Chapter 603: Soaring Through The Portal

As soon as the black crack appeared above him, Lin Mu knew it was time for the minor world to collapse. 

"Seems like this is it… though I can't help but wonder what that world is…" Lin Mu muttered before the duration of Fade ended.

Jing Luo and Little Shrubby saw Lin Mu reappearing at the same place he was before. Jing Luo was a bit startled as he had thought Lin Mu had gone some place else rather and did not think he would be coming back in the same position.

"Where did you go?" Jing Luo asked.

"Nowhere really… just needed to take a different perspective of all this." Lin Mu said before turning to the sky.

While he was in the parallel world, he could see a black crack there, but now it was just the same sky as before. But Lin Mu could tell that the spatial fabric had already started collapse. The only difference was that it was not visible to the naked eyes… yet.

~RIP~

"It's time!" Lin Mu announced.

Jing Luo nodded his head, and a serious expression appeared on his face.

"The moment, I open the portal, you two rush along with me. It will only be open for a short while and will close as soon as the tether gets severed. Also when we arrive in the sacred grounds, we don't know where we will be or if how long we will be able to stay there." Lin Mu spoke.

"Yes, that's gonna be a problem. From what I know, the formation array in the sacred grounds spans over its entirety. It only allows those at the Core condensation realm and below into it. Even entry requires an Identity token.

What I can think will happen is… if we're lucky we will arrive together and be ejected after a bit of delay. If we are unlucky, we'll be ejected separately into the Ripple mist sect. But where… that will be hard to tell. It's supposed to send the ejected people to the entrance of the Sacred grounds in the sect, but I don't know about intruders." Jing Luo explained.

"Hmm… we'll deal with it when it comes to it." Lin Mu said with determination.

"Hahaha! I've lived here for over fifty years, I don't care what I need to do to escape. If we need to fight our way out, then so be it. Besides, they are technically part of the enemy's camp too aren't they?" Jing Luo replied.

"That's true." Lin Mu said with a chuckle.

Lin Mu felt strange right now. Even though he was about to head straight into danger and was even unsure if he would be able to escape it, he was still not fearful or anxious. Rather, he was just feeling a strange drive and excitement.

~huu~

He took a deep breath of pure air, no spirit Qi in it, and looked at the black crack expanding above them. He could faintly see the tether flickering behind it and if he focused really hard, he could even see the outline of something bigger in the distance.

Extending his hand up, Lin Mu channeled his spirit Qi into the mysterious ring, urging it to open a portal linking to the sacred grounds.

~Humm~

The ring responded immediately as spirit Qi started being drained from his body at a rapid rate. Thankfully, he was now at the Adolescent Soul stage of the Nascent Soul realm and his spirit qi capacity had increased by multiple times.

If this was Lin Mu of the past when he was at the Infant stage of the Nascent Soul realm, it would have taken nearly all of his spirit Qi to open it. Opening this portal was much more difficult than when he actually got into this minor plane.

Before the spatial borders had been destabilizing due to the tribulation lightning, but now they were destabilizing due to a world collapse. There were completely different parameters in play and this one was more dangerous than the one before.

Still, Lin Mu was determined to come out of this alive and succeed.

~shua~

A massive wave of energy was released from Lin Mu, which then cleaved the space above them into two. Unlike the black crack before, a swirling gray portal was spinning there now. 

"NOW!" Lin Mu shouted before speeding into the portal and disappearing.

Jing Luo and Little Shrubby moved to the tone of his voice and disappeared into the portal along with him. They felt a strong tug on their body, and were then squeezed. It was as if someone had put them in clothes that were two sizes too small for them.

They could not move their hands or legs and their necks were scrunched up. It was very uncomfortable, but nothing that they could not bear through. Lin Mu though was having a completely different experience.

While he was also feeling a bit uncomfortable, he was relatively free to move his hands, legs and neck. He could tell that they were passing through what could be said to be a teleportation channel of some kind which the ring had made using the tether that linked the Minor Plane and the sacred grounds.

"This… is marvelous…" Lin Mu muttered upon seeing the many lights that flicked by.

He looked to his sides and saw Jing Luo and Little Shrubby who were frozen like statues, before turning to look at the back. There he saw the remnants of the minor plane being destroyed. This was his first time witnessing a world collapse, and he had to say it was quite unique.

It looked both beautiful and terrifying at the same time to him. The minor plane's borders were breaking apart and its insides were falling out into the lesser void. The speed of collapse was rather fast and not even five seconds later, the minor plane was no more.

But when the minor plane finally disappeared, Lin Mu could see something hidden beneath it.

"Is that… the world we saw before?" Lin Mu muttered.