Chapter 45
"Ugh… Where… where am I?"
After he opened his eyes, confusion immediately filled his mind. The place he was in was full of exotic trees, and the smell of the sea was evident in the air. It seemed that he had found himself on an island in an unknown place.
"This seems to not be in the cultivation land anymore. How did I arrive here? Don't tell me..." The young man said as he noticed that something was amiss with the place.
This young man was Shin Jiao, who now found himself in a new place after waking up and finding himself on the ground. His consciousness was a little muddled as he didn't know what went wrong. All he could remember was the situation that had happened a few minutes ago.
At that time, he was watching from a nearby tree and being very careful to hide his presence so that Master Ju wouldn't find him. But when Shin Jiao saw that the head of the Land Devouring Worm had shifted from the front to the rear, his heart was shaken. He knew that his two friends were in danger, and so he decided to intervene. But before he could move, the beast suddenly opened its gigantic mouth and revealed a layer of razor-sharp teeth. This caught Shin Jiao off guard as he didn't expect this situation. Then the two women shrieked in disbelief and fear as they started to float and began to rapidly fly towards the wide, gaping mouth of the monster in front of them.
Shin Jiao didn't hesitate to jump and quickly try to rescue them, but before he could reach them in time, he immediately felt something was amiss. He clearly saw that before the two women could reach the beast's mouth and be shredded to pieces by its razor-sharp teeth, they suddenly disappeared. Then he suddenly felt that there was a space distortion, and then his vision became blurry, and darkness assaulted his senses.
And now he had woken up in this unknown land, feeling a sense of déjà vu.
Shin Jiao sat on the ground and started to look around, where he could see and feel his surroundings. This place seemed to not belong to the same planet, as even the spiritual Qi and the natural energy in this place were too chaotic. But what amazed him was that although it was chaotic, the thickness of both spiritual and natural energies was at least ten times more than in the cultivation land.
"Hmmm... I'm not convinced that I have traveled to another world again. That beast's mouth is the key to all this. But how can I find out without exiting this place? I wish Qin Lou and Susu Ling were okay. I never should have let my guard down at that time. Geez..." Shin Jiao muttered to himself in confusion and with a little pang of guilt.
Although Shin Jiao felt a little confused, the energy in this place was nothing short of miraculous. He truly wanted to start cultivating in this place; although the energies were chaotic, they were truly rich and abundant. With his body automatically absorbing them, he never had to do anything. But if he concentrated and cultivated seriously, he would gain far more in the long run. Still, he remembered that his first priority was to find the two girls, so he stood up and started walking.
Not long after, he reached a very small stream of clear water. In the water, he could see different-colored fish swimming against the low current. Before Shin Jiao could admire them more, he suddenly noticed some movement nearby. Then, on the other side, he saw a small boy with a face covered in mud, wearing nothing but a small cloth covering his private area and carrying a large woven bamboo basket on his back. The boy was actually harvesting some herbs. It seemed that the boy had not noticed him, as his full concentration was on harvesting herbs. To his amazement, the boy seemed to be keen on choosing what medicinal herb to pick. In a quick glance, Shin Jiao could see many precious herbs in the boy's hand. With this, he could not imagine what was inside the basket on the boy's back.
To know more about this world and find Qin Lou and Susu Ling, Shin Jiao decided to approach the boy. When Shin Jiao's figure suddenly appeared, the boy was startled and immediately jumped back with caution. He was holding a small, crudely made black dagger, positioned in front of his body, ready to block or attack at any time.
"Hey! Don't be alarmed… I'm not here to hurt you," Shin Jiao said while lifting his arms up.
The boy looked in confusion and seemed to not understand what Shin Jiao said. With vigilance, the boy slowly backed away step-by-step.
"Wait! Wait! Please, I just need to ask something. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Shin Jiao said, trying to persuade the boy not to leave.
Then, to Shin Jiao's surprise, the boy nodded his head. This made him happy; at least he could communicate with him and would soon be able to learn something about this new world. The boy looked Shin Jiao up and down, and after a while, he gestured to follow him, as he seemed to not detect any danger from Shin Jiao. The boy then relaxed and sheathed his crudely made black dagger on his waist.
