Chapter 484: Trapped
Without saying a word, the man threw a storage ring and raised his eyebrow in question.
Seeing the person’s attitude, Yu Nianzhen didn’t bother to introduce himself.
Instead, he caught the storage ring and looked at the contents.
’Reincarnation stones and a thunder crystal.’ Yu Nianzhen observed.
After ninety-eight years, he had earned enough reincarnation stones to practice to the fifth or sixth level of the reincarnation realm.
Combined with the stones in the Cangxing mines, Yu Nianzhen no longer had to worry about supporting himself and Jiang Yue.
Most importantly, he had a lot of treasures that could be exchanged for reincarnation stones or other treasures.
As long as nothing unexpected happened, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue could take it easy in the reincarnation realm.
Unfortunately, one could only advance one level in one thousand years.
If not for that, Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen would retreat and directly advance to the mid-levels of the reincarnation realm.
In this way, the safety and peace of the Cangxing mountain cultivators would be more guaranteed.
"Let’s start." Yu Nianzhen said and released Shanjiang.
Across from him, the opponent waved his hand and a fan appeared in the palm of his right hand.
The fan was a fiery red and seemed to be made of firebird feathers.
When it appeared, the surrounding temperature went up a notch and Yu Nianzhen couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable.
"Heavenly inferno." The opponent shouted while waving his fan.
Simultaneously, a sea of flames roared towards the swordsman.
Seeing the flames, Yu Nianzhen didn’t panic.
He waved his arm and executed his inferno blizzard sword intent.
Soon after, the blizzard met the fire and the two attacks collided until white steam filled the martial stage.
When the steam dissipated, Yu Nianzhen prepared to launch another attack but his movements froze in shock.
"Where am I?" He muttered and cautiously looked around.
At a glance, Yu Nianzhen was in a jungle.
The jungle stretched as far as his divine sense could reach and seemed to have no end.
’Is this an illusion?’ He wondered.
However, the scene lacked the surreality of an illusion.
Rather, Yu Nianzhen felt like he was somehow transported to a real jungle.
"Could it be a small world like my sword world?" He guessed and began to look around, hoping to find a clue to his situation.
Unfortunately, there were no hints to guide his thought process.
’I should walk around and see if I can find something.’ He decided and randomly chose a direction.
However, when he tried to lift his leg, he realised he couldn’t move.
With a frown on his face, he looked down and his pupils shrunk in shock.
"How could I get entangled by a demonic plant and not realise it?" He muttered and stared at the vine that had already climbed to his knee.
"Let’s kill it first."
With a thought, a domineering sword intent covered his body and the vines were directly destroyed.
When he regained his freedom, Yu Nianzhen jumped into the air, planning to avoid the ground.
Unfortunately, he thought too simply.
As soon as his feet were fifty centimetres from the ground, an incredible force suppressed his body and pulled him down.
"It seems I can’t fly in this place." He observed with a frown on his face.
At the same time, he jumped to the left to avoid the vines that were reaching out from the ground.
"I can’t fly and I can’t stand in one place for too long." He said with a solemn look in his eyes.
’The rules in this small world are more advanced than my sword world.’ He thought with a little worry in his heart.
As someone who had a small world, he knew how dangerous it was to be trapped in an enemy’s small world.
In this small world, his strength was severely restrained and danger was everywhere.
If he didn’t leave as soon as possible, he may encounter a situation he couldn’t overcome.
’I need to find an exit as soon as possible.’ Yu Nianzhen thought and hastened his steps.
However, before he could walk a few metres, a loud roar resounded in the jungle.
"Are there demonic beasts in this jungle?" Yu Nianzhen wondered and frowned.
So far, he had only encountered demonic plants.
Because of this, he deceived himself into believing he was in a demonic plant’s jungle.
"From the aura in the roar, the demonic beast should be equivalent to a second-level reincarnation realm cultivator. I don’t know if there are more powerful demonic beasts?"
