"Let’s see what’s been cooked today." The middle-aged woman with a smile placed the serving plate on the table. Within the pristine white plate were steaming hot dishes, their rich aroma rising in the moist air. "It’s chives scrambled with eggs!" Lin Chichi, who had just pushed the door open, plopped down onto a chair, her hands on the edge of the table, her little head leaning forward as she took a deep breath, "Smells good." Then she reached out to grab the chopsticks next to her and reached for a piece of egg in the plate. The middle-aged woman knocked her hand away, "Go wash your hands." Lin Chichi put the chopsticks away and walked towards the kitchen. "Ah, coming to wash your hands?" In the narrow kitchen, a somewhat portly middle-aged man was lathering his hands with handwash, looking over at Lin Chichi with a smile, "Line up." "You go first, you think you’re so great." Lin Chichi pouted at the middle-aged man, then her gaze drifted to the white marble side cabinet beside them. At this moment, next to the gas stove, two more dishes were placed, one containing stir-fried meat, the other pan-fried ribs, while in the gas stove’s clay pot, a pot of chicken soup was stewing. Lin Chichi casually walked over to the clay pot, took a small bowl from the side, lifted the spoon in her hand, scooped a spoonful of chicken soup, poured it into the bowl, and sipped gently, "Smells good." "Smells good, doesn’t it?" A gentle voice came from behind. The girl turned to look, just in time to see her mother coming into the kitchen with dishes, and subconsciously shrunk her head, "Hehe, Mom, I’m just tasting it for saltiness for you; the soup is just right, not too salty, not too bland." "Let’s eat after you’ve washed your hands," The middle-aged woman glanced at Lin Chichi, then she looked up at the middle-aged man beside her, "Dad, bring out the rice." The middle-aged man next to her brushed past Lin Chichi, squinted at the girl with a smile, imitating the girl’s manner of speech, "Tasting for saltiness." Watching his daughter puff her cheeks in irritation, he walked over to the rice cooker, opened the lid, and directly lifted out the inner pot, with the cooked rice inside, out of the kitchen. Watching the middle-aged man’s retreating back, Lin Chichi huffed, swiftly applied the soap to her hands, and, accompanied by the sound of rushing water, rinsed off the foam. Then she shook her hands dry and dashed out of the kitchen, past the middle-aged man who had set down the inner pot, and rushed towards the chair by the dining table. The middle-aged man watched her, then quickly moved to the chair in front of Lin Chichi. The two of them reached the chair almost simultaneously, and then they glared at each other. The middle-aged woman saw this scene, sighed as she picked up a bowl next to her, "How old are both of you to still be playing these games for a seat?" Then she looked at the rice cooker’s inner pot, now only filled with rice, turned back and glanced at the middle-aged man, "Dad, go get the rice spoon." The middle-aged man nodded his head, turning to walk back into the kitchen. By the time he came out of the kitchen with the wooden rice spoon, Lin Chichi was already sitting in his spot, making a face at him. "The kid’s grown up, not even giving way to her old man." He leisurely took his seat next to his wife, handing her the rice spoon. "Dad, listen to how you talk," Lin Chichi picked up the chopsticks on the table, half-standing up to hand him a pair, "As if you ever won over me when I was little." Then she passed the remaining pair of chopsticks to her mother. "Alright, let’s eat." The middle-aged woman took the chopsticks, tapped the girl’s head lightly. The girl let out a light yelp, shrank her head back, and settled into her chair. The middle-aged woman served the food in front of her husband and daughter, also sitting down on her chair. "The meteorological station in our city has issued an orange alert for heavy rain, predicting that rainfall will exceed fifty millimeters within the next three hours, with the possibility of exceptionally heavy downpours in some areas..." Lin Chichi picked up her rice bowl, grabbed a bite of vegetables with her chopsticks, shoveled a couple of mouthfuls of rice, and watched the news broadcast on TV. Suddenly, she paused, then slowly turned her head to look outside the window. The thick clouds obscured the originally azure sky, and oppressive dimness spread to every corner of the city. "Why did it start raining all of a sudden?" The middle-aged woman, holding her bowl, looked out the dimming skies, "The weather forecast yesterday said it would be sunny today." "Heaven works