Chapter 362

Chapter 363: Mapping

At the end of the mine ramp, the dim “boundary” seemed alive, swelling and crawling in slow pulses.

Immortal Qian Ji rapped a knuckle on the wall, then flicked a thin needle from his fingertip and stuck it into stone within the boundary’s corroded reach, as if sampling and analyzing something. He spoke over his shoulder, saying: “Loose and brittle, mineral salts seeping out, earth veins cut off. Did this Otherworld really appear only recently?”

Xuan Che stepped forward and cupped his hands, answering, saying: “It was indeed found only recently. Half a month ago everything here was normal.”

Immortal Qian Ji muttered as he looked into the dim, saying: “These signs of corrosion don’t look recent. I fear the environment down here began changing years ago.” With a soft click, twin beams shot from his eye sockets into the dark.

But the beams hit an invisible filter, lighting only a few steps ahead before fading away.

He murmured, saying: “Interesting,” and walked forward.

Yu Sheng led the others close behind.

Darkness closed around them. The long ramp felt endless, like a road to the planet’s core. They stepped into the dark and walked on and on. Yu Sheng felt the surroundings slowly change.

He focused and remembered the moment of daze when he last entered this Otherworld, and the grand phantom sound of an “activation array” in that daze, so he moved with extra care. This time, he heard nothing.

A damp airflow blew from ahead. The gathered darkness faded like mist in the wind. Yu Sheng blinked and found they had walked out of the “endless” ramp into a wide underground space.

It was a vast cavern. Its full size was unknown. The boundaries vanished into darkness far away. He could see only the nearby raw rock walls climbing up and disappearing in the dark above. Faintly glowing vines and strange luminous fungi spread along the rocks, ground, and stone pillars, lighting the area.

Yu Sheng stared in awe, then noticed ripples further out on the “ground.” He looked close and saw it was water.

It was a huge underground lake. Odd plants floated on its surface, giving off a soft glow. The gentle light lit the water and mingled with the moss and vines on shore. The view had a dreamlike beauty with a faint, eerie mood.

The sight made Yu Sheng’s breath catch for a moment. At almost the same time, he heard Irene on his shoulder gasp, saying: “Wow.”

Foxy muttered, saying: “At least there’s no sand this time,” and her big tail “bloomed.” Countless ghostly fox fire wisps drifted like fireflies from between her tails, rising and spreading to light the space even more.

Her fox fire spread hundreds of meters yet still failed to reach the cavern’s edges.

Even so, the space around them grew much brighter.

Yu Sheng said casually, saying: “It really is different every time we enter,” then he lifted one shoulder and asked, saying: “Irene, do you sense killing intent this time?”

Irene felt it out and answered, saying: “Not for now, but I think you’ll bleed again.”

Yu Sheng laughed, saying: “As if there’s any day I don’t get bloodied. How much do I lose this time? Where’s the wound?”

Irene widened her eyes and said: “How should I know? Do you think I’m a Prophet?”

Yu Sheng curled his lip and said: “Your fortune telling is almost Prophet level lately,” then turned to Luna and held out his hand, saying: “Give me a poke.”

The words had barely left him when Luna’s blade flashed. As an Artificial Saintess born to cut, she was slow at most things, but not at this.

Yu Sheng began to spill his blood on the ground, then on the lake.

Irene stared and asked, saying: “What are you doing?”

Yu Sheng answered with confidence, saying: “Whether it works or not, a little blood can collect clues or at least leave a mark. Maybe it hits some key thing and drags intel out. And since you said I’ll bleed anyway, I’ll pay the price early to boost the drop rate.”

The little Doll was stunned, then frowned at his motion and said: “You’re laying down a fungus mat, not boosting a drop.”

Yu Sheng paused and thought, [thank goodness she didn’t say an even nastier metaphor].

Immortal Qian Ji watched, puzzled. He had met a few experts from the Borderland who handled Otherworld cases before, like a Spirit Realm Detective or an Investigator, but he had never seen a workflow like this. He held it in as long as he could, then looked to Xuan Che and asked, saying: “What is Fellow Daoist Yu Sheng doing?”

