Celestial Taoist

Chapter 41 Edge World

It turned out this wasn't a city after all. Li Mofan was a little surprised and made his tone sound polite: "Brothers, I have no intention of offending you. I'm just new to this place and don't know which areas in this realm have weak barriers."

The guard who had spoken looked at him with amusement. The other guard on the right pointed outside the gate and said with a mocking laugh, "The area around this teleportation point is full of weak points. If you can break through the wall, then go ahead." After saying that, he crossed his arms and stopped talking. The two guards stood in front of the gate, making their meaning very clear: as long as Li Mofan didn't approach the city gate, they wouldn't bother with him.

Li Mofan didn't say much. He simply turned around and walked a hundred meters away from the gate. He poured his spiritual energy into the storage gem that served as the mission item, and a small boat with sharp lines and exquisite compactness appeared in front of him. He used his personal computer to connect to the stern of the boat.

With a series of "whoosh" sounds, the side mechanism of the fully enclosed mechanical boat twisted and slid, creating an entrance about the height of a person. He leaped into the boat, and as the entrance closed, a wave shot out from the bow. This wave struck the air in front of him, tearing a gap large enough to accommodate the hull. In a flash, the boat, several tens of meters long, disappeared from its original spot, clearly having entered the gap. The gap, deprived of its supporting energy, gradually healed.

The two guards below the city were stunned upon seeing this, their eyes fixed on the point where the void rift had closed. They never imagined that someone who didn't even know basic common sense would have enough cultivation to control such an interdimensional flying boat. After a long while, they came to their senses and muttered, "To be able to drive an interdimensional flying boat, one must at least be a high-level expert..."

Inside the spaceship, Li Mofan sat at the control panel, the holographic screen in front of him clearly displaying the void route and the boundary fluctuation pattern. The spaceship shuttled through a chaotic and hazy void, with only dark light and shadow flowing around it. Occasionally, small fragments would brush against the hull, making a "sizzling" friction sound, which was steadily blocked by the energy shield on the outer layer of the spaceship, leaving only a few ripples.

The space inside the airship is only about three meters in diameter. It's more than enough for one person to sit in, but it would be a bit crowded if it carried several people. It seems that this airship was specially designed for solo travel. Through the connection of the light brain, Li Mofan activated the airship's automatic navigation mode and selected automatic navigation to Edge 23 World.

The airship moved extremely fast, with almost no turbulence as it flew. Li Mofan leaned back in his seat, keeping an eye on the detection data on the screen while circulating his spiritual energy to replenish the energy needed for the airship's flight. There was no spiritual energy in the void. He had just tried breathing exercises and found that it was completely different from the usual way spiritual energy flowed into his body like inhaling. Absorbing spiritual energy in the void felt like an ordinary person trying to breathe in space—he couldn't feel a single trace of spiritual energy. Fortunately, the airship didn't consume much spiritual energy. Even at his current rate of replenishment, it would only consume a little over a hundred points of spiritual energy to power the airship for a day.

He hadn't expected space travel to be so boring. For the past two days, aside from periodically injecting spiritual energy and checking the spaceship's status, he spent the rest of his time resting with his eyes closed, drawing spiritual energy from his universal elemental shield to keep his own spiritual energy constantly abundant. During this time, the spaceship encountered small void fragment turbulence twice, but the automatic navigation system precisely avoided both, and the energy shield only trembled slightly without being damaged.

Li Mofan was resting with his eyes closed when the airship's warning system suddenly emitted a crisp alert. The previously dim light and shadow on the holographic screen suddenly brightened, and a clear green orb appeared, marked "Edge 23 World Wall". Li Mofan abruptly opened his eyes, lightly tapped the control panel, deactivated the automatic navigation mode, and consciously controlled the airship to slow down, moving closer to the orb of light.

Before him, a series of distortions appeared in the void. Based on the clues, Li Mofan deduced that this was the boundary wall of Edge World 23. Li Mofan controlled the flying boat, gathering energy, and shot an invisible energy beam at the distortion, immediately creating a rift. Through the rift, the outline of mountains on the other side could be vaguely seen. He urged the flying boat to slowly enter, and as the flying boat completely entered, the void rift behind him gradually closed. After more than two days of arduous travel, he finally arrived at the mission location, Edge World 23.

As soon as the flying boat passed through the boundary wall, a foul, humus-like stench seeped in through the gaps in the energy shield. Completely different from the environment of the Heavenly Punishment World, the air here was thick and heavy. Taking a breath made one's throat tighten, and even the circulation of spiritual energy became somewhat sluggish. This must be the unique aura of the edge world. Looking around, there were rolling, barren hills, the ground covered with cracked ravines, the exposed rocks stained with gray-black rust, and the sparse vegetation had long since withered, its branches twisted like ghostly claws, making a wailing sound in the gale, just like the abandoned wasteland in legends.

Li Mofan controlled the flying boat to descend slowly. The detection data on the holographic screen jumped wildly. The spiritual energy concentration was extremely thin and chaotic. Trying to cultivate here was undoubtedly a pipe dream.

He shut off the airship's engine, and the moment he opened the hatch, a strong wind carrying sand and gravel rushed towards him, stinging his face. The ground beneath his feet was as hard as iron, offering no softness whatsoever. Touching the ground with his fingers, he could feel a slight warmth, like the lingering scent of some kind of creature.

Searching for information about this world through his optical brain, Li Mofan only found a brief text: Edge World 23, 320 light-years from the center of the Xuanhuang World Cluster, is a life-bearing world with some development value. Li Mofan pondered to himself, wondering what the mage who issued the mission was doing setting up a magic array in such a world.

Without further delay, Li Mofan took out his storage gem, placed the flying boat in the air, covered his feet with spiritual energy, and his body soared into the air.

During the flight, he first saw an abandoned temporary camp. The tattered metal tents had long been torn apart by the gale, and the scattered mechanical parts were rusted. Dark red marks remained on the ground, like dried bloodstains. Several broken weapons were discarded nearby, their blades full of nicks. Clearly, a fierce battle had taken place here, perhaps by past explorers or native survivors, none of whom could survive the test of this wasteland.

Continuing forward, in the cracked ravines ahead, gray figures could be vaguely seen wriggling. Li Mofan quickly increased the altitude of his flight to observe carefully. He saw that those figures were staggering, with gray-black skin and messy chunks of flesh sewn onto their bodies. They must be creatures unique to this world. They wandered aimlessly, their roars carried by the gale, making one's heart tremble.

They swept past another low, rocky hill, where a patch of tainted vegetation lay hidden in a hollow. The withered branches were covered in a nauseating grayish substance, emitting a faint, fishy odor. Li Mofan sped past, his vigilance growing. This seemingly desolate world appeared to harbor many dangers.

Along the way, you can also see several abandoned detection devices. Their outer shells have long been corroded beyond recognition, their screens are shattered, and their circuits are exposed. They were obviously left behind when this world was developed in the past, but were abandoned due to unknown crises, leaving only broken wreckage, silently standing in the gale.

Occasionally, strangely shaped native beasts would leap out of the ravines. They were thin, with withered fur and fierce eyes, and they would roar at Li Mofan, who was flying high in the sky. These beasts were probably primitive creatures of this wasteland world, with violent temperaments.