Misty Rain of the Old Times

"Why did it stop... What the hell is that?!" The little girl opened her eyes curiously and asked, then screamed in surprise, even blurting out Chen Xuan's occasional catchphrase to express her current mood.

Her hair stood on end and her heart trembled. She was instinctively terrified and uneasy. She was quite frightened by what she saw and subconsciously hugged Chen Xuan's arm to feel a little safe.

Ahead, dark clouds rolled and churned, obscuring the sky and the earth, their buzzing sounds echoing in all directions.

Seeing their surprise and doubt, Chen Xuan wanted to say, "I don't know either," but instead raised an eyebrow and said, "A swarm of insects I've never seen before. They look quite dangerous, hmm, for you two."

A swarm of insects? That was clearly a huge black cloud! The little girl said nervously, "Even Master doesn't know? But what kind of swarm of insects could reach this size? It must be at least dozens of miles in circumference!"

Actually, it wasn't just that; it's just that the little girl's eyesight was limited. Chen Xuan had observed that the swarm of insects covered an area of ​​over a hundred miles. He was speechless and said, "I'm not omnipotent, how could I possibly know everything? Even Young Master Gao, with his vast knowledge, wouldn't dare say he knows everything, okay? Besides, there's nothing to be surprised about in this magical underground world."

Dujuan was more composed than the little girl, but she still exclaimed in terror, "Master, look! The way that swarm of insects is passing by is... it's just like a locust plague! No, it's even more terrifying than a locust plague!"

Indeed, just as they were speaking, a black, surging swarm of insects moved toward their left front, and the scene it left behind was truly horrifying.

The forest of giant trees that were originally hundreds of feet tall has lost its tender leaves in early spring. Even the branches have been eaten away, and the middle and upper parts are gone, leaving only the trunks. Moreover, the upper half of the remaining trunks has no bark, making them look like towering pillars supporting the sky.

Judging from the situation, the trunk was originally devoured by the black cloud-like swarm of insects, leaving only the main stem. It's unclear whether it's waiting for the tree to grow and then feed on it again. Perhaps the insect swarm understands sustainable development?

Not only that, the area where the swarm was located was completely devoid of life. Any creature that fell into the swarm's range would vanish without a trace in the blink of an eye, leaving not even a hair or a scrap of hair behind. Even the ferocious six-legged creatures that Chen Xuan and his companions had seen were the same, not to mention other creatures.

In the vast forest, hundreds of birds took flight in fright, trying their best to escape the swarm of insects. Once overwhelmed by the insects, they would be reduced to nothing but bones.

The earth trembled and roared, and all the beasts fled.

The idea that everything in this magical place is gigantic is not just an empty phrase. The fleeing herds of beasts and the startled birds are all enormous, with many being ten or even tens of feet tall, and giant beasts over a hundred feet tall can be seen everywhere!
Some birds of prey can blot out the sky with their wingspan, while enormous beasts are like moving mountains, capable of breaking and overturning giant trees hundreds of feet tall.

The scene was clearly one of hundreds of birds and beasts facing great terror. Chen Xuan sensed that many ferocious beasts with danger levels comparable to those of the Innate Martial Dao were fleeing, and even one of them, whose aura was equivalent to that of a Grandmaster, avoided its sharp edge!
The girls were not terrified by the black cloud-like swarm of insects themselves, but by the true reaction of nature. Few people could remain calm in the face of such a sight, and even Chen Xuan was shocked.

"Master, let's hurry and get away from those swarms of insects," the little girl said instinctively, genuinely frightened.

Remaining relatively calm, Chen Xuan shook his head and said, "No rush. It just looks scary; it can't threaten us. Not only is the swarm not heading our way, but even if it were, we could easily escape danger, even if we couldn't wipe them all out."

He was the backbone, and the girls felt a little relieved upon hearing this.

Du Juan gazed at the terrifying scene in the distance and murmured, "This place is truly horrifying; everything I've seen has overturned all my previous understanding."

