Chapter 386: Chapter 219: Expanding the Wilderness Map, Part 2
The area within a five-kilometer radius of the small marketplace cabin had already been identified, and it was essentially the territory of Snow Moon Peak. He needed to venture beyond this range.
Using his Body Technique, Cheng Zongyang moved quickly, which also served to increase the proficiency of his Cultivation Technique.
The sole purpose of this trip was to identify place names, not to stop and explore. Even if he were to explore, he would focus on locations indicated by items in his inventory.
The general task of searching for Medicinal Materials, Exotic Beasts, and the like was a job for the Collection Hunting Team.
When he reached the foot of the mountain behind Snow Moon Peak and took out his map to check his surroundings, Cheng Zongyang was surprised to find a dot indicating his position.
A red dot marked his location on the map. Meanwhile, the large red dot at the center, representing the marketplace cabin, remained unchanged in its original spot.
Now, Cheng Zongyang understood.
’So this map tracks my location too. My red dot must have been at the center point all along, hidden underneath the larger red dot. Since I hadn’t moved, I never noticed.’
Cheng Zongyang gave a wry smile at the thought.
He hadn’t needed the Wilderness Map for a while, so it had just been hanging in the marketplace cabin like a decoration. He’d never considered this possibility. But having this feature made it much more convenient for him to get his bearings.
Looking at his position on the map, Cheng Zongyang knew he had already covered two-thirds of the mapped area, which gave him an idea of just how vast Snow Moon Peak was. He was nearly at the edge of the map’s display.
He paid no mind to his direction and just kept moving forward.
When he reached the edge of the displayed map, Cheng Zongyang initiated an upgrade for the Wilderness Map. A prompt immediately appeared.
——
[Deduct 10 Points to perform the first expansion of the Wilderness Map? Note: The map’s radius will be expanded by five kilometers.]
[Yes][No]
——
Seeing this prompt, Cheng Zongyang knew that, just like before, the radius would expand by five kilometers, increasing the diameter by ten. He then summoned his Attribute Interface to check his Points.
Points: 2156
Although the first expansion only required 10 Points, the cost would gradually increase with each subsequent upgrade. That was a little vexing.
He decided not to worry about that for now and proceeded with the upgrade.
After a moment’s thought, he expanded it twenty times in a row, which corresponded to expanding the radius by one hundred kilometers, covering a region two hundred kilometers in diameter!
This already far exceeded the seventy-kilometer range of his current territory. But he would need it eventually, so it didn’t matter if he expanded it in advance.
And just like that, his Points had dropped to[56].
Cheng Zongyang saw that the cost increased by an increment of 10 Points each time, which was still within his means. However, the total cost would eventually become an enormous sum. If he were to upgrade it one hundred times, the total would be over fifty thousand Points.
Thinking about the future of the Wilderness World, he could only shake his head slightly.
’No use overthinking it. I just need to explore more and earn more Points.’
But as soon as he stopped upgrading, a prompt appeared above the map:
[Due to multiple expansions, the map can no longer be viewed in detail and will be reformatted. You may switch to a panel view for detailed inspection. Alternatively, you may keep the original display; the map’s physical size will remain the same, but its scale will be reduced.]
Cheng Zongyang nodded slightly as he read the prompt.
’Having these options is pretty good. It’ll make it easier to check the details later.’
’If I keep the original version, I could hang it on the wall like a world map someday.’
The scale of the map in his hand had now been reduced, displaying a much larger area. Correspondingly, Snow Moon Peak’s location on it looked much smaller.
"Panel view," Cheng Zongyang murmured.
The Wilderness Map in his hand vanished, replaced by a virtual panel.
After experimenting for a moment, Cheng Zongyang figured out how to operate it. The panel view made inspection much more convenient.
Next, Cheng Zongyang began identifying the various locations.
He performed an identification every five kilometers, marking out different regions on the map based on his location.
One by one, brand-new regional names appeared, populating the map accordingly.
——Red Pine Forest, Fenglin, Jingdu Forest, Withered Wood Forest... Mingsha Mountain, Moju Lake, Ruiyu Mountain...
’Wow, were the names of these mountains and forests given by previous inhabitants? Did they all get wiped out for some reason, turning this world into a wilderness?’
Beyond Snow Moon Peak, the landscape was an almost unbroken stretch of mountains and forests. The trees were towering and lush, but danger lurked everywhere!
