The breeze blows gently, and the prairie is unusually quiet.
Bubute Ni carries Su Xiao running on the prairie, having been moving forward for almost two hours.
"Bu Bu, stop."
Su Xiao surveys the surroundings, seeing only a vast expanse of green, where there were once trees now only grassland remains.
"What’s wrong?"
The Little Emperor, sitting on a ticket, asks. Except for Su Xiao, anyone else daring to ride on Bubute Ni’s back would be t with a bite, so the Little Emperor is currently on a "ticket," being held by Su Xiao with one hand.
"Sothing is wrong here."
"Dangerous creatures?"
"No, we might be lost."
Su Xiao jumps off Bubute Ni’s back and pulls out an iron spike from the grass nearby, which he had placed earlier.
"How could we get lost, weren’t we always going straight?"
The Little Emperor looks around, the scenery is almost identical everywhere, a boundless erald grassland.
"Bu Bu, run forward."
Su Xiao stands still, letting Bubute Ni move straight forward.
When Bubute Ni runs a dozen ters ahead it seems normal, but after running over a hundred ters, the path begins to shift.
Bubute Ni frequently looks back to check Su Xiao’s position, trying to maintain a straight line with him.
After Bubute Ni runs hundreds of ters, Su Xiao can only vaguely see his position, and sothing even stranger happens. Bubute Ni actually runs in a semicircle, circling the grassland and ending up behind Su Xiao. A few minutes later, Bubute Ni reunites with Su Xiao.
They have been circling in the sa place, but Su Xiao is helpless.
There were no markers on the prairie before, but even after Su Xiao served as a marker, Bubute Ni kept circling.
This is tricky. It seems this place confuses the sense of direction of living beings.
Su Xiao contemplates; the prairie confusing one’s sense of direction might be due to the surrounding environnt causing a visual distortion effect, the more you try to walk straight, the more you end up circling.
He can’t solve this setup quickly, unless his perception can cover the entire prairie, which is clearly impossible.
Since he cannot discern directions, he might as well stop determining directions while moving forward.
This place only confuses directional sense and isn’t a maze, which is fundantally different.
Riding on Bubute Ni, Su Xiao begins directing Bubute Ni to run forward.
He circles left twice, then right several tis, occasionally inserting iron spikes into the ground.
After circling haphazardly a dozen tis, Su Xiao begins checking the dozens of iron spikes on the ground.
So of the iron spikes are in a straight line, while others are randomly stuck in the grass.
"Bu Bu, continue."
Su Xiao takes out paper and pen from the storage space, drawing a circle on the paper, then dotting so black points on it.
The endless circling continues. After dozens of circles, even Bubute Ni is having a hard ti, realizing that they are circling.
"The first thirty ters, left fifty ters, right ten ters, no, right fifteen ters..."
Su Xiao is racking his brain for the correct path, his face calm, but internally he’s ’greeting’ the designer of this grassland countless tis.
The designer is a perfectionist, making every step count change every ti he changes direction, making calculations trickier.
"Bu Bu, first thirty ters ahead."
Bubute Ni turns to Su Xiao, with a puzzled dog face, seemingly asking: ’Boss, how far is thirty ters?’
Su Xiao sighs internally, having overestimated Bubute Ni’s intelligence. Bubute Ni is a wise creature indeed, but his IQ is quite touching, commonly known as a simpleton.
"Just continue forward, stop the mont I shout stop, not a step more."
Bubute Ni starts moving forward, sotis turning left, sotis right, occasionally even stepping back a few steps.
"This is the direction, just keep running."
Bubute Ni races forward, and the scene finally changes, no longer just a grassland.
Success, he navigated out of that grassland using his wits.
The surroundings are finally different, with so low trees appearing in view.
[You have entered the ’Bilumake Alchemy Testing Ground’ central area, alchemy toxin changes occur.]
[You are suffering from ’Stedrolo’ alchemy toxin erosion, Power -10, Agility -10, Stamina -10, receiving 7 points of True Damage every second.]
[Do you want to activate the High-level Air Filter Device, costing 300 Paradise coins per hour?]
Weakness Feeling appears, Su Xiao feels his entire body starting to get heavy.
"Activate."
Although it pains him, he has to use Reincarnation Paradise’s air filter device now.
Half an hour of advancing forward, the prairie no longer seems vast, two stone walls appear, forming a funnel-shaped path that narrows the further it goes.
At the end, a cave dozens of ters tall appears ahead, with all nearby vegetation yellowed and withered.
A thick burnt sll fills the air as Su Xiao directs Bubute Ni to enter the cave.
Shortly after entering the cave, heavy footsteps echo behind, prompting Bubute Ni to quickly dart into a crevice in the rock wall.
"Gaba-ha-kha... (unknown language)."
"Tutu-Chu... (unknown language)."
This should be so language, yet Su Xiao can’t understand a word. He hides in the rock wall’s crevice, peering cautiously outward.
A group of strange creatures appears, each about one ter tall, with emaciated bodies, dark yellow skin, bulging eyes, pointy ears, and overall humanoid shape.
There are five of these strange creatures, despite being only about a ter high, they are quite strong. Each holds a large iron box over three ters tall, filled with so shiny black stone.
Su Xiao imdiately recognizes it as coal, and these creatures are likely wise beings. Could they be alchemists? Their looks are a grave injustice to any audience.
"These seem to be a dangerous type: Cave People, but Cave People aren’t usually this strong, right?"
The Little Emperor recognizes the origins of these creatures.
"Cave People? A kind of Human?"
"No, Cave People are sowhere between human and beast. They have their own language and generally live on the western side of the continent. Their population is around hundreds of thousands and they often raid nearby villages. They even have a habit of eating people; or rather, they will eat any creature. When extrely hungry, even weaker kin beco ergency food."
The Little Emperor knows quite a bit about the dangerous types.
While they talk, the Cave People have already entered the cave.
Su Xiao is very interested in the Cave Peoples’ destination, so he begins to follow them, with Bubute Ni and the Little Emperor trailing behind.
The Cave People are very familiar with the cave’s layout, winding for about ten minutes, they reach an open area.
Rumble.
The sound of large machinery echoes within the open area; Su Xiao looks into it.
There is an expanse over a thousand square ters filled with large machinery.
These large machines are all tal constructions, with so tal conduits connected to these machines, and the other ends burrowing into the rock wall.
At the center of the space, a furnace over ten ters tall is in operation, and all the coal transported by the Cave People is poured into the furnace.
The temperature in the open area is very high; hundreds of Cave People are working around the large machinery. Their bare upper bodies glisten with sweat, and their dark yellow skin is covered in gri.
Crack!
A whip cracks sharply, and several larger Cave People stand atop the steel machinery, holding whips and supervising the Cave Laborers below.
These overseer-like Cave People are about 1.5 ters tall, wearing simple armor, and their light green skin is exceptionally fierce-looking.
Upon hearing the whip crack, the Cave Laborers below shiver, pushing themselves harder to transport coal and maintain machinery.
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