Roadmap to the Boundless Sky

Book 4, Chapter 111: Bizarre Land

The dragon-nose horse galloped along the river, causing dirt to fly everywhere whenever its hooves struck. The two packhorses weren’t that much slower and followed closely behind.

Chen Chuan had never taken horse-riding classes, but with his control over his body and coordination, once he got on the horse’s back, he just needed to adjust himself a little, and he soon got used to it. If anyone looked at him, they would think that he was an experienced equestrian.

While there were a lot of trees in the undeveloped area, the riverbanks were flat land. Based on Chen Bitong’s map, the river led straight to Chen Chuan’s destination, so all he needed to do was follow it.

However, the merged space changed constantly, and standard logic could not be applied to it, so Chen Chuan was going to make adjustments according to the situation.

Aside from that, the area also didn’t seem to be as peaceful as it appeared to be on the surface.

Occasionally, strange and bizarre creatures appeared near the river. In order to save time, Chen Chuan usually didn’t fight them. He avoided them if he could. If he couldn’t, he chased them away with his mental energy.

After a few hours of traveling, the river suddenly turned narrower, and he started seeing a lot of pebbles at the riverbanks. They were all of similar size, as if they had been polished.

Chen Chuan rode over them. The moment the hooves struck the pebbles, they stood up and scrambled into the river.

The “pebbles” were actually insects with shells that resembled river stones. When the horses galloped past them, they started squirming. Since they stretched for several kilometers, it looked like a huge wave had risen up.

Chen Chuan ignored them and just urged his horse forward. He didn’t push it to its full speed yet, so his packhorses could keep up for the time being.

After passing through this stretch of the river, Chen Chuan turned back, but saw no pebbles. The narrow river ahead was blocked, and the water spilled out.

Since the two packhorses had been galloping, they were panting hard, so Chen Chuan stopped and checked his vitalization rate.

Even without using his second self, his vitalization rate was still at zero.

After his mind grew stronger, he could sense the corruption clearly and easily block it.

If his mind grew even stronger, he would have an easier time acclimatizing to this place.

Chen Chuan looked up and found Dawncall patrolling the surroundings for him, but it never went too far away, because the environment and creatures here were far too dangerous. As long as it stayed close, Chen Chuan would be able to protect it.

He rested for a while and fed his horses some water and nutritional paste before continuing his journey.

His trip went smoothly over the next few hours. When noon arrived, the river suddenly bent, while surrounded by black humus that seemed to go on forever. In some areas, he could even see fat crimson worms squirming underneath.

As Chen Chuan observed them, he quickly recalled that they were the Crimson-Headed Worm.

Their name had left a deep impression on him, because in Chen Bitong’s memories, these worms tasted great if roasted without any seasoning. However, if roasted together with maple leaves, they would have a certain kick.

Chen Bitong’s team didn’t figure this out because they were gluttons, but because part of the development squad’s job was to test which merged space creatures could be eaten.

After all, plenty of things in the merged space were nutritious and full of calories. Some could be used as medicine, while others could be used as valuable biomaterials. Otherwise, the companies wouldn’t have set up branches here.

While the undeveloped area was crawling with danger, if they could explore it, understand it, and make use of it, it would be a treasure trove.

Third Limit martial artists could identify the general type of any creature through their biofields, which let them know which creatures could be eaten, and which could not. With their great vitality, they could also recover even if they accidentally ate something bad. It was all good as long as it didn’t kill them.

Of course, they only ate unknown things with a teammate around to take care of them if something bad happened. If they were alone, they wouldn’t dare to do that.

Chen Chuan wasn’t scared of it, though. With his second self, he didn’t have to be afraid. He just didn’t have the time to roast the worms. Besides, even if he had any spare time, he would rather train a bit more.

The black humus looked harmless, but if he stepped on it, he would sink in while having no solid platform to push himself back out. Even Chen Chuan had to be careful of it, so the best choice, in his opinion, was to stay away from it like it was the plague.

After resting for a while, he went around the area. It took several hours to bypass it.

He had left the river to do it, and it wasn’t easy to tell direction in the merged space. While there was daylight and nighttime, there were no stars, moon, or sun. All Chen Chuan could do was figure out his general direction through his surroundings.

He compared the place to the map saved in his Realm Pass. If he hadn’t deviated too much from his route, there should be a friendly local hub nearby.

