"This just keeps getting more and more interesting!" Wei Wuyin had always been an adventurer at heart, wanting to delve into the vastness and curiosities that the world had to offer. If it wasn't for his Bloodline of Sin, if it wasn't for all the Calamities, if it wasn't for the rush to the Realm of Sages, he would have settled down with a beautiful harem, a thriving business, and traveled the world after leaving his descendants behind, likely only taking himself and his wives that wished to follow.
It was a dream of his, to be free and unrestrained after establishing his name throughout the world, never wanting for wealth and leaving behind a successful lineage that'll flourish for a long time, hopefully forever.
So being introduced into a new civilization where the dynamic was different, where the mysteries were abundant, thrilled him. This was why he allowed himself to be captured, to suffer some abuse along the way, because he wanted to be exposed and experience a life other than that within his comfort.
It had led him to an underground civilization of elven cultivators that had an artificial star above. There was new food, strange architecture, and more. That being said, he did have a limit to what he'd allow or endure.
"My name's Wei Wuyin, it is a pleasure to meet you." He looked back to the elven woman, introducing himself with a smile and a courteous bow.
Taken aback, the elven woman wasn't certain how to react. As if seeking if this was really happening, she glanced at the dumbstruck soldier beside Wei Wuyin, noticing he too was shocked by Wei Wuyin's actions.
"Send the Ganshu into his cell; he will not be treated differently." The elven woman ordered, deciding to no longer entertain Wei Wuyin. She spoke in the elves' unique language so Wei Wuyin wasn't certain what she said. But when the captor snapped back and started to instinctively act out orders, grabbing Wei Wuyin's arm with force, Wei Wuyin realized what she said.
"Before I go, can I ask you what or who you're trying to sell me to? And for what purpose?" Wei Wuyin asked as the soldier tried to drag him away, extremely startled that he didn't move an inch despite his wrenching force.
The elven woman was already walking away, not noticing the scene of the soldiers bewilderment and shock. "You'll know when you get there!" Was all she said as she left, about to leave behind a pleasing image of her fleeting backside.
"Wait! What's your name?" Wei Wuyin asked, the soldier redoubled his efforts but to no avail, starting to question his own strength.
"Lieutenant Ai, Ai Juling." She soon vanished into a building, causing Wei Wuyin's eyes to brighten. Finally, the soldier seemed to regain his strength as he pushed Wei Wuyin into the cage along with the other captives.
When Wei Wuyin was placed into the crowd of human captives, he found himself receiving curious and disdainful glances as if ridiculing him for not recognizing his fate. He looked at the building that Ai Juling vanished into, ignoring the soldier as he left after detaching the chain that linked to the shackles at his neck.
After a few dozen seconds, Wei Wuyin's eyes brightened to an even greater degree. "I've decided. Ai Juling, I want you." As if determining this certainty, he looked at the bewildered and shocked expressions of the humans before him.
One of them whispered loudly, "Wishful dreams! The fool…"
Wei Wuyin was clearly supposed to hear that, but he simply chuckled with heart and ease. It was incredibly strange to see a bronze-skinned elf, and he wanted her. Just like Da Shan and Nyla Shur, he was intrigued at first sight. The only time he's failed to pursue a woman in his life was when they've died abruptly.
His chuckle caused a few of the human captives to frown. "Do you not know what situation you're in?! You're really a fool!" A middle-aged bald man with a mole on the right side of his face shouted in anger. He was a little short and stout, but he had a sturdy pair of brown eyes.
"I actually don't," Wei Wuyin turned to the bald man and said, finding a spot to sit down.
"…Don't? Don't what?" The bald man was confused, not expecting Wei Wuyin to answer that way.
"You don't know what situation you're in?" An elderly man with a tall, muscular figure spoke. He had the strongest physical body of these human captives, perhaps even the highest cultivation base.
"I don't. Mind telling me?" Wei Wuyin honestly replied, looking at his spatial ring. He wondered why they didn't take this, but he realized that everyone else also had spatial rings on their fingers, but it was different from his. He grew curious as this was the first time he had seen spatial rings, not storage rings, being among cultivators.
Spatial rings carried their own independent spaces while storage rings acted as miniature void gates that led to two-way shifting of inanimate objects and some herbs and plants. The latter needed a location pre-placed and pre-determined to act as a storage container while the former didn't need this, making it impossible to access unless one takes possession of the spatial rings themselves.
It was quite peculiar to see them on cultivators, as he only saw them on Blessed like Yuan Longshi and likely the Commander, the three-layered ring he used for quite some time.
"You really don't know?" The elderly man asked again, as if his hearing was failing. This caused Wei Wuyin to laugh, but he didn't repeat himself again.
This caused the elderly man to look at Wei Wuyin strangely. He said, "You ventured so deeply into The Desolate Lands without knowing the risks? Did someone kidnap you and leave you here?"
