Feng Xue shook his head, casting aside the slight gloom brought on by that money-losing purchase, the Illustrated Guide to Plants, and refocused his attention on the golden finger panel.
“Speaking of which, how is this shelter defined? If I just find a random place and put up a shack, does that count?”
As the thought arose, a halo visible to the naked eye spread out from his body, rippling beyond his field of vision before vanishing without a trace. Feng Xue, who had noticed no change, searched for quite a while before finally finding the answer after opening the mini-map—
Unlike the completely revealed map of the junkyard, only a tiny area on this map was currently lit up. Judging by the scale, it was roughly a circle with a radius of about one hundred meters. Beneath the scale outside the map was also an icon labeled “Buildable Area,” though no identical marker could be seen on the map itself.
“In other words, with me as the center, the map within a hundred-meter radius will be illuminated. If there’s a place suitable for building a shelter within that range, it’ll be marked on the map?”
Having played plenty of games, Feng Xue immediately understood the mechanism. But actually putting it into practice was completely different from in a game.
In games, the only things you had to watch out for were designed monsters and traps. But in this forest known as the Outer Domain, anything could become a danger.
In old-school web novels, there were even unlucky immortal emperors who died from stepping on venomous insects. And the body of Demon Sword No. 2 was nothing more than relatively sturdy flesh and blood.
As he was thinking, the countdown for the preparation period finally ended. Amid the rustling of wind through the treetops, unknown insects began to chirp, and the air was filled with a complex smell that mixed humus with the scent of actinomycetes.
Feng Xue opened his left hand. A longsword extended from his palm and was gripped in his hand as he parted the grass and moved forward.
This forest seemed to have gone untouched by humans for a very long time. The vegetation grew extremely lushly, but once the grass was pushed aside, some obvious trampling marks could be found. They were not traces left behind by humans, but small paths known as animal trails.
“Judging by the width of the animal trail, the animals that often pass through here shouldn’t be small. And there are at least five or six distinguishable kinds of footprints, the largest bigger than a palm… Not bad. At least it isn’t a seventy- or eighty-meter Godzilla.”
Racking his brains for knowledge related to wilderness survival, Feng Xue hesitated briefly before deciding to follow the animal trail.
The formation of animal trails was related to the habits of animals. Trails like this, with multiple kinds of footprints, were mostly used by herbivores. For them, the requirements for routes of movement were relatively uniform—such as not being easy for predators to discover, and making it easy to obtain food and water. Moreover, the fact that many kinds of beasts could take the same path also showed that these beasts were relatively less aggressive and territorial.
This was clearly very suitable for Feng Xue, who had only just arrived.
Avoiding areas full of humus and fallen leaves, Feng Xue quickly reached the animal trail and immediately let out a breath of relief. Now, at least, he did not have to worry about a deadly venomous snake lying beneath some leaf.
The plants around him were strange and varied, but Feng Xue did not intend to touch them casually. Although with the system’s existence, he did not have to worry about channels for disposing of stolen goods, rashly increasing his burden when the situation was unclear was obviously an unwise choice.
While vigilantly observing his surroundings, he followed the animal trail forward, constantly maintaining that tense state of mind, as though a wild beast might leap out from some corner at any moment.
However, as time passed second by second, Feng Xue still did not encounter anything worth mentioning. He did see some mosquitoes and insects along the way, but under the influence of the sword intent of the Sword of Hell restrained upon his skin, there was no risk of being bitten.
And aside from these insects, the largest animals he had seen were only a few birds standing on tree branches.
Everything was so peaceful. Feng Xue walked like this for twenty minutes, and several kinds of unknown fruits had been added to his bag, but danger had not appeared in the slightest.
“No, is this Outer Domain really this peaceful? It feels even less dangerous than the jungle in my previous life!” Feng Xue’s nerves, which had been tense the whole way, relaxed slightly, but he still carefully maintained the Sword of Hell.
Although this usage consumed some mental effort, it was also a form of cultivation. Feng Xue could sense that as the sword intent continuously roamed over the surface of his skin, that feeling of unity between man and sword was, at an inconceivable speed, transforming from a skill released with one click into a cultivation result he could freely control.
