Saving the White Moonlight Chapter 50

Yan Zhuguang felt herself thrown out by a powerful force. She urgently flipped in the air, quickly adjusted her falling posture, and landed nimbly on the ground.
Only when her feet truly touched solid earth did her suspended heart finally settle.
Yan Zhuguang first studied the surroundings. As far as her eyes could see, there was boundless water with no end in sight.
She was now on a tiny lone island. It was so small she could see the whole thing at a glance. Around it was deep blue water. She did not know whether it was the sea or an endless lake.
Beneath her feet was soft white sand. There were no tall plants on the island, only a few scattered weeds, making the island look a little less barren.
There was no sun in the sky, nor were there stars or a moon. There was only a sheet of blue without even one cloud. Who knew where the light in this hidden realm came from?
Without a sun, there was no way to tell time or direction. If she could not find direction, she would not even know where to go.
“Open the mini-map.”
“All right, Host.”
A mini-map appeared in Yan Zhuguang’s vision. Fortunately, the system was still reliable. Although the mini-map only covered the island and the nearby water, it still showed east, south, west, and north. As long as she knew the directions, everything would be easier.
There were no red dots on the island representing enemies. However, there were some yellow dots representing things that would not become hostile unless triggered. This island looked harmless, but it was not as calm as it seemed.
Yan Zhuguang did not act rashly. She found a spot that would not cross paths with those yellow dots hidden somewhere, sat cross-legged, and began restoring spiritual energy, adjusting her body to its best state.
“Host, do you need me to open the large map for you?”
The large map was not a new system function. It was an automatically generated hidden realm map created after the system scanned the drawing that had become a silk cloth.
Yan Zhuguang refused. “Not for now. I remember that drawing.”
Yan Zhuguang had the mini-map and the system. She had also memorized the silk cloth’s images in general, and the system had even scanned and saved the silk cloth, so she did not fear getting lost in the hidden realm.
Senior Sister was different. Spiritual sense could not be used in the hidden realm. If Senior Sister did not even have the map, would she not be like a headless fly?
Also, Yan Zhuguang had another suspicion. This hidden realm might also restrict the strength of those who entered.
Senior Sister was at Nascent Soul. Even if spiritual sense could not be used, a Nascent Soul cultivator’s basic ability to fly through the air should still remain. Yet even such a Senior Sister had been unable to avoid the teleportation formation. Yan Zhuguang could not help suspecting that Senior Sister’s strength had been restricted.
If so, with that silk cloth, Senior Sister would be safer, and Yan Zhuguang could feel more at ease.
The system quietly waited for Host to adjust her spiritual energy.
By the time Yan Zhuguang restored the spiritual energy she had used opening the stone gate, an hour had passed. Yan Zhuguang opened her eyes. “Can you sense Senior Sister’s location?”
The system searched. “I cannot sense her. This hidden realm has restrictions, and the world’s permissions for the system are low. The range I can investigate is not large. Senior Sister is probably very far from here, so I cannot find her.”
Yan Zhuguang considered this and nodded.
“Then, if Host cannot find Senior Sister, where will you go?”
“First, to the nearest red mark on that silk cloth.”
Yan Zhuguang did not plan to stay long on this nameless island. The most important thing right now was reuniting with Senior Sister. She believed Senior Sister would not wander blindly. Since there were red marks on the silk cloth, going to a marked place would naturally make it easier to meet.
“The nearest red mark,” the system said while flipping through its scanned copy of the silk cloth, “seems to be…”
“Southeast.”
The silk cloth showed several large water areas. Yan Zhuguang was now within one of them, but she could not confirm which one. However, there was no doubt that no matter which water area she was in, heading southeast was a good choice.
Yan Zhuguang had already stepped onto her sect flying sword and set out.
The system silently put away the scanned image of the silk cloth.
As soon as Yan Zhuguang stepped onto the flying sword, she sensed something wrong. Flying on a sword in this hidden realm felt completely different from flying outside.
Here, the pressure she had to bear while flying was much greater than outside. Her speed also slowed by a lot. The spiritual energy consumed by flying multiplied, and Yan Zhuguang vaguely felt that she could not fly too high.
The hidden realm restricted flying height. If she rose rashly, she might face intense spiritual energy consumption until she could no longer control the flying sword and fell from the sky.
Thinking of this possibility, Yan Zhuguang did not raise her height, but she also did not rashly drop to the lowest point. This endless water was still unfamiliar to her. She could not be certain whether there were unknown dangers.
The standard flying sword skimmed over the water. The wind from its fast flight blew layers of ripples across the surface.
“Host, be careful!”
The system had only just spoken when Yan Zhuguang suddenly shot upward. At the same time, rapid splashing rose from the previously calm water. In the next instant, a group of shining things leapt violently out of the water, cut an arc through the air, then fell back in.
The bright things rolled across the water, flashing with pale white light that stabbed Yan Zhuguang’s eyes. Yan Zhuguang closed her eyes briefly to ease the pain, then wiped a hand over them. A strange black film of light covered her eyeballs, dyeing even the whites of her eyes black. She looked somewhat eerie.
After the film covered her eyes, Yan Zhuguang could look directly at the glowing things.
