Misty Rain of the Old Times

“It’s not that things here have gotten bigger, nor that we’ve gotten smaller, but that everything is meant to be this way,” Chen Xuan said, looking around.

The little girl blinked and shook her head, saying, "Master, I didn't quite understand."

Hearing him say that, even Du Juan looked at him with a puzzled expression.

After a moment's thought, Chen Xuan said, "Actually, it's just that under special circumstances, many things become incredibly huge. The specific reasons are still unclear."

He paused for a moment, shrugged, and continued, "Okay, actually, Roujia isn't wrong. Many things have become incredibly huge, which is equivalent to us becoming smaller."

"Oh, I see. But I still don't quite understand," the little girl said, a little confused. She wondered if she was too stupid to understand this.

With a smile, Chen Xuan plucked a flower from afar, about the size of a fist, pink and white, and showed it to the little girls, saying, "You recognize this flower, right?"

"Of course I recognize it. Isn't this a pear blossom? It's just much bigger. Oh right, it's already the blooming season before we knew it. The snow hadn't even melted by the time I went to the capital last time," the little girl nodded.

Holding the pear blossom, Chen Xuan said, "Do you understand now? Everything here seems incredibly huge, but that's just what we see. If you look closely, some plants and animals aren't that exaggerated. For example, this flower is only about ten times larger than outside, and the ants underground are only the length of a chopstick. Well, it's definitely much more astonishing than outside."

After thinking for a moment, the little girl suddenly realized and said, "We hardly recognize many of the plants and animals here. They grow to enormous sizes in this special environment, while some of the ones we recognize haven't changed as drastically, but they are still much larger than those outside. Is that the phenomenon?"

“Yes, I must say, this place is truly amazing. The oxygen content is no different from outside. At least in all the time I’ve observed, no one has experienced oxygen intoxication. Could it be that some kind of energy, which I don’t know about and can’t see or touch, is nourishing everything here?” Chen Xuan nodded and said with great interest.

It's just that his cultivation level isn't high enough right now. If he were at the Tribulation Transcending Realm, his spirit would be projected outwards like divine sense, allowing him to touch the essence of all things in heaven and earth. At that time, he could probably see through the reason at a glance. Now, he can only try to understand it by guessing.

Du Juan didn't dwell on these things too much. Due to her own cultivation level and having witnessed the previous fierce battle, she felt awe towards this environment and asked, "Master, what should we do next?"

"It's already dawn, so of course we should eat something to fill our stomachs first. By the way, we've run out of ingredients, but do we still have any seasonings?" Chen Xuan said casually. This wasn't some dark underground place, so there was no rush to go home.

As he spoke, he immediately began to demonstrate, practicing the Qi-cultivating exercise every morning without fail.

Having developed the habit, they followed suit. The little maid said, "Master, there's still plenty of seasoning, but there's no food left."

"I'll figure out what to eat. It's not hard to find food around here," Du Juan said confidently. Her innate cultivation was truly not weak, so finding food was easy for her, unlike ordinary people who would face the risk of starvation if they didn't have food.

In response, Chen Xuan said, "It's an unfamiliar place, fraught with danger. Sister Juan, please be careful."

While communicating with them, Chen Xuan was multitasking, keeping a close eye on the movements of those ferocious six-legged creatures ever since they retreated at dawn.

At this moment, under Chen Xuan's watchful eye, the six-legged creatures surged towards the vast, dense forest in the distance like a tide. They clung directly to the huge tree trunks, motionless, and their carapaces even changed color to match the tree trunks, making them difficult to distinguish without careful observation.

Upon closer observation of one of them, Chen Xuan noticed that the creature used its six legs to stabilize its body, while its slender mouth was embedded in the tree trunk, and its throat would occasionally move as if it were sucking something out of the trunk.

That vast dense forest was about 60 or 70 miles away from them. Only Chen Xuan, with his exceptional eyesight, could not see that far, let alone notice the details, even at the Innate Realm.

Between the campsite and the vast dense forest lay a relatively flat grassland, with only the occasional towering tree reaching into the clouds. Well, the grassland was about five or six zhang deep, with the lowest grass reaching two or three zhang high, making it no different from a dense forest.

Two or three hundred meters outside the camp, a towering tree had been felled. Its trunk was ten or twenty feet in diameter and lay across the grassland like a small mountain. Compared to the vast dense forest in the distance, that tree was practically a sapling.

Part of the felled tree was used to build this camp; the material is easy to identify. The majority of it is still lying there, presumably because it hadn't been divided and transported back in time.

