Considering Michael searched the place for Ostium ores before starting to collect the ores floating in the air, he was familiar with the layout and he instantly realized that they came back where they were before.
"Lady Alden, we were here before," he said and by the look on her face, he could tell she also noticed this phenomenon.
"This is the Mystic Disorientating Formation! How...how is this possible? Why would it appear here!?" she mumbled under her breath unconsciously and because of the perception pills, he heard her.
"Lady Alden, are you familiar with this formation?"His tone of voice contained a tint of doubt.
"Yes, I learned about this" she regained her usual calm composure hiding confusion in her eyes.
"Where-"
"Just follow my steps" She waved her hands, stopping Michael from asking any questions about the formation. He began to doubt that Lailah's intention of coming here is more than to obtain the Demon Dragon hearts.
He hesitated for a while before he followed her behind. He decided to trust Lailah this once to see if she had a method to break through the formation or not.
"Pay attention to my footsteps. You must not take a step wrong. If you do, you won't be able to break out." She warned him again. She then began to step back and forth like she was slow dancing.
There were thirty-eight steps required in total to walk out from the formation. When she took the ninth step, the surroundings immediately began to change. She discovered that she had actually arrived in a vast starry sky.
Afterward, Michael appeared behind her. When he realized he's now in a vast starry sky, they all stared blankly. They were extremely shocked. Unlike before, at this moment, he could see outer space as his vision was filled with nebulas, milky ways, bright stars, and even colorful lush planets.
"Whoa! Is everything before me an illusion or have I really come to outer space?" he said in shock. He could not tell whether what he saw right now was real or fake.
Michael observed the surroundings, frowning his eyebrows. A couple of seconds after he was staring at the scene speechlessly, Lailah began to explain "It's not an illusion, It's real. We've really come to outer space. Whoever cast the formation must have had some terrifying level of understanding about formations. The steps we're taking right now to walk out of the formation just happens to match the bridge that leads to the other side. Every step matches perfectly with an extremely crucial point of the bridge. Stepping wrongly would be like stepping off the bridge and falling into the water"
"What would happen if we took the wrong step?" Although what she said was like a fictitious story to him, he believed it firmly because he was not the one to doubt, after all, he has a system with him. Who would believe that?
She shrugged, "I don't know. This formation connects worlds and is extremely profound. Everything before us is real. We've followed the bridge and arrived in outer space and only by following it we can reach the very end successfully. If we take a step wrong during this time, perhaps we will return to The treacherous ocean, or maybe we will be thrown into the vast outer space or simply die a horrible death"
Hearing her words, he became rather stern. As the system went safe mode, he treated everything with utmost vigilance.
"Who would have cast this formation? They actually extended it into outer space bridging outer space and the world. Unbelievable" he sighed in amazement, his inner voice filled with sincere respect and admiration.
"Let's go," she said solemnly, continuing on her way with mystical steps.
He quickly shoved all of his curiosity and questions to the back of his mind, carefully following her steps in the empty space. With every step they took, the surrounding starry space would undergo some minute changes, as if they had crossed several hundred miles with just a couple of steps.
When the two of them took the thirteenth step, the scene before them suddenly changed. The starry space around them disappeared and they had arrived at a circular tunnel ten meters in diameter. It was chaotic around the tunnel, one could see nothing but darkness and hear an unearthly humming.
"This is the spatial tunnel," She said with a deep voice.
"What's a spatial tunnel?" Michael asked subconsciously out of curiosity, holding the baby dragon tightly. This was the first time he had ever heard of something called a 'spatial tunnel'.
"I don't know either." She shook her head quickly. He knew she was lying but he also knew she wouldn't reveal anything even if he asked her. However, he couldn't help but wonder where she got all this information about formations and everything related to The Treacherous ocean.
They traveled through the tunnel step by step. When they reached the thirtieth step, the tunnel suddenly began to tremble violently. Soon afterward, a powerful storm of energy suddenly appeared far away and quickly rushed toward the group.
Lailah's expression changed abruptly as she cried out, " Spatial storm! We need to get out of here as soon as possible before the storm gets worse" With that, her footsteps suddenly sped up, quickly advancing forwards.
