Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
“There is no other Element here, which means only Fire Magic is available here. However, from what I know, Mu Xumian is a Super Fire Mage too. Second, her Poison Element is quite strong! If you are confident in taking on her Super Fire Element and Super Poison Element, you can try letting her in,” Mu Bai interjected.
Mu Bai had met Mu Xumian before. The woman had tried recruiting him when he went to the capital. Mu Bai had rejected the offer, as he was not interested in joining the Mu Clan.
“If that’s the case, it’s too risky to let the woman in.” Mo Fan stroked his chin.
“Let’s go deeper into the place, then. Perhaps we’ll find something else,” Mu Bai suggested.
“We’ll try going deeper first. If there’s no other way, we’ll lure the woman in and take her out. I now have three kinds of Soul-grade Fire, I should be able to take her on. I’m just worried about her Poison Element,” Mo Fan agreed.
——
The group of five ventured deeper. The place was more spacious than they had thought. It felt like they were walking over a vast land of gray rocks, if it wasn’t for the orange burning mist hanging not far above them.
“Speaking of which, I think someone has been here before,” Lingling said.
“Someone has been here?” Mo Fan was surprised.
“Didn’t they say no one has excavated the vein before?” Zhao Manyan said.
“Maybe it’s just a rumor, it might be an exaggeration, or it might only reflect part of the truth. I’ve discovered a rock engraved with a Li Fan flower on it. It’s obviously artificial,” Lingling handed her discovery to Mo Fan.
Mo Fan received the pebble. It was a natural pebble as smooth as a piece of jade. He could even see his own reflection on its surface. Both of its sides bore an elegant seal of a flower engraved with a red material.
The flower seal was a kind of symbol that represented some tribes, clans, and fortresses after the era of the Totem Beasts. Mo Fan’s heart skipped a beat after he took a closer look at the symbol.
“Old Zhao, come take a look; does this look familiar to you?” Mo Fan showed the pebble to Zhao Manyan.
Zhao Manyan moved closer and blurted out casually, “What is it? Did we find a Totem Seal here, too?”
“No no no, it’s definitely not a Totem Seal,” Mo Fan said.
Zhao Manyan took a closer look. He thought for a moment and said, “Say, now that you mention it, I do feel like I’ve seen it before, but where from?”
“That’s impossible, the things here are more than three hundred years old! How is it possible that you’ve seen it before?” Mui Qing asked.
“I think we’ll find the answer if we keep going,” Lingling answered him.
Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan pondered as they followed the path now leading them down a slope.
After they reached the top of another slope, they suddenly discovered the path ahead was undulating.
The up and downslopes were not steep, appearing elegant and gentle. The sight was quite a shock to them.
As they went further in, they suddenly discovered broken white cliffs, and collapsed walls in ruins.
It was already unbelievable to see broken cliffs in a secluded place like this, let alone collapsed walls covered in weeds and vines!
Broken walls? Weeds?
The walls were obviously from some ancient society, but they were having a hard time believing that there were plants in a scorching place like this!
“Did you remember what the symbol was now?” Mo Fan was more convinced of his speculation when he saw the fallen walls.
Zhao Manyan stood still. His mind went blank for quite some time.
No f**king way!
He did see a similar sight, but it was in the distant continent of South America, in a secluded world hidden in a storm inside the Peru Desert Valley!
“I don’t believe it, no f**king way!” Zhao Manyan suddenly burst into motion, and headed for the walls.
The others quickly followed him, worried that he might get into trouble. Zhao Manyan’s reaction did not make any sense to them. It felt like the man was starting to believe that he was actually in the middle of an illusion!
Mo Fan was extremely shocked, too. He did not notice anything strange when he brought Mui Qing inside here originally. However, he also felt like he was in the middle of a dream, just like Zhao Manyan, when he saw the stone symbol that Lingling had found, and first beheld the fallen cliffs and broken walls!
Even Mo Fan did not want to believe that he had been to this place before.
They were supposed to be at Kunlun Mountain, in their own country. How was it connected to such a distant land…
—
“What’s going on here?” Mu Bai asked uneasily when he saw the abnormal reactions from Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan.
“Perhaps something bizarre happened to them before…” Lingling could only vaguely guess what was going on.
The others caught up to Zhao Manyan and saw him crouching in front of a fallen wall. He looked like he had lost his soul.
“What is it with you!?” Mu Bai asked impatiently.
In answer, Lingling pointed at the bottom of the wall. Mu Bai followed her finger and discovered a line of words!
