After Angel emerged from the passage, he immediately sensed the terrifying pressure bearing down on him once more.
Fortunately, he had prepared in advance and could still barely withstand it.
He looked back. The passage to the world within the painting had already begun to dissipate. As it vanished, the painting in the treasure chest, as though it had fulfilled every last part of its mission, also began to turn into faint particles of light, ultimately dissolving completely into nothingness.
Only after seeing both the painting and the passage disappear did Angel begin to take stock of his surroundings.
It was still that circular stone platform floating in the void, and above him still drifted light algae like stars.
Nothing had changed, yet Angel felt that the pressure around him seemed to have grown stronger.
As Angel thought this, his shoulders suddenly sank involuntarily... Had the pressure's effect upon the material realm begun to intensify?
Why had this happened?
According to what Feng had said before, as long as Taiande's First-Phase Ritual remained intact, the pressure atop the stone platform should have stayed basically constant.
Feeling the pressure grow ever stronger, a guess arose in Angel's heart: Could something have gone wrong with the First-Phase Ritual?
Angel hesitantly turned around and looked toward the Light Road by which he had come.
Then he discovered that at the far end of the Light Road, some of the Void Light Algae—the condition sustaining the ritual—had begun to dim.
It was like streetlamps being extinguished.
And it was not merely one or two streetlamps. Starting from the end of the Light Road, vast numbers of them had gone out. The trend showed no sign of stopping and was spreading toward him at tremendous speed.
With each streetlamp that went out, the pressure Angel