To check if his guess was right, Shao Xuan switched his consciousness again to leave this dark world. The battle had not started anyway and Shoa Xuan felt like his appearance had attracted attention from both parties, especially Yi Xiang. Ever since he appeared, Yi Xiang kept staring at him. Shao Xuan only wanted to check out Yi Xiang’s abilities for future reference, not directly provoke him.
Although they were engulfed in darkness, the atmosphere was too intense and Shao Xuan did not want to stay. Might as well come back when their battle is ending soon. If both sides were exhausted, they would not keep watching him.
When he opened his eyes, Shao Xuan saw some bones nearby. They were remains of the snake Chacha previously ate.
Chacha had just finished the snake before Shao Xuan entered that dark world. Chacha had been eating many snakes recently, possibly due to the grudge from being almost eaten by a snake the last time he was at Eagle Mountain. He often ate snakes in the forest but hunted even more of them here near Eagle Mountain.
Shao Xuan remembered that the snake Chacha ate looked very strange with a horn on each side of its cheek. The skeleton also had horns. Shao Xuan had only seen Chacha eat a snake like that once before he entered the dark world.
That was why these remains must be the same ones Chacha was eating before. He felt like he had not left for long because he only stopped for a while in that strange realm. That must not be more than ten minutes. However, the bloodstains on the snake remains had changed in colour and the residual flesh was dry. Based on the current conditions, it should be half a day since Chacha ate the snake.
Indeed, time flows differently there.
Chacha stood on the mountain call above, watching his surroundings.
A little farther away, Yi Qi and Yi Cong remained in the same position, same as before.
Shao Xuan changed his strategy. Since time flowed differently and he did not know if the difference was consistent, he did not want to act recklessly. He planned to only return after the battle had begun. Might as well watch Yi Qi and Yi Cong here instead of entering the realm again. This way, he could save time and effort.
Time passed slower in the strange dark world so changes might not show on Yi Cong and Yi Qi so soon. While he waited, Shao Xuan experimented with controlling his consciousness. If this method could bring him to places regular people could not go to see things they could not see, was there anything else it could do?
He did not know if he would discover anything without entering that illusory space.
Without the eight-knot method, Shao Xuan could only study his consciousness based on the past two experiences. They were similar to wielding the bone ornaments’ powers anyway so it was not too difficult.
First, he must find the white spot in his body. That spot was similar to the soul, a type of special life force.
He did not take too long to find the white spot again. He only had to activate the fire seed within using his consciousness, then borrow this white spot’s energy to look for other similar presences.
This time, Shao Xuan used the other force in his body instead of the fire seed for the search.
White threads sprouted within his sea of consciousness towards the white spot, then spiralled around it. Flames burned with every turn of the thread.
When the spot was completely wrapped in flames, a spot of darkness appeared in the core, slowly turning into a visible black dot.
It gradually expanded into a spiralling black hole. When the black hole expanded until he could no longer see the flames, Shao Xuan saw a dark world similar to the Yi family’s battlefield but felt completely different.
A similar world of darkness.
Looks like there was more than one realm like this. Shao Xuan wanted to learn more from the Yi family if he could.
Eh?
Studying the palace carefully, he realised there were faint light spots inside, like stars in a slightly cloudy night sky.
He realised the realm inside was not completely dark, but rather the light spots were just too far away. Controlling his consciousness, the lights started to approach... no, perhaps he was moving towards them.
He could finally see the lights clearly now. As long as he maintained this state of consciousness, he would be able to see the lights.
When he approached, he saw flickering blue lights surrounding these light spots- many of them too. Shao Xuan felt like he was standing in a universe of stars.
He also felt a familiar aura radiating from the lights. It was not a tribe’s fire seed but an animal!
Chacha had a similar aura!
Was it something in Eagle Mountain?
Shao Xuan strengthened his senses, though it became more draining for him.
He could sense even more things now. These faint blue lights were blue flames. Similar to Shao Xuan’s silhouette in the strange world, they too aggregated into strange shapes.
Every light dot probably represented one giant beast, like the Yi family’s Bone Reading Beast. These shapes were the approximate shapes of the respective animals.
The light dots were all at the core of the blue lights, and these light dots were far from each other. Not on purpose, but rather these giant beasts were just too huge and it would not make sense for them to live close to each other.
Around him, the light dots filled the space like countless stars in the night sky.
He did not count the light dots, instead focusing on the blue flames. These figures were gigantic. In contrast, the Bone Reading Beast was just the size of a palm compared to these giants. Shao Xuan had never hunted a giant beast this size in his life. The only similar giants he had encountered were the giant mountain eagles he saw at the icy mountain peak and the giant alligator he met at Gongjia Valley.
But even these two animals were not as impressive as these figures.
There were too many figures overlaid on each other, so it was difficult to distinguish their entire body shapes- but Shao Xuan could confirm one thing- these shapes were not giant mountain eagles!
This state was draining his energy. Since it was getting too tiring, Shao Xuan left this dark realm, planning to return after recuperation.
He opened his eyes and wiped the sweat off his face. Due to the exertion, his back was already drenched.
These figures made of blue flames must be how these frighteningly gigantic beasts looked like when they were alive. Thinking hard, Shao Xuan looked around at the mountain walls. He activated his special vision but only saw thick mountain rock. Due to the distance and the rocks, he could not see what was inside Eagle Mountain for the moment, nor could he check if there were giant skeletons beneath the mountain. He could only ‘see’ these things in the other dark realm.
Noticing Shao Xuan’s discomfort, Chacha leaned over and chirped, expressing his concern.
“I’m fine.” Shao Xuan stared at Chacha, studying him from head to toe until Chacha became confused.
“Caw?” Chacha asked.
“Chacha, do you know what your ancestor was? Do you know what they looked like?” asked Shao Xuan.
There was a pause after the question. Chacha looked at the sky as if it saw something fly past, then started to study its surroundings with full interest, all while avoiding Shao Xuan.
Familiar with Chacha’s personality, Shao Xuan recognised that he was avoiding the question.
Of course Chacha knew what his ancestors looked like. That was a secret of the giant mountain eagles. Only eagles who had entered Eagle Mountain knew the answer.