Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Chinese political system was very special. Usually, both low and high-level officers from the local government would never dare to neglect or delay the orders given by the higher-level bureaucrats. However, in the away troops that had been exempted from military orders, the high level officers, who had authority in their hands, could enjoy some autonomy.
For this reason, Hua Chaowu and Yao Biwu unified their opinions and set the level of the treatment enjoyed by the Gate of Witchcraft’s people. In terms of daily activities, other than the Grand Wizards and Deacons, who still had slight preferential treatment who could live in the temporary barracks made from plate materials that housed up to four people in one room, the rest of the disciples would get the same treatment with the rest of the ordinary soldiers, they had to stay in giant tents where hundreds of people live together.
The water and power usage was limited. Adding on to the fact that even though there was no explicit restriction of access, the people on the campsite would not step into the living area of the Gate of Witchcraft’s people. The Grand Wizards, on the other hand, were also sensible enough to not let their disciples wander around forging friendships all around. Inadvertently, all of the Gate of Witchcraft’s disciples were constrained to a corner of the camp, living a hard and boring life.
In the twinkling of an eye, two weeks went by in this kind of hardship. Today, at noon, the temperature was about 37 to 38 degree Celsius. In a tent that occupied an area of about two basketball courts that was densely arranged with two rows of more than 50 sheets of iron bunk beds, the hot and sultry environment here was unbearable.
Unable to endure this kind of psychological endurance any longer, a fierce-looking middle-aged burly fat man in his thirties wearing a singlet and a pair of shorts sitting at the bottom bed of the iron bunk bed near the curtain of the tent suddenly roared out loud when he was mixing the cabbage, tofu, tomato scrambled eggs with his rice together in a square aluminum lunch box. “What the hell is this weather and this goddamn f*cking food! I can’t stand this any longer! Cool down, cool down! No matter what, I want to cool down today! Cool down…”
As he was howling, he began to mutter ancient spell in ‘pst shh…’ and in an instant, a gush of cold wind gradually gathered by his side.
The faint black clouds brought upon a pleasant comfortable cool air to the tent. Even Zhang Lisheng, who had already finished his tasteless lunch and was lying on the upper bunk bed in the hottest position in the middle of the camp and who seemed to not be giving any care to his terrible environment, could not help but take a few deep breaths.
“Wang Linsong, are you crazy? Shut up!” The other wizards were enjoying the cool breeze and only a short skinny man almost at the same age with him who was staying in the bed separated by an aisle that could only pass two to three people just next to him, abruptly jumped down from the bed and shouted. “How many times have the elders said these few days? They told us to hold our horses! Hold our horses! We have to endure the hardship and mustn’t reveal any sorcery in the campsite! Did you even hear those words?”
“Senior Brother Zhi Lin, i-it’s only a mere small Cloudy Spell and it’s only in the tent so what matter does it have anyway…” The heat on the body of the middle-aged fat man surrounded by the cloud dispersed and his brain was also calmed down by the cool air. Immediately, he stopped the spell and even though he knew that he was at the wrong, he still muttered under his breath.
“It’s only a small Cloudy Spell?” The short and thin man hissed lowly. “There are several thousands of wizards here in the campsite! What do you think would happen if everybody casts ‘a small spell’? By that time, everyone will say that it’s you, Wang Linsong who took the lead in doing so…”
Just half a sentence and the fat middle-aged man already had a change of expression on his face. Right at this moment, the tent’s curtain was suddenly opened and a young disciple brought with him a gush of hot air. With a pleasant expression, he shouted, “Senior Brothers, please assemble at the open space! It’s finally our turn to go to the Oasis World!”
“Great! Our hard days have finally come to an end…” After many wizards in the tent were stunned for a while, they waved their fists around and sighed deeply in relief as they shouted.
They were all the elite fighters following the Deacons among the various ranks of disciples from the various Gate of Witchcraft. They were the earliest batch to have reached the military campsite but had to watch the second and third batch of disciples overtake them and became the vanguards to enter the Oasis World. They, on the other hand, had to accompany the Grand Wizards and Deacons, who would always be discussing something with those military officers everyday, and endured hardship in the campsite. They had become restless a long time ago.
Now that they finally were able to depart to the foreign world, despite feeling a little nervous, they felt relief more. Not long after, they began to compete with each other to leave the tent and came to the empty space of the campsite.
The Gate of Witchcraft’s Deacons and Grand Wizards had already spread out on the ground loosely, waiting with a sullen expression.
Upon seeing the other wizards naturally go to stand at the Gate of Witchcraft’s Big Bosses they were affiliated with, Zhang Lisheng proceeded to stand behind Su Deli after spotting him from afar.
After waiting for a while with a hand over his head to shelter the sun, the young man figured that everybody must have arrived already. Without warning, he saw more than 20 large-scale armed armored vehicles speeding swiftly from the direction of the camp’s arms depot. Two of them stopped near him.
The sturdy camouflage door of the armored vehicle was slowly pushed open. With a slight slow response, Su Deli instructed, “Let us get in the car. Disciple Zhang Lisheng, follow me!”
With a leap, he entered the armored car.
Seeing his figure disappearing at the door of the car, the wizards following Su Deli also entered the car. The Grand Wizards, elite disciples, a few B-ranked disciples who had the highest position in the Gate and Zhang Lisheng, who was specially appointed, naturally entered the same car as Su Deli. The rest of the disciples, on the other hand, got onto the armored car behind.
