A Land of Peace, Wings Spread Across the Sky

Whoosh!!

The wind whistled past my ears.

The Bai He spreads its broad wings and soars high in the Spirit Realm.

Chu Tianshu stood on the back of the crane and looked at the vast world.

Compared to the real world, the terrain of this Spirit Realm is far more complex, with mountains, plains, basins, and astonishingly large differences in elevation.

It gives one the feeling that this place is more vast, wild, and dangerous than Earth.

He first went to the plantation, changed into clothes made by the People of Deer Wilderness, his thick, long hair was tied up, a wooden hairpin was inserted diagonally at the back of his head, he wore a light blue cross-collar garment, a black belt, and a dark blue robe over it.

Even his face had changed slightly, making him look more weathered than his actual age.

These are all for the sake of being on the safe side.

After all, the fact that the Fangfeng Clan of the Long Continent Kingdom looks exactly like the humans of Shencheng makes it seem like there's some grand conspiracy involved.

It's hard to say whether there might be Spirit Realm over there who has gathered intelligence about the real world and recognizes Chu Tianshu's face.

Even the fake body that the Helai used to possess was not one of the Xianhe species he usually used.

Instead, they chose a Bai He with black crests, willow-leaf eyebrows, and scales on its claws—a creature unique to the Spirit Realm— as the prototype and meticulously crafted a new avatar.

Chu Tianshu raised his left hand, and the two-headed snake slightly raised its head, looking down at the earth.

This aerial perspective was also a novel experience for Bubai and his companions.

"That's where we used to live."

Upon hearing this, Chu Tianshu looked at the vast expanse of misty water, dotted with numerous islands, covered with countless aquatic plants that stretched like forests, with hills and marshes among the islands.

Helai said, "I explored various places before and landed there. I asked the local spirits, and they called it Zhenze."

"East of Zhenze lies Long Continent, but it has been obscured by mist for nearly a century. A little over a month ago, the mist dissipated once, but then receded again, and the obstruction has returned."

"But after that anomaly, the fog has thinned considerably."

As they were speaking, the Bai He changed direction.

Instead of flying directly east from Zhenze into the mist, he flew along the outer edge of the mist in a long, arc-shaped trajectory.

"Fly to the coast first, then rush into the fog along the coastline; this is the easiest way, based on previous attempts."

Chu Tianshu nodded slightly and waited quietly.

After a long while, the boundary between land and sea finally came into view, and the sea surface could be seen in the distance.

However, in this Spirit Realm's ocean, only the shallowest areas closest to the coast appear blue.

Looking further into the distance, the sea is an eerie black. Only when the waves are at their most turbulent does the color lighten slightly, like indigo folds.

If the waves are calm, the sea remains dark and murky, making it difficult to tell whether the area is still or turbulent.

"I'm so dizzy!!"

The two-headed snake had only been staring at it for a short while when its heads began to shake.

They had hoped to see if they could find any precious light in the deep sea, but the dark sea only made their hearts pound and the world spin.

The snake's cool body suddenly felt somewhat hot.

"Don't stare."

Helai cautioned, "Even I, He Lai, would feel uncomfortable staring at that direction for too long."

"Many places in the ocean are deep zones."

Chu Tianshu untied the two-headed snake from his wrist and placed it in a thin, breathable brocade pouch hanging on the right side of his belt.

A medicinal mist was sprayed into the brocade pouch; the two-headed snake would find it very comfortable to sleep inside.

"You said before that those Spirit Realm inhabitants, even if they use the passage from the plantation, cannot freely return to the Spirit Realm."

Chu Tianshu asked, "Instead, we can only come to the Spirit Realm by using the method of soul transfer, just like real humans?"

Helai's tone turned slightly somber. "That's right. It's almost as if they've already gained recognition in reality, so of course they'll be subtly rejected by the Spirit Realm."

"My snake, too, got lost in the fog and ended up in reality, but it was able to return to the Spirit Realm completely."

