Li Yue once again felt like his soul was being pulled on. But the current Li Yue was a far cry from the one from before. His soul was almost solidified through endless cultivation. The tugging feeling from inter-universal travel was barely an inconvenience anymore.
The mysterious power couldn't even deform Li Yue's soul.
However, Li Yue still could not feel how much time had passed. It felt like it was both a moment and a thousand years before his soul finally returned to its original body.
Li Yue opened his eyes and looked around. It was the same old street, not much different as he had left it. Thankfully, there wasn't a giant fist trying to smash him this time.
The surrounding area was dark, like nighttime, and it was quiet. There wasn't any pedestrian around. There wasn't even the sound of the wind.
Li Yue felt that the world was different from when he left, but he could not tell what it was.
"Dummy, connect to the internet and synchronize your time. How long have I been away?"
Li Yue could still feel the box in his left hand and Annie in his right, so there shouldn't be anything abnormal about the travel itself. He immediately demanded a report from Dummy.
"Li Yue, are we already in another world? Is this the world that you told me about? Why is it so quiet here?"
Annie finally recovered her mental state. It was her first travel, so it was already admirable that she didn't faint like Li Yue's first time.
However, she could still feel the after-effects of getting her soul pulled around. She felt like the sky and Earth were spinning—as if she was inside a washing machine.
Annie dared to open her eyes when she heard LI Yue's voice. She found that this world didn't look any different from her previous world, but it seemed to be a little too quiet.
"Yes, we've arrived safely. Let's go meet a new friend. He's a superhero in this world, as well as a local kingpin. We should go and greet him."
Li Yue was obviously talking about Tony. He used his superpower to teleport to Tony's villa.
"You can sit on the sofa. By the way, do you drink?"
Li Yue didn't care about being polite, not in Tony's villa. He gestured for Annie to sit on the sofa and left the box with the Compound V sample on the table.
"Jarvis, you there? Where's Tony? Tell him that I got him some good souvenirs."
Li Yue proceeded to raid the familiar refrigerator for two cans of drinks, handing one to Annie before sitting on the sofa himself. Instead of opening the can, he instead talked to the smart butler of the villa, Jarvis.
But after dozens of seconds, Jarvis never replied.
"What is going on?"
"Sir, I feel that there is an indescribable change in this world."
Dummy's voice interrupted Li Yue's confusion.
"Dummy, what happened? Did you find out what I asked you to investigate? Why did it take so long? Did you slack off?"
Li Yue scolded Dummy but immediately realized his mistake. Dummy was an artificial intelligence, so it wouldn't even know what "slacking off" meant.
Ruling out laziness, what would've delayed Dummy for so long?
"Sir, I cannot obtain the information necessary to answer your query. I cannot connect to the internet, although I can detect faint network signals around us. But they never stayed long enough for me to obtain meaningful information."
Dummy's digital voice was filled with confusion. Li Yue was surprised by this answer. What was going on?
Li Yue fell into deep thought and carefully used his sixth sense to grasp what had occurred. He still had no idea what happened.
"Hey, Li Yue? Is there anything different about the drinks in your world?"
Annie's voice interrupted Li Yue's thoughts. She seems to have opened the can of drink that Li Yue gave her.
"No, they should be the same! What's wrong?"
Li Yue didn't take Annie's words seriously. He had drunk soda in both universes, and he hadn't found anything different between them. He continued probing the changes in this world.
"No, Li Yue, just look at this. Are you sure the drinks are supposed to look like this?"
Annie's sudden exclamation once again interrupted Li Yue.
"What's wrong? Isn't it just a drink? How can there be...fuck, are you performing magic?"
Li Yue felt a little impatient. How could a drink be different?
But when Li Yue finally looked at her, his words suddenly got stuck in his throat.
Because Annie was throwing the opened can in the air, but not even a drop of liquid dropped out of it.
Annie shook the can hard, and a long stream of water came out of it, but it was floating in the air. There were large and small bubbles splitting out of the stream as if there was no gravity.
The scene was fascinatingly strange. Li Yue had never seen anything like this before. Was Annie performing magic? But what kind of magic trick could pause time?
"Wait...paused time?"
Suddenly, Li Yue had a bad feeling.
Li Yue used his sixth sense again and finally discovered what was weird with this world: the air in this world had stopped flowing.
"Is time really frozen? Looks like it's time to make a trip to Kamar-Taj."
Li Yue thought in his heart. Freezing time was a feat reserved only for the Sorcerer Supreme, that is, Ancient One.
"Annie, wait here for a bit. I'll go and take a look at what's going on," Li Yue said to Annie, preparing to go to Kamar-Taj.
"No, I'm coming with you."
Annie insisted without a second thought.
"Alright then, you can come with me."
Li Yue agreed after giving it a moment of thought. Annie just arrived from another universe, and he didn't know what was happening in this one. It wouldn't be good to leave her alone.
Moreover, Li Yue felt that it would be necessary to report that he had brought a person from another universe to this one. He felt a little guilty.
...
There were countless ancient buildings in Kamar-Taj. It was the holy land for practitioners of Mystic Arts that came to study and train there.
But the Kamar-Taj that Li Yue saw today was a little different.
It was extremely silent, as if there was no life. The people were still there, but they were standing there motionless, like statues.
"Master Ancient One, are you here?"
Li Yue couldn't help but shout after running a lap around Kamar-Taj without finding a trace of Ancient One.
Li Yue's premonition worsened. Ancient One had also disappeared. This cannot be good.
"Annie, wait for me here. I will be back soon!"
Li Yue didn't wait for her reply and immediately disappeared!
Li Yue reappeared in outer space. He looked at the blue Earth in the distance, dreamy and mysterious.
However, Earth'sEarth's rotation had also been stopped.
Moreover, on the sun-lit side of EarthEarth, there was a massive black spot visible even from where Li Yue was. It was an immense blemish right above New York...
As expected!
Li Yue sighed before disappearing once again.