Chapter 102: Bronze Giant Gate

With a feeling of weightlessness, Chen Jin’s figure appeared in a cave in Honghuang.

The first thing he did upon arriving in Honghuang was to throw out the Seven Fiend Meteorite Shield.

This behemoth cost him nearly two hundred energy points, meaning it cost Chen Jin over 400,000 just to teleport it over, and it would cost another fortune to teleport it back!

Furthermore, it occupied space in the teleportation channel, giving Chen Jin a headache.

Even though his mental strength had greatly increased compared to before, teleporting such a large item still put a lot of pressure on him.

“I hope the enhancement effect doesn’t disappoint me,” Chen Jin thought to himself.

For this hunt of the Bone-handled Green Moth, Chen Jin had no intention of bringing this behemoth along. He planned to enhance it for at least three months and retrieve it during the second year of high school’s wilderness training.

Next, he sent all the medicine he had enhanced nearby back to Blue Star. Afterward, Chen Jin also returned to deliver this batch of goods to Tang Gongbo.

Including the newly acquired 560,000, Chen Jin’s current wealth reached over 800,000.

With this money, he exchanged it for 130 Qi Benefiting Pills and alloy weapons costing 400,000 for supplementary stock. The rest of the money was kept as reserve funds for his future plan to hunt demonic creatures.

After finishing all this, Chen Jin could finally rest assured and continue his Honghuang exploration plan.

Before this, he had made as many preparations as possible using the information he had. However, he knew very little about Honghuang, and any unexpected events could occur.

Without further thought, Chen Jin piloted his Flying Shuttle back to the Tongtian Platform.

Another month of enhancement had significantly improved its performance again, which put Chen Jin somewhat at ease.

He jumped off the Flying Shuttle, recorded the destination coordinates with the Auxiliary Terminal, and then returned to the cave to begin installing the steel frames for supporting the insulation shield on the Flying Shuttle. These parts were custom-made and fit onto the Flying Shuttle’s alloy outer plating with little effort.

They weren’t particularly secure, but as long as they weren’t forcefully broken, they wouldn’t fall off under normal circumstances.

After the insulation shield was installed, the entire Flying Shuttle was enclosed.

Chen Jin attempted to start it up; the Flying Shuttle could barely withstand the added weight.

However, because the insulation shield enclosed the entire Flying Shuttle, he couldn’t see anything outside.

Fortunately, Chen Jin had Mental Power, allowing him to scan for obstacles up to several tens of meters ahead. Anyone else would be like a blind person, unable to even fly.

Taking the second-hand Dagger Spiritual Artifact, which had been enhanced for a long time without being sent back, Chen Jin slowly flew towards the cave entrance, feeling his way with his Mental Power.

The passage wasn’t spacious, and it took him over ten minutes to fly out of the cave.

Instantly, scorching light engulfed the entire Flying Shuttle. Even inside the insulation shield, Chen Jin could feel the rapidly rising temperature and the light filtering in from outside the shield.

He quickly took out Blue Ice to cool down, then unhesitatingly piloted the Flying Shuttle to accelerate, flying towards the destination under the guidance of the Auxiliary Terminal.

Carrying so much weight, the Flying Shuttle’s speed wasn’t fast, maintaining only around 40 km/h, slower than its advertised full-load speed.

However, Chen Jin wasn’t in a hurry. In fact, even if he could fly faster, he wouldn’t dare to. His Mental Power’s exploration range was only tens of meters, and who knew if a mountain peak would suddenly rise up and crash into him.

“I hope the insulation shield can hold up.”

Chen Jin prayed silently while piloting the Flying Shuttle towards the destination.

Chen Jin was terrified the entire way, fearing the Flying Shuttle would break down at any moment. Fortunately, he was lucky. Although the Flying Shuttle occasionally emitted creaking sounds, it stubbornly held on until it was near its destination.

Inside the insulation shield, Chen Jin suddenly felt his downward-exploring Mental Power become empty.

His heart stirred: “Am I near a cliff?”

Chen Jin piloted the Flying Shuttle downwards, releasing his Mental Power to its maximum to explore the surrounding environment.

After several minutes of exploration, Chen Jin finally confirmed that he was in a deep ravine. He didn’t know how deep it was, but its width and depth both exceeded his Mental Power’s exploration range.

“That’s reasonable. Only in such a place could creatures possibly survive, right?”

The scorching temperature outside, easily reaching thousands of degrees, was too terrifying, not to mention facing direct sunlight. Ordinary creatures basically couldn’t withstand it. Only in peculiar terrains could traces of life be found.

Chen Jin didn’t think further and slowly piloted the Flying Shuttle downwards.

However, this deep valley was much deeper than he had imagined, and it wasn’t a vertical descent but more like a winding, twisting corridor.

After flying for nearly an hour, Chen Jin estimated he had descended at least ten thousand meters before his Mental Power finally reached the ground.

At this point, he was less than three kilometers away from the destination marked on the Auxiliary Terminal.

Chen Jin parked the Flying Shuttle steadily, then opened the insulation shield and stepped out.