Noticing this, Chen Xuan roughly understood why the camp was attacked by the six-legged creature. It seemed that the creature probably relied on these large trees for survival, and people cutting down trees would naturally incur hatred, just like farmers who would fight to the death if they dared to destroy their fields.
That vast, dense forest stretched endlessly, with a single tree at least two or three hundred feet tall, and some even reaching a thousand or eight hundred feet in the distance. Even Chen Xuan could only see the tip of the iceberg at the moment, and he had no idea how many dangerous creatures were lurking there. No wonder the six-legged creatures from before seemed endless and impossible to kill.

After daybreak, the chaotic camp had calmed down. According to the casualty statistics, of the nearly two thousand people who originally arrived, more than two hundred died, and more than ninety percent were injured. Among them, three or four hundred people would probably be permanently disabled even if they survived.

This was only because Chen Xuan secretly helped them; otherwise, at least two-thirds of the people here would have died.

Countless people are grateful to have survived, and more than half of them came here out of curiosity. After the perilous night, most of them just want to get away from this terrifying place. However, their cultivation is not yet at the Innate level. Not only did they spend a lot of money to come here, but returning will not be so easy. The transportation capacity is limited, and besides, who cares about their feelings? Some higher-ups probably see them as cannon fodder. If they want to explore, occupy, and develop this magical place, they always need to pay with their lives.

No wonder the entrance outside doesn't mention the true situation here at all.

Many people want to escape from here, but no matter what they say, the Armed Forces Bureau only has one thing to say: either shut up or get out of the water yourself. Don't bother me, I'm busy, who has time to care about you? If you cause trouble, see how sharp my knife is.

Those who die here cannot be taken out for burial; they are burned on the spot. Many 'missing persons' were definitely eaten by six-legged creatures, leaving no trace of their remains.

The entire camp was incredibly busy collecting corpses and treating the wounded. The six-legged creatures they had killed were also a major problem; there were just too many of them, piling up like mountains. If they weren't dealt with promptly, it was hard to say what dangerous consequences they might cause. In the end, they were still short-handed, and people were needed everywhere.

Instead of joining the crowd, Chen Xuan and the others moved around in a corner for a while. The little girl busied herself setting up a makeshift stove to cook, while Du Juan went to find ingredients.

As for Chen Xuan, he didn't slack off like he did at home; there were too many things in this place that piqued his curiosity.

Du Juan quickly found ingredients nearby: a pheasant, a rabbit, and a wild duck egg—enough for a hearty breakfast.

How could it not be plentiful? The pheasant was over two zhang tall when it stood up, the rabbit was the size of a big truck, and the duck eggs were the size of a washbasin. There was simply not enough to eat them all, and a small portion of them was enough.

Normally, a person is no different from an insect in front of a pheasant or rabbit, but the cuckoo is a natural expert and can hunt them with ease.

While they were busy preparing breakfast, Chen Xuan faced the rising sun, looked at the azure sky, lightly touched the ground with his toes, and his figure shot straight up into the sky like lightning, reaching a height of six or seven thousand feet. Even with all his strength, he could not reach the top.

Logically, at this height, he should have almost broken through the earth's surface and reached the outside world, but he hadn't even touched the top; it was as if it were a real sky. He was a little unconvinced, so at this height, he double-jumped through the air, making the air feel almost tangible. He used his best lightness skill to continue climbing, doing this several times, reaching tens of thousands of feet high, but still couldn't reach the top.

Then he decisively gave up the light descent. It wasn't that he couldn't continue to increase his height; he could have remained airborne until his true energy was exhausted. It was just that it was pointless now, and he figured that continuing to increase his height would have yielded the same result.

After landing, he fell into deep thought, truly feeling that even if Sister Li or Sister Wang came, they probably wouldn't be able to answer his questions.

He was a Grandmaster who had achieved his own path, and his senses were incredibly powerful and acute. He carefully recalled every detail of his journey here, and there was nothing strange about it.

At this point, he began to doubt whether his senses were playing tricks on him, so he chose to trust his intuition. But his intuition told him that everything was normal and that he had not fallen into any environmental or other problems.

Then the illogical part comes out: if everything is normal, this place is underground, and from the surface to this depth, it's a maximum of 30,000 feet, so why can't it reach the dome? It's like a real sky.

This is a question that neither he nor anyone else here can figure out. They just don't understand it yet, so they choose not to dwell on it too much. Of course, no one has explored at such a high altitude like him so far; you have to have that kind of ability.

'Ultimately, my cultivation level isn't high enough to see through the true nature of this place. If I reached the Tribulation Transcending Realm and could achieve truly unrestricted flight, perhaps then I could try to see if I could reach the top. Of course, at that level, I probably wouldn't have so many doubts. But this is just ridiculous. My intuition tells me that since everything is normal, how do I explain this place? We haven't passed through any teleportation arrays or anything like that. Is it a blessed land? An alternate dimension?'

