Otherworld

Vast green mountains stretched as far as the eye could see.

Ancient trees stood everywhere. Dead old vines clung tightly to their trunks, while the forest floor was deep and dim, with scarcely a ray of sunlight visible. Birds and beasts moved through the treetops, flickering in and out of sight.

Accompanied by a faint flash of white light, a human figure suddenly appeared in the sky and fell straight downward.

At first, the figure was covered in dark green stripes. As it fell, light and shadow flowed over it in shifting changes.

One moment it became translucent like air; the next, it took on stripes formed from green leaves and brown dead branches. At last, it turned the brownish-yellow of fallen leaves carpeting the ground. Without a careful look, no one would have noticed that something else was hidden there.

"Warning! Impact detected..."

"Oxygen concentration normal... No harmful gases... Faint spiritual energy concentration..."

The instant he fell, Jiang Ding hugged his knees and rolled from the treetops to the ground like a ball, while his tactical helmet reported a string of data.

It was only a drop of a dozen or so meters, and the camouflage suit had cushioned the impact. He was uninjured.

"Plants and animals present, air normal, spiritual energy present..."

Jiang Ding rose to his feet and took a deep breath. He knew his gamble had succeeded.

He could not let down his guard in the slightest.

If this was the territory of Outer Realm Cultivators, he would be finished. He had to be cautious and not casually reveal modern technological items.

"Go back."

Jiang Ding spoke silently.

His vision blurred. The vast mountain forest vanished, replaced by the white wallpaper of a hotel room. Outside the window was Rongcheng City First Hospital, with crowds constantly flowing past.

Jiang Ding relaxed. "Go back again."

Clutching his longsword, he carefully made his way through the dense forest. At last, he found a large rock exposed to sunlight, took out two cylinders the size of basketballs from his backpack, set them on the ground, and pulled their fuses one by one.

Bang! Bang!

Amid the flare of booster propellant, four drones successively flew dozens of meters into the air. After staggering briefly, they unfolded their rotors and stabilized in the sky, forming a standard square formation.

Jiang Ding took out the control grip. The four drones rose higher and higher, climbing all the way to over two thousand meters—most Foundation Establishment Cultivators had divine sense ranges of less than two thousand meters, and most birds could not fly that high either. It was roughly safe.

The drone cameras activated. The left and right views projected inside his panoramic tactical helmet showed forests rapidly shrinking below, while blue dots continuously appeared across the images.

"Unknown monkey-like creature, Mortal Beast... Black-and-white striped tiger..."

"Unknown snake-like creature..."

Information on the species, locations, strength, and other details of all large creatures within a six-square-kilometer radius rapidly refreshed.

Jiang Ding had configured creatures with strength equivalent to the Inner Qi Realm to be marked with red dots. None had appeared so far, which matched the ecological conditions of a low-spiritual-energy environment.

"So many unknown creatures!" Jiang Ding's hand trembled, and delight colored his voice.

The Immortal Sect's thirst for knowledge was endless!

Nature was an enormous treasure vault, and among its most precious treasures were the bodily structures and genetic codes of the various plants and animals within its ecosystems.

Whether it was the studies of the spiritless era that imitated dragonfly wings and the serrated edges of grass-family plants, or the modern research and manufacture of cultivation techniques and magical artifacts, or the development of new spiritual pills, all drew heavily upon structures and materials evolved by plants and animals in nature. Every new plant or animal represented a possibility, and to the Immortal Sect, each was priceless.

The Immortal Sect Library stipulated that submitting one complete specimen of an unknown plant or animal earned one Library Point.

Immortal Sect Library Points had enormous uses, chiefly divided into two purposes.

First, Library Points could be exchanged for guidance and answers from high-level cultivators. This was not the sort of answer where someone happened to be in a good mood, casually said a few words, and left you to comprehend it yourself. It was the sort conducted seriously and meticulously under the supervision of the Array Spirit Computer, with every effort made to ensure you understood.

