Chapter 31: Demonic beast forest.
When the space around Yao Jun and Yun Yantian finally stopped congealing, they found themselves in the middle of a damp and dim forest. The trees around them were all a dark green in color, dew dripping down from their leaves.
“At least we won't have to deal with the cold anymore. I just hope that the controller of this area isn't like that little snow man.”
Seeing the forest around him, Yun Yantian couldn't help but sit down and complain. They had only spent a bit over an hour escaping from the snow apes, but he had been on edge every second of the escape. If Yao Jun hadn't figured out what the trick to escaping was, there was no telling what would have happened to them.
“It seems like we have been transported to a type of forest. Do you know anything about it?”
Yao Jun looked at the forest around him. He had never seen trees like this before, but he spotted some herbs and other plants that he recognized. Some of the plants were things he had seen in the Cloud Wilderness, but some of them were things he had seen in the valley he ended up in after getting caught by the Spatial Node.
“I do actually. This forest is one of the more common places to end up in. It's also one of the places where the most people either die or are forced to leave.”
Yun Yantian stood up and dusted himself off before walking into the forest, beckoning Yao Jun to follow him. After walking for a few minutes, they came to a small clearing in the forest. The clearing was brighter than the rest of the forest, but still slightly dim. Yao Jun looked up, but the sky above the forest was completely gray, only a few spread patches of sunlight shining through.
“That's our objective.”
Yun Yantian pointed to the middle of the clearing. In the middle of the clearing stood a small boulder, a message carved into the boulder. The words were carved in the same way as the words that were carved into the ice mountain, so they were obviously carved by the same person.
Go deep and no heads can stop you from leaving the forest.
“Go deep? Do you know where the exit is?”
Yao Jun had no idea what the words meant, but he could already feel a headache approaching. The person who made these ruins seemed to be way too fond of making up bad ways of clearing his floors.
“I don't know the exact location of the exit, I only know that it is located at the center of the forest.”
Yun Yantian only had a small amount of knowledge about these ruins. There were only a few people from his clan who had entered the ruins and even fewer who managed to leave, so there was a limited amount of information he could get.
“So we should just head for the center of the forest? Do you know anything else about this place?”
As long as there were no big obstacles, heading for the center of the forest would be easy. Of course, Yao Jun refused to believe that there were no obstacles. If there weren't then how cold this be one of the places where most people died?
“This area is surprisingly simple. The area we are in now is called the starting area. The starting area covers ten kilometers every direction from where we entered. Except for the starting area, the entire rest of the forest is filled with different Demonic beasts. We have to escape or kill the Demonic beasts and get to the center. Simple isn't it?”
Yun Yantian grinned as he explained. Yao Jun couldn't help but be a little shocked. An entire forest filled with Demonic beasts? They just had to kill or evade them as they headed towards the center? Seeing the grin on Yun Yantian's face, he knew that they had thought of the same thing. Wasn't this just the perfect place to train?
“Seems like we ended up in a rather convenient area this time around.”
Yao Jun couldn't help but grin. If he managed to kill a few Demonic beasts and feed them to Little Thunder and Little Gray, they would be able to easily evolve and grow stronger. If he found any Demonic beasts with powers that were very convenient, he could also absorb them and use their powers for himself.
“I'm just gonna plant these quickly before we leave.”
Yao Jun sat down and pulled out some herbs and plants he had plucked while they were walking through the forest. His Garden of Eden was in need of some more herbs and plants. If he planted more of them, his Garden of Eden would gather up more of the surrounding Raw Qi, turning it's interior into a wonderful place for cultivation.
“Oh? I finally get to see this convenient gate of yours?”
Yao Jun ignored Yun Yantian's comment and closed his eyes, connecting his mind to the gate inside his chest. With a slight nudge of his mind, he found himself dragged into the Garden of Eden. He was standing on the same mountain he stood when he entered the Garden of Eden for the first time.
He overlooked the surrounding area and couldn't help but feel satisfied. The interior had grown slightly larger, slowly approaching ten kilometers in all directions. There was still only a forest and a mountain range, but Yao Jun was confident that he could allow it to grow much larger and more diverse while he was in this dark forest.
“Hoh? So this is how it looks?”
Yao Jun almost jumped in fright when he suddenly heard a voice behind him. He quickly turned around and came face to face with Yun Yantian. Yun Yantian was looking at the forest and the mountains with interest, but turned towards Yao Jun when he noticed the shocked look on his face.
“How...How did you get in here?!”
Yao Jun couldn't help but stutter. He had never tried bringing others into the Garden of Eden. He had also had the idea that maybe the gate was just transporting him to a different location, but he had also assumed that it was jut his mind traveling to that place through the gate. He had no idea how Yun Yantian suddenly entered.
“Eh? I just entered through the gate. After you closed your eyes, a large black gate appeared behind you and sucked your body in. I figured that since the gate was just standing there, maybe I could enter it as well. After touching it and pushing it open, it sucked me in here.”
Yun Yantian cocked his head to the side, slightly confused why Yao Jun would react so strongly. Wasn't it just entering through the gate? Why would that be so shocking?
“So my body disappeared and the gate was left behind?”
Yao Jun quickly realized that his thoughts had been wrong from the start. It wasn't just his mind that entered the Garden of Eden, but rather his entire body. When he realized this, he also realized that he should have figured it out much sooner. If it wasn't his body entering the Garden of Eden, then how could he possibly bring along herbs and plants to plant here?
“It's like this....”
Yao Jun quickly explained his previous thoughts and ideas to Yun Yantian, while also thinking about the new possibilities this opened. If the gate was left behind whenever he entered the Garden of Eden, did this not mean that he could bring in other people and keep them safe in here? Could he build an entire city inside the Garden of Eden once it grew larger? Yao Jun couldn't help but be excited as he thought about the possibilities.
“I see, it seems like this power is a lot better than we expected. Doesn't this mean that you can easily bring along the people you care about wherever you go? Bring a large amount of people into places where you otherwise can't bring them? Isn't this power a bit too good?”
Yun Yantian couldn't help but grumble. Just having a portable army of Demonic beasts wasn't enough? It had to even give him a portable fortress at the same time? The more he heard about Yao Jun's power, the more he almost felt like beating him for having such a good power.
“Well then, shall we go out and have ourselves a good little hunting party?”
Yao Jun finished planting the herbs and grinned at Yun Yantian. He had already started planning how he would build things inside the Garden of Eden in the future.