On Soul-Rending Mountain in the Dream Realm, Li Ling fled the cavern in one headlong rush. Once outside, he found that the world around him had changed dramatically.
When he first entered, he had already noticed countless ripples resembling distortions in space and time. Those were pivotal nodes in the river of spacetime. Now they abruptly intensified, roaring like a flood as endless vortices sprang out of thin air.
Within the vortices, black holes appeared one after another. Every one held an aura of chaos that inspired dread at a glance.
Although Li Ling had never entered them, he knew what they were from ancient books and the notes of his predecessors. They were places devoid of any chance of survival. Ordinary cultivators who stepped inside would immediately be exiled by spacetime, never to return to the present world.
Li Ling had no choice but to avoid those dangerous regions, doing his utmost to employ Shrinking Distance to Inches, Heaven at Arm's Length, and the other spells he had previously mastered in the Dream Realm as he continued fleeing outward.
Roar!
A furious roar like a wild beast's sounded behind him. The Flood Dragon was closing in.
The brute was nearly a thousand zhang long. Compared with the avatars Li Ling could manifest, it hardly counted as a colossus, but it possessed an unprecedentedly concentrated solidity.
It appeared gray within the dreamscape, sharing the texture of the surrounding ink-wash landscape. Yet its scales were pitch-black, and thick mist shrouded it, making it conspicuous even in this monotonous world of black and white.
It seemed to burn with a raging flame, the rolling black mist serving as its tongues of fire. Almost heedless of the surrounding vortices, it charged straight through them.
Strange, muffled sounds spread along its path. Amid thunderous