Chapter 264: Wet Ground

At around 9 pm, the clouds in the sky were thin, and the moonlight was enchanting. It seemed to light up everyone’s hopes for the otherworld.

There was still a sea of people in front of the train station. The supplies in the city had long been depleted, but most of them had brought rations for a day or two. It would not be a problem for them to last until they entered the otherworld.

Due to the limitations, only two trains had been prepared for sending people to the base city. Therefore, even though Jiangdu City was less than 100 kilometers away from the base city, every train was filled with people.

The martial arts practitioners who were usually high and mighty experienced the feeling of waiting at the station.

“For every trip, they have to do a maintenance check. How long will this take?”

Complaints could be heard from the waiting room from time to time.

The rules stated that one would only be allowed to enter the waiting room when it was their turn to buy tickets. Therefore, everyone had been waiting outside the train station for a long time.

Coupled with the time it took to check and repair the train, they felt anxious.

“It’s useless to be anxious. The roar of the train will inevitably attract mutant beasts.”

Some people were bored and started discussing.

Soon, their impatience was released, and the topic shifted to the mutant beasts and the otherworld.

There was another benefit to this kind of small talk. The bits and pieces of information they learned from other people might be able to save one’s life at a critical moment.

Chen Yiming, Zhang Cheng, and the others entered the VIP waiting room and sat down on the lounge chairs.

Other than Chen Yiming’s team, there were two other groups of people in the VIP waiting room. However, there were very few people in these two groups, and they were each formed by a few people. Compared to the waiting room next door, it was exceptionally quiet.

The four of them had exchanged their contribution points and were just waiting for the next train.

According to their agreement, they would only stick together for the rest of this journey from Jiangdu City to the base city. The three of them were about to part ways with Chen Yiming after this.

Xu Xiurong smiled and asked Chen Yiming, “There are three areas around the stronghold that we need to explore. The underground passage, the graveyard, and the rocky plains. Which area do you plan to go to?”

“I heard that the undead creatures in the graveyard will bring back corpses from the outside world. After the corpses are buried, new undead creatures will be born. I’m quite interested in this strange phenomenon,” Chen Yiming replied without any reservations.

He had already learned the general information about the base city from Ye Jianyuan. He knew that undead creatures were a special life form created from the combination of a spirit and a corpse. In Chen Yiming’s opinion, the spirits involved were all Skill Points he could use to increase his swordsmanship talent.

When Xu Xiurong heard this, she blinked a few times.

She did not expect that the other party would have the same goal as them. Her ancestors had excelled in exorcism, and after the revival of martial arts, they had developed more powerful methods to deal with the spirits.

From the perspective of making use of one’s strengths and avoiding one’s weaknesses, her choice was undoubtedly the graveyard.

Zhang Cheng understood the situation and suggested, “We’re also preparing to go to the graveyard. Perhaps our meeting was fated. Why don’t we go together?”

Yuan Guangzhou also cast his gaze over. Although they had only met by chance and had yet to find out about each other’s character, one more person meant one more helping hand. When they exchanged their contribution points, the three of them had come to a consensus.

If the two sides had the same target destination, they would invite Chen Yiming to work together. If the target destination was different, then they would split up.

“Sure.”

To their surprise, Chen Yiming agreed immediately.

In an unexplored area of the otherworld, who knew what level of creatures would be there? Even if he had combat strength comparable to the master realm, he had never thought of moving about recklessly in the otherworld.

It just so happened that there was a suitable team to join now, and they could share more information. There was no reason to refuse.

He had changed from a temporary member to an official member of the team, and their attitude towards Chen Yiming had become even more enthusiastic. Previously, they had only wanted to make friends with him.

Now, they needed to familiarize themselves with each other as soon as possible so that they could cooperate better in battle.

Not long after, Chen Yiming learned from the three of them that Xu Xiurong was good at finding, binding, and sealing spirits. She was the core of their team.

Zhang Cheng was good at saber techniques and cultivated a vibration-based internal force. It could not only interfere with the spirits, but also had a high lethality.

Yuan Guangzhou specialized in fist techniques. His internal force with the burning attribute was extremely lethal to spirits, and he had the strongest combat power in the original team.

In this three-man team, there were roles of attacking and controlling spirits. Zhang Cheng and Yuan Guangzhou even overlapped to a certain extent, and they lacked a support role.

“I cultivate an internal force with the illusion attribute. It’s good for concealment and stealth.”

Chen Yiming had given himself a supporting role. This way, he could avoid exposing his identity.

Xu Xiurong, Zhang Cheng, and Yuan Guangzhou were extremely excited. What kind of luck was this? A passerby they had accidentally met happened to make up for the team’s shortcomings.

