The entirety of the elders from the Underworld School were in shock at the realization of where Bai Yunfei was. Like elder Qi, elder Wu’s face darkened at the mention of ‘Crushed Stone River’. She stood up to look at everyone, “Could....could it be a coincidence? Or....”

“Coincidence?” Elder Qi replied, “Quite a big ‘coincidence’ isn’t it?

“Could his disappearance have possibly mean he has entered ‘that’ place?!”

“That’s far too good of a coincidence. Why would he ‘disappear’ for such a short amount of time and then ‘appear’ out again then?” Asked Mu Chen.

“If he really has entered ‘that’ place, then that would explain why his soulbeast partner wasn’t able to sense him. And then being able to sense him again when he left ‘that’ place....that answers the question.”

“Being able to go ‘there’ from within Black Cloud Valley?!” Elder Qi exploded with excitement, “Then would we not be able to....”

Elder Wu shook his head. “Did the first elder not say that he scanned the entire ten kilometer around the area? If there really was a ‘passageway’, then how would the first elder miss it?”

Zheng Kai had been listening to everyone talk to one another, but he couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on. “Elder Mu,” He asked, “What are you all talking about? What is ‘that place’, and what ‘passageway’ are you talking about?”

It was not Mu Chen who replied, but Mo Yanbai.

“Nephew Zheng, you must be tired after running around for the entire day. Please take a rest. Nephew Bai will be fine. The first elder will take you out of Black Cloud Valley in a moment and reconvene you with Bai Yunfei in Crushed Stone River.”

Zheng Kai crinkled his eyebrows. This was a secretive talk he was currently listening to, and he was worried about Bai Yunfei still. But if Xiao Qi wasn’t receiving any danger signals from him, there wasn’t much of a need for them to hurry.

Zheng Kai hesitated for a moment, but he bowed and left the hall soon after.

Xiao Qi and Long Lan both wanted to leave the Underworld School at once, but there wasn’t anyone else that could take them out. Like Zheng Kai, they could only rest and wait for the elders to finish.

Back in the hall, the first elder spoke up after the three had left. “Headmaster, that Crushed Stone River....what exactly is it? I recall that it was just an ordinary mountain river, was it not?”

“It used to be just that before, but now....” Elder Qi shook his head, “It’s become a ‘place of legend’.”

Afterwards, elder Wu retold the story and information she had gathered outside to the first elder. Like they planned beforehand, the first elder and elder Wu decided to take the strongest two disciples with them to Crushed Stone River. Zheng Kai and the other two soulbeasts came with them, as they had also the same destination.

Since Bai Yunfei’s disappearance and reappearance over to the other side of the Black Cloud Mountain Ranges was far too likely to be relating to the ‘pocket’ they were talking about before, none of the elders saw fit to speculate about any other possible reasons. It surely had to be because of that ‘pocket’, but still, the school had to be sure. In order to clear away any confusion, Mo Yanbai had elder Zhao and elder Mu scour the place again to see if they could find anything.

Elder Qi was responsible for taking the black-scaled serpent gall Zheng Kai gave him to try and heal the young girl.

And Mo Yanbai obviously couldn’t handle every mundane task himself, so he sat in the hall and gave orders to manage everything.

............

So what in the world did Bai Yunfei come across?

Let us rewind time for just a little bit....

Things went like how the first elder said. Bai Yunfei came down to the hole and looked at it. Then without warning, it was as if someone had swung a hammer onto the back of his head! Stumbling forward, Bai Yunfei fell into the hole!

It was like if he was a stalk of grass being planted into the ground when he fell into the hole. There was a dizzying sensation for just a moment before Bai Yunfei felt everything clear up. Rotating himself around, he planted his feet onto the ground.

But when he stood up straight and took a look around, Bai Yunfei was startled into silence by what he saw......

The very first thing to tip off his senses was the fact that he shouldn’t be standing on ground. The hole was very deep, and Bai Yunfei was well aware that he wasn’t at the bottom of the hole. He should’ve been standing on nothing but air, but it felt like he was standing on solid ground!

But the most important thing was when he looked back up. The sight around him was completely different and unfamiliar to Bai Yunfei!

The surrounding fifty meters of ground was solid stone with all sorts of broken up stones making up the ground. Some were small like eggs, others were as large as a soccer ball. Some were smooth, others were jagged and sharp. Walking on such a ground would be difficult, if not impossible without injury for the common person. But even more importantly, everything was a blur beyond these fifty meters!

Something akin to a white mist was enveloping the area and turning the air around Bai Yunfei into an undistinguishable blanket that looked like a waterbrush painting. He could just barely make out the sight of a mountain peak and several trees beyond the fifty meters, but he wasn’t sure. Layers upon layers of mist were warping the sight that made everything unclear and mirage-like.

He couldn’t see what was beyond those fifty meters, and neither did he know what this place was, but there was one thing that was clear to him.

This place wasn’t the place he was in before!!

Stunned almost into inaction by the realization, Bai Yunfei rolled out his soulsense to try and scan the entire area.

But that was when he realized something else!

His soulsense....wasn’t able to penetrate beyond these fifty meters!!

Like how everything looked very vague, Bai Yunfei’s soulsense felt as though it was entering a swamp as soon as it tried to extend beyond the boundary. His soulsense was unable to take another step, and neither could he sense a thing from the chaotic surroundings.

“Xiao Qi.....”

In his shock, Bai Yunfei called out for Xiao Qi. But no sooner did he even attempt that did his face start to pale drastically, for he couldn’t sense Xiao Qi’s aura either!

“Poof....” The Fire-tipped Spear appeared into Bai Yunfei’s hand along with the Cataclysmic Seal. His soulforce was already raring to go just in case for battle as he looked cautiously around himself.

“Damn....how did this happen? Why am I suddenly in a strange place like this?” Bai Yunfei grumbled as he tried to find a hint to where he was at.

“Is this an illusion?!” His eyebrows flew up when that thought came to him, but he waved the thought away. As something of an expert on the Illusion Stones, Bai Yunfei was more than well aware of what the effects of an illusion felt like. He was also wearing a few pieces of equipment that fended off against illusions, and several of them, such as the Charm Bracelet, hadn’t shown any signs that he was in one. So for that reason, Bai Yunfei had to believe this was no illusion.

So if this wasn’t an illusion, just what in the world was going on here?

“I was definitely in Black Cloud Valley, so how did I get here? This is some sort of unknown land I was transported to....” Bai Yunfei thought to himself.

“Hold on, instantaneous movement?!” Bai Yunfei’s eyes lit up, “No....apportation!”

Those adept in space manipulation or Soul Kings are capable of ‘instantaneous movement’. Moving as fast as the eye could see or even sensing everything in an area, these people could even link one place to another in space.

But ‘apportation’ was a skill a level higher than ‘teleportation’. It was capable of exceeding the distance limit of teleportation and bring something from one space to another space.

Bai Yunfei had seen something like this before. When he first joined the Crafting School, he walked through a mysterious space as red as fire before. That was a very special pocket of the Crafting School.

“Was I brought to a spatial pocket?” Bai Yunfei wondered aloud, “But...how’d I get here?!”

“Hey....”

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

A weak voice spoke into his ear right as Bai Yunfei was in the middle of his anxious thinking.

“Who’s there!!”

Bai Yunfei cried out, whirling around with his left hand ready to strike. There was another flash of light as the permafrost mastiff came out from its ring to protect Bai Yunfei.

Since he was in the middle of nowhere with no one to rely on, Bai Yunfei had to make use of the permafrost mastiff.

But never did Bai Yunfei think that as soon as he did that, the whole world around him would start to change!