Despite that improvement, Stan had deliberately stopped cultivating afterward.
Space rippled around Stan and Camilla, but there was none of the violent distortion that usually accompanied powerful spatial techniques. There was no thunderous explosion, no oppressive fluctuation of energy, and no sensation of being dragged through a turbulent spatial passage. Instead, the surrounding space behaved almost naturally, as though reality itself had briefly become flexible beneath Stan’s control. The boundaries of the world seemed to fold inward, overlapping for an instant before reconnecting somewhere else. Stan simply stepped forward, and in the next moment, the unfamiliar environment surrounding them vanished, replaced by the familiar interior of his residence.
Camilla followed closely behind him. The spatial fluctuations continued for several seconds after their arrival before gradually settling down, leaving the room completely silent. The air was still, the furniture remained exactly where they had left it, and nothing about the residence suggested that the two of them had just crossed an enormous spatial distance through an inheritance space that existed under entirely different spatial laws.
Stan glanced around the room and felt a subtle sense of relief. Home. After spending several days inside the strange chamber connected to the Void Sovereign’s inheritance, surrounded by an environment that seemed to exist beyond the ordinary boundaries of space, the familiar sight of his residence suddenly felt far more comfortable than he had expected. The walls, furniture, and ordinary atmosphere lacked the grandeur and mystery of the inheritance, but that was precisely what made them reassuring. He released a quiet breath and allowed the tension that had accumulated during their journey to ease from his body.
"Back," Stan said simply.
Camilla stepped forward and looked around the room as though confirming for herself that they had actually returned. After several seconds, she nodded slightly. "So we’re really back."
"Obviously." Stan glanced at her with an amused expression. "You thought I’d gotten us lost?"
Camilla immediately gave him a flat look. "Considering where you took me, I wouldn’t have been surprised."
Stan couldn’t help but chuckle. Their journey back had technically been far more complicated than her words suggested. What appeared to have been a simple teleportation was actually the result of Stan manipulating multiple spatial boundaries simultaneously. They had first needed to leave the strange tea room and enter the surrounding spatial domain connected to the Void Sovereign’s inheritance. From there, Stan had to locate and establish a stable connection with Earth before transporting both himself and Camilla back to his residence.
Under normal circumstances, accomplishing something like that would have been extraordinarily difficult. The spatial environments involved were fundamentally different from ordinary physical distance. It was not simply a matter of traveling from one location to another. Stan had effectively crossed the boundaries separating distinct spatial environments, each governed by rules that could easily reject an outsider’s interference. A cultivator without sufficient comprehension of spatial laws could spend years studying such a technique and still fail to reproduce what Stan had accomplished.
Stan, however, possessed an advantage that most cultivators could never hope to obtain. The Void Sovereign had already granted him authority over that mysterious space. Because of that authority, the spatial barriers that should have resisted his movements were practically nonexistent to him. Rather than forcibly tearing through the boundaries between spaces, Stan could interact with them as though he had been granted permission to pass through a door. His rapidly improving comprehension of spatial laws, combined with his current cultivation realm, made the entire process even easier.
For Stan, the teleportation had therefore felt almost effortless. It had not been a desperate display of power or a dangerous gamble with unstable spatial energy. It had simply been a matter of determining where he wanted to go and allowing space to accommodate his intention.
Camilla, however, clearly hadn’t forgotten what she had witnessed.
She stared at him for several seconds before finally speaking. "You really make teleportation look too easy."
"It isn’t."
"It looked easy."
Stan shrugged casually. "That’s because I’m good at it."
Camilla rolled her eyes. "Arrogant."
"Accurate."
She chose not to argue with him and instead walked toward the sofa. The moment she sat down, she leaned back and allowed her body to sink into the cushions, visibly relaxing now that they were safely home. For several days, she had been surrounded by an environment saturated with an astonishing concentration of Spatial Qi. Although she possessed considerable strength herself, that energy was fundamentally different from the Qi she was accustomed to cultivating. She had no affinity for Spatial Qi, nor did she possess the ability to properly utilize the vast reserves surrounding the tea room.
Simply existing within such an environment had therefore been mentally exhausting. Every moment spent there had required her to remain conscious of an energy that was constantly pressing against her senses without truly becoming part of her cultivation system. It had not harmed her, but the unfamiliarity had made the experience considerably more taxing than it had been for Stan.
Stan, meanwhile, felt almost completely different from when he had entered the inheritance.
His entire body seemed lighter, while his spiritual perception had become noticeably sharper. More importantly, there was now an indescribable sense of stability within his cultivation. The change was subtle, but Stan could feel it clearly. The barrier that had previously stood before him was gone, and the cultivation bottleneck that had restrained his advancement for some time had finally been broken.
The breakthrough itself had been surprisingly uneventful. There had been no earth-shattering phenomenon, no terrifying pressure spreading across the surrounding space, and no massive surge of energy announcing his advancement to the world. His cultivation had simply crossed the barrier. One moment, he had been standing before a bottleneck that seemed firmly entrenched within his cultivation. The next, the bottleneck no longer existed.
The immense concentration of Spatial Qi inside the tea room had ultimately provided him with the final push he needed. His comprehension of spatial laws had deepened at the same time, and the Void Sovereign Sutra, which had previously contained many concepts he could only partially understand, had become considerably clearer.
Despite that improvement, Stan had deliberately stopped cultivating afterward.