Dimensional Hotel
Chapter 363 Exploring the Map

Chapter 363: Chapter 363 Exploring the Map

The dim "Boundary" seemed like some sort of living entity, pulsating faintly at the end of the mine shaft slope.

True Man Qianji reached out to tap on the wall to his side, then flicked a thin needle from his fingertip, stabbing it into the stone wall within the erosive range of that dim boundary, as if sampling and analyzing something.

"Loosely brittle, salt seeping, ley lines severed," he turned his head and casually said to Yu Sheng and the others, "Has this Exotic Realm really only appeared recently?"

"Indeed, it was only discovered recently," Xuan Che answered, stepping forward half a step, cupping his hands in respect, "Everything was still normal here half a month ago."

"...This erosion doesn’t look like a recent change; I’m afraid the environment beneath here started to change years ago." True Man Qianji muttered, then turned his head to look at the dimly lit area, and with a light "click," two beams of strong light shot out from his eye sockets, directly into the depths of the darkness.

However, those beams of light seemed to be obstructed by some invisible "filter," only illuminating a few steps ahead before mysteriously fading away.

"Interesting..." True Man Qianji murmured and then stepped forward.

Yu Sheng and the others followed closely behind.

The darkness gradually closed in, with the interminable slope seeming to extend endlessly toward the center of the earth beneath their feet. They stepped into the darkness and walked forward for an unknown length of time before Yu Sheng felt the environment around him begin to change.

He stepped mindfully, recalling the momentary trance he experienced the last time he entered this Exotic Realm and the illusory, grand sound of the "Array Activation" he heard during that trance. He was extra cautious as he moved forward this time, yet he heard nothing.

A slightly moist breeze suddenly blew from ahead, causing the concentrated darkness to dissipate rapidly like it was blown away, and Yu Sheng found himself out of the "endless" slope, a rather spacious underground space appeared before his eyes.

It was an astonishingly large cavern, its dimensions unknown, with the boundaries at a distance swallowed by the dark. Only the near regional primitive rock wall stretched upward, disappearing into the darkness above, and luminescent vines and various unknown fluorescent fungi grew along the nearby rocks, ground, and stalagmites, lighting up the surrounding space.

Yu Sheng looked on in amazement at everything before him and then noticed what seemed like shimmering waves in the distance. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a large expanse of water.

—It was a vast underground lake, with numerous unknown plant stems and leaves emitting a soft glow floating on the lake surface. The faint glow illuminated the water and blended with the luminous moss and vines on the shore, giving the scene a kind of dreamlike beauty, yet faintly carrying a dark, eerie atmosphere.

This incredible subterranean scene momentarily left Yu Sheng breathless, and almost at the same time, he heard Erin on his shoulder exclaim in awe: "Wow—"

"At least there’s no sand this time," Hu Li muttered, then her big tail behind her "bloomed," countless ghostly fox fires drifted out from between her tails like a swarm of fireflies, rising and spreading around, further illuminating everything.

Yet her fox fires extended hundreds of meters, unable to light up the edge of the cavern.

But at least it made this dim space significantly brighter.

"It’s different every time I come in," Yu Sheng casually said, then lifted a shoulder, "Erin, is there a killing intent this time?"

Erin felt carefully: "Not at the moment, but I feel like you have a bloody disaster again."

Yu Sheng instead laughed: "It’s like there’s a day without a bloody disaster for me—what’s the blood loss this time? Where’s the specific injury?"

Erin stared at him: "How would I know? You really think I’m a prophet, huh?"

"You’re starting to be as preachy as a prophet recently," Yu Sheng shrugged and looked towards Luna, extending a hand, "Stab."

As soon as he spoke, Luna raised her hand and brought the knife down—worthy of being an Artificial Saintess, born from a professional stabbing background, she was proficient in this alone amid her usual clumsiness.

Then Yu Sheng started sprinkling his blood on the ground, and after that, into the lake...

Erin looked a bit dazed: "What are you doing?"

"Spilling some blood won’t hurt, even if it doesn’t gather intel it leaves a mark, maybe I’ll hit something crucial and get it later," Yu Sheng justified, "Besides, you already said there’s a bloody disaster, I’m just shedding some blood in advance to boost the drop rate..."

"Is it possible to bug like this?!" The little puppet was stunned and frowned as Yu Sheng’s blood-spilling action continued, "But why do I feel like you’re spreading mycelium blankets..."

Hearing this, Yu Sheng was momentarily stunned, grateful the little thing hadn’t said something more unflattering...

True Man Qianji, on the other hand, looked a bit confused by Yu Sheng’s actions. Although he hadn’t dealt much with the "Exotic Realm handling experts" from the Boundary Land, he’d seen a few Spirit Realm detectives or investigators before, yet never this style of work process. After holding back for a long time, he couldn’t help but turn to Xuan Che: "What is Yu Sheng doing?"

