Chapter 343: The Strange Otherworld

The banquet was a joyous affair for host and guest alike—Hu Li was the most delighted, followed by his nephew who was devouring food with gusto, and the inner disciples who barely raised their heads to interact with the guests, simply keeping their gaze down and eating fiercely.

"Alas, I wanted these useless fellows to see the world, yet it seems their eyes are all covered in medicinal oil," Yuan Ling Zhenren said helplessly, looking at his group of disciples and shaking his head with a sigh like a doctoral advisor whose heart had been broken a thousand times. "You lot, after graduating from my teachings, will only be fit to become wandering doctors."

Saying this, he waved his hand: "Go, go! Once you've eaten and drunk your fill, return to your rooms to do your homework properly—I assigned a furnace of Soul-Calming Pills; half a month has passed and not a single one has been refined. If there is no progress this month, I will punish you by making you scrub every single pill furnace on the entire Yunling Peak!"

Thus, the group of young cultivators who had been chatting and whispering just moments before instantly jolted. They quickly bowed to Yuan Ling Zhenren, then made a fist-and-palm salute to Yu Sheng and the others, before turning and flying towards the mountain to complete their master's final assignment.

Yuan Ling Zhenren called out after their retreating figures: "Don't forget to check the medicinal gardens you are each responsible for in the back mountain this evening! You lot don't have enough Spirit Plant points this year!"

Yu Sheng watched with curiosity from the side and said casually: "It feels like you're a university advisor in the Borderlands, quite different from the style of a sect grandmaster I imagined."

"Do you think my name on the border communications came from nowhere?" Yuan Ling Zhenren sighed helplessly. "I must care for this group of dull-witted disciples, manage sect affairs, and every now and then clean up the messes left by my unreliable eldest senior brother, dealing with his 'lovers' who keep showing up at our door. When things get busy, I have to deploy seven or eight avatars, and luckily Xuan Che is ambitious and can share some of the burden... Sigh, let's not talk about it, let's not."

Hearing this, Yu Sheng couldn't help but laugh, then suddenly remembered something: "Ah, right, I almost forgot, I brought you a gift when I came."

"A gift?" Yuan Ling Zhenren was slightly stunned, waving his hands repeatedly. "Alas, our friendship is not for fame or profit, why be so polite..."

Then, a piece of Spirit Fox Black Iron thudded "Dong" right in front of him.

"... But then again, a gift from a friend, it would be rude to refuse... Is this the item Xuan Che mentioned?"

With a sudden shift in topic, Yuan Ling Zhenren's eyes locked onto that piece of "Black Iron" and refused to move away.

"You are indeed honest and straightforward," Yu Sheng said with a smile. "That's right, this is the 'Spirit Fox Black Iron' I showed Xuan Che before, a specialty from Hu Li's hometown. It can be forged into a core for a weapon spirit. I figured this thing could be useful here as well."

"Excellent, excellent!" Yuan Ling Zhenren immediately clapped his hands in great delight. "A fine thing, indeed a fine thing. I shall accept this generous gift. You should stay in Qianfeng Lingshan for a few more days; I will take you to properly see the scenery of the Taixu Spirit Pivot. I'm not boasting, but the Taixu Star has hundreds of strange sights; even when looking across the starry universe, it is a treasure land that ranks among the best..."

Speaking of this, Yuan Ling Zhenren couldn't help but wave his hand again, a hint of regret mixed with his sigh: "Actually, I've always wanted to properly develop the cultural tourism industry of the Taixu Spirit Pivot, but the other old fellows only know how to bury their heads in cultivation; their minds are so rigid."

Yu Sheng immediately associated this with the "Qianfeng Lingshan Cultural Tourism Flagship Product" that Xuan Che had brought him before...

Just then, Xuan Che beside them broke the silence. The honest young man brought up the main matter: "Master, why not first discuss the newly appeared 'Bizarre Secret Realm' in the Taixu Spirit Pivot? What exactly is the situation with that secret realm?"

Hearing this, Yu Sheng also remembered the reason Xuan Che had been summoned back to his sect, and immediately looked at Yuan Ling Zhenren with curiosity: "Yes, I am also a bit curious about this—after all, you should know that recently a 'City in the Mist' suddenly appeared in the Borderlands, and the Borderlands and the Feiyu Star Domain have both had activities by the Hidden Cultivation Society."

Yuan Ling Zhenren's expression became serious; after a moment of contemplation, he spoke: "That Bizarre Secret Realm is not in the Taixu Spirit Pivot, but on the satellite next to it, 'Taiyou'."

Yu Sheng: "... On a satellite?"

"The Taixu Spirit Pivot has three moons orbiting it: 'Taiyou', 'Hengming', and 'Chang'an'. Among them, 'Taiyou' is the largest moon and is the first alien world stepped upon by cultivators on the Taixu Star after their first transcendence beyond heaven and earth," Yuan Ling Zhenren explained. "There are many mines, factories, and settlements established there a thousand years ago, but later, as we expanded to other places in the Feiyu Star Domain, the 'Ancestral Land' centered on the Taixu Star was protected, and naturally, this 'Ancient Moon' of Taiyou was as well."

