Chapter 20: Unfamiliar Land.
Yao Jun's vision was blanketed by a myriad of colors. His body felt like it was falling, tumbling forwards through a rainbow colored tunnel. The space around him felt thick and congealed, like he was traveling through mud. He had to take deep breaths, to the point where he was practically heaving, there simply didn't seem to be enough breathable air around him.
He tried to connect his mind with the Garden of Eden, but whenever he tried to move his perception inwards, his mind was assaulted by a horrifying stabbing pain that forced him to abandon his attempt.
Yao Jun continued to fall like this for a little over one minute. When his consciousness started getting fuzzy from the lack of oxygen, his body seemed to pass through some sort of membrane.
The myriad of colors that blanketed his vision dispersed, the thick, congealed space around him disappeared, and the air around him turned abundant, he could finally breathe properly. He took a few quick and deep breaths to clear his mind and grasp the situation around him.
He noticed that he was still falling, the ground quickly approaching. He moved his mind and connected it with the Garden of Eden. A gray light flashed out from his chest and Little Gray materialized below him, catching his body and preventing him from hitting the ground.
This was something he discovered after his Garden of Eden absorbed Little Gray. If he wanted to summon more than one of the absorbed Demonic beasts at once, he would have to make the gate itself materialize and open. But if he only wanted to summon one Demonic beast, he could just directly materialize it from his chest, without having to summon the gate first.
Little Gray slowly brought Yao Jun to the ground, before letting him down and standing guard next to him. Yao Jun scanned the surroundings, looking for any signs that would tell him where they had ended up.
The area around him was still a forest, but the trees were much shorter and sturdier than the trees in the Cloud Wilderness. The trees in the Cloud Wilderness were tall and thin, with vibrant colors and fresh leaves that gave off a breath of life. The trees around him were short and thick, barely reaching above ten meters, with a blackish bark and dark green leaves that were long and narrow, looking like spikes.
The climate was also different from the Cloud Wilderness. The cloud wilderness was dim because the tree crowns blotted out most of the sunlight, but the surrounding air was still warm and moist. Yao Jun cast his gaze upwards, the tree crowns here were not nearly as dense as they were in the Cloud Wilderness, so he could clearly see the blue sky and shining sun above the trees.
Yet, no matter how much light the sun shone down on the forest, the forest was still dark and chilly, like it was in the dead of night. Yao Jun retracted his gaze from the sky, scanning the surrounding forest once more.
He had memorized the encyclopedia of spiritual herbs that the Yao clan branch in Golden Moon town had given him. After that he had even been taught by Yao Qin and Peng Shi, learning about many of the plants that could only be found in the Cloud Wilderness and the surrounding area. Despite knowing so much about herbs and plants, Yao Jun found that he could not identify a single one of the plants he saw, he did not even know what the trees were called.
“Just where did we end up Little Gray...”
Yao Jun muttered to himself while he stroked Little Gray's head. Yao Jun stroked Little Gray's head like he wanted to comfort it, but the main reason he stroked it was to calm himself down. He had accidentally stumbled into a natural Spatial Node and ended up in a completely unfamiliar land, to say that he was not nervous, even slightly scared, would be a lie.
But he also knew that no matter how scared and nervous he was, it was important to stay calm and composed. His father had spent a lot of his time lecturing Yao Jun, teaching him the things that were important to keep in mind while on the battlefield.
Yao Jun took a few deep breaths to calm his heart, once his heart had calmed down and he gathered his thoughts, he climbed onto Little Gray's back and made him fly up above the trees. No matter what, the first step he had to take was to find out exactly where he was, and staying in the forest would not help him with that-
Little Gray flew out of the forest, but he only flew just above the trees. This way, if they got attacked by something from within the forest, they could quickly ascend to escape. And if they got attacked by something from the air, they could quickly descend into the forest to escape.
Once they broke through the tree crowns, the darkness dissipated, giving way to a bright day. while the light from the sun removed the darkness, Yao Jun noticed that the air was still chilly, so it was more likely that they had ended up somewhere with a cold climate, rather than just the forest being cold. Looking down, the forest still seemed to be perpetually dark, like it was pushing away the light from the sun.
The forest was located at the bottom of a valley, hidden between two mountains that pierced through the heavens, their tops shrouded by clouds. One of the mountains was a strange light green, while the other mountain was a pale white. From Yao Jun's slight vantage point, he found that the forest was surprisingly small, only being slightly larger than his own Garden of Eden, reaching about 15 kilometers in all directions.
On the wall of one of the mountains, Yao Jun saw a massive cave, the cave entrance alone had a diameter of at least two kilometers. Looking at the cave entrance, Yao Jun felt his entire heart go cold, a feeling of death creeping up on him. He hurriedly averted his gaze, he did not dare to look at the cave for too long, ordering Little Gray to turn around and travel in the other direction.
It was only a small valley, so despite Yao Jun and Little Gray traveling slowly, they still managed to reach the other mountain in less than half an hour. The mountain was completely barren, devoid of even the smallest straw of grass.
The mountain was a strange light green color, so Yao Jun initially thought that it was filled with plants and herbs. But as he got closer, he noticed that the light green color stemmed from the mountain rocks themselves. The mountain seemed to be carved out of one large piece of jade. Yao Jun even found that it was slightly warm to the touch.
Seeing the strangeness of the mountain, Yao Jun was tempted to check out the other mountain and check if it was made out of the same material, only in a different color. Yao Jun shook his head and quickly wiped this thought away as he remembered the large cave located on the other mountain.
Yao Jun and Little Gray quickly continued onward, flying past the light green mountain. As they passed the mountain, a vast plain opened up in front of them. The plain continued on for as far as the eye could see, small forests and hills scattered all around it.
Yao Jun scanned the plain, looking for notable landmarks that could indicate where he was. He did not manage to find a notable landmark, but he managed to spot a small town in the distance, so far away that it was slightly blurry to his eyes. Yao Jun nudged Little Gray with his foot, indicating for him to travel towards the little town.