Blood Vulture

Shaking his head, Yu Ci banished the absurd thought from his mind and settled his consciousness into the Zhaoshen Map, meticulously examining the vast world within a fifty-mile radius below the cliff.

Generally speaking, the brightness in Sky Rift Valley decreased as one went deeper. Layers of clouds and mist obscured the view, preventing even the strongest sunlight from reaching the depths of the valley, which was seven to eight thousand zhang deep. Therefore, starting from about twenty miles down, the Zhaoshen Map began to show a significant contrast between light and dark. By forty miles down, it was a dark region where daylight never penetrated, and still, the canyon had not reached its bottom.

Yu Ci swept through the map broadly, then focused on the details. As his thoughts shifted, the small world in his eyes rapidly expanded. Soon, a point he had casually marked on the Zhaoshen Map became clear.

He was looking directly at an eyeball as large as a bronze bell, its golden light sharp as a knife.

Yu Ci almost punched out, but managed to restrain himself just in time. He then realized his viewing angle was off. Adjusting slightly, he saw clearly that it was actually a giant bird with a wingspan of several zhang. What he had seen just now was the bird's eye. The dark red, messy fine feathers on the giant bird's head couldn't hide its typical sharp eagle eyes and its hook-like giant beak. As the fine feathers spread towards its body, their color became brighter, finally looking as if they were dyed with blood. With a slight ruffle of its feathers, a wave of bloody light spread through the mist.

What was this thing called? A Blood Vulture?

Yu Ci's gaze swept over the fierce bird a few times, using it as a reference point to extend in all directions. The Sky Rift within the mist became even clearer.

He soon realized that naming the giant bird was pointless. At this moment, the wonders of the valley had only revealed the most insignificant corner to him.

The Blood Vulture swooped down, its sharp talons aimed at a giant lizard. This lizard not only had horns on its head but also two large fleshy membranes under its ribs, like wings. Seeing the Blood Vulture attack, it let out a croak, puffed up its membrane wings, and glided away diagonally. Immediately, the two monsters began to fight in the mist, scattering bloody feathers and shattered scales everywhere.

Shifting his perspective, Yu Ci saw giant frog-like monsters spitting venom, moving as if on flat ground up and down the sheer cliffs. He saw giant apes, three zhang tall, uprooting trees and throwing stones, looking like demons. But he also saw such monsters being instantly defeated by a slender green snake, as thin as a chopstick and only two feet long, dying from poison. Further down in the deeper mist, there were enormous creatures, as thick as a child's arm but tens of zhang long, appearing like mythical Tengshe, faintly visible, floating within.

Too many surprises dulled the novelty, replaced by an uncontrollable excitement. So this was the world! Such a profound and magnificent place, as if Heaven itself had created it specifically to shatter human common sense!

Yu Ci naturally saw the dangers within, but these endless crises were like spices thrown into boiling oil, exuding a rich aroma after being tossed around, hooking his soul and drawing him into a bottomless abyss.

And then, he truly jumped in.

The mist rushed towards him, filled with an unprecedented aura that burned his heart with heat.

"I didn't know the specifics before, so I didn't venture deeper. Now that I have the Zhaoshen Map, how can I miss this opportunity again!"

With the Zhaoshen Map guiding him, Yu Ci quickly slid to a place a hundred zhang below the valley rim, where the light was slightly dimmer. This was the deepest he had reached during his recent herb gathering, but compared to the canyon itself, this distance was meaningless!

The deeper he descended, the more novel and bizarre the world displayed on the Zhaoshen Map became, constantly challenging Yu Ci's imagination. The ever-changing, wondrous ecosystem captivated him, drawing him further down with immense allure.

Before he knew it, he had descended ten miles. The ten-mile journey was fraught with peril. Upon reaching this point, Yu Ci finally found a barely usable platform to catch his breath.

As he descended, the temperature in Sky Rift dropped very rapidly. The biting cold felt like winter.

