An invasion from the Abyss? I, a demonic cultivator, laughed.

Chapter 413 Free Diving
Chu Xiu had heard enough about the dangers of free dive. In everyone's descriptions, it was almost a chaotic unknown, filled with a lot of randomness, a dangerous place where even the strongest could perish!

As Ya Zi mentioned before, a heroic spirit was lost in the abyss, and a demigod went to rescue him by diving freely into the abyss, but instead lost his life in the abyss.

That heroic spirit wasn't even that deeply lost, yet it was still in such danger. Even with the most conservative estimate, the tribulation Chu Xiu was matched with would be no less severe than any ancient trial of heroic spirit level!

"But there's no other way now."

"Let's give it a try first; we can't stay stuck here forever."

Letting out a long breath, Chu Xiu closed his eyes and communicated with the Awakening Space through his mind.

In fact, even just entering free dive mode is not an easy task.

If we compare the Awakening Space to a complex spacecraft, then the Abyss had set up a complete "program" beforehand. Awakeners only need to make actions similar to clicking corresponding buttons to automatically complete the operation.

But right now, Chu Xiu has to start exploring from the most basic principles and learn how to control this spacecraft from scratch!

"The principle behind awakening space should be to help people enter a higher-dimensional space."

Just like the Black Death Prison of the past, the hemisphere that covers the entire city of Pengcheng is actually just a small point in a higher-dimensional space.

In higher dimensions, one can traverse vast spaces with very little energy!
The simplest example is a line segment in two-dimensional space that is a thousand kilometers apart. If you fold it in half along the center, from a higher-dimensional perspective, the starting point and the ending point of this line segment will appear to be "stuck" together.

The so-called exploration in the abyss actually refers to wandering in this higher-dimensional space.

In fact, the use of higher dimensions is not that profound. Even powerful beings at the level of Heroic Spirits can barely control it. For example, Ella, the Fear Wolf encountered in Pengcheng, has a similar shadow space. Chu Xiu's ability to travel through space with the Wings of Garuda is essentially also based on higher dimensions.

However, these two are very different from the Awakening Space. Whether it is the Shadow Space or the Travel Space, it is only a temporary departure from reality, like a fish leaping out of the sea.

To truly enter higher dimensions, one must completely leave the sea and fly in the sky!

This involves far too many things: how to travel between the present world and higher dimensions, how to adapt the body to higher-dimensional space, how to move within higher dimensions, and so on.
If Chu Xiu only relied on his understanding of space, it would be absolutely impossible to do it. Let alone do it, he would even have difficulty getting close to it!

Fortunately, he has the potential to awaken.

As Chu Xiu's mind fully focused on the information, a flood of data entered his brain.

Although he lost his datafication, the connection he established with the Awakening Space did not disappear. This feeling, similar to a magical artifact recognizing its master, was very mysterious. Just like how he still couldn't understand the spatial travel ability of the Garuda Wings, but that didn't stop Chu Xiu from using it.

No matter how complex something is, when it comes to usability, it is always designed to be as simple and easy to understand as possible. For example, smartphones are the pinnacle of technological innovation, yet even a three-year-old can easily figure out how to use them.

The Awakening Space is certainly far more complex than using a mobile phone, but how vast is Chu Xiu's divine sense?

"I understand."

"This awakening space is actually a 'door' connecting the inside and outside."

"However, the way this door opens is rather unusual."

Before it was de-digitized, Chu Xiu could detach himself with a mere thought. He guessed that the Awakening Space, which appeared to be just an ordinary space, actually contained components that could be controlled by "divine thought," just like the cannons in the Titan machine that could be controlled by divine thought.

After a moment of exploration, Chu Xiu's eyes suddenly lit up.

"found it!"

Immediately, his divine sense surged, and hundreds of divine senses were extended at the same time, precisely activating different areas simultaneously. As those areas were activated, the awakening space began to expand outward from Chu Xiu's dantian!
Chu Xiu rapidly experimented with the effects of different "activation points" on the Awakening Space. Relying on his supercomputer-like computing speed, he almost brute-forced his way out and quickly found the manipulation to make the Awakening Space continue to expand!
The awakening space within the star core expanded continuously, suddenly seeming to break through a critical point, expanding a hundredfold in less than 0.01 seconds! It completely engulfed Chu Xiu in an instant! The next moment, it rapidly collapsed!
Chu Xiu felt a blur before his eyes, and when he came to his senses, he found himself in a familiar yet strange chaos.

It felt familiar because this place was no different from the Awakening Space, yet it felt strange because a large amount of information was flooding into his mind: meaningless noises, bizarre and fantastical scenes, and brief, rapid flashes.
He felt as if his brain was a jumble of paint, with a constant wave of dizziness washing over him.

"Uh"

He clutched his head, breathing heavily, trying to process the information flooding his mind.

