New Otherworld Visitor

The strange dream still tortured Cheng Yun at night, but this time it seemed different from the past.

Cheng Yun seemed to have dreamed of a world, an alien civilization—its developmental process and vicissitudes of life, its cultural customs and historical changes, its pride and helplessness...

Initially, there were castles and shrines of strange designs in the dream, with tall, lean, and hunched commoners struggling to survive, and legends of gods, demons, and legendary creatures still circulating across the land.

Kingdom legions fought at the borders for the king's pride, and win or lose, they always left behind a landscape of mountains of corpses and rivers of blood; after the saturation bombardment of the mage corps, hardly even weeds could grow in the fields. To pay for the enormous military expenditures and secure logistics, the government increased taxes over and over again. Commoners born near war zones were even more pitiful; they were often forcibly conscripted, and no matter what the quartermasters made them do, most of them never returned.

Mercenary groups set off on 'dragon-slaying journeys' after constantly building up hype, while adventurers discovering new resource mines, grand duchesses being insatiable, and socialite maidens having affairs with royal nobles all became news spreading across the kingdom, diverting people's attention.

Invasions by enemy countries, internal uprisings, one kingdom falling and another rising, yet mostly repeating these same things.

It seemed that apart from possessing magic, that world was seemingly no different from ancient China and Europe. Only the mages never stopped their pace in the pursuit of truth; they used an entirely different method from earth's civilization to manifest universal rules and analyze all things in the world. Thus, the magical civilization began to rise, also driving the progress of social civilization.

When 'civilian armies' disintegrated the charge of the bloodline knight corps on the battlefield, new weapons replaced the wartime status of previous battlefield mage corps, and the ancient feudal system began to collapse. People gradually gained thoughts and for the first time knew what living meant.

Battle mages withdrew from the historical stage, instead allowing world civilization to have even faster development.

Machines roared and runes gleamed.

The boundless deserts of past rumors were spanned by highways, large bridges were erected over rift canyons, and transportation penetrated all parts of the world. Cruiser fleets broke through the myth of the dead sea, the armies of developed countries advanced to the edges of the territories of legendary races, and fighter jets and airships challenged the majesty of the ancient god race.

The world developed and progressed at lightning speed, and whenever people looked back, they could not believe they could achieve this extent.

A highly developed civilization, the great integration of races, eastern and western countries chasing after one another, and the rapid development of magic made the entire world change with each passing day and become incomparably unfamiliar.

Chip intelligence, space experiments, one new term after another appeared along with one new problem after another.

Finally, the perspective settled on a high mountain, as if Old Mage stood at this very spot, gazing into the distance at a modernized city on the horizon that could be called colossal—the tall buildings even pierced through the clouds, taller than the surrounding precipitous mountains, and civilian flying objects coming and going like bees could only shuttle between the gaps of the buildings. He wondered what kind of mind and sentiment Old Mage held at that time to gaze here at this civilized world, which was completely different from his youth.

When Cheng Yun woke up and checked, he found it was only six-thirty, and it was about time to get up and make breakfast.

He sat on the bed, rubbed his throbbing head, and dazed out for a moment. If he remembered correctly, this should be the only time he had dreamed of Old Mage's civilization up to this point; all other times were mountains, rivers, and scenery.

Getting up to wash up for a moment, he began to get busy.

After making breakfast, as usual he first took a portion to Old Mage, then went to the other end of the corridor to wake Cheng Yan, and the two of them carried the breakfast together and walked downstairs.

Halfway there, he met the cleaning aunt and immediately greeted her with a smile, "Morning, Aunt Tang. Have you eaten?"

"Eaten, eaten." Aunt Tang straightened her body, holding a mop with one hand and akimbo with the other, showing him a kind smile, "My granddaughter had to go to school this morning, so I ate before coming over and dropped her off at school along the way."

"Is that so!" Cheng Yun smiled, "Then we'll head downstairs first. Take your time."

"Okay, watch out, I just mopped the floor and it's very slippery!"

At this hour, the hotel was also about to open, and the diligent little girl Yu Dian stated that she had been sitting at the front desk for twenty minutes and had imagined the contents of this morning's breakfast several times over.

Cheng Yun brought down two steamers of freshly steamed frozen soup dumplings and a basin of century egg and lean pork congee, while Cheng Yan carried a plate of pickled side dishes and a plate of fermented bean curd. Except for the congee taking a little time, the rest were very simple, with an operational difficulty similar to instant noodles.

Just as they finished breakfast, the cleaning aunt walked down and asked Cheng Yun, "Um, Boss Cheng, are you going to clean that locked stairwell on the second and third floors?"

"Uh, that one isn't needed."

"I was just saying... the door won't even open." Aunt Tang muttered as she casually found a spot to sit on the stairs, unscrewed her water bottle, and took a sip of water.

The cleaning aunt was named Tang Guixiang, and she lived right in this neighborhood, taking five or six minutes to ride an electric scooter over here. But unlike Yu Dian, who used to rent a place to live, her son bought an apartment around this area and brought her over to take care of the child. Elderly people with nothing to do wanted to find some work to do, make some money to reduce the burden on their children, and incidentally not be so tight on money when giving pocket money to their granddaughter.

Originally, Cheng Yun should have provided her with meals and lodging, but first, she lived close by, and second, she had to take care of her grandson, and at noon she still had to go back to cook for her son and daughter-in-law, so she didn't eat or live here, nor did she ask for more money. The disadvantage was that sometimes if emergency cleaning was needed, she might not be around.

