Volume One: Another World Chapter Thirty-Four: What to Do When It’s Over Time and Over Limit

“Seal off the city gates for me! Dig three feet into the ground if you must, but find An Qi!” Qing Heng roared furiously inside the house. “Where is everyone? Send people into the underground river—search both upstream and downstream!”

“Qing Yi, investigate for me,” he commanded once everyone had left, frowning deeply. “Root out whoever leaked the information from within the clan. I’ll have him torn apart by horses!”

For such a top-secret operation to be discovered was already outrageous, but what was most alarming was that someone had found a loophole in the plan, ambushed the original second group, and then impersonated them. There was no way such a seamless swap could have occurred without someone tipping them off.

...

Unaware of the chaos outside, Li Yu slowly awoke from unconsciousness to find himself in a place filled with birdsong and blooming flowers, basked in warm sunlight.

He looked back, but saw no sign of a cave opening behind him. The water that had been sucked in with him was nowhere to be seen either. He pressed his foot into the ground—it was soft but not muddy. If all that water had come through, even if the earth had absorbed it, it shouldn’t have looked like this.

“What a bizarre place,” Li Yu muttered.

He searched all around. Not only had the water vanished, but Qing Anqi was gone as well. That strange and suddenly forceful suction in the cave had been highly unusual. If he’d seen it coming, he’d have avoided it, but as luck would have it, it appeared just as he passed by.

Truly... it had caught him completely off guard.

Rubbing his forehead anxiously, Li Yu’s attention was caught by a peculiar little sprout in the corner.

“Oh?”

This grass didn’t look much different from ordinary weeds, but tiny arcs of lightning flickered around it, and with each spark, a current of thunderous energy surged.

Li Yu watched it carefully and noticed that the strange grass released its electric bursts at intervals. This explained why he hadn’t spotted it at first.

“A lightning-aligned spiritual herb,” Li Yu thought with delight, uprooting the plant. He then sensed another wave of spiritual energy nearby. Turning his head, he spotted a fiery red flower; when the breeze passed through its petals, a flame flickered within.

“A fire-aligned spiritual herb!” Li Yu exclaimed.

The term “spiritual herb” was broad, generally describing items or plants filled with rich elemental energy. In the wild, such herbs were usually guarded by magical beasts, for they greatly enhanced the beasts’ cultivation as well. Having just found two in succession, Li Yu, already cautious by nature, became even more alert, wary of a beast’s sudden attack.

After all, as precious as spiritual herbs were, his life was worth even more.

...

“Team One, nothing found.”

“Team Two, nothing found.”

...

“Team Twelve, nothing found.”

One squad after another emerged from the underground river, and with each report, Qing Heng’s face grew darker, like a volcano on the verge of eruption beneath his dignified countenance.

Several fourth-grade experts also came out of the underground river. One elderly man shook his head at Qing Heng. “Lord, the formation shows no signs of tampering.”

The Qing clan had been entrenched here for years, with layers of defensive formations above and belowground, making the place impenetrable. Only then had they dared to let their hidden fourth-grade protectors pull back a little for this operation. After all, this was “home”—who would imagine a child could vanish from a locked house?

“Useless!” Qing Heng growled, suppressing his fury, and strode off with a flick of his sleeve.

...

Li Yu took off his long robe, piled the spiritual herbs he’d gathered onto it, and tied it into a bundle to carry on his back. His underclothes were still dripping wet, but he cheerfully hummed a tune as he searched for a way out, picking up more herbs along the way.

Though he had no idea where he was, spiritual herbs seemed to be everywhere, and, most importantly, there wasn’t another living thing in sight—utterly safe.

“As expected, the protagonist always finds fortune after disaster!” Li Yu mused, thoroughly pleased.

Meanwhile, Qing Anqi was locked in combat, sword in hand, facing two automatons.

They were both entirely silver, about two meters tall, unarmed yet resistant—no matter how hard or skillfully Qing Anqi slashed or stabbed, she couldn’t leave a mark. Their movements were swift and powerful; only when she struck the darker areas of their bodies did they slow, if only for a moment.

“Come on, I can do this,” Qing Anqi encouraged herself, glancing at the stone wall where points of light shimmered. Each time she struck a marked spot on the automaton, another light appeared on the wall.

She’d already passed through a previous stone chamber, facing a bronze automaton. After landing fifty hits, not only had that chamber opened the way to this new challenge with two automatons, but she’d also received a generous reward.

Qing Anqi didn’t know where this place was, but clearly, the purpose of these automatons was to train those undergoing the trial.

“Li Yu is probably in another chamber, facing his own challenge,” she guessed. “Maybe I’ll see him once I clear this one. I just hope he isn’t faring too badly.”

She was a little worried—Li Yu hadn’t learned any martial techniques, after all, and each of these automatons was as strong as a typical eighth-grade cultivator.

“Maybe Anqi is off in some corner picking spirit mushrooms too?” At that moment, Li Yu leaped over a fire-aligned herb without a second glance—he wasn’t interested.

He didn’t know any formal methods for appraising herbs, but he could sense the energy within them and judge their value that way. There might be errors—some rare herbs might not contain much elemental power—but that didn’t matter to him. He had so many already that leaving a few behind wouldn’t bother him.

“This one’s too ugly, I don’t want it!”

“This one’s alright,” he considered another. “But I’ve already got several just like it, so I’ll pass.”

He didn’t know how long he’d been at it when he spotted a structure in the distance, shaped like an altar. Delighted, he ran toward it.

It was the first building he’d seen in this strange place.

But as he drew near, something unexpected happened.

A phantom woman appeared atop the altar, her expression blank. “Trial-taker, congratulations on passing the Azure God’s Trial. You have ten minutes to harvest any ten spiritual herbs you wish.”

Li Yu: “…Is she talking to me?”

He glanced back at the bulging bundle on his back, nearly half his height and stuffed full—probably dozens of times the allowed amount. Most importantly, since his robe had filled up quickly, he’d even snuck back to Blue Star twice to drop off his haul. After all, with treasures like these, more was always better.

At that moment, Li Yu felt a bit guilty.

Fortunately, once the phantom woman finished speaking, she remained motionless.

Li Yu didn’t step onto the altar, but stared at the woman’s back in a daze. She had been facing the center of the altar since she’d appeared.

“…Did I just glitch the system?” he muttered.

It seemed he’d overstayed and over-harvested in the Azure God’s Trial reward space, but thankfully, the phantom woman lacked any intelligence.

At the center of the altar was a Bagua diagram, with two ornate arched stone pillars at its points. As Li Yu wondered what to do next, light began to weave between the pillars, merging and solidifying into a milky white glow.

“A portal?” Li Yu murmured—it looked just like the teleporters in so many movies and games.

In the next instant, a young girl stepped out.

The phantom woman spoke again, this time in a gentle tone: “Trial-taker, congratulations on perfectly completing the Azure God’s Trial. You have fifteen minutes to harvest any twenty spiritual herbs you wish.”

Li Yu narrowed his eyes. “That figure… seems awfully familiar.”