Shaking his head to dispel these absurd thoughts, Yu Ci focused his mind on the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror, carefully examining the vast world within a fifty-mile radius beneath the cliff.
Generally speaking, the brightness of Tianlie Valley decreased as one descended from top to bottom, obscured by layers of clouds and mist. Even the strongest sunlight couldn’t penetrate the depths of the valley, which reached seven to eight thousand zhang deep from about twenty miles down. On the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror, strong contrasts between light and shadow appeared around forty miles down, plunging into a dim territory where no sunlight reached, and still, the bottom of the canyon remained unseen.
Yu Ci scanned over it briefly, then focused on the details. With a change in his thoughts, the small world expanded rapidly in his eyes, and soon, a point in the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror he casually marked became clear before him.
He was looking directly at a huge bird with eyes like bronze bells and golden rays resembling knives.
Yu Ci almost punched out instinctively but managed to control himself in time, realizing his perspective was off. After a slight adjustment, he saw clearly—it was actually a giant bird with a wingspan of several zhang, and what he had seen earlier was its eye. The bird’s head was covered in messy dark red feathers, unable to conceal its sharp eagle-like eyes and its massive beak like an iron hook. The feathers spread towards its body became brighter in color, resembling fresh blood, and with a slight ruffle of its feathers, a layer of blood-red light spread in the clouds and mist.
What’s this thing? Blood Effigy?
Yu Ci’s gaze circled the fierce bird, using it as a reference, extending his vision in all directions. The Tianlie Valley in the clouds and mist became clearer.
He soon realized that naming the giant bird was pointless at this moment, as the wonders of the valley had only just revealed a tiny fraction to him.
The Blood Effigy swooped down with the wind and mist, its claws striking a giant lizard. However, this lizard not only had horns on its head but also had two large membranous wings under its ribs. Upon seeing the Blood Effigy attack, it croaked loudly, gliding diagonally away with its wing membranes flapping, and then the two monsters began a fierce battle in the clouds and mist, feathers and scales flying everywhere.
Shifting his gaze, Yu Ci saw giant frog-like creatures spitting venom, moving effortlessly up and down the cliffs; he saw giant apes as tall as three people uprooting trees and hurling stones, resembling demons. But he also saw creatures like a snake from legends, as thick as a child’s arm and tens of zhang long, vaguely floating in the depths of the clouds and mist.
There were too many surprises, and the taste of shock faded, replaced by an uncontrollable excitement: It turned out that there was such a world between heaven and earth, so mysterious and magnificent, as if it were specially designed by the heavens to break human knowledge!
Of course, Yu Ci also saw the dangers in this, but these incessant crises were more like a big handful of spices thrown into boiling oil, making the fragrance overflow, enticing his soul, and plunging straight into the abyss.
Then, he really jumped down.
The clouds and mist rushed towards him, filled with an unprecedented atmosphere that slammed into his heart and burned his chest:
“I didn’t know the bottom before, so I didn’t go deep. Now that I have the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror, how can I miss it again!”
With the guidance of the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror, Yu Ci quickly slid down to a place below a hundred zhang from the top of the valley, where the light was slightly dimmer. This was the deepest place he had reached while collecting herbs earlier, but compared to the canyon itself, this distance was meaningless!
The deeper he descended, the more novel and bizarre the world displayed on the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror became, constantly challenging Yu Ci’s imagination. The ever-changing and marvelous ecology fascinated him, pulling him further down.
Unknowingly, he had descended ten miles deep. Along this ten-mile journey, there were many difficulties. After reaching this point, Yu Ci finally found a precarious platform to rest temporarily.
As he descended, the temperature in Tianlie Valley dropped rapidly, bone-chilling cold, reminiscent of winter’s breath.
However, for Yu Ci, the most challenging thing was the disorienting sense of space. At this point, surrounded by dense fog, he couldn’t see anything except for the cliff behind him to rely on. Staying here for too long made him feel like the sky was upside down, or the ground had angled, and if he continued to be dazed, he might mistake the cliff for the ground and step into the abyss, shattering his bones.
Fortunately, he had the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror, allowing him to adjust his senses by focusing on the changes in the images on the mirror centered around him.
Besides that, the constant appearance of ferocious beasts and strange birds was a significant threat. For instance, the Blood Effigy that had just flown past him.
The big guy looked very familiar, as if it were the one he had observed through the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror earlier. It seemed to have triumphed in a previous battle and had just feasted again. Flying high and arrogantly brushing against the cliff, the fierce wind caused by its blood-stained wings almost blew Yu Ci off.
Yu Ci wasn’t angry. Instead, through the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror, he observed the flight path of the big guy with interest. During his rest time, he planned to understand the habits of such creatures.
The Blood Effigy circled in the canyon’s clouds and mist, steadily descending. Yu Ci knew that this range of twenty miles up and down was the main area where the Blood Effigy lived.
He had originally wanted to understand more details, but his attention was diverted by something from the Blood Effigy.
It was a slope located about twenty miles deep in the dark area of Tianlie Valley, extending about three thousand zhang from the cliff.
The slope was extremely steep at the top and slightly gentler below, extending dozens of zhang along the cliff. Yu Ci had initially thought that Tianlie Valley would gradually narrow here and continue to explore further, only to discover that this was a protruding land isolated outside, with a bottomless abyss below.
There were no conspicuous plants on the slope, which was normal since it was shrouded in thick fog year-round, devoid of sunlight, making it difficult for plants other than moss and fungi to survive. However, Yu Ci was confident in the function of the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror and trusted his eyes. He clearly saw that when the Blood Effigy spread its wings to fly past, the wind it carried blew up countless grass leaves as fine as hair.
