Jiangshan Fengwuzhi

Chapter 243 New Territories
Yingyao was too tired lately and fell asleep without realizing it. When she woke up, she couldn't find Gu Jingnian and immediately became anxious. She got up and looked around, afraid that she would be separated from Gu Jingnian again.

Seeing this, Hu Jingnan became curious and asked softly, "Do you and Young Master Gu have a deep relationship?"

"Yeah, of course."

"May I ask why? Is it because you are connected by blood and blood?"

Yingyao was taken aback, annoyed by the doubt in his words about their relationship. She shook her head and said, "What's wrong with being connected by blood? Besides, my relationship with you is very good."

Seeing that she had offended Ying Yao, Hu Jingnan gave a gentle smile and said, "It's not that I think it's bad, I'm just a little curious why you two can do so much for each other, even though you don't seem to have known each other for very long."

"because……"

Yingyao couldn't explain why, and finally muttered, "It's not like we have to spend a lot of time together."

As they were talking, Gu Jingnian returned.

Yingyao was delighted when she saw a person flying beside Gu Jingnian with an extraordinary aura; it was Shen Jichi.

Shen Jichi was indeed able to fly, soaring through the clouds like a Ji Ren, and his movements were much more agile than those of ordinary Ji Ren.

Yingyao became alert, staring at Shen Jichi with a fierce fighting spirit in her eyes.

She wasn't afraid of another fight. She had fought Shen Jichi to a draw in their previous battle, and now that she was much stronger, she was sure she could defeat him.

But when Shen Jichi landed, he stroked his beard and laughed, "What a wild little girl, there's no need to stare at me like that. This time, I'm here to help you."

"You're lying, I don't believe you."

Yingyao couldn't understand what "cooperation is beneficial" meant, but she clearly sensed that Shen Jichi was definitely not easy to get along with.

But she had no say in the matter, and both Gu Jingnian and Hu Jingnan knew that they could not leave this realm without Shen Jichi's teleportation technique.

Gu Jingnian led Shen Jichi to Yan Da and inquired about the situation.

Shen Jichi asked some very unusual questions, such as the color of the lake surface, the intensity of the light, and the angle of the shadows of the surrounding trees and objects whenever a passage appeared.

Yan Da had never noticed these details before, and he couldn't answer many of them. Shen Jichi wouldn't let him off the hook, and asked the fire-starting boy about his actions before summoning the passage, scrutinizing his expressions, gestures, and even the direction his eyes were looking.

As dawn broke, the group returned to the lake where Gu Jingnian had found Yan Da.

The morning light shines on the lake, reflecting the trees on the shore. A gentle breeze blows, and the lake remains calm.

"You said you have a friend named A-Meng?"

“Yes,” Yan Da replied.

"Call him."

"Huh?" Yan Da was stunned for a moment, then shouted at the lake, "Ah—Meng—"

“No, it’s not like that. You call his name in your heart,” Shen Jichi said. “Do you have any gifts from him?”

"There was no gift. He left a pair of shoes behind when he came to chop wood last time."

"Bring it here."

Yan Da then ran back to the small house, and after a while, he came out with a pair of worn-out shoes and handed them to Shen Jichi.

Shen Jichi frowned, then asked, "Is there someone named Ma Shi who came with you?"

"Yes."

"Did he leave anything behind?"

"No," Yan said. "He has never come to see me."

The reason Shen Jichi asked A Meng first instead of Ma Shi was that he believed Ma Shi was likely in the core area where the Jie Ren were located, and going there rashly might cause trouble. Given the current situation, he had no choice but to find A Meng first.

He looked disgusted, took the shoe, smelled it, and immediately threw it aside.

A stench filled his nostrils. He exhaled a long breath, tilted his head back, bathed in sunlight, and slowly raised his hand.

The light in the sky began to gather, reflecting a bizarre and fantastical scene on the lake's surface.

Gradually, those previously indistinct shapes transformed into wood and stone blocks, eventually forming a wooden path at the end of which a small boat was moored.

Shen Jichi opened his eyes, sighed, seemingly dissatisfied, but still said, "Let's go."

Seeing this, Yan Da tugged at Gu Jingnian and said, "Master said that running around is very dangerous, extremely dangerous."

"It would be dangerous to stay here."

The group followed Shen Jichi across the wooden path and boarded a small boat.

Yan Da picked up the oars without hesitation and asked, "Which way are we going?"

Shen Jichi closed his eyes and casually pointed in the direction of the center of the lake.

"Oh."