This undoubtedly increased the survival ability of the entire team by a level, and his status immediately surpassed Zhang Cheng’s.

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

The whistle of a train sounded.

There was a commotion in the waiting room next door. Everyone’s patience was almost exhausted, and the crowd rushed out to the platform to wait.

In the VIP waiting room, Chen Yiming’s group and two other groups of people followed the crowd to the platform.

The train was modified from ordinary trains. Its speed was not fast to begin with, and after adding two thick layers of defensive steel plates, its average speed was only 60 kilometers per hour.

As the main force in the exploration of the otherworld, Chen Yiming and the others received some preferential treatment. They didn’t need to squeeze into the ordinary carriages with others. Instead, they could sit in the special-class carriages.

After the passengers boarded, the train quickly started moving. Along the way, unless they ran into an incident along the way such as a beast tide, there would not be any stops. They would go straight to the base city.

…

Outside the window, the darkness of the night could not block everyone’s line of sight. The scenery on both sides of the train quickly receded.

The interior of the special-class carriage was not crowded. There were only two rows of seats on the left and right, and there were no more than 30 seats in total. There was also ample space between the rows.

Now that the base city was under trial operation, only those who had mastered the transformation of their internal force were qualified to buy seats in the special-class carriages.

The number of people in the three groups was less than 20, so the members of each team sat together.

Xu Xiurong asked Chen Yiming for his opinion in a low voice, “Around midnight, there won’t be many teams who have the ability to enter the graveyard from the base city. However, it has been almost half a day since the first batch entered the otherworld. It’s best if we hurry up and accept a mission to draw a map before setting off. What do you think?”

Chen Yiming nodded in agreement.

Xu Xiurong continued, “The soul crystals obtained from killing the undead creatures will be taken care of after we return to the stronghold, and then distributed according to the contribution. Are you able to accept this?”

The soul crystal was a spiritual power crystal dropped by the undead creatures after they were killed. Through special cultivation methods, it could temper one’s spiritual power to a certain extent.

However, mutant beasts on the blue planet did not produce such treasures, and the otherworld was too dangerous. No one would sell them after obtaining them, and they were almost all used for themselves.

Afraid that Chen Yiming would become suspicious, she added, “The aura of the soul crystal will also attract other undead creatures. I have a way to seal the aura to prevent other undead creatures from noticing it.”

How could Chen Yiming be afraid that someone would steal his spoils of war? He agreed without any hesitation.

After settling the newcomer in the team, Xu Xiurong continued to make arrangements. “Zhang Cheng, Uncle Yuan, I’ll leave the journey from the stronghold to the graveyard to you guys.”

“Of course.”

Zhang Cheng and Yuan Guangzhou became excited.

Everyone tacitly agreed that Chen Yiming would save his strength for when the team was moving around the graveyard.

The main reason why such areas had yet to be explored was that Jiangnan province did not have enough manpower. It could even be said that they did not dare to send a large number of people into these areas.

If they did not have enough manpower, Xu Xiurong, Zhang Cheng, and Yuan Guangzhou would not be so arrogant as to think that a small team could deal with it. Therefore, the plan was to be as careful as possible.

“Boom, boom, boom…”

The train was speeding along the tracks, and there was a lot of noise in the carriage.

It wasn’t just Chen Yiming’s team who had discussed their plans in advance. It was the same for the other two groups. Once they left the stronghold, a battle could happen at any time. There wouldn’t be a lot of time to discuss it then.

The ordinary carriages were a different story. They were mostly talking about the situation at the stronghold.

How could a team led by ordinary warriors or even disciples dare to run around at night in the otherworld? They all planned to spend the night at the stronghold and take action at dawn.

…

The journey from Jiangdu City to the base city was uneventful. The train took a total of an hour and 50 minutes to arrive at its destination.

When they alighted from the train, they were surrounded by a large number of armed soldiers. The entire base city was brightly lit, but it was silent.

Today was the first day of the base city’s trial operation. They had been on high alert the whole time and were ready to deal with any abnormal situation at any moment.

Soon, an officer came over to lead the way. More than a thousand people walked in the direction of the space-travel passage.

A group of soldiers passed by. These were not ordinary soldiers, and each of them was at least at the middle level of the disciple realm.

The entire base city was filled with the aura of steel weaponry. At the moment, it did not look like a city, but a military base.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the spatial rift.

This area had the highest level of defense in the city. Not only were there military martial arts experts guarding it, but there were also modified technological weapons aimed at it.

Technological weapons could not be used in the otherworld due to the different rules in the otherworld. The space-travel passage was also affected by this, but to a lesser extent.

