For him now, having lived over a hundred years, with one foot already in the grave and no great expectations left, if this was an opportunity, he would be unwilling to rest until he had at least taken a look, even if it meant death.
"Then let's go in together."
Ning Beichen did not stop the old Daoist.
Soon, the two of them and the tiger passed through the starry wall and appeared on a dark path. This dark path extended forward into the unknown, with the bottomless starry sky on either side. No one knew what would happen if they fell in.
Ning Beichen and the old Daoist, riding on the giant tiger's back, felt increasingly panicked and chilled as they walked. It seemed as though endless dangers lay ahead.
"Brother Tiger, have you been here before?"
Ning Beichen communicated with the giant tiger mentally.
"No, this is my first time here. When I was young and outside, I felt this place was very terrifying, so I never dared to come near it."
The giant tiger answered truthfully.
Ning Beichen nodded. He could also sense a great terror ahead, but he was not overly afraid. He instructed the giant tiger to continue forward.
No matter what was ahead, they had to see it at least once.
The giant tiger had no choice. Even though it was afraid, it could only move forward warily.
The two of them and the tiger walked along this dark path for an unknown duration before finally emerging and arriving at a vast plaza.
The plaza was empty.
Yet, both the giant tiger and the old Daoist had the sensation of being watched, as if something was staring at them from all around, sending shivers down their spines.
The two of them dismounted from the giant tiger, while Ning Beichen scanned the surroundings with a solemn expression.
The old Daoist, fearless due to his ignorance, began to wander around.
The giant tiger, on the other hand, was quite cowardly, clinging to Ning Beichen's side and refusing to move, sensing where it was safest.
Although the old Daoist found the place eerie and chilling, as a Daoist, he was unafraid of spirits and demons. He was merely curious why there was such a large plaza here without any buildings.
Unknowingly, the old Daoist had moved away from Ning Beichen's side. At this moment, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, as if something was trying to bore into it.
The old Daoist grunted in pain and hurriedly channeled his energy to resist.
But it was useless. The old Daoist's cultivation was like snow encountering a warm spring sun; it could not resist at all.
Soon, the old Daoist became like a madman, staring at a spot in the plaza and grinning foolishly, muttering to himself.
"Dao Ancestor, it is the Dao Ancestor preaching the scriptures."
At this moment, not only the old Daoist, but the white tiger also seemed to see something. It suddenly went mad, leaping and jumping around the plaza with a grotesque expression, pawing at the empty ground while roaring like a tiger, its demeanor utterly bizarre.
Only Ning Beichen remained unaffected.
Actually, it wasn't that he was unaffected, but the influence was not enough to overwhelm him.
Ning Beichen glanced at the state of the old Daoist and the giant tiger and knew that both of them had fallen into some kind of illusion.
"Wake up!"
Ning Beichen roared. He saw the illusions before the old Daoist and the giant tiger shatter like mirrors. The Dao Ancestor, the illusions, everything vanished.
The giant tiger, in the midst of its illusion where it was stomping on Ning Beichen and having a great time, suddenly found the illusion gone, leaving it stunned for a moment.
The old Daoist, on the other hand, was flushed red, somewhat ashamed to meet Ning Beichen's gaze. He was over a hundred years old and had considerable cultivation, yet he hadn't even realized he'd been ensnared.
Ning Beichen ignored him, as he was observing the surroundings.
First, he could confirm that this place was not an illusion array. If it wasn't an illusion array, then it must be a form of illusionary technique, which requires activation to have an effect.
"Found you!"
Ning Beichen's eyes scanned and detected a red dot hidden in a corner, flickering faintly. If Ning Beichen hadn't observed repeatedly, he wouldn't have found it.
Once the red dot was identified, Ning Beichen unhesitatingly punched towards it.
With a bang!
Ning Beichen's fist seemed to strike something, and then he saw a fist-sized small beast fleeing in panic.
"Still trying to escape!"
"Stop!" Ning Beichen's feet propelled him forward like a spring towards the small beast, and with one punch, he slammed it to the ground.
The old Daoist and the giant tiger exchanged glances. Because they hadn't seen anything, let alone a small beast, in their eyes, Ning Beichen appeared to be attacking thin air.
But would Ning Beichen be a fool?
Certainly not.
Therefore, Ning Beichen must have discovered something they couldn't.
At this thought, the old Daoist and the giant tiger shivered, and the two immediately huddled together for warmth.
It wasn't that they were cowards, but they were afraid of the unknown, especially the unseen and intangible unknown, which was not something they could deal with.
With a crack!
The small beast was knocked to the ground by Ning Beichen's punch. It looked like a plump little ball, but more like a chameleon.
Because it wasn't until this small beast was knocked to the ground by Ning Beichen that the old Daoist and the giant tiger discovered it.
"Could this little thing have been responsible for the illusions they saw earlier?"
"Dream Beast!"
As Ning Beichen saw this creature up close, information appeared in his mind.
This little meatball didn't use illusionary techniques, but a power that could induce dreams, which was even more potent than illusionary techniques. Without Ning Beichen, the old Daoist and the giant tiger would likely have remained in their dreams until death.
Ning Beichen was curious. Dream Beasts were very rare creatures, surviving from ancient times and essentially extinct. Ning Beichen had only read about Dream Beasts in ancient texts. He never expected to find one here.
Ning Beichen didn't have many thoughts about the Dream Beast. If he could subdue it, he would; if not, he would kill it.
What made him curious was what kind of place this was, to have Dream Beasts.
If it was a cave, he could see the sky here, and there were Dream Beasts, and it didn't look like a cave surroundings.
In fact, it wasn't just here. The underground ruins in the no-man's-land of the Sahara Desert and the interior of the volcano on Sakura Island were very similar to this place.
It wasn't that the places were similar, but the environments were. If there were no connection, even Ning Beichen wouldn't believe it.
When Ning Beichen discussed it with Liu Yilin previously, Liu Yilin had proposed a far-fetched theory: the two underground ruins he had visited might not have been from this realm.
However, Liu Yilin couldn't be sure if it was the Fading Mortal Realm, but she was quite confident it wasn't from this realm.
Liu Yilin had also simulated multi-dimensional space on her computer. If the Fading Mortal Realm was within multi-dimensional space, then the Fading Mortal Realm certainly wasn't the entirety of multi-dimensional space.