Second, if one accumulated ten thousand points, the Central Array Spirit Computer could custom-create a cultivation technique restricted to a particular realm for a cultivator.

Talent, talent!

If there were a cultivation technique that perfectly suited someone, then even if his aptitude were terrible, by cultivating a technique wholly compatible with him, every movement he made would naturally meet the technique's highest requirements. How could he not be a genius?

"This is the charm of exploring an unknown world."

Jiang Ding left one drone hovering in reserve and controlled the other three to spread out in three separate directions, with roughly five kilometers between each drone.

He marked out a safe zone at least ten kilometers across.

"Buildings, traces of humans?" Jiang Ding's heart tightened.

In the drone's view, a narrow winding mountain path appeared. At its end stood several mud-and-thatch huts, with several large holes broken through their roofs. Inside, one could see wild grass and scrubwood as tall as a person, as well as the broken head of a mud Buddha figurine lying on the ground.

For the time being, Jiang Ding had no intention of making contact with humans.

The language barrier was a major problem.

Soon, all three drones reached their designated locations, with no further discoveries.

Clang!

His longsword left its sheath and slashed diagonally across the suddenly emerging bright red snakehead, neatly splitting its body, more than a meter long, into two halves.

"Unknown snake-like creature, Mortal Beast."

The tactical helmet's warning arrived belatedly.

Jiang Ding frowned. "It is civilian equipment after all. Its precision is low, and it has gaps in its monitoring of small creatures."

Then he felt it was a pity.

This was an unknown creature not recorded in the Immortal Sect Library. If he captured it, he could earn one point.

The lack of a container was a problem. It would be best to buy a sturdier specimen case; otherwise, it would be troublesome if someone got hurt.

Unfortunately, he was already out of money—not a single cent left.

Jiang Ding's gaze was drawn to a dark green herb beneath the snake carcass, its leaves branching repeatedly. He zoomed in with the camera.

"Unknown plant, may be named."

"Branching Grass."

Jiang Ding named it casually. Compared with animals, plants were easier and safer to collect, but their roots, leaves, stems, and every other part had to remain intact.

He drew his sword, cut down a tree as thick as a thigh, then split it into planks to use as specimen boxes.

Jiang Ding carefully dug out the roots, brushing away the soil bit by bit before gathering the stems and leaves together. It was delicate work. There could not be the slightest lapse during the entire process, or the roots, stems, or leaves might snap.

After a long while, he collected the complete specimen and secured it piece by piece onto a thin wooden board with small wooden forks.

"Twenty-one minutes, one point."

Jiang Ding glanced at the clock in his tactical helmet and calculated silently. "Even if I neither slept nor rested, and did not need to travel all over the place to collect them, it would still take at least half a year to save up ten thousand points!"

"Not to mention that many plants have roots, stems, and leaves far more developed than this little grass. Twenty-one minutes would not be nearly enough to collect them. Add up all the odds and ends of time, and even 4.5 years might not be enough."

Even so, Jiang Ding did not stop. Instead, he found another grassy plant and began digging.

Compared with his previous cultivation, which had offered no hope at all, this feeling of inching closer to his goal was wonderful. He did not find it tedious either.

He dug for more than four hours straight. The sun hung high at noon, and the weather gradually grew hot and dry.

Jiang Ding could still endure it, but it was already past ten at night back home. If he did not return soon, his mother would probably call the police.

He opened his eyes.

Night had fallen outside the window, neon lights flickered, and the entrance to the city's First Hospital remained bustling.

Jiang Ding looked at the stack of specimen boards in his arms, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face.

Having inherited the legacy of the previous era of civilization and gone through many civil wars, today's Immortal Sect had made great efforts toward equality.

Even high-level cultivators, capable of burning mountains and boiling seas, could not take the life of an ordinary person.

Not that they could not do so casually—they simply could not do so at all. So long as he had broken no law and committed no attack, regardless of the reason and regardless of whether it drew public attention, a high-level cultivator could not kill even the weakest ordinary person.

