Haikong Zhizang

High in the vault of heaven, all was silent in every direction.

He Ping gazed into the distance and saw that the gateway was enormous, yet it did not stand upon the ground—it hung in midair. At first glance, he had nearly taken it for a colossal floating island. But looking more closely, he saw several enormous pillars standing upon the floating isle, their diameters beyond all reason, as though they had been fashioned from the Ancient Lunar Tree of myth, the tree said to hold up heaven and earth.

The pillars were crimson-red, and identical giant pillars stood in the distance. Several pillars rose straight to the sky, where they intersected at right angles with two horizontal pillars. In the end, the crisscrossing pillars enclosed vast squares, forming three gateways.

These three gateways hung in the air, emanating a boundless and majestic aura. They were so immense that, even from an extreme distance, one could feel the pressure released by their tremendous mass. They were a spectacular giant marvel so vast it made one lose all sense of distance.

"So this is the Realm-Sealing Gate?!"

On the deck at the bow, He Ping could not help drawing a deep breath at the sight, struck by shock. The three enormous gates bore down upon him head-on, as though they were three colossal portals born from the void when the universe had first opened.

He examined them more carefully, and his brows furrowed.

Beyond the three enormous doors, which gave rise to such a bizarre sense of distorted distance, lay a gray, murky space. It resembled the scene from before heaven and earth had separated, when clear and turbid were still undivided, giving one the feeling that the void beyond would forever remain uncivilized.

"The Realm-Sealing Gate has sealed off the