Chu Xiu knew that this was the discomfort caused by his direct entry into a higher dimension. He had heard before that awakened individuals who tried free deep diving for the first time would experience an adaptation period, and the stronger the awakened individual's soul, the greater the impact!
This is because during directional travel, the awakened space is like a train traveling in a fixed channel. The channel constructed by the abyss isolates the inside from the outside, but free deep diving will throw you directly into a higher dimension.

However, the bodies of awakened beings have an extremely strong ability to adapt. Just like when one suddenly enters a dark environment, the human eye can adjust and adapt to the darkness after a period of time. The same is true in higher dimensions.

It took at least fifteen minutes for Chu Xiu's body to barely adapt to the unusual environment, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

"This is higher-dimensional space?"

In this strange space, all his senses failed him, but his consciousness spread outwards like water.

"Divine sense is a supernatural ability unique to cultivators, but here, even the consciousness of an ordinary person can explore the surroundings."

Even more amazingly, in the higher dimensions, Chu Xiu can observe the situation in the present world at any time!
For example, he could extend a wisp of his divine sense to "ten meters" in front of him, and then simply use that divine sense to "pierce" the "space" so that he could "see" the scene in the present world.

This feeling is very peculiar, as if you are stuffed into a bubble, where you can see not only what is in front of you, but also the scenery from all directions.

However, if one extends one's divine sense forward by another ten meters, the scene one "sees" will be completely different!

Chu Xiu was suddenly seized by a playful impulse and kept casting his gaze down from the higher dimension. After experimenting for a while, he also gained some insight.

"Distances in higher dimensions are completely different from those in the present world. It's not just a matter of scaling. A distance of ten meters might sometimes be only a few thousand kilometers in the present world, not even enough to reach the nearest planet, but at other times, it could cross an entire galaxy!"

Once, Chu Xiu probed forward a hundred meters, only to find that the location he had previously explored was less than half a planet away. But another time, he moved less than a meter, and he couldn't even find the star he used for positioning.

It can be said that the correspondence between the present world and higher-dimensional space is completely chaotic, and even the directions are confused! Trying to cross in higher-dimensional space by referring to the distance in the real world is difficult to do, which is why coordinates are used to represent positions in higher dimensions.

Chu Xiu tried to fully expand his divine sense and found that the range of his divine sense was more than ten times greater than in reality.

At this moment, he finally realized why he was feeling so unwell. How powerful was his soul? It was no wonder he had a headache after being exposed to such a wide range of information at once!
"So how do we move it?"

Chu Xiu concentrated his divine sense and quietly sensed it.

He discovered that there was a downward force pulling him down, and his consciousness was like nails, pinning him to the spot. Chu Xiu tried to withdraw all his thoughts, and instantly, his body began to fall, and the speed increased rapidly!

If you don't resist at all, you will be pulled down rapidly by the power of the abyss!
A look of realization dawned on his face: "No wonder it's called 'free dive,' it really does feel a lot like swimming."

The way it moves is different from swimming; it's more like "rock climbing."

“As long as I ‘poke’ my consciousness into the present world, it will create an anchor point, just like a nail driven into the present world.”

With a thought, Chu Xiu sent a wisp of divine thought into the mortal world, "pulling" back his rapidly falling body.

Immediately afterward, Chu Xiu withdrew his thoughts. Because his thoughts had penetrated into reality, he felt himself being pulled into the waking space.

"interesting."

Chu Xiu quickly became familiar with this operation. He felt like an insect with a large number of limbs, using hundreds of "legs" to crawl in the abyss.

Furthermore, in Chu Xiu's perception, he could "see" several dotted lines that stretched all the way to the distance.

These dotted lines represent the connection between Chu Xiu and the [anchor point]. By concentrating his mind on the dotted lines, he can obtain some information about the [anchor point], such as the approximate distance from the [anchor point], information about the world in which the [anchor point] is located, and so on.

Without further hesitation, Chu Xiu chose the Corpse Demon World and, using both hands and feet, swiftly crawled along the indicated path like an extremely agile insect.

However, after climbing for quite a while, he felt that the distance between the world of corpses and himself had not shrunk at all; it was still extremely far away.

Chu Xiu guessed that his method of movement must be very primitive and slow.

That's normal. If he climbed back to the Shiki world in no time, wouldn't that mean that any Heroic Spirit, as long as they have the exact coordinates, can easily travel between star systems across millions of light-years using their own power?
That's utter nonsense. Chu Xiu had heard Blood Servant say before that even for gods, traveling across star systems takes a lot of effort.

After climbing for a while, seeing that the distance had not shortened at all, Chu Xiu couldn't help but wonder if he had finally stabilized his awakening space but still couldn't go back.
After pondering for a while, he suddenly thought of something.

He still has one more precious prop!

That is the ultimate reward for clearing the Final Trial when you reach the General rank: the [Xi Huang Lantern]!
This reward appeared at the same time as the [Freedom Dive Scroll].

Furthermore, Ya Zi had also told him that a [lamp] was essential for free deep-sea diving, but [lamps] were extremely rare. Even if one occasionally appeared, its detection range was generally only 0.1. Those that could reach 1 were priceless treasures!
The range of [Xi Huang's Lantern] is 5!

