Unfortunately, Yumina's wild stunt came a step too late for Yuan Shikai.
Had she finished before Yuan Shikai left, a system notification would surely have sounded in his head.
He might even have turned around and run back to ask Yumina just how she had managed it.
As Yuan Shikai gazed at the golden gate, he felt countless gazes staring back at him.
As Yuan Shikai climbed the stairway to heaven, one step at a time, strange whispers reached his ears with every step, sending a chill through his entire body.
Some of those voices wailed, some raved, some spoke rationally, and some seethed with anger.
Hundreds upon thousands of voices mingled together, making his head ache with their clamor.
Though the voices differed, every one of them warned that opening the gate would leave him drifting endlessly through the cosmos.
Beyond the gate lay not a way home, but endless darkness and an eternal curse. The slightest misstep would doom him beyond redemption.
Yuan Shikai thought that perhaps these warnings were what had frightened Yumina.
But he no longer had any way to turn back. Perhaps he could live here peacefully with Yumina, but what about his family?
Upon reaching the top, Yuan Shikai opened the golden gate without hesitation.
A powerful suction dragged him straight through it. The golden gate then closed on its own, and everything fell silent again.
Yuan Shikai now stood on a platform. The golden gate had vanished, leaving him no way back.
Unlike what Yumina had described, Yuan Shikai saw not one path forward, but three.
Had Yumina seen them, her jaw would have dropped. Never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined that Yuan Shikai's anchors ran so deep.
Gathered starlight formed three roads, stretching in three different directions.
The first