Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Fang Ping continued honing his bones and cultivating combat techniques while attending special training classes.
Gradually, a rough impression of the Catacombs began taking shape in his mind.
This impression solidified when the instructor led everyone into Building No. 2 in MCMAU’s southern area to take a look at the topographic map.
…
Building No. 2.
They found themselves in a massive hall measuring several thousand square meters. The only thing it contained was an enormous, very technologically advanced sandbox.
The old professor who was leading the group walked into the hall and chuckled, “Magic City’s topographic map of the Catacombs is on the third floor.
“The Catacombs topographic sandbox for Donglin is on the fourth floor and the one for Donghu is on the fifth.
“Currently, MCMAU only has maps of these three areas. The Military Department, on the other hand, has maps for every single one of them.
“The Catacombs is only a generic term. We prefer to add a prefix in front because there are 22 entrances to the Catacombs, none of which are linked.
“Then again, they could be linked. However, mankind has not yet been able to carry out in-depth explorations to test this. What can be said is that after so many years, no one has been able to enter from one entrance and arrive at a different entrance.
“After this, we will make preparations to enter the Catacombs in Magic City.
“In the Catacombs, technology is useless. It’s impossible to take photographs. Mobile phones and cameras will lose power if they are brought in…
“These maps were put together from gradual exploration and probes, resulting in these sandbox models, which sum up everything that we know so far about the Catacombs.”
Fang Ping and the rest could no longer pay attention to what the professor was saying.
Everyone was gawking at the sandbox!
“Is this the fort?”
“More like a village. How can a fort be so small?”
“What’s the scale of this sandbox?”
“So this is what the Catacombs look like. I thought they were a bunch of primitive savages…”
Many people knew that the Catacombs had their own civilization, just like on Earth.
Despite that, many people still thought that the beings in the Catacombs lived in an era where they devoured raw meat and fowl.
Right now, however, standing in front of the enormous sandbox, they realized how wrong they had been. There were numerous forts and an imposingly massive perimeter wall; it was clear to everyone that the Catacombs were not a primitive or savage society.
They had their own civilization and their own social system.
Perhaps they were not as advanced when compared to Earth, but everyone’s paths were different. It was certainly not a yardstick for measuring how advanced or backward a civilization was.
…
Fang Ping gave the model a glance and his brow furrowed. He asked softly, “Instructor, there are 13 cities marked on the map. Does this mean that the Catacombs in Magic City can contain 13 cities? How big are these cities, and what’s their total population?”
The instructor shook his head and replied, “Those are not 13 cities. Note that these are just the 13 cities that we have been able to explore up to the present!”
These words carried a completely different meaning than what Fang Ping meant.
Zhang Ziwei, who was standing a short distance away, said dryly, “Perhaps we can view each entrance to the Catacombs as an independent world rather than an interconnected overall entity.
“A present we have only explored up to this distance within the Catacombs in Magic City. We’ve also paid a heavy price for it.
“3 Grandmasters in MCMAU sacrificed their lives in the process.”
It was evident that she knew more than Fang Ping.
Fang Ping took no notice of this. He frowned and asked, “If that’s the case, the position of the Catacombs entrance in the surface world doesn’t necessarily correspond to an equivalent position within the Catacombs. Perhaps void passages like this appear in an irregular pattern?”
Fang Ping’s words were rather convoluted. Even so, the instructor could understand what he was trying to say.
The old professor chuckled and replied, “That’s right. For example, there’s an entrance in Donglin. The distance from the Magic City entrance is 600 kilometers in a straight line.
“Based on the location where it appears, if we enter from the Magic City entrance and keep heading east, we should be able to find the Donglin entrance.
“However, there have been Grandmaster powerhouses who have explored 3000 kilometers to the east and have yet to find any traces of an entrance. Any further east and one will encounter a vast, limitless sea.
“This means that either the Catacombs are so vast they are limitless, or they are several hundred times larger than the Earth.
“This could also mean that the void passages appear completely at random, with no connection between the surface world and the Catacombs.
“There’s one more possibility…
As he came to the final possibility, the old professor glanced at Zhang Ziwei and said, “Just like what Zhang Ziwei said, each entrance to the Catacombs could be a world unto itself…however, Commander Li from the Military Department denies this theory.
“Commander Li has said that previously when he was at the Catacombs entrance in the north, he was able to feel the aura of the powerhouses deep within the Catacombs entrance in the east.
“Commander Li of the Military Department?”
Everyone was suddenly very interested. The Military Department’s Commander-in-chief, Li Chen, was No. 1 on Sino Nation’s Grandmaster rankings list.
