Chapter 80: Star Chasing Journey (1)
Before dawn, seven figures already stood at the East Gate of Qinghe Airship Station.
Liu Sheng and Wen Weilan were naturally among them.
A slightly flustered young man hurried over, wiping the sweat from his forehead: “Excuse me, is this the Hunter of the Strange team going to the Changxing Mountains?”
One of the tall, middle-aged men spoke: “That’s right, we were just waiting for you.”
“I’m really sorry, I rushed here overnight from outside the city,” the young man said apologetically.
“No matter, you’re on time,” the middle-aged man was clearly the recruiter for this trip, assuming the role of captain, “Alright, let’s set off first, we can talk about the rest on the airship.”
Everyone naturally had no objections and followed him to the ticket booth by the door.
“Eight tickets to Stone Ox Town.”
“We’ll go to Stone Ox Town first, then walk into the mountains,” the middle-aged man explained as he handed out the newly purchased tickets.
Once on the airship, two people could sit on each side of a table. The eight people just filled two tables in the same row, separated by an aisle.
Liu Sheng naturally sat with Miss Wen.
Opposite them were the late young man and a charming woman.
At the table next to them were the captain and a very taciturn young man, as well as a pair of very affectionate young man and woman.
The captain spoke first: “Since we are going to explore the Weird Domain together, let’s introduce ourselves first. I am the initiator of this recruitment, Chen Shanyuan, Initial Realm Stage Nine.”
The young man’s eyes widened instantly: “Wow, your cultivation is so high!”
The others were also somewhat surprised, with varying expressions.
The young man next to him must have known him, so he didn’t react much, just saying blandly: “Kuang Bowen, Initial Realm Stage Eight.”
“You’re all big shots, allow this junior to worship you,” the young man was quite lively and spoke very enthusiastically.
Then he proactively said: “My name is Lu Junan, a Disciple of Donghua Academy, just reached Initial Realm Stage Three.”
Donghua Academy was in Donghua Town next to Qinghe, not a particularly famous academy.
However, this explained why he had rushed from outside.
The woman next to him smiled and said: “My name is Yu Jinling, Initial Realm Stage Five.”
Then the young man among the pair opposite the captain spoke: “My name is Luo Lu, Initial Realm Stage Six, and this is my Junior Sister Song Ru, Initial Realm Stage Five. We are both Disciples of Qinghe Academy.”
“Qinghe Academy! How impressive, that’s one of the top ten academies in Tang Country,” Lu Junan was envious again.
The two from Qinghe Academy couldn’t help but show proud expressions upon hearing this.
Even Captain Chen Shanyuan praised them: “As expected of Disciples from a famous academy, their temperament is indeed extraordinary.”
Chen Shanyuan looked at their age and cultivation, estimating they would participate in this year’s imperial examination. It wouldn’t hurt to give them some Face; perhaps they would really pass the imperial examination and become officials in the future, with unlimited prospects.
Finally, it was Liu Sheng’s turn: “My name is She Chan, Initial Realm Stage Three.”
Her identity was sensitive, so it was better not to reveal it. Thus, she said the first name that came to mind.
Wen Weilan’s name was even more sensitive, and she had even disguised herself, fearing that people from Qinghe would recognize her, a former big star.
“Liu Weiwei, no cultivation.”
As soon as these words came out, the others became restless, exchanging glances.
Chen Shanyuan gritted his teeth: “You want to be a Yugui?”
Wen Weilan also knew that telling the truth would certainly invite cold stares, but there was no use in hiding in this situation, so she replied coldly: “Yes.”
“Alright, just don’t drag others down, don’t hold us back,” Chen Shanyuan cast a cold glance.
Wen Weilan remained expressionless: “I won’t.”
Liu Sheng lowered her hand and quietly squeezed Wen Weilan’s hand, comforting her.
Wen Weilan gently squeezed back.
The former Initial Realm Stage Eight Genius, now warned not to hold others back, still felt a bit uncomfortable in her heart.
Although Wen Weilan made this promise, the atmosphere instantly grew cold. After all, bringing along someone with no cultivation was much more troublesome.
Seeing this, Chen Shanyuan lightly coughed: “Everyone doesn’t need to worry. Overall, our cultivation should still be sufficient. Although this is an extremely dangerous mission, since the Weaving Institute isn’t in a hurry to act, it means the danger level isn’t very high.”
“But haven’t several teams gone missing in there?” Yu Jinling glanced at Wen Weilan and questioned.
Chen Shanyuan soothed: “But I’ve looked into the previous teams that went in. They didn’t have as many people as us, and their average cultivation wasn’t as high as ours. They were all Initial Realm Stage Two or Three trying to force their way through.”
“That’s why Bowen and I recruited everyone. Our combined cultivation is at least enough to handle general situations.”
Afterward, Chen Shanyuan began to explain the background of this Weird Domain to everyone.
It turned out that ten days ago, villagers reported seeing a glowing unidentified object fall from the sky in the Changxing Mountains, followed by an extremely strong light sweeping through the vicinity. This light was highly penetrating; it would pass through any crack or crevice, and everyone nearby was temporarily blinded.
After recovering from blindness, some people began to have ideas, thinking it might be some treasure from heaven, so they ran into the mountains to search for treasure.
As a result, they never returned.
There were also some villagers who entered the mountains and simply disappeared as they walked.
When such incidents became more frequent, they naturally caught the attention of the Hunter of the Strange, and then the first team entered.
Actually, Liu Sheng had already learned about these matters.
Since she signed up for this recruitment mission, Liu Sheng naturally used her connections to ask Fu Ze to check if there were any files related to this case.
It turned out that the Weaving Institute had indeed received a report.
However, after assessment, they felt that this Weird Domain was too large and in a remote, sparsely populated area. According to priority, it could only be dealt with later.
Fu Ze also said that indeed, weird objects incidents were becoming more frequent, and the Exploration Division was busy non-stop every day.
They could only assess the order of handling based on the harm the weird objects incidents posed to the common people.
“Of course, no one knows what’s inside a Weird Domain until they enter it. The Weird Domains of each weird objects vary greatly, and all sorts of strange rules can be encountered. In short, everyone must be highly vigilant,” Chen Shanyuan admonished.
“Also, is everyone’s equipment complete?”
Currently, Chen Shanyuan seemed to be a very diligent captain. Seeing that Lu Junan didn’t have a weird objects container, he even took one out and lent it to him.
There were still two hours of travel to their destination. Chen Shanyuan said nothing more, instead letting everyone rest.
After all, everyone had gotten up too early to travel and were truly quite sleepy, so they all leaned their heads and fell into a deep sleep.
Therefore, no one noticed that as they got closer and closer to the Changxing Mountains, the dim light of dawn gradually darkened again, the morning glow faded, leaving only endless blackness.
The outline of the god's face also gradually blurred, finally melting into the heavy night.
Then, Liu Sheng, in her sleep, heard a whistling sound approaching from a distance.
Before she was fully awake, her eyes were pierced by a blinding white light, a light that shot directly from the sky, intensely fierce.
Immediately following was absolute darkness.
Then, accompanied by a tremendous crash as the object from outside the sky rapidly fell to the ground, the entire airship shook violently from the impact.
Then, in this complete darkness, Liu Sheng realized her body was falling.
No, it was the airship that was falling!
Liu Sheng felt herself plummeting towards the ground with the airship, her heart pounding uncontrollably, foreboding the impending shattering of her body.