Blood Vulture

Yu Ci shook his head, driving the absurd thought from his mind as he settled his mind into the Zhaoshen Map, carefully scanning the vast world within a fifty-li radius below the cliff.

Generally speaking, the brightness of the Sky Rift decreased step by step from top to bottom. Covered by layers of clouds and mist, even the strongest sunlight could not reach the depths of the canyon, which were seven to eight thousand feet deep. Therefore, starting from a depth of about twenty miles, relatively strong contrasts of light and shadow already appeared on the Zhaoshen Map. From forty miles down, it was a pitch-black region where no light of day reached, and even here, the bottom of the canyon was still nowhere in sight.

Yu Ci swept over it roughly and then turned her attention to the details. With the change of her thoughts, the tiny world expanded rapidly in her eyes. Soon, a point in the Zhaoshen Map that she had chosen at random was clearly presented before her eyes.

She found herself facing an eyeball as huge as a bronze bell, with golden radiance like a blade.

Yu Ci almost threw a punch out, fortunately managing to control it in time, and only then realized that the angle of her vision was wrong. Adjusting slightly, she saw clearly that it was actually a giant bird with a wingspan of several zhang. What she had seen just now was simply the giant bird's eyeball. The dark red fine feathers on the giant bird's head were draped in a messy layer, yet they could not conceal its typical sharp falcon eyes and its iron-hook-like giant beak. The finer feathers spread further across its body, becoming brighter and more vibrant in color, until they finally looked as though they had been dyed in a layer of fresh blood. With the slightest shake of its plumage, a layer of blood-red light diffused through the clouds and mist.

What was this thing called? A blood vulture?

Yu Ci's gaze lingered on the ferocious bird for a few turns, and using it as a reference point, she extended her awareness in all directions. The Sky Rift amidst the clouds and mist grew increasingly clear.

She quickly realized that the idea of naming that giant bird was truly meaningless. At this moment, the wonders of the canyon were only peeling back their most negligible corner for her.

The blood vulture swooped down, wrapping itself in wind and mist. Its sharp talons reached for a gigantic lizard, except that this lizard not only had horns on its head, but also possessed a pair of huge, overlapping flesh-membrane wings under its ribs. Seeing the blood vulture attack, it let out a quack cry, its membrane wings beating against the wind as it glided sideways. Immediately afterwards, the two monsters began a fierce battle in the clouds and mist, blood-red feathers and shattered scales scattering all over the sky.

Shifting her perspective, Yu Ci saw huge frog-like monsters spitting venom and walking on sheer cliffs as if on flat ground; she saw three-man-tall giant apes uprooting trees and hurling stones, looking like demonic gods. But she also saw such a monster struck down and killed by its venom in a single blow from a green snake as thin as a bamboo chopstick and only two feet long. Deep within the lower layers of clouds and mist, there were also massive creatures as thick as a child's arm yet dozens of zhang in length, resembling the legendary Teng Snake, drifting and swimming between visibility and obscurity.

When there is too much astonishment, the flavor dulls. Replacing it was an uncontrollable, surging excitement: So this is what exists between heaven and earth—such a marvelous and magnificent realm, as if Heaven's Will specifically created it to shatter human common sense!

Of course, Yu Ci also saw the dangers hidden within, but these endless crises were more like spices cast into boiling oil. After rolling through the oil once, they became rich and fragrant, hooking her soul and plunging her straight into the bottomless abyss.

Then, she truly jumped down.

The clouds and mist rushed against her face, overflowing with an aura she had never felt before. It crashed into the chambers of her heart, burning her chest until it was piping hot:

"Earlier, I didn't know the foundation of this place, which is why I didn't venture deep. Now that I have the Zhaoshen Map, how can I let this pass again!"

With the Zhaoshen Map to guide her way, Yu Ci quickly slid down to a spot a hundred feet below the top of the canyon, where the light grew slightly dimmer. This was already the deepest position she had reached when gathering herbs a while ago, but compared to the canyon itself, such a distance was utterly meaningless!

Yet the further she descended, the newer and more bizarre the world displayed on the Zhaoshen Map became, constantly challenging Yu Ci's imagination. The ever-changing and marvelous ecosystems left her overwhelmed, generating a tremendous attraction that dragged her downward.

Before she knew it, she had reached a depth of ten miles. Over the course of those ten miles, there were many treacherous and perilous spots. Upon arriving here, Yu Ci finally found a barely passable platform to catch her breath temporarily.