With a flick of his wrist, the Xi Huang Lantern appeared in his hand. It looked like a small ball of light without a specific shape. As Chu Xiu's divine sense surged into it, with a loud "boom," he felt his consciousness rapidly extending in all directions like a waterfall!
The vast higher-dimensional space began to shrink rapidly. He felt as if he had opened a god's-eye view in a game and suddenly stood at a point in a higher dimension, "overlooking" the surrounding area!
"This is the lamp."

If Chu Xiu's divine sense could cover a distance of 1 before, then his maximum detection distance along a certain direction was about 15, while the distance covered by the Xi Huang Lantern was more than 10,000 in radius!

Now, Chu Xiu fully understood why he needed a lamp. Even though his soul strength had reached or even surpassed the average level of a perfect demigod, the range of his divine sense coverage was still a hundred times smaller in front of the worst lamp, making it incomparable!
Now, with his field of vision expanded tens of thousands of times, Chu Xiu immediately perceived a large number of things he had never noticed before.

Higher-dimensional space is not uniform everywhere; it also contains some peculiar structures.

For example, about 1500 units of divine sense limit to Chu Xiu's left, there is a strange vortex, and about 6700 units of divine sense limit to the upper right, there is a floating "land". There are many other examples as well.

These strange things, like singularities on a map, aroused Chu Xiu's desire to explore them.

Unfortunately, once his field of vision expanded, he realized just how slow his previous method of movement had been.
"The distance of the Xi Huang Lantern is 5, so my speed is approximately 0.037 km/h."

"The depth alone is probably over 50,000 meters, not to mention the horizontal distance."

At that rate, when will he be able to go back?
One hundred years? Two hundred years? If the distance on the horizontal plane is greater, it wouldn't be surprising if it took tens of thousands of years!
Even if he becomes more proficient in higher-dimensional space and his movement speed increases tenfold, the difference in magnitude is still too great.

"No, that's definitely not right. Heroic spirits can already explore higher dimensions. I don't usually spend this much time when I enter a trial."

"There must be other ways of moving that I don't know about."

Chu Xiu frowned, pondering the mystery.

However, what he didn't know was that although the Awakened had developed various methods to accelerate movement and even combat during deep dives, the improvement was not particularly significant.

Just like how swimmers can swim much faster than ordinary people, no matter how much they train, they can never outpace speedboats.

The space that awakened beings can actually explore is actually quite limited.

The usual method is to first use the [Teleport] ability to teleport to a trial world where an [Anchor Point] was previously left, and then explore the area around that world, with the exploration radius rarely exceeding one hundred.

Of course, even just these hundred constitute a very large area.

The demigod who sacrificed himself to rescue the heroic spirit also used the method of purchasing a world anchor point near the heroic spirit's coordinates, teleporting first, and then freely diving to that point.

However, even though he had bought the closest world, there was still a distance of more than a thousand miles. It was precisely because of this that the demigod died tragically during the long journey, which is also why Ya Zi tried his best to stop Chu Xiu from rescuing Qin Xiang.

However, if Chu Xiu, after being de-digitized, wanted to regain his teleportation ability, he had to first understand the underlying principles and then find a way to do so without the help of the Abyss.

Unaware of this, Chu Xiu could only fumble around on his own. He did discover some tricks to move faster, but he naturally found nothing about how to traverse such a large space.

However, just as Chu Xiu was frowning and at a loss, he suddenly seemed to sense something, his expression changed drastically!

The Xihuang Lantern can extend his field of vision to a large area, but a person's attention span is limited.

Therefore, Chu Xiu had only discovered some large-scale special structures before, which did not mean that he could control anything within the scope of the [Lamp]. This is why the mortality rate of free dives is still so high even with the [Lamp] present.

At that moment, he suddenly noticed that an unknown object was rapidly approaching him at an unbelievable speed!
Compared to the floating continent and the huge whirlpool, the object was insignificant, so Chu Xiu hadn't noticed it until it rushed into the range of Chu Xiu's divine sense!
The object was moving too fast. Even in higher dimensions, where Chu Xiu's divine sense could extend to a greater distance, it was still insignificant compared to the object's speed!
Before Chu Xiu's shocked gaze, a huge shadow suddenly appeared in front of him. If the higher-dimensional space was like a swirling chaotic mist, then the shadow was like a drop of thick ink, instantly making the extreme darkness permeate the entire space!
An extremely dangerous feeling surged into Chu Xiu's heart, as if if he were to be stained even a little bit by that thick ink, his life, consciousness, body, and everything else would be devoured in an instant!
The words Ya Zi had once spoken flashed through his mind like lightning—

"The abyss may seem as vast and empty as the universe, but it is actually fraught with danger. Abyssal turbulence, psychic cascades, star-devouring creatures, and so on—even the eight Heavenly Kings wouldn't dare say they could survive in it!"

"And the deeper you go, the greater the probability of encountering these terrifying beings!"

(End of this chapter)