Sure enough, no matter how many rings they ascended, humans were still humans, creatures of the natural world. They were simply more suited to the solid ground of the material realm. Yu Lian felt the firm contact between his feet and the ground through his Achilles tendons, and found that his mood had settled considerably as well.
In truth, he could smell neither the fragrance of the earth nor the breeze outdoors. All he could smell was a rank stench of blood and sweat pouring into his nostrils. But as long as he knew he had truly returned to the real universe, that was enough.
With that thought, Yu Lian looked around. He saw cold, hard metal floors and ceilings, rows of communication and control terminals, and lights that flickered with a cheap, tawdry glow. Straight ahead was an enormous floor-to-ceiling window, almost like an observation deck, over ten meters high and more than twenty meters wide. Beyond the transparent glass stretched the pitch-black expanse of space, dotted with flickering stars. Red and blue flashes occasionally streaked across one corner of the void, vanishing in an instant.
Yu Lian immediately realized he was probably in the command center of a space battle, or on the bridge of a large warship.
...Well, all right, the final space inside the Lonely Realm had looked a lot like this, but it hadn't felt nearly as real. Just look at this room: there were over a hundred intelligent beings he could see moving around, and quite a few of them were screaming in panic.
What was there to scream about? You people didn't know what was going on, and neither the hell did I! Yu Lian spat, then raised his light spear and, acting purely on instinct, swept it backhanded across the two troll