Chapter 225 - 223: Noon Realm

His first trip into the Exotic Realm came sooner than Yang Shen had expected.

After cramming a lot of information about the Exotic Realm that night, he had a short rest before they were set to depart the very next day.

Perhaps for the people on Harmony Island, the most cautious phase was already over. Yanhua had already established a foothold in the Noon Realm, so traveling back and forth wasn’t an overly complicated affair.

For someone like Xu Mo, who had been going in and out constantly for months, it was hardly more trouble than a business trip.

At dawn, Yang Shen leaped through the mountains and climbed to the peak behind the base, practicing his boxing forms as he faced the rising sun.

His all-night Cultivation session had yielded poor results. The Spiritual Qi on Harmony Island was much less dense than in Jianghuai. Even with the simple Spirit Gathering Array he had set up, he’d only managed to harvest 15 points of Source.

This also seemed to prove one thing: the appearance of the Gates of the Exotic Realm had nothing to do with the concentration of Spiritual Qi.

It was Cyan Blue Star’s most mysterious mechanism, one that even the Cyan Blue Star People hadn’t figured out after countless years of use.

After quickly running through a set of boxing forms to absorb the Qi and Blood Value gained from his Cultivation, Yang Shen hurried down the mountain to get ready.

His mission squad was a five-man team, but a large number of official personnel were also part of their group.

Every person was burdened with a massive amount of supplies. Even Xu Mo was no exception; the boxes on his back were stacked in three full rows, standing over three meters tall.

It looked like he was carrying a wall.

Yang Shen’s supplies had also been prepared for him. His load was a little smaller than Xu Mo’s—eight boxes in two rows. He wasn’t carrying a wall, but a pillar.

The reason for this arrangement had to do with the peculiar mechanics of the Gate of the Exotic Realm. Apparently, your arrival point after passing through was "randomly anchored."

Each realm had a fixed entrance and exit point, but your arrival location after crossing was relatively random, somewhere within a ten-kilometer radius of the corresponding Gate in the other realm.

Xu Mo said that the situation varied between Exotic Realms. The technical term was "transit dispersion rate." The Noon Realm’s was average, but the randomness in some other realms was absurd, drastically increasing the difficulty of exploration.

None of Cyan Blue Star’s Exotic Realm Exploration Teams allowed for any "weaklings," largely because the randomness would rob them of any chance of survival.

Furthermore, the Gate of the Exotic Realm couldn’t transport unattended materials. If you tried to just shove a pile of goods through, they would vanish without a trace, as if falling into a bottomless pit.

The development of any Exotic Realm depended on powerful Martial Artists to carry in supplies, trip after trip, especially during the initial stages. That’s why establishing a stable base after everyone regrouped was so crucial.

Yang Shen felt the total weight of the boxes on his back was around 400 kg. This wasn’t the carrying capacity limit for an Innate Martial Artist, but rather the maximum bulk one could carry without impeding movement.

The team filed out of the base, their steps light as they moved quickly toward the very center of Harmony Island.

On the way, Xu Mo strode along at a relaxed pace, as if the wall on his back had no effect on him at all. His movements remained nimble through the mountain forest as he spoke.

"Due to the joint development agreement, all national bases are located more than three kilometers from the Gate of the Exotic Realm. Of course, the spot we occupy is the closest and the best."

"Since this is your first time in an Exotic Realm, make sure you remember what we went over in yesterday’s meeting. Get your bearings, then head straight for the base to regroup. Don’t go looking for trouble."

Xu Mo smiled. "The Noon Realm is a brand-new Exotic Realm, and there’s a lot we still don’t know about it. It’s possible you’ll run into something you think is ’valuable,’ but don’t go wandering off."

Yang Shen nodded. "Understood."

Guan Mountain, walking behind him, also nodded. He was carrying a heavy load as well. His Living Blade was gone, replaced by a True Blade at his waist—a precaution, no doubt, in case they got separated after passing through the Gate of the Exotic Realm.

The Living Blade had an intellect on par with Long Jiu.

「About ten minutes later.」 They arrived at the location of the Gate of the Exotic Realm. Standing on the mountainside and looking down, Yang Shen was utterly awestruck.

He had seen photos in the conference room last night, but seeing it in person was a feeling that was still hard to describe.

The Gate of the Exotic Realm was located in the center of a dormant volcano.