As she penetrated deeper, the temperature in the Sky Rift dropped very rapidly. The chilling air was bone-piercing, carrying almost the feel of winter.

Yet for Yu Ci, the most difficult part was not the temperature, but the chaotic sense of space. At her current location, apart from boundless fog in every direction—up, down, left, and right—she could see nothing at all, with only the sheer cliff behind her to lean against. After staying there for too long, she felt as though the heavens and earth had inverted, or that the ground had folded at an odd angle. If she grew any more dazed, she might truly mistake the sheer cliff for the ground, shifting from "lying down" to "standing up," taking a single step straight into the bottomless abyss and smashing herself to smithereens.

Fortunately, she had the Zhaoshen Map. She could constantly monitor the changing scenery on the Zhaoshen Map and use this tiny world anchored around herself to readjust her sense of orientation.

In addition to this, the endless fierce beasts and monstrous birds were also a tremendous threat. For instance, the blood vulture that had just flown past her eyes.

This big fellow looked very familiar, as if it were the exact one she had observed earlier through the Zhaoshen Map. It seemed to have won a complete victory in its previous battle and had eaten its fill once more, flying arrogantly right past the cliff face. The gale whipped up by its bloody wings almost blew Yu Ci away.

Yu Ci did not grow angry; instead, using the Zhaoshen Map, she observed the big fellow's flight path with keen interest, preparing to take advantage of her rest time to understand the living habits of such creatures.

The blood vulture circled within the canyon mists, but its flight altitude kept dropping—from a depth of ten miles down to twenty, and then to thirty miles—before finally climbing back up. Yu Ci thus knew that this twenty-li span of elevation was the primary habitat of the blood vulture.

Originally, she wanted to understand things in even greater detail, but her attention was pulled away from the blood vulture by something else.

It was a sloping terrace located at a depth of about twenty miles in the canyon, plunging into the dark region three thousand feet deep.

The slope was extremely steep at the top while growing slightly gentler toward the bottom, extending out from the cliff for about several dozen zhang. Yu Ci had originally thought the Sky Rift would gradually narrow here, and only after exploring a bit further did she realize this was a protruding patch of land hanging in isolation, with the bottomless abyss lying right beneath it.

There was no conspicuous vegetation on the slope—which was quite normal, as this place remained hidden beneath dense fog year-round without seeing sunlight. Aside from a few mosses and fungi, it was difficult for any plants to survive. However, Yu Ci was quite certain of the Zhaoshen Map's function, and she trusted her own eyes even more: she had clearly seen that when the blood vulture swept by with its wings spread, the wind it carried had stirred up countless blades of grass as fine as hairs.

Shrimp Whisker Grass!

That was definitely Shrimp Whisker Grass. Although she did not understand why Shrimp Whisker Grass could grow in a place devoid of trees, Yu Ci trusted her own eyes more, as well as the efficacy of the Zhaoshen Map.

Right now, Shrimp Whisker Grass was not matters of urgent importance to her, but it served as an extremely clear target. Yu Ci instantly rallied her spirits, treating that sloping terrace as the destination of today's expedition, and resumed her climbing journey.

This was no easy task. Not every cliff face in the Sky Rift was suitable for climbing; some places were as smooth as mirrors from top to bottom, meaning that even the most skilled mountain monkeys would only find themselves dashed to their deaths if they went up there.

Thanks to the Zhaoshen Map, which took in the surrounding terrain completely and allowed Yu Ci to skirt around perilous spots in time, she still spent a full three hours finding a route through to the terrace. By the time she stepped onto the soft soil of the slope, the sky had grown completely dark.

The Sky Rift was truly too vast. These seven or eight mu of land running slantwise across the entire cliff face were merely an inconspicuous bump, completely lacking in scale. And Yu Ci standing here was nothing more than a tiny insect upon that bump, even less worth mentioning.

Yet this did not affect Yu Ci's enormous harvest. Facts proved that there was nothing wrong with the Zhaoshen Map, nor was there any flaw in her vision: this truly was an exclusive herb garden bestowed by Heaven's Will for the Shrimp Whisker Grass.

There were no large trees on the slope, but there was a surviving root system of a massive tree. Through the Zhaoshen Map, one could clearly see that the greater part of the tortuous root system was buried beneath soil and stone, extending in all directions. It occupied the entire slope and was still unsatisfied, even spreading outward to the surrounding cliff walls. Yu Ci found it hard to imagine how such a gigantic tree could have grown in a place like this, and if a tree possessing such a root system were still standing, what kind of colossal behemoth would it be!