Chu Tianshu said, "Perhaps it's because it just mistakenly entered reality, while what happened in Shencheng was a swap."

"If that's the case, even if we find the missing people, we probably won't be able to get them back to reality via the plantation passage."

We can't just follow the example of those Divine Sect that summon Evil Spirit by setting up an altar in reality to take these people back.

Those spells were specifically developed to attract Evil Spirit.

Bringing an ordinary human who is in the Spirit Realm and has already been recognized back to reality—this is something that, even if you search through the records of all religions and sects, you probably wouldn't find a corresponding spell.

"Well!"

Helai, "The most urgent task is to gather intelligence to prevent this situation from escalating further."

"Hold on tight, I'm about to charge!!"

The Bai He had adjusted its course and was soaring straight along the coastline, flying faster and faster into the mist.

Wow!!!

The moment it plunged into the clouds, the tips of the Bai He's wings were marked with distinct white streaks of mist.

Chu Tianshu's protective Gang Qi was impervious to heat and cold, but he still felt a slight chill in the surrounding environment, and the outside world turned into a vast white expanse.

He strained his eyes to look ahead, but all he could see was white mist. Looking down, he realized he could no longer see the ground.

"Lower it a little."

The Bai He did as instructed and descended approximately four hundred meters.

Chu Tianshu could now roughly see the scene on the ground and nodded, saying, "It's ready."

The Bai He exclaimed, "It has to be you!"

His body, which is inhabited by a spirit, is easily disturbed. Once he enters the fog, he can only see the ground clearly when he is tens of meters above the ground.

This is not much different from walking directly on the ground.

Moreover, it's easy to get lost while walking around.

Chu Tianshu was still more than 500 meters above the ground at this moment.

Being able to see clearly at this altitude makes flying much easier.

Chu Tianshu said no more, and his Heavenly Eye on his forehead opened slightly.

This wasn't because the power was turned down, but because he was focusing his gaze to probe forward.

At the same time, he waved his hand, and a faintly twisted, crystalline energy made him and Bai He invisible.

A moment later, Chu Tianshu suddenly said, "Senior He, you're flying off course. Adjust to the left by about thirty degrees."

The Bai He adjusted its direction as instructed, but after flying for a short while, Chu Tianshu reminded it again.

The deeper the Bai He ventures into the fog, the more easily it unknowingly drifts off course.

Chu Tianshu reminded him a total of twenty-nine times.

Finally, after once again passing through the mountains, the world ahead opened up before us.

With the fog gone, the view was clear and refreshing.

The land was covered with rows of tall buildings and Zongheng stone-paved streets.

All the houses are characterized by the charm of classical Eastern architecture.

The rooftops of the tall buildings rise up, the black tiles are like scales, the eaves are like crescent moons, the golden and red doors and windows are all wooden structures, carved and covered with gauze, and the walls seem to be made of bricks and stones.

However, high-rise buildings with twenty or thirty floors or more are commonplace.

Moreover, the building is sturdy, giving people a feeling of Mount Tai.

In the real world, not to mention those hundred-story buildings, even buildings of twenty or thirty stories can experience slight deformation in windy weather.

With Chu Tianshu's current eyesight, he could easily observe it.

However, the classic high-rise buildings here actually look more stable than reinforced concrete buildings.

Around any classic high-rise building, there are large areas of houses, although they appear much shorter.

Chu Tianshu could also tell that the dark blue bricks used in those houses were of similar specifications to those used in the high-rise buildings.

Making bricks is not an easy task either. The houses inhabited by the People of Deer Wilderness were actually made of clay bricks.

Controlling so many bricks, all of the same size, is almost a matter of national strength.

The claims made by the Spirit Realm captives about the peak of the Long Continent Kingdom's power over the past century seem to be no exaggeration.

Chu Tianshu even saw that the town's main road extended outwards into flat roads, traversing stretches of wilderness and reaching other towns.

