Chapter 82

Peng Hai walked to the side of the milky white wall, made a vague gesture, and a shimmering light screen appeared on the wall. Peng Hai quickly operated a few times, and a buzzing sound came from the ceiling as a large metal disk slowly descended. The large disk was about two meters in diameter, engraved with over a thousand runes, forming a spiral-shaped rune array. The edges of the array, which were slightly raised, were inlaid with over a hundred gleaming crystals. Each crystal was incredibly clear, revealing boundless starlight at its core. Li Yao immediately recognized it as a very advanced teleportation array. The numerous crystals inlaid around it indicated that the array required a large amount of spiritual energy to activate, suggesting it was for teleporting to a very distant place. Peng Hai quickly operated the light screen, and three small images appeared on it, each depicting a world with a different style. Peng Hai clicked on one of the gray worlds, set the parameters, and stepped onto the teleportation array. Li Yao and Ding Lingdang also stepped onto it. The crystals inlaid around the array grew increasingly bright, making it impossible to look directly at them. The solidified array beneath their feet began to swirl like a vortex, generating a mysterious suction force, as if trying to pull them into the ground. Li Yao's vision went dark, and he felt as if he had been stretched to over a hundred meters long and then snapped back to his original form in just 0.1 seconds. Dizziness and a strong urge to vomit overwhelmed him. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a very strange world. It was a gray world, with a desolate gray desert stretching as far as the eye could see. The ground was covered with small pebbles and sand, with no sign of any living creature. This world seemed to lack an atmosphere, and the air was extremely thin. Each breath required all his strength, and the air he inhaled had a foul smell, burning his nasal passages and trachea. His chest felt as if it were on fire, making him feel suffocated. Even more uncomfortable was the gravity, which was several times greater than that of the Tianyuan World. As soon as Li Yao steadied himself, he felt his body being pulled downward, almost causing him to kneel on the ground. In the gray sky, there were no stars, moon, or sun, only several large gray rocks carved into human faces, floating strangely and staring straight at the people on the ground, making Li Yao feel uneasy. Moreover, he noticed something strange—about 700 to 800 meters away, there seemed to be three other people, dressed exactly like them! "No need to look, those are us. The diameter of this world is less than a kilometer, a typical fragment world," Peng Hai said with a smile. "Is this the legendary fragment world?" Li Yao looked around curiously. He had learned in his textbooks that there were two types of worlds in the universe. The first type was like the Tianyuan World, enormous and spanning several star systems, with habitable planets that had stable atmospheres and complete ecological systems. Both humans and beasts could thrive and evolve in such worlds, developing civilizations. These worlds were called "main worlds" or "great worlds." The second type was much more tragic, formed either at the beginning of the universe's big bang, or during the ancient cultivators' civil war, when super experts blasted them out of the main worlds, or when an entire main world was torn apart by spiritual energy tides, or for various other reasons. These worlds were often very small, some only a few hundred meters or even tens of meters in diameter, while the largest did not exceed a continent. Due to their small size, the spiritual energy fluctuations were extremely intense, making these worlds highly unstable, with no fixed laws of operation, and they could collapse at any moment. These worlds were called "fragment worlds" or "small worlds." Main worlds and fragment worlds were connected through spatial rifts, but once the exact coordinates of a fragment world were known, one could also enter it directly through a teleportation array. In the early stages of modern cultivation civilization, humans discovered many fragment worlds. However, at that time, people had not yet learned how to utilize them, so they were used as garbage dumps and places of exile for the main worlds. After ten thousand years of development, humans discovered over a million fragment worlds and developed and utilized some of them, turning waste into treasure. One of the most common uses was to turn fragment worlds into training grounds for powerful cultivators! Peng Hai said, "This fragment world is called 'Little Gray Domain.' Its characteristic is that the density of the ground is extremely high, and the gravity is about ten times that of the Tianyuan World. The most bizarre thing is that the gravity is not stable, changing every second, ranging from eight to twelve times the gravity of the Tianyuan World, with no discernible pattern. Often, one second it's twelve times the gravity, and the next second it's eight times! Training in 'Little Gray Domain' can greatly enhance your control over your body!" "So bizarre!" Li Yao marveled inwardly, indeed, fragment worlds were strange. If the gravity was just ten times that of the Tianyuan World, it could be explained by the high density of the ground. However, the gravity changing without any pattern was something no law could explain. And what about the human face statues floating in the sky? Who created them, and why could they defy gravity and float in mid-air? There were no anti-gravity rune arrays on their bases! But Li Yao was not a scientist. Since he couldn't figure it out, he decided not to think about it and casually threw two punches, indeed feeling something strange when he did so. As the saying goes, power comes from the ground. The first step in any attack is to plant your feet firmly on the ground and borrow strength from the earth. The subtle changes in the gravitational field made Li Yao feel as if he were standing on cotton, with a heavy head and light feet. The sharp punches that could tear through the air became weak and powerless. "I've set up a complete set of training equipment here. If you can adapt to the gravity in a month, I believe your strength will increase several times when you return to the Tianyuan World, and getting into one of the 'Nine Greats' will be no problem!" Peng Hai said with a smile. He paused, glanced at Ding Lingdang, who was hesitating, and continued, "Little Sister Ding, don't say I'm not taking care of you. For this month, you will be in charge of this training room. You will operate the teleportation array and keep an eye on this guy. Remember, besides 'Little Gray Domain,' don't let him go to the other two fragment worlds. Even you should be careful; they are designed for Foundation Establishment cultivators and are extremely dangerous. Ordinary people will be annihilated the moment they enter." Ding Lingdang's face lit up with joy, and she cheered, "Long live Master Brother! I've always wanted to train thoroughly in 'Little Gray Domain'! But can you agree to one more thing?" Peng Hai frowned, "I knew you would be greedy. What else do you want?" Ding Lingdang smiled sweetly, "Master Brother Peng, you know that Li Yao is hesitating between our Great Wasteland Combat Academy and Deep Sea University. Why don't we have a match? Let Li Yao see the true strength of the Great Wasteland Combat Academy. Maybe he'll get so excited that he'll give up being a lousy alchemist and switch to the very promising career of a 'body cultivator'!" Before Peng Hai could agree, Ding Lingdang started stretching her limbs, making a terrifying joint-cracking sound. Peng Hai took a half-step back, smiling helplessly, "Do you really want to show Li Yao, or do you just want to fight me?" Ding Lingdang stuck out her tongue, "You caught me, Master Brother Peng. You are the most outstanding graduate of the Great Wasteland Combat Academy before me. I've been looking for every opportunity to spar with you, but you've always refused. Today, I'll let Li Yao see—how crazy a combat cultivator can be when they go all out!" Peng Hai looked at Li Yao, his eyes glowing with a strange light, and finally nodded, "Alright, for Li Yao's sake, I'll suppress my strength to the peak of the Qi Condensation stage and fight you, but let's agree on a maximum of thirty seconds." "No need, if we're both at the peak of the Qi Condensation stage, I'll beat you in ten seconds!"