My butt really did split open! Henry Carter lay prone on the bed in the confinement room, listening to the people outside busy packing up all sorts of equipment, preparing to leave the bunker and return to the surface. A faint smile appeared in his heart—taking this beating was worth it! Otherwise, his brother would have to suffer again from David Carter's Nine Yang Blazing Flame Qi.

Thinking of his brother, Henry Carter felt a wave of warmth in his heart. But when he thought of the rumored David Carter of the Yi royal family, Henry Carter couldn't help but clench his fists, his whole body tensing up, causing the swollen flesh on his butt to tighten as well. The intense pain interrupted the hatred brewing deep inside him.

Frostbite, bruises from the rod, ten days of ascension, swallowing nine suns whole!

In such a short time, both his mind and body had gone through so much. Henry Carter felt utterly exhausted, as if a tide of fatigue was flooding every corner of his body, leaving him half-awake, half-asleep. Scenes from the past slowly replayed in his mind.

“Brother, I don’t want to practice martial arts. I want to play. Training is too hard.”

“Alright! No problem! Your martial arts brother will do the training! As long as one of us practices, that’s enough. If you want to play, then go play! If anyone bullies you, your brother will stand up for you!”

“Thank you, brother! I’m off to play.”

“Go ahead, your brother’s got your back!”

Under the pale blue sky, William Carter's tall figure stood in the sunlight, so bold and full of vitality.

“Henry Carter, your brother has come out of the Lingxiu Minor World of the Yi royal family... He’s been crippled by someone…”

“Impossible!”

The pale blue sky, at some point, turned gray...

“Brother... brother... brother! How could... how could... how could this happen...”

On the sickbed, the once bold man was now on the verge of death, forcing a faint smile onto his face, his voice weak: “It’s nothing, I’ll be fine in a few days... it’s nothing...”

“Brother!”

Henry Carter suddenly jolted awake from his half-sleep, pushing himself up with both arms. The memories he didn’t want to recall left him drenched in cold sweat.

“Training, training, training! I have to train!”

Henry Carter endured the pain and carefully sat cross-legged, trying not to move his butt too much to avoid more pain. Because he was too playful as a child and didn’t lay a solid foundation in martial arts, his cultivation was now clearly slower than others. If he didn’t work harder, how could he avenge his brother?

Eyes on the nose, nose on the heart, heart guarding the dantian!

Dantian? Henry Carter circulated his true qi, and suddenly remembered that above his dantian, there was still a mottled stone gate, exuding an ancient and desolate aura, floating there.

That stone gate was still there, quietly hovering above his dantian, slowly rotating.

This stone gate... Henry Carter frowned. He hadn’t had time to deal with it earlier, but now he tried to use his true qi to force it out of his body.

One of the Yi family’s ultimate techniques! “Iron Scroll of Blade and Shield”!

True qi surged within Henry Carter, the explosive force rolling like spring thunder. The scattered true qi throughout his body gathered together, transforming into a battle blade and charging toward the stone gate, trying to force it out.

Yi family’s ultimate technique! “Iron Scroll of Blade and Shield,” offense and defense in one! “Spear and Sword Battle Art,” nothing is indestructible!

True qi turned into a long river, crashing into the mottled stone gate. The stone gate hovering above the dantian trembled slightly. The surging true qi didn’t scatter like waves hitting rocks; instead, a suction force emerged from within the stone gate, and the true qi uncontrollably poured into it.

Not good! Henry Carter's hair stood on end in shock. If all his true qi was sucked dry, a whole year of hard cultivation would be wasted! Come back, true qi!

The stone gate was like a parched traveler in the desert who had found a clean water source, madly absorbing. Henry Carter desperately tried to pull his true qi back, but it felt like trying to pull a bull by its tail—he simply couldn’t hold it.

As the true qi poured into the stone gate, Henry Carter noticed that at the very bottom edge of the gate, a thin stone vein began to glow. The mottled stone gate slowly started to rotate, and a blinding light shot out from its center. Henry Carter tried to see what was hidden within the light, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t make it out.

An even stronger force of attraction emanated from the stone gate, and Henry Carter suddenly felt his body completely out of control, sucked into the stone gate floating above his dantian.

The sensation was bizarre—a stone gate floating above the dantian, so tiny, how could it possibly suck in a person countless times larger than itself?

But... that was exactly what happened!

Henry Carter closed his eyes to avoid the blinding light. When he opened them again, he was stunned by the scene before him.

An endless, vast space, with a boundless sea of clouds beneath his feet!

A sea of clouds... that’s right!

Standing on clouds! And these clouds stretched endlessly, as vast and boundless as the Origin Continent itself.

Am I in the sky? Henry Carter stared blankly at his feet. Clouds only exist at high altitudes! Am I standing in the sky now?

Henry Carter stomped hard on the cloud beneath him, discovering that it was even more solid than the ground of the Origin Continent.

Could these not be clouds at all? Is this another kind of continent? Henry Carter looked around curiously, but what met his eyes again was a field of ruins!