The ascension was not a graceful float into the clouds. It was a violent tearing of the sky.
Su Mei had consolidated the entire continent under the banner of the Frozen Heaven Empire.
She had drained the ley lines of the mortal world to fuel the ancient formation that would pierce
the membrane between realms.
Li Wei stood on the central platform of the formation. He wasn't standing on his own feet; he
was held upright by a gravity-suppressing array Su Mei had installed specifically for him.
"Hold your breath," Su Mei commanded. She didn't look at him. She was staring at the rift
opening above them—a jagged tear in reality that bled pure, golden light.
"Su Mei," Li Wei shouted over the roar of the collapsing atmosphere. "Are you sure I can survive
the transition? The texts say mortals disintegrate in the void!"
"I have encased you in a Divine Ice Cocoon," Su Mei replied, her voice calm amidst the
apocalypse. "You will sleep. When you wake, we will be in the Spirit Realm."
She didn't wait for his consent. She waved her hand.
A layer of absolute zero frost encased Li Wei instantly. His vision went dark. His heartbeat
slowed to one beat per minute. He was effectively dead, preserved in cryostasis.
Li Wei woke up screaming.
He wasn't in a palace. He wasn't on a mountain. He was on the floor of a white room that had no
corners.
His lungs burned. Every breath felt like he was inhaling broken glass. His skin felt heavy, as if he
were wearing a suit of iron armor. He tried to stand, but his knees buckled, and he vomited a
mouthful of blood onto the pristine white floor.
"Stay down."
Su Mei's voice came from everywhere and nowhere.
Li Wei looked up, wheezing. A projection of Su Mei appeared in the center of the room. She
wasn't physically there.
"Where... where are we?" Li Wei gasped, wiping the blood from his chin.
"We are in the Spirit Realm," Su Mei's projection said. "Specifically, we are in the Wilderness of
Ten Thousand Beasts. I am currently flying toward the nearest human settlement."
"Why... can't I breathe?"
"Because the atmospheric pressure of the Spirit Realm is fifty times that of the mortal world," Su
Mei explained coldly. " The air here is saturated with 'True Spirit Qi'. To a cultivator, it is nectar.
To a mortal, it is poison. It is crushing your alveoli."
Li Wei lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling. "So... I'm dying?"
"No," Su Mei said. "You are in the Void Pagoda."
She gestured around the room. "This is a Spatial Artifact I acquired from the Thunder Sect's
vault before I left. It is a pocket dimension. I have adjusted the internal atmosphere to match the
mortal world. You are safe here."
Li Wei looked around the white void. "I am in a ring? On your finger?"
"A necklace," Su Mei corrected. "It is safer near my heart."
Li Wei let out a dry laugh that turned into a cough. "I am a pet in a cage. A literal cage."
"It is a sanctuary," Su Mei snapped, her patience thinning. "Do you want to go outside? If I eject
you now, your blood vessels will burst, your eyes will pop, and your bones will turn to powder in Li Wei closed his eyes. The reality settled in. In the mortal world, he was weak, but he could still
walk, eat, and breathe. Here, his very existence was an affront to the laws of physics.
"So I stay here?" Li Wei whispered. "Forever?"
"Until I find a way to reforge your body," Su Mei said. "Or until you die of old age. There is a
garden in the next room. I synthesized a sun for you. You can grow your... radishes."
The projection flickered.
"I am being targeted by a Spirit Beast. I must focus. Do not disturb me unless the Pagoda is
breaching."
The projection vanished.
Li Wei was alone.
He crawled—because standing felt too precarious—to the "next room." It was a simulation of a
garden. There was fake grass, fake soil, and a glowing orb in the ceiling acting as a sun.
He lay on the fake grass.
"System," he whispered.
[System Online. Location: Spirit Realm (Higher Plane).] [Host Status: Parasitic.]
"Parasitic?" Li Wei flinched.
[Correction: Protected. Host is currently residing within a Spatial Artifact dependent on
the Beneficiary's Qi supply. Host is consuming 5% of Beneficiary's regeneration rate to
maintain life support.]
"I am eating her energy just to breathe," Li Wei realized. "I am a tick."
He looked at the white walls. He realized that he would never feel the wind again. He would
never smell real rain again. He was a specimen in a jar, carried by a god across a universe that
wanted him dead.
He stood up and walked to the edge of the garden. There was a "window"—a viewing screen
that showed what Su Mei was seeing.
He looked out.
The Spirit Realm was terrifyingly beautiful. Massive floating islands drifted in a purple sky. Trees
the size of skyscrapers pierced the clouds. Beasts that defied imagination—dragons with
crystalline wings, tigers wreathed in lightning—roamed the landscape.
And Su Mei was flying through it all, a streak of blue light, fighting, killing, conquering.
Li Wei placed his hand on the screen.
"Run, Mei'er," he whispered. "Run far away. And don't look down at the heavy stone around your
neck."