Chapter 2031: Chapter 82: Climbing the Mountain (Part 2)
"When there’s a chance in the future, I must thoroughly investigate which force took the fragments of the Wind-Driving Staff..."
A thought flashed through his mind and he promptly stored all these Storage Dao Treasures, weighing them in satisfaction.
Although this Dao Treasure can contain the Xumi within a mustard seed, its weight still exists.
The heavy Dao Treasure also symbolizes the heavy hope of the Little Cang World. After bringing it back, with so much Chaos Origin Substance, if used sparingly, it could last for four or five thousand years.
Realizing this, Wang Ba even felt a desire to stay here indefinitely, to find other sources of Chaos Origin Substance until all Storage Dao Treasures are filled.
Fortunately, Chen Xuan’s excited voice brought him back to reality:
"I sensed the clone’s position!"
Wang Ba, hearing this, glanced over the excited expression of Chen Xuan and followed his gaze.
The white hill, unknowingly, was already right before them.
At some unknown time, the surroundings had silently evolved into verdant mountains.
Layer upon layer, growing higher as one goes deeper, like steps.
The white hill lies at the deepest part of these verdant mountains.
Surrounded by mists, the Sky Dome seemed like a mirror, reflecting everything below in meticulous detail.
Wang Ba could even see the reflections of the other few in this Sky Dome, except for himself and Yu Wuheng.
He suddenly awakened to the fact that this was an area where rules changed frequently.
However, he became even happier. The more active and frequent the rule changes in a place, the more suitable it is for him to comprehend the rules, easier to be driven by the Wind-Driving Staff, and in such a place, he felt at ease, indescribably comfortable.
He did not drop his guard and curiously turned to ask:
"Did you encounter danger here previously?"
Chen Xuan shook his head:
"I’ve never been here. Previously, I encountered danger during the last opening of the Sea Market. I accidentally fell into a natural trap and had to use a method to escape. Tried many ways afterward, but none worked, and the Sea Market closed. I had already prepared for death, but unexpectedly, even until this opening, my clone still hasn’t died..."
"Never been here?"
Wang Ba had heard Chen Xuan mention it before, but at this moment, he couldn’t help but frown slightly and ask:
"What kind of trap was it?"
"It was a place filled with Evil Qi, but since the Sea Market closed and reopened, the situation the clone encountered is probably different now."
Answering, Chen Xuan.
Wang Ba pondered for a while and then asked:
"Has there ever been a situation where someone didn’t return after the Sea Market closed, but appeared safely after it reopened?"
Chen Xuan hesitated for a moment, shaking his head:
"As far as I know, it seems there isn’t."
"Not even one?"
"No."
Wang Ba nodded thoughtfully:
"Let’s go!"
Wasting no time, he took the lead and headed toward the direction of the white hill.
Chen Xuan and the Corpse-digging Ghost King, Yu Wuheng, Yu Yu also followed.
Just as they flew into these verdant mountains, Chen Xuan, the Corpse-digging Ghost King, and Yu Yu, along with Wu Monkey King and the Ruyi Stick in Wang Ba’s sleeve, were involuntarily pulled down onto the mountain below.
Seeing this, Wang Ba and Yu Wuheng quickly landed as well.
"What happened?"
Yu Wuheng asked in surprise and doubt.
Yu Yu, straightforwardly:
"Not sure, it felt like someone strongly forced us down from the sky, not allowing us to fly."
"Not allowing flight?"
Yu Wuheng couldn’t help but frown.
Chen Xuan and the Corpse-digging Ghost King also nodded quickly.
Feeling the change in the surrounding rules, Wang Ba pondered:
"It seems this represents the rule of no flying..."
The rules of the Little Cang World are like steel cables hidden in the deep sea, impossible to see or touch, but here, the rules have every strand of the steel cable laid out in the sun for you to see, touch, and experience...
And at this moment, Wang Ba quickly comprehended the rules around him.
He couldn’t name it, but he knew that this rule forbade anyone from flying.
Of course, he has the Wind-Driving Staff, and Yu Wuheng has the Land-Parting Staff, so they are not affected by the surrounding rules.
