Chapter 968: Stranded in the Void Between Realms
There was nothing.
As far as Ethan could see, the space around him was completely empty. No stars glittered in the distance, no planets drifted by, not even the faint glow of cosmic dust. There was not a single source of light anywhere.
He was lost.
Where the hell was he?
Space without stars made no sense. Space without light made even less. Everything around him looked like a perfectly wiped surface, blank and featureless, as though existence itself had been erased.
There was no up or down, no left or right. Direction had lost all meaning. Even his instincts failed him. He could not tell where Earth was, or whether he was moving closer to anything at all.
It felt less like floating through space and more like being suspended inside a pure four-dimensional void.
Ethan’s heart slowly sank.
---
Far away, within the Chaos Realm, the world was the opposite of Ethan’s prison. Endless white stretched in every direction, a boundless sea of pale brilliance without shadow or horizon.
An old man and a young man stood facing one another, motionless against the blank backdrop.
"So?" the old man demanded impatiently. "Did you stop him or not?"
This old man was Morzan. Worry twisted his face as he stared at the youth before him.
The young man’s expression was even worse. Without saying a word, he slowly raised his left hand and extended a single finger toward Morzan.
His middle finger.
Morzan blinked, confused for half a second before anger exploded across his face. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
The youth remained perfectly still, finger still raised, his expression dark and sour.
"Haven’t you noticed?" he said flatly. "The color’s wrong."
The young man was the Guardian of the entire Barren Universe.
Only then did Morzan look carefully. The Guardian’s body gleamed like carved white jade, flawless and smooth. His arms and hands shared the same jade-like purity.
Except for the finger he was holding up.
That middle finger was pink, soft-looking, almost human. Flesh instead of jade.
Morzan stared. "You’re joking."
"That kid hurt me," the Guardian said through clenched teeth. "Tore my finger off. I couldn’t stop him."
Each word sounded heavier than the last. His expression darkened further, humiliation and disbelief mixing together.
Morzan’s face shifted from surprise to deep concern. The playful energy around him vanished entirely, replaced by a frightening stillness.
The Guardian looked no better.
"What do we do?" he asked quietly. "I lost him. My interference knocked him out of the teleportation channel. I don’t know where he ended up."
Morzan let out an irritated breath. "Your fault, you idiot. Now we’re in real trouble."
Before the Guardian could respond, Morzan flicked his sleeve and vanished, his voice trailing behind like an echo filled with frustration.
"I did exactly what you told me to do!" the Guardian shouted after him, stunned.
For a moment he stood there speechless. Then his eyes widened and anger surged across his face.
Morzan’s voice returned from nowhere, calmer now, carrying a strange mixture of resignation and insight.
"Stop complaining. Activate the Lightning Pool. The Divine Sea Temple was destroyed by that laughing monk you couldn’t even perceive. The Energy Pool is about to unseal. Without the Divine Sea Temple absorbing the surplus energy, the balance is already collapsing."
He paused, as if thinking aloud.
"Maybe this was inevitable. Maybe we’re just pushing events forward. Or maybe we’re nothing more than pieces already placed on the board."
The Guardian frowned. "If we activate the Lightning Pool and Heavenly Tribulation descends, everyone capable will ascend. Won’t that just strengthen the Divine Realm?"
"If they don’t ascend," Morzan replied, "then when the Divine Realm’s energy wave arrives again, no one here will survive. Only those who pass tribulation can endure it. Anyone below ascension is nothing more than an ant. You wouldn’t even need an army. One soldier from the Divine Realm could wipe this universe clean."
Silence followed.
Then Morzan added quietly, almost as an afterthought, "Including you. If you want to live, find a body... and ascend."
The words struck the Guardian like a physical blow.
Including you.
He knew Morzan would never lie about something this serious. The old man joked often, acted unreliable more times than not, but when the stakes were real, he never crossed that line.
Ascendants were truly that powerful?
Here, he was worshiped as the Heavenly Father, the supreme existence of the Barren Universe. The title alone suggested absolute authority. He had always believed that unless pressure descended from a higher realm, nothing entering his domain could stand upright before him.
He had even blocked Ethan’s mother once, the Lord of the Underworld herself. That victory had strengthened his confidence. If even a ruler of such a vast realm could not break through his blockade, who could?
Yet there had been moments when Morzan’s presence unsettled him, faint fluctuations that hinted at depths he could not comprehend.
Perhaps that was why he had tolerated the old man’s presence from the beginning. Over time, despite lacking true human emotions, the Guardian had developed something resembling companionship. Loneliness, after all, could reshape even an existence born without feeling.
"Find a body to possess... or ascend..."
