Chapter 501

Chapter 501: Traces of Battle

“As a beginner, your only task for today is to hunt down an edible prey, regardless of its size. Do you understand?”

“Oh, I understand! Today is my time to shine!”

In the desert, two figures swiftly moved through the landscape—a man around thirty-five years old and a boy about fifteen.

Both wore special masks, and their bodies were covered in unique clothing that sealed them tightly.

This outfit did not hinder their movement, allowing them to easily traverse various terrains as they approached a column of wind.

“The wind column is the desert’s gift. It gathers a large amount of spirit energy, significantly increasing the chance of catching prey. As an excellent hunter, you must master the ability to utilize the wind columns; otherwise, this desert will be hell for you.”

“Roar!”

Suddenly, the ground heaved, and a stone snake lunged at them with a fierce roar, attempting to swallow them whole. However, both of them concentrated spirit energy in their legs and shot away, escaping the reach of the stone snake. Their presence diminished along the way, vanishing from the stone snake’s sensing range without a word.

“Stone snakes rely on vibrations to sense their targets. They are non-edible monsters and lack hunting value. Avoid them directly rather than engage in battle. Good job; it seems you have a solid grasp of the basics, being able to instantly judge when not to fight.”

“Teacher, being a top student is no joke,” the boy replied as they regrouped, pouting slightly.

“You are only a top student in Weapon Forging, which has nothing to do with hunting. How much can you learn in a mere month? What’s written on paper is not enough to truly understand,” the teacher replied seriously.

Just as the boy was about to respond, the teacher suddenly stopped him and came to a halt.

Before them lay a crack extending who knows how far, at least ten meters wide. Although it was a crack, its depth was only about seven or eight meters. Ordinary beings might face trouble if they fell in, but anyone with a bit of cultivation level could easily ignore this obstacle.

The teacher infused spirit energy into his eyes, staring at the crack for a moment before decisively turning away, “We’ll go around!”

“Go around? Is there some powerful demon beneath?” the boy asked excitedly.

“Ha, if only that were true…” the teacher muttered as they took a long detour. The crack was nearly ten kilometers wide, leaving the boy completely bewildered.

After finally getting around the crack, they walked a bit further when another small crack appeared, about a hundred meters long and three to five meters wide.

The teacher remained silent, glanced at it, and avoided it from a distance again.

“Teacher, are all these cracks dangerous? It’s quite troublesome to keep going around,” the boy inquired.

“In this desert, demons and Calamities may pose threats, but they are nowhere near as terrifying as these omnipresent cracks. There are always solutions for the former, but these cracks… they are unsolvable. Touching them means certain death; you can only keep your distance. If you want to see the truth for yourself, feel free to try,” the teacher replied lightly.

“Is that true?” The boy raised his hand, gathering a dim fireball, eager to test it out.

Upon seeing this, the teacher did not immediately tell him to act; instead, he pulled the boy back until they were at a safe distance before nodding.

The fireball was then thrown toward the direction of the crack, leaving a faint trail of light in the dark.

The fireball was deliberately slowed down so its path could be clearly seen.

The glow approached the crack slowly, and just before it made contact, the boy held his breath, his eyes fixed on the fireball, not daring to blink for fear of missing anything.

In that brief moment, the fireball suddenly vanished.

Then, where the fireball had been consumed, an unfathomable darkness seemed to swell instantly, chilling the air around them.

The boy sensed a strong sense of dissonance. He looked around, “Something definitely just happened! But what exactly was it?”

He couldn’t help but take a step forward—

However, at that moment, he suddenly realized the problem, and his pupils shrank sharply.

“How is it possible…?”

“Distance, how could it be so close?”

The boy exclaimed in shock.

He had clearly been at least fifty meters away from the crack just moments ago, but somehow he had already reached within twenty meters of it!

A sense of dissonance, an abnormal feeling surrounded him, as everything seemed to transform into lines, causing this Super Genius to feel completely disoriented.

“Space has been devoured!”

His intelligence allowed him to combine the changes in the environment and arrive at the correct conclusion.

If the point where he originally stood was a straight line, then after the fireball vanished, the point around him seemed to be suddenly pulled toward the crack, transforming from a straight line into a bulge. This wasn’t just matter being consumed; the entire space was being swallowed, without any cracks appearing as a result.

“These cracks are left by godlike beings. External forces will trigger their powers and cause erasure at the spatial level. No one can withstand this power, nor can anyone resolve it; they can only be avoided. In this desert, there are far more strange things than you can imagine,” the teacher explained.

“But I’ve never heard of this!” the boy replied in surprise.

“It’s simple; this knowledge has only emerged in the last ten years. We all have a limited understanding, let alone those who hide away in the underworld,” the teacher said, a hint of fear flashing in his eyes. Although he had been through many storms and was quite tough, this was an exception.

That battle was terrifying beyond belief.

The scale was so unreasonable that it could likely annihilate the entire desert in an instant. Both the underworld and the tree city felt their own helplessness during that confrontation.

“In the last ten years, such a major incident has occurred! Teacher Wu Shi Ming, what exactly happened? I want to know!” the boy asked urgently.

“Want to know? What good would it do? The scars left by their battle could kill all living beings; it is divine power. You must understand that their real battlefield time was merely seven or eight years ago, and even after all this time, those scars have not faded, becoming an eternal wound upon this land!” Wu Shi Ming did not want to say more. Unless one had experienced it, they could not fathom that despair.

The feeling of being wiped out by a residual wave at any moment was paralyzing, compelling people to establish multiple refuges to avoid being caught up entirely. Even though he had been extraordinarily lucky and hadn’t been affected, many had taken their own lives under the weight of such overwhelming pressure.

He had experienced these things; therefore, he didn’t want to speak of them. He knew that if the other party believed him, it would be a tremendous burden on their mind. If they didn’t believe him, then what was the point of sharing?

“Please, teacher, I want to know!”

Wu Shi Ming slapped the boy’s shoulder. “Alright, Shi Zhao, don’t waste time. The time available to act during the day is limited. Before the fog flowers bloom, hurry and complete your hunting. Otherwise, your graduation exam will be over. You should think about your own situation more.”

“Ouch! What does that matter? I will definitely become a powerful cultivator like that in the future!”

“You don’t understand…”

Wu Shi Ming shook his head and resumed walking.

The two of them started moving again, heading toward the wind column.

Meanwhile, they were completely unaware that a young man with black hair and a woman in a fire-colored dress stood beside them, having heard everything.

It was none other than Yun Ye and Ming Ri, who had located them through the Spiritual Law information.