in mysterious ways," the middle-aged man also looked up at the sky, "the weather changes on a dime." "Do you still need to go to the company this afternoon?" The middle-aged woman turned back to look at her husband beside her. "Yes, I have some unfinished business, I’ll need to work some overtime." The man chuckled, comforting her, "Don’t worry, it’s just a heavy rain, we’ve encountered this before." The woman paused, opened her mouth slightly, then ultimately let out a sigh, placing a piece of spare rib into her husband’s bowl, "Don’t drive too fast, watch out for your safety." "It’s fine, believe in my driving skills, I’m always stable behind the wheel." The man still wore a chuckle on his face as he replied. At this moment, the girl sitting on the other side of the dining table suddenly put down her chopsticks and bowl; she looked at the middle-aged man in front of her, her tone a bit down, "Can you not go today?" The man, puzzled, looked at the girl in front of him, set down his chopsticks, and smiled, "Come on, dad will be fine, it’s just a bit of heavy rain, don’t make it seem like the end of the world." Then he seemed to remember something, his gaze shifting from the worried girl’s cheeks, turning toward his wife, "Speaking of which, isn’t Chichi’s birthday in a couple of days?" "You actually remember?" The wife knew her husband was changing the subject, but still responded softly with a smile. "I remember every year, after all, she’s our beloved darling," The man turned back, looking at his daughter’s youthful cheeks, "Chichi, is there any gift you would like?" Lin Chichi lifted her head, gazing at her smiling parents. No one noticed the pitch-black radiance sinking into the white tips of her fingers. The surrounding air was so silent, eerily cold, and she felt as if she could hear the rapid beating of her own heart. Everything seemed quite normal, but for some reason, her heart was racing, as if something fearful was about to happen. She looked up again at her father sitting across from her and suddenly said, "Dad, later this afternoon, let me go with you, it’s been a long time since I’ve been to your company." The middle-aged man looked surprised at his daughter, and after a short pause as though contemplating, he smiled and said, "Of course, as it’s Chichi’s request, anything is possible." The girl looked at her father in front of her, her worries not entirely gone, but a rare sense of calm settled in. She nodded earnestly, "It’s a promise!" The modest boat traversed through a void of space. "That giant tree was the ’guardian’ of a ruin I discovered, and my current B-level Talent comes from that site," Goya stood in the boat, looking at He Ao, speaking softly, "To avoid that tree, I tried many methods and by chance and luck, I managed to enter the ruins. "In the space we were just in, I wanted to hide in the ruins, but couldn’t find it." To summarize, the space they had just been in had replicated the scene of the dangerous giant tree monster from Goya’s memory, which could normally be avoided by entering a ruin to ’find safety’. However, that space did not replicate the ruin. So Goya had no choice but to fight the giant tree monster. Then, the absence of the ’ruin’ replication, was it because the existence behind it all simply wanted to kill Goya and extract her ’despair’, or was it because it could not replicate? Stream after stream of thoughts flowed through He Ao’s mind. This Bubble Space that replicated past scenes must have had energy limitations, judging from the previous two experiences, its actual Strength surpassed B-level but hadn’t reached the Angelic Tier. It might not even match the Incomplete Angel Tier Strength that He Ao had experienced in the Copy World. Meaning, it most likely couldn’t replicate anything of the Angelic Tier or higher. He Ao’s own Copy in his Bubble Space that lacked any memory regarding ’Divine Beings’ perhaps could also prove this point. If it was uncopyable, then it was very likely that there were items of at least Angelic Tier at that site which Goya had once visited. He Ao looked at the white-haired girl in front of him. Goya’s complexion had already become much more rosy, indeed, just as she had said, she was recovering quickly. Goya, seeing He Ao looking at her, slowly spoke up, cautiously asking, "Is my account inaccurate?" That had been the longest speech she had given in many years, and her long periods of minimal interaction with others had left her quite unsure of her own language skills. She was somewhat worried that she had spoken too chaotically and that He Ao might not have understood her description. He Ao shook his head, smiling, "What