Chapter 7

Leaving Jinchi, Tianming set up camp on a gentle grassland and prepared a delicious meal to comfort his hungry stomach.

For some reason, after eating the red jujube rice he made a few times, Tianming found it very easy to receive protests from his stomach, which kept sending hunger signals.

He had to stop and cook a meal every eight hours, preparing two small stir-fries and a large pot of red jujube rice, which he would finish every time.

Actually, a normal person would feel hungry every eight hours. The long daylight in the small space made Tianming feel like he was getting hungry too easily within a day.

According to his previous lifestyle, staying at home for a day, eating a few slices of bread and a bowl of instant noodles would suffice for the day's energy needs.

Perhaps due to the increased physical activity in the small space, his energy consumption was quite high. He had even climbed a few large trees.

Looking at the timer on his phone, it read 52:21:34.

Only 52 hours had passed, and just over 20% of the 240 hours had gone by. He had already completed more than half of his planned exploration.

Reviewing his journey, Tianming's footprint covered over 30 kilometers around the small space, more than 60% of his plan. It seemed the small space was much smaller than he had imagined.

With ample supplies and plenty of time, Tianming felt no need to rush through the remaining journey, to avoid having nothing to do in the remaining time. He decided to rest for a while on this relatively flat grassland and have a good sleep.

Taking out a large backpack from the ability space, he set up a tent, quickly establishing a small wilderness survival camp.

The long-eared rabbit, Xiaohuigui, had suffered a lot following this owner who did not know how to care for animals and should be severely condemned by animal protection organizations.

At first, Xiaohuigui reluctantly followed behind his owner, walking slowly. When the owner found it too slow, he would drag Xiaohuigui a few times.

When the rabbit walked too slowly, Tianming would tap its head a few times, pull its ears, and carry it roughly.

After Xiaohuigui urinated on the owner, its nightmare began. A long rope was tied around Xiaohuigui's neck, with the other end tied to Tianming's waist. Then, the owner ran ahead, dragging the rabbit behind, rolling and kicking on the ground.

Thinking about that half-hour of nightmare, Xiaohuigui realized: life is precious, whether for humans or rabbits.

Perhaps this was the closest it had ever been to death. Xiaohuigui became much more obedient in front of its owner.

Feeling the red marks on Xiaohuigui's neck, Tianming felt guilty. Was it too cruel to treat a defenseless little animal so cruelly just because of a single urination? "Xiaohuigui, don't be afraid. I'll be nicer to you from now on."

He untied the rope, tied it to Xiaohuigui's hind legs, and the other end to the backpack. Feeling somewhat tired, Tianming crawled into the tent.

Lying on the blanket, he entered a dream without any distractions.

The last time he dreamed, Tianming was in the vast universe. This time, the familiar feeling returned.

This time, Tianming found himself on a small island.

On the island, there was only one person, one tree, and one mat.

Sitting on the mat, Tianming saw the vast sea stretching endlessly. The sea was covered in a thick white mist, making it impossible to see anything in the distance, leaving only the sound of waves.

Silent and vast.

Tianming looked around in the dream. Only the small island he was on and a short tree with three branches, each with a few small leaves, existed.

"Where am I? Why am I alone?"

Sitting on the mat, Tianming was initially restless, his eyes darting around.

After a while, he calmed down, closed his eyes, and no longer paid attention to his dire situation.

He expanded his consciousness, feeling the ripples of the sea, the collision of waves, and the surging currents. The world began to become restless.

Ding! A drop of water hit Tianming's pant leg, the dampness soaking through and seeping into his skin, as if foretelling a larger wave about to come.

The sound of a huge wave seemed to be heard in his ears.

Gradually, the sound grew louder.

No, no! I must calm down!

Sitting on the mat, Tianming suppressed his inner agitation, closed his eyes, and ignored the noise.

Sure enough, the waves did not sweep over the island as expected, and Tianming breathed a sigh of relief.

He continued to expand his consciousness, reaching further and further, experiencing the world again.

100 meters, 500 meters, 1000 meters... His consciousness flew farther and farther. While on the island, his mind was on the waves thousands of meters away.

Sometimes, Tianming could faintly sense the currents far beneath the surface, indicating that waves were about to form. Accompanied by an indescribable roar, they would surge towards his island, bringing a sense of danger.

