Chapter 94: When Two Heavens Behold Each Other
BOOOOOOM!
The sky roared again.
Far beyond the ruined road, the enormous crack above the Central Region stretched across the heavens, its jagged edges glowing with a mixture of golden radiance and crimson darkness. The two colors twisted around each other like blood spreading through clear water, refusing to blend.
Han Feng stood beside the broken monument, watching from a distance.
The pressure was growing.
Even from here, he could feel the spiritual energy gathering around the Central Region. The air seemed heavier with every passing breath, pressing against his chest and making his damaged meridians ache.
Beside him, Shen Lian struggled to remain standing.
"What kind of power is that?" she whispered.
Han Feng didn't answer.
He had no answer to give.
Then another aura descended from the heavens.
Ancient.
Vast.
Unmistakably different from the unstable energy leaking through the fissures.
It swept across the horizon like an invisible mountain, and the spiritual currents throughout the region immediately bent beneath its pressure.
Shen Lian's legs gave way.
She dropped to her knees, her face drained of color.
"I-Immortal..."
Han Feng's expression tightened.
A figure had appeared above the distant clouds.
It was too far away to distinguish its features. Only a faint silhouette could be seen standing within a halo of pale gold.
Yet the surrounding space curved subtly around that figure.
Clouds parted without wind.
The spiritual energy of the heavens flowed toward it.
Han Feng had heard stories about Gu Immortals. Every cultivation organization possessed legends about those who had transcended the limits of ordinary cultivators. Some were described as ancient monsters who had lived for thousands of years. Others were said to possess enough power to erase entire sects from the map.
He had never witnessed one acting openly.
Now he understood why those stories sounded so different from the accounts of ordinary cultivators.
The figure had not attacked.
It had merely arrived.
And the world was already responding.
Then a second aura appeared.
A third followed.
Soon, several distant points of light could be seen moving toward the Central Region.
Some traveled through the clouds.
Others crossed the horizon so quickly that Han Feng could barely follow them.
The Gu Immortals were gathering.
Not secretly.
Not through their disciples.
They were coming in person.
Han Feng felt his stomach sink.
Something has frightened them enough to abandon their usual caution.
That was far more alarming than the fissure itself.
Powerful cultivators rarely exposed their true strength without a reason. The stronger they became, the more carefully they guarded their position, their resources, and the secrets that allowed them to survive.
If several Gu Immortals were willing to reveal their movements simultaneously, then whatever had happened in the Central Region was no longer something they could safely leave to their subordinates.
The balance of the Gu World was being tested.
And the people who stood at its summit had finally noticed.
The Celestial Diagram vibrated.
Han Feng stiffened.
The sensation was deeper than before, traveling through his consciousness like the distant tolling of an ancient bell.
Its golden lines slowly illuminated.
One symbol.
Then another.
The faint connection left behind after his battle on the ancient road trembled, but it did not collapse.
Han Feng immediately stopped circulating his Qi.
He had learned the hard way that the Diagram's reactions were not always harmless.
"What is it now?" he muttered.
The golden lines continued to move.
Then something changed at the center of the hexagonal structure.
A tiny crack appeared.
Han Feng froze.
It was narrow, no wider than a hairline.
Yet unlike the patterns surrounding it, this mark did not seem to have been carved into the Diagram.
It looked as though the Diagram itself had split.
Han Feng's spiritual sense instinctively approached it.
A wave of pressure struck him.
He immediately withdrew.
Pain flashed behind his eyes.
For an instant, his consciousness felt stretched between two opposing directions, as if something on the other side of the crack had pulled at him.
Then he sensed it.
Energy.
Not primordial essence.
Not Gu essence.
Not the corrupted force that had flowed through the fissures.
This energy was remarkably pure.
It possessed a depth that made the ordinary spiritual currents of the Gu World seem shallow by comparison. Yet there was no recognizable cultivation method within it, no familiar circulation pattern, and no obvious trace of hostility.
It simply existed.
Ancient and silent.
Han Feng's breathing slowed.
What are you?
He did not reach toward it again.
Every instinct warned him against doing so.
The crack might be a passage.
It might be a wound.
Or it might be nothing more than a flaw in the Diagram that had become visible under the pressure of the Immortals' auras.
He had no evidence to distinguish between those possibilities.
And he had already suffered enough from touching things he did not understand.
The tiny golden crack remained.
Han Feng forced his attention away from it.
For now, observation was enough.