you said was very detailed. It’s just that something occurred to me, so I was a bit distracted." And in that instant, the small boat beneath their feet suddenly shuddered. "There seems to be some kind of power around us." Goya lifted her head, looking into the surrounding darkness, and spoke softly. "Yes, it looks like we’re getting close to our destination." He Ao lifted his head to look out into the ’void space’ beyond the boat. The Bubble Space ’nearest’ to them was now flickering erratically and without any pattern. From He Ao’s perspective, which was influenced by the Eye of Truth, it looked as if the countless lines and ’membranes’ that made up the Bubble were riddled with all manner of distorted ’cracks.’ These intertwining cracks were densely packed like spiderwebs, as if they were about to tear apart the massive ’Bubble’ at any moment. Faintly, it seemed as though the radiance of thunder was emerging from the depths of the Bubble. He Ao watched all this calmly. This was his first time seeing from ’outside’ what a Bubble Space looked like just before it shattered. Those outermost lines that were progressively being ripped and twisted were now revealing their essential structure to He Ao, providing him with a new understanding of the composition of these ’Bubble Spaces.’ While learning about the structural composition of these Bubble Spaces, he also turned his head to look at Goya in front of him, "We might need to speed up; that Bubble Space is breaking." Goya nodded, sat down, and steadied herself by holding onto the boat’s gunwale. At the same time, the entire small boat started to rock violently. He Ao was stimulating the power of the black ash in his hands, propelling the small boat at a ’breakneck’ speed towards the Bubble. At that moment, under his gaze, the frequency of the giant Bubble’s flickering had become abnormally high, and the weblike cracks had densely covered the entire Bubble. Surging power was flowing outwards through the cracks in the Bubble, as if a strongman trapped inside a balloon was struggling with all his might to tear the balloon’s skin apart, wanting to completely rip open the swollen balloon. And just as the small boat ’approached’ the giant Bubble. With a ’pop’ that was almost silent but faintly perceptible, the entire Bubble was torn apart from the inside. Escaping lightning and flashes of electricity filled He Ao’s entire field of view; it was this wild thunder that had just brutally ’burst’ the Bubble. He Ao lifted his gaze, looking through the pervasive thunder to the deepest part of it. As the entire space shattered, the lightning that had been scattering within the space was now being devoured by the void rushing in from all directions. And right at the center of these brilliant flashes of lightning, a figure almost completely covered by electric light, looking like an ’electric man,’ was now suspended in the void, looking around. The spread of the void was not gradual from the outside inwards but appeared instantaneously in every corner of the shattered space. At that moment, in the most densely packed area of electric light, right beside the ’electric man,’ a hollow void was expanding rapidly, devouring everything around it. The seemingly indestructible electric light began to fade under the spread of the void. Whilst in the center of this void, the figure within the electric light was pressing a hand to his chest area, seemingly gasping for breath. He Ao swiftly rowed the boat towards them, arriving in front of the ’electric man.’ The space here was still relatively intact, and He Ao maneuvered the boat, barely squeezing into the surroundings. Here, glimpses of ’real’ objects were faintly visible. Dark clouds shrouded the entire sky, and the thunderbolts spread across the heavens, trees shaking amidst the storm, the overlapping mountain range. And scattered in the ravines and valleys of the mountains, were the charred remains of flesh that had been struck by lightning. He Ao looked up, fixing his gaze on the human-shaped form within the thunderous radiance at the center of the sky, as if it governed all between heaven and earth. The endless void rapidly devoured the mountains and green trees, as well as the twisted flesh around them. Yet what dissipated the fastest was not these fixed entities, but the air that scattered into the vacuum. Standing in the radiance, the thunder-being pressed a hand against his chest, holding his breath to preserve the last of his body’s nourishment. He seemed to feel a certain gaze in the vague distance, and he raised his head to look forward. Amidst the dim void, amidst the storm and thunder under the sky, the illusion of