Chen Sheng’s words ended there; maybe he didn’t know anything more either. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Shen Hao had thought he could head back after escorting Chen Sheng to the temporary checkpoint, but to his surprise, Chen Sheng shook his head and said since Shen Hao now had the right to know, he could join their upcoming actions—instead, they crossed the border of the Special Land and entered the mountain again.

It was obvious that Chen Sheng wasn’t here just to man a checkpoint.

Shen Hao just followed along, listening more and asking less, and he realized that Chen Sheng didn’t seem unfamiliar with this place at all; in fact, he had clearly come prepared.

"There are many types of Special Lands, but none escape the Five Elements. This place is heavy with Yin energy and infested with poisons—it belongs to ’Wood’. Plus, based on the info you sent up before, we came well-prepared. Here, take this, a Qi Concealing Talisman—it’s great for dealing with the poisonous bugs you guys ran into."

"So the higher-ups are actually quite familiar with the situation in Special Lands?"

"Yeah, you could say that. After all, how many years have we been researching Special Lands? We’ve got the basics down for sure. It’s just that every Special Land has details worth investigating. For example, that plague-causing bug you found here—it’s never once been recorded in previous documents."

After entering the mountain, Chen Sheng started distributing the personnel. He’d brought the Governor’s elite—five hundred, all Cultivators. The Qi Refining Realm ones were limited to the outer edges to do collecting and searching; at night, they’d withdraw outside the Special Land and wait till dawn before re-entering. Following Chen Sheng deeper were twenty-five, including Shen Hao, all at the Gathering Spirit Realm—at this Cultivation level, there was basically no danger inside the Special Land.

They arrived again at the place with five huge boulders. When evening came, a black hole opened once more in the clearing among the rocks, and then a booming hum started—the five-colored insect swarm burst out in waves just as before, making everyone’s skin crawl just as Shen Hao had previously experienced.

But the Qi Concealing Talismans Chen Sheng gave really worked—the insect tide that had almost drained Shen Hao’s True Qi totally ignored everyone under the talisman’s cover, scattering each its own way without a care.

So then, do these poisonous bugs not use eyesight but sense or smell to find prey?

"Brother Chen, what exactly are we doing?"

"Don’t rush, just wait a bit longer."

Wait? Wait for what?

Not until mid-midnight, when the bugs finished swarming out, did Chen Sheng wave his hand. Two of his men edged up to the hole and put a rope ladder down!

"Brother Chen, you’re not actually thinking of going in there, are you?!" Just thinking about the bug tsunami pouring out of that hole made Shen Hao’s scalp crawl; he never expected Chen Sheng would actually go in.

"Of course. The inside of the cave is where the real value of the Special Land is. We must hurry with our exploration before it disappears, or else we’ll lose our only chance."

"It can still disappear?"

"Definitely. Usually, the appearance-to-disappearance period of a Special Land ranges from two to thirty years. You mentioned in your earlier report this one might have been discovered over ten years ago, so our window’s already pretty short." Chen Sheng took the time to explain.

"How exactly does it disappear?"

This huge area, just... gone? Shen Hao couldn’t quite imagine it.

"Just like it says: disappear, vanish—the emergence and vanishing of a Special Land happens abruptly, like dropping an overlapping area onto the original spot, and when it vanishes, it goes just as fast—in the blink of an eye." Chen Sheng’s explanation was vague. Obviously, he hadn’t seen one disappear himself; this was all knowledge from reports.

"So what happens if we’re inside the Special Land when it disappears?" Shen Hao suddenly thought of this problem.

"If your feet are on solid ground, there’s no problem—as long as you don’t go into the interior."

"The interior?" Shen Hao glanced at the two soldiers already going down the ladder and understood: the actual danger of exploring a Special Land was much more than what met the eye.

Earlier, the rope ladder hadn’t seemed that long, just over thirty feet. Once it was put down, they soon heard voices from below: "Report! It’s just over forty feet deep, the bottom is dry and flat, a few poisonous bugs, no light, and no threats detected for now!"

Chen Sheng gestured again, and this time five more went down.

"Test it first—then I’m going down too. Shen, feel like coming as well? Not everyone gets to see the inside of a Special Land, you know. Haha, don’t worry. Countless people have died in Special Lands, but those who died just from one suddenly vanishing barely number a hundred—it’s not like we could be that unlucky."

Chen Sheng actually seemed strangely excited, as if he loved dancing along the knife’s edge.

Shen Hao disliked risky situations, but his curiosity was no small thing either. Gritting his teeth, he accepted Chen Sheng’s invite. After the third group of soldiers landed, the two of them climbed down the rope ladder together.

He’d thought it would feel like going into a cave—but actually, Shen Hao felt like he was climbing upward, not down! Especially once his body entered the hole, his sense of direction and gravity flipped, and he almost fell from the rope ladder.

"Hahaha, scared you, huh? My first time in a Special Land was the same—this place’s wonders are unforgettable for any first-timer."

Shen Hao just nodded, left a little speechless by the environment.

Even though it was pitch dark, with illumination techniques a lot could still be seen.

There were actually trees and flowers here—can you believe it?

And the trees and flowers were all alive! They looked almost exactly like the outside forest. The only difference was, most of the plants here were black or gray; there were hardly any bright colors. Each tree was pockmarked with countless little round holes, making Shen Hao instinctively recall the swarming bugs everywhere.

"These..."

"Heh, amazing, isn’t it? Plants growing in a place like this. Nobody has any idea why — in fact, no one’s even sure where ’here’ really is. But one thing’s for sure: this isn’t the outside world anymore. It’s a bit like... mm, a Storage Bag? You get what I mean?"

Shen Hao grumbled to himself: If I actually got what you mean, I’d be a ghost!

But this inner-outer-space concept Shen Hao could at least kind of understand.

"Come on, let’s look around."

Actually, it wasn’t that big inside—about a half-mile across—and there was an invisible wall acting as the boundary. Aside from the dense black and gray trees, there was also a thatched hut inside.

A thatched hut? Yeah, there was a thatched hut in here! Just like the ones in ordinary villages. But Chen Sheng and the others weren’t surprised at all; the soldiers who’d come down first started bringing items out one by one and piling them at the door.

Books, and some bottles and jars—likely Elixirs—a few Magical Artifacts, and finally some medicinal herbs and materials.

"Tsk, just more non-tiered stuff." Chen Sheng was clearly disappointed, though not unexpectedly so. Meanwhile, he didn’t notice Shen Hao’s eyes go wide as he stared, unmoving, at a very unremarkable piece of Artifact Refining Material...