Chapter 67 The World Within

After stepping through the portal, Xuan and Yuxin immediately found themselves staring at a completely new scenery. Wildly different from Cloud Catcher City, the atmosphere around them was cool, refreshing, and carried the unmistakable scent of nature within it. Lush green trees stood on both sides of a beautiful blue river, flowing downwards from a large mountain in the distance up ahead.

"… Wow."

Yuxin let out a breath of awe as she took in her surroundings. It seemed magical to her—but more importantly, it brought back a sense of long-lost familiarity. She had lived here in the past—not this particular forest, perhaps, but the wilderness all the same.

Perhaps the place she'd stayed at hadn't been nearly as beautiful or refined as this, but the two did share many similarities—the refreshing smell of the air after rain, the relaxing chirping of birds, and the cool breeze of the wind on her naked arms—all of those served to bring back her memories—memories of the good times she once had.

"This place… is it real?" She asked quietly, as the portal closed behind Xuan.

"If you're asking if it physically exists, then yes," Xuan replied, walking up beside her and taking in the view as well. "Everything you see here is real and tangible, and you should be able to take things to and from the outside world freely—that is, unless the small world does not yet recognize me as its owner."

"… What?"

Confused, Yuxin finally turned to Xuan with a raised an eyebrow, but he did not say anything further. If she couldn't feel it, then there was no sense in trying to explain it.

From the moment Xuan had set foot into this place, he'd noticed it—an ominous presence, watching them. Perhaps it was due to his powerful Soul Strength and Divine Sense, but he could detect that this small world was rejecting him, despite him being in possession of the artifact. A greater power was at work here—and Xuan needed to find out what it was.

"If you're done admiring the view, let's go," Xuan said, brushing past Yuxin. "We have work to do."

*****

"… You said that, but do you actually have any idea where we're going?"

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It's been ten minutes since the duo arrived in the small world, and the two were currently in the process of heading towards the mountain in the distance by following the river upstream. It was quite a simple and straightforward path, yet Yuxin seemed to be bored already and was eagerly looking around for something to do. It's not like she didn't enjoy just strolling around in this environment—in fact, she liked it. It's just… with Xuan being here, she found it somewhat hard to relax.

"If you like, you're free to go explore on your own," Xuan replied, taunting her. "Just know I won't come save you if you're in the middle of dying. Oh, and yes, I do know the way."

He opened up his System as if to remind her, and Yuxin's eyes widened briefly in realization. That's right—the Map. How could she have forgotten?

'Ugh… it's still a pain adjusting to this new world after all…'

Berating herself in her mind, she quickly opened her System as well to see where they were heading. After a brief second of loading, the Map display fizzled into view, and at the top of the screen, the title 'Sealed Small World [???]' could be seen. The entire place was about the size of a big city. Yuxin knew it was called a 'small' world for a reason, but didn't expect it to be this* small.

Their current location was displayed with an arrow-shaped marker, and the 'Unnamed Mountain' up ahead seemed to contain the first actually named location at its peak—World Pond.

"World Pond… what's that?" Yuxin asked, curious.

"A rich cultivation place that every cultivator wants to try but can only dream of it," Xuan replied briskly, pressing on with purpose in his eyes. It was like he didn't even care about the weight of the words he spoke just now, and rather was focused on more important matters.

Yuxin wondered what those matters were, but didn't question it and sped up her pace to follow closely behind while still examining the Map displayed on her System screen. On it were numerous places of interest—the World Pond on top of Unnamed Mountain was one, but there was also the mysterious Unnamed Caverns inside the mountain and the Unnamed Forests on either side of the Unnamed River flowing straight through the middle of the small world—which, by the way, was a sky island.

What was even more intriguing, however, was that the majority of the Map was actually covered by fog. When Yuxin looked around in the real world, she could see that there was fog in the distance as well, blocking sight of what lay beyond the Unnamed Mountain. If one didn't observe closely, they might just believe this was the extent of the small world—but Xuan and Yuxin both had very sharp eyes and instincts, so they could tell more lay beyond the near-indistinguishable fog.

Soon, the two arrived at the base of the Unnamed Mountain, at which point the river began turning steep. Walking—or rather, climbing—the rest of the way was going to be quite tedious, and so, the duo came to a stop. Their expressions, however, were vastly contrasting—one was beaming with a triumphant smirk, while the other remained as calm as ever.

"So… I'm guessing you don't have any techniques that allow you to fly?" Yuxin chuckled, covering her mouth with her hand.

Well, he did have Rooster's Wings, but those could only ease a fall—not actually let him fly. And so…

"I don't," Xuan replied, fully honest.

"Ahhh, how pitiful. You know, I could give you a lift up there, if you ask me nicely…"

"However," he then continued, interrupting Yuxin's words. "I don't need one, either."

"… You what?"

"There's no reason for us to go up there. If you were to enter the World Pond right now, you wouldn't receive any benefits, but would rather be attacked," Xuan replied calmly. "After all, this world has not 'accepted' us yet. Feel free to try it out yourself if you like."

Yuxin, narrowing her eyes in distrust, used a flying technique she'd obtained from the System Shop to easily soar to the top of the mountain…

… Before instantly returning mere seconds later, now sweating profusely. There was a terrible aura up there surrounding World Pond—one that made every fiber of Yuxin's being to tell her not to proceed any further. She didn't want to admit it, but Xuan had been right—she could very well be killed if she attempted to forcibly enter at her current meager strength level.

"… So, uh… how do we get it to accept us?"

At this, Xuan nudged his chin towards the river.

"Freeze it. Elder Shuang surely taught you some ice-attribute techniques, did she not?"

Yuxin was dubious, but since he was clearly the more experienced one here, she decided to listen to what he had to say. Lifting her arm and pointing her hand at the river, she narrowed her eyes and concentrated.

"Freeze…!"

As light blue Qi flowed out of Yuxin's palm and made contact with the river, the flowing water gradually stilled and froze over, as Yuxin began panting heavily.

"Hah… hah… hah…"

Xuan, watching this scene with amusement, rubbed his chin.

'Hm… so she's already developed ice-attribute Qi, to be able to directly freeze something without using any particular technique… still, an entire river may be too much for her. I'll get this over with quick.'

After all, without Yuxin, Xuan had no way to stop this river. Quickly, he stepped forward, and after using his Divine Sense to search for the source of the ominous feeling he'd felt earlier, he pinpointed it and cut apart the ice at that location.

And sure enough, there, having been hidden beneath the gushing river, was a secret stone door, diagonally placed at an odd angle.

"… Bingo."

Stepping down, Xuan smashed the door open with a strike from his Qi, revealing a descending staircase that must have not seen sunlight in ages. As the dust settled and light filled the darkness, he slowly turned back to Yuxin, and for the first time since coming here, smiled.

"Ladies first."