The two retreated, clearly becoming much more cautious.
They walked for about a quarter of an hour, just as they were about to exit the withered forest.
Before Ji Chen could breathe a sigh of relief, he heard Qu Luoning suddenly let out a cry of surprise beside him.
Then, suddenly, a flash of white light erupted beneath her feet, and she began to fall.
Ji Chen was startled and instinctively reached out to grab her.
However, the force pulling down was so immense that it dragged Ji Chen in along with her.
The sensation of weightlessness spread throughout his body, his vision replaced by a blur of white and gray.
Ji Chen couldn’t see a thing, only feeling himself falling at an alarming speed.
When this speed reached a certain limit, he felt a heaviness in his chest and eventually lost consciousness, passing out.
"Hmm?"
Semi-conscious, he didn’t know how much time had passed.
Ji Chen awoke.
He felt a softness on his chest and, opening his eyes, he realized it was Qu Luoning lying on him, also unconscious.
"Eldest Princess, wake up."
Ji Chen patted her face, trying to wake her up.
"Where is this?"
Soon, Qu Luoning regained consciousness. She rubbed her eyes, frowning, while looking around.
It was a vast, white expanse, with nothing in sight, as if the whole world, besides the two of them, was just this endless white.
"We might have accidentally fallen into a grand array and are now trapped here."
Ji Chen frowned, continuing, "This should be a spatial domain created by a Saint. As far as I know, anyone trapped inside could almost never find a way out. The good news is, this space is like a separate world, where time flows extremely slowly. A day outside is nearly equivalent to a hundred years here!"
"A hundred years!"
Upon hearing this, Qu Luoning was shocked; it was beyond her understanding.
"Originally, we only needed to last a few days, until the ancient god’s relic closed, and we would be transported out. But a few days outside equates to hundreds of years here..."
"Which means we must stay here for at least hundreds of years," Ji Chen frowned deeply.
It was excruciating. In such spatial domains, the spiritual qi was extremely scarce, almost nonexistent, just enough to maintain their vitality and physical strength, making cultivation practically useless and their cultivation stagnant.
"We probably can’t survive that long, can we?" Qu Luoning frowned deeply.
Though they were both cultivators and possessed cultivation, their current strength and longevity were simply insufficient to last that long.
Ji Chen said, "Living is definitely possible because, in this special domain, we almost don’t have to worry about the loss of longevity. Not to mention hundreds of years, even thousands or tens of thousands of years, we wouldn’t die of old age."
Qu Luoning was amazed, "Even so, spending hundreds of years like this... it would be maddening."
"Let’s move, and see if we can find a way to break the array and get out."
Ji Chen certainly wouldn’t sit by idly. With his past life experiences, he naturally knew that such a spatial domain was created by a Saint through a grand array, which had an array eye—the key to breaking out.
If found, he and Qu Luoning could leave early.
But in this vast white space, finding the location of the array eye was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Rumor had it that such spatial domains had no boundaries, and everywhere was a vast whiteness, making it impossible to determine directions, like aimless flies crashing around.
The two looked serious, aware of their current predicament, but could only continue forward aimlessly, braving through.
Time passed.
A month went by like this.
During this month, Ji Chen and Qu Luoning almost never stopped, continuously moving forward.
Except for the vast whiteness, they hadn’t seen anything else within this spatial domain.
"Can we really get out..."
Qu Luoning appeared fatigued, somewhat lost and despondent.
Trapped here for a month, her mental state seemed to have worsened.
"At worst, we’ll spend a few hundreds of years here." Ji Chen spoke.
It wasn’t that he was optimistic; within such an environment, if he too became like Qu Luoning, undoubtedly, it wouldn’t take many years for both to become mentally unstable and eventually lose hope.
Thinking this, Ji Chen, to lift her spirits, started engaging her in casual conversation.
Time flew by; again, a long time passed.
Since Ji Chen and Qu Luoning were trapped here, a whole year had passed.
From initially being despondent, Qu Luoning’s mental state had noticeably improved, seemingly adapting to the circumstances.
One day, the two stood still, resting every ten to fifteen days like this.
Qu Luoning sat cross-legged, slightly raising her head to gaze at the distant pale sky. She sighed, "Has it already been a year... I wonder how the Chu Kingdom is now."
Hearing this, Ji Chen chuckled, "How could it be? True, a year has passed for us, but outside, barely a few moments probably."
Qu Luoning paused, "Right, I almost forgot; the time flows differently here from outside..."
Silence fell between them again. Who knows how much time passed, when Ji Chen suddenly said, "Although after the Vein Condensation Realm one can sustain life by absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, truly giving up on food cravings—there are hardly any such people in the world. I really want to enjoy a hearty meal right now."
Saying this, his mouth involuntarily salivated a bit.
"I just want a good bath," said Qu Luoning.
During this year of being trapped, she hadn’t had a proper bath once. Though she could cleanse her body with spiritual power, Qu Luoning felt uncomfortable, like she was perpetually unclean.
Who knows how much time passed again, after chatting idly for a while, they finally rose to continue their aimless journey forward.
Such years were undoubtedly torturous for both Ji Chen and Qu Luoning.
One year, two years, three years...
As time flowed, ultimately, ten years passed by just like that.