Although Yu Nianzhen defeated many higher realm cultivators, it was only because the martial stage formation suppressed their cultivation.
If he encountered those cultivators outside the martial stage, Yu Nianzhen would be defeated without a chance to fight back.
"I should..." He started but suddenly stopped.
A moment later, he couldn’t suppress the annoyance in his heart and cursed out loud.
When he was thinking about demonic beasts, he forgot to walk which allowed demonic vines to entangle him.
Fortunately, the demonic vines were weak and a burst of sword intent was enough to deal with them.
After this, Yu Nianzhen became more cautious and never stood still as he made his way through the jungle.
However, the more he walked, the more he felt that something was wrong.
At first, Yu Nianzhen couldn’t pinpoint the wrongness but as time passed, he figured it out.
Since he entered the jungle, a lot of time seemed to have passed but day had not turned into night.
From this observation, Yu Nianzhen concluded that the days in the small world were unusually long or the small world had no differentiation between day and night.
Although the situation was disorienting, Yu Nianzhen did not dwell on it and kept the matter at the back of his mind.
Other than the matter of time, Yu Nianzhen discovered something wrong with his divine sense.
When he first scanned the jungle, he only realised he could not see the end.
However, after more scans, he realised he couldn’t see any demonic plants or demonic beasts.
This meant that he couldn’t rely on his divine sense to avoid powerful demonic beasts and plants.
Unfortunately, the inaccuracy of his divine sense was not the most disconcerting.
The most troubling thing was that he couldn’t open his space ring or jade box, and couldn’t absorb the aura in the small world to replenish his qi.
After these discoveries, Yu Nianzhen couldn’t help but feel a little desperate.
Although he had yet to encounter powerful demonic beasts and plants, he felt it was only a matter of time.
When that happened, he could either escape or fight.
If he could, Yu Nianzhen planned to escape but escape was not always possible.
When he couldn’t escape, he would have to fight which would consume his qi and sword intent.
Most importantly, if he was seriously injured, he didn’t have enough Tree of Life energy to heal himself.
Over time, the injuries would accumulate and Yu Nianzhen would fall into a disadvantage.
At best, he would suffer permanent injuries and at worst, his combat power would decrease and he would be killed in the small world.
Thinking of the negative possibilities, Yu Nianzhen couldn’t suppress his worry.
At the moment, the most troubling thing was that he didn’t have a clue of how to escape his predicament.
If he had a clue, he would be more confident and less passive.
"The situation is not good." He muttered with a solemn look in his eyes.
However, he didn’t plan to give up.
As long as he was alive, he planned to walk the jungle and find ways to leave the small world.
While Yu Nianzhen was trapped in the jungle, Jiang Yue was desperately trying to suppress his panic and the spectators were dumbfounded.
When the duel started, everyone thought they would witness a fight between a swordsman and a fire cultivator.
However, the expected fight didn’t happen.
Instead, the Cangxing mountain master was directly trapped in a gourd and the spectators couldn’t see what was going on inside.
"I have only heard of a universe gourd that can hold an ocean. Can a gourd trap people?" A spectator couldn’t help but ask.
"That fellow Daoist’s gourd should be an ancient treasure."
"I also think so."
"What is happening to the Cangxing mountain master? Is he still alive?"
"If you ask me, who should I ask?"
Hearing the arguments, a bookish cultivator fell into the thought and observed the situation.
"I think the mountain master should still be alive." He finally said.
"How do you know?" Someone asked and the surrounding cultivators looked at the person.
"When the mountain master was trapped, that fellow Daoist couldn’t hold the gourd and had to put it down. Since the gourd is still on the ground, fellow Daoist Yu should still be alive."
"Your reasoning is good but we can’t be sure. Maybe that fellow Daoist is lazy and doesn’t want to hold the gourd." Someone said.
"This fellow Daoist is right. We have no way of knowing what is going on in the gourd."