However, for Yu Ci, the greatest difficulty wasn't the temperature but the disorienting spatial sense. At his current position, he could see nothing but vast mist in all directions, with only the cliff face behind him for support. After staying for a while, he felt as if the world had turned upside down, or that the ground had tilted at an angle. If he drifted further, he might mistake the cliff face for the ground and step from a lying position to a standing one, falling into the bottomless abyss and shattering into pieces.

Fortunately, he had the Zhaoshen Map. He could constantly monitor the changes on the map, using this small world centered around himself to adjust his senses.

Besides that, the endless stream of ferocious beasts and strange birds posed a significant threat. For example, the Blood Vulture that had just flown past him.

This big fellow looked familiar, as if it was the one he had observed through the Zhaoshen Map earlier. It seemed to have won its previous battle and feasted heartily, flying past the cliff face arrogantly. The strong wind stirred by its bloody wings almost swept Yu Ci away.

Yu Ci wasn't angry. Instead, he observed the big fellow's flight path with great interest through the Zhaoshen Map. He planned to take advantage of his rest time to understand the habits of such creatures.

The Blood Vulture circled in the canyon's mist, but its flight altitude kept decreasing, from ten miles down to twenty, then thirty miles, before climbing again. Yu Ci knew that this twenty-mile vertical range was the main habitat of the Blood Vulture.

He had intended to investigate further, but his attention was drawn away from the Blood Vulture by something else.

It was a slope, located in the dark region about twenty miles into the canyon, at a depth of three thousand zhang.

The upper part of the slope was extremely steep, while the lower part was slightly gentler. It extended about several dozen zhang from the cliff face. Yu Ci initially thought the Sky Rift Valley was gradually narrowing here, but upon looking closer, he realized it was a protruding landmass suspended in the air, with a bottomless abyss below.

There was no conspicuous vegetation on the slope, which was normal. This area was perpetually hidden under thick fog, with no sunlight. Apart from some mosses and fungi, it was difficult for any plants to survive. However, Yu Ci was confident in the Zhaoshen Map's function and his own eyes. He clearly saw that when the Blood Vulture flew past earlier, the wind it generated had blown away countless grass blades as fine as hair.

Shrimp Whisker Grass!

That must be Shrimp Whisker Grass. Although he didn't understand why Shrimp Whisker Grass could grow in a place without trees, Yu Ci trusted his eyes and the Zhaoshen Map's effectiveness even more.

Shrimp Whisker Grass wasn't particularly important to him at the moment, but it was a very clear target. Yu Ci's spirits immediately lifted, and he designated the slope as the endpoint for his exploration today, resuming his climb.

This was no easy task. Not every cliff face in Sky Rift was suitable for climbing; some places were as smooth as a mirror, making it impossible for even the most agile mountain monkeys to ascend without falling to their deaths.

Thanks to the Zhaoshen Map, which captured the surrounding terrain, Yu Ci was able to bypass dangerous areas in time. Even so, it took him a full three hours to find a path through the slope. By the time he stepped onto the soft soil of the slope, it was completely dark.

Sky裂谷 was truly vast. This seven to eight mu of land slanting downwards was merely an insignificant bulge on the entire cliff face, not forming any significant feature. And Yu Ci here was like a tiny insect on that bulge, even less noteworthy.

But this did not diminish Yu Ci's immense gains. The Zhaoshen Map proved to be accurate, and his judgment was correct. This was indeed Heaven's exclusive medicinal garden for Shrimp Whisker Grass.

There were no large trees on the slope, but there was a remnant of a large tree's root system. The Zhaoshen Map clearly showed that most of the winding roots were buried under the soil and rocks, spreading in all directions and occupying the entire slope, even extending to the surrounding cliff faces. Yu Ci found it hard to imagine how such a massive tree could have grown in such a place, and what a colossal being it would have been if the tree with such roots still existed!

For some unknown reason, the tree had broken, likely falling into the deep canyon. Most of the remaining root system had also withered, but a small portion had survived, becoming a unique parasite that helped nourish the thousands of surrounding Shrimp Whisker Grass.

