Chapter 1142: The Puzzling Starmap
On this planet covered in red valleys, Xia Fei led the warriors to an una.s.suming cave and immediately noticed how bright it was inside upon entering.
“It’s evident that people used to live here. The entire cave interior has been altered. There are lights installed and this place’s climate is controlled. There’s plenty of advanced equipment, too. Based on the energy feedback I’m reading, this place should be where Feng Jianbo resided. There are even traces of energy from other Fufeng clansmen,” Fuchen said with a nod.
In order to avoid any accidents, Xia Fei called everyone to wait outside and had entered the place with just Fuchen and Ulan.
This place was like a hermit’s dwelling. It was not exactly luxurious, but the facilities were fairly comprehensive.
There were plenty of hermits in the Alpha Universe; as high-level warriors were immortal, it was unavoidable for them to feel bored after living for too long. Besides, seeing those same few faces around was not conducive to the prosperity of the clan, so those high-level warriors with plenty of foresight would choose to recluse themselves after reaching a certain age, departing for some place away from people to devote themselves on cultivation.
Hermits were their clans’ treasures. If war broke out, these old monsters in hiding would be equivalent to hundred men on battlefields. They could form a formidable force when gathered, and the reason clans rarely had conflicts devolving to war was also their apprehension toward the hermits their enemies had. At this point, who knew just how many of such hermits had been doing closed-door cultivations all across the universe, but they actually all joined forces, the ensuing tragedy would be completely unsalvageable. This was why the various major clans treated one another with restraint, allowing all those reclusive old monsters not to show their faces, secretly preserving their strength.
“A hermit’s dwelling? Feng Jianbo shouldn’t be at that age where he needed to hide himself from the world at large, right?” Fuchen said with a furrowed brows.
Ulan chuckled. “Even an old monster has yet to go into reclusion, what more for someone as young as Feng Jianbo? The one who apprised us of the cave’s existence said that this could be a cultivation location of the Feng Clan. I think that sounds rather logical. Let’s take a closer look at things here first.”
The three split up and searched the place. Xia Fei used Ocular Cognition, and as a speedster, he naturally took the lead on this.
“Oh, there are some very interesting carvings here!” Xia Fei shouted from deep inside the cave.
Fuchen and Ulan hurried over to him and saw a fork in the cave. At this point, plenty of ancient murals could be seen on the rocky walls of both sides. A lot of the images had already fallen off, indicating that these murals had been done a very long time ago.
“These murals tell of a story, a poacher hunting an exotic beast. He incidentally discovered a very strange creature, and chasing it down to this cave, he inadvertently stumbled upon a legacy from the ancients. This poacher was thus changed forever, becoming a first-rate warrior.”
Xia Fei examined the art as he attempted to interpret what was being depicted.
“This first poacher apparently succeeded, becoming a very powerful expert, and then he eventually settled down and sired a child. As he and his clan grew, so did the troubles. Though this warrior and his clansmen were powerful, they still failed to earn the appreciation of various major forces, for they lacked a long history and were considered a relatively new power.”
“Later when war broke out, this first poacher thought of an ingenious idea. They didn’t seek shelter with the major forces but chose to side with a weak organization, which was facing the threat of extinction. Their addition ultimately revived the organization, and as a result, he and his clan became famous following this war.
“At a later date, this ancestral founder of the clan became heavily injured, but before he died, he set a rule: The descendants of the clan shall come to live in this cave when they’re young, just like their ancestors had before them. They must spend three grueling years on reflection and cultivation before they’re allowed to return home…”
Everyone understood at this point. This was the pioneering history of the Fufeng Clan, but what everyone had not expected was that the clan originated to its founder’s inadvertent discovery of this place as he engaged in poaching.
“No wonder the Fufeng Clan suddenly experienced a meteoric rise despite its lack of long history. So this was what had happened.” Ulan nodded.
They had reached the end of the fork in the cave tunnel at this time. The place looked rather shabby, with a few straw mats and empty walls around them.
Fuchen felt somewhat disappointed. “Looks like this was where Fufeng Clan’s forebearer found the legacy. Feng Jianbo must’ve followed tradition and came here to do some independent cultivation. Unfortunately, your arrival ended his life. I’m afraid that none of the people from the clan know about this. Too bad that there’s nothing valuable here, and it’s merely a location for cultivation. It’s really not worth deepening the animosity between us and the Fufeng Clan just for this.”
Xia Fei laughed it off dismissively, his lips curling into that signature smirk of his.
“First, I killed that kid who went by the last name of Feng because he’s my enemy, and all my enemies must die. Second, I obtained a very strange exotic beast, including those things on the ceiling,” Xia Fei corrected.
“Ceiling?!”
“What’s on the ceiling?”
Fuchen and Ulan hurriedly lifted their heads and saw that at the highest point of this room was an impressive sculptural carving of what looked like a star map.
Humans tended to keep their gazes level, so the actual dead angle was of course not the left or right side, front or back, but rather up! Such an obvious sculptural carving had easily been missed by even Fuchen and Ulan!
“What… What is that?!” Ulan gasped in shock.
….
The Silver Specter’s command deck now contained the strange carving of a star map. Xia Fei, who was thorough, simply cut out the entire ceiling and brought it back aboard his s.h.i.+p.
