Chapter 47

Another world.

Ancient trees towered, vegetation lush and thick.

The climate was hot and humid; after a few steps, moisture clung to the tip of the nose.

On a towering tree, vines coiled like countless giant snakes, twisting into bizarre shapes.

“Ang!”

A Firewing Bird burst through the canopy, soaring over the vines.

It descended into the dim forest.

It turned its head curiously, as if searching for something.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Soon, another dozen Firewing Birds appeared beside it.

The entire forest was lit bright red.

Crack!

A silver glow flashed.

Before all the Firewing Birds, a silver disc slowly unfolded.

Its surface rippled like water, faint ripples brushing with the wind.

The first Firewing Bird’s eyes brightened; it let out an excited cry and rushed in without hesitation.

The other Firewing Birds refused to be outdone, scrambling to squeeze inside.

Some even fought over who got to go first.

They pecked and bit each other, clawed at one another.

Some even spat flames to burn their rivals.

Though all were fire-type creatures with full fire resistance, no serious injuries were inflicted.

But charred trails remained on the forest floor.

Had it not been for the rainforest’s dampness and the trees’ resistance to burning under primal energy’s nourishment,

In a cold, dry forest, a massive fire would have broken out.

After fighting for a while, the Firewing Birds suddenly realized:

The ones that hadn’t joined the fight had already slipped inside.

They let out furious screeches.

Their desire to fight vanished.

They all stopped, crowding toward the spatial passage.

…

Blue Star, at the spatial passage.

Fang Shi casually pulled out a Firewing Bird, then slashed its head off as it stared in terror.

The group gathered around watching had long grown numb.

At first, when the spatial passage first appeared,

Fang Shi had stood by, waiting for Firewing Birds to emerge, then immediately beheading them with a single sword strike.

Gradually, Fang Shi found it too slow.

He simply reached in himself, dragging Firewing Birds out of the passage.

This way, he moved faster and prevented their corpses from falling into the other world.

It was a perfect solution.

“Huh? This one’s injured?”

Fang Shi remarked, eyeing the Firewing Bird’s missing head feathers.

“Whatever. Doesn’t matter.”

Crack!

Another slash.

He killed four more injured Firewing Birds, then no new ones appeared.

Fang Shi stood beside the spatial passage, thinking.

“Zhaowen Army, you all go hide in the nearby building.”

“I’m going to take a look in the other world.”

Zhaowen Army’s heart jumped; he hurriedly said, “Master, no! These monsters can fly.”

“If you go over, you might be attacked mid-air—it’s too dangerous!”

Fang Shi smiled faintly: “No, the spatial passage’s position is relative. If it’s on the surface here on Blue Star, it must be on the surface there too.”

Zhaowen Army said nothing more.

Fang Shi was always mysterious, possessing knowledge unknown to ordinary people.

If he said it wouldn’t happen, it wouldn’t.

Shh!

Fang Shi first plunged his longsword deep into the spatial passage, swinging it several times.

Leaving ripples across the silver disc-like passage.

This was the downside of spatial passages.

Without crossing, you couldn’t see what lay on the other side.

Fang Shi feared Firewing Birds might be watching and waiting to strike first.

He’d enter only after confirming no obstruction.

Before his rebirth, humanity

had naturally explored spatial passages.

As one of the sources of the apocalypse, humanity had to investigate.

The result? That single expedition revealed the other world.

The other world was similar to, yet different from, Blue Star.

Similar in that a day still lasted twenty-four hours.

Day and night divisions were identical.

Even time zones didn’t exist—all regions rose and set with the same sun.

There was only one sun and one moon.

Gravity, air, soil, water sources—all were nearly identical to Blue Star’s.

With proper development, it could become humanity’s second habitable planet.

But unfortunately, this was hard to achieve.

The other world was rich in primal energy, allowing supernatural creatures to freely unleash their abilities.

For example, the Firewing Bird could spew flames without preparation—

Just open its mouth, and fire rolled forth.

This greatly enhanced the Firewing Bird’s power.

The threat level to humans rose another notch.

Moreover, Firewing Birds were nothing special in the other world.

This land was a paradise for monsters.

All kinds of powerful creatures dwelled there.

Some could kill legendary beings with a wave of their hand.

Even entities capable of battling deities existed.

Naturally, the world could nurture such powerful beings.

The other world’s area was equally vast.

Even two spatial passages on Blue Star that seemed close

Might be separated by tens of thousands of miles in the other world.

A powerful being once ran an experiment:

Ten squads entered different spatial passages simultaneously and tried to communicate via magic.

After traveling thousands of miles, only two squads actually met.

The rest received no signals; after exploring their surroundings, they turned back.

Along the way, they endured countless hardships, and all ten squads suffered heavy losses.

Because of this, exploring the other world remained a high-risk operation.

To go, one must first possess the strength to defeat the passage monsters.

What are passage monsters?

In Ancheng, the passage monsters were Firewing Birds.

Only Firewing Birds could pass through the spatial passage.

All other creatures couldn’t even perceive the passage.

To them, it was as if nothing were there.

Thus, creatures like Firewing Birds were called Gatekeeper Monsters.

If there were no such restrictions.

In the early days of the apocalypse, if a strange creature had simply appeared, humanity would have already lost.

Therefore, before the second wave of the apocalypse, the spatial portals to human settlements.

Were utterly incapable of crossing over.

This was also the one sliver of hope the apocalypse granted humanity.

Some once speculated that the apocalypse had this mechanism.

Even granting humans attribute panels.

All were merely breeding poison insects, sifting out a supreme champion.

As to why, various theories emerged.

For instance, Master Lonely said there was an invincible expert who was too bored.

So he wanted to cultivate a supreme champion to fight him.

Or perhaps it was simply a bored high-level civilization’s trivial game.

Just as humans use white mice for experiments.

A high-level civilization uses humans for experiments.

There were also theories like World Invasion Awakening, Primordial Force Revival, and so on.

Fang Shi rarely pondered these matters—his strength was insufficient; thinking about them was meaningless.

What he needed to consider now was the dangers he might face upon entering the other world.

Before his rebirth, Fang Shi’s cultivation progressed too slowly.

He was far behind humanity’s first tier.

So much so that he couldn’t defeat the gatekeeper monster, and thus never got the chance to enter the other world.

This wasn’t because the gatekeeper monster was guarding the door—it was a measure of strength.

Like now, a spatial portal sits before a Level 1 cultivator.

Would a Level 1 cultivator dare enter?

Though the portal isn’t guarded by Firewing Birds, what lies beyond?

He might just end up directly in the Firewing Bird’s nest, reduced to ashes instantly.

Only now, with his strength greatly enhanced,

Does Fang Shi no longer fear the Firewing Birds, and thus dare to explore the other world.

“Other world, don’t let me down.”