Night without Borders

Chapter 316 The World Is So Big

The night fog burst open, and the dark sky seemed to be cleaved in two, revealing a dazzling light that formed a thick passage, accompanied by a deafening sound.

The sound was so loud that many people on the ship were shaken and nearly fell off, and some even sat down on the deck.

The passage descended from the sky, almost touching the ground, and was surrounded by a thick white mist.

Then, a thick fog surrounded it as if it were about to swirl.

"Could this be... a waterspout?" a renowned expert from the fourth realm exclaimed in surprise.

Such a spectacular celestial phenomenon is only recorded in ancient books and cannot be seen on ordinary days.

The people on all three spaceships were terrified; the legend had come true.

Some people reacted incredibly quickly and flew towards that passage.

Because, according to legend, water from dragons may contain "dragon blood," which is priceless and can transform one's body and greatly improve one's physique and endowment.

This is an invaluable treasure!
"Foolish one, come back quickly!" an elder shouted.

Even when waterspouts occur, they are not always accompanied by "dragon blood." Many times, there is nothing at all, and it is extremely dangerous.

"This is an atypical waterspout, don't get involved!" Jin Yuan shouted.

Normally, waterspouts occur 90% of the time in large marshes, forming narrow channels that lead directly to large lakes or seas. But where is this place now? A barren wasteland.

Some people froze, while others' flashes of inspiration rushed even faster.

"It's not a waterspout from a lake or sea. If such a thing were to happen, it would far surpass the 'dragon blood' recorded in ancient books. Even earth immortals would be tempted by it. Its value is immeasurable!"

With a whoosh, the first figure rushed in.

"Ah!" he exclaimed.

The two people who followed him arrived abruptly and asked, "What's wrong?"

“There really is blood!” the man’s voice trembled.

He seemed very excited and rushed over to take the dragon's blood.

"No!" he screamed in agony, struggling with all his might to get out.

However, he was trapped in a quagmire, unable to escape. His consciousness was blurred and dissolved by the glowing blood, and no amount of wailing could help him.

"What did you see?" the person outside shouted, and quickly backed away.

"It's not the 'dragon blood' recorded in ancient books, but a strange red energy substance. Why is Heaven treating me like this? Ah, there are rare treasures above, radiating golden light. This seems to be a passage connecting to a mysterious place."

Knowing that he could not escape, the expert on the Immortal Path tried his best to remain calm at the last moment and told the situation deep in the white fog.

Then, he was dissolved, and his consciousness vanished.

"Is there really... 'dragon blood'?"

At this point, some older figures took it seriously, believing that the red substance was the mysterious blood of a higher being, which the consciousness of a master at the peak of the third realm could not withstand.

The enormous passage undulated with the white mist, and it itself began to rotate, like a tornado, generating violent air currents.

In fact, the moment the three spaceships saw it appear, their respective captains decisively ordered them to change their flight paths and avoid it.

But now, as it spins wildly, it rapidly expands its range and is approaching the first spaceship.

As for the two beams of consciousness outside the passage, they had already been drawn in.

"Run away!"

The three spaceships accelerated and changed course, trying to avoid the unpredictable glowing passage.

"Crack!" The first spaceship was hit, and its bow broke off. It was severely damaged even when it was only near the passage, and the spaceship was probably going to disintegrate.

With a loud bang, sure enough, it was shredded by the expanding, strange passage.

At the critical moment, only a portion of the people escaped on the backs of exotic birds and flying beasts.

Another group of people have their consciousness escape and permanently lose their physical bodies. This is like a rootless duckweed, which will eventually wither and die.

A crack appeared on Qin Ming's spaceship, but they finally managed to escape the huge vortex of death.

The other spaceship was in a similar situation, slightly damaged, and narrowly escaped.

Fortunately, the passage gradually stabilized and stopped expanding outwards.

A chill ran down everyone's spine; they were just traveling, and yet such a calamity had befallen them.

Qin Ming was unable to calm down; the unknown world of night fog was far too dangerous.

The two spaceships stopped at a great distance. The people on board stared at the glowing passage and fell silent. Most of the people on board were gone just like that.