"It's alright. If you were to witness a master who treats stars like marbles, that would be beyond your imagination," Chen Xuan said with a smile.

The little girl looked up curiously and asked, "Playing with stars like marbles? Can you actually touch the stars in the night sky? Master, have you ever seen them?"

She didn't know what it meant to play with stars like marbles. After all, people in this era had limited knowledge and only knew that stars were far away, not that they were that big. So she was only curious that someone could touch the stars.

Chen Xuan decisively shook his head and said, "I've never seen it, sir. I've only heard about it from others."

Just kidding, that's at least a technique of the Human Immortal realm. Chen Xuan is still far from that level. Besides, not all Human Immortals have the ability to control the stars. After all, everyone has different strengths and focuses. Some are good at creating, and some are good at destroying.

Among the many messages that Lao Liu left for Chen Xuan, there were only a few words about the Human Immortal realm. After all, he never reached that level before he died. Lao Liu, who originally possessed the power to destroy the world, lost his overwhelming abilities under the Human Tribulation and was easily killed by the Ghost Head Blade.

Chen Xuan wasn't sure if a Human Immortal could actually destroy a star, since he hadn't witnessed it firsthand. However, he felt it was probably possible, as the difference between martial arts cultivation levels was like heaven and earth.

Now that he has the cultivation of a Grandmaster, he can forcibly change the environment of an area of ​​hundreds of miles. A Human Immortal is a being two whole major realms higher than him. At that level, playing with some small stars should not be difficult, right?
Of course, even within the same realm, there are differences in strength. Perhaps a powerful immortal can manipulate a star, and a top-tier immortal might even be able to create a black hole or neutron star with their bare hands.

Seeing him shake his head, the little maid blinked and said, "Master hasn't seen it either. Could it be from a picture book? But even picture books wouldn't dare to write like that, at least Madam never wrote anything like that."

The lady she was referring to was naturally the little princess, and they knew that the little princess was the hermit of listening to the wind.

"Just assume I saw it in a picture book," Chen Xuan said dismissively, since there was no way to prove such a thing at the moment.

His gaze remained fixed on the terrifying swarm of insects. He thought to himself that these things were somewhat similar to the Flame Crystal Insects that Liu Zhenwei had created in the desert a few years ago, only these things were much more terrifying than the Flame Crystal Insects.

Similarly, among the swarms of insects, does that black swarm contain a queen, lord, or queen insect, and can eliminating it solve the entire swarm problem?

Such speculation is unreliable, and Chen Xuan would not try it and invite trouble for himself. Not every insect swarm will collapse and disintegrate after its leader is eliminated; that would be too naive.

They silently watched the chaotic scene unfold, observing the swarm of insects moving into the distance, without actively provoking them.

Standing high up, they were unaffected by the herds of beasts fleeing through the dense forest on the ground, and the startled birds of prey also flew as high as possible away from the insect swarms, having no time to actively target them. In front of those enormous creatures that could easily be dozens of feet tall, they were like insects, not even enough to fill a tooth gap.

They were merely silent spectators witnessing this scene unfolding in nature.

However, after they watched for a while, the two huge birds of prey, which were flying around in terror, collided in the sky with a dull thud. Feathers flew everywhere, and one of the birds of prey lost its balance and fell towards Chen Xuan and the others.

It was a giant eagle with wings covered in metal. Its body was silvery white, and its feathers gleamed with a metallic sheen. They clanged together with a metallic sound. Its wingspan was more than thirty feet. Its aura was no less dangerous than that of Ye Hong, a mid-level innate martial artist, from a few years ago.

Just as they were about to collide, the little girl was terrified. Chen Xuan simply raised his hand and gently pushed the giant eagle aside. It was more than ten feet away when it was pushed aside by a force and stumbled into the dense forest. Amid the crashing sound, the giant eagle cried out. It was huge, but in the dense forest hundreds of feet high, it was no different from a small bird. It couldn't make any waves and might even become food for other beasts. After all, there were too many powerful creatures in this place.

