Chapter 85: Sensing

After two consecutive days of hunting in the wilderness, Li Zhen and his group could clearly sense their progress.

The repeated battles on the brink of life and death may not have improved their combat techniques, but they had significantly strengthened their minds.

With Mr. Zuo overseeing Wang Rushi’s squad and the area lacking any monsters beyond mid-grade first rank, Pei Zhenxiu hadn’t needed to intervene for two days.

Li Zhen not only felt no danger, but he also found his tasks increasingly manageable. To him, even the monsters in this region seemed somewhat weak.

On the third day, their final day of hunting outside Tianchang City, they split into two groups as usual after leaving the city, maintaining a certain distance from each other.

Li Zhen knew they would depart the Monster Kingdom tomorrow, so he needed to find a relatively distant location to use his spatial divine ability to lock onto coordinates.

Once these coordinates were locked, as long as he didn’t use spatial abilities to traverse worlds again, they would remain fixed.

He would return to the Immortal Nation through dynamical space-time within Tianchang City, leaving behind this spatial coordinate as his point of origin for crossing between realms.

Having observed over the past two days, he had identified the optimal location.

Ten miles from Tianchang City lay a small hill, once a lair for some mystical beast. The interior of this hill was riddled with numerous interconnected tunnels.

Li Zhen planned to enter these caverns and place a spatial coordinate marker within them. He couldn’t risk anyone becoming suspicious, so he only slightly quickened his pace as he traveled.

Fighting along the way, he occasionally took time to dismantle materials, carefully storing them in his large backpack.

At noon, instead of joining Wang Rushi’s group, he grabbed a quick meal from his prepared supplies. Without resting, he pressed forward once more.

By two in the afternoon, the short hill came into view. Its base was peppered with entrances, each large enough for a person to pass through.

He wondered if Pei Zhenxiu was watching him, but was content as long as she didn’t interfere.

Quickening his steps, Li Zhen entered a cave entrance without so much as a glance.

As soon as he was inside, he activated his spatial divine ability, silently marking the coordinates of this location in the cavern.

With the rocky walls around him, he was confident that any fluctuations caused by his spatial magic would be hidden from Pei Zhenxiu’s perception.

Not knowing the exact power of Pei Zhenxiu, he had to assume she was at her strongest, erring on the side of caution.

Pei Zhenxiu’s observation of Li Zhen was casual; she too realized the monsters in this area posed no threat to him.

Thus, when Li Zhen entered the cave on the hillside, she merely furrowed her brow slightly. While she disapproved of Li Zhen’s reckless venture, she never thought he would need her protection within the cave.

The cave system in this hill was inhabited by small rabbit demons, a low-ranked species that posed no real threat to Li Zhen no matter their numbers.

She didn’t sense the spatial fluctuations that would indicate Li Zhen using his space divine ability, but there was one entity who did detect it: the Chaos Mother Goddess Dragon.

This spatial divine ability had been forcibly extracted from her body, although Li Zhen had since assimilated it. Nevertheless, a subtle connection still existed between the ability and the Chaos Mother Goddess Dragon.

“My child is back!” The Chaos Mother Goddess Dragon opened her dragon eyes, her gaze filled with unmistakable excitement.

She longed to investigate personally, but alas, the forced removal of the spatial divine ability had left her severely weakened. She remained in her dragon nest, recovering from the ordeal.

It would take centuries for her to return to her peak state. Even recovering enough to leave the dragon nest and regain significant combat strength would require nearly a decade.

However, every powerful dragon had their own subordinate races.

Through a psychic link, she commanded the nearest subordinate race to the location of the spatial divine ability’s fluctuations. Her order was clear: find her child at any cost.

Li Zhen remained blissfully unaware of the immense trouble his actions had inadvertently set in motion.

The World of Monsters was far from devoid of intelligent life. In fact, monsters possessed a certain level of wisdom from as low as second rank, with third-rank monsters being no less intelligent than humans.

These creatures even established their own empire, complete with a unique societal structure.

Tianchang City lay in a remote region of this World of Monsters, where few powerful monsters made their homes. Consequently, the pressure on Tianchang City from local monsters was relatively low.

Unwilling to linger long in the caves, Li Zhen quickly deduced after dispatching several monster rabbits that these subterranean warrens were their territory.

Monster rabbits, however, held little value for hunters. The primary worth of low-rank, inferior-grade monster rabbits lay in their fur, which could be used to make low-tier magical robes, talisman brushes, and talisman paper.