As expected, he was at the bottom of a deep cliff. Layers of rock loomed overhead, their projections alternately blocking the sunlight, allowing only scattered rays to reach the bottom.

It wasn’t completely dark, but the light was dim, with visibility only a few tens of meters.

Chen Jin looked down; the ground beneath his feet was dry and hard, covered with gravel. It seemed like there had once been a stream here, but it had completely dried up.

Judging by the melting speed of the Blue Ice inside his insulated suit, the temperature was estimated to be between 150 to 250 degrees Celsius, similar to the cave where the Spider Monster lived.

Composing himself, Chen Jin carefully hid the Flying Shuttle.

It was fine if he died, but if his precious Flying Shuttle met with any accident, he would have nowhere to cry.

Then, he slowly walked towards the target point.

A distance of three kilometers, and without the need to worry about insulation, was no longer a challenge for the current Chen Jin.

His movements were swift, and he covered half the distance in no time. Just then, he suddenly heard the “trickle” of flowing water from ahead.

Chen Jin was slightly taken aback. He quickened his pace and walked a few steps forward, to his surprise finding a small stream flowing down from above. Weeds grew on both sides of the stream, not very lush, but much better than the desolate gravel path he had seen before.

Moreover, the signs of life became more intense the further he walked. The ground gradually took on a light green hue, and he even saw a small, pale yellow flower stubbornly growing in the shadow of a rock.

This scene greatly exceeded Chen Jin’s expectations.

Could there be flowers and grass in a hellish place like Honghuang?

While he was pondering, a crisp chirping sound, like that of a yellow sparrow, suddenly came from above.

Chen Jin looked up and saw a colossal creature flying across the dark ravine.

This creature was over twenty meters long, emitting a faint blue fluorescence all over. Its nearly transparent wings unfurled on either side, flapping gently. Its bones were almost transparent, like pieces of beautiful glazed porcelain. It soared through the ravine like a free soul trapped in a deep valley, breathtakingly beautiful.

It resembled a flying blue butterfly, but without an ugly insectoid body. Instead, it had shifting fluorescence, like a flowing galaxy.

Chen Jin vowed it was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in his life.

As it flew past, faint fluorescence descended from the air. When the fluorescence touched the ground, it seemed to stimulate life, causing the flowers and plants, which were on the verge of death in the cracks, to grow rapidly and healthily.

“What a beautiful creature.”

“But the problem is, your appearance really doesn’t match the name Bone-handled Green Moth.”

Looking at the beautiful creature soaring freely in the air, Chen Jin sighed softly, took out a Molotov cocktail from his Storage Space, and then unhesitatingly hurled it forward with force!

With an explosive sound, a ring of red fire instantly spread outwards from the explosion point, followed by thick black smoke billowing upwards.

Chen Jin heard that at the moment the Molotov cocktail exploded, the beautiful creature in mid-air let out a mournful cry, then rapidly dissipated like a shattered dream. The surrounding scenery also receded; the stream, the weeds, the flowers, all disappeared, leaving only bare rocks in their place.

And at the end of the road ahead stood a hundred-meter-tall Bronze Giant Gate embedded in the mountainside.

The gate was carved with two creatures, one with a human head and a snake body. Their faces and specific details were too worn to be clearly seen, but they still instinctively evoked a desire in Chen Jin to prostrate himself.

Two thick iron chains connected to the door rings, the other ends were tied to two giant beasts in front of the Bronze Giant Gate. However, these two giant beasts were already dead, leaving only white skeletons. But a single skull was over ten meters high, allowing one to infer what colossal beings they were in life. On the skull of one of the giant beasts, an ugly moth was perched.

This moth was nearly three meters long, covered in dark green fuzz. Its two pairs of gray wings were folded to its sides, with unsettling black spots on the wings. Sharp, slender bone spikes grew on its back, and strangely, a Bronze Halberd was inserted into its left shoulder blade.

The halberd was also stained with dark red blood spots, and Chen Jin could feel a strong, malevolent aura emanating from it, unlike any ordinary weapon.

But the most bizarre thing was its head. Among the insectoid mouthparts and facial features, a human face could be vaguely discerned, causing extreme psychological discomfort. It was motionless, its pair of black, protruding eyes staring intently at Chen Jin, making his spine tingle and a chill involuntarily rise in his heart.

“Is this the Bone-handled Green Moth?”

With a slight shift of thought, Chen Jin’s Alloy Shield and Spear appeared in his left and right hands respectively. He brought the shield up in front of him, fully on guard.

At the same time, he felt a sense of relief. Fortunately, he had joined the Mythical Creatures Society and, through sheer luck, heard a story from Su Qianhe hinting that this creature had hallucinogenic abilities.

Otherwise, given the realism of the illusionary realm, he would have died a hundred times over without discovering its trick. Even if he had discovered it, he wouldn’t have thought that fire could break the illusion.

This made him once again lament the importance of intelligence.

Without further thought, Chen Jin concentrated fully, holding the shield in one hand and the spear in the other, cautiously approaching the Bone-handled Green Moth.

