Chapter 46: Breaking Through with Unyielding Force

"The space is shrinking!" Qin Shuang was now certain of it. The energy that had been expended in repairing itself was also the foundation that composed the space. Understanding what was happening, Qin Shuang grew worried. This space was not of a high level, but its resilience was astonishing; if she simply kept breaking it, the space would become smaller and smaller, meaning the area she occupied would dwindle as well.

Carefully, she shattered another fragment of the space and observed the changes within the small pocket. As the energy slowly restored the space, Qin Shuang noticed nothing unusual. She circled the sphere, searching for clues, but found nothing new.

Three months later, when Qin Si entered the sphere, Qin Shuang noticed a peculiar phenomenon: even without breaking the space inside, the small space seemed to be contracting. For three months, she had been racking her brain, her thoughts consumed by this space, and she finally detected this subtle change.

Judging by the rate at which the sphere was shrinking, in a hundred years the space would compress to nothing, and she would likely be crushed into oblivion by the vanishing space.

"No, there must be a way out. Tribulations are not dead ends—there must be a solution, I just haven't found it yet!" Another three months passed, and Qin Shuang repeated these comforting words to herself daily. Yet with each day, her anxiety grew. Three months might seem short, but if there was no way out, three months and a hundred years were nearly indistinguishable to an Immortal Emperor.

Qin Si, too, was struggling at the center of his sphere, his situation far more perilous than Qin Shuang’s. The strength of his space was equivalent to that of the Immortal, Demon, and Monster Realm. His top-level Hongmeng treasure was so powerful that it had shattered vast regions of space. By the time he realized the problem, half of his space was already gone. At the current rate, the small space would disappear in less than fifty years.

"Damn it, I knew this place wouldn't be so easy." After discovering the issue, Qin Si no longer dared to recklessly attack the sphere. Not even his top-tier Hongmeng treasure could break through the thin membrane outside, so relying on brute force was futile.

"Think, think!" Forcing himself to remain calm, Qin Si sat cross-legged and searched his mind for all information related to space.

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"When cultivators reach the Tribulation stage, they must endure the heavenly tribulation to ascend to the Immortal, Demon, and Monster Realm. From the ninth-level Emperor stage in the Immortal, Demon, and Monster Realm, they must again face the heavenly tribulation to ascend to the Divine Realm," Qin Shuang pondered repeatedly. "What conditions are required to escape this space? Heavenly tribulation?"

No, this space is similar to the mortal realm’s space. If it were just like any ordinary space, with my strength I should already be able to trigger the heavenly tribulation and ascend.

"Force won’t work, it only hastens the disappearance of the space."

"Could it be... the soul?" Suddenly struck by inspiration, Qin Shuang's figure flashed to the edge of the space. She reached out and gently pressed her palm against the membrane.

"Soul... I hope this is it." Closing her eyes, her soul-golden core radiated brilliant golden light, flowing along her arm and hand, touching the membrane.

"Clang!" A metallic sound rang out; the soul-golden core bounced back immediately—unable to pass through.

"Ineffective..." A method she had agonized over for a year proved useless.

Strength couldn’t break it, the body couldn’t escape, immortal consciousness couldn’t leave the body, even the soul was trapped. It was almost laughable—a being whose internal energy had reached the ninth-level Immortal Emperor, body attained the grade of lower-tier divine artifact, and soul reached upper-tier divine person, now trapped by a sphere with the same space as the mortal universe, utterly helpless.

Qin Si was in the same predicament, sitting cross-legged in his sphere, which had shrunk by more than half, struggling to find a solution.

"No, force can't break it—my strength is insufficient." Qin Si suddenly remembered that his uncle Lin Meng had broken through Hongmeng Universe using brute force, entering Hongmeng Space.

"Come to think of it, this sphere is a universe—a universe that has trapped me..." Qin Si muttered. "But my strength can’t break through the membrane, I can’t get out."

"Create a technique to connect to the space outside?" Qin Si laughed bitterly, consoling himself, "At least it's theoretically possible."