Another rational voice in his mind told him: everything is fleeting, all inner distractions. Overcome them, conquer them, and you will surpass yourself and your limits.

In a dire situation, one cannot control oneself. When his consciousness expanded to 5000 meters, a sudden sense of danger told him that an unprecedented wave was about to come!

Accompanied by the faint sound of a huge roar, even though he reminded himself not to panic, the sense of danger grew heavier.

At 5000 meters, the invisible wave began to form, sweeping tons of seawater towards him. At 4000 meters, Tianming's consciousness struggled to resist but could not stop the wave.

2000 meters, 500 meters, 100 meters... It was getting closer! The immense pressure made Tianming want to flee immediately.

Calm down! At this moment, a flash of enlightenment crossed his mind.

Since he couldn't stop it, let it come even stronger!

He let down all his defenses, deciding to face the inevitable collision.

Ten seconds passed, one minute, five minutes... The world returned to its original state, calm and peaceful, as if nothing had happened.

Heaving a sigh of relief, he realized that the true test was the fear in his heart. Facing and overcoming that fear, he had nothing to fear.

Tianming woke up, hungry.

Taking out his phone, he checked the time: 130:16:41.

Oh no, how did I sleep for over 70 hours, nearly 80 hours? What happened?!

His stomach felt like it was being burned by concentrated sulfuric acid. Touching his hungry belly, Tianming quickly took out a handful of red jujubes from the ability space, chewed them quickly, and swallowed them.

After a while, the deadly hunger subsided slightly.

He reached into the ability space again and took out a bag of cookies, but he was surprised.

The ability space seemed to have grown larger?

Tianming didn't carefully observe how much it had increased. Using his consciousness to explore, he found it had increased by nearly ten times! The space was now vast, and the items he had placed inside were now widely spaced. He hadn't noticed this when he took out the red jujubes to eat, as he was focused on satisfying his hunger.

Upon discovering this, Tianming felt a surge of joy.

When the ability space was only one cubic meter, Tianming thought he would never have to carry anything heavy again.

When it was ten cubic meters, he believed he could travel the world with his bare hands.

Now, with the ability space growing to nearly 100 cubic meters, Tianming was troubled by how to use the extra space.

The expansion of the ability space was a good thing. However, he couldn't sleep for 3-4 days again. If he starved to death in his sleep, he would be the most peculiar and regretful ability user in history. Tianming warned himself to set an alarm next time and not get lost in strange dreams.

...

After wandering through the vast grassland for about two hours, he finally saw this unique meadow.

Elsewhere, the grass was mostly two-leaf needle grass and sleep grass. But this meadow was covered with six-leaf grass.

Six-leaf grass?

People say four-leaf clovers represent luck. So, six-leaf grass must represent super luck?

Six-six-six, this grass is really quite beautiful.

Not only that, Tianming also noticed that some six-leaf grass had pink flowers blooming at the top, exceptionally delicate.

Moreover, some six-leaf grass had small, cherry-like red fruits at the top, about the size of a pigeon's egg.

Tianming couldn't resist picking a few of these fruits and tempting Xiaohuigui to eat two.

It turned out that Tianming's cautious behavior was completely unnecessary in the small space. Xiaohuigui loved these red fruits, eating them faster than grass and even more enthusiastically than the red jujubes.

Tianming immediately named these fruits: Red Fruits.

Why call them Red Fruits instead of Six-Leaf Fruits? Tianming's reason was that these fruits were bright red, resembling the legendary Zhu Guo (red fruit). Since there were many things called Zhu Guo, he decided to call them Red Fruits.

The six-leaf grass plants that bore red fruits were not very common, with only one or two per 10 square meters. Ripe red fruits were even harder to find. Tianming searched a small hillside, covering more than 2 acres, and only managed to pick about 2 pounds, or about 100 fruits.

Juicy, sweet, tender, and smooth, each fruit was chewy and much better than the somewhat dry red jujubes.

However, the yield of only a little over 1 pound per acre was really disappointing.

What comforted Tianming was that this six-leaf grass meadow extended over 8000 acres of the central and right plains on the map, all densely covered with six-leaf grass.

Taking out the map and looking at the flower and fruit-covered, lush meadow, Tianming happily declared, "From now on, this place will be called 'Six-Leaf Plain'!"