Another explosion shook the horizon.
BOOOOM!
A dark mark appeared between the clouds.
At first, it resembled a stain spreading across the sky.
Then the stain widened.
Space split apart.
A huge fissure opened above the Central Region, its jagged edges twisting as though the heavens themselves were being torn from within.
Han Feng's expression changed.
This was different from the small ruptures he had witnessed along the ancient road.
The opening was enormous.
Even at this distance, its edges were clearly visible. The clouds surrounding it were drawn into spirals, and the sunlight seemed to bend as it approached the fracture.
Something moved inside.
A shape emerged from the darkness.
It was gigantic, its body formed from fused masses of smoke and flesh. Its limbs appeared incomplete, dissolving at the edges before reforming elsewhere. Strange ridges ran along its back, and beneath its indistinct head, several red lights flickered like dying stars.
The creature forced itself through the fissure.
The moment its body entered the Gu World, the surrounding sky darkened.
Shen Lian covered her mouth.
"What... is that?"
Han Feng stared at the monstrosity.
He could not sense its exact cultivation.
That alone was troubling.
The creature's presence distorted the spiritual currents around it so severely that his perception returned only fragments: immense pressure, unfamiliar energy, and a chaotic fluctuation that seemed to resist the world's natural laws.
It was not simply a powerful spirit beast.
Nor did it resemble any Gu-based creature Han Feng had encountered.
It looked as though the world had rejected its existence, yet it had forced its way inside regardless.
The creature opened its mouth.
A roar swept across the heavens.
The mountains beneath it trembled.
At their distance, Han Feng still felt the sound pass through his bones.
Shen Lian nearly collapsed again.
Han Feng caught her shoulder and steadied her.
"Don't look directly at it. Keep your breathing steady."
"How can you say that so calmly?"
"I'm not calm."
He kept his eyes on the horizon.
"I'm calculating how far away we need to be if that thing moves."
Shen Lian stared at him.
Then she turned back toward the creature.
Above it, the golden silhouette moved.
There was no grand declaration.
No formation of countless swords.
No elaborate display of power.
The Immortal simply raised one hand.
A thin beam of golden light descended from the heavens.
It made no sound.
It did not even disturb the clouds.
The beam passed through the creature's body.
For a fraction of a second, nothing happened.
Then a straight line appeared across the monstrosity's torso.
Its enormous body separated into two halves.
The creature did not even have time to fall.
Its flesh disintegrated into countless black particles, each fragment dissolving before it could reach the ground.
The golden beam vanished.
Silence returned to the horizon.
Han Feng stood motionless.
His mind struggled to reconcile what he had witnessed.
The creature's aura had been powerful enough to distort his perception from miles away.
Yet the Immortal had destroyed it with a single attack.
No prolonged battle.
No visible exertion.
No apparent cost.
Shen Lian's voice emerged as little more than a whisper.
"How can anyone become that powerful?"
Han Feng had no answer.
But one thought settled heavily in his mind.
If that is the difference between Rank 5 and an Immortal... then everything I've experienced so far has barely touched the real world.
His own strength, his Gu, his cleverness, and the Celestial Diagram might allow him to survive situations that should have killed him.
But they did not place him on the same level as those figures.
Not even close.
Then he noticed something.
The fissure remained open.
The creature had been destroyed, but the enormous wound in the sky had not narrowed.
Instead, its edges began to spread.
Slowly at first.
Then more rapidly.
Han Feng's expression hardened.
The creature wasn't the source.
It had merely been the first thing to emerge.
The Immortal had eliminated the immediate threat, but the boundary itself remained damaged.
Perhaps the attack had even made the situation worse.
He could not be certain.
What he could see was enough.
The crack continued widening.
And something on the other side was waiting.
The three stars began to shine.
Red.
Purple.
Gold.
Their light pierced the swirling clouds, and for an instant the entire horizon seemed to reflect their colors.
Han Feng's body stiffened.
The Celestial Diagram erupted into motion.
Its golden lines spun so violently that the symbols blurred together. The tiny crack at its center widened by a fraction.
Pain stabbed through Han Feng's chest.
He staggered.
The golden seal beneath his skin burned.
"Han Feng!"
Shen Lian caught his arm before he fell.
He barely heard her.
His consciousness had been pulled inward.
The ruined road disappeared.
The mountains vanished.
He stood in an endless void.
There was no ground beneath his feet, yet he did not fall.