Xuan Che was just as bewildered, knowing only partly about the nature of the travel agency group, but he couldn’t ignore the inquiry from his senior and after a few seconds of hard thinking, cupped his hands and bluffed: "...Mr. Yu has his investigative approach, he knows many blood rituals."

A clicking sound echoed in True Man Qianji’s mind: "Blood rituals?"

Xuan Che: "Uh, only his own."

True Man Qianji nodded: "Oh, then there’s no problem."

Meanwhile, Yu Sheng was carefully perceiving the situation after the blood was shed.

That feeling of "nothingness" appeared again.

Yu Sheng could clearly feel his blood being sprinkled onto the soil and lake water of the subterranean cave, but in a mere moment, it seemed to penetrate through the ground and water surface directly into a deep void, without establishing any "connection" with anything.

Perhaps due to his previous experience and accumulation, this time he felt a bit more information than last time, albeit vaguely.

At the extreme end of that nothingness... there seemed to be something extremely massive, so huge that perception could not detect its "existence".

It’s like standing at the foot of an infinitely broad, pitch-black giant wall, no matter which direction you look, all you see is darkness, unable to perceive the "wall" itself.

But Yu Sheng did not sense any oppression or malice from that massive presence.

It seemed like just a lifeless object, or... some kind of hollow shell?

He furrowed his brow, attempting to glean some information from that vague feeling, but ended up with nothing, and even that vague feeling vanished after a brief dozen seconds.

After pondering for a moment, Yu Sheng thought increasing the dosage might help.

So he turned to Luna: "Stab me again."

The previous wound had already healed.

Luna nodded, but before she could act, Hu Li couldn’t help but interrupt: "Savior, I can do it too, I brushed my teeth today~"

"No way, you always drink secretly," Yu Sheng rejected sternly, "Every time you down half of it..."

Hu Li’s ears immediately drooped, muttering and grumbling.

Luna, however, remained silent and simply sliced down again with her knife, skillful as though she’d been filleting fish in a supermarket for ten years.

Yu Sheng continued spreading the spore mat by the lake.

But this time, he couldn’t perceive any more information, not even feeling the immense "presence" at the end of the extreme void.

"...Can it only be effective once within the same ’scene’ of the Exotic Realm?"

He muttered thoughtfully.

...

"Hey, Changfa... if we sneak out to play, will Red Hat Sister reprimand us," said the black-haired girl in a blue dress, her eyes wide open curiously taking in the surroundings as she walked along a mountain path somewhere on Qianfeng Ling Mountain, but still unable to resist expressing her worry to the long-haired princess walking beside her, "She said we can’t wander around..."

"What do you mean by sneaking out to play! We left openly and honestly!" Changfa responded righteously, "Besides, Brother already said we can move around freely, we even registered yesterday—Salted Fish, you’re too timid."

"But Brother also said, we need a guide for free activities," the girl in the blue dress called "Salted Fish" by the long-haired princess still fretted, "Plus, I have a livestream tonight; if Red Hat Sister catches us, she’ll definitely scold me all night..."

"Come on, I already told you it’s fine," Changfa dismissed it casually, "And who said there’s no guide, the guide is right here—isn’t that right, Da... Zheng Zhi?"

She looked up at Zheng Zhi walking ahead of them, who sighed helplessly: "I’ve only been here a day longer than you, I’m really not familiar with the area... turn left ahead, the Spirit Plant Garden on the right is off-limits."

"You’re saying you’re not familiar?" Changfa stared wide-eyed, "I’ve heard you’ve made seven sworn friends here in half a day; even on Beast Taming Peak, your close companions are there..."

"Where did you hear that?" Zheng Zhi was dumbfounded, "How can such outrageous rumors spread!"

"Erin said it; she also mentioned you fell off a cliff in the back hills and landed on a fishing expert, from whom you retrieved over seventy cultivation secret manuals—though, I know she’s surely exaggerating, who packs over seventy manuals when going out to fish, right."

Zheng Zhi’s face immediately twitched, feeling his decision to stay in Qianfeng Ling Mountain might have been a mistake, but with the situation as it was, talking about returning home was likely too late, so he simply sighed deeply, continuing to walk forward while mumbling, "You can’t trust what Erin says; I just met an old man guarding the dormitory at the foot of the hill, who complained I scared away his fish... turn right ahead, there’s a pavilion, it was donated and built seventy years ago by the next-door neighbor of Fairy Suyun’s cousin-in-law at Spirit Storage Peak, the view from the pavilion is great, and you can see Spirit Gathering Array in the valley below Spirit Peak City."

The long-haired princess proudly nudged the mermaid’s arm: "See, I told you having Zheng Zhi as a guide was fine, anyone close to Brother is nothing simple."

The mermaid watched Zheng Zhi’s agile figure moving as if at home on the mountain road ahead, blinking for a long time: "...That’s really impressive."