The instant Lin Hai stepped through the Portal, weightlessness enveloped his entire body. He instinctively circulated the energy within him and activated the magic the Ancient One had placed on him to steady himself. Only then did he take in the cosmic environment he had formally entered for the first time.
It was an experience unlike anything he had ever known.
The blackness of space was so pure, so profound, that it seemed capable of swallowing all light and sound.
Absolute silence enveloped him, making the beating of his own heart stand out with unusual clarity.
First, he looked back. The blue planet that had nurtured countless lives on Earth now appeared to him as a beautiful sphere only slightly larger than a basketball.
Sunlight traced a dazzling halo around Earth's rim. The vast blue oceans, swirling white clouds, and faint outlines of land across its surface formed a picture of tranquil grandeur.
An indescribable sense of awe and insignificance welled up within him.
That's home, Lin Hai murmured inwardly.
His gaze instinctively searched for that familiar silver satellite, but he found no sign of it within his field of view.
Oh, right. The moon should be on the other side of Earth right now. He quickly realized why.
Then he turned toward the sun.
The star that supplied Earth with light and heat still radiated a brilliance too intense to look at directly, but it appeared no different in size from when he viewed it on Earth. That visual effect was a result of distance. All in all, it was a rather wondrous feeling.
As for the other planets in the Solar System—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and the rest—against the vast backdrop of space, they appeared to him as nothing more than relatively bright, pinpoint "stars." He could not