From the appearance, the armored car was very large in size but the thick armor had already occupied almost half the space. Adding on to the fact that it was in a battle-ready mode and that it was fully loaded with ammunition supplies that must be piled up in the carriage, and it was impossible for an armored car to only be driven by a sergeant as a captain, watchman and firearm personnel must be readily available. For this reason, when 12 to 13 wizards were seated in it, it had already appeared to be crowded.
It was fortunate that the air-conditioning was fully working so the temperature in the compartment was still cool. Even so, a gust of disgusting and sweaty sour odor still filled the small space.
Su Deli sat on the long, hard seat against the wall of the car with a sullen face, as though he did not smell anything. After staying silent for a while, he stared at Min Lan and asked, “Min Lan, you’ve been to Shrimp World before so tell us in detail, what was the situation there? Do you think there’s anything that our trip to the Oasis World can learn from the Shrimp World, in terms of means of protection?”
Min Lan was stunned for being asked out of the blue. After a careful recall, she answered, “Deacon, the trees on Shrimp World were not too tall but they were very sturdy and the jungle was very dense. Oh yeah, there were also many tree vines under the trees. That’s right, there were also many ferocious animals and poisonous insects there, they were much bigger too. Then, there were also these demons that protect the aborigines…”
The girl did not stay in the wild on Shrimp B1 Island for very long so she mindlessly let out a not-that-short remark that had no point. After that, she could no longer say anything but Su Deli unexpectedly paid a lot of attention listening to her. After Min Lan finished talking, he shifted his gaze onto Zhang Lisheng again. “Disciple Zhang, you’ve stayed longer on Shrimp World so what do you think?”
Sitting in the armored car that was getting faster and more bumpy, Zhang Lisheng, who had long been prepared, replied with a measure in his speech, “Deacon, the Shrimp Island has a complete island-type environment. Its ecological circle is unique, and even if it’s compared to Earth that is also a ‘world’, the environmental differences are very huge. Even though I’ve never been to Oasis World before, it should be unable to compared with Shrimp B1 Island. Through the World’s Gate, I can tell that the Oasis World has more similarities with the Earth’s Cretaceous Period, such as…”
Even though Zhang Lisheng deliberately made his answer unappealing, it was not entirely devoid of merit too. To his surprise, when Su Deli heard his words, he suddenly flew into a rage and hissed through gritted teeth, “In this car, who doesn’t know that Oasis World looks similar to the Cretaceous Period? Do I really need you to tell me that? The way you’re answering is obviously making a fool out of…”
Upon seeing him losing his cool, a thin tanned woman who looked like a mountain village’s woman sitting beside Su Deli immediately replied in a Western Sichuan accent, “Deacon Su…”
Even though her voice was not loud, when Su Deli heard these two words, his body turned stiff right away. Then, like a deflated ball, he stopped talking and slumped back on the cold iron wall of the armored car.
The wizards in the car became quiet ever since. Soon, the sergeant driving the armored car began to speak loudly, “We’ve successfully crossed the world’s barrier. Begin the radar scanning!”
“Radar is activated. There are no special obstacles around, it is recommended that the vehicle stays stable…”
At this moment, outside the armored car convoy, gigantic trees that were more than 100 meters tall and were covered with mottled green clothes formed a forest that did not allow them to see the boundary as they stood under the pristine blue gemstone-like sky. Countless insects and birds with a size seven to eight times larger than Earth’s similar species were flying around in the forest, showing its vitality.
Compared to everything by the surroundings, the large armed armored vehicles produced on Earth had seemingly shrunk several times. Its size had correspondingly made them felt as though it had become slower.
After coursing for a long time, the car convoy finally was dispersed into a campsite that was just starting to take shape. The armored car where Zhang Lisheng was in drove into the camp closest to the World’s Gate.
It was said that the nearest direct distance from the world barrier was also 30 kilometers away. Coupled with the ominous foreboding brought upon by Su Deli’s lost of cool just now and the deep and sincere feeling gave off by the foreign world’s gigantic forest that made it hard for them to discern their direction, the Gate of Witchcraft’s disciples felt slightly dazed when they got down from the car. They could not help but feel a sense of isolation and helplessness as the joy they felt two to three hours ago had long vanished without a trace.
Zhang Lisheng, on the other hand, had a feeling completely different from theirs. Breathing in the fresh moist air that was completely unlike the Gannan desert, the young man glanced around the campsite with interest.
The camp area was about three to four square kilometers in size. A moat of five meters wide and more than ten meters deep was dug around the outer wall. The shore was also connected with an electric fence that had its top sealed. The camp could only be accessed with the help of a bridge and mechanical cars.
The interior of the campsite had been arranged very neatly. It was laid out rectangularly, with many tents built in a well-arranged and well-spaced manner, looking like it could accommodate thousands of people here. A variety of mechanical vehicles were parked in front of the tent. There were also two two black iron boxes that were the size of a low hill right there too.
“It’s amazing for such a big ‘iron block’ to be able to be transported to the foreign world. I wonder what function it has?” Zhang Lisheng looked around and finally muttered to himself as he looked at the huge iron box at the corner of the camp. Then, he inexplicably jumped twice before showing a smile on his face. “Not bad! Not bad! This is a good place…”
