Chapter 5. The Magic Sphere's ability
After secretly storing the cube and the sphere in his pocket, Lin Xiang continued his work.
A Gold Back Pangolin was a quite rare vicious beast and was not often hunted by humans because it was not carnivorous and violent, and could easily escape into the ground if it felt scared. Having no experience with it, cutting up the Gold Back Pangolin wasn't an easy task for Lin Xiang.
Before Lin Xiang was fully done, Lin Ming had already cut up two first-level vicious beasts and moved to his third.
After Lin Xiang finally cut up the Gold Back Pangolin in a satisfying manner, he began to cut up his second vicious beast, this time he chose a first-level vicious beast that he was more familiar with.
Lin Ming eventually finished his vicious beast first and then moved to help Lin Xiang finish cutting up the remaining parts of his vicious beast.
Counting in the Scaled Draconic Beast that was deboned earlier, once the two brother's finished Lin Xiang's second beast, their daily quota of deboning six vicious beasts in total was completed.
Even though Lin Ming had to perform most of the work himself, he was still very glad that Lin Xiang had his back in this situation. He suffered together with him by being chased out and even quickly came up with a smart solution to their problematic situation.
After cleaning the tools, Lin Xiang and Lin Ming headed toward rooms that the Grand Clarity Pavilion had prepared for them.
Upon finally retreating to his own room, Lin Xiang quickly closed the doors. He took out the cube and sphere from his pocket and looked at them once again.
At this time, a one-inch cube laid on the palm of his left hand, while a similarly sized sphere laid on his right.
As Lin Xiang looked at the 'Magic Cube', he felt very complicated emotions in his heart.
He felt excited, but also slightly nervous.
Even though he acquired the item that he thought was the Magic Cube, without the help of the Heavens and tremendous Luck he might not be able to follow the same path as Lin Ming. It was very likely that he would fail and die prematurely, even if he knew some tidbits from the novel and worked hard.
By selfishly taking Lin Ming's opportunity for himself, Lin Xiang might have even doomed humanity to destruction!
Lin Xiang had only read about half-way through the Martial World novel, but he read some of the information from the wiki and had seen some spoilers, so he knew that some kind of a cross-world cross-race massive World War would be happening in the future and Lin Ming was something akin to a fated savior of humanity, performing miracle after miracle that were impossible for anyone to accomplish without ten layers of plot armor.
Following the novel's Lin Ming's footsteps was a very thorny path Lin Xiang chose to walk, with a low probability of him making it out alive. It might be possible that once he dies, the Magic Cube would simply go to another more lucky or capable owner as if nothing happened, perhaps even to Lin Ming.
Lin Xiang suddenly squeezed his fists hard. At that moment his eyes were very chilly. The Magic Cube had fallen into his hands, not Lin Ming's. Why should it be seen as if he snatched this opportunity from Lin Ming?
Besides, so what even if he snatched it? On what basis should he simply resign himself to fate? Why should he give the Magic Cube to someone else if he could take it for himself? Why should he accept being an insignificant mortal cultivator for the rest of this life?
Lin Xiang's heartbeat sped up and his breathing became heavy as he thought of this.
After a while, he suddenly let out a breath and a focused expression re-appeared on his face; his heart was suddenly calm.
Over the last fifteen years Lin Xiang had nurtured a very firm desire in his heart to become a powerful existence and strive toward his dream of achieving Immortality. At the very least, with this kind of grand goal, he felt that his life would be quite interesting and rich in meaning. It was impossible for him to pass on the heaven-defying power that the Magic Cube represented, even if it carried a heavy destiny he might not be able to shoulder.
In this world, he could possibly have the power to create and destroy worlds. He could travel between planets and universes just with his own personal strength. He could live for thousands and even millions of years. Potentially, he could even be eternally young, become Immortal and live for all eternity!
In addition, all kinds of magical and beautiful places existed in this immeasurably vast world; all kinds of magical beasts, intelligent races and planets. There were also various wonderful, beautiful and talented Dao Companion materials that could be his lovers and support him on his Path of Martial Arts, as long as he had enough strength and ability.
If the burden of possessing the Magic Cube had any effect, then it only strengthened Lin Xiang's resolve to put his life on the line and persevere on his path to chase after the illusory peak of being a truly legendary existence among the myriad beings of this world.
By following this path he had a chance to attain true Immortality!
This is the path he decided to thread on, even if it had a high chance that it would cause his own destruction or the extinction of humanity. He would rather let down the world than be let down by the world.
After he reaffirmed his belief, there were no more ripples in Lin Xiang's heart.
He then looked at the sphere that was in his other hand.
Lin Xiang wasn't expecting to also find something so peculiar inside the beast's stomach apart from the cube. He could only guess that he should simply attribute it to the fact that it was an alternate universe.
