At this moment, chaos reigned within the bronze coffin.
"What's happening? How did we get pulled into the coffin?"
"Someone save us!"
"Are we still on Earth? I don't want to die!"
Some students were crying hysterically out of fear. Others, trying to remain calm, attempted to call for help—only to discover that there was no signal at all.
"Everyone, stay calm. Don't panic," said Zhou Yi in a steady voice. "Even though there's no signal, an event this big definitely wouldn't go unnoticed. Rescue will come—we just need to hold on."
His calmness was like a sedative for the group. Many students gradually composed themselves.
"That's right, don't waste your strength panicking. Stay alert and conserve your energy. I'm sure we'll be rescued," added Wang Ziwen, also trying to stabilize emotions.
In a quiet corner, Jiang Xuan sat cross-legged, saying nothing. From the moment the Nine Dragons had dragged the coffin into motion, he had calmly begun refining the True Qi within his body.
On the other side, Ye Fan was visibly uneasy. He used the light of his phone to glance around. Though the panic had subsided, he could still hear the rapid breathing—proof that the fear hadn't gone away.
But then Ye Fan's eyes fell on Jiang Xuan—and he was shocked.
Jiang Xuan was far too calm.
Like a statue untouched by chaos.
Ye Fan instinctively walked over.
"Jiang Xuan, do you know what's going on?" he whispered.
"We are likely... leaving Earth," Jiang Xuan said calmly, not even bothering to lower his voice.
The students nearby looked at him, stunned.
"In ancient times, dragons weren't just mythical—they truly existed," Jiang Xuan said, his tone neither hurried nor slow. "And now, to see such creatures reappear in our era... this may be a great opportunity."
"Opportunity? I don't want any damn opportunity—I want to go home!"
"We're really leaving Earth? No… I'm getting married next month!"
"My son hasn't even turned a month old—what am I supposed to do now?!"
A fresh wave of cries and panic erupted. Jiang Xuan's words were simply too shocking. No one wanted to accept that they might be leaving Earth. Their families, their loved ones, everything they cherished was back there—how could they go on?
Only after some time, when emotions had finally settled again, did Jiang Xuan continue:
"Some ancient Chinese texts record that in the distant past, cultivation truly existed. Ordinary people could live past a hundred years in good health, and cultivators could move mountains and fill seas, pluck stars from the sky and chase the moon."
"When we were at the Jade Emperor Peak, I saw the Yin-Yang Taiji symbol appear in the five-colored altar—and within it, a faint shadow of a black passage."
"My guess is, we've entered that passage through the bronze coffin... and right now, we're heading toward a specific destination."
"You mean… with the Taiji, the altar, the mythical dragons… you think the place we're going might be tied to ancient Chinese legends? A world of cultivation?" someone asked, half in disbelief.
"That's what I believe," Jiang Xuan said. "If we really are heading toward a cultivation world, then everything we knew before—laws, logic, science—it all has to be rewritten. Because on the path of cultivation… if you don't fight your way up, you end up being a soul banner for someone else."
He ended with a half-joke, but no one laughed.
"I don't want cultivation. I want to go home…"
"Mom… Dad… sob…"
"Immortals? Do immortals even exist in this world?"
Ye Fan remembered the scene on Mount Tai—when Jiang Xuan had shattered a falling boulder with a casual palm. His thoughts sank into a daze.
"Things are already like this—what's the point of resisting?" Pang Bo suddenly spoke up, full of excitement. "If we really can cultivate immortality… that'd be incredible. Besides, what happens next isn't up to us anymore."
Pang Bo had missed the gathering on Mount Tai but had coincidentally arrived right as the altar activated. He had boarded the coffin in time.
"Yeah. If cultivation is real, that's way better than slaving away on Earth," said another classmate, one who had always felt out of place.
He was an orphan who had clawed his way into college through hard work, hoping to change his fate. But after entering society, he realized the harsh truth: the ladder upward was already sealed. The divide between people was set at birth. Years of overwork hadn't even earned him a bathroom of his own in the city.
Not a single light in that bustling skyline had ever been lit for him.
"It's not that we're worse than others—just that our luck was worse. I'm not lacking in anything… except destiny. If there's really a path to immortality, I'd rather die trying than stay a nobody forever," another classmate chimed in.
Like the one before him, he had worked himself to the bone for years, hoping for a breakthrough, only to find that all his hard work had earned him was endless bitterness.
As the whispers turned into quiet determination, the group slowly fell silent.
Time passed.
Suddenly—BOOM! BOOM!
A series of thunderous bangs erupted from the bronze coffin. It shook violently, like a plane preparing for landing, the tremors growing stronger by the second.
RUMBLE—!!
The final thunderous crash was louder than all that came before, as if two massive celestial bodies had violently collided. The sound was deafening.
Inside the bronze coffin, no one knew exactly what had just happened—but they could all sense one thing clearly:
The coffin had stopped moving.
At that moment, faint beams of light pierced through the seams of the coffin lid and spilled into the dark interior. The confined crowd instantly erupted into cheers and excitement, scrambling to push open the lid and rushing to climb out of the ancient bronze sarcophagus.
But as they emerged, their joy was immediately replaced by shock—each one of them stood frozen in place.
Before their eyes stretched a desolate, barren land. The blood-red earth was cold and lifeless, scattered with towering boulders. The wind-worn surfaces of those rocks seemed to whisper of eons of solitude.
The sky was cloaked in a dim, ashen glow—cold, lifeless, devoid of warmth. The entire world was deathly silent, shrouded in solitude and gloom.
"I thought we were headed to a cultivation world… Why is the sky so gray? Where is everyone?"
"This place… It can't be Earth. Just where have we ended up?"
"It's totally different from anything on Earth. There's not a soul around. And it's nothing like the cultivation realms in novels. Are we just going to die here?"
Looking at the boundless crimson wasteland, several students were overcome with sorrow and dread.
"Since we're already here, let's make the best of it. Spread out and look around. Maybe we'll find something," Jiang Xuan finally spoke, his calm voice steadying the group.
He gazed ahead and noticed a towering stone—over twenty meters tall. Though massive, the slope wasn't too steep. With some caution, even an ordinary person could climb it.
Graceful as flowing water.
With barely a flicker of movement, Jiang Xuan lightly stepped forward and—within only a few steps—reached the summit of the stone. From there, he looked out across the landscape and spotted, in the far distance… a faint glimmer of white light.
"Oh! Kung Fu! That's Chinese kung fu!" Kai De, who was nearby, couldn't help but exclaim. Li Xiaoman, known for her refined temperament, had followed with a few light steps of her own—scaling the twenty-meter boulder almost effortlessly. Her figure even seemed to blur and flicker like an afterimage.
It was just like a scene from a Chinese martial arts film.
"Come on. There's light over there—maybe it means something," Jiang Xuan said.
When faced with a dead end, Jiang Xuan always knew to change his perspective and try a new path. Now, in this foreign land wrapped in shadow, that single gleam of light might be the key—a symbol of new beginnings, and perhaps, a road paved with glory.
Suppressing their amazement at Jiang Xuan's martial prowess, the others quickly decided to follow him.
This classmate of theirs had always been reclusive at university—low-profile, mysterious. And now, in the blink of an eye, he had climbed a height others could only stare at. It was clear he was no ordinary person. In a strange and unknown world like this, where danger could lurk at any moment, sticking close to Jiang Xuan was unquestionably the wisest decision.