Unaware of the dangerous situation two of his disciples had found themselves in after having been thrown outside the Northern Central Region by one of the safety measures he had left for the two of them in case they ran into danger, Xuan Hao continued his journey towards Desolate River City. Taking the opportunity to observe the different spatial anomalies along the way. Deepening his own comprehension of the Dao of Space and bringing him even closer to the Origin Realm.

What he believed would at least end up taking him a decade to accomplish under normal circumstances now felt like it could be accomplished within a few months thanks to the environment of the fragmented continent.

Along the way, he also ran into different people travelling from or to the Desolate River City that he had ample opportunity to talk with whenever a spatial anomaly even he couldn’t survive moving through happened to be blocking his path forward as it moved across the fragmented continent.

Learning from these short conversations that ranged anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour depending on the size and speed of the spatial anomaly blocking his path forward, that the name of the Desolate River City had come from the large river channel next to the city itself.

Of course, the river water that had once filled the large channel had long since been drained in the past. Leaving behind nothing more than an empty riverbed.

But the special thing about this empty river was the fact that it wasn’t empty. Instead, a spatial storm had settled into the empty riverbed over the years and had turned the once majestic river into a spatial river of sorts.

Why a city had been placed next to such a terrifying spatial anomaly was an obvious question he had to ask upon learning about this and the answer he received was both surprising and understandable, as it turned out the reason why a city had been placed next to such a deadly spatial anomaly was because the spatial river itself served as a shield against other spatial anomalies and storms that might have normally threatened the continued existence of Desolate River City.

Because of this, Desolate River City was in fact one of the oldest cities outside the holy lands that survived to this day with a history stretching back millions of years and even having some rumors about it being a city that had existed before the fragmentation of the continent.

To be the lord of such a city, it was obvious one had to be strong, as different from most other cities found throughout the fragmented continent, the city lord of Desolate River City changed frequently. Once every ten thousand years according to the ones he had spoken to.

Or that was at least a possibility, but in fact, the so-called change in lord every ten thousand years wasn’t so much a change, but more so an old tradition where anyone would be able to stand up and challenge the current city lord for control over the ancient city.

The current city lord, a being that had reached the Late Stage of the Void Integration Realm, was someone who had been in control of the city for the last five hundred thousand years according to the people he had encountered along the way. A testament to the strength of this city lord, as the general rule of a city lord of Desolate River City lasted between two hundred thousand and three hundred thousand years.

One could say the current city lord was the strongest one over the last few million years. Only exceeded by a legendary ancient city lord that had long since vanished into the annals of history. Only remembered for being the lord of the city for millions of years during the oldest time periods of Desolate River City before having vanished abruptly.

When it came to tacking things that far back, things became blurry, much like how the past of the fragmented continent was known to be a glorious period without the constant struggle for survival in the face of spatial anomalies and spatial storms that constantly plagued every part of the fragmented continent and made survival difficult with most people forced to spend their entire lives within one of the countless cities established throughout the fragmented continent.

The divine land might be better, but it was clear that this situation wouldn’t last, as he had also learnt from travelers along the way that the size of the divine lands isolated from the outside danger was in the process of constantly shrinking.

In fact, in the past, these divine lands weren’t as small nor as isolated as they were now and served as the home of all survivors with only a few cities outside serving as frontline bases for exploring the fragmented continent.

But over the years, they had shrunk and split apart into smaller isolated pieces of land, like shrinking islands slowly being worn down over the long years until finally disappearing amidst the vast sea without any sign of ever having existed, a fate some smaller divine lands had already suffered...

Rumble~

Alone with his own thoughts pondering the different things he had learnt about the fragmented continent during his journey as he moved across the desolate landscape of the fragmented continent, Xuan Hao stopped to examine his surroundings. Picking up a loud rumbling sound in the distance through his divine sense. Worried that it might be some spatial anomaly or storm moving in his direction.

But as he waited around for the spatial anomaly or storm to emerge, nothing happened, as the rumbling sound remained ever present like it never moved, causing him to slowly approach the location of the sound. Remaining cautious in case whatever spatial anomaly was behind, this rumbling sound suddenly surged towards him.

Knowing very well that there was no lack of spatial anomalies and storm on the fragmented continent that would be able to kill him.

This... Is this the spatial river that the Desolate River City was built next to...

However, upon reaching the origin of the loud rumbling sound, it didn’t take him long to realize what he had found, as a seemingly endless river of spatial currents that looked more like a vast inland ocean from where he stood spread out before him. The spatial current carrying such force that he doubted even reaching the Star Creation Realm would be enough to traverse this deadly spatial river.

Not just because of how deadly the spatial current themselves were, but because he sensed that this spatial river was different from any other spatial anomaly he had encountered so far while traversing the fragmented continent, as it seemed to be directly connected to the terrifying spatial currents that engulfed the fragmented continent from the outside.

The only reason why these terrifying spatial currents didn’t seem to directly tear apart the fragmented continent and cleave it half using the spatial river that should be running straight through part of the fragmented continent itself, was because some kind of formation of unimaginable power seemed to have been carved into the riverbed. Directing the terrifying currents to flow through without doing any damage to the continent in the process.

Looking at it, Xuan Hao had a feeling that the main reason why the fragmented continent had been able to survive within the vast ocean of spatial current wasn’t so much the fragmented laws and rules of the origin world of the continent that he had originally believed to have been keeping this fragmented continent around, but instead the river before him, as it seemingly redirected most of the terrifying spatial currents hitting the fragmented continent to flow straight through this river and out the other side.

Meaning, the fragmented continent ended up suffering little to no harm thanks to this river channel directing most of the spatial current that would have original swept through the continent straight through without doing any harm.

Of course, this also meant that the other side of the channel had been cut off completely from this side of the fragmented continent.

What was on the other side, he had no idea nor did the locals, as this river had been around since forever according to the locals. Blocking a large portion of the fragmented continent.

The only ones who might have the ability to travers this terrifying spatial river were those legendary beings at the Void God Realm. Figures he suspected to have reached the Venerable Realm in terms of strength, while at the same time having reached a terrifying level of comprehension when it came to the Dao of Space because of how their entire cultivation path was focused on the comprehension of the Dao of Space. Making it impossible to reach such a high realm without an equally terrifying comprehension of the Dao of Space to support it from behind.

Meaning, those Void God Realm cultivators might have even surpassed the Origin Realm in the Dao of Space...