Mu Bai initially thought it was a prank from Zhao Manyan, but after second thought, Zhao Manyan was right in front of him all the time, yet he had not seen the man carving words on the wall!
“Zhao Manyan… was here!?” Mui Qing went closer and read out the words on the wall. Her mouth was wide open after finishing the sentence. She stared at Zhao Manyan in disbelief.
Zhao Manyan was motionless, his face blank. His mind was obviously in a complete mess after seeing the words!
“Old Zhao, how bad of a person can you be? I didn’t know you would carve words on a wall considered to be an ancient cultural heritage,” Mo Fan said sarcastically.
“Do you really still have the mood to joke about it? I’m already losing my mind!” Zhao Manyan shot back.
Lingling, Mui Qing, and Mu Bai were utterly confused, too. When did Zhao Manyan carve the words here? Did Zhao Manyan travel back in time and come here three hundred years ago? They had never heard of any time traveling magic!
They were confident that Zhao Manyan did not leave the words on the wall recently. The words had been around for a year or two, judging from the moss covering them and how much they had worn away over time. In other words, Zhao Manyan was here around a year or two ago and shamelessly carved the words on the wall, as if he was declaring war against the world on behalf of his country.
“Mo Fan, what’s going on?” Mu Bai chose to ask Mo Fan, since he knew Zhao Manyan was on the verge of going crazy.
Mo Fan was only calm on the surface, but his heart was exploding into pieces, too!
“When we were on the national team, we went to Peru in South America during training. We were forced to hide in a storm when we were chased by a bunch of Nazca Monster Birds. We found a secluded world at the eye of the storm that looks similar to this place, or should I say, is exactly the same as this place. We saw the ruins of an ancient city, where Old Zhao carved these words shamelessly… I initially thought there are two similar cities, but judging from the look of it, and these words left by Zhao Manyan, I’m quite convinced that they are the same place!” Mo Fan explained with a wry smile. He was obviously struggling to believe what he was saying, too.
“But how is that possible? That was in Peru in South America, and we are currently at Kunlun Mountain in China! They are half the world apart…” Mui Qing protested.
“We also think it’s impossible, but the proof is right in front of us. Maybe you can ask Zhao Manyan to carve the same words again and see if it’s his handwriting?” Mo Fan said.
“Carve my ass! If I can’t even recognize my own handwriting, doesn’t that make me a retard? It’s obviously the same place, and the flower seal on that pebble is clearly the Li Fan Flower, the clan symbol of one of the ancient Indian tribes!” Zhao Manyan rose to his feet.
“Mo Fan, is this where you found the Time Liquid?” Lingling asked, remembering this story.
“Yeah,” Mo Fan nodded.
“But…”
“Ridiculous, this is ridiculous…”
Mo Fan forcibly withheld the astonishment in his heart. He carefully recalled the situation when they entered the ancient ruins in the eye of the storm.
“I remember we went into the storm through what was said to be a magic lock. We followed Nanyu and came here. This time, we went inside the White Lava… now that I think of it, the storm barrier and the curtain of White Lava are a little similar to one another. They are both separating the place from the outside world, but one is wind, and the other is fire,” Mo Fan remembered.
“That does sound a little reasonable, but this place has only been around for three hundred years. Didn’t the ancient Indian tribes exist even earlier than that?”
“Perhaps the White Lava has been around longer. The meteorite that smashed the mountain three hundred years ago had only turned it into a caldera, making it into an extremely dangerous place that no one dares to risk their lives to explore,” Lingling theorized.
“AHHH, I still don’t understand, we were clearly in Peru when we came here after entering the storm! How did we end up here when we are currently at Kunlun Mountain!?” Zhao Manyan yelled.
“A Spatial Relay Point?” Lingling mentioned something that none of them had heard before.
“What’s a Spatial Relay Point?” Mu Bai asked quickly.
“There are different theories related to the Space Element. One that is generally accepted states that there are two sides to a space. Think of it as a painting, the plane we live in is the front of the painting. If we tear a gap in the painting, it will reveal the material of the board behind it. It’s a rough plane called the Inverse Space.
“The order in the Inverse Space is messed up. The space can extend and contract without limits. The Blink Spell of the Space Element works by extending the space between where the Mage is at and the destination. Once the Mage tears a gap and enters the Inverse Space, the two spots are basically stacked on top of one another, allowing the Mage to move to the second spot instantly. The Mage will jump into and out from the Inverse Space and reappear at the destined spot, making it look like the Mage has teleported from one place to the other,” Lingling lectured them calmly.
