"Are you dead yet?"
Through Chen Lin's haze, a voice sounded beside his ear, seeming both real and illusory.
Another long while passed.
Only then did his awareness slowly return.
Then he tasted salt in his throat and, with a retch, spat out a great mouthful of thick liquid.
Excruciating pain immediately followed, wracking his entire body.
It felt as though he were being sliced apart by a thousand blades, but the pain also hastened his awakening. Soon, his eyelids fluttered, and he slowly opened his eyes.
Dimness filled his vision.
A reddish figure stood beside him, watching him with two beady eyes.
The memories in his mind gradually resurfaced.
Chen Lin shifted his body, but he was too weak to stand.
"Where are we?"
He gave up trying to rise and asked the Red-Haired Mouse. At this point, however, the mouse had no hair left. His bald body was covered in wounds, and his condition was barely better than Chen Lin's.
"How would I know!"
The Red-Haired Mouse rolled his eyes.
Then he said furiously, "Weren't you the one using that divine ability? I told you to go to the giant gate, and you went straight out of the headquarters instead! Do you have any idea how terrifying the Exquisite Sect's Guardian Mountain Formation is? You actually dared to force your way through it! If this king hadn't protected you, you'd have been reduced to dust!"
"Thank you."
Chen Lin gave a bitter smile.
"I wasn't trying to force my way through. The talisman's energy was too powerful for me to control precisely, so there was a slight deviation during the Spatial Leap."
"A slight deviation?"
The Red-Haired Mouse rolled his eyes again.
"Good thing it was only slight, or we'd have ended up outside this world! Don't show