Yet, with the advent of creating talisman paper using spirit rice stalks, there remained no advantage to utilizing the hides of such low-grade beasts for the same purpose.

Moreover, due to their high abundance and rapid reproduction rates, the selling price of monster rabbit pelts was pitifully low.

Exiting the cave system, Li Zhen decided against venturing further. With the spatial coordinates now set, he had no reason to explore beyond the safety perimeter set by Pei Zhenxiu.

Just as he prepared to return, a series of distant howls pierced the air, sending shivers down his spine.

Even as a low-tier first-rank monster, the demonic wolf far surpassed the combat prowess of a similarly ranked demonic rabbit. This was due to the wolf’s expertise in coordinated attacks, coupled with its inherently vicious nature.

According to the documents provided by Pei Zhenxiu, even the weakest wolves found beyond the city walls were mid-grade first-rank creatures.

“Li Zhen, return to the rendezvous point immediately!” The message from Pei Zhenxiu flashed on Li Zhen’s identity bracelet.

In the Demon Realm, a cultivator’s identity bracelet could connect to the cultivator network through the city’s mid-grade energy source. Within a certain range, these bracelets also allowed direct communication between cultivators.

Upon receiving Pei Zhenxiu’s urgent message, Li Zhen instantly cast a mid-grade ‘Lightening Talisman’ on himself and sprinted back at top speed.

The howls of various beasts echoed in his ears, drawing ever closer. An ominous foreboding welled up within him, signaling that something grave was about to unfold.

After barely fifty meters, a mid-grade green snake lurked in the bushes, lunging and striking towards him.

Reacting with lightning speed, he thrust his mid-grade longsword, piercing the snake’s vulnerable spot with pinpoint accuracy.

Without pausing to claim his spoils, Li Zhen rushed on. Pei Zhenxiu’s emergency summons surely indicated a dire situation.

Li Zhen longed to hasten his pace, but the monsters wouldn’t permit it.

He realized that nearly all the monsters had gone berserk. Even the wary wild hares, which usually fled at the sight of anything stronger than themselves, now charged to attack him.

“What’s gotten into them?!” he exclaimed, his sword arcing through the air in a desperate dance.

In barely five hundred meters, he faced assaults from three mid-grade and over a dozen inferior monsters.

Strange, he mused. This area was already cleared earlier, so there shouldn’t be so many monsters.

This only reinforced his belief that something had indeed gone anomalous with the beasts. His steps quickened, his sword slashing with growing ferocity.

Just then, a terrifying presence rippled through the air. Though the monsters had gone mad, this aura far exceeded their natural realm. Instinctively, the beasts scattered in all directions.

Li Zhen sensed that this terrifying presence was none other than Pei Zhenxiu’s. She must have come to assist me.

With the monsters no longer a hindrance, the remaining miles flew by in mere moments.

As Li Zhen reached the rendezvous point, he noticed Fang Congzhi with one arm swathed in bandages.

His gaze swept over the others; it seemed Fang Congzhi had once again been the unlucky one.

“I’m fine!” Fang Congzhi replied with a pained smile.

“What happened?” Li Zhen turned to Mr. Zuo for an explanation.

With Pei Zhenxiu nowhere to be seen, Li Zhen could only turn to Mr. Zuo for answers.

“It seems to be a monster tide!” Mr. Zuo said, his voice laced with uncertainty.

Normally, monster tides followed a discernible pattern, erupting every so often. But today was clearly not within the expected cycle.

Yet, all the signs pointed to a phenomenon strikingly similar to the early stages of a monster tide.

“We’ll wait here for a moment,” Mr. Zuo continued. “Pei Zhenxiu went to scout the monsters and said she’d be back to lead us out soon!”

Li Zhen’s eyes fell on a formation disk lying on the ground. This disk, he knew, could offer them short-term protection.

There might be a chance, he thought, his mind racing. Opening his identity bracelet, he delved into the information about monster tides.

The images that came up were nothing short of terrifying—clips of monster tides overwhelming human cities, reducing them to rubble in the blink of an eye. Faced with such a threat, he couldn’t fathom how one could hope to survive, let alone defend oneself.

This is a mid-grade first-rank array, he noted, his gaze drawn to the formation disk Mr. Zuo had set up. Normally, setting this array in an area would create a safe zone where monster attacks wouldn’t be a concern.

But this was no ordinary situation. The concealment array triggered by the mid-grade formation disk, while effective against most monsters, had been penetrated by those with unique abilities. These creatures had sensed the presence of the concealment array, jeopardizing their last line of defense.