"You've been hiding in plain sight."
As Adrian spoke those words, many thoughts churned rapidly within his mind. The Providence Hub was swarming with Astral Stage elders, equipped with the advanced scanning arrays, and constantly watched by the presence of an Anchor-stage sovereign. Yet, the Elyrians' micro-dimension had not even been detected.
"There must be layers far deeper than what appears on the outside," Adrian thought, his eyes narrowing slightly as he analyzed the implications.
As Adrian slowly began to understand the full situation within the Providence Hub, more complex and fascinating elements started to appear in front of him. His overall interest in this journey peaked at this moment. The Concepts of Fate and Causality had led him here, and he still felt a lingering, magnetic pull toward the restricted layers of the golden spire within the Providence Hub. Perhaps there were unexpected legacies or ancient knowledge hidden there that would solidify the future of the Origin Sect.
"The micro-dimension was established by our ancestors, Senior," Mariska said quietly, her voice pulling Adrian from his thoughts.
She paused, her wings shifting nervously behind her. She bit her lower lip and stopped herself there, clearly unwilling to reveal anything further about the mechanics of their sanctuary.
Adrian didn't voice his doubts to her. These things were the Elyrian civilization's deepest secrets, and he understood the limits one couldn't cross. He simply nodded, respecting her silence, and shifted to the practical matters at hand.
"So, since the situation is like this, do you have any ways to return to the hub right now?" Adrian asked.
In truth, Adrian didn't have any viable options of his own to sneak them back into the hub at this very moment. He had his Shadow and Concealment concepts, but at the end of the day, those were merely arcane concepts. The Providence Hub would undoubtedly possess formations built from divine concepts, which could easily pierce through arcane concepts. Furthermore, the hub's protocols actively blocked unauthorized teleportation. The only way Adrian could think of now was entering officially through the front gates, exactly as he had done when he initially entered under the alias of 'Aeon.'
Xeolze drifted forward, "Senior, due to the chaos we just caused in the Inner Continent, the hub will undoubtedly go into its highest state of security. Scanning arrays will be pushed to their limits, and Astral Stage patrols will flood the commercial sectors."
"These kinds of things have happened before when wandering cultivators or rival factions cause major issues. During these times, we simply wait for a few days for the security to calm down a little. Once the vigilance drops, we change our appearances and enter through the outer gates as normal wanderers. That is the most effective and untraceable way we have followed until now."
Adrian nodded in agreement. It was essentially the exact same method he had used, and it remained the most logical step.
There were millions of cultivators coming and going every single day through the Providence Hub. The visiting merchants and independent cultivators were the primary source of the Ethereal Providence Sect's wealth. If the security remained too harsh for too long, visiting cultivators would feel uncomfortable and take their business to other intergalactic hubs. To maintain its commercial empire, the Providence Hub would be forced to return to normalcy soon, and that narrow window would be the perfect time to slip back in.
"Do you have a place to hide and stay in the meantime?" Adrian asked.
Both Mariska and Xeolze exchanged a solemn look before shaking their heads. "We have no safe harbor outside the hub, Senior," Mariska admitted softly. "We have always lived entirely within the cage."
"Then, let us go to my territory," Adrian said, "We will wait there in safety and return to the hub after a few days."
Before the Elyrians could even process the invitation, Adrian extended his right hand. The fabric of reality in front of them twisted and groaned. Space folded inward, tearing open to reveal a portal threaded with violet light.
Mariska and Xeolze stared at the rift. Without a word of protest, trusting the man who had just defied a Major Sect for their lives, they stepped through the violet light.
Adrian remained in the void for a fraction of a second longer. He closed his eyes and allowed his Source Domain to expand outward just enough to blanket the immediate vacuum of space. The white-grey essence rippled through the dark, and Adrian issued a direct command to reality. "Once I leave this place, erase all spatial traces and residual mana of this portal."
Adrian felt this extra step was necessary to ensure his true destination remained untraceable, even if he was doing this from a safe distance away from the immediate scanning arrays of the Providence Hub.
