<h4>Chapter 563: Return</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    "How do I get to the Sea of Threads?" Ye Chong asked. He would be able to understand better by going there himself. However, Ye Chong believed that Mei Wu was being truthful. That she could not use parapsychic waves in the Sea of Threads was a fact that matched what he knew about the colloid germ. Perhaps the three slitherlizards had left because they could not sense Mei Wu''s presence.


    Mei Wu looked at Ye Chong in surprise. "You want to go there?" She was baffled. "Why are you so interested in the Sea of Threads?" Sha Ya and Xuan Ning both looked at Ye Chong with surprise as well. They were curious why he would brave the dangers to see that ce.


    Ye Chong did not answer, but continued to look at Mei Wu.


    Mei Wu saw the determination in his eyes, but still she shook her head "We''re too weak to do that now. Do you know how strong the wild animals are along the way? I was luckyst time, avoiding all their territories. The return trip was horrible. Besides, I don''t remember the way."


    "There are four of us, and there''s the Spider. Aren''t we enough?" Xuan Ning asked, sceptical. They were two Level 9 shooters, one Level 8 shooter and a Master weaponsmith. It was a powerful and exclusivebination.


    Mei Wu tossed a look of ridicule at Xuan Ning. "Just because you''re a Level 9 shooter, do you think you can go anywhere? Humph, without this huge spider, you wouldn''t have made it here. A Level 9 shooter like you who are so up about himself despite not honing his skills is no better than a Level 8 shooter."


    Xuan Ning''s cheeks flushed. He knew that Mei Wu was right. They were both Level 9 shooters, but Mei Wu was far more powerful than him.


    Mei Wu looked at Ye Chong and said firmly, "Even if we are two times stronger than we are now, it''s still impossible. I know the strength of those creatures."


    It seemed that the matter will have to wait. Barging further into Darkniss on impulse was too dangerous. Ye Chong can be patient when it mattered. He remembered about the three snowshade leopards, about how strong those animals were. He asked, "We saw three snowshade leopards a few days ago. Are there any of them nearby?"


    "Snowshade leopards?" Mei Wu looked surprised. "You saw snowshade leopards?"


    Xuan Ning described their encounter with the animals to her. Mei Wu considered the incident and muttered to herself, "You killed three snowshade leopards, in part due to having the huge spider, and also due to Ye Chong''s unpredictable poison attack. There was also a geographical advantage, with the Raging River in the way. Without these conditions …" Mei Wu did not finish her sentence. She just looked at the three of them quietly.


    A win was a win. That was how Ye Chong saw it, unlike what Mei Wu and the two shooters thought. The shooters felt that the Spider was only an essory, not a person''s own battle ability. That was why Mei Wu chose to train herself in this dangerous ce, all alone. Ye Chong admired her resolution. After all, this kind of training required tremendous courage. However, Ye Chong believed that anything that could help him win was also part of himself. This was a difference in perception.


    Xuan Ning and Sha Ya lowered their heads and heeded the stronger shooter, Mei Wu''s words. Ye Chong was unmoved by her conclusion. He asked calmly, "Where do the snowshade leopards live?" If the animals lived nearby, he could never have a base here. The creatures were too strong. His base would be torn down as soon as he built a new one.


    "I don''t know," Mei Wu answered, shaking her head. "I never saw any snowshade leopards nearby. They must live further inside Darkniss. Where did you see them?"


    "Near the entrance of Darkniss."


    "That''s not possible!" Mei Wu looked unsettled. "Snowshade leopards live only in the inner parts of the Darkniss, perhaps even further in than the Sea of Threads. I''ve never encountered creatures as strong as the snowshade leopard."


    Ye Chong asked, "I heard that the animals in Darkniss stay within their territories, and will not move about freely. Having stayed here for so long, do you think that''s the case?"


    Mei Wu nodded solemnly. "People do say that. The wild animals in Darkniss often have a clear territory of their own, and will seldom go beyond their boundaries. There are exceptions, though, like when the three slitherlizards were chasing me. It rarely happens, and that was my only experience with it. If you really met snowshade leopards, they must have been chased by other creatures, or chasing something."


    Ye Chong and his twopanions considered her words.


    Mei Wu paused, and then added, "There is another possibility …"


    The three of them looked at up her. Mei Wu hesitated before saying, "It''s possible that something strange is happening in Darkniss."


    Mei Wu saw the puzzled look in her listeners, and exined, "Darkniss has always been a stable ce. However, it is also constantly changing. I have lived here for years, and felt it, but I can''t exactly describe the nature of this change."


    Ye Chong and hispanions thought about what Mei Wu said. Personally, Ye Chong was more inclined to believe in the third scenario. If it was only the snowshade leopards that were the anomaly, then the first two scenarios were more usible. However, since the country of Western Frost had found a red-tailed beast in Darkniss … Ye Chong considered both events together, and felt that the third scenario was more likely.


    It seemed that they would not be solving this mystery anytime soon. Mei Wu brought Ye Chong to the other threeke beds. There were so many rare mineral ores there Ye Chong wanted to just harvest them all and bring them home. However, that was an impractical wish. The Spider had limited storage, and it was unwise to use Celest''s dimension keystone in front of these three shooters. Besides, these rare minerals were not particrly useful without normal alloys.


    Ye Chong decided to build a base in Darkniss no matter what. However, he would have to think about exactly how he was going to achieve that.


    Ye Chong made detailed markings on his map for these three locations.


    When the Spider brought all four of them to Mei Wu''s ce, Xuan Ning took one look at it and felt like crying. "You … You''ve been staying here all these years?"