If they violated this, the Central Array Spirit Computer forged by generations of sages would let the lawbreaker understand what true power was, what a true great being was!

Even Deity Transformation Cultivators could not influence the Central Array Spirit Computer's program logic or view anyone's private information.

Unless they destroyed it.

Jiang Ding set the fourteen specimen boards on the floor, took out his phone, entered the Immortal Sect Library, clicked to apply to submit newly discovered plant specimens, requested anonymous confidentiality, then sat on the bed to rest.

He trusted the Central Array Spirit Computer. Such a high Moral Character Score was no joke.

Knock, knock knock!

Chirp chirp!

Several minutes later, the sound of a bird's beak lightly pecking at the window came from outside.

Jiang Ding opened the window, and a kingfisher the size of a palm dropped its invisibility and flew into the room.

Hooked onto its claws was a specimen case half a person tall, utterly disproportionate to its tiny body.

Jiang Ding relaxed.

This little creature was called a kingfisher. It served as a messenger for the Central Array Spirit Computer and the Array Spirit Computers in various places. They normally lived at the mainframe location of the Central Array Spirit Computer—the Sacred Tree Covering the Sky Banyan—and on its branches in different regions.

"Chirp chirp!"

Little Green Bird urged him on.

Jiang Ding sensed that she was somewhat unhappy, as though she had already gotten off work only to be forcibly dragged back for overtime. He hurriedly opened the specimen case and placed all fourteen specimen boards inside one by one.

"Thanks for the effort, thank you very much!"

"Chirp!"

Little Green Bird shot him a sidelong glance, grabbed the specimen case, and both she and the case became transparent before vanishing out the window.

Jiang Ding removed his helmet, let out a light breath, took off his camouflage suit, gloves, and shoes, changed into his usual school uniform, then put the three drones back into their cardboard boxes one by one.

One drone was still floating in the skies of the otherworld.

Jiang Ding needed twenty-four-hour intelligence on that area. It would be dangerous if someone lay in ambush somewhere when he crossed over again.

The detection precision of civilian drones could only be called usable. Someone could probably evade it just by casually covering himself in a layer of mud.

He checked out.

He drew no particular attention. People came and went through the hotel all day, all sorts of people. If the staff got curious about every slightly unusual person, the front desk would have run out of brainpower long ago.

When he got home, his mother had indeed returned and was watching television with Jiang Yuan.

Lin Wanqiu's face was stern. "Ding Ding, where did you go? Why are you only coming back so late?"

Luckily, he had showered at the hotel earlier, so there was no mud or sweat on him.

"I went to the park with my classmates."

"Mom! He's lying!" Jiang Yuan cried, fearing the world would not be chaotic. "He has never played with any classmate until after eleven at night before."

Jiang Ding ignored her. Hugging the cardboard box, he quickly went to his room to put everything away, then took a bottle of beverage from the refrigerator and sat beside Lin Wanqiu.

Lin Wanqiu was a technician at Rongcheng Steel Plant, at Inner Qi Perfection. Her salary was fairly high, but the work was exhausting, and she often had to work overtime until eight or nine at night.

Of course, having given birth to a handsome young man like Jiang Ding, Lin Wanqiu herself was naturally gentle and beautiful.

It was said that when Lin Wanqiu and Jiang Ding's father, Jiang Chaoyang, were in school, people jokingly called them the campus beauty and campus heartthrob. They were seen as a match made in heaven, lovers destined to become husband and wife.

As for what happened later, one could only sigh. The fairy tale of princesses and princes truly existed only in books.

"Ding Ding, it could be dangerous outside so late..."

Lin Wanqiu looked at Jiang Ding worriedly, stopping herself before she could say more.

"Mom, don't worry. Banyan City's public security is still very good." Jiang Ding promised, "Next time, if everyone else wants to play too late, I'll come back early."

The family chatted for a while, then got up and returned to their rooms.

Normally, Lin Wanqiu and Jiang Yuan would already have been asleep by eleven at night. They had deliberately waited for Jiang Ding and were exhausted beyond measure.