Rise of the Alchemy God

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The occasions in which the amphora had directly helped Ethan throughout the time he possessed the artifact had been very few. Yet, every time the amphora acted, something extremely dire was about to happen to him.

This time as well, the amphora stepped in to save him once again.

The sphere of energy unleashed by the amphora instantly enveloped his sea of consciousness, but it didn't stop there.

It continued to expand, and before Ethan could even attempt to absorb the demonic Qi within the sphere, a glowing dot appeared on his forehead, which soon spread to cover his entire body.

Before he could comprehend what was happening, the layer of yellow light surrounding Ethan's body expanded furiously outward, engulfing the reddish-black sphere in front of him, and continued to grow, spreading farther and farther in every direction.

'Why is the amphora acting?' he thought, confused but also on high alert.

He could tell that the amphora did not act for trivial matters, and based on his past experiences, he understood that if it was acting, it was doing so for a good reason, most likely related to him.

The expansion of the yellow energy sphere continued at high speed in all directions, and at a certain point, it even reached the black darkness of the portal, which had been advancing relentlessly.

Soon, the sphere exceeded its initial range, and before long, it swallowed even that.

Just as Ethan was uncertain about what the amphora was trying to accomplish, the yellow energy sphere that had expanded so massively finally began to slow its progress once it had completely enveloped the ever-growing darkness.

In just a few more seconds, it stopped altogether.

To Ethan's surprise, it wasn't just the expansion of the energy sphere that halted.

The opening of the portal itself, upon reaching the edges of the sphere, stopped and could no longer expand further.

"Is it trying to stop the portal's opening?" Ethan murmured, confused yet slightly relieved to see that the portal had finally been halted.

He wasn't sure if this was the amphora's intent, but he felt comforted knowing that whatever it was doing, it was working.

Now the question remained: what to do about the portal?

Should he continue with his plan and take advantage of the time the amphora had just bought him?

Thinking this was the best course of action, he prepared to absorb the demonic Qi, but once again, before he could begin to do anything, the energy sphere that had halted the portal's expansion began to tremble and started to shrink.

Along with it, the darkness also began to compress. But unlike before, when the expansion had been rapid yet required several seconds, this time it was much faster.

Almost instantaneous. Discover hidden stories at empire

In a moment, the energy sphere collapsed inward, taking with it both the darkness and the black sphere.

To Ethan's surprise, those two weren't the only things taken away by the energy sphere, he too was pulled in, or more precisely, he was sucked into the compressed darkness.

"Wha-"

Ethan didn't have time to process what had just happened because everything occurred literally in an instant.

In that instant, the darkness that had begun to engulf the seabed disappeared completely, leaving nothing behind but the desolate ocean floor as it had been before, with the sole exception that in a radius of several miles around this area, there were no living creatures.

***

Within Ethan's sea of consciousness,

deep beneath the infinite water mirror, a figure was floating.

The figure showed no sign of consciousness as it drifted, immersed in this spiritual sea of consciousness.

Ethan, who was floating deep beneath the water mirror, finally showed some sign of life.

His eyebrows furrowed slightly before they slowly began to open.

He didn't know how long he had been unconscious, but finally, as he regained his senses, he found himself in an unfamiliar place.

For a moment, he felt disoriented, his vision somewhat blurred, but he immediately recognized that this was his sea of consciousness.

'How did I end up here?' he thought, still very confused, as he began to stabilize himself slowly.

The last thing he remembered was being sucked into the energy sphere released by the amphora.

He didn't expect to wake up, not in the physical world, but rather in his sea of consciousness.

More importantly, he wasn't even on the surface but deep beneath the water mirror, a place he hadn't even known he could reach.

Though he was in spirit form, he felt a slight headache. Having been used to not experiencing such effects for centuries, he had to admit it was unsettling.

After the early stages of the mortal realm, headaches and other minor conditions like this ceased to exist.

Experiencing them again after so long was unexpected, though nothing he couldn't endure.

Finally regaining both mental and visual clarity, he was able to fully perceive his surroundings, though there wasn't much to perceive in the first place.

After all, he was in his sea of consciousness, where there wasn't much aside from himself, the amphora, and Bai Yu.

"Wait, Bai Yu…"

He suddenly remembered her and quickly tried to sense the soul trace she had left sealed within him, allowing her to remain in the mortal realm, as well as providing a means of communication with him.

"It's gone…"

Ethan tried sensing it multiple times but found no trace of her soul. Worse still, he couldn't even detect the aura of the seal.

"What the hell is going on?" he thought, preparing to return to the surface to check on the amphora.

He needed to see if Bai Yu's seal runes were still active. After all, there were still three remaining, and if they were still functioning, it would mean she was still here somewhere.

Just as he expanded his perception to locate the direction in which to head, his senses detected something.

"What are these presences?"

Deep within the spiritual sea of his mind, Ethan had no sense of what was up or down.

His orientation was compromised, so he needed to reestablish it. But as he expanded his perception to get a sense of the place and determine where to go, he immediately detected the presence of something nearby.

"This feeling… it's the same as back then," he thought, a bit relieved but also confused.

The first time he encountered Bai Yu was when she was still in the form of a beast sealed beneath his spiritual sea, and back then, he could feel her presence in the depths.

The sensation he was experiencing now was the same, but this time, it wasn't a single presence, but three.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om