Chapter 126: Sightseeing on the Red Planet
A spatial ability user was supposed to live freely, roaming the world as they pleased. Ever since Yu Xian had experienced what true freedom felt like, he had become even more spontaneous. Wherever he wanted to go, he went.
And so, after school, he went to the Red Planet. Inside the planet, a dust storm wreaked havoc across the land, and howling winds packed with sand and tiny rocks whipped through the air with the lethal velocity of bullets.
Perched on a massive boulder, Yu Xian lost himself in thought. All around him, a fierce storm of sand and stone raged, only to be completely deflected by his Dragon Shield, ricocheting away with crisp, clanging sounds.
Yu Xian looked at the mine in the distance, a clearly man-made one, and let out a long, heavy sigh. He had been too naive. At least within the Sol System, supernatural beings had already dug out any gold and silver deposits that were easy to find.
While Spatial-type ability users were rare, if one counted every spatial ability user from ancient times to the present day, the number was not that small. A conservative estimate would put it at three or four thousand.
Perhaps as early as several hundred years ago, supernatural beings had already begun traveling to nearby planets to mine gold and silver. Generation after generation had gone by, and by the time it was Yu Xian's turn, all that remained on these planets were pitted, scarred mining sites.
Of course, there could still be overlooked deposits hidden somewhere, but finding them would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. To locate gold deposits hidden deeper underground would inevitably take an enormous amount of time.
If Yu Xian were truly short on money, he probably would have forced himself to do it. But he wasn't. This whole thing had been nothing more than a terrible idea he came up with on a whim, a burst of short-lived enthusiasm. Once the impulse passed, he lost interest. There was no way he would waste his time on such a dull, tedious search.
Just then, the wind blew over what was clearly a human bone. It struck his dragon scales and instantly crumbled into powder.
Back when supernatural beings were still cooped up back on the Blue Planet, they could never have guessed that a deadly turf war had once played out on the far-off Red Planet or that the bodies of the dead would remain there forever.
There were actually quite a few remains like this. Wind and sand had long worn away their flesh, but some body-refining supernatural beings had bones harder than diamond. Those bones had survived, gradually scattering across the planet with each passing storm.
Yu Xian grabbed a handful of the Red Planet's soil and stood up. "Forget it. Time to go home!"
Suddenly, a strange sound came from a nearby mine pit. It was long and melodious, a little like a musical instrument, yet also like the cry of a creature with an extremely long throat.
The spatial bubble at Yu Xian's fingertip stopped expanding. He gazed toward the dark, seemingly bottomless mine in the distance, its depths hidden from view. A strong sense of curiosity stirred within him. Could there be living creatures inside?
He had already seen devils from the Abyss and zombies from a strange, dead world, but he had never truly seen an alien lifeform before. Strictly, devils and zombies were both alien life-forms, but they came from entirely different worlds. Whatever was hiding inside the mine, however, could be a genuine extraterrestrial species from the universe he was in!
As the saying went, great skill bred great courage. How bold a person was depended entirely on how strong they were.
Yu Xian was no longer the timid coward who had once feared death. With the Dragon Shield and the Cloak of Deception protecting him, his courage had grown fat. Otherwise, he never would have come to the Red Planet alone to play the role of a gold prospector.
Red light enveloped him, and he instantly appeared at the edge of the mine. The mine was rather unusual. It looked as if an enormous drill had bored straight down from the surface, leaving a shaft that plunged endlessly into the depths.
Yu Xian tilted his head and listened. Strange sounds came intermittently from the shaft, but after a while, they vanished, leaving only the howling of the wind.
Super Smell was useless on the Red Planet, so he manifested an eyeball bubble at the tip of his finger. Under his control, it flew swiftly into the shaft. Thousand Eyes and Ten Thousand Sights came with night vision and could see through the vast majority of illusions.
Images from inside the mine pit quickly appeared in Yu Xian's mind. The shaft indeed descended straight down. However, at a depth of roughly two thousand meters, many tunnels about two meters in diameter appeared along the surrounding walls.
