Meanwhile.

In the void around the golden token, cracks bloomed like spiderwebs on ice. They crept outward, slow as frost taking a window.

The token gave a sharp, glassy crack, like a bell breaking at dawn. A breath of age spilled out, dry as dust from a sealed tomb.

“So that’s the entrance to the Wildbeast Wasteland?”

The disciples stared at the tens‑meter gash, shock swallowing their voices like a tide. Under that ancient, enigmatic breath, each felt like a lone drop in a vast sea.

“The entrance is open. Get ready to go in. Six months from now, the exit will open again. You must come out on time.” Elder Whitebrow spoke, his words falling like stones into a quiet pond.

Whoosh, whoosh—

Shen Zhankuang of War God Peak and Du Fei Yu of Giant Spirit Peak flashed through the air like lightning. Their disciples followed, a flock of shadows diving into the rift.

“Immortal Phoenix Flame Grass and the Holy Fruit of Illusory Feathers… I, Tianqi Yu, will have them.”

A chill glinted in Tianqi Yu’s eyes, sharp as frost under moonlight. Then he leapt with Boundless Peak’s Zhao Zhan and the others, vanishing into the rift.

The other Peak Masters refused to lag behind and surged in, like waves rushing a broken dam. Behind them, Nana Toki only watched, calm as still water, while they jostled and vanished.

“Mm… let’s go too.”

She waited until the crowd thinned to scattered leaves on the stream. Then Nana Toki took her silly sister’s hand, Spirit Energy blooming underfoot, and slipped in like a ghost.

Hum—

Darkness swallowed her sight, thick as ink. A formless force pushed her deeper, like a river current shouldering a drifting leaf.

She didn’t resist, riding the pull like wind rides a kite. A white point flickered ahead, a star swelling until it flooded her vision.

Hum—

A new scene snapped into place like a painted scroll unrolling.

They stood at the bottom of a gorge. Black stone walls rose on both sides, studded with white bones and shattered armor like cold constellations.

When she stepped out of the crack, the place felt empty, barren as a winter field. At least, none of the familiar pests were in sight.

The Wasteland’s Spirit Energy was thin, like watered wine. The air carried a sour stench, a rot that gnawed at one’s Spirit Energy over time.

She didn’t rush out. Instead, she summoned the System, her voice steady as a blade’s spine, and asked for a map of the Wildbeast Wasteland.

In a place this strange, every step felt like walking a cliff edge in fog. If those Boundless Peak bastards blocked the way ahead, there’d be nowhere to run.

Of course, she could let the System break trail and crush everything flat, like a cart through reeds. But the aftermath would be hard to explain, and a hidden card stays sharp when hidden.

“I’ve got a map, but you can only use it once we’re out of this gorge.”

The System read her worry like wind reading grass. It glanced ahead, then at itself, and spoke after a beat, voice careful as a needle. “If you’re worried about an ambush, we can leave through the back of the gorge. It’ll take longer, but it’s safer.”

“There’s a path back there?” Nana Toki arched a brow, a spark flicking in the dark. She’d planned to go against the flow, but worried the path might be a dead end.

“Of course there’s a path, but we’ll need to detour to catch the others’ route.” The System pulled out a folded map like a magician’s silk and pointed. “We’re in the middle of this gorge. If we go backward, we’ll swing through this forest. Only then do we truly enter the Wasteland.”

“No problem. Let’s move.” Six months lay open like a long summer day. If Boundless Peak was waiting ahead, they could keep waiting; time was on her side.

The three exchanged a look, decision falling into place like a stone on a Go board. Then they set off in the direction opposite the gorge’s exit.

Meanwhile.

At the Wasteland gorge’s exit, Li Qian and several others crouched behind a thicket, nerves fraying like worn hemp.

“Brother Tianqi, why hasn’t Azure An come out? It’s been almost half an hour. Did they not enter?”

“Impossible. I saw her and that silly sister’s shadows outside,” Tianqi Yu said, his expression souring like milk. “They probably guessed we’d stake the exit, so they’re hiding inside.”

“If we keep waiting, we’re the ones bleeding time,” he added, eyes fixed on the gorge mouth like a hawk on a burrow.