Some roads cut directly through the hills and mountains, forming tunnels.

Amidst the rolling hills, plumes of thick smoke rose straight into the sky.

The thickest smoke often comes from the top of a hill, but it is mostly white smoke.

At the foot and middle of the mountain, the smoke is mostly black.

Chu Tianshu focused his attention and looked towards the top of one of the hills.

The white smoke there doesn't come from the large chimneys, but from the man-made square ponds.

Within the square pond, numerous bronze pillars stand in an orderly fashion, their surfaces engraved with deep yet simple patterns, and filled with countless holes.

A large group of able-bodied young men were busy working beside the pond.

They wore blue headscarves, which had faded from washing, and were shirtless with sweat beading on their skin. Their black belts were wrapped many times around their waists, cinching their muscular waists.

The trousers are rolled up to the calves, making the leg muscles look particularly strong.

These people used machetes to split open the sacks, pouring large bags of powder into the pond, which immediately filled with thick smoke.

The copper pillar hummed and vibrated, and the powder quickly turned into a thick slurry, gleaming with an orange-red light.

Judging from its appearance alone, it looks just like molten copper, with a brilliant luster that is almost like lava.

But immediately someone directed the slurry to be scooped out from the ditch on the other side of the pond, sealed in barrels, and transported away.

Those people dared to reach into the slurry with ladles in hand.

The temperature of the slurry doesn't seem as alarming as it appears.

On many other hills, the slurry produced varied in color and viscosity.

However, all of them have such square ponds and bronze pillars.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!!"

Someone ripped off their headscarf, revealing a topknot, and stood on the platform shouting, "Hurry up, all of you!"

"Every moment on the battlefield, our people are bleeding and dying!"

"We must hurry, get the supplies to the battlefield, and drive those damned water monsters back into the sea!"

The shout from the person on the mountaintop had just faded.

Just then, a deep, resonant, and extremely long sound rang out from within the city.

That should be a signal.

Soon, Chu Tianshu saw a large cluster of low-lying houses in the area where the sound had come from.

The roof slowly flipped open to both sides, revealing the huge iron-framed cart inside.

A strange bird-shaped sculpture, resembling a hawk but more elongated, sits atop a cart.

A group of Great Han lit torches on the tail of the kite, then immediately dodged away to keep their distance.

The bird-shaped object, which was over ten meters long, emitted a burst of fire and slowly rose into the air.

As it soared into the air, the hawk's tail suddenly exploded, as if its tail feathers were spreading out, increasing its speed several times over.

After flying for more than ten miles, the hawk's body exploded a second time.

Its jet-black wings suddenly unfurled, its speed increasing dramatically once more. It crashed and exploded through the air, creating several rings of air before disappearing into the horizon.

Hundreds of strange birds flew towards the horizon at an alarming speed, far beyond Chu Tianshu's field of vision.

"Beyond visual range?!"

Helai exclaimed in surprise, "I've participated in many firearms evaluations. Any one of those strange birds could probably destroy a skyscraper in an instant!"

"How can you light this with a torch... No, when we interrogated the prisoners, we repeatedly used hypnosis. At least on the surface, Long Continent Kingdom should be a peaceful place."

"Every town is firing missiles at each other, is this what you call peace and tranquility?!"

The old man was so angry that he swore.

This scene was clearly far beyond his expectations.

Chu Tianshu also stared into the distance, muttering, "Strange, it's clearly jet propulsion, so why is it spreading its wings?"

"Hmm, after spreading its wings, it no longer relies solely on jet propulsion; those wings have extremely fine engravings..."

As for the fact that Long Continent Kingdom seemed to be engaged in a large-scale war, he wasn't surprised at all.

After all, he had experienced the situation of returning to the Great Tang twice and finding that a hundred years had passed.

Moreover, those Spirit Realm captives only arrived in the real world a little over a month ago.

A month is more than a month, enough time for a lot to happen.

(End of this chapter)