Chapter 474 First Find

Chapter 474 First Find

A group of a dozen people moved through a snow-filled icy valley as the morning sun illuminated it, while the sky was covered by a shattered gigantic planet.

The sun coming up from the side would actually be hidden after about an hour, not crossing the sky as it came out not from the horizon but from around the broken planet in the sky.

"Does it mean that we will technically be spending a night here?"

One of the Core Disciples of the Frozen Garden Palace asked as she looked back at the sun going down to the horizon in their view after Wu Long lightly briefed them about the Grand Void and the worlds floating around in it.

"Haha, not sure the normal concept of night and day even applies to this Secret Realm, since the side which faces the main world at any given time does not experience a full day while the other one has a much longer daylight.

And even while this Secret Realm itself covers the sun from this side, it never gets fully dark during the day of the main world since light of the sun is not so easy to shut off completely, it bends, scatters and reflects"

Wu Long chuckled as when he was talking about them spending the day here he was talking about the day on the Three Continents rather a 'day' of this Secret Realm.

"It makes a concept of a year interesting then..."

Xue Bing noted as their conversation about time never left her head, constantly playing back while she pondered on the topic.

"Hahaha, if you are going to say that, you should say that about every measure of time we have, whether that be day, week, hour or minute, or even a second, since a larger world with a similar rotation speed would have a completely different time scale.

Though now that you said it, that is actually an interesting story. There is a certain period of time cultivators from across the Seven Boundless Worlds describe as a year, from which one can deduce hours and minutes even as they live on worlds with different rotation speeds and sizes.

It is this time that people count as their age, not the one perceived on a particular world"

Wu Long chuckled as she picked up on the concept of different time on different worlds that he only briefly explained to them quite quickly for such a foreign concept.

"Is that time based on something?"

Another Core Disciple asked curiously.

"It is not known what is the exact source of that set time, but it is generally accepted as being a standard.

Many attribute it to the fact that most worlds, especially ones occupied by our civilization, generally adhere to this time scale, larger ones rotating and moving faster while smaller ones doing so slower thus having the same cycle of day and night, and all the way up to a year.

Though it is sometimes just explained away as being arbitrarily decided by first cultivators in prehistoric times..."

"You mean to say that there is another explanation?"

"Heh, it is more of a myth than explanation, but it is said to be a year of a certain world, the name of which was long lost in stories"

He slightly wryly smiled as he could also only guess and generally found this myth funny, as this was not something very well studied, and even if it was, there was not much reliable information from that long ago.

"They are lying in specific spots, as you can see the more powerful ones lie further away and closer to that hill, while the less powerful ones are close to us"

He spoke pointing to another hill in the distance.

"There is a rare medicinal plant growing deep within that hill, and its roots are all over this place, so they lay on the spots where the roots are close to the surface.

They probably don't really know what is causing those spots to be so effective for their cultivation, but instinctively feel them.

There are also signs of struggle here and there so I assume this is a contested territory with only the strongest beasts in the vicinity able to take spots"

"But... aren't you going to alert them all if you take away the plant?"

One of the Core Disciples asked. Hua Ziyan smiled to that question and he turned a lightly surprised gaze to the one asking.

"Hm? Of course we are, we're going to kill them before taking it though so there's no worry"

He spoke as if it was a part for the course, making the disciple blush since she then realized that it was indeed something she should have expected.

'Haa~ these girls would have a hard time getting their common sense back after this trip...'

Xue Bing inwardly sighed as she was seeing their sense of reality and what was normal slowly corroding from being around this man.

'...though I am not sure it would be necessary'

But then she remembered his proposal and another thought came to her.

"But... why did we bother concealing our presence then?"

Another disciple asked with a puzzled expression.

"Well, it is generally a good idea to do so here, as we don't want to waste our limited time on useless confrontations. I also wanted to check out the situation in detail before making a decision on how to proceed"

He smiled, and she nodded in understanding, though Hua Ziyan knew that he was partially being considerate to the Core Disciples who were still nervous before, but became a bit more relaxed after having these measures.

'I guess he is also teaching us how to behave in unknown places...'

Another possibility came to her mind when she looked into his eyes which turned to her since Wu Long always took her and his other women gaining experience and growth very seriously, not missing any opportunity to do so.

"So shall we go get our first find?"

Wu Long then said with a grin.