Chapter 401 - What Was Wrong?
There was no crack or shift in space where the Time Traveling Rabbit had disappeared. It almost felt surreal, the way everything had happened.
Some immortal was now after me? And not just any immortal, but likely one of the most dangerous among them.
I suddenly got the urge to find some hidden corner of the world and cultivate until I became an immortal without seeing even an ounce of sunlight.
Sadly, such notions were impossible for someone with my level of cultivation talent. Also, even if I hid, that didn't mean the Time Traveling Rabbit had no way to find me.
Also, was this truly just fate playing a hand in saving me until I fulfilled my role? Did that make me one of Heaven's Chosen?
Even then, seeing that Hu Jin had disappeared from the face of the world while the Blazing Sun Immortal was still alive and well, it was clear that Heaven's Chosen were not too difficult for immortals to handle once discovered.
But here, it had almost seemed as though the heavens had taken physical action, suddenly having those strange creatures drag the Time Traveling Rabbit away.
That was not logical at all. Unless it was a direct heavenly calamity, the heavens would never push something like this or intervene in the world in such a physical manner.
After all, the heavens represented balance in the world. They were not a thinking entity but rather an instinctive response from the world itself.
So…
I almost felt like Sherlock Holmes.
What if there were other parties with an interest in this? But who could they be?
The Blood Step Immortal? Unlikely.
There was also the Four Way Immortal…
“Are you okay?” Song Song asked, noticing that I had been absentminded the whole time.
“Yes,” I nodded and turned toward Jiang Yeming.
Her face paled a bit when she saw me looking at her. Though it was already somewhat pale. Clearly, things had taken a very unpredictable turn for her.
But after a few seconds of staring at my face, she clenched her hands, and a steely determination appeared in her eyes.
“What dragged him away were the creatures who conducted these games for us to participate in,” Jiang Yeming said. “Sadly, immortals are dangerous even for creatures like that, so many of the administrators likely died saving us.”
She looked genuinely sad at the thought that those tricky creatures from another world might have experienced death.
“So does that mean I'm some kind of Heaven's Chosen?” I asked.
“Maybe,” Jiang Yeming answered, her thoughts clearly elsewhere. But as soon as she said it, her eyes widened, and she turned toward me. “How do you know about such things, teacher?”
Her expression quickly returned to normal as she asked the question.
“I know some basic things,” I told her.
Though Jiang Yeming was as careless as always, revealing that she knew something like that. But it wouldn't seem too strange to outsiders. After all, she was my student.
Still, careless.
“I understand,” she nodded. “But you being one of Heaven's Chosen is unlikely. Though you might have some kind of protection until the destiny seen by the immortal technique is fulfilled. But it wouldn't be smart to rely on that and become reckless. There are also levels to this.”
There were levels to this? Did she mean Haven's Chosen had ranks based on how lucky they were, or something along those lines? That was interesting!
“Wow, I'm truly getting enlightened here,” Song San chuckled, adjusting the porcelain mask on his face. “Liu Feng, how about you ditch my sister and come work with me?”
“It seems like you're tired of having a head on your shoulders, brother,” Song Song said nonchalantly.
Song San chuckled but was careful enough not to continue trying to tempt me. I knew he was only saying it to annoy us, not because he actually meant it in any serious sense.
There was a growl from the denser part of the mist, and a square-looking monster walked out on all fours. It had horns jutting from its shoulders.
“Talk to me, talk to me, baby,” said the monster in a growly, accented voice, like a drunk man trying to hold a conversation.
Tingfeng moved first. He didn't hesitate. There was an excited glint in his eyes.
Out of the mist came another strange creature that resembled a humanoid wolf, with four-jointed limbs that moved with strange clicking noises as it growled.
I couldn't sense the creature's exact cultivation. Still, as far as I could tell, it was only around the peak of Foundation Establishment.
Which normally wouldn't have been dangerous.
But seeing the place we were in, we were all cautious.
Wu Yan stepped forward, and while my eyes caught her movements, she was now a Core Formation Cultivator. She moved faster than I could get my words out.
There was an indifferent look in her eyes as Wu Yan patted the creature's chest, covered in fur that looked like flames made of shadows.
The creature halted, and its body began morphing wildly.
The transformation was instant.
For one second, there was a strange monster. Next, there was a cute young girl who barely looked to be in her mid-teens, with short brown hair and wide, innocent eyes.
“Ah…” the new girl tried to speak.
But Wu Yan was faster. She turned toward us and explained, “I decided to change his appearance.”
“His?” Song San asked.
“Yes, but I changed his gender to female, as I find cute girls easier to talk to than men,” Wu Yan declared, as if it were the most natural thing ever. “Also, I made her cheeks extra soft and squishy, just in case we decide to spare her.”
She changed this dude's race, sex, and body type. No wonder he was stunned.
I was happy because this showed she could easily overpower her Extreme Physique.
“Interesting. Can you make her head harder and let's test if I can cut it off?” Tingfeng asked.
The new girl's eyes widened.
“Can you make her older? I'm not really into younger women,” said Song San.
We were here just to talk. Why did that bother him so much? Weirdo.
Did he have some strange fetish associated with it?
Beasts could turn into humans after reaching a certain stage in their cultivation, so there were likely many cultivators who might be into that.
As a man from modern times, I knew not to underestimate the power of lust people had. Some degenerates would like the beautiful woman, even if she used to be a furry monster. Then others would like her specifically because she used to be a furry monster.
“Can we cut off part of her brain and make her a slave? I really need a loyal maid to clean my house,” Song Song intervened.
