Wang Lin, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips, fixed Li Yuan with a gaze as sharp as a honed blade. The look pierced through Li Yuan, seeming to plumb the depths of his very being.

Li Yuan, however, betrayed not a flicker of alarm. His face remained an unreadable mask of serenity, his posture erect and respectful. “Senior,” he began, his voice smooth and untroubled, “you may well wonder why I, a humble cultivator, know of this forsaken place, and why I have not yet sought to shatter the enchantments that bar entry.”

Wang Lin studied the man. Li Yuan possessed a shrewdness far surpassing that of the woman who accompanied him. Such a being was no mere commoner. Moreover, from their earlier conversation, Wang Lin recalled that Li Yuan had been rescued by the woman’s clan, but only at the cost of surrendering his life-soul.

Yet, Wang Lin felt a nagging unease. The dialogue between the two felt subtly manipulated, as if Li Yuan, the puppet master, had carefully steered their words towards some hidden design.

Li Yuan’s countenance remained calm, sincerity etched upon his features. “In my youth,” he explained, “I chanced upon an ancient chart, a map depicting a forbidden place within the Thunder Celestial Realm before its fall. I have studied this chart for years, and I am confident that, should the place still exist, I can locate it. As for the enchantments that guard it, I estimate a seventy percent chance of breaking them. It is for this very reason that I have come to this forsaken land.”

Wang Lin remained impassive, offering no reply.

“Within that forbidden place,” Li Yuan continued, “if my deductions are correct, lies a source code, one that has remained perfectly preserved. Should we succeed in breaching the enchantments, Senior, you are welcome to claim half of its power.”

The woman beside him, her lips parted as if to speak, ultimately chose silence.

Wang Lin regarded Li Yuan for a long moment, then a slow smile spread across his face. He nodded. “Agreed. However…” He raised his right hand, and with a gesture that defied understanding, the woman shuddered. A shimmering, spectral image, a mere fragment of her soul, was ripped from her body, suspended inches away!

The whole ordeal unfolded in the blink of an eye. The woman’s face drained of color, as if she had suffered a profound loss of vitality.

“I shall claim a single wisp of your soul as collateral,” Wang Lin declared. The ethereal essence at the woman’s brow solidified into a sphere of soft light. With a swift motion, Wang Lin seized it and deposited it within his storage pouch.

Li Yuan’s outward composure remained unwavering, but inwardly, alarm bells rang. This man possessed a cunning on par with his own. Why snatch the woman’s soul and not his? Could he have perceived something hidden?

“Furthermore,” Wang Lin added, his gaze fixing on Li Yuan, “I find the method by which you conceal your presence most intriguing.”

Li Yuan paused, contemplating his options. After a moment, he tapped his own storage pouch and withdrew a jade slip. With intense focus, he imprinted the slip with arcane symbols, then presented it to Wang Lin. “Since Senior expresses interest, I would not dare be stingy.”

Wang Lin accepted the slip. His spiritual sense swept across its surface, and a frown creased his brow.

Though Li Yuan kept his head bowed, his peripheral vision caught the flicker of Wang Lin’s displeasure. He mentally scoffed, “This man’s cultivation may be strange, and his understanding of enchantments deep enough to detect my minor deceptions. But even with all his knowledge, he could never truly decipher my art of concealment!”

The origins of his technique were shrouded in a past he rarely dared to recall.

Wang Lin indeed found himself at a loss when examining the jade slip’s contents. Despite his vast knowledge of enchantments, a mere glimpse of its workings evoked a sense of disorientation. It bore no resemblance to any method he had encountered before. It was… not truly enchantment at all.

Attempting to decipher it summoned visions of eighteen colossal statues, their forms swirling and colliding, threatening to shatter the mind of any who dared delve too deep.

Wang Lin withdrew his spiritual sense. Though he could not comprehend it, he recognized a faint familiarity within the strange symbols. He kept his thoughts hidden, then stored the jade slip away. His voice, though calm, carried a new edge. “Lead the way.”

Li Yuan quickly assented. He approached the Ge-surname woman and reached out a hand to assist her, but she shrugged him off with a flick of her sleeve, transforming herself into a streak of sword-light that sped away.

Unfazed, Li Yuan clasped his fist towards Wang Lin, then launched himself skyward, a faint light shimmering beneath his feet.

Wang Lin followed at a leisurely pace, his gaze darting over Li Yuan’s figure.

“His words contain truth and lies, no doubt intertwined,” Wang Lin mused. “It is even possible that he had already woven this entire scheme from the moment he first laid eyes on me. If that were true, then Li Yuan’s heart holds depths far darker than I had imagined.” Wang Lin, by nature suspicious, found this man’s calm demeanor unnerving. A sense of mystery clung to him.

“If his words hold true, then all is well. But should he prove false, and seek to betray me, I shall have no choice but to silence them both,” he thought, a sliver of lethal intent flashing behind his eyes.

