Falling into the Void

An Lan's eyes had gone completely red. Every move she made was a desperate, all-out clash, yet she had never expected Gong Ze, knowing he was doomed to die, not to resist in the slightest. Instead, he borrowed her hand to add fuel to the flames, making those sparks of life burn in a single breath to a realm Gong Ze could never have reached while alive.

The section of the half-Blessed Land where Jinlan Mine was located, the part that overlapped with the Wasteland, had been forcibly burned apart by him. Vast stretches of land had also been reduced to ashes, and a gap had now appeared between the two.

And as luck would have it, the thing filling those gaps was the raging magma that had burned through everything. It only made the fissures grow wider, like drinking poison to quench thirst.

An Lan took out a pill and swallowed it. Her face instantly flushed crimson, and her aura continued to rise. She formed seals with both hands, guiding the thunder in the sky into a great river that came crashing down, washing over the magma filling the fissures.

Countless enormous icicles burst from the magma, stabbing into both ends of the fissures. They were immediately burned into vapor by the magma, rising in clouds, while even more massive icicles exploded out of thin air, forcibly welding the two sides of the fissures together.

Snow and magma locked into a stalemate, while the thunder in the sky fell like a torrential rain, roaring down in sheets.

When Jinlan Mine had just begun to tremble, the people in the village had already started rushing out of the underground mine shafts.

Even so, dozens of people were still sealed underground by the collapsing tunnels.

The earth's shaking grew more and more violent, leaving not even a moment to catch their breath.

"Outside!" Old Yang shouted. The remaining people could no longer spare time to rescue those who had not been buried underground. They could only flee the village first and seek shelter.

However, the moment Yu Ziqing, Old Yang, and the others charged out of the village and crossed the Abyss of Despair, they saw flames soaring into the sky ahead.

The air twisted. In front of the village, a magma river dozens of yards wide had appeared, its searing flames forming a colossal wall of fire two or three hundred yards high.

The earth transformed into magma right before their eyes, and everything turned to ashes.

Then they saw the pitch-black sky brighten. Countless blue-gold bolts of thunder surged like a great river, splitting open the flames before plunging into the magma river.

Massive icicles dozens of yards long burst from the magma. An icy road built from layer upon layer of ice formed across the magma river, only for the icicles to vaporize one after another, with new ones appearing in their place. The magma river cooled and heated again in turn, the two forces locked in a tug-of-war.

Yu Ziqing stared blankly at the terrifying power before him. Though he was far away and had already reached the third level of Body Refining, he still felt a burning pain across his skin.

He had no idea what had happened.

He had once imagined that the worsening chaos outside might spread to Jinlan Mine, but he had never imagined it would spread in this way.

Just standing outside that world of ice and fire and watching from afar, he already needed to circulate his Blood Essence to resist the heat outside. Without Body Refining, the moment he saw these things, he would probably have been roasted alive.

The next moment, when a new bolt of thunder struck the magma river and a new giant icicle exploded inside it, the entire magma river suddenly blew apart as well.

Scalding magma and bone-chilling frost mixed together, transforming into a torrential rain that spread in every direction.

The densely packed Locust tree forest on the slope to the right also suffered a fatal blow.

Flames and frost fell sparsely into it, at first swallowed by the layer of fallen leaves on the ground.

But it was obvious that these forces had already exceeded the Locust tree forest's limits.

Tree after tree burst into flame, turning into blazing torches. Other trees froze into blocks of ice and shattered across the ground at the slightest impact.

The people who had just rushed out of the village had no choice but to retreat into the Abyss of Despair.

Yet even after entering the Abyss of Despair, they could still see flames and shards of ice shooting inside, falling without cease. After those flames landed, they continued burning for a long time, blazing in midair as though nothing could extinguish them.

The people had no choice but to retreat into the village before they could stop being caught in the disaster.

By then, more or less, everyone had suffered frostbite and burns. Fortunately, the two opposing forces had annihilated a great deal of each other. Otherwise, this wave alone would have killed many people in the village.

Old Yang's entire body had turned black. Much of his wool had been burned away in bald patches, and large areas of burns and frostbite crisscrossed his skin.

He paid no attention to his injuries. As he gazed outside the village, despair had already surfaced in his eyes.

"It's over. The mine is going to fall into the void."

"What happened?"

"I don't know either. I only know that it's over..." Old Yang was rarely this flustered. He looked toward the outside.

"Jinlan Mine is a rare half-Blessed Land. Part of its space overlaps with the Wasteland—that area outside the village entrance. The section inside the village is an entirely independent space.

"Now, someone with supreme divine abilities has melted through the connected section, and the overlapping section has been burned away completely. This place is going to fall into the void."

Yu Ziqing's thoughts raced, and he hurriedly asked another question.

"Is someone putting out the fire outside?"

