from the intense and sudden stimulation to her senses.

Crack!

The s.p.a.ce surrounding her vicinity suddenly revealed a hairline crack the width of her front hair. The sudden sound alerted An Fei, fully rousing her mind after dumping numerous buckets of sub-frozen water onto her lazy mind.

"A crack…?" the young girl murmured, a deep anxiety flourishing in her heart alongside of an unknown emotion.

"I haven"t called for the Sanctum… so why would the surroundings crack like this?"

The crack in s.p.a.ce was transparent, as if nothing more than an optical illusion.

Amidst the forest"s verdant atmosphere and the unhindered flow of an indomitable, powerful vitality, an empty void seeped out from within the crack, forming an unusual black line that streaked around to encircle the young girl.

She faintly spotted a liquid substance ooze from the crack"s perimeters to scatter across the world in innumerable, microscopic particles.

The subtle yet harsh dissonance between the crack in s.p.a.ce and the peaceful atmosphere directly beyond it raised an unnerving question in An Fei"s –

[Approach the eternal river].

The world trembled as the melodious bells scared its core ent.i.ty into quivering with absolute terror.

The trees and gra.s.s within the forest quickly bowed in agonized submission, and the mighty and proud current of vitality couldn"t help but grind to a halt.

The world awaited in bated breath, trembling gently in fear with each pa.s.sing moment.

Ting!

Ting, ting, tang!

The crack that was no wider than An Fei"s front hair suddenly pulsed with a cold, black light.

Before An Fei"s astonished and terrified gaze, the crack that encircled her began to branch outwards, accompanied with the horrible sounds of shattering gla.s.s as it encroached the young girl from all directions.

She seemed to be standing in the center of an impenetrable cage.

The cage"s iron bars were replaced with the mysterious and terrifying substance oozing from the crack and dripping onto the earthen ground.

The black cracks that branched outward to cover the entirety of An Fei"s surroundings served as the brutal and unforgiving wardens, determined to force the natural flow of time and destiny into their bidding.

There were no boundaries within the prison constructed from the world"s fragments.

The world had simply been isolated from the patch of earth that the young girl stood atop of, akin to two sides of a looking gla.s.s.

The atmosphere within the cage was hurried and frenzied with a maniac aura seeping through from the cracks, whereas the forest retained it calm and tranquil peace.

An Fei took a step forward, her right hand extended in confusion towards one of the cracks –

Bang!

With the black cracks in s.p.a.ce serving as the impetus, the world before the young girl shattered.

Fragments of an illusory forest plummeted towards the ground to explode into countless fragments of kaleidoscopic light that clung at An Fei"s feet, begging not to be discarded.

[Approach the eternal river].

The Divine Script roared in consternation and fury, causing the young girl"s surroundings to reverberate and tremble violently.

An invisible current swept away the fragments of the mortal world to an unknown location, allowing An Fei"s gaze to recover its usual dull gleam and gape with shock.

She stood at the base of a crystalline throne hall, standing before the lowest step that allowed a faint glimpse towards a throne of sky-blue crystal.

A golden radiance emitted from the floor beneath her, creating a dim but pleasant atmosphere that was relaxing to the eyes.

An Fei was fully cognizant of the scene before her eyes.

She had experienced the same scenery numerous times. She had wept in that throne chair that glared down towards her pale countenance.

The crystalline throne hall that revealed an imposing might that pressed heavily on her shoulders, the young girl couldn"t be more acquainted with. It was just that her mind couldn"t accustom itself to the surprising revelation that had slapped her directly on her cheek, then displayed a taunting and vulgar gesture in public.

"…[approach the eternal river]…" the young girl whispered in a muted voice.

She stood in the Sanctum of Eternity. She had crossed over to this mysterious throne hall of sky-blue crystal, but only in the form of her soul.

…so how was she standing here in her physical body, with even the leather bag and a thick linen coat wrapped around her body?