It was a massive, bowl-shaped structure, like a crater gouged out by a meteorite. It spanned over a thousand meters in diameter, and the ground was covered in the wrinkles of age.

Several powerful figures were seated along the volcano’s rim: a black giant nearly three meters tall, a Temple Warrior in full, ornate armor, and a Yanhua Daoist master with the transcendent air of an immortal.

In the center of the crater, a strange, oval-shaped portal floated, unsupported, several dozen centimeters above the ground.

It was about four meters tall and appeared to be a flat plane. In reality, no matter which angle you viewed it from, it always seemed to be facing you directly—a clear sign that it held spatial mysteries.

Within the portal was a viscous, multicolored swirl, as if someone had tipped over every can of paint in the world and was continuously stirring the mixture.

This was it—the most mysterious, most captivating, and most magnificent thing on Cyan Blue Star.

The Gate of the Exotic Realm...

It opened one world after another, bringing prosperity time and again, and drove the nations of Cyan Blue Star to constantly advance along the path of Martial Arts.

The Gate of the Exotic Realm couldn’t be moved. In the future, a structure might be built to cover the entire crater, or Harmony Island might become the most prosperous island in the Vast Sea. But for now, it remained in its completely original, untouched state.

Yang Shen took a deep breath.

Every person from Cyan Blue Star was likely captivated the first time they saw a Gate of the Exotic Realm.

And Yang Shen was about to begin his first time...

——————

Barren... endless and barren...

It was a vast mountain range, yet every inch of its land was bare, with not a trace of vegetation in sight.

The lack of vegetation had led to severe soil erosion and desertification. Every gust of wind kicked up dust and yellow sand, carrying it far and wide.

This land was long dead.

No... the entire planet was. Everything before him was merely the process of its decay after death.

On a barren cliffside, a figure suddenly materialized in mid-air, as if stepping through a nonexistent door.

He was seven or eight meters off the ground. The heavy cargo brought his total weight to nearly half a ton. The moment his feet touched down, the dry earth at the cliff’s edge crumbled and plunged downward.

Yang Shen quickly scrambled back a few steps, narrowly avoiding a fall from the hundred-meter-high cliff.

’I probably wouldn’t die, but it would have been a rough landing.’

’No wonder the strength requirements for Exotic Realm exploration are so high,’ Yang Shen thought. ’A weaker person might not even die in combat, but from non-combat attrition...’

’A total noob would be dead on arrival!’

As a first-timer in an Exotic Realm, Yang Shen quickly scanned his surroundings. Just like in the slideshow, it was barren and arid...

Forget any signs of Life; there wasn’t even a single blade of grass on the ground. It was hard to imagine that this had been a planet with a thriving ecosystem just a few hundred years ago.

The yellow sand and dust created poor visibility. Beyond a kilometer, everything was a blur, like a perpetual, heavy fog.

The lack of vegetation also meant the winds were completely unchecked. According to the data, gales of Force 10 or higher were commonplace.

As for Yang Shen’s current location...

He pulled a device that looked like a walkie-talkie from his pocket. The advance team had already set up a basic communications base station here, allowing for rough positioning and contact.

That’s why in any Exotic Realm, the first pioneers had it the hardest. They had nothing but their own strength to rely on.

Yang Shen looked at the indicator on the screen and confirmed he was on the very edge of the "random drop zone." His luck wasn’t great.

He didn’t need to go to the Noon Realm’s Gate of the Exotic Realm, which was supposedly in a cave somewhere. Yang Shen just needed to head directly north toward the base.

Pulling his scarf up over his mouth and nose and putting on his windproof goggles, Yang Shen started toward the designated coordinates, a massive "pillar" strapped to his back.

Everything about the Exotic Realm fascinated him, but this world was truly in a state of decay. There was nothing but rocks, dirt, and sand.

Yang Shen occasionally tried to use the device to communicate, but the dust storms severely affected the signal’s stability. Even the coordinates displayed moments ago weren’t necessarily accurate.

Like every other explorer in the Exotic Realm, his greatest asset was his own strength as a Martial Artist.

’I could use the Earth Element Escape to avoid the wind and sand, but I want to observe the environment a bit more... even if I can’t see very far.’

’Better to be cautious. Yanhua knows very little about this place. What if some powerful monster is hiding underground? Anything’s possible. At least traveling above ground is relatively safe.’

Because nature here was already dead...

All that remained was the "Corpse Calamity."