Chapter 53: Exploring the Fragment Realm

Chapter 53: Chapter 53: Exploring the Fragment Realm

The entrance to the Fragment Realm was located at the foot of a sealed cliff on the outer mountain, not far from the Resource Hall.

A ring of formation stones surrounded a pale crack in the air, its edges shimmering faintly as though the space itself had been torn open.

Two inner disciples stood guard beside a stone tablet, checking the jade tokens of those entering the realm.

Outer disciples came and went in small groups.

Each presented a token to the guards before stepping into the crack and disappearing from sight.

Li Jian observed the entrance for a moment before stepping forward and presenting his own token.

One of the guards took the token and examined the mark engraved on its surface before nodding.

"Alright, you have one day. Don’t linger near unstable spatial cracks unless you want to die. If your token starts heating up, it means your time is almost up. Once the time runs out, the Fragment Realm will automatically expel you."

Li Jian nodded.

"Understood."

After retrieving his token, Li Jian took a breath and stepped into the crack.

And the next moment, the world flipped around him.

Cold air rushed past his ears, and for a brief moment, he felt as though he were falling through a thin layer of water.

His body seemed to pass through something soft yet resistant, and a strange pressure swept over him from head to toe.

Then, his feet struck solid ground as the noise of the outer sect vanished completely.

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"...?"

Li Jian found himself standing in a dim forest filled with gray-purple trees.

Their trunks twisted at unnatural angles, while their pale, withered leaves hung loosely from the branches.

Above him, the sky resembled a sheet of broken glass, with countless cracks stretching across its surface.

Thin streams of spiritual energy drifted between them, occasionally flickering like faintly glowing threads.

The entire place felt ancient and desolate, as though it had been abandoned for countless years.

Li Jian took a moment to observe his surroundings.

The spiritual energy here was noticeably denser than that of the outer sect, but it was also unstable.

Every few breaths, the surrounding qi would suddenly grow thicker before thinning again, causing subtle fluctuations in the energy around him.

"So this is the Fragment Realm..."

Before he could examine the place any further, sounds began reaching his ears.

Somewhere in the distance, he could hear the movement of other disciples.

The faint rustling of leaves and occasional voices suggested that several groups had already spread out through the forest.

And farther away, a low beastly roar rolled between the trees, sending a brief echo through the desolate woods.

Li Jian narrowed his eyes.

It seemed that this treasure hunt wouldn’t be as peaceful as he might have hoped.

And he had no intention of rushing toward the noise.

Those areas were likely to have been picked clean already, or worse, occupied by disciples fighting over whatever remained.

There was little point in rushing into danger when he had only just entered the Fragment Realm.

Instead, Li Jian kept his qi concealed as much as possible, carefully observed the flow of spiritual energy around him, and made his way along a quieter ridge.

Unfortunately, the first stretch yielded almost nothing.

Broken stalks, freshly disturbed soil, and claw marks scattered across the rocks suggested that other disciples had passed through the area not long ago.

Li Jian crouched beside one of the holes and examined the torn roots left behind.

After a moment, he clicked his tongue inwardly.

’Looks like I’m too late for this area.’

Judging from the traces left behind, someone had already searched the surroundings thoroughly.

Even if a few herbs remained, they were unlikely to be anything valuable.

Rather than waste his time searching for scraps, Li Jian changed direction and followed a faint vein of spiritual energy that led toward a narrow split between the rocks.

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The farther Li Jian went, the quieter the forest became.

And after walking for a while, he finally found something useful.

A small cluster of pale blue leaves grew from a crack in the stone, surrounded by faint wisps of spiritual energy seeping from within.

The herbs weren’t particularly rare, let alone valuable enough to provoke a fight over them.

Still, they were better than returning empty-handed.

Li Jian carefully harvested the herbs, stored them in his spatial ring, and continued on his way.

Not long afterward, he heard voices coming from ahead.

He immediately slowed down and slipped behind a twisted tree, peering through the gaps between its branches.

Three outer disciples stood around a shallow pit, arguing over a piece of dark ore.

One had a bleeding arm, while another kept glancing nervously over his shoulder, as though expecting something to emerge from the surrounding forest at any moment.

After a brief argument, the three finally managed to divide the ore between themselves as fairly as they could.

Then, seemingly eager to leave the area, they hurried away without even bothering to inspect the surrounding rocks.

Li Jian waited until their figures disappeared among the trees before approaching the pit.

Most of the ore vein had already been scraped clean.

And judging by the scattered fragments and freshly chipped stone, the three disciples had spent quite some time digging through it.

However, they had overlooked something.

Half-buried beneath a pile of loose rocks at the edge of the pit was a fist-sized chunk of iron-essence ore.

It was only low-grade, but the piece remained intact and was still worth a decent amount.

Li Jian crouched down, pulled it free, and slipped it into his spatial ring.

’So careless.’

He didn’t bother searching the area any further.

With blood already scattered across the ground, it wouldn’t be long before some demonic beast caught the scent and came looking for a meal.

And Li Jian had no intention of being around when that happened.

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The deeper Li Jian ventured into the Fragment Realm, the stranger his surroundings became.

Some trees grew upside down from floating chunks of earth, their roots dangling in the air.

Nearby, a stream flowed uphill for several steps before suddenly reversing direction and returning to its normal course, as though the laws of nature had lost their way in this broken world.

Twice, Li Jian felt the space around him tremble.

Each time, he immediately retreated, watching pale cracks spread through the air where he had been standing moments earlier.

The guards hadn’t been exaggerating.

Those unstable spatial cracks were extremely dangerous.

If someone happened to be caught in one, they could easily be cut apart before they even had time to react.

And around midday, Li Jian encountered his first real danger inside the realm.

A horned lizard roughly the size of a wolf crawled out from beneath a fallen tree.

Its dull gray scales blended into the surrounding rocks, while a pair of short horns protruded from its head.

Judging by its aura, it was around the Fourth Stage of Qi Refinement.

The beast seemed agitated, its attention fixed on a discarded carcass nearby.

It had probably been attracted by the smell of blood.

However, the moment it caught Li Jian’s scent, its yellow eyes immediately began searching for the source.