Chapter 623: Spatial Rifts

The old man glanced around carefully. Only when he confirmed that there were no more bats did he finally let out a shaky breath.

"Lad, I didn't expect you would be so strong. I don't know how to thank you."

Very quickly, the other villagers headed over. When the young boy saw his parents, he ran over to them with tears in his eyes, who teared up themselves.

Zhang Lie asked, "Sir, do you know where there are humans around?"

Zhang Lie had to find a human settlement quickly. Only then would he have access to a teleportation array to return to the real world; otherwise, he would be trapped within the dimensional one.

The old man shook his head. "I've lived here for decades without hearing of the name. Lad, are you searching for your clan?"

"Yes, I am."

The old man harrumphed. "We live on a small world, one no larger than ten thousand miles in diameter. I've not met any other sentient race around. I recommend searching on a larger world instead."

"Do you know where the wormhole to access other worlds is located?"

"Twenty years ago, our world still had such a wormhole. It was located in that cave over there, and we would use it to trade with the residents of another world. However, at that time, a swarm of demonic bats began to occupy that cave.

"We organized a battalion of fighters to defeat the bat incursion, but the bat king leading the flock was far too strong for us. Its cries were enough to cause our fighters to implode—our village alone had over a hundred skilled fighters, but they all died to the bat king."

The old man sighed.

The arrival of the demonic bats had marked the downfall of the world. The alien race tried to force the bat king back, but to no avail. Thousands of alien fighters had perished, and even the regular demonic bat swarms proved too much for the remaining people.

Not long ago, the last alien city met its end. There were only a few small tribes remaining scattered throughout the world.

A middle-aged man walked forward and introduced himself respectfully. "To be honest, our numbers are rapidly dwindling. Each and every child is precious to our village, and we are truly grateful for what you've done."

The old man advised, "Lad, why don't you stay? You saved our entire village and our child. All of us will treat you like one of ours."

Zhang Lie glanced toward the direction of the cave the old man had pointed towards. "I still intend to have a look at the cave."

The old man continued, "Lad, the bat king is truly a dangerous foe. If you head there yourself, you'll almost certainly die."

Despite his words, Zhang Lie remained resolute. The old man sighed and realized that Zhang Lie would likely not be persuaded against the idea; instead, he dug around and found a burlap sack of green fruit. "Our village isn't particularly rich, and this is all we can offer you. Please accept this, if nothing else. These fruits aren't particularly special, but they'll at least satiate your hunger. If you eat one, you won't have to eat anything else for a few days."

Zhang Lie was about to refuse the man, but he insisted on giving the savior of a village child a reward, even if it was paltry. Eventually, Zhang Lie accepted.

He didn't ask the old man where the cave was located. With his mistmeld clam soulshard, he had controlled a swarm of bats that were now flying back to their cave, and they would lead Zhang Lie there.

As the bats returned to the cave, they began attacking their own kin. Zhang Lie continued strolling forward through the cave, wreathed in rainbow-colored fog.

The fog spread through the cave. All the bats caught within the mist became controlled by Zhang Lie's soulshard, and they began to attack their own kind.

The carnage spread deeper into the cave as Zhang Lie ventured further. With a shrill screech, countless bats exploded in mid-air, raining a waterfall of blood down on Zhang Lie.

Zhang Lie waved it away with a casual sweep of his arm, shielding himself with genetic energy. A black shadow appeared before him—a gigantic bat whose wingspan filled up the width of the cave.

Its eyes were dark red and beady, and they gave off a cold aura. This bat was at the level of a superior-grade lifeform. If Zhang Lie weren't mistaken, this was the superior-grade bat king the villagers had mentioned.

A superior-grade lifeform in the third realm was equivalent to a post-peak-grade one in the second. Because of the difference in the integrity of the realm, trying to fight it might be equivalent to fighting a disaster-grade lifeform in the second.

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

But so what? Zhang Lie's strength was more than sufficient for the task. He glanced coldly at the superior-grade bat king, forcing it into submission with a gleam of his eyes.

The bat king's cold, beady eyes let out a rainbow gleam. With a screech, the bats that were rampaging against each other calmed down. The bat king lowered its body, retracted its wings, and knelt before Zhang Lie. The other bats followed suit.

Zhang Lie ignored the bat king and walked deeper into the cave, his feet stepping on a soft, mushy substance that felt like mud—guano. He could see bits of white solid scattered amidst the guano, likely all that was left of the alien fighters' bodies.

The other bats followed behind him. Zhang Lie didn't have any intention of eating the bats, although he had heard that deep-fried bat was a delicacy. However, he couldn't neglect the possibility that these bats harbored some kind of dangerous virus, threatening enough that his immune system wouldn't be able to handle it.

Despite the possibility of obtaining "free" gene fragments, Zhang Lie didn't intend to take the risk.

He felt a current of air deep within the cave. "I suppose it's right here..."

The entrance to the wormhole was covered up with a deep pile of guano. Zhang Lie snapped his fingers and motioned for the bats to clean it up, revealing a tunnel shining with light and exuding spatial ripples around its entrance.

This was a wormhole that connected the countless worlds of the third realm.

Zhang Lie stepped inside, followed by the bats.

Generally, such wormholes were stable when they linked from smaller worlds to each other, but not necessarily for larger ones. Spatial rifts and distortions were a common danger, and even small rifts could instantly kill a superior-grade third-realm lifeform.

A peak-grade lifeform might be able to traverse such a rift, but at extreme cost. Meanwhile, even a disaster-grade lifeform had to avoid the larger rifts. Dealing with the rifts themselves was hard enough, but travelers also had to contend with the vortices that surrounded these rifts, slowing them down and misdirecting them. Fortunately, most of the larger rifts occurred in wormholes between the larger worlds.

At some point, a genius inventor had come up with a tool to navigate these wormholes more safely—a wormhole shuttle.