But Lassim was no longer paying attention to their movements.
His focus was entirely on the spatial fabric that he could now sense around him after resonating with the special energy in his heart world; amazed at the tangible feeling given off by the faint threads of energy that held this reality together.
Thanks to his strong desire to escape to somewhere safe at the moment, he could feel the pull of the desert in the distance, the feeling of electricity of the Lightning storm above the sect seemed to have a memorable enough anchor for him to sense; a place far away from this battlefield.
As the trio closed in, Lassim threw caution to the wind in a desperation as he forcefully channeled the spatial void energy from his heart world through the rest of his body, letting it infuse his every cell with the progenitor marks acting as a conduit.
The air around him seemed to ripple, distorting as the fabric of space itself began to warp. His attackers frowned, sensing the shift, but they were too committed to their attacks to stop now.
The woman’s scimitars were mere inches from Lassim’s chest when the threads finally gave way to his urging.
With a surge of willpower, Lassim’s whole existence slipped between the threads of reality, his body phasing out of existence with a ’blip’.
The scimitars passed through empty air, their momentum carrying the woman forward into the space where Lassim had just been.
For a heartbeat, everything was silent. The trio of cultivators froze, their eyes wide with shock as they realized what had happened. Lassim was gone—vanished into thin air as if he had never been there at all.
But Lassim hadn’t simply disappeared. He had slipped into the spatial void, a place where time and space held little meaning.
It was a disorienting experience, the world around him reduced to a blur of colors and sensations. He could feel the pull of his desired destination, the desert, growing stronger and his progenitor marks guiding him through the void toward a distant destination.
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He didn’t know how long he remained in that state—seconds, minutes, hours—it was impossible to tell.
But eventually, the pull grew so strong that it was impossible to resist any longer. With a final urging of his energy, Lassim once more pushed through the void, letting it spit him out into the physical world.
The transition was jarring with Lassim floating in the void, and the next moment, he was tumbling through the air.
He instinctively rotated his body mid-air, but the disorientation from the sudden transition made it difficult to orient himself. The world spun around him, and he had just enough time to realize he was upside down before he crashed into the sand below.
Lassim landed heavily, the impact sending him rolling face first across the dunes. The coarse grains filled his mouth and stung his eyes as he finally came to a stop, sprawled out on his back, half-buried in the sand.
For a moment, he just lay there, his chest heaving as he spit out the sand and gasped for breath, only to release the contents of his insides a moment later from the dizziness of the void.
The desert wasn’t forgiving either as the sun beat down on him. The heat was a stark contrast to the cold rain of the storm he had just left behind in the forest of the southern territories.
He was far from the battlefield now, far from the trio of cultivators who had been trying to kill him, and his teammates. His crazy idea was a success; the teleportation had worked.
He wiped his mouth as he finished dry heaving a few more times as the dizziness faded and he was able to center himself and his balance once more. The floating through the spatial void had messed with his inner ears and disoriented him badly. He activated [Lifestream] with his entire focus this time as he sat down in a meditative pose.
His body ached from the burns of the battle and overuse of every muscle, all of them protesting as he sat there, legs crossed. But despite the pain, a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. He had made it out alive.
The trio of Spirit Transcendent cultivators were powerful, but they hadn’t been able to capture him. He had done the unthinkable—traversed the spatial weave itself—and survived.
Slowly, Lassim forced himself to his feet, wincing at the sharp pains that flared through his body. His wounds throbbed despite the healing effects of [Lifestream]. He was exhausted, both physically and mentally, but there was a new joy that he couldn’t get rid of. A strange sensation was still washing over him, and that was the source of this joy.
The Progenitor’s marks on his body were still resonating, the spatial void energy he had commandeered from the leaking spatial tear in his inner heart world still lingered in his veins. It was as if the fabric of space had been altered within him, and infused itself with his body making it more similar.
