When a rift opened, connecting the Lower Plane to the real world, a torrent of energy flowed through. It was not a usable energy, not really anyway. It was more like the entire universe tried to squeeze itself through that small hole. Things always flowed from a high-energy state to the lower. Similarly, the Higher Planes tried to invade the Lower Planes. Not for any particular reason, that’s just how things worked.

Yet the more it pushed, the more the barrier between them resisted, closing the rift in mere moments. Master Enchanter tried to break that law and force the rift to remain open for longer. Obviously, it didn’t work. It couldn’t. Nothing was strong enough to resist the crushing force of an entire universe.

A Sky Realm Cultivator could isolate himself from the crushing force for a split second, enough to slip through the opening, but that was it. Even those close to becoming a demigod couldn’t resist for more than a few seconds. And by a few seconds, I mean three. Max. That was the absolute upper limit anyone has ever managed.

The Stability Rods used a trick to keep them open for longer. By shrinking rifts down to a tiny point, the pressure on it was much weaker, allowing even such a weak relic to resist the crushing force.

Of course, nothing could go through. The Stability Rod itself was blocking the opening. It was an exercise in futility. The Master Enchanter was wasting his time.

“H-how do you know all that?” The man stammered.

[I just told you, didn’t I? I’m a mind reader. I’m literally reading your thoughts right now. I just took what you knew about the rifts and this place, combined it with my knowledge, and came to a pretty obvious conclusion. And yes, I do know what you like to do in your free time. No, I don’t care. Yes, I can see the numbers you are currently thinking about. Seven, thirty-one, six million four hundred thousand… Lalalala…]

I slapped the Enchanter across the face. [Stop that. Do not test my patience.]

“Sorry…” The guy rubbed his aching cheek.

[Anyway, Lee is not going to be able to get you out of here. You know it, he knows it, yet for some reason, the rest of these people don’t.] I pointed at the groups of people chatting outside our little privacy bubble. Obviously, I wasn’t stupid enough to let just anyone listen to us.

Enchanted lowered his head and sighed. “It's hard enough to keep the peace here as is. If people knew they would be stuck here for decades, centuries even, do you think they would be willing to cooperate? Play as a team?”

[Obviously not. And before you say anything, yes I know what had happened here before. Mind-reader, remember? Before Lee came to power, people just killed each other as soon as they met, robbing and pillaging until they gathered enough resources to advance and escape. And with the strongest person gone, the cycle just repeated itself.]

“Yes. Most of us here, myself included, were not good people outside. That’s why we were tossed into this place as punishment. Obviously not all here are bad as rifts sometimes open on their own in the outside world and unlucky people fall in, but…”

[Don’t forget the beasts. The wild beasts you are hunting also fall in sometimes.] I reminded him.

“And good thing they do! Without them, we would all die. Without the resources they bring us, this place could never be as peaceful as it is. Unfortunately, they are still far too rare for all of us to Cultivate. Lee is the one who gets 50% of all resources. He is the strongest after all and also the one closest to advancing to the Sky Realm.”

[Is he the strongest though?] I asked skeptically.

“What? Don’t tell me you seriously think you are stronger than him. The man is a beast. He has power unlike anything I have ever seen! Not to mention he can already manifest his Domain despite being only at the peak of Spirit Realm. Among people here, he has no equal!” Enchanted insisted fervently.

[Hmm. No comment.]

John could use his Void Domain at only the Eighth Level, so he was definitely better than Lee. I, on the other hand, already fought a Sky Realm Drow and almost won. While he didn’t use a Domain, the artifact he used to fight was capable of killing Cultivators of similar rank.

While I had enough power, I lacked the intrinsic properties of energy that came with Sky Qi. Until I had that, I was just as stuck as the rest of them. Well, there was a way to escape, but it was not one I ever considered.

I could abandon my superior Cultivation to rapidly advance through the Levels, reaching the Sky Realm with just the Souls and Spirit Stones I had on hand. Like hell was I going to do that. If I did, my Soul power would drop like a stone and I would become a fragile Cultivator like the rest of them.

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If I wanted to repair that, I would have to dissolve my Soul, but after reaching the Sky Realm, I don’t know if that would be such an easy thing to do. It was one thing to dissolve a layer in the same Realm, but it was completely different if you wanted to reverse the changes that happened during a Realm breakthrough.

Heck, even completely abandoning the entire Cultivation was easier than that, and that was stupidly expensive. Just ask Adam. The guy spent so much money just to have to rebuild his Cultivation from scratch.

Anyway, the risks were simply not worth it. It was something I would do as a last resort, not before. And anyway, I was in no hurry to return.