“Yes. That’s what Commander Li said.” The old professor then sighed and continued, “This isn’t good news. We would rather the Catacombs were made up of independent worlds instead of being one single massive entity.
“Nevertheless, what Commander Li says is probably true, given he has experienced such a phenomenon. A High Grandmaster powerhouse of his standing would not make an error of judgment in this matter.
“This means that the Catacombs are interlinked, and are also contained within a single world.
“We have not been able to explore other entrances probably because we are not powerful enough yet, and because of the sheer magnitude of the Catacombs.
“Just take the Catacombs in Magic City, for example. If we go 3000 kilometers to the east, and 2000 kilometers to the west, this is a span of at least 5000 kilometers!
“As for the north and the south parts of the Catacombs, we will be in the southernmost area once we enter. Located behind us is a vast sea; so far we have been unable to determine how vast it really is. Any powerhouses who have made it that far have fallen in and perished; we can only assume that they lost their way.
“Heading north will bring us to the rendezvous for the Catacombs beings. Once there, we will only be able to explore around 1000 kilometers of the area. Any further would put us deep in the Catacombs, which is extremely dangerous.
“If east to west is a rough span of 5000 kilometers, and explorations from north to south have to date been limited to a mere 1000 kilometers…”
Fang Ping stared at the sandbox in front of him, which was shaped like a long rectangle.
Did this mean that it was 5 million square kilometers?
Fang Ping gulped and asked quietly, “Instructor, are you saying that the area which has been explored in Magic City’s Catacombs is about half the size of Sino Nation in terms of square kilometers?”
“That’s right.”
“This isn’t even a full exploration…” Fang Ping gulped again. “So if a full exploration is carried out, the area of a single entrance could turn out to be as big as Sino Nation?”
The old professor nodded once again with a meaningful look and said, “Perhaps much bigger than Sino Nation even. It’s hard to say. We don’t even know what the great sea in the south really is, not to mention the areas deep in the north. We haven’t yet been able to plumb the limits of every direction in the Catacombs.
“Therefore, if you want to treat the 22 Catacombs entrances as 22 worlds, you can.
“After all, to date, only Commander Li has discovered that there are identical powerhouse auras. This means that middle and lower-stage Catacombs beings are still unable to link to other entrances.”
“One entrance, one single world… perhaps even bigger than Sino Nation…”
At this point, Fang Ping truly understood why everyone treated the Catacombs as a threat to existence!
It was unbelievably massive!
In Sino Nation itself, 22 entrances had already appeared. If calculations were made based on exploration data from the Catacombs area in Magic City, 22 Catacombs would be the equivalent size of 11 Sino Nations!
That worked out to several hundred million square kilometers worth of surface area!
The total surface area of Asia was less than 45 million square kilometers.
Africa, the second largest continent, covered about 30 million square kilometers.
The third largest continent, North America, was about 24 million square kilometers.
The other few large continents were even smaller. The seven continents discovered by mankind had an estimated total surface area of about 150 million square kilometers.
In Sino Nation itself, the explored surface area of the Catacombs was close to the total surface area of the earth’s landmass.
The situation was similar in other countries.
As of now, explorations had been carried out on about 1 billion square kilometers of all the Catacombs entrances discovered throughout the world—a surface area that was equivalent to more than the landmass of 6 Earths.
“A place as massive as this has only 13 forts…” Fang Ping suddenly heaved a sigh of relief.
In 5 million square kilometers of ground, Sino Nation could accommodate about one to two hundred prefectural-level cities and close to a thousand county towns. Population-wise, there were as many as seven to eight billion people in the south itself.
The Catacombs only had 13 cities. Even if they were big cities, the population would not be that large
The old professor also confirmed this point, “The population in the Catacombs is not too dense. We have not able to investigate in-depth, however. From the Catacombs entrance, though, we have accessed the first city many times.
“The population is roughly about 2 million with about 200 thousand troops. They have their own social system; they are not all deployed as soldiers.
“They have civilians too—a great number of ordinary civilians.
“The Catacombs in Magic City has an estimated population of 30 million or more. However, there are only about 3 million combat troops.
“At the moment, we only need to concern ourselves with the first city in the Catacombs—we call it Sky Gate City.”
“Sky Gate?”
Fang Ping furrowed his brows. “The name certainly flatters them.”
The old professor shook his head and sighed softly, “Back then, it could be that everyone harbored a trace of fantasy. Perhaps it really is like what the ancient Guangsheng Temple sage said, that this is a fairy realm…Sky Gate…the gate that unlocks the sky…
“What a pity…”
The old professor sighed again and again. What a pity that in the past few years, the Catacombs had only caused death and destruction. No one harbored much hope anymore.
