Otherworld

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

Ancient trees stood everywhere. Withered old vines clung tight to their trunks. Beneath the forest canopy lay deep, shadowy darkness, where sunlight was almost impossible to glimpse. Birds and beasts flitted among the treetops, appearing and vanishing from sight.

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

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

One moment it became translucent like air; the next, it turned into stripes of green leaves and brown dead branches. Finally, it took on the brownish-yellow color of fallen leaves carpeting the ground. Without looking carefully, one would never notice 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 uniform provided cushioning and protection. He was uninjured.

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

Jiang Ding stood, drew a deep breath, and knew his gamble had succeeded.

He could not let his guard down in the slightest.

If this was territory controlled by cultivators from beyond the realm, he would be finished. He had to be cautious and not casually expose modern technological items.

"Go back."

Jiang Ding spoke silently.

His vision blurred. The vast mountain forest vanished, replaced by the white feature wall of the hotel room. Outside the window stood Rong City First Hospital, with people constantly coming and going.

Jiang Ding relaxed. "Go back again."

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

Bang! Bang!

Accompanied by the flare of booster propellant, four drones flew one after another into the sky several dozen meters up. After wobbling for a moment, they unfolded their rotors and stabilized in the air, forming a standard square formation.

Jiang Ding took out the control unit. The four drones rose higher and higher, climbing all the way past two thousand meters—most Foundation Establishment cultivators had divine senses with a maximum range 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 the forest rapidly shrinking away, while blue dots continuously appeared across the images.

"Unknown monkey-like creature, ordinary beast... black-and-white-striped tiger..."

"Unknown snake-like creature..."

Information on the species, locations, and strength of all large creatures within six square kilometers was rapidly compiled.

Jiang Ding had configured creatures with strength equivalent to the Internal Energy 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 entered his voice.

The Immortal Gate's thirst for knowledge was endless!

Nature was a vast treasure trove, and among its most precious riches were the body structures and genetic codes of every kind of animal and plant in its ecosystems.

Whether it was the Spiritless Era's research into imitating dragonfly wings and the serrated edges of grass-family plants, or the modern research and manufacture of cultivation techniques and Dharma artifacts, or the development of new spirit pills, all drew extensively upon structures and materials evolved by animals and plants in nature. Every new animal or plant represented a possibility, something incomparably precious to the Immortal Gate.

The Immortal Gate Library stipulated that every complete specimen of an unknown animal or plant submitted would earn 1 point.

Immortal Gate Library points were immensely useful, mainly in two ways.

First, library points could be exchanged for guidance and answers from high-level cultivators. Not the sort where they casually said a few words when they were in a good mood and left you to figure it out yourself, but answers delivered 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 create a cultivation technique tailored to a specific cultivator, limited to a specified realm.

Talent, talent!

If a cultivation technique perfectly matched someone, then even if their aptitude was poor, cultivating a technique that completely suited them would mean that every movement they made naturally met the technique's highest requirements. How could they possibly not be a genius?

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

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

They marked out a safe zone spanning at least ten kilometers in every direction.

"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-brick, thatched huts. Several large holes had broken through the roofs, revealing waist-high weeds and brush inside, along with a clay Buddha head broken off and 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 a scarlet snakehead that had suddenly emerged, evenly cleaving its body, over a meter long, into two halves.

"Unknown snake-like creature, ordinary beast."

The tactical helmet's warning came belatedly.

Jiang Ding frowned. "It is civilian equipment, after all. Its precision is not high enough, and it has blind spots when monitoring small creatures."

Then he felt regret.

This was an unknown creature whose information had not been entered into the Immortal Gate Library. Capturing it would have earned him 1 point.

Not having a container was a problem. It would be best to buy a sturdy specimen case, otherwise it would be troublesome if it hurt someone.

Unfortunately, he had no money left—not a single cent.

Jiang Ding's gaze was drawn to a dark green blade of grass beneath the snake corpse, its leaves splitting repeatedly into branches. He zoomed in with the camera.

"Unknown plant, may be named."

"Forked Grass."

Jiang Ding named it casually. Compared with animals, plants were easier and safer to collect, but he had to ensure that their roots, leaves, stems, and everything else remained completely intact.

