Chen Yan temporarily cast his doubts to the back of his mind and began to explore this strange world.
A long corridor extended from the void; there were no walls on either side, only churning, grayish-white mist.
Beneath his feet was a translucent material that felt slightly soft to the touch, yet one could clearly see flowing light and shadow beneath it—like clouds, like water, or like some chaotic substance caught between reality and illusion.
At the end of the corridor, a soft radiance shone through, as if someone had lit an eternal lamp there.
Chen Yan quickened his pace and soon arrived at a grand hall.
To call it a hall was an understatement; it was more like a sacred realm of clouds suspended above a ruin of stellar debris.
The dome was unfathomably high, with countless fine specks of starlight spilling down from above like an inverted galaxy.
Beneath his feet lay solid slabs of transparent crystal, through which one could see the bottomless void below, where shattered planetary remains, broken giant pillars, and unrecognizable, faintly glowing, strange artifacts drifted.
The entire space blended reality and illusion, profound and unfathomable, making it impossible to tell whether one was standing on solid ground or suspended in mid-air.
The hall was immense, with a ceiling over a hundred meters high; at a glance, it was wide enough to accommodate an entire army.
Tens of thousands of figures were scattered throughout the hall—some sat cross-legged, some stood with hands behind their backs, some whispered in small groups, and others stood alone in corners, eyes closed in contemplation.
Despite so many people gathered together, it did not feel crowded in the slightest; on the contrary, one felt the hall could easily hold ten times as many.
"There are so many people." Chen