Chapter 21: Still Alive

Zheng Yichen had once tried to make some minor changes to the Magic Rune Array engraved in his Mental Consciousness. However, the result was a collapse of the Magic Rune Array. Unfortunately, his Spiritual Power was not enough to stop this collapse. The consequence was that he had a headache for a good half day. The failure was partly due to insufficient understanding of Rune Pattern magic and partly due to a lack of Spiritual Power…

Loris said his Spiritual Power could meet the requirements in a short time. What he needed to do was accumulate knowledge about Rune Pattern magic. If he could achieve both conditions, he could basically reach Reaching the Tier.

Since the Magic Rune Array engraved in his Mental Consciousness couldn’t be easily modified, he could try it in the outside world, right? His Spiritual Power was slightly insufficient in quantity compared to a Mage who had reached the tier, but its recovery speed was extremely fast!

More importantly, the Transmigrator’s imagination couldn’t hold back!

Since he had come to this world, he should leave some unique things behind, right? To put his ideas into practice, what Zheng Yichen most wanted to express now was… I love learning!

“Hmm… seems like I can’t cultivate Battle Qi,” Zheng Yichen said with some helplessness, holding a dumbbell he had handmade with one claw while glancing at the armband on his arm.

Battle Qi was related to physical strength. According to Zheng Yichen’s physical strength, he had long surpassed the standard for a Human Warrior to cultivate Battle Qi. But he had persisted for a long time, and even used many methods of intense physical training during this period, yet nothing worked.

“If you can’t cultivate it, then just train your body. It will help strengthen your Mental Energy.”

“…Alright then.” Zheng Yichen nodded and said nothing more. Austere training indeed had a boosting effect on Spiritual Power, as it was a test of willpower. Checking the time, he threw the dumbbell aside and strode toward the outside of the Town.

During his training and study time, Loris had already taken him to challenge all the powerful wild creatures that appeared in the Forest. The giant python’s appearance here seemed to be just an accident, so no new creatures similar to the python had appeared afterward.

Although Loris said that Zheng Yichen and that giant python were currently evenly matched at a four-to-six chance… he wasn’t very convinced. After all, he underwent Gravity Enhancement austere training every day without interruption, and his physique was growing rapidly, though he still hadn’t grown in height.

His claw flicked a stone from the ground and sent it flying. The stone accurately hit the head of a rabbit in the distance. After experiencing the novelty of Magic, Zheng Yichen had resumed his normal hunting stance.

“Hmm… what’s this?” After picking up the wild rabbit, Zheng Yichen’s eyes caught a trace on the ground in the distant woodland. He narrowed his eyes slightly. Many new species had appeared in the Forest, but very few could fly!

Now he saw an unusual feather on the ground, far surpassing those of ordinary birds active in the Forest. Was it from a large bird that had flown here and shed its feather? Or had it passed by and been accidentally killed?

He picked up the feather and sniffed it gently. The remaining warmth on it was very fresh; it couldn’t have been dropped here for more than half a day. Not only that, Zheng Yichen also sensed a faint Mana Fluctuation on it.

Some kind of bird Magical Beast?

Pinching the feather, Zheng Yichen carried his prey back toward the Town but realized that Loris, who usually waited for his return every day, was nowhere to be seen this time. He set the prey aside, waited for a while, and, having nothing better to do, began peeking through windows house by house.

He rubbed his claws together, looking left and right as if he were a thief. Seeing that Loris still hadn’t returned, he turned his gaze toward some unexplored areas in the Town.

Just as he took small steps toward the unexplored areas, Loris’s voice suddenly came from behind him.

“We need to leave this place.”

“Huh? Go where?”

“Anywhere but here. We can’t stay here anymore.”

“What happened?” Watching the tableware turned to dust with a single touch from Loris, Zheng Yichen’s dragon mouth twitched slightly. This Disintegration spell was really used silently!

Zheng Yichen could recognize this move only because he was interested in the effect of this spell. Disintegrating objects into powder, in his eyes, was simply decomposition.

“People from The Church have come.”

“The Church…” He scratched his head. Could it be that even in this Otherworld, there was an organization like the Church?

“What are you thinking about?”

“Uh, is this Church the kind that appears grand and righteous on the surface but is secretly sinister and unscrupulous, using underhanded tricks to the extreme?”

“You’re overthinking again.”

Loris lightly jumped onto Zheng Yichen’s back and said calmly.

“Then… are there gods in this world?” Zheng Yichen asked. Since there was a Church, and considering the special powers of this world, the existence of gods didn’t seem impossible. Loris shook her head.

“So there aren’t any?”

“It’s not that there aren’t any, but they have never manifested in the mortal world.” She explained. “In the past, gods did descend, but now there are no traces of them. However, gods still have connections to the mortal world.”

Zheng Yichen clicked his tongue, feeling a surge of pressure. The Dragon Clan was one thing, but now gods had appeared as well.

“Ignore them. It’s difficult for them to interfere with the mortal world.” Loris continued calmly. “In your words, just treat them as mascots.”

Easier said than done. If I had strength like yours, maybe that would be possible. Zheng Yichen thought to himself. He followed the direction Loris pointed and left.

While passing by a highland, he saw a fully armed team approaching in the distance. “They must be here to investigate this Town.”

No matter how remote this Town was or how backward the communication in this world was, after so long, someone should have noticed something unusual about this place.

If the people here had all left due to some accident, that would be one thing. But the disappearance of everyone inside was clearly not an accident; it seemed more like they had vanished into thin air. He had always had a suspicion that this matter was probably closely related to Loris behind him.

“Those missing townspeople… are they still alive, right?” After hesitating for a moment, Zheng Yichen asked the question he had long wanted to ask.

“They are still alive.”

Whew~ Hearing this, he let out a long sigh of relief in his heart. If everyone in the Town had been made to vanish into thin air by Loris using some method, Zheng Yichen truly didn’t know how he could continue facing her afterward.

Even if she could act indifferent to life—after all, she had lived for so long—Zheng Yichen currently found it very difficult to accept such a thing. His mindset largely retained the state and values from before his transmigration. Twenty years of accumulation could not be easily overturned overnight.

Call it soft-hearted if you will, but this mindset was something he couldn’t change, at least for now.