?Dyon had long since devoured Valen's memories. With his added control of [Devour] after reaching the One with Self Realm, he could even pick and choose which memories he snatched, allowing the latter to keep his life. Of course, this was only a recent ability he gained after he had refined his soul qi control through decades of pill concocting.
Valen's life may still be useful to him… So he kept him alive for now.
Unfortunately, Valen's memories didn't have anything useful in them. Apparently, his only mission was to enter this place and find his Ancestors. Other than that, he was meant to inform them of the situation outside. Beyond that, there was nothing.
Dyon didn't believe that things could be so simple. But what he did believe was that Valen didn't have the right to know the truth.
A drop of blood appeared in Dyon's hand. Of course, it wasn't his own, but rather, Valen's.
Protecting it from the waters with a sphere of qi, he pressed it into the sheet of glass.
The water rippled outward, creating a portal beneath the waters. Though it appeared no differently from the countless whirlpools above them, it was decidedly calmer.
With another glance back, Dyon shook his head and gave up, taking a step forward with four beauties in tow.
In that moment, the world completely faded.
The pressure grew with each passing moment as though they were quickly descending the ocean waters below.
Dyon's senses remained locked on to his wives. No matter what, he refused to let anything happen to them. Since they wanted to be by his side, that was fine. As long as he was here, he wouldn't allow a single hair to be harmed.
A bright light washed over their visions. By the time they cleared, the situation before them was very much like what Dyon expected. How could the only entry into their world not be constantly guarded at all times?
Above their heads, there was a massive transparent dome. It reminded Dyon of the concealment array his master cast over the ruins of the Celestial Deer Sect, except this one was far larger. So large in fact that a normal person wouldn't recognize it to be a dome, but would rather think a flat sheet of transparent glass was above their heads.
However, this was only a minor detail, because dressed in gorgeous blue armor and brandishing tridents, there was a squadron of warriors that seemed to have expected their arrival.
Upon closer inspection, Dyon realized that there were actually three domes. The largest one, which was currently over their heads, was the most outward dome of glass. Further forward, There was another medium sized dome with yet another much smaller one beneath it, separating this underground world into three regions.
The current region Dyon and his wives were in was very close to the outer wall of the dome. In fact, if it wasn't for the sharp vision of Dyon's right eye, he wouldn't be able to see out of their current situation at all.
Dyon was effectively observing all of this from within an extremely confined space. The details he could see through made it seem as though he was standing in the open air, but the reality was that he was in what amounted to a cage without a door.
He and his wives stood at the mouth of an underground cave, the entrance of which was not only blocked by the several blue armored warriors, but also diverging tunnels. Dyon's gaze had followed along these diverging tunnels to witness what was outside, but to anyone else, there was nothing but the pale light of an underground space before them.
In fact, even the so-called 'entrance' that was being blocked was hundreds of meters away from their current location. It was just that with Dyon's eyesight, it might as well have been right before him.
If Dyon set all of these things aside, though, his immediate surroundings felt as though he had just stepped foot into a bizarre sci-fi movie.
The portal he and his wives had just walked out from was surrounded by all sorts of metallic machines and black wires as thick as a human's forearm.
The pale lights he thought of before were eerily reminiscent of light bulbs Dyon had once read about in a textbook long ago.
[Author's Note: Reminder that Dyon's mortal world wasn't set in our modern times, but several generations into the future. I think I've dropped numerous hints about this, but I've been writing RMW for so long I can't remember the specific times I did anymore, lmao].
For a second, Dyon thought that instead of stepping into a world of cultivation, he had returned to his mortal world by some sort of odd means. Of all the things he could have expected… This was the very last.
Sending his gaze out through the diverging tunnels once more, Dyon's suspicions were confirmed.
Below the three domes, there were countless futuristic structures. Of course, there weren't things as ridiculous as flying cars, but there were numerous transportation vehicles that screamed of technological advancement, one of which was a silver pod with tracks that winded around the city as though it was a rollercoaster rather than a means of getting from point A to point B.
Seeing Dyon's skeptical expression, it was clear the warriors before him completely misunderstood what he was thinking about.
"Pay up." One of the warriors jabbed their fellow soldier with an elbow.
"Buzz off, does that look like a shocked expression to you?"
"If you want to renege on your debts, just say so. Who asked you to bet on country bumpkins?"
"You're ridiculous. At the end of the day, they're cultivators. How many ridiculous things have they seen in their lifetimes? Descendants of our bloodline wouldn't be so uncultured."
"Members of our bloodline? Do you think anyone important would be sent out for so long? Plus, with so many generations separating us and how much their blood has mixed by now, how could they still be considered one of us? They don't even have their adult patterns."
