The world plummeted into darkness around Hartley... Black ... deep... inky... thick, darkness.
Everything was pitch black and deathly silent.
Hartley thought he had died and ended up in an abyss of nothingness.
This was like a place where the souls of the damned were sentenced to spend eternity, wallowing in perpetual mind-numbing solitude.
Hartley then felt a burning sensation cover his entire body, it was as if hot coals were resting against every inch of his skin, he wanted to cry out in pain but his mouth couldn't utter a single sound to break the maddening silence.
The fact that he could still register pain debunked his theory of death, but being alive and enduring the excruciating pain in this nothingness, was probably a worst fate than being dead.
He tried to move but he couldn't even lift a finger let alone move.
Paralyzed and blinded by darkness, Hartley started to feel dread and fear seep into the marrow of his bones, it was a foreboding terror that plunged his mind into the depths of dire despair.
Before panic and hysteria could settle into his consciousness, the darkness trembled.
Whoosh! There was a flash of light that forced him to recoil and wince, blinking rapidly as a forest burst into existence before his eyes, the ambient sounds of the world was deafening, overwhelming his senses after just leaving the dead silence.
Hartley found himself on the floor rolling in weeds before he came to a stop laying on his back.
It happened so fast that the blackness, pain, and despair from a moment ago felt like a figment of his imagination.
The events of the prior days came rushing back, the memory of Zhi Ruo's bone chilling screams in the cave right before he was transported to the abyss hit him like a brick to the face.
"Ruoooo!" Hartley shouted out feebly until he expended the last breath of air from his lungs.
He looked around panicked and completely disoriented, his desperate cries echoing out between panting breaths.
He had never felt so frazzled or exhausted before, his muscles tensed as if he'd fallen into an icy lake, almost locking him in place like rigor mortis had set into his body.
He gulped for air desperately as if he was being strangled.
"Hmmnnn."
Hearing croaky moans to his left, his head swivelled around to see Zhi Ruo barely visible embedded in thick overgrown foliage about ten meters to his left.
The abundant greenery surrounding them was a far cry from the scant vegetation of the land they had just left. This definitely wasn't the barren lands anymore.
Hartley felt severely weakened as he slowly crawled through the weeds on hands and knees towards his beloved.
She was wedged into the bushes, her hooded robe shredded to pieces, exposing the pale skin of her breasts and abdomen.
When he got there she was passed out and struggling for breaths just like he was.
From his crawling position Hartley tried to untangle her from the bushes, he failed time and time again.
He was just too weak, even standing up was a feat too hard to achieve in his current state.
Frustrated tears began to fall from his eyes as he collapsed onto his face beside the bushes.
He didn't even possess the strength to cover up her dignity.
*****
The wind strummed a sweet melody across the giant trees, the leaves rustled out a sound as if putting one's ear to a seashell.
Scattered shafts of sunshine came pouring through the thick canopy, falling like laser beams, bringing warmth and spots of bright lights to the forest floor.
Zhi Ruo's eyes fluttered open to the sight of Hartley's tear streaked face staring at her with worry.
This was the second time she'd seen him shed tears on her account.
"Are you ok Ruo?" he asked, leaning forward nervously, looking rough and dishevelled with a face full of worry.
His robe was dirt-stained and in tatters, offering clear evidence of what he had been through. His sapphire-blue eyes stared at her, with his raven-black hair ragged and wild in disorder.
She smiled and reached out tenderly touching his face.
"I'm ok, I think I bumped my head that's all, where are we?"
She sat upright with a wince of pain that she tried to conceal. A strong fragrance of freshly cut wood was ever present, She turned her head to look at the uniform brown colour in the rounded space.
"We're in a tree, somewhere in the pocket dimension I think, I haven't seen anyone else but I can hear the roars of animals in the distance, we have to stay here until you regain your strength." Hartley said slowly.
Zhi Ruo nodded in agreement then asked the most important question, "How are we going to get back to Aidonia?"
Hartley stared in her eyes and answered, "we'll find a way when the time comes."
Zhi Ruo nodded again and slid back, obviously exhausted.
Hartley had hollowed out a massive tree twenty meters up and created accommodations for them.
Zhi Ruo was resting inside the tree on stack of a blankets. Hartley wasn't sure if his space ring would work in the pocket dimension but was relieved when he could still access its contents.