For unknown reasons, the large tree had snapped—most likely having plunged into the deep canyon—and the remaining root system had largely withered away. Yet a tiny portion remained, acting as a unique parasite that helped the thousands of Shrimp Whisker Grass plants around it obtain nourishment.

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

Yu Ci solved her minor puzzle, and awaiting her was an even greater surprise. Because she had miscalculated the surrounding cliff walls, the number of Shrimp Whisker Grass plants far exceeded her initial estimate. Judged purely by eye, there were at least two to three thousand plants near the terrace, a quite astonishing quantity. These Shrimp Whisker Grass plants, added to her existing stock, would be more than enough to exchange for four Three Yang Talisman Swords.

Her transaction in Juebi City was destined to be a one-off deal, and Yu Ci had no mind for lingering, sustainable operations. Setting aside the ones located in excessively dangerous positions, she prepared to sweep away all the Shrimp Whisker Grass around the terrace.

Of course, that was a matter for tomorrow.

The Sky Rift after nightfall could truly be described as pitch-black, with the thick fog blocking almost all light. Even with night vision honed through special training, it was difficult to see past a single zhang. Yu Ci had no desire to reach a mountain of treasures only to slip and fall to her death; she sought out a wind-sheltered spot on the slope, sat down cross-legged, and thus weathered the long night.

This was the first time Yu Ci was spending the night within the Sky Rift. Having witnessed ferocious raptors and beasts like the blood vulture, asking her to sleep or cultivate was entirely out of the question. Out of sheer boredom, she simply opened the Zhaoshen Map to see what the Sky Rift looked like in the dead of night.

At this very moment, the Zhaoshen Map presented a nearly perfect hemispherical shape. The hemisphere stood upright; the cliff wall behind could only reach a depth of a hundred feet, which, relative to the fifty-li scope of the boundless void, was merely a shallow layer that could be completely ignored.

The color of the hemisphere had also changed. Influenced by the heavenly light, it presented an overall grayish-black hue, glowing faintly with a pale cyan light that was not too conspicuous in the night, saving Yu Ci the trouble of shielding the light.

Fifty miles... No, how could it be fifty miles? Yu Ci suddenly discovered the problem.

She was currently located at a depth of about twenty miles inside the Sky Rift. From here to the limit of the sky that the Zhaoshen Map could display, calculation by calculation, was merely thirty miles. It was shown very clearly on the Zhaoshen Map that the height of the sky had not changed, yet under such conditions, it was utterly impossible for this complete hemisphere to appear.

Since it had appeared, it could only mean one thing: due to some reason, the spatial range displayed by the Zhaoshen Map had shrunk. Right now, the diameter of the territory she could command was not fifty miles, but thirty miles. It was as if some invisible giant beast had opened its mouth and swallowed the outer perimeter.

Was this the natural decay of the Zhaoshen Map's supernatural power, or was it related to the nighttime? Yu Ci was more inclined toward the latter, but whether this was caused by the unique environment of the Sky Rift or was a universal rule still required time to verify.

Of course, for now, thirty miles was fine—it was quite enough for Yu Ci to utilize.

She discovered that the Sky Rift at night was far too lively compared to the daytime. The number of living creatures swimming in the mist was at least fifty percent greater than during the day, and even more colossal behemoths roamed about in the deeper layers of clouds and mist, occasionally revealing a scale or a claw just enough to make her, a mere bystander, hold her breath.

In fact, Yu Ci had long since subconsciously slowed her breathing. At this time, the Sky Rift was more dangerous, bloodier, and harder to fathom. The fierce beasts here did not seem to possess the intense territorial concepts found on the surface; they were constantly wandering in all directions, which resulted in frequent conflicts.

Within the thirty-li range that Yu Ci could perceive alone, three extremely brutal battles had occurred in the short span of two hours. Each and every one of them ended in the tragic death of one party or even both. The stench of blood permeated the canyon, mingling into the clouds and mist to become part of its unique atmosphere.

While holding her breath, the ball of fire in Yu Ci's heart burned even brighter. This was the world a cultivator ought to experience—endless fierce beasts, climbing levels of strength, the bloodshed of colliding lives, and even more importantly, ever-changing stimulation. These things refreshed her existing understanding at every single moment; this moment was absolutely different from the last.

Yu Ci felt like a toad leaping out of a withered well, dizzy from the boundless and vast world outside—she was utterly stunned by happiness.