"Excellent." Priest Huangzhi was visibly delighted to see Li Ban, not showing a hint of the frustration he had felt the last time he missed the rift.
"Priest Ban, do you have enough High-Power Batteries and other energy sources? I can provide you with some to start."
"No need," Li Ban said. "I still have some."
If he accepted an energy handout before they even set off, wouldn't he be expected to yield any good things they found inside the rift?
"That's good." Huangzhi wasn't disappointed that his batteries were declined. He took out a Realm-Breaking Stone. "Let's go. This small rift is relatively stable, but it's still safer for us to make it a quick trip."
"Alright."
Li Ban followed Huangzhi out of the base, both of them bringing along a few escort guards.
Priest Zhong Ye was also pushed along by Luca.
His complexion was slightly better than before.
As for why he used it, based on Li Ban's understanding of Priest Zhong Ye, it was probably so he could properly guard the door for him today.
The small rift Priest Huangzhi had discovered was about a ten-minute walk from the Northern Base.
Everyone had excellent stamina, so they didn't bother with energy-consuming vehicles and simply ran there.
When they arrived at the rift zone, the guards Priest Huangzhi had sent ahead were already standing watch.
The rift was located ten meters up, suspended diagonally in the air.
The gap was three meters long, and even at its widest point, it was less than a meter across.
Overall, it formed a spindle shape with jagged edges.
Behind the rift was pitch black; it was completely impossible to see what lay on the other side.
However, in the few minutes it had taken the group to rush over, a few things had already fallen out of it.
"How is it?" Priest Huangzhi asked the advance team immediately upon arriving.
When speaking to his team and subordinates, Priest Huangzhi's tone always leaned toward the cold side.
Just like when Li Ban first met him, he maintained a lofty, superior posture.
"Lord Priest, the rift is still stable. It can hold for at least another two to three hours."
Priest Huangzhi nodded, his expression giving away nothing of whether he was satisfied or not.
He looked over at Li Ban. "Then we'll go in—for an hour?"
Priest Huangzhi was still acting with extreme caution.
"Alright." Li Ban nodded.
There was no need to aim for a long stay during his first time entering a rift, especially since he also held a Realm-Breaking Stone. If the partnership with Priest Huangzhi proved unpleasant, Li Ban could easily find a rift to explore on his own.
"Once I reach the Unreturning Place, I'll be able to enter the Shattered Realm too," Li Ban murmured, shaking his head with a smile as he pushed his previous thoughts aside.
The two gave their respective brief instructions, then stepped beneath the rift.
"Does Priest Ban know the Flight Technique?"
"I do not."
"Then I will take you in."
A layer of clouds materialized beneath Priest Huangzhi's feet, lifting him up. He floated to Li Ban's side, and once Li Ban hopped onto the clouds, they slowly ascended. Approaching the rift, they didn't rush in recklessly, but spent five minutes observing from the opening.
Up close, the rift was finally no longer pitch black, but the images inside twisted constantly, refusing to take on a coherent shape.
"Could the world on the other side already be destroyed?" Li Ban frowned as he watched the images inside the rift.
"Probably not. I've observed many rifts, and they are all distorted inside. It should just be light bending due to unstable spatial gravity."
"Then let's head in."
Staring at the entrance had yielded nothing anyway; they would only find out by going inside.
Priest Huangzhi took a soft breath. "Alright."
Neither of them looked back as they stood one after the other on Priest Huangzhi's clouds and entered the rift.
Publicly, Li Ban did not possess a Realm-Breaking Stone, so he had to stick close to Huangzhi.
Upon entering the gap, gravity vanished. The clouds relied on their entry inertia to carry them forward in a set direction.
Though there was no air here, they still met with other forms of resistance.
After flying for a while, the clouds' speed gradually slowed down.
Priest Huangzhi had to use his spiritual rhinoceros to generate propulsion before the clouds could arduously push forward.
Li Ban silently felt out his surroundings. It took them about five minutes to finally pass through this zero-gravity rift space.
The exit was an even larger rift.
After passing through, Li Ban hopped down from the clouds.
He landed in absolute silence.
Li Ban tested the gravity of this world, feeling a bit surprised.
The gravity here seemed slightly heavier than in the Wizard World.
It wasn't much heavier, though; given Li Ban's physical fortitude, it wouldn't affect him much.
Priest Huangzhi touched down soon after.
"We'll move together this first time. Once we're more experienced, we can split up to search."
Traversing a small rift for the first time, Priest Huangzhi still preferred to play it safe.
Once they knew what they were doing, they could explore separately. That way they could harvest more, and it would reduce the chance of disputes over dividing supplies.
Li Ban nodded. "I'll take a look at our surroundings first."
According to the experience of Priest Zhong Ye and the others, small worlds capable of linking to the Trash Realm were all of ordinary power levels.
Small worlds that were too powerful simply wouldn't slip through the cracks to reach them.
The area they had arrived in was exceptionally dark. Li Ban currently lacked his right eye element, so he had to rely on his spiritual rhinoceros-enhanced physique just to make out fragments of the area.
They seemed to be standing in an open field. Starlight dotted the sky overhead, but there was no moon.
The starlight was incredibly dim. An ordinary person wouldn't be able to see a thing in this environment.
There were several blocky buildings of varying heights nearby, none of which leaked any light.
