Chapter 403 - 399: Venturing Into The Unknown
"Yi!" A delicate cry resounded as a heavy thud followed, causing a groan of pain that would cause many men to feel pity and concern to resound. Within a land of ground and mountains, a crater was formed by a falling figure. A series of coughs could be heard from the crater as a soft, immaculate hand climbed out and grabbed the edge of the crater.
When the figure lifted itself up, they released a nearly indistinguishable sound of shock and disbelief. After pushing its head above the crater’s edges, observing the sights before them, they quietly asked themselves: "Where am I?"
The figure’s emerald eyes inspected the surroundings. A world filled with dirt-like sand, grey-colored and dry was revealed. The humidity of the environment was extremely uncomfortable, and the heat was almost unbearable. Just from touching the ground for a prolonged period caused sizzling sounds to originate from the tender and delicate hand of the figure.
"Ouch!" The figure pulled away, inspecting the singes on its hand. There was a light of surprise, considering the figure’s refined and reinforced body would normally protect from basic heat. After a little bit, the figure exclaimed.
"I can’t fly?!" A startling cry revealed the voice of a female. She soon discovered her ability to manipulate the surrounding ambient mana was nigh non-existent. She felt the ambient mana and realized it was absurdly thin, and it carried a unique quality that seemed to be depriving her spiritual energies to commune with it.
Without the ability to fly, she had to wrap her hands in astral force and lift herself out of the crater. As she did, her gorgeous figure was revealed to the world. A pair of ample, shapely breasts that swayed with every motion, slim figure, and long waist-length emerald hair. Unfortunately, there was a lack of external wind.
After trying to brush off the grey-colored dirt of her robe to no avail, she frustratedly ignored her uncleanliness. Wiping her nose, she looked at the sky to observe a single solar star that existed.
Her expression changed. "A solar star?! Is this the secret realm? Even world realms don’t have solar stars..." She suspected she might’ve been transported away from the starfield, her expression changing into one of distress and concern.
This woman was Qing Qiumu. Her sharp ears and eyes trembled slightly as she licked her lips, realizing they were now dry. But despite that, whatever moisture she produced was swiftly vanishing from her lips, returning them to its dry state.
Frowning, she looked at her hands to discover they were drying out of surface moisture. Her eyes widened in fright, hastily using her astral force to shield herself with an emerald-colored ward. Only after doing this did she halt the dissipation of moisture, feeling relieved in her heart.
She couldn’t help but be afraid of this unknown environment. Looking at the distance, she saw numerous mountains that were independent and very distant from each other. As for the rest? It was just a flat surface of grey dirt for as far as the eye could see.
She stepped forward, feeling the dirt as the first layer and solid ground beneath. Curious, she used her shielded hands to shift away the dirt and reveal a grey and dry ground that seemed to be corroded by endless age yet frighteningly hard. This confused her. After knocking lightly on it, pushing her fingers into it, her eyes revealed dense shock.
"This ground is harder than the Myriad Monarch Main Planet’s..." In the starfield, there were various levels of durability and hardness, with continental flat earths being quite fragile. They were so fragile that Third Stage Astral Core Realm experts can shatter them, even the weakest of these experts could.
But the Myriad Monarch Main Planet’s surface was extremely durable, even Third Stage Astral Core Realm experts would find it difficult to crush a hill. But this ground’s particular hardness was far, far greater. She didn’t even think Grand Imperial Sages, well the former Grand Imperial Sages, could cause anything more than a small crater with their full strength.
This sent her into shock as she turned to her crater, realizing she had penetrated the earth. Uncertainty emerged in her eyes, but she realized that she must’ve been protected by another energy that brought her here, likely causing the crater.
"How much strength is required to do that indirectly?" She wondered, considering whatever brought her here was some formation regulated by itself and not experts.
Rumble! Rumble!
Shaking soon resounded beneath her feet as her head snapped to the distance, her eyes squinted at the cloud of dust in the distance. It was getting bigger and bigger.
"...!" She, without hesitation, started to run!
-----
"Ah!" Lian Yu’s familiar voice yelped in shock as she smashed into the world. Similar to Qing Qiumu, she escaped from her crater with uncertainty written across her face. Inspecting her surroundings, she was accompanied by a grassy environment with powerful winds blowing her hair and into her eyes.
She forcefully squinted as she tried to fly. Unlike Qing Qiumu, she wasn’t a Sky Ruler so had to use her astral force to stimulate and manipulate her innate wind energies to soar. But after two feet off the ground, she met an abrupt current of wind that sent her flying for several hundred meters, smashing into the grassy ground and scraping her arm in the process.
With a cry of pain, she felt her arm fracture into two pieces. She held it as she used her Echo Healing Arts, a practiced and swift action that betrayed her experience with suffering injuries. She stayed on the ground for a while, trying to acclimate.
Unfortunately, all she saw for as far as the eyes could see was a grassy plain. She looked at the verdant blades of grass and realized they flashed with traces of silver, causing her to inspect them closely. She tried to touch a blade of grass.
Pussh!
The edge of the blade of grass sliced into her finger, and a sudden burst of air within the wound caused her to profusely bleed out in a spurting squirt. She was startled, her eyes revealing abject horror as she hurriedly healed herself. It took her a full minute to stop the bleeding, her face paler than ash.
Unable to fly and unwilling to touch the grass, she stood in her location, unsure of what to do. After a while, she couldn’t help but mutter out: "Long Chen...where are you?"
-----
An ordinary looking girl was walking in an environment of falling snow. The white world was extremely beautiful, extremely cold. The falling snowflakes were clearly enlarged, one could see the various patterns at their giant form being nearly a thousand times larger. These snowflakes would touch the snow before dissolving into smaller snowflakes, more normal and transformed the ground into snow.
The girl was treading the snowy environment while using an black-colored umbrella to guard against the giant snowflakes, whose edges were like sharp blades as they stabbed into her umbrella and were deflected. The grating sounds of metal on metal kept sounding, and the black-colored umbrella had silver scratch marks on its surface.
The girl continued to walk, her feet covered in verdant green boots that pushed away the snow while keeping her afloat, not causing her to sink into the icy depths that reached an unknown distance.
"Grandfather was right, the Heavenly Seer truly can see into the future. If it wasn’t for that, I might’ve already perished without these preparations." As she marveled at the amazingness of the world, feeling as if her horizons had been broadened, she felt a surge of happiness within her heart.
If this was true, then it’s likely the rest was also true! Her steps seemed to grow lighter and faster as she trekked in this unknown environment, clearly traveling in one direction with absolute certainty.
If Wei Wuyin heard her voice, he would immediately recognize her as Qingye Ying, the Princess of Everlore!
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After being transported away from the tunnel, Wei Wuyin was temporarily blinded by a surge of light that even his Celestial Eyes couldn’t see through. It took several minutes of bright blindness before he felt something solid beneath his feet.
The blinding light soon vanished, revealing the world before him, and causing him to frown. As if wanting to confirm his theory, he lifted his head to observe the sky.
"Hexagonal-patterned sky..." Looking directly behind him, his eyes constricted somewhat as he felt a surge of disbelief and confusion. A thick silver pillar that seemed to pierce into the sky, touching the hexagonal patterns that littered the view above.
This sky with multiple hexagons that connected and formed itself was extremely familiar to Wei Wuyin, especially this thick silver pillar that seemed to transcend the sky into the world beyond.
With a sweeping gaze, he had found it. With a silent inhale, he exclaimed: "The Myriad Dao War Palace!"