He murmured to himself, already beginning to plan.
---
Ethan, meanwhile, floated in complete frustration, unaware that his accident had just set enormous events into motion back on Earth.
He spread his limbs and tried flying forward through the endless void. The effort felt pointless. No matter how long he moved, nothing changed. The scenery remained identical in every direction.
It reminded him of the druid trial quest Dream of a Thousand Years. That place had been absolute darkness. This was marginally better. Even without a visible light source, the surrounding space carried a faint gray haze, as if reality itself emitted a dim glow.
Strangely, that grayness made the emptiness feel heavier.
He drifted without direction, blindly guessing at movement. He believed he was traveling straight ahead, but without reference points, certainty was impossible. People lost orientation easily under such conditions. Even he was no exception.
After what felt like hours, Ethan finally stopped trying. He let his body go still and allowed himself to float freely.
Slowly, he withdrew his senses and calmed his racing thoughts. The anxiety that had driven him earlier faded, replaced by a familiar inner stillness.
This was not a normal universe. Of that he was certain. It felt more like a fracture, a gap between realities.
A universe without planets simply could not exist. He found himself wanting to shout into the emptiness: Where am I?
With nothing else to do, he withdrew his consciousness into his Mindscape.
The mist inside had not fully settled yet. That lingering haze was Source Energy obtained from killing the Yurix.
Then his attention shifted to the little beings he had been nurturing.
All of them radiated intense light. Their physical forms were barely visible anymore, hidden behind glowing auras as they seemed to be meditating deeply. Even Yaya sat beneath the vast canopy with her eyes closed, immersed in silent growth.
His Source Energy lake had not only recovered but risen nearly half a foot higher than before. The increase meant far denser Soul Power at his command.
He had hoped to ask Yaya for answers. She possessed inherited memories from the Tree of Life and often understood things far beyond him.
Unfortunately, she was completely absorbed doing her thing.
So much for that idea.
Looking closer, Ethan noticed something new. Every one of the little beings had matured. Their bodies had grown, their features more defined, appearing roughly seventeen or eighteen years old now.
Yaya in particular looked breathtaking, even through the glowing haze surrounding her.
Only Luna remained unchanged. Ever since that mysterious magnetic light suppressed her and forced her back into his Mindscape, her physical form had vanished entirely. She existed now as pure spirit and remained unconscious, though her life force felt stable.
He could sense she was undergoing some form of transformation.
Which meant everyone capable of conversation inside his Soul Space was currently unavailable.
"Perfect," Ethan muttered.
Then he remembered something. "Right. I still have two inside my Core."
He withdrew from the Mindscape and directed his awareness toward his Energy Core, a place he rarely visited since he had not originally possessed one.
The moment he entered, swirling golden and violet currents greeted him, circulating in strange patterns.
He paused. Those two colors left countless overlapping afterimages, forming a translucent membrane that wrapped around his entire Energy Core like a perfect sphere. Inside and outside the membrane felt like two entirely different worlds.
Outside was his physical body, inside lay a miniature cosmos.
Countless stars filled the interior, each one a seed from the ancient Tree of Life he had obtained long ago. Once they had supplied him with endless vitality. Now they shone like celestial bodies, orbiting in structured patterns.
His Core had become a universe.
At its center stood a massive phantom image of the Tree of Life’s roots.
"A phantom?"
Ethan frowned. The Tree of Life had always appeared solid whenever he examined it before.
Tracing upward through his body, he realized the truth. The Tree of Life itself had transformed into a semi-ethereal existence. Only the enormous canopy within his Mindscape remained tangible, while the trunk and branches extended through his body, intertwining with his organs as if they had grown directly from the tree.
His heart, lungs, and every vital structure appeared supported by living roots. He genuinely had no idea when these changes had occurred.
Returning his attention to the Core, he spotted two small creatures curled at the base of the roots like muddy loaches.
Ethan focused closer. His spiritual form manifested beside them, suddenly feeling tiny compared to the immense roots above.
He lifted his foot, intending to kick one of the pitch-black creatures awake.
His foot stopped just before contact.
"You’ve got to be kidding me. Everyone’s asleep?"
The Dragon of Consumption was deeply dormant, while the Fortune Dragon had never fully awakened since its last coma.
The reason Ethan held back became clear. Though both dragons appeared asleep, their life forces intertwined, circulating together along with an indescribable new energy.
They were transforming as well. Everything inside him was evolving, growing stronger.
Everyone except him, drifting helplessly through an empty void. He sighed heavily.
’No one to talk to here either.’
Turning away, he prepared to withdraw his consciousness back to his body.
