The cultivators, who had just been engulfed, had all reached the tribulation-transcending stage.
Yet, at this moment, their bodies were a mess of bloody wounds. It was clear that the terrifying spatial tearing strength that had suddenly surged within the distorted space had nearly overwhelmed them.
It was only because they had retreated swiftly that they hadn't perished. If they had remained within for even a moment longer, they might have truly met their demise.
Even so, despite not having died, their injuries were quite severe.
As for Li Qi.
Being an old schemer, he had naturally retreated with Yin Chuan the moment he noticed the distorted space behaving abnormally.
Withdrawing his gaze from the few miserable tribulation-transcending cultivators, Li Qi frowned slightly as he looked at the distorted space, which had stopped expanding and was no longer far from them.
"What exactly is going on?"
But unfortunately, the changes in the distorted space had once again subsided. Other than its volume having increased, there was nothing else special about it.
Even though Li Qi wanted to understand the situation, he was completely baffled.
After all, this sudden expansion had truly caught everyone by surprise.
With this thought, Li Qi's gaze involuntarily shifted to other directions of the distorted space.
The areas where the other two groups of tribulation-transcending cultivators were gathered were also fine.
From the information transmitted by the two life-bound spirit puppets, although some cultivators had been slow to react and suffered injuries, at least no tribulation-transcending cultivators had died.
However, if tribulation-transcending cultivators who were caught in the distorted space suffered so miserably.
It was enough to imagine how tragic the casualties were among the cultivators in the Dao Integration stage on the peripheries of those smaller distorted spaces.
The Dao Integration stage cultivators who had fled immediately when the distorted space first showed signs of abnormality should be fine.
But if they had been a beat late and were enveloped by the distorted space, their fate... would most likely be dire. Even cultivators at the peak of Dao Integration would probably be no exception.
However, after pondering this for a moment, Li Qi promptly dismissed it from his mind.
After all, those Dao Integration stage cultivators had nothing to do with him, and he had no need to worry about them.
Those who sought benefits in these abruptly appearing, peculiar secret realms likely had already prepared themselves for the possibility of perishing, and could blame no one.
And at this very moment.
Suddenly, a voice from the surroundings drew Li Qi's attention back to the distorted space.
"Huh, look! The distorted space is shrinking again! What's going on!"
Shrinking again?
Li Qi's gaze was fixed intently on the distorted space that had just stopped expanding.
Indeed, under everyone's watchful eyes, the distorted space began to shrink, just as it had expanded.
What the hell?
Looking at the frenziedly behaving distorted space, even Li Qi wore a strange expression on his face.
Looking at it, for some reason, Li Qi suddenly thought of a very common object from his previous life.
A balloon.
The distorted space looked like a balloon, where someone had blown into it, and it had expanded.
And once that breath was exhaled, it gradually leaked out, causing the volume of the distorted space to shrink.
However, watching the distorted space shrink smaller and smaller.
Even though the cultivators present were all at the tribulation-transcending stage, none of them made any rash moves.
Instead, they stood their ground. With their eyesight and divine sense, they could clearly perceive the specific condition of the distorted space even without approaching it.
Moreover, even if they couldn't perceive the situation of the distorted space from a distance.
It was unlikely that there would be any fools among them willing to risk their lives to approach and observe the situation up close.
After all, the destructive power caused by the sudden anomaly had severely injured cultivators at the second level of tribulation transcendence.
If it happened again, no one knew what the outcome would be, or if the terrifying spatial tearing force would surge again, instantly tearing apart even those at the lower levels of tribulation transcendence.
Li Qi's thoughts were similar to those of the other cultivators; he stood still.
His divine sense reached out towards the distorted space.
Under Li Qi's divine sense, the distorted space, which had originally been about the size of six small worlds, rapidly shrank back to the size of three or four small worlds.
However, the shrinking trend of the distorted space did not seem to be limitless and continued to decrease.
It was reduced to the size of about three small worlds.
Then it became the size of two small worlds, but even so, the shrinking trend of the distorted space showed no signs of stopping.
In the end, the distorted space, which had originally reached the size of six small worlds, was forcefully reduced to half the size of an ordinary small world!
It was like a luxurious villa that had instantly transformed into a small wooden house, a drastic drop in scale.
Looking in other directions, the sight was no longer obstructed by the shrinking distorted space.
Li Qi could even clearly see the other two groups of tribulation-transcending cultivators gathered in the other two directions.
Similarly, the tribulation-transcending cultivators gathered in those two directions also looked over.
The dozens of tribulation-transcending cultivators from the three locations, which had initially been quite far apart, were now staring at each other, but no one made any move, nor did anyone wish to come over to greet them.
They continued to stare at the distorted space, wondering what other tricks it had up its sleeve.
Thus, in such a quiet and oppressive atmosphere.
Several days passed in a flash.
Over these few days.
After shrinking to the size of half a small world, the distorted space became completely still. Similarly, no meteor fragments had drifted out from within the distorted space during these days.
This was not an exaggeration, but the literal truth: not even a piece the size of a fist had appeared.
In fact, over these past few days, some people had even thought that all the Dao demise fragments within the distorted space had been collected.
A large portion of the Dao Integration stage cultivators who had experienced the previous anomaly of the distorted space had already left.
Even several tribulation-transcending cultivators had departed.