a small boat emerged in the vacuum before him. This illusion passed through the void, through the lightning and raindrops, slowly solidifying in front of him. The entire world looked as if it had come to a standstill at this moment; the thunder that filled the firmament became the backdrop behind the boat, the raindrops that covered the world turned into the curtain before the boat, and the endless void was the cloud that supported the boat from below. In that instant, a hand reached out from the boat, from above downwards, passing through the curtain of raindrops, through the gaps in the void, and reached out to the midst of the thunder, to the face of the thunder-being. The thunder-being lifted his head to see the familiar face and then slowly extended his hand to grasp the reaching palm. The figure standing on the boat pulled with great force, hauling the thunder-being onto the boat. As if passing through an invisible barrier, the rich oxygen instantly surged into the nostrils of the thunder-being. The thunder-being fell onto the boat, dispersing light covered the vessel, revealing the face beneath the electrical glow. It was indeed the Research Institute’s Director, Li Cheng. The white-haired young girl standing beside him immediately raised her magic wand, and an invisible life force flowed into the heavily panting body. "I almost suffocated in there." Li Cheng turned around, stowed his spear into a wooden case, took a deep breath, and with a slight nod thanked Goya, then looked towards He Ao, "If I had met you guys any later, I might have really died in there." He Ao gathered the power of the Eye of Truth between them and reached out into the void outside. Li Cheng’s position was close to the core area of this space. An invisible strength, under the disturbance of the power of the Eye of Truth, slowly gathered in the palm of his hand, eventually condensing into a strand of new ash. He grasped the strand of ash and turned back to Li Cheng, "I saw this space crazily expanding and guessed it was probably you inside." Li Cheng’s gaze moved over ’Hao Yi’s’ fingertips, and he could distinctly feel the Angelic Tier power that ’Hao Yi’ had emitted in an instant. But now he was no longer surprised by ’Hao Yi’s’ display of superhuman strength; if one day ’Hao Yi’ directly told him he was an Angel, he would believe it. Li Cheng took a deep breath; He Ao had indeed saved his life this time. He stood up with difficulty, rubbed his brow, and looked at the surrounding darkness, "The existence behind this seems quite dangerous." He had not expected that breaking through this space would lead to a void outside, entering an oxygen-less environment without any preparation. Being suffocated was already one of the lesser concerns; the worst might have been being completely devoured by the surrounding void, leaving nothing behind. He Ao nodded lightly as well. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the puppet’s presence, coincidentally using the Angel Designation to enter this void region, he wouldn’t have expected this space to be a ’Bubble Space’ suspended in the void. Previously, their encounters had always been with chain spaces; after breaking through one layer of the Illusion Realm, they would return to reality or enter the next layer. The existence of the void outside these bubbles directly multiplied the danger of exploring the space; anyone who was not an Angel and still needed to breathe would either be devoured by the void after breaking into this layer or die of asphyxiation. Perhaps this was why the entity behind the scenes had let them in so easily; as long as they were still B-level, under normal circumstances, even if they could break through that layer of space, they would be met with death. From beginning to end, a death trap awaited the Transcendents from the Main World. They had to explore the transparent planet to extend the existence of the Main World, but even if they could solve the ritual and successfully enter this space, with human-limited strength, they still faced a death trap. Li Cheng seemed to realize this too, his eyes sweeping over Goya before looking back at ’Hao Yi’ again. Clearly, Goya must also have been saved by ’Hao Yi’. If ’Hao Yi’ had not joined in, displaying those incredible strengths, this ’exploration’ team would likely have been doomed for sure. And He Ao, standing at the bow, was now directing his gaze into the depths of the spreading bubble. Considering the possibility that this arrangement was aimed at B-level Transcendents but ineffective against Angels, He Ao had brought the puppet along. They were now very close to the ’core area’ where the puppet was.