Chen Xuan was in a real bind, filled with self-doubt.

Then his gaze turned to the distance. Since he couldn't reach the top, did this place have a boundary?
At this moment, he had the urge to explore the boundaries, but he suppressed it. The distance was not the same as the sky. This place was too mysterious, with too many unknown dangers and uncertainties. Even he had to be careful.

"Who are you people? I've never seen you before." This question interrupted Chen Xuan's thoughts.

Looking back, they saw a member of the Armed Forces Control Division dressed in black, scrutinizing them with a slight frown.

Before Chen Xuan could speak, Du Juan asked, "Is there something you need?"

As the saying goes, beauty is justice. Faced with a beauty like Du Juan, his brows relaxed and his tone became a little kinder, but he still said with displeasure, "So many people are busy, and you are all leisurely, even cooking. What do you think this place is, a place for a spring outing?"

I must say, it smells pretty good, even more tempting than communal meals.

Upon hearing this, Dujuan replied expressionlessly, "What does this have to do with us? Leave at once and don't disturb my master, or don't blame me for being impolite."

"You... take your leave." The other party's expression changed slightly as he turned and left. He still had some self-awareness; this aura was undoubtedly at the Innate Realm, and he didn't want to stay and make a fool of himself.

There are many innate masters here. As a member of the Martial Arts Restriction Bureau, he is very familiar with them. Innate masters are important figures everywhere. Even here, they have a lot of freedom. But no matter who they are, they must obey the management of the Martial Arts Restriction Bureau. Even Yu Dingbo, the leader of the East Blade Tower, has to cooperate. He can't afford to offend them, so only the higher-ups can come.

"Master, dinner is ready," the little maid greeted, not paying any attention to the little incident.

Chen Xuan didn't mind, sat down at the makeshift table, picked up his bowl and chopsticks and ate while saying, "After the meal, I plan to go to the back to see if I can find the boundary. This place is deep underground, it can't be as almost infinite as the outside. What do you guys think?"

“We’ll listen to the master, no need to ask for our opinion,” the little maid said with a smile, placing a piece of food on his plate.

Chen Xuan said while eating, "What I mean is that there might be some uncertain dangers. Well, I can't just leave you here. It's safer for you to stay with me. Anyway, if we can figure out the general area of ​​this place, we might be able to understand what's going on."

"Is it important?" the little girl asked curiously.

Shrugging, Chen Xuan laughed, "It's not important, just curious. Aren't you surprised that there's such a magical and huge place underground?"

“This is not a problem we should be considering,” Du Juan said after a moment’s hesitation.

Hearing this, Chen Xuan was both amused and exasperated. Yes, what good would it do to figure it out? Could he overthrow them? There was nothing here that he absolutely needed, nor was there anything that he absolutely needed to kill. As a result, his interest immediately waned.

However, as I said before, since we're already here, let's take a look around. We won't insist on anything.

As they were eating and drinking, another person arrived, speaking in a gentle yet unquestionable tone: "When did you arrive? I heard you didn't register?"

The underlying meaning of this statement is clearly a reminder that once they arrive at this place, they must obey the management arrangements.

The voice sounded somewhat familiar. Without waiting for Du Juan to dismiss him, Chen Xuan put down his chopsticks, stood up, cupped his hands in greeting, and said with a smile, "Junior Chen Xuan greets Sect Leader Yu. It's nice to meet you again. How have you been lately?"

The previous report about Chen Xuan and his group was submitted, but Shi Qingguan, the head of the Martial Arts Prohibition Bureau, was too busy to come. He sent someone to notify Yu Dingbo to come and supervise. After all, he was the head of the Dongdao Tower, and his words carried a lot of weight. People in the martial arts world would give him some face.

They call it supervision, but in reality, they treat everyone who comes here like cattle. Don't like it? Heh, what do you think this place is? Who can make decisions for you?

"Who are you?" Yu Dingbo was taken aback. Chen Xuan's reaction really surprised him. It was as if he was facing an acquaintance. He had a vague impression of him, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him for a moment.

With a smile, Chen Xuan gestured and said, "Sect Leader Yu, you seem to have a bad memory. I am Chen Xuan. I met you briefly last year at Zhang Lanlan's house. It's better to meet by chance than to have a formal encounter. Why don't we sit down and have something to eat together?"

Last year at Zhang Lanlan's house, Chen Xuan was not at the same table as them and did not even speak to them, so it is normal that Yu Dingbo did not think of him at first.

At this moment, Yu Dingbo finally remembered, realizing it was actually this gentleman. Startled, he bowed deeply with a mixture of trepidation and excitement, saying, "So it's Young Master Chen in person. I have been impolite; please forgive me if I have offended you."

...(End of chapter)