It was a big burden lifted. After entering the pocket dimension, they were so weak and vulnerable that if they had to hunt down supplies, any danger would be a potential disaster.
Hartley was just thankful that a beast hadn't come along while they had been out in the open.
He felt too ashamed to mention that he had stayed crying by her side for hours, just hoping she wouldn't get eaten in front of his eyes, before he finally acclimatized to the pocket dimension a little and gathered enough strength to bring them here.
At first he had thought they were in a forest, but they were actually in some sort of abandoned town badly overrun by vegetation. There were strange broken buildings invaded by plantlife everywhere. The roars of what sounded like large animals could be heard from time to time.
Giant trees had broken through the foundations of the buildings and shot towards the sky.
Some of the buildings seemed to have been at least a hundred meters high, now they were laid crumbled and broken across the land, captured in the suffocating grasp of the trees, vines and green flora spreading far and wide.
Over the next three days Hartley made sure that they stayed within the confines of the tree.
For some reason their bodies needed a lot of time to acclimate to the conditions of the pocket dimension.
Even though the world looked no different to the Aldoran continent, based on what little they had seen, the reality was totally different. They struggled to breathe normally.
No matter how much they inhaled, it just never seemed enough to fill their lungs.
Their breaths were shallow for days, as if they were experiencing a constant asthmatic attack.
After three or four days, their breathing returned to normal, but their muscles were still as rigid and stiff as petrified oak.
Movement, a strength of Zhi Ruo, was severely hindered, feeling like she was weighed down with lead while walking through a swamp.
It took fully two months for them to feel and move normal again.
For the duration of this adjustment period, they stayed in the belly of the giant tree. Opting not to take the risk of roaming the unknown dangers of the outside world without proper preparation.
The confinement wasn't all bad though, the couple quickly realised that this pocket dimension was a paradise for elemental cultivation.
There was a massive difference in their speed of progress compared to the Aldora continent.
Zhi Ruo had no problem breaking into the 3rd layer of the xiantian realm and was quickly heading for the 4th layer.
The blue star fragment seemed to have been rejuvenated, It took another step towards fully assimilating with Hartley's physical body.
Blue star essence was pumping into his muscles, skin, blood and bones as if he was slowly being rebuilt from the inside out.
It was amazing, the stagnation of his progress in the 9th layer of the xiantian realm was completely removed.
He started to make inroads towards the saint realm. Hartley's cultivation speed was once again frighteningly fast.
One thing had Hartley puzzled though. every time he tried to use his time domain or any of his time related powers, it twisted and distorted the world around him.
Exerting a horrible mind-bending pressure on his head to the point of him passing out. It was like entering the dark abyss again, a scary experience, one that he couldn't explain.
The couple had ample supplies to stay within the tree for a year if they wanted.
Months went by with them recuperating in the old town/forest .
Once the confidence in their strength was back, they began to venture out and explore the remnants of the broken town.
On days they would discover the remains of humans scattered through the dilapidated structures, evidence of the town's former inhabitants who had long died.
Wild animals would attack in groups but they were only offering themselves up as practice dummies and quick meals.
The more vicious ones would battle for a while before retreating when they realised they couldn't win.
Those seem to be evolved creatures with a little more intelligence.
It was like Hartley had returned to his roots at the back mountains in the Lou clan.
They stayed a whole year in the rundown town discovering many relics of the old civilisation including literature that they couldn't read.
******
Two figures dressed in grey moved phantom-like through the dystopia of destruction around them.
They melted into the shadows of the broken buildings and gouged out terrain. It was a sight to behold, it was like a battlefield of the Gods.
Structures that were no doubt magnificent once, were thrown aside broken and scattered, there was not a thing left unscathed or standing.
The less vegetation present, the more apparent it became just how massive the scale of damage was, the two grey robed figures moving through the apocalypse seemed to be the only people alive in the world.
Soon the two came to the murky waters of a river blocking their path forward. Hartley was about to use his sphere to float across.
The still water bubbled and frothed as if boiling when they got close.
Suddenly a green scaled serpent burst through the surface of the churning liquid with a huge splash.
Sprays of water molecules glinting like gold in the sunlight, scattered through the air and came down to the earth like heavy rain.
The giant snake twisted and coiled up from the water's surface soaring 20 meters into sky.
Rows of needle sharp teeth were exposed on its huge head as it roared an earth shaking high pitched scream and came darting towards the strangers prowling through its territory.