However, Xia Feng accidentally discovered a second membrane stretching across the heavens and earth.
Xia Feng looked up at the dim sky dome. The snow was still falling, and the solitary Blood Moon emitted a blood-red light through the clouds, laying a cold, blood-red cloak over the earth.
"Thud—Thud Thud!"
The faint golden glow at his chest was pulsing rapidly, emitting a thunderous rumble like a drum. It was the power of the Evil Demon Heart rooted in his Spiritual Body, as if sensing something, it grew excited, cheering, and enticing the desires within him.
As if telling him, ahead lay something he desired!
"Evil Dragon, so you're just ahead...."
Xia Feng took a deep breath, stepped forward, and passed through the second membrane.
"Eh? Eek!!!" His mind became a mess in an instant, and the scene before his eyes flashed by like a streak of lightning. A terrifying suction seemed to pull him toward the World Tree!
As he was shocked inwardly, he quickly adjusted and looked down, causing his pupils to shrink.
Beneath him, the vast expanse was covered with densely packed humanoid skeletons, all kneeling with swords in hand. They had horns on their foreheads and bone tails draped behind them. The mass of them lay prostrate, worshiping the distant World Tree as if they were in the presence of the king of the world and heaven, the true lord of the world!
Along the route, these sword-bearing skeletons filled the entire snowfield; hundreds of thousands, millions, innumerable, like a sea of bone creatures, both spectacular and terrifying.
Xia Feng felt chills down his spine.
But at this moment, there was no time for further thought. His speed multiplied exponentially under the strange suction, the surroundings began to distort into a blurry flux, and his body seemed to bathe in an invisible force. He didn't need to breathe, yet he felt a suffocating shortness of breath, and hard to catch.
Soon, he saw massive, mountainous clouds of Grey Fire that could block out the sun.
Excited at his approach, these clouds were as if saying they finally had fresh food after so many years. But the next moment, they seemed to notice something, deflated instantly, and bolted in all directions as if fearful of being left behind.
Dispelling the clouds, Xia Feng moved unhindered until soon, the grey circle surrounding the World Tree was right before his eyes, growing larger in his field of vision. Whoosh—
He had passed through the third membrane between heaven and earth!
The world spun, and suddenly he lost his strength—Thud Thud Thud! He fell straight from the sky, landing with a painful thud on his head.
"Hiss!" Xia Feng clutched his forehead as he laboriously got up, "Damn it, why does it still hurt so much even in spirit form!"
He looked up to see the towering crown of the World Tree, its top lost in the sky dome.
"Strange, where did the Evil Power suddenly go?"
He curiously reached out and grabbed at the air, clearly feeling the concentration of Evil Power around him had dropped to almost zero, a stark contrast to the dense fog outside.
Looking around, he realized he had fallen into a field of Seven-Colored Violets.
Not far ahead, a white jade path paved with dry bones and bordered by blooming Seven-Colored Violets extended into the unknown.
Xia Feng followed the bone path for a long time.
At last, it seemed he had reached the end. He took a deep breath, parted the flowers, and the scene before him made him instinctively stop in his tracks, becoming stiff as he slowly looked up.
In the center of the robust tree trunk, impossible to see its end, was the Pale skeleton of a mighty dragon, its hundreds of vertebrae arched in slumber. Yet even in sleep, its majestic head was still raised, its formidable bone claws resting on a land paved with otherworldly stones, swirling with the eternal Gray Fire.
And directly below the desolate dragon skeleton, embedded into the ground was the Divine Throne, upon which sat a woman with grey hair, her eyes closed!
She was dressed in a thin, misty grey dress adorned with stars, her hands rested peacefully on her knees as she sat in serene silence, exuding a lonely, mystical aura, like a proud Goddess from the Moon Palace.
But now her head was slightly bowed, her eyes half-closed as if in an eternal slumber that she would never awaken from.
"Could she... be the Evil Dragon?" Xia Feng took a deep breath and cautiously stepped closer.
The woman did not react, and there were no barriers around her.
As he came a bit closer, Xia Feng finally saw the woman's complete visage.
Her cloud-grey hair lazily draped over her shoulders, with a dark golden cross mark adorning her forehead. Below the cross, on the left side of her face, spread enchanting white Dragon Scales towards the corner of her eye, while the right side of her face was divinely beautiful, unsullied by dust.