Shrimp Whisker Grass!
It had to be Shrimp Whisker Grass. Although he didn’t understand why Shrimp Whisker Grass could grow where there were no trees, Yu Ci believed in his eyes and the effectiveness of the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror.
Right now, Shrimp Whisker Grass wasn’t crucial to him, but it was a clear target. Yu Ci was invigorated and considered this slope the endpoint of today’s exploration, continuing his climbing journey.
It wasn’t an easy task. Not every cliff in Tianlie Valley was suitable for climbing. Some areas were as smooth as mirrors vertically, and even if mountain monkeys skilled in climbing went up, they would only end up dead.
Thanks to the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror, which captured the surrounding terrain, allowing Yu Ci to avoid dangerous areas in time. Even so, it took him three full hours to find a path through the slope. By the time he stepped onto the soft soil of the slope, it was already completely dark.
Tianlie Valley was too vast. This seven to eight mu of land sloping down was just a inconspicuous protrusion on the entire cliff plane, completely insignificant. And Yu Ci here was like a tiny insect on this protrusion, even more insignificant.
But this didn’t affect Yu Ci’s great harvest. The Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror proved to be reliable, and his vision was accurate. This was indeed an exclusive medicinal garden bestowed by the heavens for Shrimp Whisker Grass.
There were no large trees on the slope, but there was a remnant of a large tree root system. Clearly visible in the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror, most of the twisted root system was buried under rocks and soil, spreading in all directions, occupying the entire slope and even spreading into the surrounding cliffs. Yu Ci couldn’t imagine how such a large tree could grow in such a place, and if a tree with such a root system still existed, it would be a colossal entity!
For some reason, the large tree had already broken, likely falling into the deep valley, and most of the remaining root system had withered. Still, a small portion remained, becoming a unique parasite, providing nourishment to the thousands of Shrimp Whisker Grass around it.
That was the reason for the existence of Shrimp Whisker Grass.
Yu Ci resolved his small doubts and awaited even greater surprises. Due to underestimating the surrounding cliffs, the number of Shrimp Whisker Grass far exceeded his initial estimate. Just by visual estimation, there were at least two to three thousand plants near the slope, an astonishing number. With these Shrimp Whisker Grass, along with his existing stock, he could exchange for four Three Yang Symbol Swords and still have leftovers.
Transactions in the Cliff City were bound to be straightforward, and Yu Ci had no intention of prolonged negotiations. Besides a few dangerously positioned specimens, he planned to clear out the Shrimp Whisker Grass around the slope.
Of course, that would be a task for tomorrow.
****
After nightfall, Tianlie Valley became a place where you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Thick fog almost completely obscured any light, making it impossible to see more than a few feet ahead even for those with trained night vision. Yu Ci didn’t want to risk stumbling to his death near a treasure mountain, so he found a sheltered spot on the slope, sat down, and prepared to endure the long night.
It was Yu Ci’s first time spending the night in Tianlie Valley. After encountering fierce beasts like the Blood Effigy and others, sleeping or meditating was out of the question. Bored, he decided to open the Divine Map and see how Tianlie Valley looked in the darkness.
At this moment, the Divine Map displayed a nearly perfect hemisphere. The hemisphere stood vertically, with cliffs behind extending hundreds of feet deep, which seemed shallow compared to the vast fifty miles of empty space it overlooked, almost negligible.
The color of the hemisphere had also changed, influenced by the twilight. It appeared a dark gray, faintly emitting a bluish glow that wasn’t too conspicuous in the night, saving Yu Ci the trouble of shielding its light.
Fifty miles… No, wait, how could it be fifty miles? Yu Ci suddenly noticed something wrong. He was currently about twenty miles deep into Tianlie Valley, and even at its maximum, from here to the sky limit the Divine Map could show, it was only thirty miles. The Divine Map clearly showed the sky’s height hadn’t changed, so it was impossible for this complete hemisphere to appear.
Its appearance could only mean one thing—due to some reason, the Divine Map was displaying a reduced range of the world it covered. Right now, the diameter he could control wasn’t fifty miles, but thirty. It seemed like an invisible giant beast had swallowed up the outer space.
Was it due to the natural decay of the Divine Map’s power, or was it related to the night? Yu Ci leaned towards the latter, but whether it was a unique environment of Tianlie Valley or a general phenomenon remained to be verified over time.
Of course, for now, thirty miles was sufficient for Yu Ci to work with.
He noticed that Tianlie Valley was much more lively at night than during the day. There were at least fifty percent more creatures swimming in the mist than during the day, and some colossal beings roamed deeper in the clouds, revealing just enough of themselves to make Yu Ci, the observer, hold his breath.
In fact, Yu Ci had already consciously slowed his breathing. At this moment, Tianlie Valley was more dangerous, more bloody, and harder to predict than during the day. The fierce beasts here didn’t seem to have the strong territorial instincts of those on the ground; they were always moving around, leading to frequent conflicts.
Within the thirty-mile radius Yu Ci could perceive, in just two short hours, three extremely brutal battles had occurred. Each ended with someone or both sides dying tragically, their bloody aura mingling with the canyon, becoming a unique part of its atmosphere.
As he held his breath, the fire in Yu Ci’s heart burned brighter. This was the world cultivators should engage with—countless fierce beasts, escalating powers, the bloody clash of lives, and most importantly, the ever-changing thrills that constantly refreshed his understanding. This moment was absolutely different from the last.
Yu Ci felt like a toad that had jumped out of a dry well, dizzy from the vastness of the outside world, stunned by its overwhelming happiness.
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