Chapter 1329: Exploring a New World

Niu Youdao found it awkward to force Yun Ji into doing something. With Yuan Gang, he plainly had no such scruples.

Since Master Dao insisted, Yuan Gang was put in an awkward position. But he knew Niu Youdao was not someone who made unreasonable demands. If Master Dao had ordered him to do this, there had to be a reason.

Still, deliberately trying to get struck by lightning was a little too terrifying. No matter how brave a man was... this had nothing to do with courage. The problem was that when the task was to let lightning strike you, the barrier in your own mind was hard to cross.

Anything else would have been easy enough. Even if Niu Youdao told him to risk his life and go die, he would not have frowned. But being told to invite a lightning strike truly was the sort of thing that could shake a man's resolve.

Forget Yun Ji, a serpent demon. Every living creature feared heavenly thunder in the depths of its heart. Humans were no exception.

Even so, Niu Youdao's words carried considerable weight with him.

And Yuan Gang truly was a hard man. In the end, he steeled himself, turned around, and walked toward the pyramid.

Watching with her own eyes, Yun Ji's expression twitched slightly. She looked up at the sky, then subconsciously took several steps backward. More precisely, she moved farther away from Niu Youdao. She had learned to fear this scheming fellow. Who knew what this man, who always did exactly as he said, intended to play with next? Better to keep some distance and avoid being dragged into it.

Since there was no escaping Master Dao's coercion anyway, Yuan Gang gritted his teeth and abruptly accelerated. He charged forward, leapt onto the steps, and began climbing rapidly tier by tier.

"Stop right there!" Niu Youdao suddenly shouted from below, hands planted on his hips.

Yuan Gang halted mid-climb and looked back down, somewhat surprised. He called, "We're not hitting it anymore?" Inwardly, he breathed a sigh of relief, thinking Master Dao had changed his mind.

Instead, Niu Youdao shouted back, "Who told you to climb up? Down there. Just test it at the bottom." He pointed toward the lowest tier of the pyramid.

Down there? Yuan Gang froze, then glanced back toward the top of the tower.

Yun Ji was surprised as well. He did not want the top struck, but the bottom?

Yuan Gang understood. Master Dao really did have another purpose. He must be testing something.

He immediately jumped back down tier after tier, finally landing on the sand. Turning, he pointed at the first step and looked back. "Here?"

Niu Youdao nodded. "Mm. There will do." As he spoke, he subconsciously backed away two steps himself.

The taste of heavenly thunder had not been pleasant. It had left a shadow in his mind, and even now the skin over his entire body still burned painfully. Yuan Gang's flesh was far tougher than his when it came to taking a beating.

That backward movement made Yuan Gang somewhat uneasy. Even so, he steeled himself and suddenly threw a punch.

Pa!

Niu Youdao looked up at the sky. Nothing happened. He called, "Use more strength!"

Bang!

Yuan Gang obediently increased the force and struck heavily again.

The sky still showed no response.

Niu Youdao shouted, "Are you scratching an itch?"

Yuan Gang drew a deep breath. Because of his misgivings, he truly had held back on the first two punches. This time his entire posture settled into a heavy, concentrated stillness.

"Ha!"

He exhaled with a shout and drove out a punch.

Clang!

The impact rang loudly.

Even his own fist hurt from that blow. The stone truly was hard, nothing like ordinary rock.

Hum... hum...

The sky once again gave off the same strange droning sound as the day before, as though the disturbance came from somewhere unseen.

Yun Ji made a sound of surprise. "So it isn't only the top. Striking the bottom also produces a reaction. How did you know?"

Niu Youdao ignored her and beckoned Yuan Gang over. "Look at you, acting as though you cherish your life and fear death. All right, all right. Come back."

Yun Ji looked him up and down with a peculiar expression. She muttered inwardly, You hid all the way back here yourself, yet you still have the nerve to call him afraid of death?

This time Yuan Gang truly relaxed. After walking back, he reported, "Master Dao, the stone really is extremely hard. I didn't use my full strength, but if that had been ordinary rock, I'd definitely have punched a crater into it."

Niu Youdao, his hair curled and his face red like some strange creature, snorted. "I know you're thick-skinned, tough-fleshed, and strong." Then he looked up at the sky again.

Yuan Gang asked, "Master Dao, are you testing something?"

Niu Youdao sighed. "We haven't done this kind of work in a long time. I got a little careless. This ruin—or more precisely, this grand formation—has a self-protection mechanism."

Yun Ji asked, "You're saying the lightning strike earlier was meant to protect this raised platform?"

Niu Youdao nodded. "You said yourself that this platform gives off fluctuations in the qi of Heaven and Earth. I noticed something unusual while I was striking it repeatedly earlier. Do you know why that bolt of lightning struck only me and not either of you?"

Both shook their heads and waited for his answer.

Niu Youdao explained, "The harder I struck, the stronger the fluctuations in the qi washing back over my body with the returning force. Once heavenly thunder is triggered, whatever strange attribute that qi possesses becomes the lure that draws the lightning!"

Yun Ji understood. "In other words, once heavenly thunder appears, whoever struck the platform will be the one it hits?"

Niu Youdao nodded. "The greater the destructive force, the stronger the lightning attack it draws. When I wasn't using much force before, all I received was a warning. Once I suddenly increased the force, it stopped being a warning and became a direct attack."

He looked around. "There are too many creatures on the level of the Scorpion Emperor in this desert. Yet this platform has stood here all these years without being destroyed by those sand scorpions. This protective layer is probably why."