With that, he stepped into the rift. The very moment his figure crossed the threshold, the void outside violently reacted. The space where the portal had existed shattered like glass, fracturing into a million invisible pieces before instantly smoothing out into emptiness. Every single coordinate, every lingering trace of spatial displacement, and every footprint of conceptual energy was wiped from existence. Even an Astral Stage diviner using the Prime Arcane Concept of causality would find nothing but a dead end.
Adrian emerged into an open, grassy clearing within the inner-zone base of the Azure Garden.
The portal collapsed soundlessly behind him. The moment he relaxed his focus, he immediately felt the sensation of severe mana depletion. Nearly thirty million mana units had just been ripped from his reserves to pay the universe's toll for his direct command.
"Thirty million mana units just to erase a simple trace in the open void..." Adrian thought, a wry smile touching his lips. "I need to cultivate and increase my mana capacity."
These days, even his expanded capacity of a hundred million mana units didn't feel like nearly enough for the various things he needed to accomplish.
He couldn't help but feel a deep, almost comical sense of irony. Before this, his current mana capacity was more than enough, but his mind would constantly fracture because he lacked the willforce to sustain the pressure.
Now, the situation had entirely inverted. Because he had reached the Anchor stage of consciousness mastery and connected with trillions of people through the [Crown of the Source], his willforce was vast. He didn't feel much mental strain from issuing direct commands, but his mana was draining faster than he could replenish it!
However, this was much better than going back to the Andromeda Galaxy. Actually, returning to the Virelith Galaxy had been his original plan for this entire journey. He had chosen to begin his journey from the surroundings of the Andromeda Galaxy because the neighboring regions there were more likely to contain active galaxies, hubs, and opportunities than the isolated Virelith Galaxy.
When returning, he had planned to return to the Virelith Galaxy directly most of the time. But in his first return, his purpose had been to access UNI-OS and check information. To maintain the image that he was in closed-door seclusion in Andromeda, even if he used the UNI-OS, it had to come from there. Now, since there was no need for him to use the UNI-OS, Adrian followed his original plan and returned directly to the Azure Garden.
Pushing his internal thoughts aside, Adrian looked up.
A few paces ahead of him, Mariska and Xeolze stood frozen, staring at their surroundings with trembling eyes.
The Azure Garden was a breathtaking paradise. Towering trees with luminescent leaves swayed gently in the breeze. The air was saturated with life-aspected mana that felt like a warm, comforting embrace against the skin.
"It's... it's beautiful," Mariska whispered, her voice choking with emotion. "I can feel the life in the soil. There are no chains here... no scanning arrays... no scent of blood."
"Where are we, Senior?" Xeolze asked quietly.
"This is the Azure Garden," Adrian replied, his tone softening as he watched them take in the sanctuary. "It is a private world under the protection of my sect. Also, this galaxy is entirely isolated from the rest of the universe. No Major Sect can find you here."
Adrian gestured toward a cluster of elegantly constructed buildings nestled near a flowing stream of water.
"You both suffered during the battle in the Inner Continent, and even though I healed you, your minds have been strained," Adrian said. "Go to the guest buildings. Rest and allow your consciousness to stabilize."
He then gestured above them and continued, "This place is within an active time formation with a dilation ratio where a single day outside equals four years of internal time. You have all the time to peacefully rest here. Do not push yourself."
Mariska and Xeolze stared at the time formation floating in the sky. In their entire lives, they had never seen the arcane concept of Time, and definitely not such a time formation.
Mariska could not help but think how such a time formation could have helped her civilization. How many wounded minds could have healed? How many young Elyrians could have been raised? How many centuries of fear could have been softened if their sanctuary had possessed even a fraction of this miracle?
Then, with respectful nods, they both flew toward the guest buildings.
Adrian stood for a moment, gazing at the time formation still actively working, then he activated his source domain again, issuing a direct command, "Change my altered facial structure and mana signature back to my original state."
Reality obeyed instantly, and a blinding pain exploded across Adrian's face. His jaw cracked, his cheekbones shifted violently, and his flesh tore and knitted itself back together in a gruesome fraction of a second as his body forcefully changed back to its true form.
Then Adrian slowly floated deeper within the Azure Garden, the life-rich breeze stirring the edges of his white-grey robes as the silent paradise closed around him.