Only then did Asher realize the truth. The ancient beast hadn’t activated its Domain after waking up. It had been maintaining it the entire time. The island itself was already inside the Domain.

Then another realization struck Asher. The moment he had stepped onto the island, he had already entered the beast’s Domain. From the very beginning, the ancient beast had known about his presence. It had simply chosen to ignore him and continue sleeping.

Asher silently looked at the enormous creature, and his suspicion grew even stronger.

’This beast... it’s definitely far stronger than it appears.’

Maintaining a Domain was supposed to consume an enormous amount of mana. Even Grandmasters couldn’t keep theirs active indefinitely.

Yet this ancient beast had maintained its Domain over the entire island for who knew how long without showing the slightest sign of exhaustion. Even more astonishing was that the Domain was perfectly concealed and had become a part of the surrounding world itself. The beasts living on the island continued their lives as though nothing had changed, completely unaffected by its existence.

Asher had walked into it and carefully observed the surroundings multiple times without realizing he was already standing inside a Domain.

Only after the beast pointed it out did he finally notice the subtle clues, and that too only because the beast had allowed him to perceive them. If the beast had wanted to, it could have trapped Asher inside the Domain without giving him any chance to escape.

At that moment, Asher became even more convinced that the cultivation of the ancient beast before him was far beyond what he had initially imagined.

Asher looked at the gigantic beast before calmly saying, "Alright. Thank you. Then I won’t disturb you any further. You can go back to resting. I’ll leave after studying your Domain for a while."

The gigantic beast quietly looked at Asher for a moment before speaking in the same calm tone. "Don’t waste too much time on it. As you are right now... you can never reach the Grandmaster rank."

The moment Asher heard those words, he frowned slightly.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked in confusion. "Why can’t I ever reach the Grandmaster rank? My mastery over the Space element is already sufficient for me to attempt a breakthrough, so why can’t I achieve it?"

The beast simply looked at him with its ancient, tranquil eyes for a few moments before replying,

"You will find out soon enough."

After saying those words, the beast didn’t wait for Asher to ask anything further. Its enormous body slowly became motionless once again, gradually returning to its mountain-like form. Within moments, it looked exactly as it had before Asher attacked it, as though it had never awakened at all.

Just before falling back into its deep slumber, the beast quietly muttered in a voice so low that no one but itself could hear,"A dead person can’t influence anything."

Asher stood there silently, his eyes fixed on the mountain that had once again become completely motionless.

The beast’s words continued echoing in his mind.

"As you are right now... you can never reach the Grandmaster rank."

He couldn’t understand what the beast meant.

His mastery over the Space element had already reached the level required to attempt condensing a Domain. As far as he knew, there was nothing preventing him from advancing.

Still,A being of that level had no reason to deceive him.Asher frowned slightly.

’You will find out soon enough...’

After a moment, he simply shook his head.

If the beast was right, the answer would reveal itself eventually.

Pushing the matter to the back of his mind, Asher sat down on the mountain peak, and began carefully studying the Domain surrounding the entire island.

Three hours later.

Asher took one last look at the ancient mountain before his figure suddenly vanished, disappearing through space.

The next moment, he reappeared beside the vessel that was still flying toward the Grimwood Continent.

During those three hours, Asher had carefully observed every aspect of the ancient beast’s Domain.

Although he couldn’t fully comprehend it, the experience had answered one question that had been troubling him.

He finally understood why, despite his mastery over the Space element being sufficient...

He still couldn’t create a Domain.

Asher muttered to himself,

"I can’t create a normal Domain like everyone else. Even though Nothing becomes useful once I manipulate it, it still isn’t under my complete control. Nor is it something I generate myself."

After muttering those words, the newly arrived vessel quietly entered the mini spatial domain of the vessel that had been flying toward the Grimwood Continent all this time.

Once the spatial crack closed, only a single vessel remained outside.

Without stopping for even a moment, the lone vessel continued flying across the endless sea, its giant mana-forged wings carrying it steadily toward the distant Grimwood Continent.

Meanwhile, life at Aetherium Academy continued as usual. Classes, training sessions, and daily routines carried on without any noticeable changes. The only difference was that Noah was no longer with Asher, Adam, and Aria.

His absence didn’t really affect Asher or Aria. Aria remained as cold and quiet as always, while Asher simply didn’t care. He had never been someone who relied on others for company and was perfectly content spending time by himself.

The only one who felt Noah’s absence was Adam. Without Noah around, their group had become unusually quiet. Aria rarely spoke unless it was necessary, and Asher almost never started a conversation. As a result, Adam often found himself sitting in awkward silence, feeling a little bored.

To pass the time, Asher spent most of his free time playing games. Adam had tried joining him a few times, but he quickly lost interest. He simply couldn’t understand what was so enjoyable about them, leaving Asher to quietly play by himself while Adam searched for other ways to pass the time.

Then he also just joined the Noah and his new group.