Magic High School.

"Two thousand meters," Li Ge said, indicating their current altitude.

The hot air balloon's ascent speed did not decrease. They realized they needed to gradually slow down, but the group continued to accelerate, relentlessly, until they reached the barrier twenty kilometers high.

"Ha... so what you said was true, Hakimi. It's really cold up there..." Rean laughed. Luckily, Li Ge made them change into their thickest clothes and put protective suits on top of them.

Otherwise, if they were to fly up here rashly, they would probably freeze to death at an altitude of several thousand meters, let alone escape into space.

And, since the hot air balloon does provide some heat, they still have the leisure to complain about how cold it is in the sky.

Li Ge checked the system; it was already minus twenty degrees Celsius.

They had reached an altitude of five thousand meters. They had completely emerged from the clouds, and could see that the clouds below were as thick as pure white cotton. This altitude was also one that almost no other aircraft in the Holy Empire could reach.

It is estimated that only high-altitude aircraft can reach it.

The gas concentration here was only 70% of that at the surface. Li Ge could clearly see that her parents' breathing was very rapid, and she even prepared to get a spare oxygen tank so that they could breathe some oxygen.

"Don't use it yet, we've only reached a quarter of the way up," the father said. If we need oxygen now, what will happen if we don't have enough time once we get up there?

Although they brought oxygen tanks that would last for ten hours for both of them, they decided to hold on a little longer, since they were only experiencing shortness of breath and the air was a bit cold.

Conversely, seeing Li Ge acting as if nothing had happened in this environment, the couple seemed quite envious.

Let alone here, Li Ge felt that even if he were thrown into the vacuum of outer space while in a state of spiritual enhancement, he could probably last for more than half an hour.

He might even advance to the next level, allowing his spiritual particles to permeate every cell of his body for an extended period, potentially enabling him to survive in space indefinitely. Of course, he wouldn't have the ability to move in space, and would most likely eventually cease thinking, becoming nothing more than space debris floating in space.

"I really envy you guys," Rean said.

He was referring to Li Ge and Albion, the only two people he knew who possessed special abilities.

Compared to Albion's spell that could only float in the sky, Li Ge seemed far more omnipotent. In fact, in his eyes, Li Ge was almost "omniscient and omnipotent."

"By the way, why are you so eager to reach the sky?" Li Ge asked.

To him, the sky was more of a conceptual construct. The sky might have been attractive to him when he was a child and loved reading "100,000 Whys," but now, Li Ge felt that the so-called sky was nothing more than light refracted by the thin atmosphere above.

But perhaps what they truly want is to fly into the sky and find the mastermind behind their captivity. These are, in fact, secondary objectives.

If it were a world consciousness, it would surely answer, "I merely chose the person who most longed to come to the sky to become my pawn."

As for Li Ge, this product was an unexpected result that broke through his calculations during countless simulations.

Unexpectedly, he had merely tossed a string of subspace particles into the air, which caused the child to shatter the hopeless future he had calculated countless times, and thus calculate the most perfect future.

Of course, Li Ge knew absolutely nothing about these things at the moment. He was simply curious, curious about his parents' answers.

"Well... it's not really that high-class. It's just that this is a path that basically no one has walked before, and I want to make it work, that's all," Rean said directly.

There were no lofty dreams, future plans, or entanglements involved. Although it was indeed his dream, he still gave his reasons in a very realistic way.

"This way I might become famous and renowned, and at the same time satisfy my curiosity and desire to explore. Why not?" he said, showing no regret for his reckless actions.

Perhaps to ordinary people, this would indeed be considered courting death. And in the original trajectory, he would have died just like that, leaving no trace. At tens of thousands of meters in the air, he would likely have been easily killed by a counterattack covering the sky, leaving not even a trace behind.

Wait, he seems to have left behind a mask. Wait... a mask...

Li Ge then realized that his parents were basically ordinary people. Well, actually, they weren't exactly ordinary. Li Ge had gradually discovered his physical advantage: divine blood seemed to have permeated their race.