This was not a fairy realm; it was only one of mankind’s beautiful fantasies.
Yu Xianghua asked, “Instructor, if that’s the case, will Magic City only have to deal with 200 thousand fighting troops from the Catacombs?”
“Only?”
The old professor burst out laughing. “Do you know how powerful the Catacombs are?”
“Martial artists make up 10% of their fighting troops. They have their own army of martial artists!
“A battalion consisting solely of martial artists!
“In the Catacombs where cold weapons are god, none of you have any idea how terrifying a team of 20 thousand martial artists can be!”
Yu Xianghua could not help asking again, “Didn’t our Military Department have an army of martial artists?”
“It’s not the same thing. The Military Department has indeed trained many martial artists in the last few years.
“At present, there are over a million martial artists in Sino Nation, regardless of whether they are Vitality martial artists or combat martial artists.
“However, the troops don’t make up the whole of the Military Department. There are many martial artists in the Department though. If all the military districts were combined, there would be no less than 200 thousand people, twice the number of students in martial arts universities.
“However, the Military Department needs to defend 22 entrances. By the time the martial artists have been divided up, their numbers will also be reduced drastically.
“Furthermore, society needs the Military Department to suppress evil sects, which takes away another group of martial artists.
“There are less than 5000 martial artists from the Military Department who are stationed at the Catacombs in Magic City.
“Therefore, we have always been on the defense. Besides… they have 13 cities. Even if we can combine our powers and crush Sky Gate City, what will happen after?
“If we battle Sky Gate City and they suffer heavy losses, once they obtain reinforcements from the preceding city, our troops will be completely annihilated.
“However, if we merely engage in a power struggle with Sky Gate City right now, the preceding cities will not supply reinforcements. There is a strong sense of territorial awareness in the Catacombs. Until Sky Gate City is in a position where it must call for aid, most of the other forts will just sit it out and reap the spoils later.
“Based on our observation, the Catacombs do not seem to have a centralized government; the cities are independent entities.”
“So that means our military troops and martial artists in the Catacombs are only able to go up against Sky City…”
“Wrong!” The old professor shook his head once again. “We’re not going up against them, we’re forced to be on the defensive. We are no match for Sky Gate City.
“Of course, I’m talking about field battles. The Catacombs won’t dare to attack our camp in full force.
“First of all, our camp is heavily guarded, and the Catacombs have suffered great losses before.
“Secondly, in an emergency, we have previously mobilized many Grandmasters to surround and annihilate them. Without support from the preceding forts, Sky Gate City is naturally no match for the entire Sino Nation.
“However, our Grandmaster powerhouses cannot unleash their full abilities in battle, nor wipe out Sky Gate City. Not unless we are confident enough to take on 13 joint cities.
Not only that, in the northernmost part of the 13 cities, there are extremely intimidating powerhouses.
“When too many human Grandmasters gather, these powerhouses will be summoned.
“This happened in the Capital City Catacombs 70 years ago. That year, the number of Grandmasters in Sino Nation was less than 100. More than 40 Grandmasters gathered to try and wipe out the Catacombs in Capital City…”
“As a result, plenty of strange, intimidating powerhouses appeared from the depths of the Catacombs.
“In the end, Sino Nation lost 16 Grandmasters. That battle severely damaged Sino Nation’s foundations; CCMAU was almost completely annihilated—the vice-chancellor, deputy Vice-chancellor, as well as the deans of various schools were all killed!”
The old professor could not stop sighing as he reminisced about the past.
CCMAU had lost many Grandmasters in battle over the last few years, and most of that had to do with large-scale wars like this.
MCMAU and other universities that were established later did not take such an active part in the great Catacombs wars; the driving force had always been CCMAU. This had led to many CCMAU Grandmasters being killed in battle; the number of such deaths since the founding of the university amounted to double digits.
Fang Ping and the rest of the class felt rather sullen.
“If that’s the case, does that mean we’re restricted to just defense?”
Even if they attacked, they could not win small-scale battles with the Catacombs.
A large-scale war meant a gamble with Sino Nation’s future. Even if they did win, the most they could do was subdue one or two of the Catacombs. By doing that, though, more than half the Grandmaster powerhouses would most probably die in the attempt.
What about the rest of the Catacombs entrances? What would happen then?
The old professor chuckled, “There’s no need to be so pessimistic. The younger generation matures very quickly; the future is still bright.
“How many Grandmaster powerhouses were there in Sino Nation more than ten years ago?
“What about now?
“Currently we are getting stronger, but the Catacombs are not progressing as fast as we are. This is why we have been on the defensive all this while—we have been stalling for time to give future generations a chance.