“Weird. The star map we saw in the cave looks quite different now. It no longer seemed so mysterious right now and looks more like a normal 2D star map,” Ulan said with a frown.
Xia Fei thought about it and said, “Come, help me with this.”
Soon, that mysterious star map was moved to the ceiling of the command deck and was temporarily fixed to the ceiling with steel bolts. Everyone lifted their heads and observed the map again.
“How magical! So the map must be viewed in a specific way, and putting it on the ground will render it useless. What’s the logic behind this?” Ulan marveled in surprise. This rock slate had given him plenty of pleasant surprises with its mystery.
It was merely a sculptural carving, yet it could actually achieve the effect of appearing different depending on the angle it was viewed at. What was the explanation behind this phenomenon?
The three were perplexed, and none could make sense just what the trick behind it was.
“I believe that the ancestor of the Fufeng Clan pa.s.sed down the order for his descendents to cultivate where he had made his discovery for some reason, and this star map might be part of that mystery,” Fuchen said.
Xia Fei nodded. “That makes sense. Radix, compare the star map. See if it points toward any place in the Alpha Universe. Also, do a carbon dating test on this rock slate. I want to get an accurate read on just how old it is.”
Radix proceeded to use his AI system to do a map comparison as he began the test.
“The result of the comparison is as follows: Across all known star regions in the entire Alpha Universe, no star maps match. Also, I encountered problems with the carbon dating test. The rock has no carbon 14 element at all.” Radix reported his findings.
“The Alpha Universe is vast, and the star maps aren’t complete. It doesn’t mean anything if we can’t locate where this star map is, but for this piece of rock not to have a single trace of carbon 14, what does that mean?” Ulan wondered.
Carbon 14 was an important element when dating objects. As time pa.s.sed, the carbon 14 atoms in items gradually decayed. Humans had learned how to infer the age of an item from the degree of decay. However, this rock slate had no carbon 14 at all. This fell far beyond existing knowledge and was hard for anyone to fathom.
Fuchen and Ulan became engrossed in this matter. They spent an entire night just poring over the mysterious star map above their heads. There seemed to be some kind of attraction toward it, making it hard for them to forget.
Eventually, both felt fatigued and decided to lie down on a blanket, chatting as they still looked at the star map, even having a serving of snacks and tea while they were at it.
Xia Fei was not as unrestrained as those two. This time, their destination was Inverse territory, and they were about to wage war against those vicious creatures! He still had plenty of things that needed dealing and preparing.
Suzu Treasure had already prepared everything Xia Fei needed prior to departure, so all he had to do was follow along step by step, and that would be all.
What made Xia Fei feel heartbroken the most was that Colorless Sky Cow. That extremely tough translucent skin, which was impossible to peel no matter what tool Xia Fei used, was an unprecedented conundrum that he found himself facing.
Every tool that Xia Fei could possibly use in his spatial ring had been used; unfortunately, the Colorless Sky Cow’s skin was simply too tough that even his legendary sword, the White Dragon’s Screech, was useless against it.
“Let me try. Use Nirvana,” Radix said.
Xia Fei shook his head. “Nirvana is a draining weapon, so even if it can cut open the Colorless Sky Cow, the skin will end up getting absorbed into nothingness, and that’s just too bad.”
Radix shrugged. “Well, we can’t carry on this way, either. If even the White Dragon’s Screech is useless against it, then I really can’t think of any other method.
“All I know is that this will be an extremely risky move, but it doesn’t mean that there’s no chance of success, either. This creature’s skin is exceptionally tough, and if you can’t use it to make a pair of gloves, perhaps it can be used as a top-grade material for something else! Letting it go to waste by doing nothing is the real shame.”
Xia Fei naturally knew just how precious the skin was, but he did not think that it was right to use Nirvana for this. It was a blade that absorbed anything and everything indiscriminately.
Suddenly, Xia Fei had an idea and reached out to touch that horn on the Colorless Sky Cow’s head.
“The logic that all things exist to overwhelm each other; perhaps the solution to this problem lies in this ugly carrot-shaped horn on the Colorless Sky Cow’s head!” Xia Fei said in his excitement.
*Crack*
Xia Fei slashed with the White Dragon’s Screech! As someone who would act the moment a thought came to him, there was not even a hint of hesitation in his action. He severed that pink horn in a single swing.
It felt light in his hand, and compared to the Colorless Sky Cow’s skin, this horn was much more brittle and could not even withstand White Dragon’s Screech’s single slash.
This pink horn looked quite ugly, and there were fine sh.e.l.l patterns all over it. Like a piece of rock that had been submerged in sea water for millions of years, plenty of parasites could be found attached to it.
Xia Fei only wanted to experiment with it, so he casually used this horn to do a light brush over the head.
Something miraculous happened!
The pink horn gave off this burning warmth right on the tip of the horn the instant it cut across; it was like a laser but was in fact hotter than that!
*Whoosh*
A small cut appeared on the Colorless Sky Cow, of which the skin could not even be injured by any other weapon!
“Heavens! It turns out that the most powerful part of the Colorless Sky Cow is its horn!” Radix exclaimed, his eyes widening in shock.