I was so scared that I put all my points into health.

Wang Xiaoyi and the others followed President Winnie's gaze and saw that the crack was surrounded by demonic energy, as if countless invisible hands were waving in the air. President Winnie began to examine the crack carefully, trying to uncover its secrets.

Just then, Wang Xiaoyi suddenly felt a mysterious force calling to him, a voice that seemed to come from the depths of his soul, making it impossible for him to resist. His eyes gradually became unfocused, and his body involuntarily moved closer to the crack.

"Raine!" President Winnie noticed his unusual behavior and called out loudly.

However, Wang Xiaoyi had already fallen into a strange state from which he could not extricate himself. He felt as if a mysterious world was beckoning to him from within the crack, and that force was growing stronger and stronger, as if an invisible hand was pulling him.

Just as he was about to reach the crack, his body collided with an invisible barrier. He rubbed his forehead, somewhat puzzled. President Winnie rushed to his side. "Is this a magical barrier? Thank goodness this barrier has temporarily stopped the leakage of demonic energy. However, because the demonic energy is too powerful, this barrier is being eroded and is becoming increasingly thinner."

Just then, the small, rusty shield in Wang Xiaoyi's backpack suddenly emitted a dazzling light. It floated out of his pocket, actually passing through the magical barrier set up by the Elf King Dragon (parrot form), and flew towards the crack.

Wang Xiaoyi instinctively reached out to grab the tattered shield, but to his surprise, a strange suction force suddenly pulled him in, causing him to involuntarily fly straight towards the dark crevice along with the shield. President Winnie's eyes widened, her face drained of color, and she frantically reached out in the direction he was about to disappear, calling out Rein's name anxiously, her voice filled with terror and worry.

Wang Xiaoyi felt a surging darkness, like a flood bursting its banks, engulfing him with an unstoppable force. The darkness was as thick as ink, seemingly threatening to devour his very soul. Deep within this despairing darkness, the small, rusty, and tattered shield in his hand suddenly emitted a miraculous light. This light seemed to be formed from the power drawn from the river of time, forming an indestructible, transparent shield that tightly protected Wang Xiaoyi.

He knew perfectly well that without the protection of this miraculously appearing light, in this space where time was so chaotic, as if it had been disturbed by demons, he would be as fragile as a piece of glass, and would most likely shatter into countless tiny fragments and dissipate into this endless chaos in an instant.

Immediately afterward, the little broken shield seemed to be injected with boundless energy, carrying Wang Xiaoyi at breakneck speed in a mysterious direction. Its speed was beyond imagination, so fast that everything around it seemed to turn into blurry light and shadow, leaving only fleeting traces in front of their eyes.

Wang Xiaoyi's vision was filled with a dazzling array of images. All around him, chaotic darkness and blinding white intertwined, like two enormous pythons writhing and twisting wildly, interspersed with countless shimmering points of light, like a group of mischievous sprites leaping erratically between the darkness and white. All of this combined to create an extremely psychedelic scene, where everything was spinning and floating erratically and erratically.

When he mustered the courage to open his eyes and try to see his surroundings, he was astonished to find that what his eyes saw were scenes from different eras, people from different times. One moment he was in an ancient tribe, people clad in animal skins dancing and singing around a huge bonfire, their bronze skin gleaming with primal vitality in the firelight; the next he was in medieval Europe, knights in heavy armor riding tall horses across ancient battlefields shrouded in smoke, their longswords gleaming coldly; and then there was the future world, where towering metal buildings pierced the sky, flying cars weaving complex and orderly transportation networks in mid-air, people speeding through transparent pipes. Amidst this interweaving of scenes, his sense of space was completely lost; he couldn't distinguish up from down, left from right, as if he were trapped in a paradoxical world without direction.

At first, Wang Xiaoyi gripped the tattered shield tightly with only one hand, trying to stabilize himself. But as the surrounding environment became increasingly bizarre, he felt inexplicable forces, like surging undercurrents, flowing towards him and his shield from all directions. Miraculously, these forces seemed to be completely absorbed by the shield. With the continuous influx of power, the shield began to undergo astonishing changes.

To his astonishment, the small, tattered shield visibly grew larger. What was once a small, worn shield had, under this force, gradually transformed into a shield giant, radiating an ancient and mysterious aura in the dark space. The previously rusty areas, as if gently smoothed by the skillful hand of time, had partially regained their original appearance; the rust gradually faded, revealing the shield's original metallic texture. The previously blurry patterns on the shield's surface were now being slowly and clearly depicted by an invisible hand. Although still somewhat hazy, a holy cross radiating a soft golden light could be vaguely discerned at its center. That golden holy cross seemed to be the core source of the small, tattered shield's power, its light containing a solemn and majestic aura, as if telling a tale of ancient history and a mysterious mission.

The dazzling light, like a sharp sword, pierced straight into Wang Xiaoyi's eyes. He instinctively closed his eyes tightly, but the intense light, penetrating his eyelids, still caused him a burning pain, as if he were being burned. After a while, the intense light gradually softened, and he slowly opened his eyes.

Once his eyes adjusted to the light and he could see his surroundings clearly, he found himself lying in a very simple thatched hut. The walls of the hut were made of a mixture of branches of varying thickness and thick mud, and the thatch on the roof looked somewhat messy, yet it also exuded a rustic charm. He gently got up, brushed off non-existent dust from his body, and then pushed open the door made of rough branches.

Outside the door, an elderly man, frail and nearing the end of his life, sat by the campfire. His face looked as if it had been relentlessly crushed by the wheels of time, each wrinkle seeming to hold a hidden story, his weathered expression suggesting he had endured countless trials. He wore a dark gray cloak, covered with various marks—the imprints of wind and rain, the ravages of time—like a map recording the long years. His face was etched with deep wrinkles, each furrow seemingly filled with the dust of years gone by.

The old man slowly raised his hand, covered in veins and age spots, picked up a piece of firewood, and tossed it gently. The firewood traced a brief arc in the air before falling into the campfire. With the addition of the firewood, the campfire leaped higher, the flames dancing violently, illuminating the old man's face and casting shimmering shadows, adding to his mystique.

Wang Xiaoyi slowly looked around, his heart filled with doubt and unease. It seemed to be a closed space; the sky was a suffocating dark red, and fragments of stones, bottles, jars, pillars, and building ruins floated haphazardly. The stone fragments were rough and irregularly shaped, as if crushed instantly by some immense force; the bottle and jar fragments came in all sorts of shapes; the broken walls seemed to tell of once-glorious buildings now reduced to ruins; the building ruins were diverse, some still showing their original outlines, others too shattered to be recognized.

Countless questions filled his mind: Where was he? Was it a mysterious corner forgotten by the world, or a dangerous area hiding a great secret? What was that mysterious voice? Was it the old man calling him? At that moment, the tattered shield had returned to his backpack, unresponsive. Wang Xiaoyi felt he had grasped at the last glimmer of hope, determined to seek answers from the mysterious old man. He knew that in this strange and dangerous place, only by finding the answers could he escape his predicament and find his way home.