    It was a cave, fitted with some simple furniture made of rocks. The ground was covered with a thin and softyer of brownish grass. It was very bare. The only things that suggested this was a human''s house were the artificial lights in the cave and a food heater. These were the most basic appliances in a normal house. The light and heater both ran on energy crystals, but they consumed energy at a very low rate. The heater would not attract wild animals since it did not generate fire when operating. Just a small distance away from the cave was a source of spring water.


    Even the poor people of Eastern Cloud lived in better conditions than this. The thought of Mei Wu living in this cave by herself all this while, isted from society, and having to hunt for her own food, made Xuan Ning''s heart ache for her.


    When Sun Sieha was a young man, he liked to travel around the world. Xuan Ning was his guard back then. He knew all about His Majesty''s rtionship with Mei Wu. As the three of them travelled around together, Xuan Ning came to think of Mei Wu as the King''s rightful partner. Later on, Sun Sieha and Mei Wu got into a quarrel, and Mei Wu abruptly left him. Mei Wu was being childish back then, but still mildpared to her solitary and unpredictable nature right now. Ever since that incident, His Majesty''s character changed. He turned colder and apathetic. The King never had a partner after that, and many of the government officials worried about it.


    Xuan Ning had thought that Mei Wu would surely be the Queen of Eastern Cloud. Hence, seeing Mei Wu living like this in Darkniss brought tears to his eyes.


    Mei Wu seemed to read his thoughts. She softened a little and said, "Life is alright here. The dangerous and harsh training that I went through all these years made me improve so quickly you can''t imagine it." She paused, and then continued, "You just reached Level 9. You don''t know what it''s like to be Level 9 yet. You know too little about parapsychic control. Living in Su City, you will never achieve Level 10. Others have taken the path I chose now. Don''t waste your time persuading me. I will not leave here until I reach Level 10."


    Xuan Ning assented quietly to her wishes. He knew how obstinate and extreme Mei Wu can be. There was nothing he could say to change her mind.


    Ye Chong was not interested in the history between Mei Wu and Sun Sieha. He took out half of the energy crystals stored in the Spider and gave them to Mei Wu. Life in Darkniss was much better than Ye Chong''s life on the trash, and still better than the Sang Tribe''s life in Archipgo. Before the Sang Tribe met Ye Chong, they did not even have metals, much less advanced weapons likeser guns.


    That night, Ye Chong and his group stayed in the cave. In actual fact, it was impossible to tell day from night in Darkniss, as the sky was always dark in here. On the second day, Mei Wu led them in the Spider to continue their exploration of Darkniss.


    The whole exploration took 25 days, as Mei Wu was familiar with a huge part of Darkniss. Sometimes, they encountered wild animals on their way. It was then that the three outsiders experienced exactly how strong Mei Wu was.


    Her strength was not only expressed in her shooting skills. It was hard to imagine a shooter climbing 30 metres up a smooth cliff. In addition, she moved with great agility. Ye Chong thought she was fit enough to learn properbat. He also thought her parapsychic control was far superiorpared to Xuan Ning. She could also restrict her opponents with her parapsychic waves, much like how mentalists restrict their opponent''s movement. Her parapsychic waves were much stronger than Xuan Ning''s, but they could cover a wider area. She also used her parapsychic waves in many extraordinary waves. Xuan Ning and Sha Ya could only watch in fascination.


    Xuan Ning could see that he would never reach Level 10, unless he left everything behind and dedicate himself only to being a shooter, just like Mei Wu. Without doing this, Level 10 would forever be out of reach.


    Ye Chong said to Mei Wu, "The next time I enter Darkniss, I''ll bring you the Spider."


    "Alright." Mei Wu looked assured. She believed that Ye Chong would not lie to her. "You should leave now. I''m going out to hunt." Mei Wu nodded to the three of them and turned to lead the way, vanishing quickly into the darkness.


    Xuan Ning watched her retreating figure with mixed emotions. He wanted to say something, but could not find the words. "His Majesty should decide on this," Xuan Ning sighed inside.


    Thus, Ye Chong''s trip into Darkniss concluded. He was quite happy with the oue.


    His experience at the entrance to Darkniss told him that Celest''s dimension keystone had an effect on spatial windows. He also collected tissue samples of the snowshade leopard. There were many more other specimens in the storage room. He had drawn a detailed map of one part of Darkniss, including the locations of the minerals. There was also a clue to the colloid germ - the Sea of Threads.


    For a single investigative trip into Darkniss, he had learned far more than he expected.


    Ye Chong and hispanions left Darkniss without dy. The road back was much smoother. Mei Wu had marked the general territorial boundaries of the wild animals on their map. Hence, Ye Chong and his group made their way out of Darkniss with rtive ease.


    The path that their Spider cleared out in the Mist was still there. The nts here grew quickly, but not quickly enough to cover the path. They had no incident in the Desert as well. There were no sandstorms, and the sandscorpions were pretty much wiped out by Ye Chong. The trip was smooth, but Xuan Ning, who should have appreciated this rapid travelling the most, looked upied with his thoughts throughout the journey. Ye Chong and Sha Ya were not the talkative type, and so the trip back wasrgelypletely without conversation.


    Once they arrived at Yedda, a transport aircraft was there for them. They took the aircraft back to Su City.


    Ye Chong began to organize the results of their expedition. There was a lot ofplicated information to sort through, and none of them immediately applicable.


    "Sigh, there''s so much to be done," Ye Chong sighed to himself as he thought of the huge pile of specimens waiting for him. He felt daunted but fulfilled.