“At this rate, my main body can also start looking for a sword… Mm, I might as well use Dam alloy to make one myself. It’s a pity the Sword of Hell is only the Sword of Hell and doesn’t include the Dharma Sutra. Otherwise, whether cultivating the Hell Path normally or cultivating the Asura Path in reverse, both would be excellent…”
Although theoretically, the Sword of Hell contained the essence of the Dharma Sutra, for a newbie like Feng Xue, whose foundation in martial arts was limited to materials he had looked up while writing novels, wanting to reverse-engineer the Dharma Sutra from the Sword of Hell was more or less a flight of fancy.
Drawing his scattered thoughts back in, Feng Xue tightened his focus once more. After walking another hundred meters or so, the faint sound of running water reached his ears.
He slightly activated the Heavenly Martial Killing Dao. Buoyed by killing intent, Feng Xue forced himself to stay alert. Near a water source, there was a high probability of medium to large creatures. He had to be careful—
Thud… thud, thud…
The Heavenly Martial Killing Dao suddenly stirred as if in a stress response. Feng Xue frowned and released his perception. Immediately afterward, he sensed that dull, rhythmic vibration coming from the earth beneath his feet. No, it was not only vibration. The moment he truly became aware of this change, the sound of water and wind that had originally been all he could hear had already mixed into a chaotic mass, interspersed with the neighing and roaring of wild beasts. Even the birds in the treetops began to flap their wings.
But no matter how noisy it became, none of it could drown out the trembling sensation coming from beneath his feet. Something was approaching!
At first, the vibration was very faint, like the beating of a drum from a distant place.
But very soon, the vibration became clear and powerful, to the point that even the pebbles beside him began to jump!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The trees began to sway. Gazing as far as he could, he could even see giant trees toppling over.
A strong sense of crisis surged into his heart. Feng Xue’s expression changed abruptly. Without further hesitation, he turned and ran, only tilting his head to send part of his consciousness back to his main body, using the golden finger interface to obtain a wider perspective.
Immediately afterward, he saw the source of the tremors—
It was an enormous creature at least twenty meters tall, like a moving hill. Its body was covered in dark, rough, thick hide, on which hideous, twisted bone spurs were densely packed. Its enormous mouth, filled with dagger-like sharp teeth, declared beyond any doubt its identity as a carnivore.
Most importantly, Feng Xue recognized this thing!
It was a mutated creature called a Toothed Rhinobeast, which he had seen when Old Man Jiang was teaching him about biological materials. Its teeth, bones, skin, fat… in short, there were very few parts of its entire body that could not be used. But correspondingly, this thing’s combat strength was also extremely exaggerated. According to Old Man Jiang, to hunt this thing, one would need at least two standard squads—a standard squad being twelve people—of four-star mechs to besiege it, and they would have to be the kind with reasonable role composition and tacit coordination. To defeat it alone, one would need a five-star mech!
In terms of pure combat power, six-star cybernetic bodies—including true six-star bodies and five-star combination sets that reached six-star output—were inferior to six-star mechs. Or rather, all cybernetic bodies were inferior to mechs of the same level.
The problem was, the cost of building one six-star mech was enough to build over a dozen, or even several dozen, sets of six-star cybernetic bodies. And one six-star mech could not beat ten cyborgs equipped with six-star cybernetic bodies.
Moreover, in terms of mobility, logistics, and other aspects, mechs were even more inferior to cyborgs.
Most importantly, the threshold for installing cybernetic bodies was low. Compared to the population base, as long as the doctor was reliable and did not pull any nonsense, basically however many cybernetic bodies there were, that was how many cyborgs could be produced. Mechs, however, required talent and training.
If one had to make an analogy, cyborgs were infantry. In extreme circumstances, you could just find someone, hand them a gun, and tell them not to shoot their own people. Even if they died, the gun could be picked up and handed to the next person.
Mech pilots, on the other hand, were fighter pilots. Not only did they require decent talent, they also needed long periods of training. And if the pilot was gone, it was basically impossible to retrieve the machine either.
So in conclusion, aside from being slightly inferior in direct combat power, six-star cybernetic bodies were superior to six-star mechs in every other aspect. Therefore, if there was a choice, everyone would still choose six-star cybernetic bodies. It was just that the technology did not support it.
P.S. Absolutely unbelievable. I ran into someone pirating the novel for commercial use. If you were making a stupid meme comic, mentioned the original work, and released it for free, I wouldn’t say anything. But instead, it’s AI-condensed reading paired with some idiotic 3D video from who knows where, and then they’re charging for it. How is that tolerable? The most incomprehensible part is that there are actually over six thousand fools paying for it… unbelievable!