This was the reason for the existence of the Shrimp Whisker Grass.

Yu Ci resolved a minor doubt, and greater surprises awaited him. Because he had underestimated the surrounding cliff faces, the number of Shrimp Whisker Grass far exceeded his initial estimate. By visual inspection alone, there were at least two to three thousand plants near the slope, an astonishing number. These Shrimp Whisker Grass, combined with his existing stock, were enough to exchange for more than four Three Yang Talisman Swords.

The transactions in Juebi City were bound to be one-off deals, and Yu Ci had no intention of taking things slow. Excluding those in particularly dangerous locations, he planned to clear out all the Shrimp Whisker Grass around the slope.

Of course, that was a matter for tomorrow.

After nightfall, Sky裂谷 truly became a place where one couldn't see their hand in front of their face. The dense fog obscured almost all light, making it difficult even for those with trained night vision to see more than a zhang ahead. Yu Ci didn't want to fall to his death while standing before a treasure mountain. He found a sheltered spot on the slope, sat down, and waited out the long night.

This was Yu Ci's first night spent in Sky Rift. After witnessing the fierce birds and beasts like the Blood Vulture, he certainly couldn't sleep or cultivate. Out of boredom, he opened the Zhaoshen Map to see what Sky Rift looked like at night.

At this moment, the Zhaoshen Map presented a nearly perfect hemispherical shape. The hemisphere was oriented vertically. The cliff face behind him only extended a hundred zhang deep. Compared to the fifty-mile range of the boundless void, it was merely a shallow layer, completely negligible.

The color of the hemisphere had also changed, affected by the ambient light. It was predominantly grayish-black, emitting a faint bluish glow, not too conspicuous in the night. This saved Yu Ci the trouble of obscuring the light.

Fifty miles... No, why was it fifty miles? Yu Ci suddenly noticed a problem.

He was currently at a depth of about twenty miles in Sky Rift Valley. From here to the limit of the sky displayed by the Zhaoshen Map, it was at most thirty miles. The Zhaoshen Map clearly showed that the height of the sky had not changed, but under these circumstances, a complete hemisphere was impossible.

Since it had appeared, it could only mean one thing: for some reason, the range of the world displayed by the Zhaoshen Map had shrunk. Now, the diameter of the area he could control was not fifty miles, but thirty miles. It seemed an invisible giant beast had opened its mouth and swallowed the surrounding space.

Was it a natural decay of the Zhaoshen Map's power, or was it related to the night? Yu Ci leaned towards the latter, but whether this was due to the unique environment of Sky Rift Valley or a universal phenomenon still required time to verify.

Of course, for now, thirty li was fine; it was enough for Yu Ci to utilize.

He discovered that Sky Rift Valley at night was far more lively than during the day. The number of creatures swimming in the mist was at least fifty percent higher than in the daytime, and there were even some behemoths roaming in the deeper clouds and mist. Just a glimpse of their scales and claws was enough to make him, an observer, hold his breath.

In fact, Yu Ci had already consciously slowed his breathing. At this time, Sky Rift Valley was more dangerous, more bloody, and more unpredictable. The fierce beasts here didn't seem to have as strong a territorial sense as those on the ground; they were always moving around, which led to frequent conflicts.

Within the thirty li range that Yu Ci could perceive, in just two short hours, three extremely brutal battles had occurred. Each one ended with the tragic death of one or even both parties. The smell of blood permeated the canyon, mixing with the clouds and mist to become part of its unique atmosphere.

While holding his breath, the fire in Yu Ci's heart burned even hotter. This was the world cultivators should experience: endless fierce beasts, steadily increasing power, the bloodiness of life clashing, and more importantly, the constant, ever-changing stimulation. These things refreshed his existing understanding every moment; this moment was absolutely different from the last.

Yu Ci felt like a toad that had leaped out of a dry well, dizzy from the boundless, vast world outside. He was dazed by happiness.