The box closed with the terrifying softness of a closing ledger.
There was no thunderous crash. No moving impact shook the mountain when the facets met. The six semi-clear panels of amethyst starlight simply lined up their edges. It snapped into a seamless, three-pace cube of pure sharp-angled force that fully enclosed Lin Tao within its boundaries.
From the outside, Tie Shan saw the world warp.
The giant took half a step forward, his iron pry-bar raised. But stopped as his boot touched the boundary line. Where the air met the violet surface of the cube, the light bent at unnatural, ninety-degree angles. Lin Tao was visible inside. But his figure appeared slightly flattened, like an illustration pressed between heavy sheets of glass.
“Brother!” Tie Shan roared, his deep voice carrying the full, desperate power of an Iron-Bone master.
Inside the cube, Lin Tao heard nothing.
The silence was total. It wasn’t the quiet of a calm night or an empty cave. It was the total absence of sound wave propagation. The air inside the cube didn’t transmit sound because the fluid dynamics subroutine had been disabled within the container. Lin Tao opened his mouth and spoke. Then, his throat cords shook against his throat, but no sound reached his own ears.
