As the Martial Dominator realm powerhouse descended, a profound stillness fell upon the world. Time itself seemed to freeze, and from an unfathomable distance, two colossal eyes appeared, observing the scene. Lu Kai, despite the temporal stasis, could perceive them. He felt a chilling pressure, eerily familiar, the same overwhelming dread he had experienced in his dreams of the Ranker's World.
Then, a voice echoed, shattering the silence and reality itself. It was a voice that commanded oblivion. "Vanished," it boomed, and with that single word, the entire Immortal Realm, the Heavenly Realm, the Middle Realm, the Upper Realm, and this Lower Realm simply ceased to exist. They were erased, instantly and utterly.
In its last moments of existence, the System, with a final, desperate act of authority, utilized all of Lu Kai's remaining elemental powers. With a surge of energy equivalent to his twenty-one elements, it hurled him into another Ranker's World, a dimension millions of times farther away than the one from which the being had originated. It was a sacrifice, the System destroying its own creation to ensure Lu Kai's survival, only to be forced to rebuild anew.
Lu Kai awoke to find himself heavily injured, lying on the rough, stony ground of a cliff face. Above him, the sky was a foreign hue. A moment later, an old man approached. Lu Kai, disoriented and weak, didn't know if this newcomer was friend or foe. His vision blurred, and he fainted.
When he next opened his eyes, he was in a rudimentary infirmary. The same old man sat by his bedside, watching him with a kindly gaze. "See you're awake," the old man said, his voice raspy but gentle. "What's your name?"
"Lu Kai," he managed to whisper.
"Your whole body is like it was crushed by iron boulders," the old man observed. "But don't worry, you'll be okay soon. Just don't try running off anywhere. Which city are you from? And why were you on that Stone Golem's Cliff in the desolate land? If I hadn't come for my mission, you would have been dead already from the stone golems."
After the old man left him to rest, Lu Kai called out for the System, but no response came. Nothing appeared on his status screen. He remembered the System's sacrifice, how it had used his twenty-one elements to teleport him to this place. He wondered what kind of world this was, so alien and devoid of familiar energies.
When he tried to access his powers, he found only three elements remained: Frost, Water, and Lightning. His once vast array of powers was drastically reduced. A grim understanding settled upon him. "I'll have to keep a low profile," he murmured to himself, the weight of his new reality pressing down on him.
(To be continued...)