Theoretically possible, just as Qin Yu's Stellar Transformation connected to Hongmeng Space at the Black Hole stage. If there was no time limit, Qin Si's method would be worth a try, but he had less than fifty years left.

"There must be a way out." Qin Si, like Qin Shuang, firmly believed this was a trial, not a dead end.

"My strength can't break through, nor can I connect to the outside..."

Ten years passed, and the two brothers remained at a loss. Not only them—of the nine who passed through Ten Thousand Sovereigns Mountain, only two died in the first two trials of Sea of a Thousand Tribulations; the remaining seven were all trapped in independent spherical spaces. After ten years, one had completely given up, lying in the sphere every day, waiting for it to shrink to nothing.

Qin Shuang sat cross-legged, eyes closed, the figure in her mind ceaselessly cultivating the Three Souls Nine Refinements. Though she had technically reached the stage of perfection, she still felt every session brought subtle changes. The soul-golden core couldn’t transform into a nascent soul, but progress was there—slow, yet tangible.

While her soul cultivated, her mind never rested, always searching for a way out.

One day, Qin Shuang suddenly opened her eyes wide, mouth agape, shocked by a startling change.

The change was not dramatic, but after ten years, she discovered her immortal consciousness could now leave her body, though it only extended a thin layer around her.

"Immortal consciousness... it can leave my body?" Qin Shuang suppressed her surprise, trying to control her consciousness to reach farther.

"No, I know too little about this space."

"Understanding?" Qin Shuang was suddenly awakened by the word she uttered. "Yes, understanding! Why am I always thinking of breaking out? If I fully comprehend the structure of this space, wouldn’t escaping be a simple matter?"

"Haha, I understand now! As long as I comprehend it, I can leave. A space of mortal realm level, so small—at most twenty years, I’ll understand it completely." Having grasped the crucial insight, Qin Shuang cried out in joy and began to sense everything about the space.

Meanwhile, in another sphere, Qin Si paced back and forth, still unable to find a solution, and his space was down to a third of its original size.

Sometimes, you must admit, heaven is fair. Qin Si was given incomparable talent and wisdom, but not a shred of patience. Qin Shuang, whose aptitude was arguably below average, was instead granted a steady, grounded temperament by fate.

"No... this won’t work." Qin Si muttered as he paced, dismissing his own ideas.

"Achieve a Hongmeng body, break open Hongmeng Universe with force, enter Hongmeng Space..." He kept recalling his uncle Lin Meng’s feats, yet remained helpless before the small sphere.

"It can’t be broken from inside, but entering from outside is effortless, without any resistance." Suddenly, Qin Si stopped in his tracks. "Haha! I finally figured it out—not that it can’t be broken, but the method is wrong."

"Boom~"

Thirty years later, the sphere where Qin Shuang resided exploded first. Laughing, she emerged on the surface of the sea, grateful for the sphere that had confined her for over thirty years.

The space formed by this sphere was indeed like a universe, with its own laws. But compared to a true universe, this sphere contained very little, which allowed Qin Shuang to fully comprehend its workings within thirty years.

What little it held was extremely precious; this experience offered Qin Shuang a chance for insight—into space and time.

It was like understanding why one plus one equals two; once you know, comprehending why ten plus ten equals twenty becomes much easier.

A month after Qin Shuang conquered her sphere, a dramatic change occurred in Qin Si’s sphere. Qin Si, gripping a golden spear, his divine power surging within, eyes filled with unwavering resolve.

"Break for me!" With a sweep of his spear, wild energy surged, shattering the space as stable as the Immortal, Demon, and Monster Realm instantly, leaving not a single intact spot.

"Crack!" From the surface of Sea of a Thousand Tribulations, a sphere barely ten meters in diameter suddenly split open. Then with a "boom," the whole sphere shattered.

Within Hongmeng Space, Hongmeng, Lin Meng, and Qin Yu all stood up in shock, staring at the scene unfolding in Sea of a Thousand Tribulations.

"This... how is it possible? How could brute force break through?" Lin Meng exclaimed in astonishment.

"Second Brother, Third Brother, the Hongmeng Golden Rankings... they’re changing..."