Another World Trip: Journey with My Cat and an Otaku Loli Goddess Chapter 205 - It's Open

“Oh wow,” was the first thing he said when he got a good look at what he took from that place.

****

Not gonna lie, I appropriated a large plat from that place. There was this dark mist that hung over it, which made me feel a tad uneasy.

It was like a part of the Netherworld came to the land of the living. It felt both naturally and unnaturally sinister at the same time.

Some of the mist drifted down to the ground where a patch of grass grew.

Tsss…

Once the mist touched the grass, the originally lush and green turf dried up into a brownish-yellow necrotic shadow of its former self.

So not something I can touch it seems. Whatever this mist or the flower is for that matter, powerful death energy suffuses both of them.

Something tells me that simply getting this is gonna cause me to walk into something pretty troublesome sooner rather than later.

I tried sending the entire thing into one of my empty storage rings when a bizarre scene took place.

Pssshh.

Yeah, the storage ring shattered when a tiny part of it went inside, so that’s a thing.

How can I save this stuff?

At the risk of sounding sus, do I have to put it inside me?

After looking at the plat and my body, I came to a conclusion.

“Once again, nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Yeah, I’m gonna put it inside me.

Hong!

I activated my Lowdown Billiard Seven Keys Physique and took a deep breath.

Whoosh!

My spiritual force erupted and under its control, I willed the plot of earth and the strange herb into my physique.

For the sake of how good it would look, I decided to place it near the space where my Earth Flame resided. So it was a fair distance below the Crimson Horizon Earth Flame.

Together, this created a scene where a land of death was being shone down upon by a scarlet sun of destruction. The radiance of the Crimson Horizon Flame, along with the dark mist, cast the land in an eerie, sanguine glow.

It was like a land laid to ruin by some unholy calamity. Man, I wouldn’t want to live there.

Then again, I need to see if that’s even possible. Meh, I’ll look into that later.

I deactivated my physique, returning to normal.

Not wanting to worry everyone else, I readied myself to return by collecting all my belongings. Speaking of belongings…

I looked down and saw Mina sleeping peacefully. A small patch of colour returned to her cheeks… oh joy.

To showcase this, I took her up in my arms before haphazardly slinging her over my shoulder like a misused burlap sack.

I then made my way back to the group before the strange gazes of everyone else landed on me.

Well, if they’re gonna look at me like that I will then proceed to not explain why Mina was being treated like a hobo’s belongings.

“Oh, hey Jia Yan, Zi Yu. Welcome back.”

Those two came back at some point… neat.

Jia Yan nodded while Zi Yu, noticing my attire in the form of a person existing on my shoulder, grew curious.

“Why do you have a person on your shoulder?”

I stared at her for a hot minute before I was suddenly afflicted by my disease called ‘saying the first thing that came to my mind’ thus resulting in me replying with.

“Yes.”

‘Damn!’ Zi Yu nearly choked on her own anger. ‘The hell did he mean yes!?’

“How is that a response to my question? Do you take me for a fool!? It’s obvious you took time to formulate a response and then grew lazy at the end of it! Am I not worthy of a well-thought-out lie!?”

“No.”

“What does that even mean!?”

“I dunno.”

“You!”

Seeing that this conversation was going nowhere fast, I left Zi Yu to stew in her own thoughts. I looked Jia Yan up and down before nodding.

“You became stronger.”

Jia Yan flashed a rare smile when I said this. Small it may be, but it was there, and that was good enough.

D-Dum!

Two cauldrons floated behind him. One was orange, and the other one was a bright red colour.

Nice.

Jia Yan’s cultivation speed was indeed incredible. His cultivation base was not only stabilised, but he even took it one step further and slightly improved‌ its grade in the short time he and I had been apart.

They grow up so fast.

However, this was to be expected. After all, Jia Yan was a genius with a natural Zhong-level Earth-grade physique.

Plus, he was using the casting cauldron pills, whose medicinal energy was still in his body. Combined with the fact that he was cultivating in one of, if not the best, caverns atop Cavern Flame Mountain whilst practising a flame-based cultivation technique, it would be strange if his cultivation method was slow even with such a low-level cultivation method.

“I wish I could stay here for longer, but the flames in the caverns have all gone out. But I guess that means you must have located and got the Earth Flame then, right?” his smile turned rueful, communicating his dejection.

I didn’t hide it from him and demonstrated it the same way I did for Shen Ling, shocking all the others.

“This physique of yours is incredible,” Yaomu Shou admitted.

Everyone nodded to show their agreement with her words.

“Well, until I take advantage of it fully, it’ll only be a glorified storage ring,” I told her. “But thank you all the same.”

“Now on to more important business,” I turned my attention towards Yaomu Shou.