He only hoped that the Magic Cube that he got was the real deal. As for the sphere, it could be considered a bonus.
As Lin Xiang looked at the mysterious sphere, it had a very similar aura to the cube, almost as if it was a sister object.
At that time Lin Xiang sent his soul force to probe the Magic Cube first. Although he had no experience utilizing his soul force in any exquisite ways, because he was a martial artist, he was still able to send it out as a simple probe or to read a jade slip.
Unfortunately, he didn't receive any feedback from the Magic Cube as if he was trying to probe a rock or another dead object.
Lin Xiang wasn't too surprised. He knew that if things followed the happenings of the novel, then Mo Eversnow's divine soul should be the one controlling the Magic Cube right now. In addition, it is simply impossible for someone with low cultivation of the lower realms to try and use the Magic Cube.
Next, Lin Xiang sent his soul force into the sphere. Once again, nothing happened as if the sphere was nothing but a rock.
He wrinkled his eyebrows. He had an idea and wanted to try something.
He pulled out a knife that was attached to his thigh and pricked his thumb with its tip. He then allowed a few droplets of blood to first drop at the Magic Cube and then at the Mysterious Sphere.
As the blood droplets dropped on the Magic Cube, nothing happened, but once they dropped on the Mysterious Sphere, they were immediately sucked in.
Lin Xiang was surprised, but it wasn't long before he was surprised once again.
After a few moments, the Magic Cube had sucked in his blood as well!
Lin Xiang lightly gulped. While sorting his thoughts, he put his finger in his mouth to close the wound and stop the bleeding.
The act of the Mysterious Sphere immediately accepting his blood might have been its automatic reaction, perhaps to feed itself or to bind with the user.
As for the Magic Cube sucking in his blood after a delay, it was likely that Mo Eversnow had consciously done it after making up her mind. Her intention should be to help direct him into seeking the blood essence of powerhouses, telling him that the Magic Cube needs blood. That's in case Mo Eversnow existed in this world.
These were Lin Xiang's guesses.
Lin Xiang then probed the Magic Cube with his soul force once again, but nothing happened. Next he sent soul force into the mysterious Sphere.
At that time there was a sudden change. This time the mysterious sphere welcomed Lin Xiang's soul force.
Not a moment later, Lin Xiang's vision blurred and everything fell into darkness.
…
When Lin Xiang opened his eyes again, grassy plains were in front of him. The sky was blue and clear. The sunlight shone warmly on his face, making him narrow his eyes in comfort.
A light breeze brushed past. He smelt the pleasant aroma of grass mixed with earth, causing him to feel refreshed.
Fresh air did indeed make people feel good.
However, there was no smile on Lin Xiang's face, only a shock expression.
At this moment, he was standing in a grassy plain, looking at the horizon.
Just a moment ago he was in the room of the Grand Clarity Pavilion, but now he was here.
Lin Xiang quickly looked around.
The fresh grass still had morning dew on it. As the wind blew, the grassy plain flowed like waves. The world all around Lin Xiang was incredibly realistic; it should not be a dream.
The last thing he did was interact with the mysterious sphere. Did the Sphere bring him here? Did he transmigrate to another world or is it a world inside the sphere?
If just when Lin Xiang snatched the cheat item from the original Protagonist's hands, the god who transmigrated him chose to throw him into another world that he didn't know, then it would be quite ironic.
But Lin Xiang did not feel amused. He was originally in a Xianxia world with very high power levels and also had a strong cheat item; his circumstances were perfect! At this moment he only hoped that there would be a way for him to go back somehow or that it was only an illusory world.
After collecting himself, the first thing that Lin Xiang did was calling out inwardly to leave.
However, nothing happened.
After several seconds he decided to perform a reality check to confirm for sure that he was not dreaming. He looked at his wrist with the aim to check the time. If it was really a dream, then a watch would appear on his wrist. In addition, the time on the watch would have incomprehensible numbers that would constantly change.
Lin Xiang continued looking at his wrist, but several seconds passed and there was no effect. It meant that the reality check failed; it was not an ordinary dream. Even if it was an illusion, then it was a very realistic one that he couldn't control or leave by simply wishing it to happen.
Just as Lin Xiang's eyes were fixated on his wrist, he suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from behind his back. The sound grew louder and louder.
Lin Xiang felt a chill as he quickly turned around.
What he saw was a humongous white rabbit slowly hopping toward him while sniffing with its nose. It was around one meter tall, quite plump, and had blood-red eyes that were fixated on Lin Xiang.
Although the rabbit looked somewhat cute with its white shiny soft fur and long ears, the way it looked at Lin Xiang caused him to have a bad feeling about his situation.
