362 Heaven’s Favorite Tomb!
The landscape surrounding Qin Huai was populated with towering trees, reaching hundreds of meters high. Even the weeds were as tall as he was, and pebbles were person-high, further emphasized by a hill-like round rock over ten meters tall in the distance. It was as though he had stepped into a magnified world, a dwarf among giants.
“Is this another world?” Qin Huai pondered, questioning the strange reality before him.
Suddenly, he realized something. After killing the vicious bird, no experience orbs had dropped. “Could this world block my cheat?” he questioned, feeling his anxiety rise.
Yet, upon checking his personal interface, all his data appeared to be in order. His cheat should still be functional. He puzzled over the scenario, scrutinizing the bird’s corpse on the ground, sniffing its blood, and closely examining its green feathers. However, no matter how long he circled the carcass, he found nothing unusual.
“This place… It’s far too strange,” Qin Huai murmured, staring at the ground he stood on. The bronze earth had vanished, replaced by mundane yellow soil, as if dust had covered it.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Taking a deep breath, Qin Huai punched the ground, each blow forming deep pits, but the bronze earth was nowhere to be seen. Confused and intrigued, he decided to gain a higher vantage point, hoping to survey this enigmatic place in its entirety.
Scaling a slightly elevated slope, he began to climb one of the colossal trees. With agility resembling a tiger or leopard, he ascended the towering tree, standing at the summit to observe the world below.
His gaze met an expanse of lush greenery, with only massive birds soaring through the sky, some of them heading directly toward him. Retracting back into the foliage, he discreetly watched the approaching creatures.
“The strength and blood essence of these birds… They seem to be at the fifth-level bone pattern realm,” Qin Huai observed. The thought of all the creatures in this ‘world’ possessing such strength was chilling.
Imagining these formidable beings in Qingzhou sent shivers down his spine. They could potentially wreak havoc in the city.
As a flock of giant birds flew over him, Qin Huai sighed in relief. They were heading toward the slain bird, likely attracted by the smell of blood.
Sitting cross-legged on a tree branch, Qin Huai started to engage the blood heart technique again to replenish his energy.
As the sun set and the moon rose, a full day passed in what felt like a blink of an eye. His wounds had healed over with new flesh, and he appeared healthy again.
However, with several broken bones and internal injuries, he still needed a few more days to fully recover. The terrifying power of a great cultivator at the visceral prefecture realm left a lingering fear in Qin Huai.
“Let’s head to the edge of the world.” Qin Huai recalled the old man’s words.
The ‘world’ he found himself in seemed like an island, finite and bounded. With this thought, he retraced his steps, aiming to reach the world’s end. He committed the path to memory, proceeding with careful determination.
However, Qin Huai soon came to a halt, surveying the tranquil landscape. The remnants of the giant bird and the pits he had dug had vanished, leaving the terrain unblemished. The world around him was eerily clean, as if meticulously maintained. The strangeness of this ‘world’ was becoming more profound, leaving him increasingly unnerved.
Resolving not to linger, Qin Huai journeyed cautiously toward the edge of the world. This place was rife with uncertainties as every second here added to the variables of his situation. Here, he would not be surprised by any sudden anomaly, yet the unpredictability was unnerving.
After covering roughly ten miles, Qin Huai paused again. Perched atop a treetop tens of meters high, he examined the skeleton before him.
The flesh and clothing had long decomposed, leaving only a cross-legged skeleton. The bones, etched with intricate patterns of a cultivation technique, told a story of a martial artist skilled in three full patterns. From the skeletal remains, he seemed to be no older than thirty.
“Did an expert with three full patterns die of old age in this ‘world’?” Qin Huai speculated, his expression hardening. He observed the absence of the king’s force, making his earlier predictions appear inaccurate.
As he ventured deeper into the forest, he spotted a large tiger leopard sprinting and apes swinging from tree to tree, all of them at the fifth-level bone pattern realm.
“The creatures here seem to be at the fifth-level bone pattern realm or above,” he noted, becoming more cautious. With numerous uncertainties and potential dangers in this world, even a single misstep could prove deadly.
Along the way, Qin Huai discovered the corpses of martial artists, two of which were gruesomely fragmented, with dismembered limbs strewn across the ground. Upon closer inspection, he noticed the complex bone patterns.
“Four full patterns. Three full patterns…” Qin Huai muttered, piecing the bodies together. His findings confirmed that the two had been above three full patterns while alive and had not exceeded thirty years of age.
The king’s force wasn’t present in these individuals either, suggesting that it wasn’t a requisite for being whisked away to this world. However, strength undoubtedly played a part, and possibly age too. These individuals had been rare talents in Qingzhou, yet here they met their untimely ends.
With this chilling thought, Qin Huai pressed on, only halting after seven grueling days.