"Putting out the fire my ass! If that person does nothing, this place will fall into the void. If he intervenes, it'll fall even faster. When such violently merging ice and fire continue to a certain point, they'll explode outright, completely blasting apart the connection that has already been severed!

"The path has also been sealed by the two forces. No one can escape!"

While they exchanged those few words, another mutation occurred outside.

The magma river that had originally stretched across the outside exploded from within once more. Scalding steam transformed into a white pillar of smoke, carrying a mournful howl as it shot straight into the sky.

Following the horizontal magma river, a fissure appeared in the earth and extended vertically toward the village.

Puffs of scalding steam erupted from the fissure. Then magma radiating dazzling light sprayed out of it, and the fissure continued widening.

The Abyss of Despair where Cècè stood and the Locust tree forest on the right were split in two by this magma river.

After just a few breaths, the accumulated pressure could no longer be suppressed. Another thunderous boom came from beneath the earth, and the slope where the Abyss of Despair lay and the slope where the Locust tree forest stood were sent flying.

At the end of the magma river, the mist at the village entrance also suddenly dispersed at that moment.

But behind the dissipating mist was only a huge pit stretching for more than ten miles. Beyond the pit lay the snow-covered Wasteland.

Jinlan Mine, the village, and the mountains that had once surrounded the village had all vanished.

Faintly, a pitch-black fissure could still be seen in the huge pit, slowly healing as the world restored the missing space.

And Jinlan Mine had fallen into the void.

An Lan hovered in midair, her face shifting between green and white. She had never imagined that things would ultimately develop this way.

She could not understand how Gong Ze could have cared so much about Jinlan Mine.

When she saw Gong Ze standing there with his head raised, laughing wildly at the sky, she understood.

Gong Ze himself had not known. He had merely made a probing attempt at the moment of his death, leaving a trace for the people of Great Li.

But when she intervened to stop him, Gong Ze had confirmed it.

One of the most important reasons the Dharma Treasure in her hands had emerged was the Jinlan Ore produced by Jinlan Mine.

An Lan's expression was terribly ugly. Looking back now, she understood as well.

She had to intervene. If she did nothing, everything would be completely over. If she intervened, there was still a chance to salvage something.

No matter how she thought about it, the result had already become this.

She had come out this time without earning great merit. Instead, she had taken on a massive blame.

Many of Great Qian's plans would be forced to halt.

Several months earlier, when the One Day Cold in her hands had emerged, she had already suggested it.

They should immediately act and take control of Jinlan Mine.

That was because the Jinlan extracted from Jinlan Ore was the key ingredient for refining this Dharma Treasure.

Before that, although the research and experiments on Jinlan Ore had been slightly better than the other useless scraps, they had not been much better. Jinlan Ore had merely been one of countless small fish caught while casting a wide net.

There were simply too many places holding similar small fish, each counting only as an insignificant idle move. Before they showed any value, Great Qian could not station people and experts in every single place.

But once they displayed value, everything changed.

Unfortunately, at that time, the disaster of Great Sun Descends had just erupted across the Wasteland, drawing everyone's attention.

After Great Qian discussed the matter, they felt it would be better to maintain the status quo for the time being. Acting immediately would draw too much attention. They would wait until the matter of the Wasteland was over, or until some new major event shifted everyone's gaze elsewhere, and then quietly take Jinlan Mine into their hands.

But now, they would never see that day. The mine was gone.

In the village, the earth continued to tremble violently. After the shaking reached its limit and the mountains collapsed and the earth split apart, it suddenly came to a halt.

Yu Ziqing raised his head and looked at the sky.

He could no longer see the stars in the night. The dim sky now seemed to have gained patches of blackness, pure black spots. Elsewhere, there were scattered points of light, and fissures ran across the heavens.

The mist at the village entrance had also vanished, replaced by a cliff. Beyond the village entrance was deep darkness, absolute darkness, without the slightest glimmer of light.

It was as if someone had forcibly severed the earth.

"We've already fallen into the void..." Old Yang murmured as he stared at the darkness beyond the village entrance.

"If a Spirit Refining cultivator in the Yang God realm were here, there might still be a chance to return. But for us, there is only one outcome: to become lost in the void forever together with the mine."

The more one understood, the more clearly one realized just how desperate their current situation was.

Yu Ziqing fell silent for a moment. He looked at the villagers in the village, panic-stricken and utterly clueless about what to do; at Old Yang, whose heart was filled with despair; and at the Village Chief, who was forcing himself to remain standing.

This was the only place he had found in this world where he could eat his fill and stay warm. It was also the only place where anyone had ever treated him well.

Now someone was going to destroy it.

And, incidentally, kill him and everyone here as well.

Thanks to "Minor1" and White Dog's Fleeting Moment for the ten-thousand-point donation. Thank you for your generosity and support.