Otherworld Collision Theory

Surrounded by a vast expanse of white mist on a two-hundred-square-meter small island, a young man in his early twenties stared at the unremarkable little tree in front of him with a silly grin.

Lin Li gazed fondly at the Azure Fruit growing from the Miracle Small Tree, letting his thoughts wander as he chuckled to himself.

"Forget it, becoming an investigator or something like that—I shouldn't even think about it. That's a law enforcement agency full of Cultivators with unfathomable cultivation levels. If I really became an investigator and had to commute to a place like that every day, I'd probably slip up and expose the Mysterious Small Island. Besides, those enviable benefits of being an investigator are tempting for me right now, sure. But given time, with this Miracle Small Tree on the Mysterious Small Island and the miraculous little fruits it grows, I'm bound to become an incredibly powerful Cultivator. What I'll gain then will far surpass those benefits. There's a saying, isn't there? People need to take the long view—don't trade away a watermelon for a sesame seed over petty gains."

Standing before the unremarkable Miracle Small Tree, Lin Li pulled his scattered thoughts back together.

Before leaving, he took one last look at the delicate little Azure Fruit growing on the Miracle Small Tree and muttered to himself.

"Baby, you wait. I'll finish lunch and then drive straight into the wilderness."

With that, Lin Li focused his mind, and in an instant, he vanished from the island.

Come July, the summer noons grew hotter and hotter.

Fluffy, cotton-candy-like white clouds drifted across the azure sky.

Some of these clouds clustered together, like silver-white waves rolling in the sea, while others stacked in layers, resembling delicious cakes from a bakery.

"Cicada, cicada..."

The fiercer the afternoon sun and the higher the temperature, the happier these summer sprites—the cicadas—became. They seemed to have endless energy, telling the world of their joy.

"Rumble..."

A silver van appeared on the suburban road, driven by a young man in his early twenties.

"Having a car really makes things easier. This trip saved me a lot of time."

Lin Li sped his rented silver van swiftly toward the wilderness outside the city.

Inside the city, traffic was still congested, but once he left the bustling urban area and entered the suburbs, then beyond the suburbs, the traffic grew smoother and smoother.

The closer he got to Chenghua Avenue, the fewer vehicles he encountered.

This was only natural. After years of government propaganda and education, residents living in towns and cities—whether children as young as three or four or elders as old as seventy or eighty—all knew that Exotic Beasts often roamed the wilderness. Unless necessary, no one risked venturing in.

This parallel world, named Blue Star, originally followed the same historical development as Earth.

That is, until a hundred years ago, when Spiritual Energy suddenly appeared in this world. Humans began awakening their spirituality, Cultivators emerged, and some Cultivators awakened various supernatural abilities.

Under normal historical progression, this world might have been another version of Earth, sharing its history and technology.

As for why Spiritual Energy suddenly appeared in this world a hundred years ago, that was something governments worldwide were now researching intensively.

According to rumors circulating online, after years of study, governments had made some progress on why Spiritual Energy appeared in this world, but they hadn't released their findings to the public.

Inside sources claimed that Blue Star's Spiritual Energy emergence a hundred years ago was due to a collision between Blue Star and a world from another dimension.

That other world possessed Spiritual Energy, and after the collision, Blue Star was influenced by it, gradually developing Spiritual Energy of its own.

This was the "Otherworld Collision Theory" spreading online.

Lin Li always treated such online rumors as little stories—fun to read, but he never took them seriously. He was just an ordinary person; why the world had such a miraculous thing as Spiritual Energy wasn't his concern. Getting his own life in order was what mattered most.

"Cicada, cicada..."

The farther he drove toward the wilderness, the louder the cicadas chirped on the roadside trees.

Under Lin Li's driving, the silver van soon reached Chenghua Avenue and sped toward the wilderness.

Past Chenghua Avenue, walking to the wilderness on foot would take about half an hour, but driving took only a few minutes.

"Screech..."

The wilderness lay ahead. Lin Li slowed down and pulled the van over to the side of the road, parking in the shade of a lush roadside tree.

Before entering the wilderness, he needed to change his gear.

With a thought, the camouflage uniform he'd stored on the Mysterious Small Island appeared in his hands.

After changing, Lin Li opened the door and got out.

"Whoosh..."

A gust of wind suddenly blew, carrying a wave of heat. Accustomed to the cool air conditioning in the van, Lin Li felt a wave of stuffiness.

Of course, that discomfort couldn't stop Lin Li from heading into the wilderness to hunt Exotic Beasts.

Just thinking about the Azure Fruit growing on the Miracle Small Tree on the Mysterious Small Island filled him with energy.

"Let's go! I'll hunt five Rabbit Exotic Beasts like last time before the sun goes down."

Lin Li gave himself a little encouragement, then with a single thought, the Spirit Artifact Longsword, worth four hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine yuan, instantly appeared in his hand.

Gripping the Spirit Artifact Longsword, Lin Li stepped out from under the shade of the trees and headed toward the nearby wilderness.

Taking one step off the solid, flat road onto the weed-choked wild ground, Lin Li had now left human society behind, entering a wilderness teeming with danger and roving with all kinds of strange beasts.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."

From time to time, waves of hot air swept across the wilderness, rustling the man-high weeds and producing a series of sounds.

Although he had once entered the wilderness to hunt strange beasts, Lin Li still felt a bit nervous stepping into it again.

Even though he now had a way to save himself by entering the Mysterious Small Island, that only worked if he wasn't ambushed and instantly killed by a sudden beast.

Of course, even if he wasn't killed outright, being severely wounded by a beast's ambush and left on the brink of death—even if he remained conscious and could enter the Mysterious Small Island with a single thought—he would likely still die in the end.