In an dark void, Ming Li was floating unconcious. His body was full of wounds and his life force was extremely weak. There was nothing in the void except him and some random debris that seemed to have existed for countless of years.

The whole void spanned infinitely, and there seem to be no way out. Ming Li simply floated at the neverending void that surrounds everything.

All of corpses of the seekers from the Black Spider Guild seemed to have been sent to a different location in the void, and the woman was also nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, a groaning noise come from Ming Li, as he opened his eyes, pain shoot through his head from his whole body. His injuries were not fully healed, but he still managed to survive.

He immediately tapped his cube where pills came out. Those pills were some energy recovery pills and healing pills. His injuries were severe, so he consumed the pills quickly.

When he felt slightly better and his injuries stopped from worsening, he glanced at his surroundings and noticed that he was floating in a seemingly never ending void.

"I guess I was really sucked into that rift. Now how do I get out?" Ming Li said.

"That's a great question kid, I have never thought of asking that question to myself." A voice resounded beside Ming Li along with clanking wooden sounds at every word. 

Ming Li was startled as he looked around, however he found nothing. Then suddenly, the voice spoke again "Are you looking for me kid?" 

"Who are you!? Where are you!?" Ming Li shouted since he was irked out by the voice.

"Calm down kid, I'm here." A small puppet slightly bigger than his head appeared out of nowhere.

"You.. You're that puppet in the book! Why are you alive?" Ming Li stared in shock at the wooden puppet floating in front of him.

"Of course I am alive. Who said I'm dead. But lets not talk about that, and talk about what you were thinking earlier." The puppet said with a smug expression.

"I mean, you're supposed to be an art. Why do you have your own consciousness!?" Ming Li asked.

After Ming Li asked the question, the puppet stopped moving and acted like a real puppet. It just floated there lifeless and kept opening and closing its mouth rhythmically as if it was a mechanical tool.

He could not tell what was happening, so he asked another question. "How do we get out of here?"

The puppet then came back to life and happily answered "Yes. How do we get out. Hmmm."

Ming Li then again asked "You're an Art, how are you moving on your own.". The puppet then turned back into the wooden lifeless puppet with its mouth opening and closing creating clanking sounds.

Again, he asked "So how many days have I been unconscious."

"Oh, you have been floating there for ages. I forgot how long but it was loooong." 

Ming Li was sure he was not out that long. It was about five days at most, since his wounds have yet to heal. He wasn't sure if the puppet was messing with him or was actually stupid.

Again he asked "Why are you inside the book." Then the puppet suddenly turned into a stupid lifeless wooden mechanical doll again.

"Hey what happened with the sealed woman back there? How did she revive?"

The puppet continued to be lifeless after a series of question that it seems to have no interest in answering.

Ming Li stared suspiciously at the puppet. He does not know if it was acting or was actually being prevented from answering by something. With doubt, he repeated asking questions to the puppet and got similar reaction every time he asked something about it.

After a while, he realized that he would get no proper answer from the puppet, it only wishes to talk about unessential stuff and nothing more.

Then he ignored the puppet, but it quickly regained its vigor after being ignored for a few breaths.

"Hey kid. Come on, lets talk about how to get out."

Suddenly, the puppet laughed maniacally and dark aura exploded from it as the small area surrounding it rippled and distorted then it said.

"We have to hurry so we can start to rule the world!" 

Even with its extremely serious and evil tone, Ming Li still did not talk to it, but instead, looked around the surrounding to find a way to get out of the empty space.

"Rift.. Space.. I guess I'm inside a tear in space." 

He sighed, then observed his condition. Injuries filled his body and he overexerted himself in the war, so he wanted to check if there was something other than his physical injuries.

Suddenly, he gaped in astonishment as he double checked himself and said in surprise "I reached the 9th level of Fusion Realm! How can this be!?" 

He paused for a moment and thought back to everything that have happened. "So the demonic energy from the woman boosted my level up to this point. I haven't noticed it since I was busy protecting myself, but maybe because I have surpassed my own limit since the puppet used my body to rapidly absorb demonic energy, my level spiked at unimaginable degree."

"Eeeehhh" The puppet said then looked at Ming Li as if he was trying to figure out something. Then his face changed into pure shock as he said.

"Ho.. How can you be so weak! I can't believe this. You're actually just at the Fusion Realm! How can we rule the world like this!" 

"Even little kids back then were in a higher realm compared to you! How!?"

Ming Li still ignored the puppet as it continuously uttered mocking words at him. Every word it spoke were filled with mockery and contempt.

However, even with the incredible increase in his level, he did not feel too excited since he was stuck inside an unknown space clueless of how to get out.

He sat there along with the puppet unmoving. Sometimes, the puppet would bother him but he ignored it trying to observe the surrounding. 

Several hours passed as he tried to understand the space around him, but he still got nothing. All he can see from the endless void was nothing but floating rubble which gave him no clue on how to escape the place.

Then this time he looked at the puppet who was still mocking him and said "Hey, I remember you can tear space right? Can you use that to escape?"

The puppet looked at Ming Li with admiration and glittering eyes. It was as if what Ming Li said enlightened it with its own potential.

Ming Li felt weirded out by the actions of the puppet but he did not say a word, instead he waited for it to say something.

It then lifted up its wooden arms and tried to rip the space open, its energy exploded as it roared full of determination. Ming Li felt excited and his anticipation grew more. Its roar grew intense but It was at this point that the aura of the puppet seem to lessen and its determination waver then it slightly glanced at Ming Li bashfully.

Ming Li noticed that the puppet seemed to have failed, but when he was about to sigh and say something, the puppet suddenly turned into a mechanical lifeless wooden puppet again and acted the same way as it did when he asked important questions.

This time he was really suspicious if the puppet was only acting or not. He was sure that the puppet failed and was probably just embarrassed to accept failure.

However, he decided not to say anything since it would not help him one bit and simply closed his eyes ignoring the puppet.

Days passed, Ming Li still stayed seated in a daze observing his surroundings, the puppet already looked bored to death as it yawned several times while mumbling some stuff.

Different thoughts came into Ming Li, his state was slowly leading him into realization of some things. As he stared deeper into the space he was in, his understanding seem to grew more.

Ming Li became unaware of the flow of time since there was nothing that could tell him how long he has been in the empty space. Time seems to become unessential to him and only the space surrounding him was important.

Days, weeks, and months passed by, he remained seated at the same position with empty look in his eyes. Nobody could tell what he was thinking. Even the puppet was already gone, and went back inside the book.

Everything was silent, from afar, Ming Li seemed like he was already part of the space. Steadily floating like a rubble that existed for so long inside the space, his presence was as dim as a dying candle. Only a bit more and he would completely seem to be part of the space around him.

Nobody could observe this phenomenon but it was evident that the changes happening to Ming Li was deeply related to his enlightenment regarding the space.

For him, every movement of the tiniest rubble in the space caused a change in space. As his awareness of the space increased, these slight changes became something perceptible for him. 

Gradually, in his perspective, even his breathing was noticeably affecting the space around him. Even the movement of his muscles, up to the smallest movement not even noticeable by the naked eyes had an infinitesimal effect on the space.

It came to a point that it was unknown how long Ming Li was inside the space sitting on his spot motionless. Several days, weeks, months or maybe even years; It was not known to anyone how long even to himself, but he was sure that he was gaining enlightenment of the space around him!