"I can see that happening," the man who whispered loudly said with a hint of frustration. He had the most ridiculing expression on his face.
"The Desolate Lands?" Wei Wuyin's eyes glowed with interest. It was a suitable name considering the environment was infused with Desolate Intent, creating strong desolate power from the limited ambient essence and mana. Just breathing in the air would infuse the qualities of desolation into one's lungs, shriveling them up and having them decay eventually.
This was probably why the soldiers above were fully covered from head to toe.
Seeing Wei Wuyin's interest, the elderly man took that as an agreement to his words. Wei Wuyin must've been brought here by his enemies, left to die but was carried off and brought here. He didn't know if this youth was fortunate or unfortunate. Furthermore, he seemed extremely ignorant and sheltered. From his extremely handsome face and earlier nonsense, he felt that Wei Wuyin was quite pitiful now.
"The Desolate Lands is a territory of disaster but also fortune. During the Season of Regression, Seekers, such as myself and the others here, venture into the dangerous lands seeking these fortunes. Unfortunately, the Grey Sands Elves are quite vicious, using this opportunity to hunt us humans while we hunt for treasure." His words caused the expressions of every captive to change, flickering with frustration, hate, and sadness.
They were treasure seekers that had been captured hunting in foreign territory by the natives. That was the gist.
In a way, they were lucky to not be executed on the spot. This was simply thievery, no? He couldn't imagine the elves didn't want these treasures either.
"Grey Sands Elves?" He asked curiously.
The elderly man explained, "There are four Elven Tribes that exist on the Four Extremes Continent: the Grey Sands Elves, the Black Mountain Elves, Verdant Forest Elves, and Navy River Elves. They have their own territories, situating themselves in the four extreme lands to avoid conflict. At least, making it very difficult to initiate a conflict.
"The Grey Sand Elves are the generalized tribe name of the elves that live beneath The Desolate Lands in their underground cities. They have individual clans and families, and each city is run by the Nine Great Elven Clans. For example, that Lieutenant Ai Juling you spoke to is a member of the Ai Clan, a Clan that's one of the Nine Great Elven Clans.
Wei Wuyin digested this swiftly, asking, "Are there only nine cities?"
But the elderly man shook his head, "There are a lot more than nine cities, but I don't know the exact number."
The bald man interjected, "There's at least a hundred, each housing at least a million of these elves."
The elderly man added, "But there are Nine Capitals, housing the main branches of each Great Clan. These cities are said to be massive, and only Grey Sands Elves are allowed in. Even other elves are executed on sight there, not to mention humans."
Wei Wuyin was deeply invested into this, feeling awed by the sheer enormity of it all. This continent was as large as a planet, so it must have a few billion lifeforms at least. How impressive of a world realm!
"How vast is The Desolate Lands?"
The bald man jumped out and excitedly said, "The Desolate Lands are extremely vast! It's 156,000 miles!" His excitement was rather childish, the gleam in his eyes revealing his pure fascination with The Desolate Lands.
Wei Wuyin nodded. "The Desolate Lands is one of four? So the other lands must be equal in size? That means the continent spans for 624,000 miles?"
The elderly man shook his head, "Close. Its exactly 810,000 miles. You have to include the larger central area that houses the majority of advanced lifeforms, us humans."
This caused Wei Wuyin to feel extremely intrigued. That grey ghost truly didn't lie when he said it was over half the size of a large-sized planet in the starfield. The Myriad Monarch Main Planet was larger than this, but not by much, but the largest planet in the starfield was roughly double that in terms of diameter.
Wei Wuyin asked for more clarification, but used his deductive reason to gather most of his information. For example, the Season of Regression was a period of weakness of essence and mana, which reduced the relative strength of the desolate power. During this lull period, Seekers sought to excavate resources and earthly treasures from these hazardous lands for profit.
These four lands were so dangerous but most of humanity lived in the central lands, with only a few select sects and clans settling their base of operation or establishing cities in these lands. The central lands was a holy land of cultivation, having abundant essence and resources, but during the Season of Regression, it entered a state of withering that makes it extremely unsuitable to cultivate.
There was little mana, thin essence, very little ambient energies, and resources were extremely difficult to obtain from it. Therefore, human cultivators made it a sport to traverse the dangerous lands of the continent to obtain powerful and rare resources that were unattainable at any other time.
This continued until they finally led to the uneventful fate of humans captured by the natives.
"What awaits us is to be sold. If we're lucky, we'll be used as energy converters until our cultivation are entirely exhausted and useless, but if we're not…they'll forcefully alter our cultivation base and force us to…concoct alchemical products." Those words caused everyone to become sullen and depressed.
But Wei Wuyin's expression was distinctly different, his silver eyes brightly shining. "Concoct products? Tell me more."