"Thud! Thud Thud! Thud Thud Thud!!"
Xia Feng's expression changed as he clutched his chest, his eyes widened in shock, his heart suddenly racing, as if going wild with excitement within him.
This was not good—it was the feeling of his heart racing!
Seeing a supreme delicacy and wishing he could show off his heart racing feeling right away!
"Gulp—" Xia Feng stared intently at the woman less than ten meters away from him, the Evil Power radiating from her was beyond rich and fragrant.
She seemed to be entirely a human-shaped entity condensed from the "Evil Spirit Liquid Sea," and the allure she contained nearly drove Xia Feng to the brink of insanity!
"Slap!"
With a forceful slap to his own right cheek, Xia Feng staggered backward two steps, leaning heavily on his knees as he gasped for air.
It took him a moment to recover, and then he raised his head after wiping the cold sweat off his forehead. It seemed ten meters was a boundary.
Once within that ten-meter range, he would sense the boundless Evil Power of the Evil Dragon and an intense desire to consume would be triggered.
Xia Feng took a breath and stared seriously at the woman on the Divine Throne, "Ahem, that, Evil... uh, Evil Dragon Miss, hello, are you awake? If you are, make a sound, won't you?"
The woman: "..."
"Hello, hello? Evil Dragon Miss, can you hear me?" Xia Feng shouted.
The woman: "..."
"Evil Dragon Miss, let's negotiate something, I need to absorb just a tiny bit of your Evil Power, do you agree?"
"If you don't speak, I'll take it as you consent~"
The woman: "..."
"Alright, thank you for your generous donation!" Xia Feng pressed his hands together and bowed, "For such a great favor, I shall repay you with a spring's gratitude in the future!"
Susu——
A strange rustling of leaves arose, startling Xia Feng, who guiltily retreated several dozen meters and took a defensive stance.
"Who's there?!"
No response came.
He looked up perplexed and searched the treetops, suddenly spotting high above, on a tree branch, there stood...
A crow?
That crow, no bigger than the size of three palm-widths, was shrouded in darkness, its eyes slightly closed as it perched quietly on the branch.
Xia Feng's brows twitched; he did not believe that a Black Crow that could appear here was an ordinary animal.
"Hey, the Evil Dragon Miss is asleep, so you must be awake, right?" Xia Feng shouted.
Sure enough, the Black Crow slowly opened its eyes, the depth of its dark, star-like pupils indifferent, silently watching the human below.
Its beak moved, speaking human words, its tone cold and indifferent:
"Human, do you see the path of dried bones you passed on the way here? That is the fate of all intruders over the last ten thousand years. If you don't wish to die, do not enter into Its field of Evil Power—go back the way you came."
Xia Feng blinked earnestly and said, "So what you're saying is, if I still want to go in, you won't stop me?"
Seeing the foolish human completely disregard the warning, the Black Crow simply glanced at him calmly—too lazy to say anymore, it slowly closed its eyes to continue its slumber.
Very well, if it would not hinder him, then there was nothing more to say. He charged forward!
Xia Feng took a deep breath, stepping forward!
"Ugh—"
His cheeks swiftly turned red, his heart raced as if at full throttle, buzzing tinnitus filled his ears, breathing becoming rapid, "Gulp!"
His black eyes fixed on the woman with gray hair atop the Divine Throne, Xia Feng strived to control his own desires, slowly approaching step by step.
And when he reached the foot of the Divine Throne, he had barely adapted to this state of heightened desire, his gaze regaining a hint of calmness.
It was then he noticed, near the woman's bare, pale feet, there dangled a dragon tail as sharp and cold as silver armor.
Xia Feng moved his gaze away from her dragon tail and fair feet, looking up, the proximity let him feel the consuming desire for the Evil Dragon Miss's enticing figure, like a vast and colossal delicacy made from the Evil Spirit Liquid Sea—just one lick would be enough to send one into ecstasies for a long time!
With wild fantasies in his mind, Xia Feng ascended the stairs.
Finally, he made it with ease to the top of the Divine Throne, and the Evil Dragon was within reach!
Susu!!
At that very moment, the Black Crow, which had been ready to continue its slumber on a tree branch, suddenly snapped its eyes open again, its shadowy pupils filled with surprised alarm.