No wind moved through the darkness.
No stars illuminated the distance.
And before him—
Two worlds.
He could not see them as ordinary landscapes. They appeared as immense fields of existence, each governed by a different pattern of laws.
One resembled the Gu World.
Its countless spiritual currents flowed through mountains, rivers, and living beings. Its order was intricate, layered, and ancient.
The other was different.
Its structure resisted his perception. The energy within it moved according to principles he could not interpret, and even the surrounding darkness seemed to possess a depth unlike anything he had encountered.
The two worlds were separate.
Their boundaries remained distinct.
But cracks had begun to spread through the space between them.
Not a single rupture.
Thousands.
Thin fractures stretched across the darkness like scars in glass. Some flickered and disappeared. Others widened before stopping abruptly, as though an unseen force were holding them in place.
The worlds were not merging.
Not yet.
But something was placing pressure on the barrier that kept them apart.
Han Feng watched as the cracks extended.
Then he sensed two presences.
The first was distant and silent.
Its existence carried a coldness that seemed to transcend ordinary emotion. It was not the chaotic hunger he had felt from the corrupted fissures. It did not claw at the boundaries or force its way through.
It simply observed.
The second presence was equally distant, but its nature was different.
Calm.
Deep.
Vast enough that Han Feng could not determine where it began or ended.
It felt like an abyss that had existed long before the stars above it.
Neither presence approached the other.
Yet something changed.
The instant one became aware of the other, the surrounding void trembled.
The cracks between the worlds flickered.
For a moment, Han Feng felt the weight of two immense wills turning toward the same point.
Not toward him.
Toward each other.
His thoughts went still.
They can sense one another.
He did not know who they were.
He could not identify their cultivation, their origins, or their intentions.
But he understood the danger.
If beings of that magnitude began acting in response to each other, even indirectly, the consequences could spread far beyond their control.
The cracks widened.
A distant pressure swept through the void.
Han Feng felt something pull at his consciousness.
Then the tiny golden fissure inside the Celestial Diagram opened another fraction.
The pure energy on its other side stirred.
Han Feng instinctively recoiled.
No.
He forced his attention away from it.
I'm not opening that.
The Diagram did not obey him.
For one terrifying instant, the golden crack glowed with an intensity that made the surrounding void seem dim.
Then—
A voice reached him.
"Interesting..."
Calm.
Distant.
Almost casual.
The voice did not carry the madness of the corrupted creatures.
It held no obvious threat.
That made it harder to understand.
Han Feng tried to locate its source.
He could not.
The sound seemed to come from beyond the two worlds, or perhaps from somewhere within the space separating them.
Before he could gather himself, the presence withdrew.
The void shattered.
Han Feng opened his eyes.
He was back on the ancient road.
Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
His knees nearly buckled, and only Shen Lian's grip kept him upright.
"What's happening to you?" she demanded.
Han Feng wiped the blood away.
"Something I don't understand."
"That doesn't help!"
"It's the truth."
He looked down at his chest.
The golden seal had stopped burning, but the skin around it remained painfully warm.
Inside his consciousness, the Celestial Diagram had fallen silent.
The tiny fissure was still there.
So was the pure energy beyond it.
Neither had disappeared.
Han Feng's expression grew darker.
The vision had not given him an answer.
It had only revealed a larger problem.
The boundary between the worlds was weakening, but the worlds themselves remained separate. Something was placing pressure on the barrier, and the most powerful beings on either side might be reacting without understanding the full consequences.
Could the Immortals' actions be accelerating the damage?
Possibly.
Could the two distant presences be contributing to it?
Possibly.
He could not turn suspicion into certainty simply because the vision had frightened him.
But he had witnessed enough to know that the danger was real.
A fresh explosion shook the horizon.
Han Feng turned.
The enormous fissure above the Central Region had expanded again.
Its interior no longer showed only darkness.
Through the opening, Han Feng could make out a different sky.
Strange mountains rose beneath it, their silhouettes unlike the familiar peaks of the Gu World. Beyond them stretched a vast landscape under unfamiliar light.
For the first time, the two worlds were visible to each other through a single opening.
Not a complete crossing.
Not a fusion.
But an unmistakable breach in the barrier that had kept them apart.
Shen Lian stared in disbelief.
"That's..."
"The other side," Han Feng said quietly.
She gripped his arm harder.
"Does that mean they can come here?"
Han Feng watched the distant sky.
