Chapter 558: Crossing the Mist
After solving the problem of the sandscorpions, the trio did not encounter any other creatures along their journey in the Desert. Xuan Ning no longer felt lively . Sha Ya looked pale, perhaps from all the vomiting. Ye Chong could tell that Sha Ya was afraid of him. It was not the first time people looked at him this way. Every time he used alchemy, people would be afraid of him. He was used to it already.
Ye Chong never minded the silence around him. Sha Ya and Xuan Ning thought the Desert was an uninteresting wasteland, but Ye Chong could study his surroundings with great detail and undivided attention.
They must be arriving in the last drought region of their journey. Some of the rocks on the ground would sparkle with a metallic luster. There were more metal ores here. Ye Chong could see that most of them were low quality metal ores. Unless he had access to good extraction technologies, the ores would be useless to him.
There was a trend here that he had observed - the further in they went, the more metals there were around them.
"Beyond this ridge is the Mist," said Xuan Ning. Three days had gone past, and the shooter had now recovered himself from the shock.
This was a huge white-colored rocky structure. It was not tall, and had white jagged edges all over its bald surface. It looked more like a small hill of about 300 meters tall than an actual mountain ridge. The structure extended for a very long distance like a natural barrier. Huge rocks were randomly stacked next to each other, forming this ridge structure. Many parts of the ridge were unsuitable for climbing.
Of course, to Xuan Ning and Sha Ya, the mountain barely reached 300 meters; to Ye Chong, it was only a small hill.
Under Ye Chong's command, the Spider made its way quickly towards the hill.
The Spider's eight legs allowed it to move across the uneven terrain easily. Obstacles that were impossible for humans to cross were easily leaped over by the Spider.
Xuan Ning could not help but felt emotional. "Machines are so powerful. This Spider must be more valuable than 10 Level 8 shooters. I wonder, were the decades that I spent in honing my parapsychic abilities all in vain? If I used all that time to study engineering, what would the outcome be instead?"
Sha Ya looked at Xuan Ning, shaken by his words. She found it hard to believe that a Level 9 shooter would say those words. Shooters were mentally tough and determined people. This was why they were stronger than common people. However, the first Level 9 shooter in the past five decades, Xuan Ning, had just made this surprising comment. Sha Ya found herself very much surprised.
Ye Chong shook his head. "Everything has limitations. This applies to machines as well as parapsychic abilities. Your people understand too little about parapsychic abilities, and have not think of other ways to make use of them. That is why you feel like this now."
"What other ways?" Xuan Ning was inspired by Ye Chong's words. Sha Ya, on the other hand, could not keep up with the conversation.
Ye Chong did not elaborate further. He had to concentrate on driving the Spider.
The truth was, he had long realized what he shared just now. In terms of mental abilities, he had never seen anyone as powerful as the shooters of this world. Even the famed mentalists from Xi Feng Tribe fell short. Nevertheless, the shooters used their parapsychic abilities in very limited form. Xi Feng Tribe fared better in terms of application variety.
Xi Feng Tribe's mentalists did not parapsychic abilities as strong as shooters at Level 5 or 6, but they had already mastered skills such as movement restriction. Experts like Huang Baiyi could even fight with him on even ground in close quarters. Unlike mentalists, shooters lost their combat abilities the moment they lost their guns.
Besides, Xi Feng Tribe's people had excellent battle coordination strategies, second only to the Sang Tribe, as the result of their mentalist skills. A normal mentalist mech pilot from Xi Feng Tribe was only on par with a fresh Level 3 shooter in terms of parapsychic strength, but the former could use their abilities in more creative ways.
When the Spider crossed the white rocky ridge, the environment around them transformed markedly.
A thin purple mist shrouded the place, blocked by the white rocky ridge on one side. The thin mist added a hint of mystery to everything in sight.
The place had higher humidity compared to the Desert.
"This is the Mist." Sha Ya said to Ye Chong when she noticed Xuan Ning was still deep in thought. Ye Chong was the leader of their expedition to Darkniss. He had also surprised Sha Ya with his demonstration in the Desert. Sha Ya had gradually come to think of Ye Chong as the decision maker for their group of three.
"The mist here is thin, but it will get thicker as we go on."
Ye Chong soon found that the light purple colored mist was highly disruptive to the holographic scanning system. The image on the screen was no longer clear. If the mist was to grow thicker as they progressed, then the Spider's holographic scanning system could no longer be relied upon.
"There's interference here. Both of you are in charge of security and direction. I'll clear the path." Ye Chong ordered the two shooters like it was the natural thing to do.
"Alright," Sha Ya replied.
After staying quiet for so long, Xuan Ning felt excited again. "Hah, this is what I've been waiting for. There wasn't a chance to shoot since we first started, my hands are getting itchy." He eagerly reached for the firearms control lever in front of his seat.
Now that the two shooters were ready for battle, Ye Chong opened the hatch for the two laser guns they were controlling. These laser guns were more like laser cannons. Laser guns graded at 4 million Lux were considered quite powerful, but the Spider's laser gun could reach 12 million Lux. They were powerful monsters. Even an aircraft's laser cannon never exceeded 8 million Lux. The Spider's weapons, the mother of all laser guns, could also swivel around easily.
Ye Chong now had a Level 8 shooter and a Level 9 shooter behind his two very powerful weapons. Surely they must be enough for his own security.
Here in the Mist, the ground began to feel uneven. There were trees growing around them sparsely. As Sha Ya warned earlier, the mist was getting thicker, and the holographic scanning system was rendered useless. Ye Chong turned it off and switched to optical mode.