Shin Jiao knew that the boy was a cultivator in the middle stage of the Core Forming realm and seemed to have seen his aura. And since he was a mortal, the boy's cautiousness and vigilance went away just like that. Shin Jiao felt happy that people could underestimate him casually, and because of this, he could easily assimilate into any situation he was in.
Now the two had walked for some time and arrived in front of a very conspicuous tree. Shin Jiao felt a weird aura coming from the tree and, using his goggles, he found that the tree itself was producing a concentrated amount of both spiritual and natural energies.
Upon seeing this, Shin Jiao was dumbfounded. He thought that if the energy outside was already substantial, it was too rich here. He was now truly tempted to sit here and cultivate; then his level would advance by leaps and bounds. He might even be able to break past 50 spheres, as this thing seemed to have an inexhaustible amount of energy. Shin Jiao just thought that after he rescued the girls, he would study this tree first before leaving. But before his thoughts could travel far, he saw the boy turn right and enter a small cave near the tree.
The boy gestured for Shin Jiao to follow him inside as they continued walking deeper inside the cave. Soon they reached the innermost part, and Shin Jiao discovered that the boy may have gathered far too many precious medicinal herbs and had planted a lot of them inside the cave where the spiritual and natural energy was thicker. When Shin Jiao checked closer, he could see that the medicinal plants were divided by their tiers.
The first plot belonged to the lower-tier plants; this included common but very useful medicinal plants, which Shin Jiao already knew a lot about. The second plot belonged to the medium-tier medicinal plants, which were a little hard to find in the cultivation world as these plants were considered treasures and would be guarded by a sect or some strong beast waiting for them to mature. Shin Jiao didn't even know what kinds of plants were in this plot. And the third plot of land was where some truly rare medicinal plants were, which, of course, Shin Jiao hadn't ever seen before.
Even though he didn't know what kinds of plants they were, Shin Jiao could judge them by their aura and grade. But to know their uses, he needed to get some samples from them and check them using a scientific method or his denser spiritual sense.
Then Shin Jiao noticed the boy stop and turn to look at him. The little boy opened his mouth slowly as if having a hard time getting the words out.
"Who… who… are… are… you?" the boy asked Shin Jiao while stuttering cutely.
"I guess this is the reason why he didn't talk to me while walking. He is having a hard time talking," Shin Jiao thought.
"I'm Shin Jiao. You are?" Shin Jiao slowly uttered.
"Me, Lemy!" The boy answered with a wide smile.
Shin Jiao also smiled at the boy's reply; at least now he could ask the boy anything, but the problem was that he wasn't sure if the boy could express himself and if Shin Jiao could understand it perfectly. But still, it was his only chance to know this place and maybe find the two women.
While thinking of a way to communicate with the boy, Shin Jiao decided to spread his short-ranged spiritual sense just to check on the plants. But when he did this, the boy suddenly jumped away from him in fear and immediately grabbed his black dagger.
"You? Cultivator?" the boy named Lemy asked in fear.
"Me? Um… I… I'm not sure… Maybe yes, maybe no," Shin Jiao answered with some doubt because he truly couldn't consider himself a cultivator.
Then the boy's eyes suddenly lit up and did something that shocked Shin Jiao.
"You are a cultivator because you can use spirit sense," a cute voice suddenly entered Shin Jiao's mind.
"Who… who are you?" Shin Jiao suddenly said as he felt wary while looking around and trying to find the owner of the voice.
But when he saw the smiling boy in front of him, he felt a little foolish as he already had an idea who it was.
"You can talk to my mind?" Shin Jiao asked with some doubt.
As Shin Jiao was not knowledgeable in communicating through using spiritual sense, he just talked normally to the boy.
"Yes, I can. Since you are a cultivator, I can send you my spirit voice," the boy said.
"It's hard for me to talk using my mouth as it's hard for me to use my tongue in talking; it's taking me great effort to do that. Anyway, I've been in this part of the island for who knows how many years, and you are the first person I've seen with both a mortal and immortal aura. A truly fascinating man," the boy said as his gaze went all over Shin Jiao's body.
