Just as the Puppet Dao Grandmasters were desperate to uncover the truth behind the upheaval and learn of Li Chen's current condition, Li Chen was sinking into a mysterious state of emptiness and desolation, dimly unaware of how or why.
He knew neither life nor death, neither where he had come from nor where he was going. His true spirit drifted like a wandering ghost through a dark space without distance or time.
Li Chen felt no urgency, either. He paid no mind to his identity or origins and simply drifted aimlessly, wherever he pleased.
Suddenly, the darkness ahead turned into an open wilderness. Beneath a hazy gray sky, a faintly familiar landscape emerged.
Not a blade of grass grew around him. The land was an unusually barren, desolate Gobi wasteland. Li Chen alone descended to the ground and wandered about at leisure like an ordinary mortal.
Suddenly, a skull appeared on the ground for no apparent reason.
It was clearly a human skull, lying alone on the ground like a broken roof tile. There was no telling whose remains had been left here, or how long time had buried them.
For some reason, Li Chen laughed at the sight of the skull. He bent down, picked it up, and tapped it, asking in irrepressible amusement, "Did you fall into this state because you clung to life and turned your back on reason, or were you hacked to death by blades and axes when your country fell and your family perished? Did you do something that brought shame upon your parents, wife, and children, or did hunger and cold beset you until Heaven struck you down?"
"You, oh, you. What a pitiful thing you are!"
After mockingly teasing the skull like a madman, Li Chen grew sleepy. He simply set