Chapter 27: 26. Crossing the Boundary of the Mortal World (Seeking Follow-up Reads)

26. Crossing the Boundary of the Mortal World (Seeking Follow-up Reads)

The interior of the well mouth built of bricks and stones in the basement was downward stairs and a passage. After walking down more than a dozen steps, the stairs came to an end, and the passage suddenly opened up, the surroundings becoming like a karst cave.

This was the Island Core Channel.

The cold, damp smell and the faint sour smell mixed in the dust filled his nasal cavity. Even with the lantern lighting the way, darkness surged from all directions, as if to take away all senses.

The road inside the mountain was only a steep slope made of steep mountain rocks, and it wasn't continuous. Sometimes it was necessary to carefully jump over slippery cliffs, below which was a bottomless abyss.

Some slopes had simple steps cut by sharp tools, which should have been cut by Zoe's father for the convenience of walking.

The interval between the steps was very short, just enough for Zoe's height to step down. Thinking of the photo seen before, Li Ang guessed that it was a distance specially cut by her father for her mother.

The young girl's little head scanned the karst cave-like landscape underground: "I have never seen this kind of scenery."

"This kind is called a karst cave."

Li Ang pointed to the stalactites, stalagmites, and mountain bodies eroded to a smooth surface that he illuminated with the adventure lantern: "Generally speaking, this kind of landform is formed by the accumulation of groundwater in the mountain body over a long period of time."

"Generally speaking? Is it not here?"

"The water body of Satus Island doesn't look like it can do this kind of thing."

Zoe asked about the meaning of water body again, and Li Ang explained to her that it was a general term for various water areas in a region's natural world.

He couldn't explain more, because the natural ecology of the Newbis world was very abstract. It couldn't even be said to be abstract; anyway, it was something he, from Earth, couldn't understand.

This world had no oceans, and the sky islands were isolated from each other, but it wasn't very short of water. The water cycle seemed to be running normally, and there were many natural environments similar to Earth.

This was all because a large number of elemental spirits participated in the world's ecological cycle.

In the triangle of spirit, magic power, and matter that constituted the world, the smallest unit constituting matter was the element.

More than 96% of the elements were the four major basic elements: earth, fire, water, and gas, also called earth, fire, water, and wind.

Because they accounted for a large proportion, most of the time when elements were mentioned, they referred to the four major elements by default.

Elemental spirits were bred in the elements. Their spirituality was to attract magic power to come, aggregate, and increase the matter that bred them.

Because the four elemental spirits all wanted to increase the total amount of their own camp and restrained each other, they formed a situation of mutual growth and decline, and the world formed a stable cycle.

In the cave before his eyes, it was precisely the water elemental spirits that replaced the natural water body, making the place present a karst cave landscape.

"I feel many Earth Spirits," Zoe said.

In the darkness of the abyss, gusts of wind rose, and the magic power within was so thick that Li Ang's breathing rhythm couldn't be maintained steadily. It was no exaggeration to say that it was a wind of magic power blowing directly.

"Yes, there are earth and stones everywhere here. It's an environment that Earth Element spirits like. Under their strenuous traction, the magic power is very thick."

"However, this is very unusual."

Li Ang said: "When I mined for the first time, I wanted to drive the Earth Spirit to summon an Earth Giant, but found that the Earth Spirits on the entire Satus Island were very few. I thought it was because the resources here were barren and couldn't breed elemental spirits."

"Now it seems that they are all in this Earth Abyss."

"Elemental spirits are part of the world's cycle and won't run around to avoid harm. It's only possible that some existence has bound them here."

"Star Soul," Zoe said immediately.

"Correct."

After saying this, Zoe's expression became much more earnest.

The underground passage wouldn't be very long, because Satus Island wasn't very big, and its vertical depth wouldn't exceed its horizontal width, so the two could cross the island horizontally in a day. So, it was probably an hour or two, and the underground scenery began to change drastically.

First, light appeared.

Fluorescent stones began to emerge in the mountain walls. They were the size of goose eggs, contained weak magic power, and released light mainly in cyan-blue, with a little pale yellow and pink.

There were more and more fluorescent stones, until the cave passage was as bright as day, reflecting brilliant light in Zoe's eyes, who was looking around like a kitten.

Every time she saw a cluster of fluorescent stones, she almost had to go over to pick and choose, then hold the round-shaped ones to compare, and finally choose one with difficulty to keep, carefully putting the other back in its original place.

By this section of the road, the terrain was flat and continuous, and Li Ang could also spare his attention to look at the notes. He wanted to see if there was more information about the Star Soul. If he could find a way to deal with it, that would be great.