It was only upon reaching this place that he increasingly realized the preciousness of these two top-grade innate treasures.
"Let’s go up together then."
Wang Ba decided.
Although they couldn’t fly, for cultivators at their level, even walking allowed them to easily traverse thousands of mountains and rivers.
However, Chen Xuan, the Corpse-digging Ghost King, and Yu Yu, as well as Wu Monkey King, found as they walked that whenever they tried to mobilize their mana for Divine Travel, a resistance would emerge, forcing them to climb step by step like mortals.
It wasn’t exhausting, but it was indeed a bit tedious.
After walking for a short while, Yu Wuheng felt somewhat impatient and wanted to carry several people and fly away, only to discover that although she was unaffected, she couldn’t bring others along.
"This place is quite peculiar!"
Yu Wuheng glanced at the emerald mountains and the patch of white deep within them, frowned slightly, and whispered.
Wang Ba tried as well, finding that he couldn’t move others either, and nodded in agreement upon hearing her words.
It was indeed peculiar, even somewhat uncanny... The rules of this place did not seem to change randomly, but as if someone had deliberately set various constraints here.
"But who could have such capability to do this in the Sea Market?"
Wang Ba couldn’t help but wonder.
He attempted to alter the rules here and then discovered that although there were all sorts of exceedingly active rules present, only the rule against flying and a few others were apparent.
Other rules seemed unable to affect these few.
This discovery further solidified Wang Ba’s conjecture.
But having arrived here, retreat wasn’t an option.
For now, Wu Monkey King led the way, with Wang Ba and the others following behind.
Though they had to walk step by step, they were, after all, cultivators, and their walking speed was extremely astonishing. In less than half a day, they had covered half the distance.
On this mountain path, they also encountered droplets of water transformed from Immortal Marrow Jade Liquid, and as usual, Yu Yu rushed in, effortlessly retrieving a drop of the Immortal Marrow Jade Liquid.
As they delved deeper, Wang Ba increasingly sensed that the rules here were becoming more complete.
A slight thought crossed his mind:
"This place might be the perfect spot to repair the Treasure Basin of Immortal Essence."
While pondering, he suddenly noticed droplets of rain falling, followed by a downpour coming at them, and in just a few breaths, those heavy raindrops seemed poised to destroy everything, striking the Dao Domain on everyone’s bodies, causing massive ripples!
"It’s a Heavenly Disaster!"
Chen Xuan hurriedly exclaimed.
"Be careful, everyone!"
"Heavenly Disaster?"
Wang Ba looked up, initially thinking Chen Xuan was exaggerating.
But when he saw countless fire meteors manifesting and falling out of nowhere within the Sky Dome, followed by countless lightning arcs descending like a gigantic net...
All doubt vanished instantly.
The group huddled together, with Yu Wuheng standing on the outside.
Whether it was wind, frost, rain, snow, or fiery meteors, as they landed on her, besides triggering the phantom of the Land-Parting Staff, they had no other effect.
Apparently, these were also part of the rule changes.
And with Yu Wuheng on the outside, the Heavenly Disaster entailed no real danger.
Stumbling a bit, they finally made it out of this hazardous area.
The mirror-like Sky Dome reflected the mountains and people below.
It was as if after the rain had cleared, unknown sunshine was brilliantly shining.
However, at that moment, Wang Ba suddenly sensed something, noticing a faint streamer flying over their heads, heading straight into the depths of the white hill...
"Strange, what is that?"
Wang Ba wondered with slight puzzlement.
But there was no time to think much about it, and after passing through the disaster zone, they finally encountered no more problems. Moving upward, they ultimately broke through the clouds, over the step-like mountains, and finally beheld the true appearance of the white hill.
White as snow, layer upon layer of jade-white steps, stretching into the depths, numbering perhaps thousands.
At that moment, Wang Ba instinctively raised his head.
In the mirror-like Sky Dome, the top of the white hill was silently reflected.
Pavilions, gardens, rockeries, pavilions...
Silhouettes seemed to loom and recede.