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"Crossing a world barrier definitely isn't that simple," Zheng Fan muttered to himself. Deep down, he disapproved of Devimon's method of turning his body into data energy to cross the world barrier. Never mind that he couldn't do it-even if he could, he wouldn't.

The closer he came to the truth, the more frightened he felt.

Only after his body became a data body could he feel the barrier's affinity for him, but he also sensed its immensity. If they acted recklessly, even Digimon holding a passage permit would be finished. That was what his intuition told him.

For native Digimon like Devimon, the ability to shatter their bodies into data, keep that data together, and move freely depended on a power Zheng Fan knew nothing about. His spiritual sense simply couldn't freely control every bit of data energy throughout his body at once. Even repairing his body was a major undertaking that required Andromon's tools. All Zheng Fan could do was control the meridians inside his body, and not too many at a time. That did resemble Devimon's evasive move. Aside from Devimon, no Digimon in the Digimon World could exert such minute control over the data energy in any part of their body at will.

If subdivided carefully, a world barrier could contain dozens of layers. Contrary to common understanding, the more closed off a world barrier was, the fewer layers it had. Anything entering a world through its barrier, whether a living being, energy, or some extraordinary object, could pass as long as it met the requirements of a single layer. After he acquired a data body, the world barrier took on a clear, concrete form in Zheng Fan's perception. He sensed that the Digimon World's barrier actually had over a hundred layers. "Damn, a flesh-and-blood body is compatible with so little." The Digimon World's barrier accommodated such a broad range of things, yet rejected his flesh-and-blood body. Zheng Fan was deeply disgruntled. Still, his respect for Buzhou grew. Although the Digimon World wasn't included in Buzhou's records, everything about its world barrier matched what Buzhou had taught him.

I'm a founding master now, too. Buzhou has no materials teaching people how to gain a world barrier's acceptance. In this field, I'm the best there is, Zheng Fan thought. Indeed, even a mighty being capable of destroying worlds could only obediently leave when faced with a world barrier that denied entry, then slowly search for coordinates to jump to.

Although acceptance by just one layer allowed free passage through a world barrier, entering the world still required crossing all hundred-plus layers. The method Zheng Fan used to pass through them was the Traversing Technique.

Thirty percent of the worlds in the void were three-layer planes. The Earth World was one of them. The circumstances of the great domains, however, were kept secret. With powerful beings protecting them, it was impossible for outsiders to see through to their true nature.

All matter belonged to the first layer, the traversal realm was the second, and the teleportation realm was the third. That was the structure of a three-layer plane, and the Digimon World was no exception. The traversal realm was the same size as the first layer. It could be considered a world of shadows, and certain low- and mid-grade storage tools borrowed its space to store things. The Traversing Technique allowed one to walk through that shadow world in one's true body, naturally making passage effortless. But nothing in the world came that cheaply. In Buzhou's rankings, the traversal realm was even more dangerous than the cosmic starscape. Of course, the dangers of traveling among the stars came from the physical realm, while those of traveling through the void chiefly came from the realm of energy. Thus, powerful beings capable of walking through the void might not necessarily survive among the stars.

The various effective escape techniques passed down through the ages were methods developed specifically for the traversal realm. For example, the widely celebrated Earth Escape Technique allowed its user to ignore ninety-nine percent of the traversal realm's dangers when the corresponding first-layer world was earth-aligned among the five elements.

Zheng Fan had never specifically studied escape techniques, but he did understand something of the most direct Traversing Technique. Buzhou's philosophy had always been to either master a skill so thoroughly that it could serve one everywhere, or gain a shallow understanding to appreciate the world's vastness. Half-understanding meant certain death.

"Still the mind and focus the spirit, spread intent through heaven and earth, turn the body into a true shadow, traverse without end." Unlike wielding a sword, or rather, using offensive arts as freely as he pleased, Zheng Fan still needed a spoken incantation to supplement his traversal method.

After passing through an indescribable wall, Zheng Fan reached the traversal realm.

This is the feeling of time passing. Sensing the fine hairs on his arms growing, Zheng Fan was overjoyed. The chaotic time in the void conflicted with a world's laws of time, leaving living beings in a state of temporal suspension within the void. In that state, they could never grow stronger; they could only continue to expend their reserves. Although the void's special environment reduced that expenditure to one ten-thousandth of what it would be inside a world, they would still die eventually.

But why do I still have fine hairs, something belonging to flesh and blood, when I already have a data body? Zheng Fan wondered. Legend says that becoming an immortal requires rebuilding one's body in the Dust-Cleansing Spring. Immortals probably don't have flesh-and-blood bodies, do they? I wonder if they have fine hairs.