“Sino Nation has hundreds of Grandmasters. If we are really going to attack, we can at least wipe out three to five entrances to the Catacombs!
“However, if the Catacombs are truly linked, we will be invaded full force instantly since we have wiped out so many entrances.
“That is why we would rather carry out small-scale battles. When we are gambling with lives, we would rather not go all-out!”
These days, powerhouses were visibly multiplying.
Before, there were less than 100 Grandmasters in Sino Nation.
In the recent 30 years, nearly a hundred Grandmasters had emerged!
On average, 3 Grandmasters emerged annually. This was absolutely unbelievable.
Every year, Grandmasters emerged from the business sector; the same was true of the government.
Under these circumstances, the government was unwilling to initiate an Armageddon scenario; that would be asking for destruction. All they could do was endure and stall for time!
The longer they could delay the inevitable, the more hope for mankind. After all, the final battle was still dependent on powerhouses.
In truth, the usual missions and battles in the Catacombs were exercises to train up powerhouses!
Military troops, as well as middle to low-ranked martial artists, gave their lives for the cause in great numbers, but that could not be helped. If no one was willing to make sacrifices when the time came, the extinction of mankind would not be very far off.
None of the students asked any more questions. Instead, they began looking at the sandbox.
The distribution of the 13 Catacombs cities was in the shape of a fan.
The southernmost part of the Catacombs was a great sea, which was also the entry point for the Catacombs inhabitants of Magic City. Sino Nation’s camp was located by this sea.
Sky Gate City was situated roughly 80 kilometers away from the camp.
This might not have sounded very far, given that in modern society it would take half an hour to reach if one were driving a fast car.
In the Catacombs, however, the main mode of transportation was walking, and 80 kilometers was quite a distance. An army that could travel 50 kilometers on foot in a day was considered a strong army; 70 kilometers and they would be considered elite troops.
Sky Gate City was located more than 80 kilometers away and was the portal for the Catacombs in Magic City.
All the other cities were located behind Sky Gate City.
The Catacombs had mountains and lakes—they had everything.
The old professor saw that everyone was looking intently at the sandbox model and chuckled again, “Technology is magical. Soon, our 3D Catacombs map will be completed, and everyone will be able to experience the Catacombs more intuitively.
“After we enter the Catacombs, the most important thing is that we operate within a 30-kilometer radius of the camp.
“We have cleared the area within this distance, so it is relatively safe.
“However, the Sky Gate City troops will also be active, including their martial artists and a division of martial artists who are not part of the military. Danger is inevitable.
“In the Catacombs, besides the Catacombs humans—which is what we have temporarily named them—many other dangers exist!
“This includes the Catacombs flora and fauna. Certain animals even possess powers akin to that of high-ranked powerhouses. The Catacombs are perhaps more like the fairytale worlds of legend, where such flora and fauna can be treated as monsters.
“Danger is everywhere.
“On the other hand, opportunity is also everywhere.
“Why is mankind getting stronger and stronger?
“It has a great deal to do with the Catacombs!
“Our production of various pills, the development and utilization of energy stones, and even the creation of certain combat techniques—these all have to do with the Catacombs.
“Do you know why the few Rank-5 students in MCMAU are able to advance so quickly?
“It is also connected to the opportunities found in the Catacombs!
“I won’t go through these with you one by one. The reason why no prior teaching materials were developed is because before this, only Rank-3 martial artists could go into the Catacombs. In the initial stages before entering the Catacombs proper, they were required to attend a short training session in the Military Department.
“In the Military Department, there is a great variety of data that has been summarized.
“This is also the first time that MCMAU has held Rank-2 special training classes. Therefore, we are currently negotiating with the Military Department to prepare some materials on the Catacombs for distribution to everyone. Give these a look and deepen your impressions…”
The old professor talked until his mouth was parched; Fang Ping and the rest listened as if intoxicated.
Now they knew that the few Rank-5 powerhouses in MCMAU had acquired opportunities in the Catacombs.
Every martial artist sought to grow stronger. The benefits in the Catacombs might have been one of the main reasons why wave after wave of martial artists continued to advance in their craft.
By now, everyone could visualize the Catacombs much clearer in their minds.
Fang Ping no longer took the possibility of getting lost in the Catacombs to heart.
The Catacombs were neither a desert nor a prairie; there were cities and human settlements. With these, how could anyone lose their way so easily?
Fang Ping’s mind went to the many benefits to be found in the Catacombs. For the time being, everyone was eager to try entering the Catacombs to obtain these benefits and breakthrough to Rank-3, 4, and even 5 as soon as possible.
At this point, however, their spirits were abruptly dampened.
