Chapter 659: The Void Realm

This guard originally weighed only a little over a hundred catties, but when He He Lingchuan caught him, he felt exceptionally heavy, as if he had caught a piece of scorched jade. Fushan Yue had told him long ago that ordinary humans could not stay in the Void Realm for long, otherwise, they would soon be in mortal danger; even cultivators would feel their bodies heavy upon first arrival. Now he felt it himself; the gravity was roughly more than three times that of the human world?

The guard stood straight: "Many thanks, Lord He."

Before entering the Eye of the Storm, everyone had already tucked a gargle-pearl against their cheeks, which was the only way to breathe and speak normally.

Otherwise, the air in the Void Realm was poisonous, and even cultivators would not last long.

He He Lingchuan looked around; as far as the eye could see, it was vast and empty, with only mountains, rocks, and sand. Every few dozen yards, a clump of low-lying plants would grow in a crack in the ground, looking more like fur than grass, but the tips of the grass would mostly carry a pale white pearl.

This was the gargle-pearl.

Gargle-pearl grass was the only surviving plant in the Void Realm. It is said that the seeds came from the human world, taking root and growing here after being sucked in by the storm. Every time the Eye of the Storm opened, the air from the human world poured into the Void Realm and was intercepted by the gargle-pearl grass, condensing into pearls.

Aside from this, this land could be described as barren.

But the surface was not monotonous, because the colors of the soil were diverse—yellow, red, blue, green, purple, and black, almost gathering all seven colors; there were also pitted, strange rocks, mushroom-shaped hills, and mountains like terraced fields.

Climbing to a high place to look down, there was a vast and desolate grandeur.

Furthermore, crystal clusters often grew on the ground, either like crystal or like hard rock, in various colors and sizes. The small ones were like snowflakes, and the large ones were comparable to hills.

With all four present, He He Lingchuan took out a box to look at it, then pointed to the north: "Let's go, let's go find the others to rendezvous."

This box was a Tracking Bee Luo Pan, a new product from Songyang Prefecture.

Songyang Prefecture had already made contact with the Crown Prince of Chiyan, so before the Grass Sea hunt began, they sent them trial samples.

Undoubtedly, this was the most popular equipment. It was said that on the day the Songyang Prefecture Grass Sea event opened, they sold sixty or seventy Tracking Bee Compasses.

The Chiyan people had long used the bee pupae stored in the boxes to mark the pioneers, so when He He Lingchuan and the others arrived later and entered the Void Realm, they could use the characteristics of the tracking bees to find their companions.

They had just crossed over, and as soon as they took a step, they felt the strain.

This was not just as heavy as carrying two of oneself; even the internal organs and the brain felt a sense of sinking, and blood flowed toward the lower limbs, making it difficult to supply the heart. He He Lingchuan gathered true qi in his dantian and found that the speed of his true power circulation had clearly slowed down.

The most serious thing was that there was not a shred of spiritual energy in this world.

Compared to here, the spiritual energy of the human world could be called abundant.

This also meant that cultivators entering the Void Realm could not replenish their true power, except for the profound crystals they brought with them.

Here, everyone had to be meticulous in using their power.

He He Lingchuan circulated his true power, regulated his breathing, and slowly adjusted. The strength of cultivators over ordinary people lay in their more robust bodies, which could adapt to harsher environments.

There was still a garrison of Lingxu City near the Eye of the Storm, whose task was to prevent Danube beasts from accidentally wandering into the human world. When He He Lingchuan and the others came over, an officer stepped forward to warn them: "You cannot go west."

"Many thanks for the warning, why?"

"There is a Thunder-Shattering Giant Beast in the west; if you want to die, go there." After saying this, his duty fulfilled, the officer's mouth closed tighter than a clam shell.

He He Lingchuan looked over subconsciously, and sure enough, lightning flashed on the distant mountains to the west, illuminating the world like daylight.

Was this the "powerful existence in the forbidden area deep in the Void Realm" that Fushan Yue had warned him about a thousand times? It didn't seem that deep; walking west led right to it.

He immediately handed over a treasure note: "My lord, what is the background of this Thunder-Shattering Beast, and how far west will one encounter it?"

The denomination was large and showed great sincerity, so the officer's expression softened.

"Ten go, ten die; a hundred go, a hundred die. More than five hundred qing to the west is the territory of the Thunder-Shattering Giant Beast. This guy is one of the seven great lords of the Void Realm recorded by the authorities. It is two and a half zhang tall, six zhang long, and carries thunder and lightning; it can pierce through you without even getting close." The officer put away the treasure note. "It's bad luck that the Eye of the Storm opened on the edge of the Thunder-Shattering Giant Beast's territory this time. We previously sent people to scout the west, and nine out of ten did not return."

"Fortunately, the Thunder-Shattering Giant Beast is very lazy and doesn't like to move, otherwise we would have to beg the State Preceptor to open another storm gate." He continued, "Also, according to reports from hunters returning from the front, a large number of beast tides have appeared in the northwest. They are highly lethal, so you must be careful."

He He Lingchuan gasped, thanked him, and walked away.

Generally speaking, the lighter the skin color and the larger the size of a Danube beast, the more powerful it is. Of course, this does not exclude the very few Danube beasts that evolve camouflage colors, making opponents think they are very powerful.

And in the Void Realm, where gravity is more than three times that of the human world, size and strength are indeed directly proportional. That Thunder-Shattering Giant Beast could grow to a body length of six zhang, and its power was beyond doubt.