He could still feel the echoes of that bizarre, disorienting journey through the spatial weave as the tiniest molecules and atoms of his body slowly adjusted and became more compatible with this energy. It was a tiny alteration, but it still made every part of his body buzz slightly.
He clenched his fists as he felt it. He could sense that this was only the beginning—an untapped well of potential that could change the very nature of his abilities and the potential of it excited him.
Learning how to properly tap into the spatial element just immediately moved up to the top of his priority list of things to train. The possibilities for use in combat were endless and would give him a ridiculous advantage if he could master it.
The Endless Sun Sect had almost gotten him in this first ambush, and they would pay for that mistake. But first, he needed to reunite with his team and ensure their safety.
With that thought in mind, Lassim turned his gaze toward the horizon, where the faint outline of the desert’s edge met the sky. The heat waves distorted the distant scenery, but he could make out the shapes of dunes stretching endlessly before him.
He was somewhere in the desert, but exactly where was unclear at a first glance. Not too far in the distance was the ever-so-familiar perpetual storm cloud above the heart of the desert where the Lightning Sect headquarters resided.
That at least narrowed down the possibilities for his location being somewhere in the surroundings of the middle of the desert, but his teammates’ positions were still a mystery.
He reached into his magic pouch, pulling out the small, circular communication disc.
The metallic surface glinted in the harsh sunlight as Lassim activated it, sending a pulse of his mana through the device to bring up his team’s runes. The runes flickered to life on the surface, each one corresponding to a member of his team.
Lassim quickly sent a message to each of them, his fingers moving swiftly over the disc’s surface. "[I’ve made it out safely. Where are you all? Where should we meet?]"
After a few moments, responses began to appear on the disc.
Kaelin was the first to reply, his rune glowing faintly as the text materialized. "[Reached the edge of the forest, heading toward the eastern ridge where the forest meets the desert sands; it’s labeled the cliffs of Dornal on the map. Are you alright?]"
Lara’s message followed soon after. "[We’re still together and seem to be safe for now. We can wait at the ridge for you.]"
Lassim breathed a sigh of relief. He had bought enough time for them to get out safely. He sent a quick confirmation message, "[I’ll meet you there then. It might take me a while as I had to go quite far to escape their pursuit. See you in a couple of hours.]" With that, he deactivated the disc and stowed it back in his pouch.
Turning his attention back to his surroundings, Lassim pulled out a detailed map from his pouch and unfurled it.
The map showed the region in intricate detail, with landmarks of the various sects’ territories clearly marked.
He then took a moment to orient himself by aligning himself to the map with the direction of the storm clouds above the Lightning Sect headquarters and the angle of the sun.
Based on the landscape and his rough calculations, Lassim deduced that he was most likely just beyond the area south of the sect close to the Lightning Pools.
To confirm his location, he decided to fly north briefly into the storm’s cover. Thankfully, he was right. The telltale surge of the sect’s resource area with dense lightning energy pooled on the ground, scattered about like little ponds, confirmed his suspicions.
With his bearings established, Lassim pivoted southward, his destination clear in his mind as he now knew where he was.
He used [Tempest Steps] to speed through the air with his flight, heading back toward the southern region for the eastern ridge where his teammates awaited. His movement technique propelled him as a lightning bolt through the sky above the sands.
As he flew, his thoughts kept returning to the spatial void energy technique that had saved him.
He could still feel it, lingering in his body and at the ready to connect with his consciousness, like a shadow waiting to be called upon. The ability to traverse the spatial weave, to slip through the fabric of reality itself, was a game-changer.
In battle, it could allow him to evade attacks, escape from impossible situations, or even surprise his enemies by appearing where they least expected. The possibilities were endless, and the more he thought about it, the more he realized just how crucial mastering this ability could be.
But for now, it will remain a secret. None of his teammates had seen him use it, and he intended to keep it that way until he had a better understanding of how it worked. That’s why he was vague on how he was able to escape. It would be his trump card, a hidden ace that he could rely on when the situation demanded it.