Xuan Che was also lost, since he only half understood what the Hotel group actually was. Yet he could not ignore a senior’s question. After a few seconds of thought, he cupped his hands and bluffed, saying: “Mr. Yu has his own investigation method. He knows many blood refining arts.”

Something clicked inside Immortal Qian Ji’s head as he repeated, saying: “Blood refining?”

Xuan Che added quickly, saying: “Only refining his own.”

Immortal Qian Ji nodded and said: “Oh, then it is fine.”

At the same time, Yu Sheng focused on the blood he shed.

The feeling of “nothingness” appeared again.

He could clearly sense his blood hitting the cavern soil and the lake water, but in a flash it passed through ground and water and fell into a void, connecting to nothing.

This time, maybe thanks to experience, he sensed a bit more.

At the far end of that absolute void, there seemed to be something huge, so huge that even his senses could not notice its “presence.”

It was like standing at the base of a pitch black wall that stretched without end. No matter which way you looked, you saw only darkness and could not catch the wall itself.

Yet Yu Sheng felt no pressure or malice from that massive thing.

It seemed like a dead object, or an empty shell.

He frowned and tried to read some data from that fuzzy feeling, but got nothing. After only a dozen seconds, even the faint sense of it faded.

He thought a moment and decided to raise the dose.

He turned to Luna and said: “One more cut.”

The wound from before had already closed.

Luna nodded, but before she moved, Foxy could not help herself and chirped, saying: “Benefactor, I can help too. I brushed my teeth today.”

Yu Sheng refused sternly, saying: “No. You always sneak a drink. Every time you slurp half of it down.”

Foxy’s ears drooped at once as she grumbled.

Luna said nothing and struck again, neat as a fishmonger with ten years on the job.

Yu Sheng went on laying his “fungus mat” by the lake.

But this time, he sensed nothing more, not even the huge presence at the far end of the void.

He muttered with thought, saying: “It only works once inside the same Otherworld scene?”

…

On a mountain path in Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, a black haired girl in a blue dress looked around with curious wide eyes while whispering to the girl beside her, saying: “Rapunzel, will Sister Red Hood scold us for sneaking out to play? She told us not to wander.”

Rapunzel lifted her chin and answered boldly, saying: “What do you mean sneaking out to play? We walked out openly. Brother said we could move around freely. We even registered yesterday. Salted Fish, you’re too timid.”

Salted Fish still fretted and said: “But Brother also said we need a guide to move freely. I have a stream to host tonight. If Sister Red Hood catches us, she will scold me all night.”

Rapunzel waved it off and said: “It’ll be fine. And who said we don’t have a guide? Our guide is right here. Right, Zheng Zhi?”

She looked up at Zheng Zhi walking ahead. He sighed and said: “I only arrived one day earlier than you. I really don’t know the area. Turn left up ahead. The Spirit Herb Garden on the right is off limits.”

Rapunzel stared and said: “You call that not knowing? I heard you made sworn brothers with a bunch of people in half a day. You even have a best friend on Beast Taming Peak.”

Zheng Zhi was stunned and asked, saying: “Where did you hear that? How can rumors be that wild?”

Rapunzel answered, saying: “Irene told me. She also said you fell off a cliff behind the mountain and crushed a reclusive expert who was fishing, then looted more than seventy cultivation manuals off him. Of course, I know she was exaggerating. Who would carry over seventy manuals while fishing?”

Zheng Zhi’s face twitched. He felt staying at Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain had been a mistake, but it was too late to say he wanted to go home. He sighed and kept walking as he explained, saying: “You can’t believe Irene. I only met an Eldest Master watching the dorms at the foot of the mountain. He even blamed me for scaring off his fish. Turn right ahead, there’s a pavilion. It was donated seventy years ago by Spirit Infusion Peak’s Su Yun’s cousin’s husband’s next-door neighbor. The view is good. You can see Spirit Peak City’s Spirit-Gathering Grand Array down below.”

Rapunzel nudged Mermaid proudly and whispered, saying: “I told you letting Zheng Zhi guide us works. People close to Brother are never simple.”

Mermaid watched Zheng Zhi move with the ease of someone at home along the mountain road, then blinked and said with feeling: “That’s impressive.”