The human and rabbit stared at each other for several seconds.
Lin Xiang slowly reached toward the knife at his thigh and pulled it out. He felt that the rebit's desire was not toward the grass, like a normal rabbit, but toward him. He did not know the strength of this beast, so he felt very on edge.
Lin Xiang wrinkled his eyebrows and quickly glanced around. All around him were flat grassy plains with only some thin and small trees; none of the trees were large enough for him to climb to escape from this rabbit.
At that moment, when the rabbit's cute little mouth opened and revealed rows of sharp wide white teeth, Lin Xiang realized that he was right.
This rabbit thought of him as prey. Its teeth were long and sharp, and its red eyes shone with nefarious intent.
When Lin Xiang felt the killing intent coming from the white rabbit, he became a little uncertain.
His cultivation was at the middle First Stage of Body Transformation. He knew no martial skills and had no experience with killing vicious beasts. His greatest advantage was his skill with the spear, but he had no spear with him.
Fortunately he was skilled with handling a blade and always carried a deboning knife on his body, but the problematic part was - he didn't know the strength of the rabbit in front of him.
If the rabbit was at the level of an ordinary wild beast like a tiger or a bear, then Lin Xiang could easily kill it, but if it was at the level of even the weakest of actual first-level vicious beasts, then he would undoubtedly die!
Ordinary first-level vicious beasts have strength similar to common 3rd Stage Martial Artists. With his meager Strength Training cultivation Lin Xiang would naturally stand no chance against these kinds of beasts.
Lin Xiang clutched his knife and stared coldly at the huge rabbit while straightening his body and spreading out his shoulders and elbows to appear bigger. 'If you encounter a tiger, you must not act cowardly or you would only look like an easy prey. If you run, it will only trigger its predatory instinct, but if you make yourself look bigger, you will look more dangerous…'
Lin Xiang hadn't encountered a tiger before, but this huge rabbit was about the same size as regular wolves on Earth… It could be considered a fierce beast, right?
The man and rabbit glared at each other. The huge rabbit's killing intent was overflowing, but it was very careful and didn't attack immediately.
Meanwhile, sweat started forming on Lin Xiang's forehead. He went over the basic slashes and tactics in his mind that he could adapt if it came down to a fight.
At the same time Lin Xiang recalled that his present situation seemed somewhat familiar to him. He remembered that he once read a novel, but dropped it early because it was quite terrible. However, he really liked the cheat that was introduced in that novel.
The cheat and the novel were both called: a Pocket Hunting Dimension.
In that novel, the protagonist could enter another world with his illusory body every day while no time passed in reality. He would hunt large rabbits in a grassy plain of that world, obtain orbs of energy and become stronger by consuming them.
Once the daily time limt ran out or the protagonist died, he would be kicked out back to the real world.
Everything seemed exactly as in the novel that Lin Xiang vaguely remembered, even the appearance of the white rabbit, but he still had no way to know if he would really die if he was killed. He would rather not test it.
Lin Xiang called out to the Magic Sphere again, trying to exit his current space, but nothing happened.
At that moment the rabbit's patience seemed to have run out. Its powerful legs suddenly kicked off the ground. A mixture of blades of grass and earth was kicked up into the sky as the giant rabbit rushed at Lin Xiang with long and swift jumps like a white arrow.
The gap between them closed by tens of meters in just three seconds. When the giant rabbit got close to Lin Xiang its originally soft and cute paws became a lethal scythe slicing at Lin Xiang's torso with a frosty glow.
His pupils narrowed and his heart chilled.
This rabbit's speed was simply way too much for him to handle! As it attacked, it was like a literal arrow; an ordinary human could not react properly!
Lin Xiang grit his teeth and forcd himself to stay focused under the assault of the ferocious rabbit. He stomped his right foot on the ground to be in a stronger position, then quickly twisted his waist and leaned to the right to dodge the rabbit's attack while slashing out with his knife at the same time.
After the exchange, Lin Xiang groaned as he felt a sharp pain on his neck.
He felt some resistance on his blade and the rabbit seemed to have been cut, but then his eyes opened wide in shock. There was a warm sensation in his throat and he began choking on liquids, gurgling while being unable to take a proper breath.
At the same time, blood started spurring from his throat in large quantities.
He stretched out his left hand to grab his throat and it was immediately covered in waves of blood.
He realized - the rabbit slashed his throat!
Lin Xiang only managed to briefly think this when the white rabbit jumped at him again.
He attempted to dodge, but was too slow. The giant white rabbit slashed at his throat once again and even slammed him down to the ground with its weight at the same time.
Lin Xiang wasn't able to react as the white rabbit already bashed its teeth and started ripping out his throat as he laid on the ground.
A moment later, Lin Xiang's world went dark.