As Lin Mu was sucked in, he realized why the sphere was expanding. In reality, it was not the sphere that was growing but Lin Mu himself that was shrinking. Only when he was being sucked did he feel the difference. His body felt as if it was being squeezed and compressed into a smaller size.
Still, this did not feel painful to Lin Mu and only gave him discomfort. While being sucked, his vision once again became blurry and he felt as if he was moving too fast to see anything. He didn't know how much time passed but when he could see everything clearly, he had stopped moving.
Lin Mu looked around and saw that he was standing on gray colored ground and everything around him was empty. From one horizon to the other, all he could see was gray lands. The light was very dim and his surroundings could barely be seen.
The only reason he could see the horizons was because of a strange glow that came from one of the horizons. This horizon would glow with seven different lights and would change around. The calling which Lin Mu was hearing from all directions was now calling him towards a particular distance again.
It was calling him towards the direction of the horizon. Lin Mu didn't know what to do except walking towards it and that's what he did. But something shocking happened once he did that.
Lin Mu had expected that he would need to walk for a while to reach the source of the calling, but when he took a single step towards that direction the ground started shrinking. It was as if the horizon was folding and he was traveling forwards at a great speed.
As soon as Lin Mu's foot touched the ground, he had reached a completely different place. While the ground here was still gray, there were some other things here, such as some gray mountains. Though the most eye catching thing was the seven colored glow that was coming from it.
Lin Mu looked at it and saw that the seven colored glow was coming from seven orbs of light that were floating above the mountains. These seven light orbs were arranged in a specific format. They were rotating in two circles, with two orbs in the outer circle and five in the inner.
The two orbs in the outer server were of two different colors. One was purple and the other was azure. They would spin in a circular orbit and left behind a glowing trail. This glowing trial took the shape of a circle and half of it looked purple while the other half looked azure.
The orbs in the inner circle were of five different colors. They were colored red, brown, yellow, blue and green. These five orbs too moved in a circular orbit and left behind a glowing trail of five colors that were respective to each orb.
Lin Mu felt mesmerized by them and could feel that the calling was coming from there, but as soon as he took another step everything started crumbling into dust. The mountains in front of him, the ground beneath him and the sky above him.
He did not understand what was happening, but soon saw the dust that made from the crumbling world forming into a complex pattern. This pattern had concentric circles with a pentagram and a oval in it. Along with these shapes, strange letters and characters were also written in it.
This pattern shrank to the size of a palm and came to float in front of Lin Mu. Suddenly the pattern shone brightly and blinded Lin Mu. During this time when he was unable to see anything the pattern shrank even more and then imprinted itself on Lin Mu's forehead.
A moment later Lin Mu was able to see again and saw that the pattern had disappeared. Unknown to him, the pattern was currently sinking into his forehead and soon disappeared. He looked around and could not find it. Giving up on it he soon felt a strange tug on his body.
The tug soon turned into a massive force and yanked him into himself. His body collapsed into himself and reduced to a small point which eventually shrank into nothingness, leaving behind an empty void.
When Lin Mu's opened his eyes again, he saw a canvas roof above him. He felt the soft bolster below his head and the bed roll below his body.
"Am I back? So that was just a dream..." Lin Mu muttered to himself.
*****
A few minutes ago, just as Lin Mu had shattered the box that was trapping his spirit sense and was subsequently sucked into the four colored sphere, Xukong was silently cultivating inside the ring.
He had engrossed himself in his cultivation and from time to time one of the silvery Grey streaks that were shining in the sky would break into a stream of particles and be absorbed by him. These silvery Grey streaks were incredibly pure and condensed masses of spatial attribute qi.
After overseeing Lin Mu help Hei Yingjie, Xukong too wanted a little rest. And rest for him was nothing but cultivating. But he had never thought that he would suddenly sense the link between his avatar body and main body becoming stronger all of a sudden.
Xukong opened his eyes in shock as he sensed his main body.
'What is happening, why did the link get so strong all of a sudden? It's almost as it...' Xukong thought and trailed off.
Then his eyes opened even wide as he realized something.
"It's almost as if the world's barrier does not exist!" Xukong spoke out loud.
He sensed his main body and tried to see if he could use its cultivation base, but just before Xukong could dig deeper into it, the situation passed. His link to his main body returned to its weak state again.
"What was that? Was that just a normal fluctuation in the void? Or... something more..."
While Xukong was pondering about the phenomenon that had just happened, there was something else happing at the Sky precepts sect.