Then he looked up at the top of the tower. "This is the master nexus formation eye for severing the connections among the Five Domains. To prevent deliberate destruction, whoever laid the formation built powerful safeguards into it. Anyone who dares damage it immediately draws heavenly punishment upon himself! In other words, the ultimate purpose is to keep this formation eye from being destroyed."

He pointed toward the summit. "Fortunately, we didn't come here with malicious intent. Otherwise, yesterday might have brought down far more than one bolt. We might have been blasted until not even ash remained!"

Yun Ji and Yuan Gang exchanged a look. At last they understood the purpose of his experiment.

He had truly been using his own body to test the mechanism!

Now that she understood, Yun Ji could not help marveling. "To construct a grand formation this profound... just what level of mighty figures were Shang Song and his wife? With such power, who knows where their immortal traces lie now. If husband and wife returned, I fear all the chaos in the mortal world could be pacified in an instant."

Niu Youdao sighed faintly. "To people like us, perhaps they were mighty figures. But the universe is vast beyond measure, filled with every manner of strange thing. Our understanding of the world may be no more than one drop in the ocean. There is always another mountain higher. I'm afraid that husband and wife will never return."

Yun Ji froze. She ventured, "You mean they may already have met with disaster? With cultivation like theirs, who could possibly have made things difficult for them?"

"I'm only guessing!" Niu Youdao smiled bitterly and shook his head.

He had read the Demon Canon and roughly understood the reason he himself had come to this world. He knew Li Ge had left behind her handwritten notes not because she did not want to return, but because she had prepared for the possibility that she would be unable to return.

As for why she could not return, he had no basis to speculate.

But Shang Song and Li Ge had descendants here. So much time had passed without either of them coming back to visit, even while a military revolt slaughtered their descendants. Plainly, something had happened. They truly seemed unable to return.

"Enough. Whatever happened to husband and wife is not our affair, and we don't have the ability to worry about it anyway. We should concern ourselves with our own situation first." Niu Youdao collected his thoughts and looked around. "This world is larger than what we can see from here. Since we've come, we should explore it further and see whether there are any other dangerous or unusual things."

He turned to Yun Ji. "Here, you should be able to fly without restraint. No need to worry about anyone seeing you."

Yun Ji said, "Don't tell me you expect me to drag both of you around this entire world. My cultivation may be higher than yours, but hauling two grown men through the air without stopping will exhaust me eventually."

Niu Youdao said, "You're thinking too much. Aren't there plenty of flying mounts in this place?" He tilted his head toward Yuan Gang, then asked him directly, "None of the flying mounts here have been domesticated. Are you confident you can control one?"

Yun Ji understood what he meant. First she would carry them until they found a flying mount.

Yuan Gang said, "I've never properly tried, especially not with the ones in this world. But I can give it a try."

Niu Youdao immediately smiled at Yun Ji. "Then let's try. Come on."

Yun Ji looked around, still somewhat concerned. "We don't know whether cultivators exist in this world."

Niu Youdao said, "We'll see when we see. We can't shrink back just because we're worried, can we?"

Yun Ji had nothing more to say. She grabbed one man by each arm and shot into the sky, flying in the direction from which the great flock of Scarlet Hunting Eagles had come.

The moment they left the desert, they entered an endless expanse of green. Only then did they realize the desert was almost like a dead zone, perhaps because of the sand scorpions.

Below them, mountains and rivers rolled without end. Birds wheeled freely through the sky, and the whole world seemed vibrant with life.

"With such a good environment for survival, could there really be no people here?" Yun Ji asked skeptically as she flew with both men in hand.

Niu Youdao pointed toward a river. "Go down and have a look."

Whoosh!

The three landed beside the river, startling a nest of small mouse-like creatures into fleeing in panic.

Niu Youdao pointed at the water.

Yuan Gang understood. Master Dao wanted him to test whether the water here was fit to drink.

He walked to the riverbank and crouched. Just as he was about to scoop up water, his hand froze. He stared into the river as though he had noticed something.

Niu Youdao and Yun Ji immediately focused on the same spot.

Splash!

A water monster with a pointed snout and savage fangs suddenly burst through the surface, its jaws snapping straight toward Yuan Gang.

Clang!

Yuan Gang drove out a fist and struck the side of its face. Blood burst outward, accompanied by the audible cracking of bone.

The monster, more than a zhang long, was hurled away and crashed back into the river with a violent spray. It rolled belly-up and drifted with the current before slowly sinking.

Niu Youdao flashed to Yuan Gang's side, partly to stand guard and partly to inspect the water. Then he seemed to notice something and gradually bent down.

Yuan Gang noticed. Unsure what he was doing, he looked toward the same spot but saw nothing unusual.

Niu Youdao suddenly extended a hand and used magic to still the surface of the water at his feet. He bent over it, tilting his head left and right as though looking into a mirror. With his other hand, he even pulled at his curled hair and examined it.

Yun Ji and Yuan Gang immediately understood.

Apparently, he had finally noticed the problem with his present appearance.

Both promptly busied themselves with other things, pretending not to know anything.

After staring into the water for a while, Niu Youdao straightened. One eyebrow rose halfway as he looked first at one of them, then the other.

Finally he said, "I was struck by lightning. Looking burned afterward is perfectly normal. Is there any need to make such a fuss?"

Yun Ji turned back with an expression of apparent surprise. "Who made a fuss? Did either of us say anything?"

[End of Chapter 1329]