Ye Chen stepped into the spatial tunnel at the center of the bronze ring. What awaited him was a bizarre space blanketed in stars.
There was air here, yet no gravity. An invisible force, imperceptible to the naked eye, pushed against the boy's back and carried him forward through the air.
Ye Chen calmly observed the dazzling celestial scenery before him, then recalled the time he had traveled from the Eternal Winter Hidden Domain to the Sand-Grass Hidden Domain.
But unlike then, this time Ye Chen had neither family by his side nor enemies pursuing him.
At this moment, only the boy's tiny figure traveled soundlessly through this vast galaxy alone, an inevitably lonely and insignificant sight.
Ye Chen took a deep breath, spread his limbs to keep his balance, and let the strange space's energy propel his body as though he were drifting along the surface of water.
He drifted onward through the weightless space, ever forward.
Only after more than ten minutes had passed did the scene before Ye Chen finally change.
In an instant, sun and moon shifted, stars wheeled through the heavens, and the surroundings began to shake violently.
Ye Chen's gaze changed. He immediately raised his arms and knees, assuming a defensive posture.
Then, at the end of the spatial tunnel, a blaze of dazzling white light bloomed out of thin air. Like a sacred spring, it completely engulfed the boy's small body in an instant.
Crash—!
Ye Chen saw only white before his eyes as thunderous roars filled his ears. Instinctively, he squeezed his eyes shut while touching the rune-marked floral bracelet around his wrist, so that if he encountered any disaster or accident next, he could react at once and turn back home.
The violent tremors swiftly faded along with the white light.