All the heavens, starting as the ruler of the universe

Lin Yan settled down in Kamar-Taj.

Gu Yi arranged a private quiet room for him, where he could see the ancient tree in the center of the courtyard by opening the window.

Lin Yan borrowed this spellbook first when it came to portal spells.

He turned the pages one by one, not to learn incantations and gestures, but to dissect the underlying logic beneath these appearances.

The essence of a portal is to establish a spatial folding channel between two points. The caster adjusts their mental frequency to resonate with the rules of the universe through a slingshot, and "requests" a fold from the universe.

Mirror space goes a step further.

It is not folding, but "slicing". It cuts off a small space dimension from the main space, encapsulates it independently, and can then exist briefly in the main world.

Lin Yan closed the book.

He didn't come to learn magic; he came only to observe, understand, and then make it part of his own universe.

Perhaps we could ask the Ancient One for a ring.

Lin Yan had never encountered a sling ring before. Although not having a sling ring wouldn't prevent him from casting teleportation spells, those people in the group definitely couldn't do it without one.

—————— Divider line.

Peter Parker took a deep breath, his consciousness sinking into the invisible anchor.

The spatial beacon felt slightly warm to him.

Then he passed through the spatial rift and stood on a piece of land.

Then he froze.

This place is completely different from the descriptions he heard in the chat group.

Peter had always thought it was just an empty lot, a few houses, a place where everyone could stay.

But the scene before him was far beyond his expectations.

The earth is alive.

The gray-white ground undulated slightly beneath his feet; it wasn't an earthquake, it was breathing.

The entire land pulsated slowly and deeply, like the back of a sleeping giant.

With each undulation, the texture of the ground flows—those lines are not carved on, but grow out, like the veins of a leaf, like the blood vessels of skin, spreading from the depths of the earth to the surface, and then shrinking back, in an endless cycle.

A few scattered islands appeared in the sky.

The nearest one was entirely black, its surface covered with dragon scale patterns, and a giant sword phantom was stuck in its summit.

Further away, the area was shrouded in a silvery-white mist, through which the outline of the tower could be vaguely seen.

Peter looked up, and before he could see everything clearly, there was movement on the highest point, Dragon Scale Island.

A figure descended from the edge of the island.

Blue scales, golden vertical pupils, and dragon horns that reflect a cold light under the starlight.

He was dressed in dark black tight-fitting clothes, with a long sword hanging at his waist. He was tall and slender with broad shoulders and back.

As she plummeted from the sky, her clothes fluttered in the wind. Just before she hit the ground, she paused, her toes barely touching the air, as if she were stepping on invisible stone steps, and landed steadily.

Ao Qing.

"How is it?" He smiled slightly, his golden eyes reflecting Peter's still-open jaw. "Stunning, isn't it?"

"...Why is it like this here?" Peter turned his gaze away from the islands in the sky and looked down at the undulating, breathing land beneath his feet.

Ao Qing turned around to face the vast land. "When Brother Lin brought us here, it was indeed just a piece of land, barren," he said. "But he left a rule: everything here can be reshaped with your mind. Whatever you want it to be, that's what it will be."

He turned his head and glanced at Peter.

"At the beginning, everyone had their own style, making this place look like a mess of children's doodles."

"Later, we decided to take turns on duty, with one person in charge for one month. What the base looks like during that month depends entirely on the person on duty. When it's the next person's turn, all traces of the previous person are erased and we start over."

Ao Qing raised his right hand and pointed, "We've selected those spots. You're a bit late, so you'll have to choose from somewhere else."

"But don't worry, Brother Lin has also set up a space folding feature. After you select the location, leave a space anchor point, and you can do whatever you want with the space inside."

Peter nodded. "And what's beneath our feet...?"

"Oh, you mean this?" Ao Qing said with a smug look on his face.

"This is a simulation of the mythical beast Xuanwu created by my mind. It's fake; it only has an outer shell and body, but no soul, and it's not a real entity."

"Xuanwu!" Peter exclaimed in surprise, then he followed Ao Qing's gaze.

The arc converged in the distance, disappearing into an even more vast shadow.

That shadow was neither a cloud nor a mountain, but a much larger outline, a drooping head facing the depths of the void, eyes closed as if asleep.

The nail marks extended from the earth to the forehead of that head, converging at the center of the brow into an ancient rune that slowly flickered like a heartbeat.

"Are we on the back of a Black Tortoise?"

"No, you're just on the back of the Xuanwu I imagined. As for the real Xuanwu, I've never seen one either," Ao Qing waved his hand.

"Now that you're here, the only thing missing is Brother You. It will be your turn to be on duty later," Ao Qing introduced.

"I'll be on duty this month for now. I'll be at Kara next month. When you get there, you'll see just how amazing this all is." Ao Qing said, then sighed, "I can also feel Brother Lin's power."

Peter did not speak.

Ao Qing glanced at him, a slight smile playing on her lips, and reached out to grab his shoulder.

The next second, the two of them were already off the ground, and the back of the Xuanwu beneath their feet rapidly shrank, with the undulating armor patterns and flowing textures turning into winding lines on the ground.

The wind brushed past my ears, carrying the light of the starry sea.

"You can move around here without using your legs." Ao Qing released his hand, leaving it suspended in mid-air. "Wherever you want to go, just think of it, and you'll be there."

Peter tried to direct his thoughts toward the island shrouded in silvery mist.

His body actually moved; it wasn't flying, but rather space itself transported him to the location he wanted to go.

He tried several times, sliding from Dragon Scale Island to Ice Island, and then back up the spine of Xuanwu, each time smoother than the last.

"You adapted quite quickly." Ao Qingxuan watched him from the side.

Peter stopped at a spot that was neither too high nor too low, somewhere between Black Dragonscale Island and Silver Mist Island. "This is fine."

Ao Qing flew over, looked at the spot, and nodded.

Peter reached out and pressed his hand into the air, and a pale blue light flowed from his palm into that space.

The light gathered, converged, and then solidified—a new floating island appeared there.

It has a deep, dark red color, with black spiderweb-like patterns flowing across its surface, subtly echoing the symbiotic mark on the back of Peter's hand.

"I'll add an appearance to your anchor point." Ao Qing withdrew his hand. "Go in and take a look."

Peter landed on the dark red floating island, and the moment his feet touched the surface, a door opened in front of him.

Inside the door was a folded space—much larger than he had imagined, at least several city blocks in size.

He stood at the door and glanced back at Ao Qing.

Ao Qing hovered outside the floating island, arms crossed, his golden pupils reflecting the newly born island.