He guided the eyeball bubble into one of the tunnels. Suddenly, an unknown creature attacked the bubble. In his mind, he only saw a dark shadow flash past, and the image went black.
"Something is really down there. But it doesn't seem to be a normal living creature."
Yu Xian recalled the final image he had seen and felt certain of his conclusion. The dark shadow had been very thin, and its movement during the attack had followed a zigzag pattern. There was a certain elegance to it, the kind unique to artificial lifeforms.
He suspected it was most likely a magical construct left behind by a supernatural being who had once come to the Red Planet or perhaps an alchemical creation. Because its master was already dead, it had been left behind in this world.
Although he was a little disappointed that the creature was not a true native alien lifeform, Yu Xian decided to investigate and see the creature for himself. If it turned out to be something interesting or powerful, using his Ultimate Source Blood to subdue it would not be a bad choice.
Both of his Perfect Lifeforms were dead. The dragon-like Perfect Lifeform had fallen to the giant serpent. In his desperate haste to take Zhang Shou and escape, Yu Xian had barked a frantic retreat order to Little Grifflet, which trailed in their wake. But once the dust settled, it had never returned.
Later, Yu Xian had tried to contact Little Grifflet through his Seven-Aperture Exquisite Heart, but he could not reach it. From that, he could basically conclude that it was most likely dead.
"One, two, three... here we go!"
Yu Xian jumped straight into the mine, rapidly falling through the shaft. One eyeball bubble after another quickly circled him, providing him with an all-around view. A thought suddenly popped into his mind. It will be amazing if I can awaken the giant serpent's South-Seeking Poison Flame someday.
If he awakened South-Seeking Poison Flame, his eyeball bubbles would be able to shoot out the same green beams that the giant serpent had fired. Its destructive power was utterly staggering. The dragon-like Perfect Lifeform's defenses had definitely not been weak, yet the South-Seeking Poison Flame had split it into two.
Unfortunately, the giant serpent's ability tree required not only energy but also emotions. Awakening its abilities was very difficult. On top of that, that ability tree was also filled with question marks. The abilities awakened were completely random, not something he could choose for himself. Therefore, obtaining South-Seeking Poison Flame would be even harder than awakening Pangu Divine Strength.
For now, his main focus was still to light up the Perfect Lifeform's series of basic abilities first. Only after he had gathered all of those basic abilities would he start considering which abilities to unlock next.
When he had fallen to a depth of around five hundred meters, Yu Xian once again heard strange noises coming from below. "There's something down there!"
He immediately wrapped himself in a spatial bubble. The next moment, he abruptly accelerated, descending even faster into the shaft.
A moment later, he saw a swarm of beetles shaped like black melon seeds attacking an eyeless snake covered in a hard shell. The snake opened its mouth and kept attacking the beetles, but its body was already crawling with them. Its furious roars were completely useless. In the end, the beetles tore open the hard shell on its back and hollowed it out in the blink of an eye.
Yu Xian watched the beetles crawl into one of the small holes and vanish instantly, feeling rather amazed. "Native Red Planet lifeforms?"
He stopped in front of the hard shell left behind after the beetles had eaten the snake. Using a hand-shaped bubble, he picked it up and examined it. Then he took out his phone, snapped a photo, and sent it to Bat.
Salted Fish: I found life on the Red Planet. Shocked?
Bat: There's an old write-up about this in Qilin's in-house journal from roughly ninety years ago. It’s a mutated strain of the Scrap Eating Serpent. It should be a species descended from ones brought to the Red Planet by our ancestors six centuries ago.
After reading the reply, Yu Xian closed the chat. Instead, he opened his conversation with Zhang Shou and sent him the same photo.
Salted Fish: I found life on the Red Planet. Shocked?
Death Medic: Holy crap! You actually ran off to the Red Planet? Take me with you!
Yu Xian finally let out a faint smile. Sure enough, his best friend provided far more emotional value. As for Bat, it was better not to contact that guy unless he had to.