The three spaceships are not large, belonging to small rescue ships. Currently, they are mostly carrying the wounded and sick, but even so, each ship has fifty or sixty people.

The glowing channel lingered for a long time, connecting the heavens and the earth.

"What exactly is this?" Qin Ming couldn't help but ask.

He noticed that some elderly people had burning eyes, as if they wanted to soar into the night sky to find the source.

Jin Yuan said, "The mysterious 'waterspout' or a similar unknown 'phenomenon'."

"This..." Qin Ming knew about Dragon's Breath Water, which was recorded in the "Destiny Changing Scripture".

Moreover, it is rumored that Cao Qianqiu once risked entering the "Dragon Sucking Water" passage and obtained "Dragon Blood".

"What is the essence of this mysterious and unknown phenomenon? Has anyone investigated it?" Qin Ming asked again.

No matter how you look at it, this doesn't look like a dragon drinking water.

Because there wasn't even a stream nearby, and no fire springs on the land, it was pitch black, and not a blade of grass grew for tens of thousands of miles.

After the passage stabilized in that area, the people on both spaceships were no longer nervous.

Jin Yuan said calmly, "Throughout history, people have been studying and speculating about its causes, the truth, and so on, and there are many different theories."

Qin Ming immediately became interested and asked him to explain in detail.

Jin Yuan said, "The first guess is that above these heavy dark clouds, in the deep sky, there is a high-hanging grotto that is not very stable, pouring out celestial light, showing signs of emerging into the world."

Qin Ming was astonished; this first guess alone sent shockwaves through his mind. In the current realm beyond the mortal world, no sect could elevate a blessed land to a grotto-heaven, yet there was one here?
Jin Yuan said, "It's just a guess, it shouldn't be taken seriously. Even if it exists, it's a dilapidated ancient cave, extremely dangerous, and could collapse completely at any time."

Qin Ming finally understood why some of the veterans, whose injuries had not yet healed, had such eager eyes; clearly, some of them wanted to take a chance.

Jin Yuan warned: "I advise you to face reality. In those ancient and mysterious places, even grandmasters would likely die, and even patriarchs would find it difficult to escape unscathed."

Immediately, everyone calmed down.

Jin Yuan said, "The second theory is that some patriarchs believe this is a divine magnetic storm that distorts and tears space. It may be connected to another extremely distant region, perhaps millions of miles away from us, or even further."

Qin Ming was lost in thought; these speculations were all far from simple.

He thought of the thatched hut he found in the "evil land" of Kunlun, which was suspected to be the place where "Old Liu" stayed temporarily after escaping from Yujing.

The owner of the hut recorded that he had discovered a person who had achieved perfection in seven days, but the latter had been stranded in Kunlun due to a divine magnetic storm.

Jin Yuan spoke again, pulling Qin Ming back to reality.

"The third theory is that a terrifying creature is fighting and wounded in the sky, its blood, covered in immortal runes, streaking across the night sky and falling here."

Qin Ming stared in disbelief and asked, "Just how powerful must this creature be?"

Jin Yuan said, "At the very least, they must be Earth Immortals!"

Scholars throughout history have believed that these three interpretations are closest to the truth.

Someone spoke up: "Apart from the deafening sound when the passage first appeared, there has been no movement in the sky. I suspect the first guess applies to this place. An ancient cave has become unstable. We can take a spaceship and go up to the sky to take a look."

Someone immediately retorted: "Are you crazy? Haven't you heard? Even the patriarch couldn't escape unscathed when he got caught in it."

A renowned elder said, "If we watch from afar and the cave collapses, we might find some earth immortal treasures, celestial immortal scriptures, or even sacred objects left behind."

Everyone was tempted, including Jin Yuan, who was in the fifth realm. He felt that it should be fine to observe cautiously from a distance.

The two spaceships continued to climb, piercing through the thick clouds and approaching the dark sky. Eventually, the strong winds became so intense that the spaceships became somewhat unstable.

Finally, they ascended to a high enough altitude that strange, otherworldly substances occasionally fell upon them, including celestial vapors, intense sunlight, and inexplicable streams of fire, which would occasionally leave specks of light on the dark night sky.

The end of that passage was in the distance, where a hazy and unsettling colorful mist stretched out, so vast that even the most powerful eye techniques could not penetrate it.