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

Jiang Ding carefully dug out the roots, brushed away the soil bit by bit, then gathered the stems and leaves together. It was delicate work; throughout the entire process, he could not afford the slightest lapse and break a root, stem, or leaf.

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

"Twenty-one minutes, 1 point."

Jiang Ding glanced at the clock on his tactical helmet and calculated silently. "Even if I worked without sleep or rest and did not need to run around collecting specimens, it would still take at least half a year to save 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 enough to collect them. Adding up all the odds and ends of time, I am afraid even four and a half years would not be enough."

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

Compared with his previous cultivation, which had held no hope whatsoever, this feeling of gradually approaching his goal was wonderful. He did not find it tedious at all.

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, an expression of thought on his face.

Having inherited the legacy of the previous civilization and endured repeated civil wars, the present-day Immortal Gate had made great efforts toward equality.

Even high-level cultivators, who could burn mountains and boil seas, could not take a mortal's life.

Not without cause—they simply could not take it. So long as a person had broken no law and committed no act of aggression, regardless of the reason and regardless of whether it drew public attention, a high-level cultivator could not kill even the weakest mortal.

If they violated this, the Central Array-Spirit Computer created by the sages of generations past would let the lawbreaker know what true power and true might were!

Even Spirit Transformation cultivators could not alter the Central Array-Spirit Computer's program logic or inspect anyone's privacy.

Unless they destroyed it.

Jiang Ding placed the fourteen specimen boards on the floor, took out his phone, entered the Immortal Gate Library, selected the option to apply to submit newly discovered plant specimens, requested anonymity and confidentiality, then sat on the bed to rest.

He trusted the Central Array-Spirit Computer. Such high moral character scores were no joke.

Tap, tap tap!

Chirp chirp!

A few minutes later, the sound of a bird's beak lightly pecking on the window came from outside.

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

A specimen case half a person's height was hooked onto its claws, wildly disproportionate to its tiny body.

Jiang Ding relaxed.

This little creature was called a kingfisher. They were messengers of the Central Array-Spirit Computer and the regional Array-Spirit Computers. They normally lived at the location of the Central Array-Spirit Computer's main body—the Sky-Covering Divine Banyan—and its local offshoots.

"Chirp chirp!"

Little Kingfisher urged him on.

Jiang Ding felt that it seemed a little unhappy, as though it 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.

"Sorry to trouble you. Thank you very much!"

"Chirp!"

Little Kingfisher shot him a sidelong glance, grabbed the specimen case, and both its body and the case turned transparent before vanishing through the window.

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

One more drone was still drifting through the sky 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 them simply by covering themselves with a layer of mud.

He checked out.

It did not attract any attention. People came and went from the hotel all day, all kinds of people. If the front desk got curious over everyone a little unusual, their brains would have stopped being enough long ago.

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

Lin Wanqiu pulled a stern face. "Dingding, where did you go? Why are you back so late?"

Fortunately, he had taken a shower at the hotel earlier, so there was no mud or sweat on him.

"I went to the park with my classmates."

"Mom! He is lying!" Jiang Yuan cried, afraid the world was not chaotic enough. "He has never stayed out playing with any classmate until after eleven at night before."

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

Lin Wanqiu was a technician at Rongcheng Steel Factory. She had reached the peak of the Internal Energy Realm, and her salary was fairly high, though the work was exhausting. She often had to work overtime until eight or nine at night.

Of course, having given birth to such a delicate and handsome boy as Jiang Ding, Lin Wanqiu herself was naturally gentle and beautiful.

It was said that when Lin Wanqiu and Jiang Ding's father, Jiang Chaoyang, had been in school, people jokingly called them the school beauty and school heartthrob. They were seen as a pair made in heaven, and lovers who eventually became united.

As for what happened afterward, one could only sigh. Fairy tales of princesses and princes truly existed only in books.

"Dingding, it might be dangerous outside so late..."

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

"Mom, don't worry. Rong City's public security is still very good." Jiang Ding promised, "Next time, if everyone else stays out too late, I will come back early."

After the family chatted for a while, they got up and returned to their rooms.

Normally, Lin Wanqiu and Jiang Yuan would already have been asleep by eleven. They had deliberately waited for Jiang Ding, and were exhausted with sleepiness.