Chapter 699: The Twilight Ocean (1/2)

“Good luck,” the Goldenleaf Monarch said after the portal in front of the waiting trial-takers had stabilized. “Remember, the moment you pass through those gates you will have to spend a minimum of one year in the Twilight Ocean. This is your final chance to back away.”

No one left after the warning, but Zac wouldn't be surprised if some would find themselves unable to take that final step through the Space Gate. He was personally mostly filled with anticipation for the opportunities within, but he had been through so many life- and death encounters by now that this venture felt relatively safe in comparison to some of his other experiences.

Meanwhile, some participants probably had limited experiences with death and were rather raised in the relative safety of their clans.

The first people to enter were the descendants of the Council Factions, soon followed by the premiere local clans. It was a small show of force to have the outsider wait, even if they were descendants of B-grade forces. Catheya still had seeded slots, so it was their turn after just three hours. By that point, only four hundred thousand cultivators had already passed through, meaning that most were still waiting their turn.

”Remember to be careful,” Catheya said as they floated in front of the barrier. ”The first culling has already started on the other side.”

The rest nodded before they flew through one by one. Zac didn't turn into an incorporeal consciousness shot through the void as usual during teleportation, but it rather felt like he had been thrown into the middle of intense fireworks as his surroundings flashed in gold and black. The energies surrounding him were immense, and he looked around with wonder since it felt like the almost nauseating lights were rife with hidden truths.

Suddenly, an immense pressure locked Zac in place, causing him to frown with worry. He had read about the chaotic teleportation already, but this pressure wasn't mentioned in any missive he'd bought. The next moment he felt a sharp pain from his finger as his Spatial Ring reached blistering temperatures. He sent a strand of mental energy into the ring, and he was filled with a sense of foreboding as he saw the odd egg shaking within the space of his ring.

Was it some sort of banned item?

But before Zac even had a chance to worry about getting slapped with a tribulation punishment for bringing contraband to the Twilight Ocean, a ten-meter rune rushed toward him, completely undeterred by the chaos, and passed right through his body. A moment later the pressure was gone and the egg had calmed down.

There was no time to make sense of things before he found himself standing in a foreign world. It looked like he was pretty lucky as he had been dropped off at the edge of the starting continent, and he found himself standing up to his knees in a greenish-golden liquid. He had read so much about it over the past months, but it was still exhilarating to see it with his own eyes.

Zac looked down at the water with interest as he activated [Cosmic Gaze]. He could confirm that it was attuned with both life and death just like the missives had explained, but he couldn’t make sense of how the two had fused even after looking at the water for over a minute.

One second it felt like the two attunements were two opposites fighting for the same spot, vaguely familiar to his own path where life and death clashed in an endless war. However, the next moment they coexisted in harmony, only to a moment later be either pure life or death. Finally, for short bursts of time, they were melded into something unique that Zac couldn’t begin to comprehend.

It was even impossible to tell which state was the real one, or if the continuous transformations were even real. It might be a bit like those pictures that changed motif depending on what angle you looked at it from. Zac had initially hoped to make inroads into his path by visiting this place, but he honestly wasn’t so confident that 3 years was even close to enough to unravel the mess he was looking at.

He was dragged out of his musings as a screen appeared in front of him.

[Twilight Ascent. Help perfect the Tapestry of Twilight. The reward at the end dependent on contribution rank.]

[There are two ways to contribute to the Tapestry of twilight.]

[1. Make Dao Breakthrough into a Dao pertaining to Life or Death. Higher-grade breakthroughs provide more points. Successive breakthroughs provide both rewards.If no breakthroughs are made, half the value of current Dao stages are added by the end of trial. ]

Early Seed

1

Middle Seed

5

High Seed

25

Peak Seed

125

Early Fragment

250

Middle Fragment

1,250

High Fragment

6,250

Peak Fragment

31,250

Early Branch

100,000

Middle Branch

500,000

High Branch

2,500,000