Chen Bitong had stayed there for a few days. If Chen Chuan could find the place, he would know where he was. If he were lucky, he might even be able to get information about the Union and Linacrox Union’s camp.

But he had wasted a lot of time going around the black humus, so he had a feeling that he wouldn’t be able to reach the local hub before the sky turned dark.

Nightfall in the merged space was incredibly dangerous and bizarre, which made it unsuitable for travel. Hence, his first order of business was to find a place to set up camp.

Chen Chuan had already learned that he was not to trust anything in the merged space’s wilderness, including the plants. A water source was also a huge danger flag. In the end, he settled on a spacious area in front of a mountain slope.

Once he decided that he was going to set up camp there, he punched the ground a few times. A few bangs rose, and soon, a deep pit was formed. The stones, insects, and weeds several meters underneath were all crushed by his refined force.

Then, Chen Chuan unfolded a shovel and easily dug a hole that could fit two people. He could even turn in there.

Once he came out, he grabbed some insect-repellant powder and spilled it in the hole before grabbing a special tarp from one of the bags on the packhorses. After spreading it in the hole, he grabbed a spray bottle and sprayed some chemicals on it. The tarp swiftly hardened and stabilized the hole.

With this done, Chen Chuan brought out a tent covered in a special material. He placed the base on top of the hardened tarp before setting up the roof. The moment he pinned it in place, he fastened the buckles at the edges to make sure the velcro was fixed firmly with not even a single slit around.

When he was done, he checked his camp. Once he was sure that nothing was wrong, he went outside and chopped some wood to form three bonfires around five meters away from the tent. They formed the shape of a triangle, and he stuck the special tinder necessary for nights out in the merged space at the center of the bonfires. Then, he guided the three horses near the tent before lighting the tinders on fire.

The blazing flame illuminated the entire campsite.

Chen Chuan checked his watch. It was almost 6 p.m., so he called Dawncall down and had it enter the tent before going inside himself. The moment he let the flaps down, the sky turned black, and the tent sank into darkness.

With a flick of his wrist and a click, a lantern lit up. Dawncall had already curled up into a ball in a corner.

After feeding Dawncall a few tubes of nutritional paste, Chen Chuan went into the hole he had dug under his tent.

He had no intention of wasting his time. He intended to keep opening gaps and training his mind.

The Fu-Mu Entity and its domain monitoring was no longer around, so no one could control him. However, the merged space was a little too close to the other world. Unforeseen circumstances could pop up at any moment.

Due to the dangers in the merged space, Chen Chuan wouldn’t have dared to do mental training if the Frost King Saber could only open gaps. Now, though, it could also repair them, so if things started going downhill, all he needed to do was close it on time.

Chen Chuan settled down and regulated his breathing. About ten minutes later, he felt something crawling onto his tent and trying to find a slit to get inside.

At the same time, he sensed his entire campsite moving, as if something was pushing it forward.

Chen Chuan remained calm and kept his composure. He ignored all these things and just focused on regulating his breathing. After a while, he got himself into his peak condition, grabbed the Frost King Saber, and removed the sheath.

He held the hilt for a moment before swinging it forward. A shining gap that was about the length of his arm opened up.

A gust of wind rushed out of the gap, and several shrill cries came from the tent itself, as if some creature was screeching into Chen Chuan’s ear.

He also saw multiple eyes clustered closely together behind the gap. They rolled about occasionally.

His second self started rapidly turning fainter.

Chen Chuan kept his eyes trained on the gap. When he opened gaps in Central City, he could only see shadows behind the gap. In the merged space, though, the things seemed to have gained physical form.

But he also noticed that after they appeared, the strange movements outside vanished without a trace. He could no longer sense them.

With a calm expression, Chen Chuan sat in front of the gap with the Frost King Saber placed across his knees. As he stared at the eyes, he used Awakening Clarity to absorb quintessence.

He didn’t care what was behind the gap. If it tried to come through, though, he would immediately cut it down. If he couldn’t stop it, he would shut the gap. After all, it was small, so he would be able to do it immediately.

After training for a while, Chen Chuan noticed that he could get much higher quality quintessence here compared to Central City. The difference was like night and day.

The gap also stayed for much longer. When he trained above the ocean, the gaps lasted for around four hours, but today, even after four hours, the gap showed no sign of closing.

But because of it, the eyes behind the gap grew restless and tried to spill over.