Chapter 478: Beyond the Exit

After so many years of preparation and rushing through his cultivation[1], Wang Sheng finally arrived at the entrance to the Realm of Exiled Immortals—the place that had haunted his thoughts day and night. It had taken him more than three hundred days and nights flying aboard the Shadowless Shuttle.

Before setting out, he had come up with countless ideas, such as sealing the entrance with drifting asteroids or working with Yaoyun to set up an array around it. He had set out with one simple belief: any door could be closed.

To his surprise, what awaited him was a sphere.

It was formless and endless. Its borders were visible only where the surrounding space bent ever so slightly.

By his estimate, its diameter stretched hundreds of kilometers. Still, compared to what such a structure could theoretically be, it was considered small—a scale that broke the lower limit of what was thought possible.

Immortal power had strengthened Wang Sheng's eyes. Hence, he could make out the vastness of the sphere floating in the dark void.

"What's wrong?" Yaoyun asked curiously.

"Hold on, let me do a few tests," Wang Sheng murmured.

He turned and flew off to the side. Instead of using the conspicuous Soaring Red Feathers, he simply channeled his immortal power to glide silently through the void.

A strange pulling force rose around him in the vacuum, strong enough to gravely injure even a Tribulation Realm cultivator.

Soon, Wang Sheng crashed into an invisible barrier, blasting him back.

Looking at the "exit" again, he faintly made out a curved semicircle. He spread his spiritual perception and extended it through the starless space, confirming that there was a boundless, solid wall ahead of him. He spent some time following it in every direction, yet he failed to discern what it truly was or how it blocked him.

He glanced back toward Earth. The illusory Sun, which the Heavenly Court's array had conjured, was now no more than a faint spark among the stars. Stars varied in brightness and size. Though the Sun was technically the closest to him, its glow seemed dim and distant.

If the Realm of Exiled Immortals was truly a massive sphere that stretched from here to Earth, then the Sun would be the only star in the space that it had enclosed.

"Yaoyun, did Emperor Ziwei ever mention anything about the boundary of this realm?" Wang Sheng asked.

The tiny fairy on his shoulder thought for a moment. "He once tried to break it, but even he couldn't scratch it. Several Grand Dao Golden Immortals then joined forces with him, yet they still failed to shake the barrier."

"If someone created this place, does that mean they're more powerful than Emperor Ziwei?"

"I suppose," Yaoyun said softly, "but I believe the evolution of the Great Dao itself formed this realm. What did you notice?"

Wang Sheng whispered, "I'll tell you later. I want to take a look outside first.

He carefully approached the spherical "gate." In a way, it truly seemed like a door made for immortals, except it wasn't a door at all.

It was a hypersphere!

Wang Sheng didn't dare draw conclusions too soon. Cautiously slipping through it, he immediately felt immense pressure closing in from every direction. Nevertheless, he pushed forward under the crushing weight.

Galaxies of dazzling light and breathtaking cosmic sights flashed past him. He felt as if he were gliding through a universe within the sphere.

After flying for some time, the pressure vanished. As if a gigantic invisible hand had pushed him from behind, the galaxies that had slowly floated by moments ago turned into streaks of light. He then plummeted, seemingly falling through a hole.

The vibrant colors vanished, and he found himself in a cold, desolate expanse. He hadn't even processed what had happened yet when the scene before him rendered him speechless.

In front of him lay a stretch of cold, empty space, and past it was a field of countless glittering stars. However, a "dark forest" of debris had swallowed most of it.

It looked as though dozens of planets had been torn apart, their fragments scattered across the area. The mountains on their broken continents collided with one another, creating shards of rock that were at least hundreds of kilometers wide.

They seemed to be the remnants of celestial bodies.

Wang Sheng spread his spiritual perception carefully across thousands of miles, sensing countless drifting corpses as small as dust motes and faint traces of lingering primal qi.

"What is this place?"

"A battlefield from five hundred thousand years ago. The immortals of the Heavenly Court fought here before retreating into the Realm of Exiled Immortals," Yaoyun replied. "A hundred thousand years later, we fought here again in an attempt to push our way back."

He frowned. "No one's retrieved the remains of those who died here?"

She softly answered, "Given enough time, they will become dust and primal qi again."

Wang Sheng fell silent and spent some more time exploring the area.

Sensing a slight heaviness in the air between them, he took the initiative to ask, "Was there a planet here before?"