Advanced technological weapons could not be used around the space-travel passage, but conventional weapons could be used after some modifications.

“This, this, this…”

Among the thousand-over people, it was the first time for many of them to see a spatial rift. They could not help but exclaim.

When the officers in charge of maintaining order saw this, they had no intention of stopping them. Previously, every person in the train had done the same thing. They only urged these people to enter the space-travel passage in an orderly manner.

Seeing the people in front of them enter the space-travel passage, many people began to feel nervous. The gravity in the otherworld was about 10 times that of the blue planet.

…

The space around them changed. Even though they were prepared, some people still fell to the ground with a bang.

This was because their muscles were too tense. When they thought about using their strength to resist the sudden increase in gravity, some of them used their strength a little too early while others used their strength a little too late.

Chen Yiming’s team were the first to enter the otherworld. By the time many people were making a fool of themselves, they had already entered the stronghold.

The stronghold was a simple city built by humans. The surrounding buildings were all modular. If the creatures from the otherworld attacked the stronghold, they only needed to replace the damaged parts.

Whether it was the cost of time, manpower, or value, they were all more efficient than traditional buildings.

In addition, the entire stronghold was still brightly lit. There was a torch burning every five meters on every street, and the materials used were all transported from the blue planet.

At this moment, a large number of simple tents were set up on the street. Due to the limited conditions, they could only rest on the spot. A large number of discussions were happening even at this time which caused the stronghold to be very lively, as though they were not in the dangerous otherworld.

The ground beneath their feet was damp. Looking at the area outside the stronghold, the scene was so vast that there were almost no obstacles in their view. Under the illumination from the flames in the stronghold, the surroundings were a dark red color, giving off a desolate and silent feeling. It also gave off an endless sense of danger.

Other than returning to the blue planet through the space-travel passage, there was nowhere to hide in this stronghold.

Chen Yiming recalled the space-travel passage in the catacombs that connected to the otherworld. He couldn’t help but sigh. “I didn’t expect a stronghold to be established in such an environment.”

Xu Xiurong covered her mouth and laughed. “It’s indeed unbelievable, but the barrenness also means that there are very few creatures from the otherworld nearby. Any abnormalities can be detected quickly.”

Unlike Yuan Guangzhou’s calmness, Zhang Cheng had an excited expression on his face. He was considered very young at this level of strength and had never entered the otherworld.

The main thing was that he was talented. At this stage where he could easily break through with his talent, there was no need to risk his life.

Zhang Cheng opened his mouth and said in shock, “No wonder this place is called the damp wasteland. I don’t even dare to leave the stronghold alone.”

It was the first time the four of them had come to the stronghold, so they did not know the way. As they walked, they used the street signs to determine the direction and walked towards the location where missions were issued.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew past. The scent of fresh blood filled the air. Coupled with the cries of the creatures in the sky, this caused the commotion in the stronghold to come to a stop.

Chen Yiming looked up and saw a huge flying creature circling above the stronghold.

Xu Xiurong, Zhang Cheng, and Yuan Guangzhou also stopped smiling. The otherworld creatures that dare to openly spy on the stronghold were obviously at least at the peak of the warrior realm.

A few minutes later, the flying creature turned around and flew into the distance. It did not swoop down to attack the stronghold.

Chen Yiming and the others pressed forward, looking for the location where the missions were issued. However, there was only silence wherever they went. Most of the people who had entered the otherworld that day had been frightened by the flying creature.

Everyone realized that the otherworld was a dangerous place. Being in a stronghold did not guarantee their safety.

…

In front of a small two-story building, a sign read: “Otherworld Exploration Missions”.

Chen Yiming and the others glanced at the sign beside the door and walked in.

It was already past midnight, and there were not many teams that were capable of leaving the stronghold at this time. Only the military personnel in charge of registration were guarding the place.

“We’re here to accept the task of drawing a map.”

Chen Yiming and his team expressed their intentions.

The middle-aged man in a military uniform at the counter looked up and asked, “Which one are you choosing? The underground passage, the graveyard, or the rocky plains?”

“The graveyard,” Xu Xiurong said.

When the middle-aged man in military uniform heard this, he lowered his head and took out a brand new map from under the counter, handing it to them.

This was a map that was less than half completed. It mainly marked the location of the stronghold and a few areas in the graveyard.

These areas had been completed by the people who had accepted the corresponding mission.

The middle-aged man in the military uniform reminded them, “Pay attention. There are not many drawings of this area. You have to be careful. Even those at the peak of the warrior realm have to be careful in the graveyard.

If you sense that something is amiss, don’t hesitate to retreat as soon as possible. We still haven’t figured out the abilities of the undead creatures, so don’t trust your own abilities too much.”