"You're creeping me out. You're just a small boy. What do you know?" Shin Jiao said with a little hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Anyway, since you have been here for so long, do you know where this place is?" Shin Jiao asked as he suddenly sat in one corner of the cave.
"I'm sure that you're from the outside world and you've just arrived here. Well, to tell you the truth, this is a tiny world. If the cultivators from the outside world knew about this, they would do everything in their power to get this world and refine it. Because from my knowledge of the cultivators that have come in here, most of them are too violent and greedy. Whenever they saw me, they would immediately exert their dominance and capture me to know more about this place. That is why I'm too wary of cultivators. Actually, you are the first person who is not domineering. I guess it's because you're both a mortal and a cultivator at the same time, right?" The boy said as he too sat down.
"You mean you've seen some mortals here?" Shin Jiao quickly asked, knowing that there were also mortals in this place. This only meant that this place was not too dangerous, and if this was the case, he could calm his heart.
"There were, but they would always die immediately after a few days. I guess the thick spiritual aura in this place is not good for their weak bodies," Lemy said.
When Shin Jiao heard this, his heart, which had felt hope, became deflated like a balloon. He had hoped that this place would be safer for both Qin Lou and Susu Ling, as he could not bear to imagine the two friends he had suffering.
"So, how can I get out of here?" Shin Jiao asked, as he wanted to know how to get out after finding the two girls.
"I don't know either," the boy replied, shrugging his shoulders.
Then Shin Jiao began asking the boy more about this tiny world, where it came from, and the people in it. And he learned that there were actually some people in this tiny world, and they lived in a small village near the middle of the island.
Shin Jiao told Lemy that he may have entered here through the mouth of a Land Devouring Worm and had a thought that the beast might be the one controlling this world. When Shin Jiao said this, Lemy went quiet but nodded in agreement. He was not sure, but almost all those whom he saw and spied upon seemed to say the same thing about a giant worm trying to eat them.
Then, Lemy also explained that because of the chaotic Qi in this place, cultivators were unable to use their cultivation or spiritual Qi, as it would mess up any spells they would use. So those cultivators from outside who arrived here would be immediately caught by the villagers, as they would become powerless like mere mortals.
Upon hearing this, Shin Jiao immediately had a bad premonition. He felt that Qin Lou and Susu Ling might be truly in danger.
"Where is this village? I need to go there; my friends might be in there," Shin Jiao asked Lemy with worry in his eyes.
"You mustn't go there; it's too dangerous," Lemy said, trying to persuade Shin Jiao.
"Lemy, even if it's dangerous, my friends are very important to me. I need to find them, do you understand?" Shin Jiao said, also trying to persuade the boy to tell him where the village was.
Shin Jiao had actually used his goggles, but it seemed that the calculations of auras were wrong, and because of the chaotic spiritual Qi, it gave him a lot of wrong information about the place. The furthest distance he could see clearly was 30 meters. This made Shin Jiao feel helpless and truly wanted the boy's help.
"Sigh… Okay, but on one condition. You must not try to save them. If Mok Dong is angered, we would be in great danger," Lemy warned, as he felt that Shin Jiao truly valued his friends.
"Who is this Mok Dong?" Shin Jiao asked upon hearing a name.
"He is bad. You must not face him," Lemy said, seemingly feeling his mood turn bad.
"Okay, I promise," Shin Jiao said so that the boy would help him immediately.
And so, with Lemy's help, Shin Jiao was able to find the village, which was truly hidden by a puzzle-like path formation. So instead of going to the path, they had to pass inside a small tunnel, as it was Lemy's secret passage. Shin Jiao was almost stuck and had to make the passage wider so that he could pass. Then, they crawled until they were able to reach a clearing. After coming out of the small hole, Shin Jiao was able to see the village. The people there were like something from the Stone Age era, where men only wore a cloth that covered their loins and women wore the same with an additional cloth covering for their breasts, and their houses were made of rocks.
"Is this the Stone Ages?" Shin Jiao said to himself. He felt curious about how these people came to and started living in this small world.
The two quietly sneaked inside and soon arrived in a clearing where they saw many cages made of rocks. Then Shin Jiao suddenly saw two figures inside those cages and immediately recognized Qin Lou and Susu Ling.