"Now, most of the mines and factories on Taiyou have been sealed, and the old settlements have been completely relocated. Many things left behind have mostly become memorial sites for later generations to visit and pay respects."

"And this time, the 'Bizarre Secret Realm' that appeared is in an ancient mine that was sealed three hundred years ago. According to preliminary exploration, there should be an Otherworld beneath it with a depth of at least three, though the danger level is still unknown."

"An Otherworld with a depth of three?" Yu Sheng blinked his eyes. "Uh, if it's an Otherworld, that should be quite common, right? L-3 isn't particularly deep. When I heard 'Bizarre Secret Realm', I thought..."

He hadn't finished speaking when he noticed Xuan Che and Yuan Ling Zhenren both revealing strange expressions, obviously having something to say.

"What's wrong?"

"... We are not in the Borderlands," Xuan Che said gloomily. "Otherworlds are not common here."

Yu Sheng: "..."

Even Irene, sitting nearby, couldn't help but mutter: "In the Borderlands, it's normal for eleven out of eighteen stops on a bus route to be Otherworlds; even a small shop next to a farmers' market can be an Otherworld entrance. But in the 'outside world'—the appearance of a single Otherworld can shake the top authorities, let alone one that appears with a depth of L-3."

Yu Sheng immediately felt ashamed, and the main reason he felt ashamed was that he had been criticized for his common sense by a doll as absent-minded as Irene...

Seeing this, Yuan Ling Zhenren coughed lightly twice and quickly continued: "Outside the Borderlands, Otherworlds are indeed not common, but the Feiyu Star Domain is vast, and we cultivators often possess higher 'Spirit Sight', so we are not entirely unfamiliar with Otherworlds. The Otherworld that appeared on Taiyou this time is called 'Bizarre' for a reason."

Yu Sheng became curious: "What exactly is the situation?"

Yuan Ling Zhenren spoke with a solemn tone: "... For every group of people who enter the Otherworld, what they see is different. Even if the same group enters the mine at different times of the day, the scenery they see is also different."

Yu Sheng was instantly stunned.

This was indeed quite different from the "normal Otherworlds" he knew!

Immediately, he began to think rapidly, trying to understand from his currently accumulated experience what exactly the situation described by Yuan Ling Zhenren was.

The first thing that came to his mind was the "Abnormal Type" Otherworld Fairy Tales, and the various different "subsets" appearing in that "story collection" of Fairy Tales. This type of Otherworld, which uses different "subsets" as stages, is the only one he knows that can present different scenes to every explorer.

He voiced his hypothesis and also told Yuan Ling Zhenren the general situation of "Fairy Tales".

"Presenting different scenes depending on different 'subsets'?" Yuan Ling Zhenren stroked his beard and thought carefully. "It sounds somewhat similar, but the situation is still not quite the same... That Otherworld has clear entrances and exits, and its interior is a physical space. In terms of classification, it should be a 'Wilderness' or 'Kingdom' type Otherworld, not an 'Abnormal' one. In my opinion, that Bizarre Secret Realm is more like constantly changing itself; every time it opens, its interior is completely reconstructed."

"By the way, what have the people who went in seen?" Irene couldn't help but ask.

"Some saw only a strange mine with altered structures; others saw an endless underground void; even more saw vast stretches of surface land with sun and moon in the sky, and weather changes like wind, rain, clouds, and mist. The strangest situation was seeing a town covered by night—sometimes the lights in the town were on, sometimes it was pitch black; sometimes human voices could be heard inside the houses, sometimes it was dead silent everywhere, and a bloody scent permeated the town. However, in any case, no actual 'residents' could be seen moving around in the town."

Yuan Ling Zhenren paused here and added: "The appearance of these situations follows no pattern, and the probability is completely random. We tried entering the mine at different times of the day, or arranged cultivators with different personalities and carrying different items, yet we still could not summarize the rules beneath. Of course, this is also related to the fact that exploration so far has been relatively conservative and the sample size is still too small. After all, what lies below is truly bizarre, and it is in such a special place as 'Taiyou', so we must be extremely cautious."

Yu Sheng opened his mouth, thought for a moment, and then asked: "What about the entities appearing inside?"

"This is another extremely bizarre aspect... There are no entities inside."

"No entities? An Otherworld with a depth of L-3 has not a single entity?!"

"Exactly. At least so far, the exploration teams have not discovered any entities appearing in the mine," Yuan Ling Zhenren nodded slowly. "At most, in that 'town', one might hear strange human voices or see puppet shadows under the lamplight. As for 'entities' that actually appear before the explorers, capable of active movement, attack, or communication, not a single one has appeared."

Yu Sheng blinked his eyes, lowered his head, and exchanged a look with Irene at his feet.

The small doll crossed her arms, looking very serious: "This is truly a bit eerie. Although not every Otherworld generates entities, the deeper the Otherworld, the higher the probability of generating entities. For depth 1 or 2, it's understandable; the 'Peaceful' probability is still relatively high. But at the L-3 level... even stones should start flying up to hit people."

Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then looked up at Yuan Ling Zhenren: "... Can we go take a look?"

(End of Chapter)