A lord-level monster could easily defeat a thousand men. Not to mention that this one also had the talent of being entangled with thunder and lightning, so the competing squads would absolutely not provoke it.

Heading north all the way.

During the journey, when others saw He He Lingchuan, he would often bend down to scoop up a handful of soil, a few crystal clusters, or a few grains of fine sand into his pouch. Everyone thought he was new and found everything novel, but in fact, this was the requirement of the Divine Bone Necklace:

Yes, the Great Square Pot also seemed very interested in this exotic land, asking He He Lingchuan to collect some samples for it to appreciate.

Continuing north, dead Danube beasts were often seen by the roadside, of all varieties.

Danube beast is just a general term in the human world for the monsters in the Void Realm that produce floating stones. Just as there are many kinds of demons in the human world, the Danube beasts of the Void Realm are also strange and varied; some have sturdy bodies, some are slender, and some run on four or six legs.

But those that stand and walk on two legs like humans are very rare. He He Lingchuan guessed, could it be because of the gravity? There were always large holes in the corpses of these Danube beasts. Besides the floating stones in their skulls being dug out, the crystal clusters associated with their bodies could also be good materials for refining tools. For hundreds of years, the craftsmen of Lingxu City had discovered many uses for Danube beast materials.

The further out they went, the more dead Danube beasts there were, sometimes in nests or groups.

This was clearly the result of being hunted.

In the speed race of the first five days, the competing teams had basically killed all the Danube beasts within a hundred miles of the Eye of the Storm, except for those in the west. Now that He He Lingchuan and the others were traveling, it was very safe; along the way, there were Danube beast corpses and newly grown gargle-pearls in the cracks of the ground.

Every few hours, the gargle-pearls could grow back, and everyone needed to pay attention to collecting them.

If the competing teams wanted to hunt more floating stones, they could only go further away.

This was not only a competition of combat power and physical strength but also a competition of financial resources and storage and transport capabilities.

He He Lingchuan also saw that beside the Danube beast corpses, there were always monsters similar to large earthworms, ranging from a few feet to several zhang in length. Often, several or dozens of them would crawl on the beast corpses, wriggling and chewing away.

He He Lingchuan could not find where their eyes were, or perhaps these monsters were born without eyes. Their way of eating was also very special; they used the suction cups at their front ends to attach to the prey, and then twisted their fleshy bodies to rotate, twisting off a piece of meat.

He He Lingchuan could even see the chunks of meat turning into bulges, moving within their bodies.

His teammate introduced that these were planarians, one of the scavengers of the Void Realm. They could not produce floating stones, and their body fluids had acid-corrosive properties, so the hunters had no interest in them at all.

There were also some strange-looking, sneaky little animals, which will not be mentioned here.

Led by the tracking bees, He He Lingchuan and the others did not take any detours. Overall, they walked north for most of the day and arrived at a low hill.

Here, Danube beast corpses were piled into small mountains.

Everyone climbed to a high place to look, and this scene stretched for at least several miles.

The crimson land was stained purple-black by beast blood, looking ominous.

It was dead silent, with only the chirping sounds of scavengers enjoying a feast coming from time to time, as if someone were walking in wet cotton slippers.

He He Lingchuan frowned, because many corpses of competing hunters also appeared here.

There were both humans and demons, and they died quite miserably. But the scavengers of the Void Realm had no interest in them at all.

Things off the menu, they didn't even want to touch.

At a glance, there were at least twenty or thirty corpses.

He He Lingchuan's teammates, who had each entered two or three times, squatted down to check: "It seems they encountered a beast tide."

"Beast tide?" He had heard this term just as he entered the Void Realm.

"Just like wild oxen and horses in the human world, many Danube beasts will act in groups; sometimes a group has hundreds."

He He Lingchuan shaded his eyes with his hand to look into the distance: "There are more than a hundred here."

"Beast herds will also gather together to migrate, and that is called a beast tide; there is no telling how many there are." The teammate smiled bitterly. "When they start running, it is vast and mighty; whoever blocks them dies."

He He Lingchuan knew that Danube beasts also killed each other, and there was a complete ecological chain. Low-chain Danube beasts did not eat grass, but crystal clusters and nutrient-rich soil, while high-chain Danube beasts fed on them.

Killing, fighting, eating—the creatures are the same everywhere.

"They retreated that way." He He Lingchuan pointed to the southwest. As an experienced hunter, he could see the traces of fighting while retreating. Moreover, even if the contestants were at a disadvantage, they did not forget to cut out the floating stones and other valuable parts from the beast corpses.

A teammate suddenly gave a soft cry: "Our people."

He ran to a corpse and squatted down.

He He Lingchuan followed and looked; it was indeed a guard from Fushan Yue's side, his neck severed.

What killed him must have been sharp and huge claws, because there were two claw marks on his chest, and the force was so great that half of his lungs were gouged out.

"It should be a heavy-clawed beast that moves with the beast tide; this kind of monster likes to track prey." Just like there are always predators near wild ox herds in the human world.

"There are more here!" another person shouted, "Old Bao and Wei San are also dead!"

Not far away were two more corpses of Chiyan guards; in fact, one was a human and one was a bear demon.

He He Lingchuan had originally opposed that bear demon participating as part of the starting lineup; its movements were not agile enough to begin with, and in the gravity of the Void Realm, its movements were even slower. Now, seeing it lying there, he let out a long sigh.

(End of chapter)