"It was common practice to station armies celestial bodies," Yaoyun replied calmly. "Have you ever heard of 'the universe within a sleeve'? Those of great power could shrink entire celestial bodies to the size of a fingertip and carry them with ease. The countless celestial soldiers in them were released in times of war."

Wang Sheng fell silent again. After staring ahead in thought, he closed his eyes and calmed himself.

He now stood at the edge of the dark forest. When he looked down, several massive stones floated under him. Pieced together, they seemed to form a Buddha statue.

He looked up again. A sphere—no more than thirty meters across—hovered quietly. It looked completely different from the massive entrance that he had seen earlier from the other side.

Wang Sheng circled it once, confirming that there were no barriers or restrictions. The sphere simply existed here.

He then noticed the stone fragments drifting farther away. Flying closer, he realized that the Buddha statue likely once stood over a kilometer tall. To his surprise, he also discovered that its abdomen was hollow.

Using his enchanted power, Wang Sheng gathered the fragments and carried them toward the sphere, fitting them back together around it. Its material was not particularly strong, but it was astonishingly heavy.

As he had expected, the entrance to the Realm of Exiled Immortals was supposed to occupy the statue's hollow abdomen. Searching carefully, he found a palm-sized square hole in its belly.

The bronze box probably damaged it.

He sighed, thought for a while, then did his best to reassemble the statue, concealing the entrance once more. Afterward, he sat at its base under the sphere, quietly sorting through everything he had learned so far.

All these strange events traced back to the mysterious Realm of Exiled Immortals.

A year on Earth equaled a thousand years in this stretch of cosmic space. Hence, he found no reason to rush. He had all the time he needed to unravel the truth.

Yaoyun, who was now normal-sized, sat cross-legged beside him, patiently waiting for him to speak.

Half a day later, Wang Sheng suddenly laughed.

"This is getting more and more interesting." He opened his right hand, threads of white and golden immortal power flickering in his palm. "Yaoyun, perhaps immortals don't care much about such things, but we humans are quite curious about the gateway to the Realm of Exiled Immortals."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"We used to call it a wormhole, formally known as the Einstein-Rosen Bridge. Haven't you ever wondered how far Earth truly is from here?" He recalled the physics books he had burned. "Studying a bit of mortal knowledge wasn't a waste, after all."

Yaoyun frowned slightly. "Why call it a wormhole? That sounds rather unpleasant."

"No idea. It's just a name, nothing worth fussing over," Wang Sheng replied. "But now begs the question of where exactly Earth and its Realm of Exiled Immortals are in this universe—

ahem,

in this vast expanse of endless space."

Yaoyun shook her head. "I've never heard anyone mention such a thing."

"Didn't Emperor Ziwei investigate the Realm of Exiled Immortals in the past? Has he found nothing?"

She countered, "Well, who would dare pester him with such trivial questions?"

"Fair point."

Wang Sheng rubbed his chin thoughtfully, making Yaoyun sigh helplessly. She truly couldn't understand why he always obsessed over details that seemed so insignificant. As he pondered, she drifted about within the hollow space of the Buddha statue, examining every corner.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Half an hour later, Wang Sheng slapped his thigh.

"Something's wrong! Something is

definitely

wrong!"

Why did Emperor Ziwei make the illusion array show a different starry sky inside? Humans on Earth no longer rely solely on optical telescopes to observe the universe. Other methods, like radio telescopes and gravitational wave detectors, often produce results that support one another.

"There is definitely something off here!"

Following that train of thought, he quickly grasped the key point.

What if the illusion array's starry sky is the actual space beyond the Realm of Exiled Immortals' barrier? Earth's methods of observation wouldn't yield the same results otherwise! Emperor Ziwei must have already discovered the realm's secret, yet he still allowed Earth's inhabitants to see the actual space beyond it for some reason. What does that imply?

The distorted flow of time within the Realm of Exiled Immortals, the unseen barrier that blocked me, the hyperspherical structure embedded within that invisible wall, and the single wormhole serving as its only entrance and exit...

Wang Sheng felt his immortal mind overheat.

Just as he was about to discuss it with Yaoyun, she telepathically exclaimed, "

Come here! This statue didn't break naturally. Someone shattered it! Follow the cracks where they meet, and you'll find a palm print!

"

With a grave expression, Wang Sheng threw aside all his previous thoughts and flew to her side.

1. Although Wang Sheng took his time cultivating, he still progressed faster than other cultivators. This is likely why the author considered his cultivation as rushed. ☜