After two days and nights of flying, Jared began to feel a hint of fatigue.
He descended to the ground to replenish his spiritual energy.
Thankfully, with an abundance of resources at his disposal, he wasn’t worried about consuming them.
After restoring his energy, Jared took out the map and studied it closely.
“According to this, I should be in the circled area already, but nothing around here seems different,” he muttered, glancing around.
The dense forest stretched in all directions, filled with the continuous roars of beasts.
It appeared no different from other areas of Demonia Mountain.
Jared leaped into the air again, flying forward.
What Jared didn’t notice was the faint, almost imperceptible barrier in the void ahead. It blended seamlessly with the surroundings, making it invisible to the naked eye.
His body passed through the barrier without any resistance or noticeable change.
However, the moment he crossed it, Jared suddenly felt himself plummet. The environment around him transformed into a dim and shadowy space.
Frowning, Jared swiftly retreated. He didn’t know what he had inadvertently stumbled into and wanted to leave immediately.
Yet, no matter how far back he moved, the surroundings remained dark.
Jared stopped, stabilizing himself and steadying his breath. He told himself not to panic.
Looking around, he found the entire space shrouded in a grayish haze, with no reference points to guide him.
He couldn’t discern any direction and had no idea where he was.
“Could this be another dimension? Good thing I have the Nethersky Eye. Otherwise, I wouldn’t see anything at all,” he said to himself.
A glowing light flickered on his forehead, and a third eye appeared.
Activating the Nethersky Eye, Jared scanned his surroundings.
What he saw alarmed him. Even with the Nethersky Eye, he couldn’t make out anything. The space remained shrouded in gray haze, indistinct and featureless.
“What… what is this place? Why can’t I see anything?” Jared muttered, using the Nethersky Eye to search while simultaneously expanding his spiritual sense outward.
He hoped to sense something, anything- perhaps even a demon beast-but his spiritual sense extended to its limit without detecting a single thing.
It was as if this space contained nothing but Jared himself, like the primordial chaos at the dawn of creation, where heaven and earth were fused into one.
Taking a moment to calm himself, Jared chose a direction and began walking.
In this silent, gray space, the only sounds he could hear were his own footsteps and the steady rhythm of his heartbeat.
He continued walking, seemingly without end.
Nearly an hour later, Jared stopped.
He knew he wasn’t going anywhere. After glancing around, he crouched to examine the ground. Perhaps he could find an exit by investigating below.
Since everything around was shrouded in gloom, he decided to try and explore the underground.
As he crouched, he was surprised to discover that his footsteps had left no prints behind him.
He had been walking for a while, so there should be a trail of deep footprints. However, the ground was completely undisturbed.
This discovery gave Jared a slight shock. He stomped his foot hard, leaving a deep impression nearly half a meter into the ground.
Yet, to his astonishment, the footprint began to fade before his eyes, vanishing completely.
Seeing this, Jared exhaled and chuckled coldly. “So it’s an illusion array, designed to trap me without my realizing it. Whoever set this up has some skill.”
Jared had mastered the illusion nascence, and his knowledge of array craft was exceptional. For someone to ensnare him so subtly in an illusionary array, their abilities had to be formidable.