“Look…” Master Enchanter pointed at a group, disrupting my thoughts. “Those guys apparently tried to steal from some high-ranking Drow but instead of executing them, those bastards tossed them in here. At first, they tried to fight Lee, yet despite them all being at around the Eighth Level, he simply beat them up without killing them. He is strong, yet he is also kind and merciful.”

I rolled my eyes. That group was hopelessly weak. Their Souls had almost no foundation, so much so that it would be a miracle if they managed to reach the Sky Realm in their lives. And they weren’t even that old. They were middle-aged by my estimation. Around two hundred years old?

“But don’t take his mercy for weakness.” Enchanter warned with a serious look. “If you try to take advantage of him, he will kill you.” He said. “I have seen him do it before.”

[Thanks for your concern, but I think I’ll be just fine.]

Done with the conversation, I tried to slip into the subspace to jump away. It didn’t work.

[Question.] I turned back to the Enchanter. [Why can’t I teleport? … Oh.]

As soon as I spoke, the answer came to me as the man thought about it. Subspace was a higher Plane than the Lower Plane we were in and thus inaccessible to us. However, that gave me an idea.

[How about the teleportation tablets? No… They wouldn’t work either. Hmm… Unless you used them when a rift opened, right? That should work.]

The Enchanter shook his head. “Theoretically, yes, but such things were already tested before and it didn’t work. The place we are in is too far for any tablet to connect so the magic simply fizzles out. What we would need for something like that to maybe work, is to directly connect to an Anchor.”

He lifted the Stability Rod and sighed. “But, even if we had access to an Anchor, which we don’t, catching a rift when it opens is nearly impossible. With these Stability Rods, we can extend the duration of the rift, but even then it is still too short. It would be already a blessing if we could catch one open once every decade.”

While the enchanter talked, the gears in my head were turning. The man had already given up on escaping long ago. With his Stability Rods, he was just collecting information on the rifts, studying them out of pure curiosity.

However, that gave me just enough knowledge to come up with a plan. I took the metal rod from his hand and gave him a fist-sized chunk of Celestial Metal instead.

“What are you…” The man dumbly stared at the chunk of metal in his hand. His eyes were wide as saucers.

[Keep making these rods, but stop with the garbage. I’ll need one of your best creations, alright? Don’t disappoint me.]

“I- I…” The Enchanted stammered but couldn’t get any words out. I left him there and disabled the sound barrier. Apart from our voices, it also scrambled the light going through it so the privacy bubble was complete. Nobody could read our lips to see what we were talking about.

With the Stability Rod in my hand, I left the main hall and went down the hill to an open area not far from the village. I focused and the metal in my hands began to shift, elongating and becoming thinner, while at the same time growing branches like a tree.

I stabbed it in the ground and then placed a Spirit Stone on each branch. The Stones were swallowed by the metal, and the bark began subtly glowing with energy. I then stuck the newly created relic into the ground and changed the landscape around it from gravel to a slab of that weak gray stone. I compressed it as much as I could, giving it some extra needed strength, and then stepped back as it released a sharp pulse of Qi.

It was extremely short, but extremely bright if observed with Spirit Sense. It should be visible from a great distance away, which was its purpose.

“Hey! What are you doing?!” The entire population rushed at me from on top of the hill, panicked and angry.

“Are you crazy?! Turn that thing off, you will attract the beasts!”

I lifted an eyebrow at the angry mob, with leader Lee at the front. The group stopped not far away, and the man himself was anything but happy.

“I am kind to you, offer you work, yet the first thing you do is bring chaos to our community?”

[What are you talking about?] I frowned at them. [I’m planning to explore this place a bit so I created a beacon to find my way back. This thing will go off every few hours, releasing a single pulse, nothing else.]

“And it will also attract the beasts! What then?” Some random guy shouted.

[I’m confused. Don’t you hunt the beasts to survive? You will have an easier option this way since they will come to you.]

“Are you stupid?!” Lee came forward and shook me by the shoulders. “Don’t you see us all hiding our presence?! And you create a beacon, attracting every monster in a thousand kilometers! Do you seriously think hunting one creature is the same as fighting against a horde?! Turn that thing off now, before it's too late!” He shouted.

“B-boss…” A guy stammered, his shaky finger pointing at the horizon. “They are here.”

I could of dust was growing in the distance. I sent my Spirit Sense in a straight line, and just as they said, beasts were coming. Indeed, as I scanned the horizon, more and more monsters came into view. We had maybe five minutes before they were upon us.

“Into positions!” Lee shouted. “Everyone, get ready to fight!”

As people spread out and established a defensive perimeter, Lee turned and growled at me. “If we survive this, I’ll deal with you later.”

I scoffed and my feet left the ground. [Whatever. You guys just wait down there where it's safe. I’m going first.]

Flying beasts appeared on the horizon above the clouds of dust. I couldn’t help but smile as I licked my lips.

[It’s been a while since I last ate chicken.]