"February 9, 293

"Cha Ain was seriously injured, but he obtained information about the Star Soul in that ruin. We agreed to discuss it in detail in the near future."

"Zoe started practicing sword arts. Her body is very healthy. That's great."

"However, Lily is..."

"She never tells me much about the secret cult, but she gazes at the horizon more and more, and then falls into a state of super-perception. She says she is seeking revelation from God."

"Does this world really have a God? Perhaps. I should maintain a heart of awe. Every time I look at Lily in that state, although I have stepped into the Legendary Realm for a long time, I can't help but feel trembling."

Another entry full of information.

The road ahead was cut off, and a cliff appeared in front. Reading the content to Zoe, who was browsing the underground scenery, Li Ang put away the notes.

Unlike the first part of the Island Core Channel, the world here had become increasingly bright. It was less like underground, and more like another world.

"Wow, so pretty," Zoe exclaimed.

In addition to the minerals common in the Newbis world and more common in the island core, substances similar to gold appeared among the fluorescent stones.

They covered various stones like plating. After reflecting the fluorescent light, the entire space was as bright as day, allowing Li Ang and Zoe to see things below the cliff.

The cliff wasn't high, probably just over ten meters. Below, some four-legged monsters similar to lizards were gnawing on minerals.

After hearing the footsteps of the two, they were startled and quickly drilled into nearby burrows.

"How wonderful," Zoe stared at the bottom of the cliff for a long time, sighing.

Li Ang hadn't entered the Island Core Channel many times, and every time there was a different scenery.

The center of the island was a place that could make people clearly feel a sense of another world. The essence of the earth, the secrets of the world, and the sighs of mortals converged here, jointly indicating—what lies ahead is no longer the mortal world.

When about to jump over the cliff, Zoe suddenly screamed, hid behind Li Ang, and didn't dare to stretch her head out to look.

"What's wrong?"

"There, there is a ghost over there!"

Li Ang explored in the direction she pointed and saw a human skeleton.

The skeleton wasn't neat and had traces of monster gnawing. He observed the surroundings and could roughly analyze the route it had escaped here, and the route it had come from had been blocked.

The blockage was man-made, caused by the collapse of spells and weapon attacks.

"This should be a missing resident of Satus Island," Li Ang guessed: "There was more than one Island Core Channel that cracked years ago. Villagers accidentally entered the island core because of this. After my parents came over, they completely blocked all other channels to prevent them from coming in again."

"But they couldn't explain to the villagers where the missing people went, so they were misunderstood by them."

Zoe was silent for a while, suggesting to bury it. The two completed it before setting off again.

Jumping over the cliff, the road ahead not only didn't have the narrowness of the underground world he imagined, but became increasingly open.

There were more and more gold-like platings, and countless beautiful minerals such as turquoise, colored crystals, quartz, and chalcedony were lined up among them.

The pretty stones restored Zoe's mood. She was busy picking stones, but even if she picked some and gave up some, the ones she wanted still made her arms unable to hold them, and she could still see better ones ahead.

Finally, she looked like a deflated ball, put down all the gems, and rushed forward expectantly. The metallic sound of the armor forged yesterday echoed in the passage.

The road ahead was suddenly blocked by some collapsed rocks. The two looked for a new road among the surrounding rock walls and rock crevices.

They found a narrow passage. This passage was very cramped and had rugged rocks on the surface, but after a distance, it became a cave passage with gems shining.

The cave walls were as regular as if built by people. Walking here, there was nothing to worry about. Li Ang flipped to a new page of the notes.

"February 25, 293

"After talking with Cha Ain for a long time, we roughly know about Zoe's situation. She and the Star Soul can be seen as needing each other; she can get the other's power, and the Star Soul is the same. But if she, young as she is, rashly comes into contact with it, she will only become nourishment for the other side.

"She needs to grow, but it doesn't mean we just watch her grow up. Because after she gets the power of the Star Soul, what she means to this world and to the organization, we don't know this point.

"So Lily and I decided to go and fight the organization.

"Although we can't accompany Zoe to grow up, we both feel regret, but we want her to live in a future without worries even more.

"We didn't feel any hesitation. For her, we want to find out the truth of the world.

"This will be a difficult journey, perhaps until the end of the clouds, the ultimate of the world."

After reading the notes, while closing the paper page, Zoe pointed to the upper diagonal and exclaimed: "Look!"

The things ahead suddenly occupied Li Ang's field of vision.

He could be sure that they had also seen the ultimate of the world in a certain sense. ===== CHAPTER 28 =====