Chapter 51: The Gate of the Hidden World

Chapter 51: The Gate of the Hidden World

The dull, muffled sounds quickly coalesced into an invisible force and bore down on the spacetime boundary Uncle had erected.

A spacetime boundary was nothing more than an effect barrier formed by vibrations between different dimensions. It produced a decoupling effect on matter in the surrounding space—effectively isolating electromagnetic waves and physical material, like an air envelope that repelled everything around it, offering solid protection to whatever lay within.

But the Soul Hunters’ Tiangang Dome clearly played by different rules. Otherwise, Uncle and Mother would not have been so tense.

Uncle had probably never expected the Soul Hunters to track us here, much less that they would have a way to break through his spacetime boundary. He had always been supremely confident in his concealment. Now, with no time for explanations, he aimed a device at the edge of the boundary and grabbed Mother and me, trying to drag us through it.

I knew he wanted to use the boundary as a passage. He had mentioned before that a boundary could also function as a channel.

But the Soul Hunters had clearly anticipated that. The Tiangang Dome appeared to be circular, closing in from every direction like a fishing net swollen with a fresh catch.

Uncle worked at the edge of the boundary for a long while and could not budge it. The Tiangang Dome was doing its job.

Looking up at the boundary, which was groaning and crackling above us, Uncle said, “These are Soul Hunters sent directly by the Shadow Pavilion. The Tiangang Dome is their exclusive blockade device—it can break through barriers formed by quantum resonance systems. Once it fully expands, the entire building will be sealed inside. No one gets out, even with wings. They mean to catch all of us in one net, and let everyone else in the building die with us.”

I went to the window and followed his gaze. In the air outside, which had been transparent a moment ago, a faint, translucent barrier was pressing slowly downward, faintly luminous with cold light—a vast dome clamping our building in its grip. Fine blue patterns rippled across the barrier’s surface: the traces left behind when the quantum resonance decoupling effect Uncle had described was broken through.

Simply looking at the Tiangang Dome, I felt a suffocating weight settle over me.

“The Tiangang Dome doesn’t just seal off physical space,” Uncle said, his voice tight with urgency. “It blocks consciousness signals too. Even if we tried to teleport our consciousnesses into our parasitic hosts right now, we couldn’t pierce this barrier.”

He glanced anxiously at Mother as he spoke. It was clear that even he had no answer to the Tiangang Dome.

Which meant the parasitic hosts we had prepared as a last resort against inescapable danger were now completely useless.

Mother looked at me and said quietly, “Beichen—join the three tokens.”

Uncle turned to stare at me in surprise. He had not known, apparently, that I had already obtained all three green jade tokens.

I understood. This was our last resort.

Uncle and Mother had still wanted me to spend more time training in the Mundane World. Joining the three green jade tokens might well mean leaving the Mundane World behind and entering the Elite World ahead of schedule—and I was nowhere near ready for that.

Joining the three tokens might lead into the Gate of the Hidden World. That had been Gu Kunling’s conjecture, and even she had not been certain. She had never witnessed even two tokens being joined.

There was no time left to deliberate.

Mother telling me to join them now meant we had reached the final breaking point.

I took out the three green jade tokens. Mother, Uncle, and I stacked our hands together, and I pressed all three tokens into one.

Hum—

A low, resonant thud.

A wave of violent dizziness swept through us and teleported all three of us at once. I lost all sense of direction; even my consciousness went hazy at the…