Apotheosis

"What happened?"

Geoffrey was growing more and more upset as he realized that he would be unable to return home.

Ziya went into the cave to look around. He bent and broke off a stone at the edge of the crack.

Then he drilled out of the cave, and handed the stone to Geoffrey. "Here. Use your spiritual sense to check if there is anything special about this stone."

Geoffrey probed the stone with his spiritual sense. After several moments, he shook his head. Without saying anything, he sent his spiritual sense into the cave, exploring the stones, cracks, plants, and even bugs hiding underground in the cave.

"I don't believe that the large chaos can run away!"

He leapt upwards, rising into the sky.

He focused, closing his eyes, and allowed his spiritual sense to spread out as far as it could go.

Like an invisible cloud, Geoffrey's spiritual sense cloaked the surrounding woods, rocks, and bodies of water.

It flowed out for a mile, then ten miles, then a hundred miles.

Everything within that boundary, regardless of size, was captured by Geoffrey's spiritual sense.

A few minutes passed. Eventually, Geoffrey opened his eyes and slowly descended. Unable to conceal his worry, he said, "I have explored everything within a hundred miles, including seven secondary worlds. One of them is the world of poisonous mist that we once entered..."

"Let's check them one by one," said Ziya.

Geoffrey nodded. Together, he and Ziya began traveling through the woods. This place was located at the edge of the main world. The seven secondary worlds had been built as experiments, and widely distributed.

The first secondary world they entered was completely dark. After roaming around for a while in pitch blackness, the two of them retreated.

The next secondary world was obscured by heavy mists.

Likewise, there seemed to be nothing of note in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth secondary worlds.

Several hours had passed. They were down to the final secondary world.

Geoffrey and Ziya were silent. They crossed a long, narrow mountain range and found another cave. They glanced at each other, aware that this was the last world to explore, then entered the mouth of the cave.

As soon as they stepped into the cave, they felt a gust of freezing wind blow over their bodies. This world was a land of ice and snow.

Geoffrey sighed. "This is not the chaos. Let's leave," he said.

However, just as they took a last look around the cave, preparing to leave, there was a sudden cracking sound from behind them. They turned swiftly. The sound had come from the flash freezing of ice water—the mouth of the cave was covered entirely with a thick layer of ice. The entrance was blocked. The two of them stared at the barrier and saw

the purple crystals, the giant bombarded Geoffrey with a flurry of punches. His body couldn't bear the power given by the purple crystals, so his fists were smashed and bled. However, he didn't stop attacking until several minutes later.

But when he finally stopped, and the two giants looked down at Geoffrey, they were stunned. His body was completely intact and unharmed.

"Why is this guy so powerful?"

"Is he a creature from the third-grade world?"

Even as the two giants muttered to each other, Geoffrey slowly raised his Heavenly Ring Staff. He said calmly, "Torture them. Give them unbearable agony."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Heavenly Ring Staff extracted a portion of his strength, and then released a strange sound, like a string being plucked.

The sound was capable of penetrating into the depths of one's soul, then releasing a terrible illusion of pain.

At first, the two giants tried to endure the pain. However, as it went on and on, they collapsed to ground and began to roll and howl, bellowing with anguish. They were clearly in unimaginable pain.

Eventually, unable to bear it any longer, the two giants began begging for mercy. Geoffrey waved the Heavenly Ring Staff and stopped the sound.

"I'll give you one more chance. Who sent you here?" Geoffrey asked, in the same icy tone as before.

This time, the two giants didn't dare to hide anything, fearful of experiencing another round of torture. They bowed deeply and answered, "Our master predicted that you would come, so he asked us to set up a mousetrap here. He said we must wait for you to enter, and then trap you."

"Who is your master?" Geoffrey asked.

"Our master... He is who he is. Who else can he be?" said a giant in a puzzled tone. The other giant nodded along, looking at Geoffrey with an expression of genuine confusion.