“What?” Yaomu Shou immediately became wary of me as she did this. I mean, is this warranted? I mean, really.

Whatever, I asked her what was on my mind. “What’s going on with the mist in the sky?”

“Oh, that?” Yaomu Shou closed her eyes, trying to recall what she learned from her studies.

“Ah, right!” her eyes flashed with enlightenment. “It’s called a unique realm called the Spiritual Bingqi Realm.”

“Spiritual Bin… it’s a realm for weapons?” They have that here!? Nice!

“Well yes and no,” Yaomu Shou half agreed, so not nice.

“A unique realm is a separate space, a dimension, or even a world in some cases that are detached from our own. They boast numerous benefits, and the Spiritual Bingqi realm is no exception. Weirdly enough, the last time any of them was last opened is beyond remembrance for most.”

“Oh, what’s inside?” though I was the only one asking, everyone was interested.

“Well, I’ve never seen it myself, but I heard it’s a massive plain with powerful weapons strewn about,” Yaomu Shou explained.

Shu!

Suddenly, the void opened up and Wan Li walked up to Yaomu Shou. “Young miss, would you like us to transport you to the Spiritual Bingqi Realm once it opens?”

“I thought you weren’t allowed to help her.” These guys are really inconsistent with their rules.

“You watched us, which means you saw when she had to go into a dark place while I was subduing the Earth flame. Serial rapist Pandas also descended upon us with all the fervour of an Introvert seeing their room. Then there was that thing with Lord Whiskers. Oh, we can’t forget those two idiots from Nether Immolation War Temple. Not to mention that earth demon? Did you see that guy, that was pretty freaky… I mean, there was a lot of stuff.”

“The truth is…” Yaomu Shou clumsily played with her fingers as she spoke. “I kind of, in a way, maybe, probably ran away from home.”

Okay, lemme see if I got this right. “Are you perchance bored by the life you’ve lived and yearn for freedom, thus resulting in you running away to experience that which you never had the chance to but you were always found because of your importance and they eventually allowed you to run away but under the condition that you would receive no assistance from your family unless your life was in danger at which point you would receive said assistance but it would also end with you bring forcibly brought back home?”

Yaomu Shou and Wan Li stared wide-eyed at me.

Wan Li couldn’t help asking, “Y-You’re right! From start to end! How did you know—”

“It’s a tale as old as time,” I told him.

Ban Yan nearly tripped over himself before he asked. “What tale—”

“Second Uncle Wan Li,” Yaomu Shou’s hand landed on him and when he looked back at her, she shook her head.

“It doesn’t matter. Just accept it and move on. Trust me.”

Yaomu Shou recovered much faster than I expected. I’m so proud of her. She was even able to placate her protectors/uncles.

She then spoke. “In response to your first question, I accept. You can take us there upon its opening.”

“Understood,” Wan Li gave a small smile and executed a slight bow before retreating ‌into the void.

Yaomu Shou watched until he fully disappeared and sighed, “Looks like we have a ride.”

“Do they just hang out in the void all day? What do they even do in there?” Not gonna lie, I was always fascinated by the ‘void,’ even in the novels I read.

It bugged me that MCs never utilised the void as much as the antagonists did. I’m gonna spam the void button like the spammers did in Street Fighter.

“Uhm, we should probably leave,” Yaomu Shou advised, not answering my question.

“The Iron Body Forge Sect?” I asked her.

“The Iron Body Forge Sect,” Yaomu Shou answered with a nod.

“Gotcha. Lord Whiskers, let’s get out of here.”

Lord Whiskers had long returned to having its ear scratched by Shen Ling while asleep. It was certainly living its best life.

This was evident by the fact that it opened its eyes to look at us before closing them once more.

“Shen Ling, can you not scratch his ears anymore?”

Upon feeling its source vanish, Lord Whiskers glared at me with its killing intent on the verge of bursting out.

“Don’t give me that look. We need to have an understanding here. We’ll make you feel like you’re the only cat in the world, but at the same time, there has to be a bit of a give and take in this relationship.”

“Tch!”

Lord Whiskers snorted before getting up. Its massive frame walked over to me and stared me down, while I did the same.

After a while, Lord Whiskers gave a very human smile and walked right past me.

“Cats…” You can never truly know what’s on their mind.

I then signalled everyone else to embark so we could get a move on.

After everyone got on Lord Whiskers, we all took off at an incredible speed, leaving Cavern Flame Mountain.

One month later…

Boom!

The collapsing and turbulent spiritual energy coalescing above suddenly exploded!

Yaomu Shou shot to her feet, “It’s open!”

Jia Yan and I, who had been cultivating this entire month with the help of the Crimson Horizon Earth Flame, opened our eyes to see a stunning sight.