Probably related to yesterday's events, although Yu Dian was still very restrained when eating this morning, at least she dared to take the initiative to add congee, and almost ate a steamer of dumplings by herself.

Only she ate slowly, with small bites, which easily made people overlook the fact that she had eaten a lot.

"I'm finished, you guys eat slowly..." Cheng Yun just put down his chopsticks when a sudden surge of palpitation in his heart made him frown, "Huh?"

He still remembered this feeling; he had experienced it once a few days ago—Old Mage came that day!

Cheng Yan looked at him, "What's wrong? Did you eat a fly?"

"No!" Cheng Yun said as he stood up, "I suddenly remembered I have some business, I'm going upstairs first!"

"You just don't want to wash the dishes!" Cheng Yan rolled her eyes, "Go on, go on."

Yu Dian also hurriedly swallowed the mouthful of dumpling in her mouth and said, "You guys go first when you're done eating, just leave the bowls here, I'll wash them."

Cheng Yun nodded and turned to walk upstairs.

Passing the corner of the stairs, his speed suddenly accelerated, and he quickly ran to the second floor and knocked on Old Mage's door.

"Mage, Mage, a newcomer is here!"

"Clack!" Old Mage's door opened in response, and that face bearing the vicissitudes of time and dotted with a pair of wise eyes appeared before him, saying to him, "There's no need to panic. Anyway, if you don't open the door, that person can't come out either."

"Well, that's true."

The two then unhurriedly went upstairs, opened the warehouse door, and walked into that dark, boundless node space.

The node space remained empty except for the luminous body, and Cheng Yun gazed at the luminous body for a moment before saying, "He's a bit slow, but should be arriving soon."

After such a long time, his connection with the node space seemed to grow increasingly tighter, and coupled with Old Mage's enlightenment, he could already sense quite a few changes in the node. Based on these changes and senses, he could deduce a lot of information, and Old Mage was equivalent to saving him a very long process of groping.

"Mage, if the newcomer is not friendly, you must help out a lot!"

"The universe is endless, and there are too many powerful creatures or races." Old Mage shook his head, "I cannot determine whether I possess a combat advantage facing that person."

"You protect me for an instant, and we can run out!"

"Anyone who resorts to violence at the very first meeting is a reckless brash." Old Mage smiled and said, "However, if a reckless brash really comes, I will certainly do my best to protect you."

"..." Cheng Yun's expression was heavy; in case Old Mage left in the future, but a reckless brash really came...

It seemed he still had to learn how to cope on his own.

Suddenly, his expression congealed—

"They're coming!"

He saw the luminous body suddenly flash with light, an increase in brightness so slight that it was hard to notice without looking closely, but Cheng Yun was exceptionally sensitive to it this time.

The first thing coming into view was the tip of a scabbard, extended by its owner from the luminous body as if to test the waters—the scabbard was of very common yellow wood, wrapped with thin iron in some parts, stretching out two feet with a graceful and slightly curved shape.

Following that was a glistening, narrow, and long saber. The blade appeared slightly light and thin, the front half straight, and the tip of the blade had an upward curve. It was nearly a meter long and shaped like a wild goose feather, and through the luminous body, one could vaguely see the hilt being gripped by a slightly slender hand.

In Cheng Yun's impression, ancient China's Ming and Qing dynasties also had waist sabers of similar shapes, shaped like wild geese feathers, hence the name Wild Goose Feather Blade. It was a saber type evolved along with the development of the times and the progress of cold weapon technology, and also the final peak of Chinese cold weapons, and this saber was truly too similar to a Wild Goose Feather Blade—

If the other world also had wild geese, and the other world also created this saber upon seeing wild goose feathers, this saber ought to be named the Wild Goose Feather Blade as well!

And from this saber, it could also be seen that the owner of the saber was seemingly not someone kind, at least not like a well-educated white-collar worker or a homebody.

All because that saber was not only glistening, but the blade and scabbard also had quite a few nicked wears, and the depressions and blood grooves even accumulated a layer of black grime, obviously showing that the owner of the saber did not use it simply as decoration or purely for self-defense. Through this, Cheng Yun seemed to already be able to imagine the bloody slaughters and fierce battles this saber had experienced. It must have taken continuous hacking, killing, and collisions to ravage and wear this saber down to such a state.

Without waiting for him to continue thinking, the scabbard and the blade suddenly retracted, and then a foot stepped over!

This time the owner of the saber seemed exceptionally decisive, and in just the blink of an eye, a figure wearing ramie clothes and bearing a long, narrow scar across her face appeared before Cheng Yun's eyes.

She had breasts, bulging and quite large at that!

Cheng Yun was stunned. This person... was a female?

Next, he saw this woman holding the scabbard in one hand while carrying the long Wild Goose Feather Blade in the other, giving people the feeling that her whole body exuded danger. Upon arriving in this space and seeing such a sight, she was also slightly startled, and a moment later her eyes rapidly turned gloomy as she stared at the two strangers in front of her.

Murderous intent manifested, and killing aura was released!

Cheng Yun couldn't help but shiver all over, feeling as if rolling blood qi should be billowing behind her as a visual effect.

"Hiss!"

He took a deep breath.

But Old Mage seemed to have suddenly relaxed a lot.