The Ge-surname woman seethed with resentment, daring not to direct her anger at Wang Lin. Instead, she focused her hatred on Li Yuan.

“If it wasn’t for Li Yuan’s cursed enchantments, how would that monster have been lured here? My nascent Immortal Spirit was barely linked to my primordial soul, and now it has been seized!”

“Furthermore,” she raged inwardly, “if he sought collateral, why only take my soul, and not Li Yuan’s!”

The more she considered it, the more her resentment toward Li Yuan grew.

Just then, Li Yuan drew alongside her. Without looking at her, he spoke, his voice a low murmur. “The place I remember lies not on this continent, but beyond the Thunder Barrier.

The Ge-surname woman merely snorted, offering no reply. But suddenly, Li Yuan’s voice echoed within her mind. “Ge, I have shielded my thoughts with an enchantment. He cannot hear what I say. He overheard our earlier conversation and now knows that your clan holds my life-soul. By controlling you, he believes he controls us both.”

“But fear not, Ge. I swear I will find a way to reclaim your soul.”

Li Yuan’s voice was laden with sincerity and resolve, and Ge, though unwilling to openly admit it, felt a small measure of reassurance. She had, at least, partially accepted his explanation.

Days later, the three travelers approached the edge of the continent, where a cascade of lightning bolts, like chains forged in the heavens, extended into the dark void.

“Senior,” Li Yuan announced, “this Thunder Barrier is immensely powerful. Even the most skilled cultivators must tread carefully. Senior, please be cautious.”
At the precipice of this shattered realm, Li Yuan halted, turning with deference etched upon his face.

From this vantage point, one could truly grasp the majesty and peril of the Thunder Immortal World. Only here, at the very edge, could one truly feel the extent of its ancient devastation.

The land’s edge, viewed from above, resembled a jagged, irregular maw, as though rent asunder by the hands of titans. Its exposed side revealed layered strata of crumbling earth, descending into an abyss that swallowed the gaze. No bottom could be perceived, only the infinite, gnawing void.

It seemed as though this continent, a fragment of something far grander, floated adrift in the very emptiness between worlds.

Here, the ears were filled with the ceaseless boom of thunder, rolling forth from the unseen depths. The sound waxed and waned, a chaotic symphony that left one disoriented, suspended between reality and dream, standing upon the precipice of nothingness.

Along the fractured edge, streaks of lightning danced, seemingly embedded deep within the ancient stone. These luminous chains stretched into the void, like tethers forged of pure energy. Though their end was hidden, Wang Lin could sense that these radiant links connected to other fragments, other lost lands.

The Thunder Immortal World, it seemed, was held together by these volatile chains. They were spun like gossamer threads, desperately clinging to the shattered remnants of a realm broken in the mists of time.

From a higher vantage, this tragic tapestry would be laid bare: fragments of land, separated by chasms of nothingness, yet bound together by the countless tendrils of lightning, a desperate attempt to preserve what remained.

The landscape spoke of an unimaginable cataclysm, as if a pair of colossal hands had torn the world into pieces.

Wang Lin sighed, a echo of the awe he had felt before the gigantic handprint in the Rain Immortal World. “What events transpired in the ancient celestial realms to cause such devastation?” he mused.

He had considered the influence of the Ancient Gods, but the evidence felt incomplete, discordant. Dismissing his thoughts for the moment, he turned to Li Yuan and the woman known as Ge.

“How do you intend to traverse the Lightning Curtain?”

Li Yuan, having observed Wang Lin’s reaction to the fractured edge and the lightning chains, noting a flicker of surprise in his eyes, felt his suspicions confirmed: This man was a newcomer to the Thunder Immortal World.

Hearing Wang Lin’s question, Li Yuan bowed respectfully. “The key to crossing the Lightning Curtain lies with Mistress Ge.”

Ge snorted, reaching into her storage pouch and producing a simple iron sword, unremarkable in its appearance.

Yet, the moment it appeared, Wang Lin noticed a flicker of unsuppressed excitement in Li Yuan’s eyes, gone in an instant, but quickly noticed and concealed. He then subtly glanced at Wang Lin, and seemed to breath a sigh of relief when he noticed he hadn’t been noticed.

Ge fixed her gaze upon the sword. Biting her tongue, she spat a mouthful of blood upon it, then traced a rune in the air with her right hand. The same symbol flashed upon her brow, resonating with the rune above the sword, as if confirming its validity. Suddenly, she slammed her hand down upon the sword.

The weapon shuddered, and a sphere of light emanated from it. Li Yuan, barely controlling his excitement, stepped forward, entering the shimmering aura and taking his place upon the very tip of the blade. He stood with his back to Wang Lin, a hint of nostalgic longing etched upon his face.

As Li Yuan’s foot touched the sword, Wang Lin’s eyes narrowed, focusing intently upon Li Yuan’s feet, seemingly detecting something unexpected that caused him to be visibly moved.

Ge frowned, then stepped forward, taking her place upon the hilt of the blade.