The spatial storm rushed toward them from behind, quickly surging at the two of them. It forced them to advance as fast as they could. Right now,
He was completely focused on her steps and copying her steps to perfection. As the last step fell, Michael's vision suddenly opened up. The spatial tunnel and the spatial storm that surged behind him all disappeared as if he had arrived in a different world. It was extremely peaceful in the surroundings, without any dangers.
However, he had no time to observe this foreign world. He hurriedly turned around to look back and only saw a ripple in space. Lailah appeared before Michael, slightly panic-stricken. Her forehead was wet with sweat, clearly due to being overly anxious.
When she saw that she had finally left the damned spatial tunnel, Lailah immediately relaxed slightly. She roughly scanned the surroundings, before turning around and looking backward to see if there were any mutated beings nearby.
Lailah sat silently nearby with her veena in her hands but she was stern. In this foreign world, there was an unknown number of dangers. After being exhausted mentally, she needed to rest a bit before continuing their journey towards the teleportation array. Even up to this point, Michael had no idea that she took the long path filled with unknown dangers and mystery rather than taking the safe and shorter path to the teleportation array.
Having no ideas of her deception, he looked around and realized that he was currently in an endless wasteland. It was desolate, without any grass or signs of life. There was no sun or stars in the sky, it was a hazy-grey and did not even have clouds.
After a while, he turned his gaze to Lailah who just stood up, ready to leave
"Where to next?"
After some silence in thought, she replied, "there should be a path leading to the teleportation array a couple of miles away from here, I can sense it, let's go" She said but she herself wasn't completely sure about what lies next. However, since that person who cast the formation put so much effort into constructing a spatial tunnel that crosses through the stars on the dragon's island leading up to here, she believed that there's some secret hidden here and she wanted to see what it is.
Michael hesitated slightly because even though they didn't meet any mutated beings on their way here, this place and everything gave him a bad feeling. For now, the only thing he could do was follow Lailah, in hopes that she knew the way of getting out of here.
At this very moment, an ancient, desolate presence appeared in the far-off distance. It was vast and boundless, quickly expanding into the distance with a soul-shaking might.
Feeling the presence, the expressions of the two changed greatly. Before the presence, they felt like even an ant was more significant than them. The pair could not even think of resisting before the presence.
Shortly afterward, two colors, red and blue, appeared beyond the horizon. They plunged into the sky like two pillars, radiating with an ancient and desolate presence.
Both of them unconsciously looked at the two pillars of light. Afterward, their minds rumbled. Currently, they simultaneously envisioned a foreign scene. They witnessed the chaos before everything, as well as the birth of stars, milky ways, and even the universes.
"Wake up!"
At this very moment, a powerful shout of the system reverberated through Michael's head. It woke him up and the previous scene of chaos completely disappeared. He returned to reality and he was not the only one who awakened. Even Lailah beside him returned to her senses from the powerful shout of the system.
"System what the hell was that? What did I just see? Did I just witness the scene where this world was created?" Michael's mind was filled with questions, his hands were shaking uncontrollably. the scene with the primordial chaos constantly flashed through his head, he had never felt this terrified in his entire life. The scene of the world creation and the presence of the two lights shook his core, making his mind go blank and weak.
[The system level is too low to answer the host's question and the stuff on that level is not something you should know or the system can explain right now. What you just witnessed is not the creation of this world but everything. With your power level, knowing more about this will only lead you to certain death] the system said seriously, and just before he could curse the system for not telling him anything, its voice sounded again in his mind
[However] the system's serious tone took a one-eighty turn as it sounded like it was cooking up some plan.
Lailah on the other hand did not pay any attention to Michael. She just kept looking at the two pillars of light that surged toward the sky in the distance. Her expressions were mixed, grim while also pleasantly surprised.
"What are you doing?" he saw her taking out Angel's veena from her space ring.
"I'm going to harness some energy from the pillars," she said before dashing towards the light pillars in the distance giving him no time to stop her.
"What!? " Michael was astounded. Although the system did not clearly explain the origins or anything about the two energy pillars, he got a sense that they were not something he or Lailah should meddle with without proper knowledge.
[Stop her!] he heard the system scream in rage, the sound of the system almost made him feel like his head was about to explode.
[Bitch Bitch Bitch!] Having heard of the system scream and curse like never before, he rushed behind Lailah to stop her from doing something incredibly stupid, not because he wanted to save her but he didn't want her to do something that could jeopardize his and the baby dragon's life.