His parents also lived in this world steeped in divine blood, and they were probably around 10% "fairy blood/divine blood" like him. So compared to completely ordinary people, they had some physical advantages, sharper senses, and other advantages.

At the very least, the vitality of the Holy Empire's inhabitants is significantly higher than that of humans in their previous lives; this might be due to a slight advantage in bloodline within this race. Is this a theory based on bloodline?

maybe.

However, this strange mask couldn't possibly have been left by their parents; they didn't have that ability.

This is a top-tier Noble Phantasm, one that even the school's anti-magic array cannot suppress. It's safe to say that even in the school's Noble Phantasm collection, it would likely be classified as a T0-level Noble Phantasm.

Although the abilities it provides are increasingly abstract, if you break them down, you'll find that each ability is a rule-level concept, a god-like existence.

In fact, every ability is given to you. Although it may not be the ability you need most, it is definitely an ability that you can use.

Sometimes, this thing can even provide a miraculous comeback or an absurdly powerful ability. Take, for example, the "Wheel of Apocalypse" he randomly got last time. Its absolute mechanics and absolute numerical values ​​would terrify anyone who got it.

Is this the kind of thing these dim-witted couple in front of me could possibly pull out?

Li Ge didn't believe it.

Meanwhile, Li Ge was unaware that he was being targeted precisely because he could pull out the Wheel of Apocalypse. Even the world's consciousness was unaware that the Joker Mask's abilities could be randomly refreshed.

But in reality, this mask was kept by his aunt and Mayor Ronan, and then handed over to him.

So there's only one answer: the mask isn't in their possession right now, but rather...

Li Ge looked up at the sky. That mask was in the sky!

Current altitude: 8,000 meters!

At this altitude, they could already see the circular outline and halo of the planet. The clouds below were so dense that they formed a thick, cotton-like pile, and the circular outline of the planet's edge left Rean and Laura speechless for a moment.

"So this is the sky..." Rean sighed, looking up at the sky.

Li Ge even wondered if he might say something nonsensical like, "Being able to see this scene would be worth dying for."

Both of them switched to oxygen tanks. Here, the air density was only about 60%, the temperature had dropped to minus 50 degrees Celsius, and there was a strong wind. But Li Ge kept maneuvering the hot air balloon, making it spiral upwards from the warehouse where it was launched, using that as its origin.

Even Li Ge was shocked by this scene. When he turned to look at his parents...

Suddenly, he saw the reflection of the planet's arc of light in his pupils, and the reflection bathed in the sunlight.

Chapter 305 A Living Tower

"What is that?" In that instant, Li Ge saw the strange phenomenon in the sky through his golden eyes.

They were currently at an altitude of 12,000 meters. There were no clouds visible here, and the view of the sky and the planets below was incredibly close to what they had seen in the geostationary satellite footage. But in this very scene, he saw something in the sky…

architecture?

Yes, architecture, an architecture that floats entirely in the sky.

Even from a great distance, so far that other mages of the same level could only see a tiny black dot with their naked eyes, at a height beyond the reach of the clouds, Li Ge's pupils could clearly see everything within his field of vision. It was a human creation.

Li Ge's pupils contracted. Why would something so unscientific and unmagical exist at this altitude?

Neither of the parents saw the object. Of course, at least thousands of kilometers away, how could they possibly see something like that with their naked eyes? Even if they did, they would probably have thought it was some kind of dirt on their eyes, or a meteorite or something similar.

"Get ready, we're about to touch the 'sky'," Li Ge said. Looking at their current altitude, 18,000 meters, the outside temperature was minus forty degrees Celsius, and the air density was forty-five percent.

This data is highly unusual. On a normal planet, at such a height close to the edge of the atmosphere, the temperature should be a mixture of extreme heat and cold, meaning extremely hot when exposed to direct sunlight and extremely cold when not exposed to direct sunlight.

At the same time, under these circumstances, the air concentration should be reduced to less than 20%.