At the star catching peak, in a large hall, disciples could be seen sitting in their respective positions on the formation. The formation was glowing and would sometimes show things on an ethereal screen that hung in the air. There were hundreds of disciples sitting on the formation with a majority being peak qi refining realm cultivators and some core condensation realm cultivators.
In a separate hall from that, twenty Grey robed elders were sitting on a formation array similar to the disciples previously. Except this formation array was much more complex than the other one and had multiple layers to it.
These twenty Grey robed elders all had the design for star catching peak embroidered on the front of their robes and were the nascent soul realm elders of the star catching peak.
If it were anywhere else, any of these twenty elders could make a sect of their own. Just this showed the power and reserves of the Sky precepts sect.
At the head of this formation array sat another elder, but this elder was not a man but an old woman. She had faint wrinkles on her face and seemed to be in her mid fifties. She was dressed in a black robe and similarly had the symbol of the star catching peak on her robes.
The aura that emitted from her told one that she was higher than the other elders and was at the Dao shell realm. She was none other than the peak head of the star catching peak.
All the elders and the disciples of the star catching peak were currently engrossed in operating the star catching formation array and were fully focused on it, except for the peak head. She was merely looking at the screen and did not participate.
Just as she was looking at the screen, she felt someone's presence behind her.
"What brings you here head elder Han?" The peak head spoke in a calm voice.
The person that was standing behind was none other than the black robed elder Han. He had appeared behind her soundlessly, and it was not clear how he had reached there.
"I've just come to assess the progress of the new batch of disciples." Head elder Han spoke in a friendly tone.
The peak head snorted lightly and turned to look at head elder Han.
"If you were here for that you would have directly gone to see them and would not have come to the core chamber like this." The peak head spoke.
"Ah Peak head Meili, you know the situation had not been well lately. So I just wondered how you were faring after the recent loss." Head elder Han replied.
~Hmph~
Peak head Meili did not respond and simply turned back to look at the screen that was showing a mass of characters that would switch and change around.
~Cough~
An awkward silence descended and head elder Han coughed to dispel it before speaking.
"Well, it seems like I should head on to check on the disciples then."
He was just about to leave when suddenly the formation array disappeared and the screen faded away as well.
The twenty nascent soul realm elders that were sitting on the formation array all simultaneously opened their eyes, and so did the other disciples.
"Oh! Seems like the disciples could no longer handle it." One of the nascent soul realm elders spoke.
"Yes, they did last longer than before though." Another one spoke in a praising tone.
A few seconds later the formation started glowing again, and the screen appeared once again. But while the nascent soul realm elders were talking amongst themselves, the expressions on the faces of Head elder Han and Peak head Meili were of dread. They looked at each other for a moment and subtly nodded.
Peak head Meili turned to the twenty elders and spoke.
"Seems like we can give the new disciples a break for now. Let them return to their abodes, I need to go do something as well."
The twenty elders stood up and cupped their hands in acknowledgment.
"As you command, Peak head." They all spoke in unison.
Peak head Meili lightly nodded and left along with Head elder Han. They appeared outside the core room and soon moved to a secluded building that was located on a corner of the star catching peak. They moved at a blinding speed and reached there in less than a minute.
After reaching there, peak elder Meili gestured in the air and a string of characters appeared. They arranged themselves in a formation and soon a barrier was formed around the building.
"Now no one can hear us." Peak head Meili spoke.
"That's good, we don't want anyone except for the two of us to know about this or it will lead to chaos." Head elder hand spoke in a serious tone.
"So was it really what I think it was?" Peak head Meili questioned with apprehension.
"Indeed, you should have read the old records. You know what this pertains." Head elder Han answered.
"But if the World barrier really disappeared, why was it only for a few seconds? Back when the tragedy occurred, the entire peak had shut down for months now. We could only repair the formation and get it functional, a little while ago." Peak elder Meili spoke in a doubtful tone.
"Because this time it was not an expert undergoing ascension who broke through the world barrier. But rather something else that caused the world to lower its own barrier. This is all that I can deduce." Head elder Han spoke in an unsure tone.
Peak head Meili suddenly had a change of expression, as if she had realized something. She withdrew a jade slip from her storage treasure and held it for a few moments and closed her eyes. She then opened her eyes, which had hints of fear in them.
"So you figured it out? What did you see in the hidden records?" Head elder Han asked.
"Invader... but not any invader, but an old one. The ancestors... they missed someone."
"Or one survived..."