Chapter 3499: An Underwhelming World
Chapter 3499: An Underwhelming World
Cattaleya looked around, then pointed outward. "It’s not just the plaza."
They all followed her gaze.
There were no buildings.
No inns.
No markets.
Just trees.
Tall, old trees with thick trunks and wide canopies, growing freely around the hall as if the structure had been built to avoid disturbing them rather than the other way around.
A single stone road extended outward from the plaza, winding gently into the distance before disappearing into the greenery.
Lin Mu frowned and spread his immortal sense.
The result was... underwhelming.
Within ten kilometers, there was almost nothing.
No city.
No dense population clusters.
No significant formations.
Just forest, rolling land, and faint traces of spirit beasts, not even immortal beasts.
"...Interesting," Lin Mu murmured.
Daoist Chu folded his hands behind his back. "I did not expect it to be this much of a backwater."
"At least they have a teleportation hall," Lin Mu replied mildly. "That alone disqualifies it from being truly insignificant."
Elyon, who had been silent until now, tilted his head and looked up.
"The immortal Qi," he said. "It’s weak."
Lin Mu inhaled slowly, extending his perception more carefully this time.
He felt it immediately.
The immortal Qi was thin, sluggish, as if the world itself was breathing shallowly. It circulated, yes, but without vigor.
"...Barely thirty percent of the Martial Fist King World," Lin Mu estimated. "Even compared to an average immortal world, this is low."
Daoist Chu nodded grimly. "At most, half of what one would expect."
Meng Bai took a breath as well, then tilted his head.
"The spirit Qi feels normal to me," he said after a moment. "I don’t feel any suppression."
"That’s because you’re not using immortal Qi yet," Daoist Chu explained. "For immortals, this environment will feel... uncomfortable."
Cattaleya rolled her shoulders. "Like training with weights on your body."
Lin Mu exhaled slowly. "We’ll adapt. A few days should be enough."
Still, the contrast was jarring.
They had grown accustomed to rich, vibrant environments where Qi flowed like a living thing. Here, it felt... tired.
Now the question was obvious.
"Where do we go from here?" Meng Bai asked.
Elyon answered without hesitation. "The teleportation array leading onward is located in another city."
"How far?" Lin Mu asked.
Elyon’s lips curved slightly. "Far."
Daoist Chu sighed. "And when will we know our departure time?"
"Only once we arrive," Elyon replied. "This world doesn’t operate on frequent schedules. They open arrays when there’s demand."
Cattaleya cracked her knuckles. "So we travel."
Lin Mu nodded, looking down the lonely stone road stretching into the trees.
"A quiet world," he said. "Weak immortal Qi. Sparse population. Minimal oversight."
He paused, then added softly, "Sometimes, those are the most dangerous."
With that, the group began walking forward, their figures soon swallowed by the greenery of the Fifteen Ryze World, unaware of what kind of stillness they had just stepped into.
The group walked for a few minutes along the stone road, the sound of their footsteps oddly loud in the quiet surroundings.
After about a hundred meters, Lin Mu slowed.
Then he stopped entirely.
"...Wait," he said.
The others halted and turned to look at him.
Lin Mu frowned slightly and looked around. The trees swayed gently in the breeze, leaves rustling softly. The road continued forward, curving out of sight, but there were no signs, no markers, no distant silhouettes of buildings or walls.
"We know we need to go to another city," Lin Mu said slowly. "But... which direction? We’re supposed to go to the Capital of Butterfly Kingdom, right?"
Cattaleya blinked.
Meng Bai looked left, then right, then back the way they had come. "Uh... forward?"
Daoist Chu sighed, rubbing his temples. "Forward to where, exactly?"
They all fell silent.
Elyon’s brows knit together as he looked into the distance, then up at the sky, then back at the road. He extended his senses briefly, scanning for population clusters, formations, or even faint traces of large scale habitation.
There was nothing close.
"...I don’t have a map," Elyon admitted. "And I don’t have much information on this world either."
Cattaleya turned to him sharply. "You don’t?"
Elyon shrugged slightly. "I told you before. The Fifteen Ryze World is a minor world. Low traffic. Low strategic value. Most information networks barely bother maintaining updated records on it."
Lin Mu exhaled slowly. "So we’re essentially walking blind."
Meng Bai scratched his head. "That’s... new."
They stood there for another moment, the absurdity of the situation settling in. For all their strength, experience, and preparation, they had arrived in a world with almost no information and had no idea where to go next.
Daoist Chu was the first to turn back.
"Well," he said dryly, "there’s no shame in asking."
Cattaleya smirked. "There is a little."
"But less shame than wandering for days in the wrong direction," Daoist Chu replied.
Lin Mu nodded. "Let’s go back."
They turned around and headed back toward the Teleportation Hall.
The staff members looked up again as the group returned, their expressions shifting from mild surprise to confusion.
"You... forgot something?" one of them asked cautiously.
"Yes," Lin Mu said calmly. "Directions."
The man blinked. "Ah."
They approached the desk area, which still looked more like a storage corner than an actual inquiry counter. There were no maps hung on the walls, no guide boards, no directional arrays hovering in the air like in more developed worlds.
Elyon spoke up. "Where is the nearest city?"
"That would be Blue City," the staff member replied promptly this time. "About fifty kilometers from here."
"Fifty kilometers," Meng Bai repeated. "That’s it?"
The man nodded. "Yes. This teleportation hall was built away from population centers to minimize disturbance and to take advantage of the leyline under the ground."
Cattaleya muttered, "Mission accomplished."
Lin Mu inclined his head slightly. "Thank you. And how do we reach the Capital City of the Butterfly Kingdom?"
The moment those words left his mouth, the staff member’s expression changed.
He frowned.