The air becomes thinner at higher altitudes. To put it another way, according to data from this planet, 10,000 meters is the dividing line. Below 10,000 meters, more than 80% of the planet's air is contained, meaning the vast majority of the planet's air is below 10,000 meters. And below 20,000 meters, more than 96% of the planet's air should be contained.

This is normal data.

But now it seems that this is not the case at all. The air concentration here is about three to five times higher than normal.

So, everything was just as Li Ge had thought. That barrier not only restricted everyone from flying out of the sky, but it also trapped the entire atmosphere like an inverted bowl over the planet, forcing it to remain within the barrier and exerting a downward pressure on it, which is why such abnormal data appeared.

"Hakimi, what's wrong?" Under the oxygen tank and ventilator, Li Ge heard her father's voice at this moment.

He also looked in the direction Li Ge had seen. There was no direct sunlight in that area, so it wasn't glaring, and he could still see that area with the naked eye.

What were clearly visible man-made buildings to Li Ge were just dust to her parents' generation, and even under the clear sky without any obstructions, they were hard to distinguish.

"That is..." he asked, puzzled.

"Perhaps that's the destination you're looking for. Information about the mastermind, or rather, the group that's keeping you captive, might be here." Li Ge hesitated for a moment. The location he and his friends had previously agreed upon was directly above the hot air balloon launch site.

But now, he hesitated. He wanted to deviate from his intended location and go to that unexpected building to check things out.

However, this would cause the area to deviate from the intended zone.

But after he closed his eyes tightly, he said, "Let's go!"

He trusted his friends. If he could discover it, then they could too, and they would surely move in that direction as well.

"That's actually a building? Come on, let's go take a look." Even through the ventilator, Li Ge could hear the excitement in her parents' voices.

They chose to fly for many reasons: to become famous, to complete what no one had done before, to find higher-dimensional existence, and to verify the conjecture that they were merely being kept in captivity.

So, without any objection, they reduced the hot air balloon's lift before it reached the "sky" and flew in that direction.

……

Meanwhile, on the other side...

As the appointed time approached, Yilian and the others flew up as well.

In fact, only Valerie and Daphne, the two smiling tigers in their team, have the ability to fly, and they are even related.

However, because of the existence of the domain, they can use compression technology to load a large number of people into the domain. Thus, they only need to bring the person who can expand the domain to achieve their goal of bringing everyone along.

It's like forcibly cramming dozens of people into a van; when someone opens the van door, a group of burly men will jump out.

The Sea God learned this the hard way last time. He thought he would only be facing General Ryan, but he didn't expect Li Ge to possess him. At that time, he thought that at most Li Ge would be added to the mix, but he didn't expect that when Li Ge opened his domain, there was a whole van full of guys holding instant-explosive grenades waiting inside.

So they played the same game this time.

Daphne and Big Brother Ma were in charge of flying, while Xiaoye was in charge of putting everyone into the domain.

According to the established timeline, Li Ge from the other timeline should have arrived here as well. They were almost in the stratosphere, looking up at the sky.

Sure enough, even after becoming a mage and traversing countless worlds, seeing this scenery still filled him with an unparalleled sense of insignificance and awe.

To the world at large, they are indeed as insignificant as dust.

They are to the world as a single cell in the body is to the whole.

The world cares about the "human" entity as a whole within itself, because without an aggregate of intelligent life consciousness, it would lose its ability to think. But it wouldn't care about the individual cells within itself.

Just like when you bleed, do you care about the countless red blood cells that die unjustly in your blood, and the damaged epithelial cells?

Not will.

"Wait, what's that?" Xiaoye's only remaining golden eye instantly constricted.

Because she actually saw a man-made building that seemed to be floating in the sky in this place.

How could that be? Are you kidding me?

Xiaoye couldn't fathom why such an outrageous scene would occur in a place like this. Even a school wouldn't be so insane as to create such a spectacle, would it?

She might understand if it were just a satellite, but this wasn't a satellite; it was a building.