Chapter 667
The Magic-Free Dimension
Chapter 667 The Magic-Free Dimension
Instantly, alarm bells rang in Gaode's mind.
All of this, all the fragmented clues, suddenly connected at this moment, weaving into an impenetrable net that bound him tightly.
Gaode could even sense that the malice lurking in the crowd was no longer a subtle spying, but had transformed into a tangible blade, piercing straight at them.
However, even though his reaction was fast enough.
It was still too late.
In that instant, Gao De could clearly sense that the Holy Empire mage, wrapped in a robe, paused for a moment in a strange manner.
It wasn't a dazed or blank stare, nor was it a hesitant or uncertain feeling; rather, it was a brief stiffness, like that of a precision machine being remotely taken over.
next second.
A completely different aura suddenly erupted from the mage's pupils!
That wasn't the magical pressure commonly seen in high-level mages; there were no surging elemental fluctuations or energy shocks tearing through the air. Instead, it was a deeper, more sinister pressure of consciousness.
It spread silently, brushing against the nerves of everyone on the street, yet leaving them completely unaware, only feeling a strange chill in their subconscious.
A strange, eerie purple light suddenly emanated from the depths of the other person's originally gray-blue eyes.
The light was astonishingly bright, yet it vanished in an instant, like a streak of purple lightning in the dark night, disappearing into the depths of the pupils before anyone could see it clearly.
But this fleeting glance carried an indifference that seemed to look down upon all living beings, and a calculating power that held life and death in its hands.
His face under the hood was still blurry, but his aura had changed dramatically.
The Holy Empire mage no longer gave God the secrecy of an infiltrator, but rather a sense of control from a superior.
It is an arrogance that originates from the depths of the soul; even if only a pair of eyes are exposed, it is difficult to conceal that arrogance that places one above all others.
And it was almost at the same moment that the Holy Empire's mage's aura changed.
Suddenly, a slight tremor came from the space around Gaode.
It wasn't the ground shaking, but a humming sound originating from the space itself.
Just like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, ripples spread silently.
The surrounding air began to distort, and light refracted into eerie arcs within the invisible force field.
The once clear outlines of the silver-white buildings became blurred and indistinct, as if viewed through a shimmering curtain of water. Even the faces of pedestrians began to distort and deform, exuding an unreal and eerie aura.
"Spatial magic!" Before Gao De could say anything, the girl beside him spoke up.
His tone had completely lost its previous lightness and become more solemn than ever before.
The girl's clear eyes reflected distorted light, her pupils contracted slightly, and she subconsciously reached up to touch the pendant around her neck.
But the pendant was now completely silent.
"It's not targeting my physical body, it's targeting space." In the next instant, the girl realized the key.
Her pendant grants immunity to all spells cast on herself from the seventh ring and below, making it the most powerful amulet.
However, this spell did not target her soul or her physical body; instead, it aimed directly at the space in which she was located, perfectly bypassing the core of the pendant's defense.
As soon as they finished speaking, the space around them suddenly began to distort violently.
The originally flat stone slab ground undulated like water.
A dark gray crack unfolded beneath their feet without warning.
Thin, turbulent spatial currents flowed along the edge of the rift, like tattered ink-black silk, emanating a chilling aura that devoured everything.
That was the void between planes, cold and lifeless.
The rift covered exactly five feet around Liu Ying, and Gao De, being less than three feet away, was caught within it, with no way to avoid it.
A terrifying suction force erupted from the crack.
It wasn't a physical pull, but a spatial traction, as if an invisible hand was forcibly peeling them off from the mage plane and dragging them to another unknown dimension.
Gao De subconsciously reached out to grab the pillar next to him, but his fingertips only brushed against the cold stone surface before he was pulled toward the crack by an irresistible force.
"Hold on tight!" Gao De shouted, reaching out to grab the girl's wrist and instinctively trying to shield her behind him.
However, even in this life-or-death crisis, the girl instinctively turned to the side to avoid Gao De's outstretched hand.
That sense of boundaries is ingrained in one's bones; even when facing dire straits, one is unwilling to break the habit of "not touching others casually."
