Chapter 1 When Crossing the Portal

The instant he passed through the portal, Hao Ren thought he saw countless bizarre and fantastical sights – lush forests, vast grasslands, oceans, mountains, rivers, and even bustling alien city streets. These images rushed towards him, then shattered and scattered. He used the word "thought" because these scenes came and went so quickly, he could barely make out what they were before they vanished, making him wonder if it was all just an illusion.

These things were a unique phenomenon of this world. Perhaps due to imperfections in the spatial structure, the portals projected scenery from other dimensions. Everyone who passed through a large portal saw these phantoms. There was even a group of scholars in this world who studied the phantoms that appeared during teleportation, using them to research the connections between various spaces. By constantly using the portals, they generally died thirty years earlier than ordinary people…

After these bizarre lights and shadows dissipated, Hao Ren found himself through the demon portal. Lily was running down from another obsidian base, carrying him in her mouth. He could see a large number of demon guards around him, but the scenery near the portal had changed, obviously the other side of the gate.

Lily didn't dare to linger near the portal. With five people hanging on her, she just wanted to find a place to unload this "carload of cargo," so she ran all the way in a vacant, deserted direction. The demons near the portal also didn't pay much attention to this "suddenly running hellhound." Only a few demons nearby turned their heads to look, and then no one paid her any attention.

The group completed their border crossing under the noses of the demons in such a bizarre disguise, quickly moving away from the portal and arriving on a red hillside two kilometers away. Lily ran up the hillside and immediately dropped the person from her mouth, then twisted her body and panted heavily. Vivian's voice came from under the pile of fur, "Don't shake, don't shake… I know, I know, we've arrived, right?"

The hellhound disguise on Lily's body split open in a large crack in the back, and Vivian led the others out in single file. Then, a group of people began to help Lily clean up the layer of fur. The husky girl was obviously full of unhappiness, half-lying on the ground, sticking out her tongue and making faces at Hao Ren, but in this form, she couldn't speak. No one knew what she was expressing with her whimpering sounds.

After the husky girl finished cleaning up her disguise, Hao Ren stretched his arms and legs while Vivian led her to find a deserted place nearby to return to her original form and change clothes. "I will never forget today's experience," he said. "On the way, I was worried that Lily would get too excited and swallow us both if she tilted her head back."

Izhaks was also stretching his body next to him. "It's okay. I was closer to the inside at the time. I should have been able to block your throat…"

Soon, Lily returned to the crowd refreshed. She sniffed her body suspiciously as she walked, then came to Hao Ren and stretched out her arm. "Landlord, smell it and see if there's still a strange smell…"

Nangong Wuyue rolled her eyes. "You don't believe in my abilities, do you? How can a dignified siren not be able to get rid of the strange smell on your body?"

"Anyway, I'm never playing this game with you again!" Lily puffed out her cheeks angrily. "Look at the terrible ideas you all come up with…"

Lanina didn't chat with these people. She just came to the end of the hillside, looking at the direction of the portal with a complicated expression. At this distance, she could still clearly see the details of the magnificent gate, and also see the demons guarding the gate – those demons were wearing the standard armor of the Seraton Legion, looking arrogant and imposing. However, what they were stepping on were the outposts and towers built by Izhaks' legion in the past.

"These were all our soldiers," Lanina said through gritted teeth, her tail drawing an arrow full of tension in the air. "That bastard Seraton!"

"Alright, there's no use talking about this now," Izhaks patted Lanina's shoulder. "Seraton should now be the strongest demon grand duke in the top ten planes. We don't have any soldiers or generals at hand, so try not to conflict with his demons."

Hao Ren was observing the environment here. He found that every demon space seemed to have no difference in environment. This plane was also covered with red hardened soil and black strange rocks. Bright magma flowed on the mountains, and even in the wilderness, you could see red or green evil fire erupting from the cracks in the ground at any time. But this space was different from the Seraton plane. The sky here was more transparent.