"Some things already have."
He thought of the corrupted man.
The black hands emerging from the fissures.
The immense creature destroyed by the golden beam.
Then he considered the other possibility.
If the boundary had weakened enough for the Gu World to see another world, could the reverse also be true?
Could the beings beyond the barrier see them?
Could they observe the Gu Immortals gathering beneath the sky?
Could they recognize the Celestial Diagram?
Han Feng's chest tightened.
The voice returned to his memory.
Interesting.
It had sounded as though someone had discovered a new piece on a board.
Not an enemy.
Not a threat.
Simply something worth watching.
Han Feng disliked that possibility more than he wanted to admit.
Being hunted was dangerous.
Being used was worse.
But being studied by an existence whose intentions he could not comprehend...
That was a different kind of danger altogether.
The Immortals in the distance began to move.
One golden light shot toward the fissure.
Another descended toward the mountains below it.
Several others spread outward, forming a loose perimeter around the affected region.
Even from afar, their movements appeared coordinated.
They were no longer simply observing.
They were responding.
Yet none of them seemed willing to approach the center of the rupture directly.
Perhaps they feared another creature would emerge.
Perhaps they were examining the structure of the boundary.
Or perhaps they had discovered something that Han Feng could not see.
He watched as one figure raised a hand.
A vast formation began to appear across the sky, its lines extending over the clouds like a net of pale light.
For several breaths, the fissure stopped widening.
Hope stirred faintly in Shen Lian's expression.
"Are they sealing it?"
Han Feng studied the formation.
"I don't know."
The light spread.
The crack trembled.
Then a dark ripple passed through the opening.
Every line in the formation flickered at once.
The Immortal who had raised the formation immediately withdrew several steps.
The net of light remained intact, but its glow dimmed.
Han Feng's expression hardened.
Whatever lay beyond the boundary had reacted to the attempt.
The Immortals had not lost control of the situation entirely.
But neither did they possess an effortless solution.
Another golden light streaked across the sky.
Then a purple one.
The gathered auras intensified, and the clouds above the Central Region began rotating in opposite directions.
The pressure reached Han Feng several breaths later.
He felt it in his bones.
His damaged meridians tightened, and his vision briefly blurred.
Shen Lian lowered her head, unable to withstand the pressure.
Han Feng immediately activated the Art of the Celestial Veil, suppressing his presence as much as his weakened condition allowed.
It did little against the Immortals' overwhelming auras.
Still, it was better than nothing.
He pulled Shen Lian toward the remains of the roadside monument.
"We're leaving."
She looked at him in disbelief.
"But the sky—"
"Will still be there when we're gone."
"What if the worlds really do collide?"
Han Feng glanced at her.
"They haven't collided."
He looked toward the immense fissure.
"Something is trying to cross a boundary. That is already dangerous enough. We don't need to stand beneath it to prove the danger exists."
Shen Lian swallowed and nodded.
They began moving away from the road.
Han Feng kept his pace slow, careful not to place too much strain on his injured body. Each step sent pain through his chest, but he refused to let it show more than necessary.
He had no intention of dying because he had been curious.
Not today.
Not after coming this far.
As they crossed the ruined hillside, he glanced once more toward the Celestial Diagram.
The tiny golden fissure remained motionless.
The pure energy beyond it was still present.
Waiting.
Han Feng did not touch it.
Instead, he closed his awareness around the Diagram and focused on the road ahead.
He had learned three things.
The first: the barrier between the worlds was weakening, but it had not yet collapsed.
The second: the Gu Immortals could destroy creatures that would be impossible for him to fight, yet even their power could not easily repair the damage.
And the third—
Something on the other side had noticed the disturbances.
Perhaps it had noticed the Immortals.
Perhaps it had noticed the fissure.
Perhaps it had noticed Han Feng.
He did not know which possibility was correct.
That uncertainty was enough.
Behind them, the heavens roared once more.
Far above the Central Region, the red, purple, and golden stars burned with unnatural intensity.
And within the Celestial Diagram, the small crack remained.
A hairline fracture in a mystery that Han Feng had barely begun to understand.
He had no idea what waited beyond it.
But for the first time, he feared that the answer might not be a treasure, an inheritance, or a new path to power.
It might be a witness.
Something that had been watching the worlds long before the first fissure appeared.
And now, at last, it had found something interesting enough to speak.
The worlds had not yet collided.
But someone beyond the boundary had begun to pay attention.