This was just a minor incident. About fifteen minutes later, the dark swarm of insects went into the distance, presumably having eaten their fill, and disappeared into the dense forest from Chen Xuan and the others' sight. Gradually, the chaotic nature calmed down again.

It's unclear whether the swarm of insects returned to their nest or was simply a nomadic group finding a place to rest.

After things calmed down, Chen Xuan pondered for a moment, then led the little girl and the others to the place where the insect swarm had passed. They stood on the top of a huge, bare tree trunk, the crown of which had disappeared, leaving the main trunk that resembled a mountain.

For miles around, all life was extinguished; no greenery or biological activity could be seen, all devoured by the swarm of insects, leaving only a chilling stillness. Looking in the direction the swarm had passed, the once vibrant forest seemed to have been erased by an eraser, creating a barrier that stretched for at least a thousand miles to the horizon.

In other words, a single appearance of that swarm of insects can destroy an area of ​​hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, which is simply terrifying!
Being in this lifeless area, Dujuan and her companions deeply experienced the terror of the insect swarm.

Chen Xuan squatted down and reached out to touch the tree trunk that had been gnawed by the insects. It was very rough, and the tiny gnaw marks looked as if the tree crown had been melted away and disappeared into thin air.

Somewhat surprised by the swarm's ability to devour, Chen Xuan stood up and examined it briefly. Then, he reached out and beckoned a few feet away, and a small black dot fell into his hand.

It was only the size of a fingernail, completely black, triangular in shape, and somewhat heavy, resembling a lump of iron.

This was one of the insects in the black cloud-like swarm, or rather, a corpse. It had long since lost its life and was extremely cold, clearly frozen to death by some kind of icy force. There were quite a few such insect corpses; there were more than ten at the top of the tree trunk where Chen Xuan and the others were, and countless more were scattered around.

The reason why the swarm of insects is so terrifying is because of the collective nature of the group; while individual insects are not particularly vulnerable, they are not very dangerous either.

The insect swarms that once devoured everything also faced resistance and death from other creatures. Some of the beasts possessed special abilities that allowed them to kill some of the insects, but they too could not escape being overwhelmed and devoured by the terrifying number of insects.

Despite the fact that the insect swarm wiped out such a large area, many of them themselves also perished. Nature has its own set of laws, and no creature can be the absolute overlord. If these insects cannot be killed and are allowed to multiply and grow, there will probably be no other creatures in this magical place. In the end, they will destroy everything, and without anything to eat, they will also perish.

"Master, is this the same kind of insect as before?" Dujuan asked.

Hearing this, the little girl became somewhat frightened and said nervously, "Master, throw it away quickly. This kind of thing is ominous; who knows if it's poisonous?"

Chen Xuan wasn't afraid of the poison, especially since he hadn't made direct contact with it; he had simply used his true essence to examine it from above his palm.

Nodding in affirmation to Du Juan, Chen Xuan examined the creature and said, "The only advantage these things have is their sheer numbers. Nature has its own way of balancing things; while they devour everything, they will also be resisted and killed. Everything here is incredibly illogical, and perhaps it is precisely because of this that it has been able to survive for so long. Otherwise, the final result would only be the destruction of everything."

Du Juan and the little maid exchanged glances. They didn't quite understand these profound things. The little maid, instinctively fearful, shook her head and said, "Master, you should throw it away quickly. It's best to have less of these ominous things."

He flicked the insects away with his finger, but they were useless. Chen Xuan only glanced at them briefly because he had witnessed the terrifying power of their swarm.

He chuckled and said, "Let's continue to see if we can find the boundary. Although this swarm of insects is terrifying, it doesn't multiply and grow as rapidly as the Flame Crystal Insects after feeding. It seems they have a relatively normal reproductive process. It's very likely that their feeding this time was for reproduction, but quite a few of them died in the process, probably about one-fifth."

