Translator: CKtalon
“Why do you ask?” Li Mobai was an intelligent person. Upon hearing Zhou Wen’s question, he immediately had some ominous thoughts.
“I heard that Dugu Ge, Zhang Chunqiu, and company discovered a Guardian cocoon somewhere in the South District. Furthermore, they have successfully contracted it,” Zhou Wen said half-truthfully.
Li Mobai heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that. “I’m aware of what you just mentioned. The two aren’t in the same place. Up to now, no one has entered the place I discovered. It’s surrounded by extremely dangerous dimensional zones. The most famous dimensional zone is called the Valley of No Return. Even the Dugu family doesn’t dare enter it. Back then, I only managed to see the cocoon of the Guardian by chance. The chances of others seeing it are extremely low.”
To be honest, Zhou Wen was somewhat tempted. There were too few Guardians, and the two Guardians he could come into contact with were just too powerful. There was not much he could do to them.
If there was time for Zhou Wen to slowly develop, it was only a matter of time before he killed them. However, now that Jing Daoxian had come knocking on his door, Zhou Wen felt the pressure.
Just as Xia Jiuhuang had said, if one didn’t enter the Mythical stage, they were ultimately mortal. As their foundation was too weak, they could easily be considered a weakness when facing a Mythical opponent. It was useless even if they had Mythical Companion Beasts.
“According to the agreement, if you can’t contract a Guardian, the Guardian will belong to me, right?” Zhou Wen said to Li Mobai.
“Of course. Happy cooperation.” Li Mobai smiled and extended his hand.
Zhou Wen extended his hand and shook Li Mobai’s hand, having reached an agreement. It was useless to write such an agreement in black and white, so there was no need to sign a contract.
“When can you set off?” Li Mobai asked Zhou Wen.
“Anytime,” Zhou Wen answered.
“Pack up your things. We’ll set off tonight. After we reach the South District, we need to make a trip to Mong Hsat and find a friend surnamed Gu for help. With him leading the way, we can safely reach the Valley of No Return,” Li Mobai said.
“Is there any trouble we can’t resolve on the way?” Zhou Wen asked with a frown.
Li Mobai said, “The South District is very different from the other districts. The other districts mostly respect the big and strong. However, in the South District, there are many miniature and evil dimensional creatures. There are even some places where the small are king. The smaller a dimensional creature is, the greater the destructive power it can cause. Just like the Fairy Undying Gu on the rankings. It’s only the size of an ant, but its destructive power isn’t weaker than any dimensional creature on the rankings. In the South District, there are many evil and microscopic dimensional creatures. If one isn’t familiar with the local situation, they might not even know how they died. Although I know a little about it, I’m ultimately not a local. It’s much safer having a local guide.”
“Alright.” Zhou Wen nodded and asked, “Do you know that Li Xuan went to the South District?”
“It doesn’t matter where he goes.” Li Mobai left after saying that.
Zhou Wen went back to make preparations and informed his friends that he was heading to the South District.
In the evening, Zhou Wen set off with Li Mobai for Mong Hsat.
Li Mobai brought two others with him. One of them was Butterfly whom Zhou Wen had seen before. The other was a mute. His name was Mute.
The two of them were responsible for Li Mobai’s food and lodging along the way as though they were servants.
Zhou Wen was still wary of Li Mobai. He had his guard up along the way, but nothing happened.
As flights were no longer possible to Mong Hsat, it wasn’t easy to proceed. After the dimensional storms, the journey had become even more difficult.
Thankfully, Mute, who was very familiar with the jungle path, led the way. Along the way, they climbed mountains and crossed ridges. It was all thanks to him scouting ahead that they were able to avoid most dangers.
Occasionally, they would encounter break-out creatures which were easily dispatched.
Mong Hsat was similar to a lone island on land these days. Too few people could reach this place. Only the nearby natives and people like the Gu family who wanted to develop themselves in Mong Hsat would continue staying here.
On the streets, there were many men and women wearing monk robes. The men’s robes were purple-red, while the women’s were pink.
The locals originally believed in Buddhism. After the dimensional storms, faith became even more important. Be it the indigenous or foreign families, as long as they were people who had settled down in Mong Hsat, they would believe in Buddhism. Otherwise, it would be difficult for them to integrate into the local society.
The friend Li Mobai was looking for was called Gu Shanshui. Although he wasn’t a monk, he was a Buddhist. However, Zhou Wen saw that he was wearing many chains. They didn’t look like something from Mong Hsat. Instead, they looked like the Buddha plaques he had obtained from Xiao Si.
Apart from the Buddha plaques, there were many tattoos on Gu Shanshui’s body. The tattoos were clearly not formed by Companion Beasts, but man-made.
“Li, my friend, I’m afraid there’s no other way to go to the Valley of No Return,” said Gu Shanshui.
“Master Gu, what happened?” Li Mobai knew that something must have happened. Otherwise, with Gu Shanshui’s personality, as long as he agreed, no matter how dangerous the journey to the Valley of No Return was, he would still make the trip.
“There’s only one way to go to the Valley of No Return—Flower River. However, there’s a large-scale break-out there. There have already been many people who wished to travel between Mong Hsat and Chiang Rai using the Flower River. After entering the Flower River, they were not seen again. There’s no lack of Epic experts among them.” Gu Shanshui explained the situation in detail.
The Flower River wasn’t actually a real river. Instead, after the dimensional storms, a type of flower appeared in a large area between Chiang Rai and Mong Hsat. The flower grew in large numbers, forming an endless river, so it was called Flower River by the locals.
Due to the dimensional zones, the transportation between Mong Hsat and Chiang Rai was basically cut off. Only by walking through the Flower River could one avoid all the dimensional zones.
However, in the past half a month, there had been an anomaly in Flower River. Many people who entered the Flower River vanished. No one dared to enter Flower River again.
Previously, an Epic expert from the Gu family had brought people into the Flower River, but there was no news of them. The people sent by the Gu family to investigate had gone missing, but they failed to find anything.
“Do we have to take the Flower River to go to the Valley of No Return?” Li Mobai asked after some thought.
“There’s a stretch that requires us to use the Flower River. We have to travel at least 25 kilometers in the Flower River,” said Gu Shanshui.