The wooden oars glided across the lake's surface, and the small boat drifted dozens of steps toward the center of the lake before the light in the sky changed.

The once vast and azure lake has turned into a yellowish river.

The river wasn't large, filled with shifting sands. Its banks were a filthy riverbed, beyond which stretched a red rocky outcrop. A nimble ibex darted across it. Further on, the landscape was desolate.

Gu Jingnian looked around and asked Yan Da, "Is this the place you said A Meng was chiseling stones at?"

"I don't know," Yan said. "I didn't come from this side last time."

Hu Jingnan pointed into the distance and said, "The sun has set."

A red sun was hanging on the horizon, casting a red glow across the Gobi Desert.

When they arrived, it was clearly still early morning, which shows that time may be different in each realm.

The dissatisfaction in Shen Jichi's eyes had faded, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.

He finally found the boundary and mastered the method of traveling through it.

Before the small boat had even come to a complete stop on the shore, he had already taken to the clouds and was looking down over this world.

This boundary is not just wilderness; to the east, upstream of the river, lies a green valley.

The wild goat that leaped over the rocks ran to the edge of the meadow, looked around, lowered its head to graze, and then gradually ventured deeper into the valley, disappearing into the valley below.

Shen Jichi then flew in that direction.

Seeing this, Gu Jingnian led the others to follow in that direction.

"Young master, we're going to hide here, right? Will we be able to hide without Liu Yuchuan finding us?" Yingyao asked.

"That's how it is for now," Gu Jingnian said. "Let's avoid Liu Yuchuan for now, then learn about the Realm. If possible, we can try to find a Realm Person and have him take us out of the Realm."

"Oh."

Let alone finding the Jieren, they didn't even see a single person after entering the valley.

Only the wild goat was grazing by the swamp. Hearing the noise and coming after them, it turned around warily and ran into the depths of the woods.

Suddenly, a giant snake leaped out of the swamp and swallowed the wild goat whole.

Seeing this, Shen Jichi casually pulled out a golden-red light sword and directly cut off the snake's head.

Blood spurted out, staining the swamp red.

At the same time, five snake heads sprang out of the swamp and bit at Shen Jichi.

Gu Jingnian could see clearly that the huge figure was a leech, and a six-headed leech of enormous size.

He stopped moving forward and even pulled Yingyao and the others back a bit to watch how Shen Jichi dealt with the leeches.

Previously, when he was in the capital of Rui, he heard about the assassination attempt on the emperor in the suburbs and thought that leeches were extremely dangerous, and that even thousands of imperial guards could not deal with them. Now he knew that it was just a small experiment by the Rui emperor that went wrong.

As expected, Shen Jichi remained calm, riding the clouds and weaving among the five snake heads, occasionally slashing down with his blade to cut off each of them.

The swamp was a bloody mess; the enormous corpse of the leech was still gushing blood, its flesh twitching.

Shen Jichi's white robe was stained with a few drops of blood, but he didn't care. He glanced back at Gu Jingnian and gestured for them to continue.

They walked for a while, and could still smell the lingering stench of blood, along with a faint rustling sound.

"I remember now, where is your friend Meng?"

Shen Jichi could no longer sense A Meng's presence and asked Yan Da again.

Yan Da looked blank and shook his head, saying, "I've never been here before."

Shen Jichi then said to Gu Jingnian, "Take him to a high place for a look..."

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly jumped up from the ground, and Gu Jingnian quickly pulled Yan Da aside to dodge.

And right where they had just been, a sharp blade slashed past.

It was a larger, longer snake that opened its blood-red maw and bit down, only managing to grab half of Shen Jichi's clothing.

A colossal creature emerged from the swamp—a seven-headed giant serpent that Gu Jingnian had never seen before, terrifyingly large.

This time, Gu Jingnian didn't wait to see Shen Jichi make a move. He directly unfolded his fire wings, swung out a fireball, and ignited the surrounding vegetation.

The flames swept towards the seven giant serpents, burning their bodies until they danced wildly like madmen.

Its snake head was very long, and it would bite towards the sky from time to time, forcing Gu Jingnian to fly very high in order to avoid it.

Continuing to fight like this would consume a lot of their energy, so the group flew away from the place and headed further away.

"what is that?"

Holding Yingyao's arm, Hu Jingnan looked up from the sky and saw the trees swaying ahead, and huge leeches crawling towards them.

One snake head after another, with gaping, blood-red mouths, emitting sharp and terrifying hisses.

Looking further into the distance, the endless expanse is a scene that makes one's scalp crawl.

It seems that this entire world is full of leeches.

(End of this chapter)