Xiao Heng rubbed his eyes, peering blearily at his surroundings.
The eerie aura emanating from all directions made him instinctively uncomfortable.
In the distance, five strikingly peculiar white pillars stood, their tilted figures piercing into the sky.
Xiao Heng looked down at his feet. The ground beneath him was made of the same white material.
Where am I...?
Xiao Heng felt confused.
He was supposed to be on some uninhabited island, wasn’t he?
Could this be a dream?
Xiao Heng pinched himself hard.
“Ouch!”
The sharp pain jolted him awake instantly.
This isn't a dream?
Fear immediately gripped Xiao Heng.
Shivering, he scanned his surroundings.
In the distance lay an endless dark void, permeated with an ancient, weathered aura.
The ground beneath his feet and the five white pillars in the distance were both part of a single entity that floated in this space.
Xiao Heng suddenly felt this place looked familiar, as if he'd seen it somewhere before.
After staring intently for a while, an image flashed through his mind. The more he examined the details, the more similar it appeared.
Shocked, Xiao Heng stumbled backward and fell to the ground, trembling uncontrollably.
Is this... that skeletal hand?
Such a bizarre scenario defied everything Xiao Heng knew and understood. Fear instantly seized his heart, and he instinctively curled up on the ground, hugging himself tightly, like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.
But just as a newborn calf was unafraid of tigers, when nothing happened for a long time, his fear gradually gave way to curiosity.
He climbed to his feet and began cautiously exploring the area.
The palm where he was currently standing was relatively spacious, so he didn't need to worry about accidentally falling into the endless void.
The place was filled with broken walls and debris, as if an extremely fierce battle had once raged here, destroying all structures.
As he picked his way through the ruins, something soon caught Xiao Heng's attention: a broken longsword embedded in the ground, its blade covered in dark red bloodstains.
When Xiao Heng approached, he discovered the longsword had pierced completely through a skull, pinning it to the ground.
This place must have existed for who knows how long. For this sword to remain so well-preserved without much damage... it must be an incredible treasure, right?
With this thought in mind, Xiao Heng slowly stepped forward. Gripping the sword with both hands, he gave a mighty pull.
The sword came free from the ground.
However, before the delighted Xiao Heng could examine his newly acquired treasure, the ground beneath him suddenly began shaking violently.
"Treacherous Myriad Immortals Alliance!" The skull that had been impaled by the sword let out a furious roar and shot up into the air.
Xiao Heng was so terrified by this spectacle that he fell backward again. The longsword in his hands clattered to the ground.
The noise seemed to attract the skull's attention. A beam of dark light shot from its hollow eye sockets, striking the sword.
Boom!
The longsword disintegrated into dust amid the explosion.
Xiao Heng had instinctively leaped aside the moment the light appeared, avoiding the blast. But he still broke out in a cold sweat.
"Spare me, senior! Spare me!" Xiao Heng immediately knelt and kowtowed. While shouting, he kept his eyes fixed on the skull, ready to flee at the first sign of trouble.
His pleas appeared to work.
The skull's voice grew somewhat puzzled: "Eh? Not the Myriad Immortals Alliance? Where did this little kid come from?"
The skull then flew high into the air, making a circle as it scanned its surroundings.
Only after a long while did it return to its original spot, lamenting with a sense of loss, "So it's been this long..."
Seeing that the skull seemed to harbor no hostility, Xiao Heng breathed a sigh of relief.
He tentatively asked, "Senior, where are we? Can you send me back?"
The skull sneered, "You are truly strange, little one. Since you were able to come here, how could you not know where this is? And you dare ask me?"
Xiao Heng felt somewhat wronged. "Senior, I'm not lying. I truly don't know where this is!"
"Hmph!"
The skull, full of disbelief, swiftly flew closer, circling him repeatedly. It scrutinized him carefully through its pitch-black eye sockets.
"Eh? There are no traces of a ritual? How did you get in?" After a long while, as if having discovered something, the skull exclaimed in shock and suspicion.
"Ah?" Xiao Heng was baffled by the question.