Her movements were incredibly fast, with an almost instinctive agility. As she dodged, her fingertips unconsciously curled up, as if apologizing for her reaction.
Before I could think any further, a low hum came from deep within the crevice.
The sound didn't enter through their ears, but vibrated directly at the level of their souls, causing both of them to experience a brief moment of dizziness.
The suction suddenly increased, like a gaping maw of an abyss, swallowing up the surrounding air, light, and even time.
Their bodies, like leaves swept up by a gale, plummeted uncontrollably toward the dark gray crevice.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye, so fast that they didn't even have time to make an effective response.
In fact, spells that can warp space and traverse planes require at least a sixth-ring level of power, and even if they reacted in time, they would be powerless to resist them.
The rift closed abruptly the instant the two fell in, lasting only a second before disappearing without leaving a trace.
Only a faint, spiderweb-like, elusive spatial fluctuation remained in the air.
It was quickly drowned out by the noise of the streets, the shouts of vendors, and the conversations of monks.
……
In broad daylight, under the watchful eyes of everyone, two living people were suddenly swept into a rift and vanished without a trace.
This should have been a sensational event that caused a city-wide uproar.
However, the entrance to the Obsidian Merchant Guild was still bustling with people, and all the pedestrians looked normal, without the slightest panic, and not a single person even glanced in their direction.
It wasn't that they were indifferent, nor that they were calm; rather, from their perspective, nothing unusual had happened.
There were no dark gray cracks, no distorted space, and no eerie suction.
Even Gaode and Liuying, which should have disappeared, are still standing "alive" in the same place.
To the average person, all they saw was that unremarkable young woman nodding slightly to Gaode with a faint smile on her face, as if she were saying goodbye.
Gao De nodded to her, then turned and walked steadily toward the east of the city.
Immediately afterwards, the "girl" turned around and left in the opposite direction, quickly disappearing into the crowd.
Everything is incredibly realistic, with details so rich they are impeccable.
The details, including the look in their eyes when they said goodbye, the arc of their turn, and even the movement of their clothes, were exactly the same as the real scene.
After all of this was over, the holy imperial mage in the crowd, wrapped in a dark gray robe, quietly lost the eerie purple light in his eyes, like a candle flame extinguished by the wind.
His gaze and aura instantly returned to their previous state, that of a lurker's secrecy, no longer showing any sense of control from a superior.
However, there was also a sense of bewilderment.
He looked down at his hands, his fingertips trembling slightly, and a mixture of doubt and certainty on his face, as if he vaguely knew that he had completed some important task, but could not explain the specific process.
He glanced around warily, and seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he immediately pulled his hood down, turned, and disappeared into a quiet alleyway, his steps quick but steady. In a few leaps, he vanished into the intricate streets of Mithril City, leaving no trace.
Thousands of miles away, in the capital of the Holy Empire, Iron City.
Deep within the magnificent palace lies a dark hall devoid of any light.
In the center of the hall, beneath the Iron Throne, sat a simple yet menacing black stone table.
A huge 3D map floats above the desktop.
The map features a blood-red rose as its totem, symbolizing the territory of the Holy Empire.
On the western side of the map, a blooming broom flower occupies a quarter of the continent's area. Its resilient petals firmly block the spread of the blood-red rose, symbolizing the Broom Flower Dynasty.
On one of the black stone chairs inlaid with tiny rubies, in front of the map.
You can vaguely see a graceful figure sitting there.
Her features were indistinct in the darkness, but her eyes were the only light in this absolute darkness, shining brightly and strikingly in this environment:
Gleaming with an eerie, dark purple light, they resembled two purple gems suspended in an abyss—deep, cold, and possessing an all-seeing sharpness.
At this moment, however, his eyes seemed somewhat unfocused, as if his mind was elsewhere and he was lost in thought.
At that very moment, the dark purple light in those eyes suddenly surged!
It flourished suddenly and then vanished just as quickly, and everything returned to normal.
The difference is that his previously wandering gaze has now become incredibly focused.
With a hint of barely perceptible satisfaction, he focused on the 3D map in front of him.
In the northernmost part of the Golden Flower Dynasty's territory, there was originally a dazzling silver-white radiance.
