Elias Vance stood at the edge of the sect's forest, the scent of pine and damp earth filling his enhanced senses. His new combat suit felt like a second skin, the subtle blue lines of his internal fiber-optic meridians faintly visible beneath the matte black fabric. The air hummed with unused power, an almost tangible energy radiating from his tokamak core. He'd successfully slipped away from the sect, a phantom among the crowd, and now, he was finally free to truly unleash himself.
He stretched his hand outward, palm facing the vast, unexplored world. He could just activate his Inertial Override Step or Electromagnetic Rail Dash for incredibly fast ground travel, but that was for combat or short bursts. For true, sustained speed, for covering vast distances with scientific elegance, he had a new toy.
"Time for something… faster," he murmured, a genuine thrill stirring within him. "Much faster."
He closed his eyes for a moment, his divine sense spreading out, not just into the immediate environment, but into the very fabric of space around him. He felt the subtle ripples, the unseen currents, the underlying grid of reality that most cultivators only ever brute-forced with raw Qi. Elias, however, understood the mechanics.
He activated Void Skimmer: Electromagnetic Warp Glide.
The sensation was not one of acceleration, but of being instantly elsewhere. There was no wind, no G-forces, no blur. One moment he was standing on the forest floor, the next, the landscape simply shifted around him, blurring into streaks of green and brown before resolving into new, distant horizons.
The physics behind it was elegantly complex, yet terrifyingly simple to Elias. It wasn't conventional flight. It was a calculated manipulation of space and energy. First, he generated a powerful electromagnetic field around his body using precisely routed Qi from his tokamak core. This field didn't just repel the ground; it created a localized pocket of anti-gravitational lift. Think of it like a superconducting magnet hovering over another magnet, but on a cosmic scale, powered by spiritual energy.
But lift alone wasn't enough for the speed he craved. That's where the "Warp Glide" came in. Using his refined divine sense, he subtly curved the very space directly in front of him, creating a miniature, temporary "dimple" in the fabric of reality. This wasn't teleportation, not exactly. It was more like pushing a boat through water that had suddenly become less dense, or rather, making the water itself rush to fill a void ahead of the boat, pulling it along. By creating this momentary spatial distortion, he reduced the resistance of space itself, allowing him to 'glide' through it at speeds that would otherwise require unimaginable force.
The electromagnetic lift neutralized his mass, effectively making him weightless, while the spatial curvature pulled him forward. The result? Travel at an astounding 50% the speed of light.
"If these cultivators knew how smooth this was," Elias mused, observing the world stream past him like a high-speed video feed, "they'd throw away their cumbersome flying swords, toss their spirit beasts, and weep. Absolute weeping."
He was encased in a silent, perfectly regulated space bubble, a thin, invisible shell of compressed Qi that protected him from the immense friction, heat, and particle collisions that would instantly atomize anything traveling at such speeds. Inside this bubble, the air was still, the temperature was perfectly controlled, and the pressure was normal. He could breathe easily, think clearly, and observe the blurring landscape as if he were simply sitting in a high-speed train, albeit one that traveled across continents in seconds.
He glanced at his internal HUD, which showed his velocity increasing steadily. Forests turned into plains, plains into mountains, mountains into vast, sparkling rivers. Landmarks he had only seen on the sect's crude maps flashed by like still images in a rapid slideshow.
"Let's see," he calculated mentally, calibrating the Void Skimmer's output. "Approximately 300,000 kilometers per second for light. Half that is 150,000 km/s. Five minutes… that's 300 seconds." He did the quick multiplication. "Roughly 45,000,000 kilometers. Forty-five million kilometers in five minutes. More than a quarter of the way to the sun. Not bad for a warm-up."
He laughed, a genuine, uninhibited laugh that echoed only within the confines of his protective bubble. This was freedom. This was power. This was science.
As he continued his journey, he decided to take a small detour, a brief venture that few cultivators would ever dare, even those far beyond his current cultivation stage. He began to direct his spatial warp upwards, away from the curving surface of the world, pushing through the thick, Qi-laden atmosphere. The sky outside the sect had always been a solid blue, but now, it began to deepen into indigo, then purple, then the infinite, glittering black.
Within moments, he was in space.
The view that unfolded before him was breathtaking. Below, the sprawling, vibrant tapestry of the planet rolled away, a sphere of swirling blues, greens, and whites. Clouds, vast and majestic, spun in intricate patterns. Continents, mountain ranges, and shimmering oceans unfolded with a majesty that dwarfed anything he had ever seen, even in his memories of Earth.
"Unbelievable," Elias whispered, pressing a hand against the invisible barrier of his space bubble, as if he could touch the stars. "And they call this place the 'Small World.'"
He knew, intellectually, that this planet was astronomically larger than Earth. The sect's maps, crude as they were, hinted at distances and landmasses that dwarfed entire continents from his old world. But seeing it with his own eyes, a swirling marble of impossible scale against the velvet blackness, truly drove the point home. This world wasn't just 'larger'; it was a thousand times larger, perhaps more. Its gravitational pull alone spoke of a celestial body of immense proportions.
He floated there for a few serene moments, utterly alone in the silent, star-dusted void. The planet below was a vibrant, living thing, brimming with Qi, even at this altitude. He could feel its massive spiritual signature, like a colossal, sleeping giant exhaling pure energy. It put all the petty squabbles of the sect, all the tedious politics, into stark, humbling perspective. There was so much more to explore, so much more to understand.
He spun slowly, letting his gaze sweep across the distant star fields, the nebulae that painted the cosmic canvas, and the other, smaller celestial bodies that dotted the darkness. This universe was vast, mysterious, and brimming with laws he had yet to fully grasp. He was merely scratching the surface.
After a few minutes of awe-struck observation, Elias reoriented himself. He had a mission, after all. He adjusted his internal navigation, pinpointing a target zone far, far away from any major population centers or known spiritual landmarks. He needed absolute solitude for what came next.
His internal HUD displayed a shimmering green marker on the vast expanse below. It was a place the sect maps vaguely labeled as the "Barren Wastes"—a desolate, rocky region notorious for its hostile environment and lack of spiritual resources, making it perfect for loud, destructive testing.
He began his descent, the world rushing up to meet him once more. The black bled into purple, then blue, then the familiar hues of a planetary atmosphere. He adjusted his spatial warp, guiding himself with pinpoint precision.
Moments later, the gentle deceleration kicked in. The Void Skimmer disengaged, and with a soft thump that echoed only in his protective bubble, Elias landed. The space bubble shimmered and collapsed, dissipating into the ambient Qi.
He stood on a vast, flat plain of cracked, reddish earth, under a pale, unforgiving sun. Jagged, dark mountains loomed in the distance, their peaks eroded by millennia of harsh winds. Not a single blade of grass grew here, not a single living creature stirred. The air was dry, still, and utterly empty of Qi. It was a place of desolation, perfect for his purposes.
"Isolated barren zone," Elias announced to the silence, surveying his new practice ground. "Acquired."
He extended his arms, feeling the boundless energy coil within him. This vast, empty space was his laboratory. And he was about to make some very loud discoveries.