"This feeling of pressure and rejection isn't much different from the Buzhou Domain." He quietly sensed the Digimon World's traversal realm. Just as Buzhou's traversal realm lacked spiritual energy, the Digimon World's traversal realm had no scattered, disordered data energy. Its pressure and repulsive force were much weaker than what he had experienced in Buzhou back then. However, this location corresponded to the world barrier and lay at the world's edge. It couldn't compare to the core of a great domain like Buzhou.

In the traversal realm, the usefulness of the eyes was magnified countless times. In fact, eyes were extremely important to flesh-and-blood beings. Although useless in the void, there really was nowhere else they couldn't be used.

Over a hundred layers of barriers met his eyes. Of course, these were all projections. They couldn't even obstruct Zheng Fan's body, much less his enhanced vision. Beyond the barriers, the endless traversal realm lay fully exposed to his gaze.

The traversal realm was considered a shadow world precisely because of its endless darkness. Observed against that backdrop, every external object and projection appeared with the utmost clarity. Spiritual sense couldn't achieve this. Someone in Buzhou had once tried appraising treasures in the traversal realm, and sure enough, it worked flawlessly.

There was no resistance in the traversal realm. Everything within it could reach the world's ultimate speed, though whether it could withstand that speed was another matter. That inability to endure came from the rules of the Heavenly Dao. For example, under the Heavenly Dao, pure dark iron could reach a maximum speed of only ten thousand meters per second. Once it exceeded that, it would enter a state of accelerated time and disintegrate. Thus, the greatest dangers in the traversal realm were the various fragments hurtling about at extreme speeds. Harm from the natural environment, by contrast, could be avoided through experience.

Digimon's research into power far outstripped their exploration of the world. Among the domains and worlds recorded by Buzhou, there were plenty whose strongest beings had barely reached the art realm, yet had already begun to grasp their own world's rules. The Digimon World's traversal realm was exceptionally clean. Clearly, no Digimon had systematically explored or studied it.

Although the layers of barriers were shadows, every layer he passed through increased the pressure and repulsive force. For someone like Zheng Fan, who had grown accustomed to the pressure-free state at the world's edge, enduring that slowly mounting pressure was almost torture.

"No thoughts, no notions; all things are empty." Zheng Fan silently recited the incantation, resisting the traversal realm's repulsive force. He could gradually grow accustomed to the pressure, but if he failed to withstand the repulsion, he would be forced out of the traversal realm. At that point, serious injury would be the least of his worries. Getting trapped between the layers of the world barrier would be the most miserable outcome. No texts recorded such a situation, which meant everyone who had experienced it had died. Zheng Fan knew his own circumstances. Once he was squeezed out, there was absolutely no way he could enter the traversal realm again.

Layer after layer after layer.

A ripple spread through space, and a human figure was suddenly spewed out of it.

"This place feels like the void? But it isn't quite pure. A void mixed with data energy." Zheng Fan barely managed that observation before coughing up a mouthful of blood and losing consciousness completely. Though he was clearly in a void environment, he fell toward a "world" as if pulled by gravity. Had he still been conscious, he would have discovered six such "worlds." Had an extraordinarily powerful being observed them, they would also have discovered that these six "worlds" orbited some unknown substance like planets. Although anything was possible in the void and in worlds, anyone who saw this would surely cry out: this defies science.

"Piedmon, what did you summon me for?" The speaker was an angel Digimon. Eight black wings beat constantly behind him, yet stirred no air. At certain angles, the light reflected from their black feathers seemed to hint at their sharpness. Runes flowed across the black helmet on his head; its defensive strength definitely surpassed ordinary super alloy.

"Fallen Angemon, I have some questions. Take a look at this." Piedmon waved a hand, and footage of a battle appeared on the screen. Piedmon and Fallen Angemon watched in silence until Zheng Fan tore space apart and everyone was swallowed by the void.

"Devimon!" Fallen Angemon couldn't help crying out when he saw Devimon swallowed up, but he restrained his emotions and said, "SaberLeomon, huh? If he evolves into a Mega, he really might pose a bit of a threat. But no Digimon can stop our plan. That Divine Spirit and Zheng Fan, though-they really are Digimon I've never seen before."

"Devimon is fine. He's already returned. The darkness that swallowed them was even more empty than the passage back home. Devimon was badly injured while crossing the barrier." Knowing Fallen Angemon's true nature, Piedmon first explained Devimon's condition.

Seeing Fallen Angemon's relieved expression, Piedmon began to grow somewhat awkward. Only when Fallen Angemon cast him a questioning look did he turn serious and say, "There are some things I can't be certain of, so I asked you here to help me. Some things only we still remember."

At Piedmon's words, Fallen Angemon's expression twisted into something utterly savage. A Black Greatsword actually condensed in his hand, and he pointed it at Piedmon. "Although I'm only an Ultimate, I'm certainly not afraid to fight."