“What do we do? Go back in and find them?” Li Qian wiped the fine sweat off his brow as other peak squads streaked past like shooting stars. Anxiety clawed at him. “If we wait, others will snatch the chances, and we’ll lose out!”

“I know. I already had the Peak Master take some disciples ahead. We hold here.” Tianqi Yu’s stare didn’t waver, cold as iron. “The gorge’s miasma erodes Spirit Energy. We wait three more hours. If they don’t come out, we go in. By then the rift’s closed. Even with wings, they won’t escape.”

“Good!”

While Boundless Peak chewed on patience like dry bark, Nana Toki had already slipped out the other side of the gorge and into a dense forest.

“Tsk… something’s off. Why is it darker here than inside the gorge?”

Hand in hand with Blue Magpie, she moved through the outer forest, her face tightening like clouds before rain. It was only noon, but the sky pressed down like an early night.

Spirit Energy rippled around them, skittish as a pond full of startled fish. It felt like a great beast breathing deeper in the trees.

Please don’t let that be some apex beast’s den, she thought, a wry chill creeping up like morning mist.

“Hey, you lousy System, you sure you didn’t pick the wrong road?” They’d walked nearly ten minutes, and still nothing—no birds, no bugs, only trees like ranks of spears.

“Emmm, don’t worry, Host. This map’s from the plane’s database,” the System said, checking the map against the forest like a tailor matching patterns. Then its face changed, the color draining like ink in water. “Crap, Host, what if we walked into one of those ancient formations the elders mentioned!”

“Ancient formation?” The words fell, and her gut sank like a stone into a well. The forest was deathly still, so still it felt like time had frozen into glass.

If not for the restless Spirit Energy buzzing like trapped bees, she’d have thought she’d stepped into a painted scene.

“Didn’t those damn elders say the big arrays were buried deep inside the Wasteland? Why is there one on the outskirts?”

Her expression went black, thunder collecting behind her eyes. Nascent Soul powerhouses got stuck in these; she was only Foundation Establishment. Was she supposed to lie down and wait for fate?

She took a step, temper spiking like sparks off flint, and reached to rip up a tree.

Whoosh—

A razor thread of Spirit Energy sliced past her ear, cold as winter wind. A few dark strands of hair drifted down like withered grass.

A nearby stump now held a clean hole, drilled by the strike like a woodpecker’s mark. Her face sank, calm snapping back like a drawn bowstring.

If she’d been a breath slower, that shot would’ve cored her skull like a fruit.

“The plot never goes my way, does it,” she muttered, bitter as tea dregs.

She pulled a few Talismans from her sleeve and slapped them onto herself and Blue Magpie, the paper fluttering like bright leaves. She could save herself, but with Blue Magpie here, she wouldn’t gamble.

“If I’m not wrong, this is nine times out of ten a sword formation.”

She felt the currents around her, the earlier strike still ringing in the air like a plucked string. Spirit Energy shaped into sword‑qi, striking intruders on its own—clean design, sharp as a hawk’s dive.

But flaws lingered like missing tiles on a roof. It felt incomplete, a remnant rubbed thin by time.

“You know formations?” The System gaped, shock blooming on its face like a firework. Was there anything she didn’t know?

“I studied a bit in the Nesting Phoenix plane.”

She combed through her mind, sifting old notes like shells on a beach. After a long breath, she let out a slow exhale and released a thread of Spirit Energy, probing like a feeler in the dark.

If this was truly a broken ancient sword formation, there might be a path out, thin as a deer trail yet real.

“You go ahead and lead.” She pointed, her tone flat as a drawn blade. “You’re stronger. Even if it hits you, you can block. If anything goes wrong, you cover our retreat.”

The System: “...”

She wasn’t wrong. Among the three, the System was the heaviest hammer; meeting the unknown head‑on was fair.

“I’ll keep calling the directions. Don’t wander. Not one step more or less. Do exactly as I say, or we might wake something weird in this array.”

Nana Toki stood behind the System, eyes steady as stars over dark water. “Move when I say. Stop when I say. No heroics.”