Chapter 81: War Horses and Ox Horses

War Horses and Ox Horses

When a person cannot resist gravity, any sensation of falling becomes his fatal nightmare.

Unfortunately, for players, simple free-fall isn’t terrifying.

In the instant her feet lost contact, Tao Yi swiftly grabbed a nearby floating log and unleashed her full [Prosperity] power, directly extending that single piece of wood into a massive wooden parachute.

Seeing this, everyone grabbed onto her before they began to fall.

Thus, as surrounding objects plummeted straight down, the six players descended from high above at an excruciatingly slow pace, like a string of kites.

The sudden, violent change was silently erased.

“Amazing!”

Even Cheng Shi couldn’t help but marvel—Tao Yi’s mind was truly sharp when she was well-fed.

“Hehe, you flatter me!”

Tao Yi smiled, accepting her teammates’ praise, adjusting the parachute’s angle to keep their descent perfectly steady.

The players dangling beneath her, sensing no immediate danger, began to look downward.

To be honest, the moment the sea vanished, their environment had been brutally altered.

The players saw no trace of former mountains or ground within visible range—only endless darkness.

Above them was clear blue sky; below, an unfathomable abyss.

This jarring, seamless transition filled everyone with a surreal sense of tearing.

And that distinct black-and-white boundary lay just below their feet.

Zhao Qian, ever cautious, grimly fired a single rocket downward with one hand.

The instant the flaming arrow crossed the black-and-white boundary, its light vanished from everyone’s sight.

So fast that Cheng Shi thought he’d imagined it.

The afterimage in his vision told him there had still been faint glimmers there.

“Gone... vanished?”

“Danger! Tao Yi, slow down!”

The boundary has problems! We can't go any lower!

“Impossible—it’s already at the slowest speed!”

“Then let’s go up!”

Su Yi suddenly spoke, pointing at Gao Yu beside him:

“Gao Yu, make a metal stove; Zhao Qian, provide fire; Tao Yi, hold the parachute—we’ll make a hot air balloon and fly up!”

This teammate’s reaction was fast indeed—Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow and looked at him again.

Su Yi was above Cheng Shi, gripping Tao Yi’s ankle; Cheng Shi gripped Su Yi’s.

Gao Yu was below Cheng Shi; upon hearing this, he immediately replied:

“Feasible!”

He immediately retrieved the remnants of his previous medicine stove, hammered and molded them into a thin-skinned stove with hooks, even thoughtfully leaving a small opening at the bottom for fuel.

As for the fuel...

Naturally, Zhao Qian’s left hand, which could spew fire.

“...”

Zhao Qian clearly didn’t want to waste the power of [War] here, but the danger below was real. His gaze swept over the group’s faces before he sighed and reluctantly accepted the reality.

Cheng Shi saw this and barely held back a laugh.

It was hilarious—like a warhorse galloping across the battlefield suddenly blinded and turned into an ox pulling a mill, radiating pure frustration.

But frustration or not, a warhorse’s strength far outmatched an ox’s.

When the flame of [War] erupted inside the stove, the human-built parachute instantly halted its descent and shot upward.

It worked!

They had, at this very moment, in the sky above the abyss, pulled off something absurdly elaborate.

“Tch, never thought my first hot air balloon ride would be during a trial,” Cheng Shi remarked with deep feeling.

Gao Yu chuckled:

“What if, ever since the [Gods] descended, every first time you experience has to happen in a trial?”

Cheng Shi froze, then suddenly felt embarrassed:

“Well, not that many first times, actually.”

“...?”

The others ignored their exchange, turning their attention to the boundary.

Su Yi frowned, wondering what lay hidden there—was it a darkness that devoured everything, or a rule that killed upon crossing?

“Thinking won’t help—only practice reveals truth.”

Cui Qiushi peeled off his own skin again, forming it into a rope and tying it around everyone’s hands.

“Ease the fire, hold steady—I’m going down to check.”

With that, he released his grip on Tao Yi and leapt toward the abyss.

This terrified the others.

“Damn it, old man, are you trying to die?!”

“Cui Lao, be careful!”

They yanked hard on the skin-rope, terrified he’d vanish forever.

Under the dual forces of gravity and tension, Cui Qiushi’s skin peeled off in spirals, like ribbons unfurling behind him, stretching into a long white line.

The old man fell fast, soon reaching the height where the flame had vanished.

He tensed every muscle, stopped releasing “line,” and hovered precisely above the black-and-white boundary.

From his viewpoint, the entire world was cleanly split into equal halves: black and white.

Above, the tangible reality; below, the void.

“What do you see?”

“White plus black.”

“???”

The players on the hot air balloon clearly hadn’t expected such a remark from an old man—he was so old they all froze, utterly lost.

Was this some ancient joke?

Too cold.

Cui Qiushi didn’t let the awkward silence last long. He pulled out a small handful of pre-prepared wood shavings and gently flicked them toward the nearby black-and-white edge.

The moment the shavings crossed the line, the same disappearance occurred.

The wood shavings vanished.

Even with his eyes so close, Cui Qiushi couldn’t see what happened.

His expression turned grim.

“What did you see?” Zhao Qian asked again, seeing the old man’s darkened face.

Cheng Shi added helpfully:

“White plus black.”

“...”

“It vanished. Directly vanished.”

“Huh? What vanished?”

“The wood shavings. A handful of wood shavings—all gone.”

“Wood shavings?”

Could such tiny fragments have been misseen?

Everyone on the hot air balloon had this thought, so they began gathering anything usable to throw downward.

Zhao Qian fired another rocket; Su Yi tossed away his food; Gao Yu kicked off a shoe he’d hammered; as for Cheng Shi...

He spat.

If Tao Yi above hadn’t glared at him for pulling at his waist’s ragged cloth, he could’ve provided even more test water.

These random objects all tumbled past the old man toward the boundary—and all vanished the instant they crossed it.

Now, the players couldn’t laugh anymore.

The objects truly vanished.

It seemed the players had no way to cross this boundary.

Worse still...

Although Tao Yi’s wooden parachute, once formed, could last indefinitely, and Gao Yu’s thin-skinned stove would persist unless reshaped, the hot air balloon’s third element—fire—

No.

“Find a solution! My mental energy is running out!”

Zhao Qian’s face turned ashen, as if drained by the group.

Cheng Shi said nothing—he cast a mental restoration spell immediately.

“Don’t worry—I’ve got you!”

The words were encouraging enough, but paired with his knowing smirk, they clearly meant:

"It's fine if the ox and horse are lazy; a couple of whips will get them moving."

"......"