「Four days passed in the blink of an eye.」
In those four days, Cheng Zongyang traversed a circular area with a seventy-kilometer radius and identified essentially all the regional names within it.
The area consisted mostly of forests, with a few large mountains, one major river, and a lake.
Cheng Zongyang also learned that the river by his previous mountain peak was named the Li River, and it flowed continuously from north to south. The fish he had found before must have traveled from the north, skirted Snow Moon Peak, and continued on to the Yu Sea.
But after four days of this, Cheng Zongyang was rather disappointed.
He hadn’t found any traces of humans or Beastmen. ’I’ll have to wait until I expand the territory further to continue the search.’
Having completed the identification of the current territory, Cheng Zongyang looked at his position on the map and shook his head slightly.
’I’m seventy kilometers away; walking back is out of the question. I’m too lazy for that. Over the past four days, I’ve been using my Body Technique almost constantly to travel, which has at least increased its proficiency by a good amount.’
He took a Town Recall Talisman from his robes, tore it, and stood perfectly still.
Three seconds later, Cheng Zongyang felt a sensation like Shrinking Inches, and in the blink of an eye, he appeared at the doorway of the marketplace cabin.
"That was so smooth!" Cheng Zongyang was quite surprised.
He had expected some physical discomfort, but there was no adverse reaction at all. His first experience using a Town Recall Talisman was certainly a good one.
At the cabin’s entrance, Cheng Zongyang saw Luo Dingran holding a notebook and writing something down.
Luo Dingran shot to his feet the moment he saw Cheng Zongyang suddenly appear. He cupped his hands in a salute and asked, "My lord, you’ve completed your task?"
Cheng Zongyang materialized the Wilderness Map and smiled. "It’s done. Take a look. But from now on..."
Cheng Zongyang explained the changes to the map.
Luo Dingran didn’t show much of a reaction, simply saying:
"My lord, I’ve already tasked the Collection Hunting Team with drawing rough maps of each area. The goal was just to give everyone a general overview. Now, with your map, we have much more precise reference points."
Cheng Zongyang nodded. "That’s fine, as long as it doesn’t cause any conflicts. Has anything happened in the past few days?"
"Nothing," said Luo Dingran. "However, the fish in the other pond have reached harvesting size in the last two days. We should be able to get a yield of over four thousand fish. Counting the Points, that should bring in seven or eight thousand Points."
Cheng Zongyang smiled. "That’s good. I spent quite a bit expanding the map this time. I’ll be heading out now."
"Yes, my lord." Luo Dingran cupped his hands.
Cheng Zongyang left the Wilderness World and reappeared in front of the small waterfall on Tianduan Mountain.
He scanned his surroundings and saw no one, but he did spot the Mole Beast resting at the base of a tree. Next to it was a small mound of dirt, which was presumably the entrance to its burrow.
Cheng Zongyang’s face lit up, and he hurried over.
’I didn’t expect the Mole Beast to be back so soon. It must have found something!’
Hearing the movement, the Mole Beast’s Super Senses picked up Cheng Zongyang’s scent. It immediately lifted its head, opened its small eyes to look at him, and stood up.
Cheng Zongyang noticed the bamboo tubes were still hanging around the Mole Beast’s neck. The pills were gone, but the gold and silver ingots were still there. The tubes hung separately around its neck, which looked rather comical and amusing combined with its powerful physique.
He walked up to the Mole Beast, gave it a quick look-over, and was relieved to see it was uninjured. He took back the gold and silver ingots and then asked, "Did you find it?"
The Mole Beast nodded, then pawed at one of the bamboo tubes hanging from its neck, as if to indicate something.
Cheng Zongyang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. It was asking for a reward.
Cheng Zongyang wasn’t one to be stingy. He entered the Wilderness World and emerged a moment later with a bottle of Red Blood Pills in his hand.
He poured five Red Blood Pills from the bottle into the Mole Beast’s palm. The creature grunted happily, swallowed the Red Blood Pills, then turned and started walking.
Cheng Zongyang didn’t say anything more. He put the rest of the pills in his robes. ’I’ll give it the rest of the reward when we get there.’
’The fact that it can eat so many Red Blood Pills proves it’s within the Mole Beast’s tolerance level, so I don’t need to worry too much. This will also help its evolution.’
