"Doesn't this darkness look like a lid?" The Progenitor's voice came again.
Lu Yin was astonished. "A lid?"
The Progenitor nodded. "Perhaps we're all covered up, unable to see the real starry sky. We'll only see it once the lid is opened."
He turned and smiled at Lu Yin. "Like food trapped under a serving dish."
Lu Yin was speechless. "Senior, that joke isn't funny."
The Progenitor smiled faintly. "I wasn't joking. At least I didn't call you Zhu Zi."
Lu Yin looked up again. This time, the more he looked, the stranger it seemed. A lid, a lid, food? The more he looked, the more it resembled a lid—and the more unnerving it became.
Was this what the Progenitor meant when he said to be afraid?
Lu Yin stopped looking.
Several days later, the Boundless came to a complete stop.
Lu Yin stepped out of the Boundless. The Cubic Distance felt much like the real starry sky, but there had to be a difference. It simply wasn't very noticeable at his level.
"Let's get started," Chu Yi said. They were going to build the stepping stone.
Lu Yin took out the Supreme Mountain and released Yuan Qi and the Star Toad. "Together."
The Star Toad looked bewildered. "Do what?"
Yuan Qi frowned. "Build that astral phenomenon?"
Chu Yi's gaze swept over them. "That's right. Come on."
The Star Toad was led away, utterly confused. Looking back, it saw that it had truly left the Heavenly Origin Universe. It felt bitter. It was a mighty Tribulation Realm expert, yet it couldn't even have its freedom. What kind of cultivation was this?
A year later, the Boundless set out again, traveling toward the distance by way of the stepping stone.
Year after year passed, until eighteen years later, when the Boundless