Alex was a little shocked. He had not heard about this danger from his master or anyone before.
"But I thought that the Forbidden fields were a bunch of grasslands with nothing in it. Was that false?" he asked.
"Oh no, it is what you have heard for the most part. The part we call Forbidden Fields is actually just a small part of the otherwise huge land where one's cultivation is stifled. Forbidden Fields just last until the river, after that is the desert where the monsters live," Lang Shun said.
'Desert?' he was shocked. 'A land of sand, like the southern continent? Aren't I in the western continent according to sister?' he thought.
"Are these monsters in the desert of high cultivation?" he asked.
"Cultivation? No. As I said, the forbidden fields and beyond don't have Qi. These monsters just grew up with a strong body after adapting to that environment," Lang Shun said.
"So, do we know how strong they are?" Alex asked.
"Not really. From the speed and strength they show, it is assumed that they are around the Muscle tempering realm in terms of strength, but who knows. There could be stronger ones inside the desert. No one who has ever entered the desert has ever come back to give us information."
"So, just try to stay away from the desert. Be careful when you drink the river water too. Although the monsters stay on the other side of the river, they might come to this side if they see you. There has been only a few cases so far, but it's okay to be careful."
Alex fell into contemplation. Assuming the lack of Qi did not stop his body from being as strong as it is, he should have no problem in the forbidden fields. However…
'What will I do if I have to leave the grassland and enter this desert,' he thought.
Soon, Lang Shun and he came across light at the end of the tunnel. After coming out of the tunnel, he finally saw it.
A vast land of green grass far away into the distance. Beyond that was a slight color of reddish-yellow. Alex looked directly in front of him and saw the steep slope all the way down to the grassland.
There were two elders standing guard on either side of the openings of the cave he had just exited, probably looking after the 'prisoners' in this open prison.
"Another disciple, Eighteenth Elder? We weren't notified about this," the elder on the left asked.
The elder on the right just looked at him and asked, "Isn't he the sect leader's disciple? It can't be that he did something worthy of this punishment, right Eighteenth Elder?"
"Don't mind me and my martial nephew elders. He requested to enter the forbidden field himself," Lang Shun said.
"Requested himself? Does he not know how troublesome the forbidden field is?" the elder on the left asked.
"It's alright, Elders. I requested this despite knowing the problems," Alex said.
"Alright then. Since you are going in on your and are not being punished, you can come back here whenever you want," the elder said.
"Thank you, Elders," he then turned to Lang Shun and said, "Alright, Martial Uncle, I will leave now."
Alex thanked Lang Shun and left the cliff. The road downhill was steeper than he realized. Thankfully the rough terrain had plenty for his sole to grip. Now that he was coming down, he looked at the side of the cliffs.
Numerous trees were growing on it horizontally. 'Is that where the fruit grows?' he wondered. Below the cliffs were tiny, nearly dust-sized specs of something moving. 'Are those the disciples being punished?' he thought.
Judging by the number, there were a lot. 'I wonder what they did to deserve their punishment and how long they've been here. From the Elder's explanation, any time over a week would be a torture,' he thought.
Finally, after a few minutes, he reached the bottom of the path and was in the grassland.
Suddenly, a force surrounded his body, forcing his Qi to stop showing out. He tried to fight it back, but the force was too strong. Slowly, all of his Qi was pushed to inside his meridians and his body was now a mortal.
At least, it was mortal from the perspective of Qi cultivation. 'Is my body cultivation fine?' he wondered. He tried jumping high and was happy to find that his body wasn't changed at all.
However, he realized that his Spiritual sense was suppressed as well.
'Welp, at least that is there. Still, this force… feels so familiar, and yet so distant. What is this?' he wondered. Either way, he needed to look for Yang jades now, so he moved along.
The grassland was truly vast. It was only from the top of the cliff that it looked like he could see it all. From the bottom, it looked like it was endless. He didn't know where he should start looking for the jades, so he starts with wherever was closest and moved out.
The problem he had now was that he would soon have to log out to go to his classes and due to the lack of Qi, he couldn't hide his body. 'That is going to be a problem,' he thought.
Still, there were around 2 hours before he had to leave, so he was fine for now. Searching for the Yang jade should have been easy for him. All he had to do was be in the vicinity and his body would locate the yang jade itself.
And yet, no matter where he went, he couldn't find a single one. 'Damn, can I even roam it all in 3 days?' he started to worry. The flat plain was so vast that Alex couldn't even see a single disciple.
After 2 hours, he got unnaturally hungry. 'Is this because I haven't eaten in ages?' he thought as he brought out the food his martial uncle had given him and ate some of it.
Finally, once his stomach was full, he found a batch of tall grass and laid down on it. He didn't know if this was the correct thing to do or not, but given that both his master and martial uncle said there was no danger in the grassland itself, he logged out.