It shines brightly like a small sun, continuously supplying energy to the petals of the broom flower, nourishing this ancient dynastic totem.
At that very moment, the silvery-white light suddenly vanished from the territory of the broom flower.
Without any warning, as if erased by an eraser, it vanished without a trace.
Mei Qiang watched this scene quietly.
In the darkness, no one could see her expression; only her dark purple eyes gleamed with a cold pleasure.
After a long, long time, a strange laugh finally echoed in the empty hall.
The laughter wasn't loud, but it carried a sinister quality that pierced the soul, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, or a rose whispering as it bloomed, lasting for a long time before slowly dissipating.
Immediately afterwards, a very faint, slightly surprised exclamation rose quietly.
Upon closer inspection, for some reason, in the truly northernmost part of the Nolan Continent, in that incongruous pure white region, the Purple Jade Flower, which emitted a faint purple glow, suddenly flashed with a silvery-white light.
The brilliance was as fleeting as a shooting star, shining for only a moment before extinguishing completely, so fast it seemed like an illusion.
The map was immediately restored to the state that Mei Qiang had hoped for.
Therefore, that slight doubt was quickly put aside.
She dared not touch the purple magnolia flower lightly.
But based on her understanding of that being, even if this purple magnolia flower were to fully bloom, it would only guard that pure white area and would never cross the boundary in the slightest.
100%!
The dark hall fell silent once more.
Only those deep purple eyes remained quietly focused on the map, as if admiring a perfect work of art, reveling in their own idea.
The feeling of weightlessness receded like the tide, replaced by a bone-chilling cold and a hard, jarring collision.
The girl suddenly opened her eyes, a sharp headache piercing her brain like steel needles, causing her to groan involuntarily.
She instinctively raised her hand and pressed it to her forehead.
The world before my eyes was a depressing gray-black.
The sky is a perpetual dark gray, without sun or stars.
Only a faint, almost ethereal, grayish-white halo drifted from the distant horizon, barely illuminating the boundless wasteland below.
She lay on a soft, white powder.
The powder was icy cold, sticking to the skin like tiny ice crystals, seeping into collars and cuffs, bringing a chill.
She raised her hand and touched it; her fingertips felt fine, rough particles.
Bringing it close to my nose and taking a sniff, a faint, decaying scent enters my nasal cavity.
That appears to be bone powder formed from the weathering of biological skeletons.
"This is..." the girl murmured softly.
She subconsciously tried to mobilize the magic power within her body to cast a spell, only to find that the magic pool was empty.
Her once surging magical power was now completely frozen, like a river frozen in time. No matter how she tried to channel her spiritual energy, she couldn't draw it out at all.
She tried to sense it more carefully and discovered that not only was the magic power within her body dormant, but there wasn't even a trace of magic power in the space around her.
How is that possible?
This feeling was both strange and terrifying; it was something she had never experienced since she began her spiritual practice as a monk.
She suddenly looked down at the pendant around her neck.
At this moment, it is like an ordinary ornament, without any spiritual light flowing through it.
The headache was persistent, not intense, but felt like countless thin threads were tugging at her soul, making it difficult for her to concentrate.
She could only rub her forehead and slowly stand up.
The ground beneath their feet was soft and easily sank, and every step they took caused them to sink half an inch, requiring several times more effort than usual.
She looked around; the wasteland was so flat that there were no undulations, and as far as the eye could see, there was only endless piles of withered bones and dust.
And in the distance, a few dilapidated stone towers stand alone.
The outline of the stone tower looked particularly ferocious in the dim light, like a lurking beast.
Sudden.
Her eyes lit up.
Among the dust and bones not far away, she saw a familiar figure.
It was Gaode that was caught up in the rift.
However, compared to her, Gaode's situation seems to be worse?
Because at this moment, the other person was still lying in the dust of bones, with their eyes closed, brows furrowed, and face pale, clearly suffering the same pain as her.
The key point is that Gao De is not awake and is still in a coma.
The girl quickly walked towards where Gaode was.
He stumbled along the way, nearly sinking into the deep dust of bones several times.
(End of this chapter)