As they spoke, Chen Xuan led them away into the distance.

"Flame Crystal Insect? What's that?" the little girl asked curiously, her eyes still closed.

Du Juan explained, "There's another kind of terrifying insect. Eight years ago, Liu Zhenwei, the leader of the Chongyan Sect, somehow got hold of it. It nearly caused a catastrophe in the martial arts world, and no one could do anything about it. In the end, it was Master who stepped in to solve it. At that time, Master disguised himself as Yang and went to watch the show, which happened to be the case. Otherwise, if Liu Zhenwei had been allowed to continue his arrogance, who knows what would have happened?"

Du Juan was active in Mo City back then. Although she didn't go there in person, she was close by and knew the details of the events. Chen Xuan also took the initiative to admit that he had transformed into Yang Guo back then, so she knew more about what happened back then than many people.

"Ah, another kind of insect, Sister Juan, can you tell me about it?"

"Alright, the Flame Crystal Insect, it all started eight years ago when Liu Zhenwei challenged Guo Jinglong of the Cold Mountain Sword Sect. Back then..."

Driving at breakneck speed in a straight line to see if he could reach the border of this place, Chen Xuan didn't find it boring at all, listening to Du Juan and the little girl chattering about things from back then.

Chen Xuan only wanted to see if there was a border and did not actively provoke the creatures here, so things went smoothly for the next period of time.

But to his surprise, this place seemed like another world, seemingly without any boundaries. At least, Chen Xuan led them for seventy or eighty thousand miles without seeing the edge!

The straight-line distance from Yu Dingbo's camp is seventy to eighty thousand miles. Just from that, the area of ​​this place already far exceeds the combined territory of the Jing, Rong, Yuhua, and Shuangyue kingdoms.

Such a vast environment is certainly not just a static forest of towering trees. Swamps, deserts, and lakes also exist. Different powerful creatures inhabit different environments. Even walking in a straight line, Chen Xuan sensed the aura of dozens of creatures comparable to the cultivation level of a grandmaster.

With no hope in sight, Chen Xuan wasn't determined to get stuck on that one point; he was even prepared to give up if all else failed.

The existence of such a vast underground space is definitely illogical. He doesn't understand it for now. He just feels that his cultivation level is not high enough to see through the essence of this place. He doesn't understand it now, but he can study it again when his cultivation level is higher. It's highly likely that this place won't disappear.

'Damn it, it's unlikely that when we came in, we unknowingly passed through a teleportation array or a portal and ended up in another world or planet. After all, historically, the Wanku Mountain mine was directly excavated through this area; at least the entrance is located beneath Wanku Mountain.'

As Chen Xuan pondered these thoughts, he felt that he lacked knowledge and his brain was not up to par.

Having obtained the Earth Magnetic Essence, Chen Xuan still needs to go home and study the formation. With his wedding to the little princess in two months, Chen Xuan doesn't have much time to waste here doing meaningless things.

Just as he was about to head home, he suddenly saw a high wall on the horizon and was taken aback. Could that be the border?

A rough estimate of the distance shows that the high wall is more than 100,000 miles away from Dingbo's camp!

After traveling several hundred miles further, Chen Xuan and his group approached the wall and found themselves on a wide open plain.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be not the border wall Chen Xuan had guessed, but an ordinary wall, or more accurately, a city wall, only relatively high, perhaps a couple hundred feet tall, built of huge stones, bearing the mottled marks of history, majestic and weathered.

Standing dozens of miles away, looking ahead, Chen Xuan subconsciously scratched his butt and exclaimed in astonishment, "There's such a tall wall here! A city wall! There's an unbelievably large city here!"

Du Juan and Su Roujia were equally shocked by the city wall in front of them, their faces filled with disbelief.

While Chen Xuan was still in shock, the little girl pointed ahead and exclaimed in astonishment, "Master, there... there are people living in that city, and people are going in and out of the city gate, but... but, those are people, right? I'm definitely awake?"

...(End of chapter)