Meanwhile, Outside the Ancestral Pocket Realm
High above the clouds, hidden within a fold of space, the Lin Clan's dimension floated like a massive, invisible fortress.
Patrolling the perimeter of the spatial anchor was Deacon Zhao. He sat cross-legged on a flying sword, a gourd of spirit wine in his hand, bored out of his mind. His job was to scan for intruders or spatial fluctuations.
Suddenly, a ripple disturbed his meditation.
Bzzt.
His Spirit Sense picked up a disturbance at the waste disposal node—Sector 7, the sewage outlet.
Deacon Zhao frowned, opening one eye. "Movement? At the sludge gate?"
He extended his perception, sending a wave of powerful Qi to scan the area. If it was a rogue cultivator or a spy trying to sneak in through the sewers, he would incinerate them instantly.
His mental scan swept over the portal just as Lin Kai was passing through.
However, stuck to Lin Kai's back, hidden under his wet clothes, was a second talisman Master Feng had applied—the Carrion-Waste Camouflage Talisman.
It didn't make Lin Kai invisible. It simply altered his aura signature. To the Deacon's high-level senses, the object passing through the gate didn't feel like a human with a beating heart.
It felt like a large, rotting clump of alchemical slag, dead rats, and sewage.
Deacon Zhao recoiled mentally, his face twisting in disgust.
"Ugh. Just a massive blockage clearing out," he muttered, quickly withdrawing his senses to avoid vomiting. "The Alchemy Hall really needs to stop flushing their failed experiments. Disgusting."
He shrugged his shoulders, took a long swig of wine to wash away the phantom smell, and turned away. He didn't bother to look closer. Why would he? Who would be desperate enough to crawl through that filth?
Lin Kai didn't know he had just brushed shoulders with death.
He shot toward the portal, tucking his body into a ball to protect Xiao Bai.
ZAP.
Passing through the portal felt like being doused in ice water and then electrocuted. The world spun. Gravity vanished, then returned with a vengeance.
One second, he was swimming horizontally. The next second, the water beneath him disappeared.
"Whoaaaa!"
Lin Kai fell.
He flailed his arms, his eyes snapping open.
He wasn't underground anymore. He was in the sky.
The portal opened out of the side of a massive, sheer cliff face, hundreds of meters high. The waste water spewed out like a geyser, turning into mist as it plummeted toward the earth below.
And Lin Kai was falling with it.
The wind roared in his ears, tearing at his clothes. The vertigo was sickening. Below him, he saw a vast expanse of green—a forest so dense it looked like a carpet of broccoli—and a sparkling blue ribbon of a river cutting through it.
"Brace!" he screamed, though the wind stole his voice.
He angled his body, trying to aim for the deep center of the pool below.
CRASH!
He hit the water.
The impact was brutal. It felt like being hit by a sledgehammer. He plunged deep, the bubbles blinding him. But the water here... it was different.
It was cold. It was crisp. It didn't sting.
The sheer volume of the massive river diluted the trickle of waste from the clan instantly. The pollution was washed away by the power of nature.
Lin Kai kicked upward, his limbs feeling heavy but his mind exhilaratingly clear. He broke the surface of the river, gasping for air.
He shook his head, sending droplets flying. He paddled frantically toward the riverbank, fighting the strong, natural current of the wild river.
His hand gripped a root protruding from the muddy bank. He hauled himself up, his muscles trembling from the adrenaline dump. He dragged his body onto the soft grass and collapsed, rolling onto his back.
He lay there for a moment, staring up.
The sky was blue. A real, deep, infinite blue. Not the pale, simulated dome of the Pocket Realm. The clouds were drifting lazily, unscripted and chaotic. Sunlight—real sunlight—warmed his wet face.
"We... we're out," he whispered.
He sat up quickly and untied the cloth binding. Xiao Bai tumbled out onto the grass.
The Turtle Breath Talisman on her forehead burned up, turning into ash as its duration expired.
Xiao Bai sneezed, shaking her entire body vigorously. A spray of water flew everywhere. She looked like a drowned rat, her white fur spiked and muddy, but her golden eyes were bright.
She looked at Lin Kai, then at the forest, then at the sky. She let out a happy, high-pitched bark and ran in a small circle, sniffing the grass.
Lin Kai laughed. It was a hoarse, ragged sound, but it was genuine.
He stood up, his wet clothes clinging to his skin. He took a deep breath.
The air here was thinner. The concentration of Aether Qi in the Azure Heaven Wilderness was significantly lower than inside the Lin Clan's spirit-gathering arrays. It felt "wilder"—rougher, harder to absorb, but filled with a vibrant vitality.
But to Lin Kai, it tasted sweeter than the finest incense.
"No Deacons. No glares. No 'Grade Zero Trash'," Lin Kai said, spreading his arms wide.
He looked down at his hands. The greyish-purple hue from the poison was completely gone. His skin looked healthier, tougher, as if the Darkness had not only eaten the poison but used it to reinforce his dermis layer.
He turned back to look at the waterfall. High up on the cliff face, a tiny stream of water was trickling down—the waste chute he had just exited. From down here, the Lin Clan was nothing but a memory high in the clouds, unreachable and distant.
But then, a sound broke the peace.
Rustle.
It came from the bushes nearby.
Xiao Bai froze mid-step. Her ears swiveled toward the sound. She growled low in her throat, her hackles rising, her playful demeanor vanishing instantly.
Lin Kai's smile vanished. His expression shifted instantly from a boy enjoying freedom to a survivor.
"Right," Lin Kai murmured.
He instinctively reached for a weapon he didn't have, before settling into a combat stance. He channeled his Qi. A faint, menacing Red-Black hue began to coat his fists, the energy crackling with a hunger that matched the wild surroundings.
"This is the forest. We aren't prisoners anymore."
He narrowed his eyes, staring into the dense, dark foliage of the Bone-Eating Forest, where a pair of hungry eyes were watching him from the shadows.
"We are prey here."