Ye Chong remembered the purple mist back in Yi Ju. The purple mist there was also disruptive to their holographic scanning system. It was impossible for holographic scanning to penetrate the purple gas cloud.
Ye Chong realized that the purple mist here and the one he saw in Yi Ju was eerily similar, and felt alarmed by the consequences.
"Left … Left … Right … Right …" Xuan Ning directed excitedly. He had to play the role of their holographic scanning system.
Under Xuan Ning's direction, the Spider moved at a moderate pace. Since, Ye Chong could not see the ground clearly, the Spider could not move with the stability they enjoyed back at the Desert.
There were more trees now. The Spider had to avoid them frequently.
"Stop!" Xuan Ning said.
"What is it?" Ye Chong asked.
Sha Ya said to Ye Chong, "Ahead of us is a thick forest. I don't think the Spider can enter." She remembered the forest clearly. No one who had been here before would be likely to forget the dense foliage.
Xuan Ning explained earnestly, "It's difficult to travel in there. The forest is dense, with creepers all over the place. There are swamps too. If you get stuck in one, you're dead already. Many shooters lost their lives here." He added, "Spidey here can't go inside, I'm afraid. What a pity." He caressed the firearms control lever regretfully, having not fired a single shot from it yet.
"How long does it take to cross the forest?" Ye Chong asked after some thought.
Xuan Ning reached for his memories. "We spent seven days last time."
Ye Chong turned to Sha Ya. The shooter smiled bitterly. "I wasn't so lucky. I spent 14 days in the forest, nearly went crazy from it."
The two shooters looked at Ye Chong. The forest was too dense for the huge Spider to move through. Nevertheless, they were reluctant to let go of the Spider.
Ye Chong considered the duration of seven to 14 days, and did some mental calculations. After a while, he nodded. "I have a plan."
"What?" Xuan Ning and Sha Ya looked at Ye Chong.
Ye Chong said nothing as he lowered his head and began to type on the control console.
A piece of armour on the Spider's left side slid open, revealing a weapon underneath. Xuan Ning and Sha Ya were using their parapsychic waves to monitor their surroundings. The movement did not escape their notice.
Suddenly, the Spider reached the first leg on its left towards the back to retrieve the strange weapon. Tap! The weapon was activated. They heard a whirring sound that came from fast rotation - it was a laser saw!
"It's huge!" Xuan Ning exclaimed. The laser saw was about nine meters long and three meters wide. It was a really huge weapon. However, the handle was small enough to store inside the Spider's body.
Xuan Ning and Sha Ya understood what Ye Chong's plan was. They exchanged a look and cried out in unison, "It's a good plan!" This way, they would not have to leave the Spider. The past few days were enough to make the two shooters love the Spider to bits.
With the huge laser saw clearing the path, the Spider could now advance faster. Any physical obstacles in the way were cleared or cut to pieces as the Spider waved its front left leg. Xuan Ning could only stare in amazement. "This thing's amazing! I say, what else do you have hidden in the Spider? This laser saw is d*mn powerful, haha, you have to fit my Spider with one too."
Ye Chong had originally wanted to bring a ship cannon, but the Spider could not bear the weight. The cannon would have cleared a path in the forest with just a few shots. However, since the ship cannon was too bulky, heavy and energy consuming, he had ditched the idea.
The laser saw was more than enough to clear a path in the forest.
The forest was humid, and the plants grew wildly. Unfortunately, Ye Chong could see none of it from inside. This forest would surely be home to very valuable plants. Ye Chong had to be careful when maneuvering the Spider on soft layers of decomposing leaves on the ground. Besides, they were unlucky enough to have encountered a few swamps along the way. Fortunately, Ye Chong was able to react just in time in every encounter. The Spider's many legs helped. As long at least one leg was not caught in the swamp, they would be able to break free with no issue.
Xuan Ning was very excited. The Spider's weapons were crazy powerful.
There were no large animals in the forest, only small ones, but Xuan Ning was still eager to test out his gun. It was like firing a cannon at a mosquito - now that was exhilarating!
Where before they had to worry about being attacked by harmful plants, now it was a negligible issue. The Spider was solid enough to resist attacks from these plants. Ye Chong had also closed all the airways that led outside. They were now running on an isolated air circulation system. Tranquilizing gas that came from the plants could no longer affect them.
There was also the problem of the swamps. If they were travelling on foot, they would have died many times over. The Spider had kept them intact throughout the journey.
The laser gun was such an overbearing weapon. Xuan Ning wanted to try it out himself.
Ye Chong could not see anything around him. He only hoped to cross the Mist as soon as possible. Without help from Xuan Ning and Sha Ya, the forest was too dangerous for him.
The Spider waved its huge laser saw left and right. The thick laser beam allowed the Spider to advance unhindered.
It took only three days for them to cross the Mist. By then, the mist was becoming thinner. When the image on the screen cleared up, Ye Chong heaved a sigh of relief.
All around him was a long stretch of crimson colored wasteland. The crimson earth supported no plant life. The flat earth extended towards the horizon with no end in sight. Compared to the dense forest that was teeming with life, this desolate place was a sharp and unsettling contrast.
"The Red Wasteland is not a very big place. Judging by the speed of the Spider, we should be able to reach the entrance to Darkniss in a day and a half."
Sha Ya studied their surroundings and said to Ye Chong, "That way." She pointed at an angle towards the left.
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