After the five of them formed the party, as always, the captain position was left to Bai Qiu, and the experience distribution was set to 20% for each member.
A beam of light descended, and the five of them vanished together.
People from Zone 2243 who happened to pass by weren’t surprised at all upon seeing this.
They merely sighed, thinking that yet another powerful person from another area had come over.
The Cross-Zone Channel served as an inter-area information hub.
Strong individuals from every region had varying degrees of popularity.
Because the system had built-in recording and photo-taking features that utterly surpassed modern technology—modern cameras, no matter how high the resolution, always suffered from lens blur, but the system’s built-in tools did not.
Not only could they record what they saw from their own point of view without any obstruction, they could even view the footage frame by frame afterward.
And “frame by frame” was literal—each second of video could be split into ten frames, a hundred frames, even a thousand frames, all at the user’s discretion.
This was the true power of the system.
If someone analyzed this footage carefully, they might even extract important combat techniques from it.
Unfortunately, most people right now just used the feature for publicity.
Many of the top figures in various regions would deliberately pick a few monsters to fight in front of their followers while the latter recorded the battle.
Once the footage was spread, it could increase their popularity and attract more players from their own area to follow them.
Thus, the fact that Bai Qiu was exploring secret realms together with Ning Xingxue and the others was no secret on the Cross-Zone Channel—in fact, it had become a hot topic.
Such was the power of monopoly-style information-sharing.
After all, there were only fifty zones, and everyone even had a limited number of messages they could send.
This made many real-life introverts who became chatterboxes in the channels feel extremely frustrated.
As for someone like Bai Qiu, who could never seem to use up all his daily message quota… well, it was also possible he was simply a silent lurker who never posted anything.
……
Sha-sha…
In the Dreamy Flower Sea, a hazy white mist drifted gently, accompanied by a fine drizzle that nourished the land and the plants upon it.
The raindrops pattered softly against rocks, grass, soil, and puddles—sounds too faint for ordinary senses to detect.
But Bai Qiu could hear them clearly.
Yet he didn’t find them irritating or harsh; on the contrary, he found them quite pleasant.
Through the white fog, he could only vaguely make out the not-very-dense forest tens of meters ahead, and the small flowers beside the trees.
However, not everyone possessed ocular abilities.
To Ning Xingxue, Huang Qi, and Zhao Daqiang, the place felt extremely eerie.
Saying that they couldn’t see their own hands in front of their faces would be an exaggeration, but beyond two meters, they couldn’t tell male from female, and beyond five meters, they couldn’t even tell human from animal—that was the reality for the three of them.
“Brother Bai… can you see what’s beyond the white mist? Why do I feel like this place is creeping me out?” Huang Qi glanced at Bai Qiu beside him, relieved yet worried at the same time.
Bai Qiu’s eyesight was the best among them.
If even he couldn’t see through the fog, then this secret-realm trip was destined to be rough!
“I can, but I’m affected too—and quite heavily. I can’t even tell what color the trees and flowers fifty meters away are,” Bai Qiu replied.
Even with the five-fold Arcane Crystalized Eye supporting him, his visibility barely reached eighty meters.
“I can only see about sixty meters ahead. Beyond that it’s completely invisible to me,” Zhang Shiyao added.
She also had a D-grade ocular art, but her visual range was nowhere near Bai Qiu’s.
Ning Xingxue was a bit surprised.
She hadn’t expected this small girl to be able to see through the thick fog at all—it was already shocking enough that her level surpassed hers.
But after learning that at least two members could see several dozen meters out, meaning not everyone was completely blind, the three of them quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
After staying in place for a moment, the fine drizzle grew slightly more intense under the gentle wind.
Bai Qiu’s group moved forward, each person making sure they stayed close.
Bai Qiu scouted ahead, while Zhang Shiyao stayed at the rear to ensure the three “blind ones” didn’t drift from the group.
The size of the secret realm was unknown, because even Bai Qiu couldn’t sense its entirety this time.
They advanced slowly through the dense fog when Bai Qiu suddenly stopped.
He crouched down, doing something none of them could see.
“What’s wrong?” Zhao Daqiang asked.
From a few meters away, they could only make out Bai Qiu’s blurry silhouette.
After they all moved closer, they finally saw Bai Qiu holding a small flower.
Dreamy Blossom (D+ Grade)
Description: A special plant that grows within the Dreamy Flower Sea. It thrives in damp, dark, and well-ventilated areas. This flower can be used to craft special potions.
The Dreamy Blossom resembled an epiphyllum, but its petals were fuller and faintly lined with barely noticeable blue veins.
Though it didn’t look very big, each blossom weighed nearly 1kg; its weight was most likely in the petals.
No one knew how such a pinky-thick stem managed to support it.
As the group approached, a faint fragrance drifted into their noses, instantly lifting their spirits.
After smelling it, everyone felt noticeably more awake!
“This flower can actually interfere with my Gathering Skill (Pseudo) to some extent! It feels like it’s consciously resisting my attempt to pick it… Do all high-grade special plants behave like this? Or is it just this one…?” Bai Qiu muttered to himself in surprise.
“I wonder if it’ll affect my Gathering Skill too…” Zhang Shiyao said worriedly.
Her Gathering Skill was only at grade D, while the Dreamy Blossom was D+ quality.
It was obvious the plant could affect her success rate; and if even her speed couldn’t be guaranteed…
Splash… splash…
Water from the puddle rose above her ankles as Zhang Shiyao hurried over to Bai Qiu’s side.
“Brother, let me try!” she said.
Bai Qiu nodded. “Mm. It’s up to you, then.”
With that, he quietly moved to the back of the formation, taking over the job of watching the three who had limited vision.
Zhang Shiyao quickly found a second Dreamy Blossom beneath a willow-like unknown tree.
She crouched down and activated her Gathering Skill.
At that moment, a sudden change occurred.
The ‘willow tree’ unexpectedly went berserk.
Its drooping branches whipped toward the crouching Zhang Shiyao.
From this distance, Bai Qiu could clearly see that each branch was covered in inverted triangular thorns.
If they struck her without armor, she would be torn open!
Without a hint of hesitation, Bai Qiu rushed forward and kicked the entire tree in half.
At the same moment, information about this willow-like unknown tree appeared before his eyes.
Thorned Willow Tree — Level 20
Strength: D++
Magic: E
Endurance: D
Agility: None ~ F-
Skill 1: Entangle – Rapidly lashes its branches to bind a target. The inverted thorns on the branches will slice through anything they ensnare!
Skill 2: Uproot – Can pull its roots from the ground, gaining limited mobility. However, its Strength decreases after uprooting.
Skill 3: Cutting Regrowth – If not completely destroyed, it can regrow by replanting its main branch. Reborn form has 80% reduced stats.
— The end of the Chapter–
TL note : Join Patreon to support the translation and to read up to 50 chapters of the release :
https://www.patreon.com/DeCakraWnloverz