They were pitch black, like monsters lurking in the dark.
Whoosh—
Light suddenly flared to life beside Priest Huangzhi.
Li Ban glanced back and saw the priest taking out a lamp.
"There's no spiritual rhinoceros here, either." Priest Huangzhi's voice held a note of regret.
A world without spiritual rhinoceros meant it was highly likely they wouldn't find any direct energy suitable for priests.
Then again, most of the small worlds that fell into the Trash Realm lacked spiritual rhinoceros anyway.
"We don't have much time. Let's focus on finding things the team can use."
Li Ban didn't lack spiritual rhinoceros, so he naturally didn't share the sentiment.
He also retrieved a small lamp from his inner world.
When they first arrived, he had held off on lighting a source, worried that a sudden flash of light in such a dark world might attract enemies.
But Priest Huangzhi was clearly more confident, dismissing the idea that there was any high-tier combat power here capable of threatening them.
The lamp illuminated the path beneath their feet. It was a stretch of cracked concrete, with black grass sprouting from the fissures in the stone.
The two didn't linger, rushing instead toward the nearby buildings.
Upon drawing closer, Li Ban realized the architecture resembled the tube-shaped apartment buildings from his past life. The stairwells and corridors were all situated on the exterior of the structure.
As they approached, however, Li Ban noticed that most of the doors and windows here were tightly boarded up and sealed shut.
It was impossible to tell if anyone was inside.
Even if someone had a light on in one of the rooms, they likely wouldn't be able to see it from the outside.
"Priest Huangzhi," Li Ban immediately warned. "Things in the dark might be drawn to the light."
The words had barely left his mouth when Li Ban heard a rushing whistle right by his ear.
Unsure of the attacker's identity or abilities, Li Ban immediately used Shrinking Ground to an Inch to teleport directly to the corridor of the opposite building.
Priest Huangzhi, unlike him, chose to counterattack.
Pressing one hand against his lamp, he whipped it violently toward the source of the noise.
The light, which had been scattering normally in all directions, suddenly condensed into a single beam.
In the darkness, the black shadow lunging at Priest Huangzhi was pierced straight through by the light, collapsing heavily to the ground.
Under the glow of the light, Li Ban finally got a clear look at their attackers: several dusty gray monsters, roughly the size of humans.
Their heads were tiny, as if the space meant to house a brain was caved in.
Their facial features were squashed onto the lower halves of their faces—wrinkled, horrifying, and hideous.
None of the monsters wore clothes, but there were carapace-like structures forming around their necks and chests. A lizard-like tail sprouted from behind their rears.
The tips of these tails bore three or four bone spikes, smeared with dark red blood.
Watching Priest Huangzhi effortlessly slay a monster, Li Ban knew exactly why the man had dared to turn on a light so casually in this darkness: he was certain this world's power ceiling was low.
Deciding there was no need to keep dodging, he drew his Iron-Eating Sword, fending off the gray-skinned monsters lunging at him while actively studying their anatomy and vital points.
A total of five monsters had lunged from the dark. Priest Huangzhi moved fast; after killing two with his condensed light, he finished off his final target with a gun.
However, firearms proved somewhat ineffective against the monsters' carapaces. Priest Huangzhi had to fire seven or eight consecutive shots before finally piercing through.
Li Ban only killed two of the gray-skinned monsters.
Even so, he managed to figure out that their vitals were primarily located in the neck and chest.
If you struck anywhere else, you just had to wait for them to bleed out.
"This looks like a residential area; there's probably nothing useful here. Let's go look for the industrial district."
The two of them had been fairly cautious upon arrival, but now that they had dealt with five ambushing monsters and gauged the enemy's strength, they could begin a rapid sweep.
Just as they were preparing to take to the air, a window suddenly opened in the very building Li Ban had retreated to moments earlier.
"Lahu lai—Uru—"
Behind the window stood a gaunt, scruffy man. He shouted in a hushed voice at the pair, and when they didn't react, he waved frantically, trying to beckon them over.
But Li Ban only cast a passing glance at the man before leaving alongside Priest Huangzhi.
Priest Huangzhi hadn't even looked in the man's direction the entire time.
Any small world that spawned rifts connected to the Trash Realm was a doomed, apocalyptic world living on borrowed time. They had absolutely no reason to mingle with the locals.
At this moment, Li Ban finally understood why the priests of the Wizard World never once considered improving the living conditions for those in the Shattered Realm.
To a priest with a sprawling lifespan, every tiny world in the Shattered Realm was marching inexorably toward extinction. Trying to change the fate of a few people or things inside them was utterly meaningless.
They quickly departed the area on Priest Huangzhi's clouds, scanning the landscape from high in the sky.
"That should be the industrial district over there." Li Ban spotted massive bearings, smokestacks, and blocky buildings that clearly didn't look like residential apartments.
Priest Huangzhi was just about to steer toward it when he abruptly flickered, jerking violently a few meters to the right.
Though the dodge was incredibly sudden, Li Ban had kept his guard up the entire time and avoided being thrown off.
It turned out a spatial rift had abruptly materialized in midair. Priest Huangzhi had been rushing and flying too quickly, nearly plunging right into it.
No sooner had they evaded that one than two more appeared right in front of them.
"There are too many rifts up high. This world probably won't even last a few more years. We had better travel on the ground."