I was also curious how my mind-controlling technique, made mostly for beasts, would affect her. Did Wu Yan change her brain's fundamental workings too? That sounded difficult.
All of us spoke at the same time, wanting Wu Yan to change different things about our new “friend.”
The whole time we argued and probably looked like insane people, the new girl stared at us with wet eyes as though she were about to cry.
I stopped after a while, since Wu Yan was shooting down even my suggestions. She refused to forcefully change the girl's cultivation to Core Formation.
Nor did she agree to use her ability on me when I asked her to change a few small things, just so I could see what it felt like.
The other square-looking monster with horns on its shoulders quietly retreated into the mist when it saw all this. Smart. Now I was curious just how intelligent these weird-looking creatures were. Did that square monster know what it was saying? Or was it just instinct?
My guess was that they were humans trapped here and transformed by the mist array, and their words were just instinctual stuff.
“Why did you even form a team out of self-centered people?” Jiang Yeming asked me, staring at the nonsensical argument. Then her gaze wandered toward the scattered mist around us. “This isn't exactly the best time for petty squabbles.”
She was one to talk.
“A team of self-centered narcissists works quite well when said people are skilled in their fields. Like Song San. He is crazy, but smart, and honestly, I care little about the personalities of these crazies when choosing them for this mission,” I told my student, who was likely much older than me in terms of mental age.
Suddenly, the new girl groaned like a croaking ghost, her mouth hanging open as if she wanted to say something but couldn't. Blood spilled from her orifices before she slammed face-first into the muddy ground with a wet splat, never breathing again.
Her Qi plummeted.
Her life force drained away just like that.
At least it shut up my teammates for now.
Wu Yan stared at her and sighed before turning toward me.
“As you can see, teacher, the changes I can force on others are based on my experience with my physique. But other people's bodies can't handle such sudden and rapid changes. If I do it more slowly and take my time, however, I've noticed that some bugs live longer than if I twist them instantly.”
Oh...
But I decided not to think about the implications of why she had developed something like this. Otherwise, I might get annoyed.
Because I was afraid I might hear reasons like how she wanted to help me by changing my talents or something equally ridiculous.
“So, what now?” Song San asked, one arm folded within his robe while the other rested over it, casual as if we had all the time in the world.
“Now we look to confirm some of my theories,” I told him.
We walked ahead, with the others sticking close together despite how little trust we had in one another as a team.
“What theories do you need to confirm, and what will happen to us next?” Song San asked.
“If I'm right, we will probably live. But if I'm wrong... well, then I have no idea what to do next,” I shrugged.
Song San sighed, but still kept following.
As we walked through the mist, the strange feeling that some unknown creatures were observing us was gone. But there was still an unnerving sensation crawling along the back of my neck.
As we reached the inner parts of the Misty Mountain Range, we passed through strange biomes that seemed mismatched together.
In some places, there were plants so large they made us feel like insects.
In others, the plants were so small that we felt like giants.
But the entire time, there was no actual living creature.
Not even a fly.
Then, out of nowhere, a strange smell drifted through the air.
It smelled like delicious food, though I couldn't quite identify what kind.
Which was strange, considering how diverse Fu Yating's cooking had become.
“Who do you think has the spirit to cook in a place like this?” Song Song asked with a smile, a murderous glint igniting in her eyes.
“I do not recognize the smell,” I said.
“Me neither,” Song San replied. “But the scent is getting stronger the farther we walk in this direction.”
Not long after saying that, we finally arrived at something that looked like a small oriental-style cabin.
Song San rubbed the chin of his porcelain mask.
“Huh, this is getting even weirder. What are your thoughts on this, Liu Feng?”
“Most likely some kind of illusion, but not one created by a human. It is creating the sensation of what it feels like to eat something delicious, but the source is something strange that the human mind normally wouldn't eat,” I answered.
The closest thing I could compare it to was the smell of gasoline. Even though it wasn't necessarily a pleasant or delicious scent, for some reason a part of our brains liked it.
This felt similar.
I walked toward the house, gripping the sliding door and pulling it open. The door was lighter than it should have been.
Meaning the one who created this illusory place was not familiar with such things, or had never opened a door before, only knowing what one looked like.
“What a brave leader, always going first,” Song San teased.
But I ignored him.
The place was empty, and it felt fake even after taking the first step inside.
In the middle of the room stood a table with a plain white bowl of rice resting on top of it, chopsticks placed neatly beside it.
At least this confirmed that the illusion wasn't created by reading our collective memories as a group and constructing something from them.
Instead, the creator had come up with it on their own.
But illusions always had weaknesses.
They were easy to see through if one paid attention to the smaller details.
The rest of the group followed me in and crammed together inside the shack, staring at the plain bowl of rice on the wooden table.
“Who wants to go and give it a try?” Song Song asked while staring directly at her brother. “I vote for the oldest one among us to bite the knife. After all, they've lived longer than the rest of us and gotten the most out of life.”
“You're quite cruel, sister,” Song San said.
Ye An, on the other hand, seemed to be the only one who was distracted. She kept glancing around as though searching for something.
At that moment, a fleshy tongue-like appendage shot down from above and wrapped itself around the rice bowl.
It dragged it upward like a frog snatching a fly.
The tongue moved faster than most of us could react and vanished in a flash.
We all looked up to find the source.
And there it was.
A man crawled across the ceiling on all fours like a spider, his cheeks puffed as he munched on the porcelain bowl and the rice. His elongated tongue swirled around his mouth, coating it in saliva.
“How are you doing, fellow humans?” it asked.
From time-traveling immortals to now this weirdo...
What the fuck was wrong with this place?