They were actually a group of strange fish. They were not large, but they were long and thin, like polished white knives. Their mouths were especially sharp. At this moment, they opened and closed, showing mouths full of thin, pointed teeth. If one merely grazed a person, it would likely cause blood to flow freely.
One fish alone would have been fine, but these strange fish moved in groups. If Yan Zhuguang had not flown upward earlier and left their attack range, she would have been cut with several bloody wounds.
“What are these things?”
The system felt its scalp go numb.
“These are knife fish,” Yan Zhuguang said. “You can tell by looking at them.”
The system was silent. Was naming in the cultivation world this casual?
Yan Zhuguang raised a brow. “Do not look at how fierce these fish are. Their taste is excellent. If one has leisure, catching a few to roast would be worthwhile.”
“Host… are you going to catch them? How?”
The system could barely look. They were this fierce and still going to be eaten?
“Catching them is not hard.”
These fish only relied on their sharp bodies. Their strength was not even at the third level of Qi Refining, and they had no intelligence. Aside from the trouble of living in groups, they were not difficult to catch.
“Watch.”
Yan Zhuguang casually took a handful of grass seeds from her inventory. With wood spiritual energy, the grass seeds grew into long blades of grass, twisting together into a grass rope. Yan Zhuguang wove the grass rope back and forth into a small net and held it in her hand.
By now, the group of knife fish that had attacked Yan Zhuguang had scattered. The water also slowly calmed, and soon no trace could be seen.
Yan Zhuguang slowly lowered the flying sword and flew above the water for a while. At the same time, she said to the system, “This kind of fish has no eyes. It senses prey only through vibrations in the water.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the ripples caused by the flying sword drew the fish over again. Rapid splashing sounded, and bright white light flashed under the water.
“Host, be careful.”
The system warned her. In the next moment, Yan Zhuguang suddenly rose. The knife fish also flew out of the water. Yan Zhuguang threw the grass net down, scooped once, and caught a large netful of knife fish.
Yan Zhuguang did not delay at all. The grass net in her hand flashed and vanished. In the system inventory, a new slot appeared named “one net of knife fish.”
“That, that simple?”
The system stammered in disbelief.
“What else did you expect?” Yan Zhuguang asked back.
She ignored the knife fish and continued flying forward at a height they could not jump to. This height was a little more tiring than before, but it was safer.
“Knife fish are indeed sharp. If I used a normal way to catch fish, my grass net would definitely be cut apart. But if I catch them the moment they leave the water and throw them into the inventory or storage ring before they can roll and cut the net, is that not enough?”
“The inventory can hold living things. Although a storage ring cannot hold living things, putting them inside would instead save the step of killing the fish.”
“I learned something…”
Yan Zhuguang continued flying southeast, but in her heart she was thinking that since she had caught a net of knife fish, after finding Senior Sister, she would make Senior Sister a pot of fish soup.
She wondered what other delicious things were in this hidden realm.
Because Host had forgotten to turn off thought communication, the system heard Yan Zhuguang’s inner voice and fell silent.
The water surface was far too broad. Besides knife fish, there were all sorts of strange things. Some jumped out of the water, while some attacked directly from the water with demon arts. Their methods came one after another.
Besides the things in the water, there were also flocks of strange birds flying in the sky. They were also extremely aggressive. No matter what height she kept, there was no absolute safety. In short, Yan Zhuguang’s journey was not peaceful.
However, although these things appeared and disappeared unpredictably and were very annoying, aside from their numbers and strange attack methods, their own strength was not very high. Yan Zhuguang was harassed by them, but it did not reach the point where she could not handle them.
Also, these things unexpectedly were all delicacies in the cultivation world. The variety of food in Yan Zhuguang’s inventory became much richer.
For a while, the system thought this hidden realm might actually be a place some powerful foodie used to raise food.
Although Yan Zhuguang had not been injured, by the time she finally reached shore, the spiritual energy in her body had nearly reached the bottom.
She used the system’s mini-map to check the surroundings. There were no attacking red dots. Then she sensed around by herself. After confirming there was no danger, she sat on the ground, took out spirit stones, and restored her strength.
While the system stood guard for Yan Zhuguang, it observed the environment on shore.
This was a rather sparse grassland. Beneath scattered grass blades was bare earth that could not be hidden. The thin grassland stretched into the distance as far as the eye could see. But at a spot neither too near nor too far away stood a palace city built from grass stems mixed with soil.
Yes, it looked like a palace city that had once been very prosperous. It had city walls and palaces, everything it should have. However, now only ruined walls remained.
“This is the place pointed to by the red mark.”
Yan Zhuguang ended her meditation after recovering roughly enough spiritual energy. She continued absorbing from the spirit stone in her hand, but her attention shifted to the nearby area. At this moment, her attention was also drawn to those ruins.
Relying on memory, she matched this place to the silk cloth’s image. “A collapsed palace… It should be in the middle of the hidden realm.”
The system confirmed, “Yes, Host.”
“Any news of Senior Sister?”
“No.”
Yan Zhuguang paused, then continued absorbing spiritual energy. “We will go in and explore soon.”