Death... and me

3070  Not Really One

The concentration had become highly sparse since a few hours ago. Now that they got to this place, the Spiritual Energy was completely gone. However...

*Zush!*

Rean once again shot forward, his sword in hand.

'Red Life Style, Red Line!'

*Boom!*

It wasn't because Spiritual Energy was gone that the Spatial Rifts disappeared. If anything, the lack of Spiritual Energy seemed to have made the space around even more fragile.

*Ouch*

Yuan was hit by the aftermath once again. His enormous Horned Cloud Shark body didn't make it easy to dodge the debris and blast power. "Rean perhaps it would be better to return. There are too many Spatial Rifts. We can barely move for a minute before one appears, and they are appearing ever so close. There will be a moment when one will appear right on our faces, and we won't be able to do anything."

Rean shook his head. "That already happened quite a few times. Fortunately, the lack of Spiritual Energy made it even easier to detect the rifts, so I guided us outside their range before I attacked them. For now, there is no need to worry," Rean said as he quickly healed Yuan.

At the same time, Rean spoke to someone else. 'Sister Orb, is this some kind of formation? It is obvious that these Rifts are targeting us.'

[If it is, the system isn't piquing up anything,] Sister Orb answered. [It might just be that the fragile space makes you stand out in the environment. Your very presence could be the reason the Spatial Rifts appear at all.]

Rean narrowed his eyes. He felt that things weren't that simple. Nonetheless, at least he knows it is probably not a formation since Sister Orb would detect it even if it was a Natural Formation.

*Zup!*

Suddenly, Rean and Yuan passed by some kind of barrier that they weren't able to detect in time. In the next moment, the two fell to the ground as the water around them disappeared. "This is interesting... something is keeping the water out," Rean commented.

Yuan quickly returned to his humanoid form since his shark form would get in the way without the water. "This feeling... Rean, the feeling I'm getting from this place is the same as when I got close to Tana's Heavenly Marine Jade."

They kept walking ahead, and the light created by the blur rocks intensified. Rean took the chance to stop by one of those rocks, touching it and sending his Spiritual Sense inside. "No wonder we can't feel any Spiritual Energy at all. These rocks absorb everything and convert the Spiritual Energy into the blue light we see."

"Are they Spiritual Stones, then?" Yuan asked, curious. Perhaps there was a chance of cultivation improvement there.

Rean shook his head, though. "No. They truly use every single bit of Spiritual Energy to create all the light. No Spiritual Energy gets stored inside."

*Swish!*

Rean slashed his White Star, covered with his Sword Intent and some Spiritual Energy of his own. "They are very weird, though. They are somewhat soft but also very resistant. I don't know if calling them rocks is the right word. It might be something else. I can cut through them if I attack them seriously, but I won't get much out of it."

Rean and Yuan moved through those tunnels for another day, but this time, they didn't rush forward, walking very slowly. The Spatial Rifts continued to appear once in a while, although the frequency reduced by a lot. That gave Rean and Yuan some sense of relief. As for Spiritual Energy, it was still empty, so they had to use their Spiritual Stones to replenish themselves instead. Well, Rean had plenty of them anyway.

Finally, Yuan noticed a small protrusion on the walls far ahead. His eyes immediately lit up, and excitement filled his mind. "Rean! Look, look! It's Heavenly Marine Jade!"

Rean took a look where Yuan was pointing. It was his first time seeing one. It looked just like normal jade, but it was blue, very similar to the 'rocks' on the walls in color. The two of them approached it. Yuan then tried to pull it out when suddenly...

*Grab!*

Rean pulled Yuan back by his shoulder and shot back tens of meters in an instant. At the same time, the Heavenly Marine Jade seemed to transform. A Spatial Rift appeared from inside it, swallowing everything around. It lasted a few seconds in that state before the Rift disappeared, and the Jade fell to the ground.

Yuan swallowed hard, feeling scared. If Rean hasn't made a move there, he would have been gone now. "Di-Did that Jade just create a Spatial Rift?"

Rean nodded as he approached it again. This time, he collected the Jade from the ground, which didn't cause any reaction. "It did. There was a faint remnant Spatial Power inside it that I couldn't tell what it was. Only when you touched it did that remnant show its true face, so I was able to pull us away in time. It is gone now, though. Impressively, the Jade didn't disappear with the Spatial Rift..."

Rean shook his head, noticing a mistake. "No, I don't think it was a Spatial Rift. Spatial Rifts don't spare anything, but this Jade survived. That Spatial Rift we just saw was more like a Spatial Transfer. It was trying to pull us somewhere else, like a teleport. Of course, it was still very dangerous. The power behind that 'Spatial Rift,' or whatever it was, was enough to turn us into minced meat. We would not survive to see what was on the other side."