The sky in this space had thinner clouds, and behind the thin clouds, you could vaguely see a huge red planet hanging high in the sky. This was a sight that was completely absent in the Seraton plane. Seeing this scene, Hao Ren understood more deeply what "a bizarre and fantastical world" meant. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, who would have thought that this universe had such a strange spatial structure? The Seraton plane and the Izhaks plane were both demon spaces, but they had such huge differences in the most basic天地 (tiāndì - heaven and earth) structure. Heaven knows how the "space bubble zone" of this universe was formed.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Izhaks saw that Hao Ren seemed interested in the huge planet in the sky, and said casually, "Among the top ten planes, my demon space is the only one with a second planet. In fact, the land under your feet is just a fragment of a broken planet floating in space. It has less than a third of its structure left. If you run to the edge of the continent, you will see a scary cliff. If your angle is good enough and your eyesight is strong enough, you can even see a ball of dark red core embers—that core has been exposed outside for countless years and has not completely cooled down yet. And the planet above our heads is the true 'main continent' of this space. Unfortunately, it is not suitable for survival. With the help of Little Old Man back then, I built a research station on that planet, but it was abandoned not long after."

Hao Ren clicked his tongue in wonder, feeling it was hard to imagine how a normal universe could produce such a peculiar local landscape. The continent occupied by Izhaks was actually a fragment after a planet was shattered—how did this planet become like this?

"I tried to investigate it before, but I didn't get anything," Izhaks sighed. "There are too many unknown things in this world, but unfortunately, many people lack enough curiosity, and those who have curiosity often don't have the ability."

As he spoke, he suddenly looked up at the huge portal in the distance. "Do you know, these portals have made this world's glorious civilization, but they have also cut off many things."

Hao Ren frowned, not knowing what Izhaks meant by this.

"Because of the existence of these portals, we can reach various 'new continents' relatively easily," Izhaks' face had a somewhat sarcastic expression. "There are dozens of known space bubbles that can provide a stable living environment, including the ten demon planes, the seven human kingdoms, the three elven secret realms, the four orc empires, an unknown number of halfling planes, and many alien space continents that serve as resource production areas or colonies. These 'space bubbles' are connected to each other by portals. You only need to take a simple step to reach a foreign country far away in an unknown place."

Hao Ren nodded. He had heard Izhaks say these things, so he naturally understood.

Izhaks smiled. "And besides these independent planes that have been developed, there are still a large number of spaces waiting to be explored. They may not be suitable for living, but they have sufficient minerals and resources, and they also have the potential to be built into new homes. Especially in recent centuries, almost every hundred years, three to four new spaces are discovered. Each race has its own professional scholars responsible for exploring the unknown 'space bubbles' floating in the universe for them. This kind of exploration is easy: you just need to find a stable ancient portal, then throw a few slaves in to determine whether the environment on the other side is habitable, and you can open up an entire continent, or even a territory as large as an entire planet."

Lily stuck out her tongue. "Sounds pretty convenient."

"It's really convenient," Izhaks grinned. "So before me, no one had ever studied the real space environment. This world doesn't even have the concept of 'spaceflight.' No one is interested in that cold, vacuum, dead, and high-energy radiation-filled space. Even if some space bubbles are very large and have a complete solar system inside, the people who live in them have never thought about exploring the planets nearby. Occasionally, someone will open a portal to outer space, but they will immediately seal it off, tremblingly never touching it again—because outer space is dangerous, and they think there is no need to take this risk to explore anything."

Izhaks finally sighed. "Most people's ideas are simple: anyway, just find a suitable space gate to cross over. There are plenty of 'space bubbles' suitable for survival, so why bother researching space travel?

"But they don't know that the space bubble zone is ultimately only a small part of this universe. The truly vast world is outside the bubble zone—a vast universe with endless stars, but cannot be reached by portals."