Translator: Exodus Tales  Editor: Exodus Tales

Edited by Aelryinth

"If this place is really made up of many fragmented worlds, then most likely it will not be easy to gain the greatest benefits in the secret plane…"

Although Zhang Che didn't know if his guess was on the mark, he knew he was now trapped in this floating mountain range. That was indisputable.

Originally, he thought he could rely on the fact that he entered the secret plane earlier than everyone else and go search for the hidden treasures in the secret plane. From the looks of it now, this secret plane wasn't favorable to that strategy at all.

Even so, since he was already here, and with no way to leave for now, Zhang Che had no other choice but to explore this floating mountain range.

"Come on, we'll go look around deep in the mountain range, then. Hopefully this place won't disappoint me," Zhang Che said, patting the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon's back, indicating he should fly deeper into the floating mountain range.

Since he didn't know whether this place was safe, and whether powerful creatures were active here, Zhang Che didn't dare to be careless, fully focused on observing his surroundings.

"Ga, gaga!…"

Just as the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon flew towards one of the tall mountain summits, a wave of noise was suddenly heard from the forest below them. A group of birds that seemed to be wild ducks came rus.h.i.+ng out in a panic, running in all directions.

"Those… are actually ordinary animals?"

Zhang Che was very surprised. He didn't feel any spiritual fluctuations from those wild duck-like animals. Even one-star black iron-quality exotic beasts from the beast world were much stronger than them.

That shouldn't be! The spiritual reaction in this world was very strong. Added to the secret plane being sealed for a long time, there should be large amounts of powerful creatures around. How could these ordinary animals be living peacefully?

They should have been preyed on to extinction!

Although Zhang Che was suspicious about this, he didn't bother with those ordinary birds. Instead, he had the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon slow down further, continuing their exploration deeper into the mountain range.

Going forward, over the next few kilometers uncountable numbers of birds were alarmed in the forest below, confusing Zhang Che further.

Despite causing such a huge commotion, he actually didn't see a single creature that wasn't an ordinary animal!

This wasn't scientific… no, this wasn't fantastical at all!

The Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon kept flying straight. After flying through another invisible barrier, Zhang Che slowly came to realize the secret plane wasn't only made up of countless fragments. Each fragmented world was actually further divided into different areas.

This kind of feeling… why did it resemble those legendary immortals' caves so much?

Zhang Che felt apprehensive, unsure whether he should continue forward.

However, a shot arrow could never turn back. With things having progressed to this point, he couldn't afford to hesitate.

"Continue forward. At the most, we'll retreat immediately if it gets dangerous. Since the earlier area had no existence stronger than an ordinary animal, it meant that native creatures can't cross over!" Zhang Che decided after thinking for a moment.

Of course, before they went into action, he experimented on the invisible barrier behind him. After making sure he could cross back over, he let out a sigh of relief.

With a path of retreat, Zhang Che was no longer afraid. He directed the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon to continue flying on…

Perhaps it was due to them having crossed that invisible barrier, but he noticed the surrounding spiritual force became denser. Countless clouds of fog flowed between the mountains, covering more than half of the dense forest, only vaguely revealing what was below.

As the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon flew forward, the fog ahead immediately stirred. Zhang Che wasn't surprised, but happy. He was worried that there wasn't any powerful creatures in this area, either. Wouldn't he end up empty-handed on this trip, then?

A bird's cry so sharp that it could crack metal rang out. Afterwards, a white silhouette suddenly pierced through the fog, flying directly towards Zhang Che.

It was a majestic male eagle. Its whole body was covered in white feathers, except for its crown, which was a tuft of purple. Its wingspan was over three meters wide, flying as fast as lightning with every flap of its wings.

"What a white-feathered eagle!" Zhang Che was elated at finally finding prey. He wasn't scared at all. A scarlet and white sword light shot out from his brow, streaking across the white eagle's body.

A line of blood appeared on the white eagle's neck, and its head suddenly fell away. The headless corpse continued on its path for a few dozen meters more before losing all momentum and falling.

In the next moment, something that left Zhang Che staring with his mouth agape happened.

The white eagle that was cut in two actually dispersed, turning into a puff of spiritual qi invisible to the naked eye and quickly melting into the air.

"Th-this… what the heck is this?" Zhang Che truly couldn't comprehend this phenomenon. He was very sure that white eagle wasn't an exotic beast, because it was fundamentally different from them.

After thinking for a short while, Zhang Che still couldn't understand why that white eagle would directly dissipate into spiritual qi. It was clearly a body of flesh and blood just moments earlier; why would it turn into spiritual qi all of a sudden?

That was truly too bizarre!

Although it had been less than an hour since Zhang Che entered the secret plane, he had received shocks time after time during this short period from what he had witnessed. He truly didn't know what to do next.

-I'll go try hunting a few more spiritual beasts. Maybe that was an isolated example?- Zhang Che thought. When he came across more of those animals later, he'd make sure to let his pets and subdued beasts take turns killing them and see if they would all turn into spiritual qi and dissipate.

Although Zhang Che was aware this possibility was very high, he wouldn't let this matter rest before he confirmed it.

He decided to let the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon land on the ground. Afterwards, he summoned out the Scarlet Flame Drake and trekked through the forest.

Shortly after they landed, a wave of rustling sounds came from ahead of them. Soon a large spread of various animals came and surrounded them.

Those animals' appearances were very strange. Although they looked similar to the lions, tigers, leopards, wolves, and so forth from Mercury, there were extremely huge differences in the tiny details, leaving him unable to cla.s.sify them as the same creatures.

Although those spiritual beasts were great in number, their strength was mediocre. When Zhang Che erupted with all his strength together with his army of subdued beasts and pets, the group of oncoming spiritual beasts were quickly reduced to countless pieces, one after another. Afterwards, all of them turned into streak after streak of spiritual qi before Zhang Che's eyes, dissipating into the surrounding forest.

"Indeed, no matter what kind of attacks, these spiritual beasts will all turn into spiritual qi and scatter after they are killed."

Realizing this, Zhang Che was no longer interested in these spiritual beasts.

Going forward, he wanted to try and see if there were any spiritual herbs here. If there were, then would they also turn into spiritual qi and scatter after he dug them out?

That would be a problem…