Chapter 94: New World (Chapter 11)

"You look like a ring," Feng Xue said, stowing Li Yunxi, who had crossed over with him; he sensed with his thoughts and found Mo Ying had come too, and finally exhaled in relief.

But while he could remain calm, Li Yunxi could not—this serpent spirit, who had endured several "blurred visions" in an instant, was now dazedly sorting through her thoughts, staring at the surrounding beach, sea, and sunlight, sniffing the salty, damp sea breeze, until she finally couldn't help asking:

"Where are we?"

"I don't know either—maybe I overcharged the escape spell and ended up too far?" Feng Xue replied insincerely; Li Yunxi, hearing this, snapped back:

"The sky's bright! You probably flew straight to a foreign country! How much energy did you even dump into that spell?"

"Huh? You know about time zones?" Feng Xue raised an eyebrow, surprised; Li Yunxi immediately replied:

"What's so new? I knew that decades ago! The fox immortal grandmother once told me about a stag demon sage who, with extraordinary speed, chased the moon to absorb its lunar essence, running endlessly around the earth beneath him—and in the western lands, he was even worshipped as the 'God of Chasing the Moon'…"

"..." Feng Xue had only meant to distract himself, but Li Yunxi's words left him speechless; he decided not to respond further and began organizing his backpack instead.

There was no choice—even though the Divine Step talisman created a protective air current, collisions and jolts still carried danger; he took out each item from his bag, confirmed they were intact, then stowed them in the Pot Heaven Sack. Though carrying the Yin Sack meant he couldn't reduce weight, at least it lowered the burden, didn't it?

"Not bad—aside from the contents in Jiu Gu's Pot Heaven Sack, I lost almost nothing," Feng Xue nodded in satisfaction after a moment, lifting the sack that looked like it held a bag of rice in one hand, mentally reviewing this operation.

Though throwing everything on the line before knowing whether a stationary train could trigger the crossing seemed reckless, the actual risks weren't as great as he'd imagined.

He wasn't truly cornered—he simply wanted to leave. Even if the train's front end had stopped and failed to trigger the keyword, causing the crossing to fail, he could've just stayed behind anyway; he didn't know any demonic cultivators, had no connection to those so-called corpse puppets, Nian Beasts, or evil spirits. Even if they dragged up the Judge, absence of connection was absence of connection—it'd only mean pretending to be a master, but he'd never claimed to be a real master! And given his current combat power, calling himself a master wasn't even wrong, was it?

As for the gray rat—he'd fight it head-on if it insisted. Worst case, he'd lock his lifespan, and if his Qi ran low, he'd just draw primal energy. Compared to evil spirits and ghosts, he had no qualms fighting cultivators or spirit-fairies. If that gray rat dared suck his primal energy, it'd be an instant "evil corruption"—then who was the demonic cultivator? That'd be up to him to decide.

As for being crippled by the gray rat? Impossible. Not to mention his escape spell and other trump cards, the Xuan cultivator who fought the Nian Beast was nearby; if he drew massive primal energy, the Nian Beast would surely come. When the Nian Beast arrived, the Xuan cultivators would arrive too—then would they first fight the Nian Beast together, or listen to the gray rat's one-sided story and ignore the Nian Beast to attack him?

But now it seemed all his calculations were overthought—his golden hand was far sturdier than he'd imagined: if it said one bump could trigger a crossing, then one bump was enough; if speed wasn't specified, then there was no requirement!

"But my first return—was it because this world is the 'main world,' and I had to follow the light novel trope of 'The King's Return'? Or was it because when I hit the train's front end, I was thinking, 'I wonder if I'll cross back to my original world'? If it's the latter, then during the second crossing, I clearly thought, 'Please don't just let me shuttle between these two worlds'?"

Feng Xue was organizing his thoughts, but his body wasn't idle; though he dared not extract primal energy in an unfamiliar place, that didn't stop him from pulling out his phone to photograph the surroundings.

The long-absent species identification app came online again, but this time, the results were disappointing.

"Identified as coconut—but the leaf shape is clearly wrong."

"How dare you identify grass leaves as banyan trees?"

"Damn! Even I know this is moss—but what species is it?!"

After scanning the landing spot, Feng Xue covered his head—he had no choice; this thing had abysmal success rate.

Of course, Feng Xue understood this was likely because this crossing wasn't to a Parallel World of Earth—the species here weren't even loaded—but he still couldn't help feeling frustrated.

He reset his mood, pulled out a drone, and began aerial photography; this time, no major issues arose—except:

"What rotten luck? Robinson Crusoe's island was at least a hundred square kilometers, right? How big is mine? Is it even one square kilometer?"

Okay, that's a bit exaggerated—but given that Feng Xue had circled the entire island in ten minutes, it was probably no more than two or three square kilometers at most.

Though sparse trees and weeds grew on this tiny island, he hadn't seen a single animal; though he'd only walked along the shore, the vegetation coverage was so low that raising his viewpoint let him see from the southern shore to the northern shore. Such a small island clearly had no freshwater—best case, maybe a few seabirds would occasionally land.

Under these conditions, even if he could use rain-summoning spells to condense moisture for minimal freshwater, he couldn't possibly rely solely on fishing for food. More importantly, he couldn't find a large enough vehicle to cross again—he couldn't cut down every tree on the island, and he didn't even have nails or rope!

As for going to sea… given how this place looked, it didn't seem likely to have…

"People!"

Sometimes, karma strikes fast: as Feng Xue circled the island and returned to his starting point, in his over-the-shoulder view, he faintly spotted a string of numbers.

He'd initially thought it was a fish swimming close to the surface, but the six-digit number inevitably drew his attention.

Then, raising his monocular telescope, he saw…

A floating corpse.

Well, the person was still alive—just a human-shaped object clinging to a wooden plank, drifting toward Feng Xue's island.

But Feng Xue felt no joy at this unexpected visitor—he noticed a problem:

There were no other planks or similar debris beside the wooden plank, and the beach had no trash or debris either.

Moreover, the growth pattern of the island's trees made it unlikely the shore was regularly submerged by tides.

In other words, under normal conditions, ocean currents shouldn't carry anything to this beach.

Meaning, the "person" drifting toward him was likely conscious—and actively moving toward the island via some method.

From any angle, a drowning person who was conscious would never float with their head down—so this state had to be a disguise.

So the question arises: a castaway who can barely float on the sea yet still has over three hundred years of lifespan—what reason would he have to disguise himself?

"Could it be some 'lucky encounter' from the Hero's Destiny world?"

(End of Chapter)