"Could it be that a grotto-heaven has been damaged, and a large amount of immortal mist is flowing out from the crack?"

The two spaceships hovered high in the sky, waiting for most of the day. There was no movement ahead, only the colorful mist and the light in the passageway dimmed.

"Ugh!"

Earlier, a spaceship was destroyed, and some of the survivors were only in the form of conscious awareness. They are now extremely distressed and do not know how much longer they can live in this world.

“Since we’re going to die anyway, let’s go investigate!” said the person in the form of a conscious aura.

"Yes, let's risk it. What if it's the legendary cave heaven? Maybe there are rare treasures or mysterious substances inside that can help us survive."

Immediately, some people took action.

Neither of the experts on the two ships stopped them; it was a choice made out of necessity, as taking the risk might offer a glimmer of hope.

However, when those figures entered the colorful mist one after another, not even a ripple was made.

Jin Yuan said, "He's dead. There was a lot of movement when a wisp of consciousness struggled. I vaguely sensed it. He must have been torn apart by a terrifying force."

Everyone fell silent; indeed, this was not a place to venture too far.

People waited in the distance, wanting to see if a collapse would occur in front of them when the light fog dissipated.

Qin Ming said, "The world under the endless darkness, where everything is shrouded in mist, is too dangerous. We inexplicably lost a spaceship and dozens of people died."

Jin Yuan also sighed, "The world is too big, full of mystery, the unknown, terror, and incomprehensibility; anything can happen."

Both of them were somewhat moved, and they talked about the world of night fog in the swirling winds of the sky. In fact, Qin Ming was mainly asking for advice and inquiring about the areas they had explored so far.

Jin Yuan said, "The Night Mist World is vast and boundless. I suspect that even a powerful Earth Immortal could not explore its end. Do you know what the demon civilization deep within the Divine Grief Plains calls our territory?"

"Eastern Land, or Divine Land?" Qin Ming said, these names had been used before.

Jin Yuan shook his head and said, "East corner."

As the name suggests, it is a corner of the eastern part of the country.

"What about our east side? What's the situation there?" Qin Ming asked.

He already knew the conditions in the northern region: beyond the endless mountains lay extremely cold permafrost, then volcanic clusters, and further still, a vast wilderness.

The sixth-realm expert of the Winged Clan fled immediately after discovering the Earth Immortal playing chess with a human skin, never daring to cross the border again, and the exploration came to an abrupt end.

"The east is extremely dangerous. A huge plain is covered with black flames, like the hellfire. Even the patriarch dared not enter. It burns fiercely year-round, stretching for hundreds of thousands of miles."

Qin Ming had very limited knowledge of the outside world, and he was quite alarmed when he first heard about the situation in the east.

Jin Yuan continued, "Long ago, the Golden Roc Clan had a master of the sixth realm who flew across hundreds of thousands of miles of black flames, enduring the erosion and repulsion of the mysterious rune power in the night sky, and finally made it through that land of death to see a thriving new world."

"What's the new world like?" Qin Ming immediately perked up.

"Still shrouded in the boundless night, but there are clusters of high-grade fire springs there, which also means that the level of danger is extremely high."

Jin Yuan recounted that the sixth-realm expert from the Golden Roc clan only explored a small area before daring not to venture further, because the local lords were all too powerful.

For example, in a territory, even a king or nobleman might be in the sixth realm, while in those famous mountains, there are mostly god-like creatures, or even earth immortals.

"There are many races over there, all of them are very transcendent and mysterious. Although some have humanoid forms, none of them are human."

Upon hearing this, Qin Ming was immediately stunned.

The experts of the Golden Roc Clan did not continue exploring eastward, because it was simply not feasible.

Jin Yuan asked, "Do you know what the creatures in the east call our territory?"

"I guess it wasn't anything nice," Qin Ming sighed, understanding the situation.

Jin Yuan nodded and said, "Yes, those creatures call this place 'Dust Corner,' meaning a dusty corner, which is not as good as the name 'East Corner.'"

Qin Ming really didn't know what to say.

After a moment, he asked again, "What's the situation to the south?"

(End of this chapter)