This moth didn’t seem very aggressive. Even when Chen Jin approached within thirty meters, it still hadn’t attacked, merely rubbing its slender limbs.

Just as Chen Jin was hesitating whether to continue approaching, the Bone-handled Green Moth suddenly let out a sharp cry, then its large wings unfurled, and it suddenly flew upwards!

Chen Jin’s heart tightened! Without any hesitation, his entire True Force erupted, and he flung the spear in his hand with all his might towards the Bone-handled Green Moth!

Chen Jin had already anticipated that the moth would be able to fly. His prepared ranged weapon was the Alloy Spear in his hand for throwing!

Under Chen Jin’s True Force burst, the power of this spear was like a small ballista from the Song Dynasty. The moment it was thrown, the air tore with a low muffled sound, and the spear drew a curve in the air, flying directly towards the Bone-handled Green Moth’s massive body!

However, just as the spear was about to hit the Bone-handled Green Moth, the moth made a move Chen Jin never expected. It suddenly opened its mouthparts and bit onto the spear!

Then, to Chen Jin’s horrified gaze, the alloy spear bent and broke like a small wooden stick. With a “creak creak” sound of metal deformation, it was forcibly bitten off and swallowed by the moth!

It was then that Chen Jin discovered that beneath the green fuzz, there wasn’t the common exoskeleton of insects, but rather gray-white bones, like those of mammals.

Its mouthparts weren’t designed for suction either, but rather extended all the way to its chest. When it opened, its entire head and upper chest split open, revealing circles of millstone-like gray-white bony structures inside, like a giant meat grinder.

This made Chen Jin’s scalp tingle. It could bite through an alloy spear? What terrifying biting force was this!

Furthermore, this moth was very agile. Even without its monstrous mouthparts, it could have easily dodged Chen Jin’s thrown spear!

There was no helping it; the difference in strength was too great. This was a Rank 7 Mortal creature, and a Rank 7 Mortal creature living in Honghuang!

When selling the Spider Monster’s materials, the elder who appraised them said the Spider Monster’s physique had reached the Shentong Realm, but its contained spiritual energy was only at the Mingxin Realm. This gave Chen Jin a rough idea.

After observing and scanning the school teachers for some time, he could now basically confirm that the Innate Realm corresponded to Mortal Ranks 4 to 6, the Mingxin Realm to Ranks 7 to 9, and the Spirit Rank to the Shentong Realm.

In other words, the creature before him was equivalent to a Rank 7 Mingxin Realm Demonic Beast! And one that had been enhanced by Honghuang!

However, fortunately, this moth’s courage and aggressiveness seemed much less than the Spider Monster’s. After swallowing Chen Jin’s alloy spear, not only did it not counter-attack, but it continued to ascend.

At this point, Chen Jin was completely unable to pose a threat to it. Under Honghuang’s 3 to 4 times gravity, even with Chen Jin’s strength, the speed of a spear thrown upwards would rapidly decay.

Chen Jin faced the moth from a distance. The moth was in no hurry either, hovering in the air and observing him.

Chen Jin’s Beast Tamer talent allowed him to sense that the moth before him was not inherently kind and unwilling to kill, but naturally cautious. He estimated that when it attacked, it would be an instant kill.

Chen Jin was almost certain that this hunt was a hundred percent failure. However, it allowed him to understand the moth’s strength, and he could make targeted preparations upon his return, which could be considered achieving his expectations.

With that thought, he decided to ignore the moth and observe the surrounding scenery.

The scene was quite chaotic, with cracks and deep pits scattered everywhere on the ground, clearly indicating that a large-scale battle had occurred here.

The two giant beasts did not die naturally either; they were struck down from the sky. One could see fracture marks on their bones.

Chen Jin leaned in and touched them. Perhaps the storage conditions in this deep ravine were poor, or perhaps these two giant beasts were not of high rank. Their massive remains had clearly been eroded, and their physical strength had significantly decreased. Chen Jin even felt he could destroy them with True Force.

He tried to use Ancient Mirror Teleportation on these things. Due to their massive size, even a single bone would cost hundreds of energy points. But looking at their physical strength, Chen Jin felt it wouldn’t be worth it to teleport them back.

“The opportunities here should not be with these two giant beasts. These two beasts were clearly just used to pull the gate.”

Chen Jin speculated that in the past, when this place had not yet decayed, by driving away these two giant beasts, one could open the Bronze Giant Gate behind them by pulling the iron chains connected to it.

With that thought, Chen Jin looked up at the gate.

He could feel a dense flow of Primordial Qi escaping outwards through the cracks in the gate.

“The Primordial Qi in the area where this moth is located is about three times that of my initial teleportation location, slightly less than near the Golden Corpse.”

“But this level of Primordial Qi is only seeping out through this gate! How concentrated would the Primordial Qi be inside the Bronze Giant Gate? Five times? Ten times?”

Thinking of this, Chen Jin couldn’t help but get excited. If he could open this Bronze Giant Gate, perhaps he could further remodel his body with Primordial Qi.

“Furthermore, what kind of miraculous item would be the source of this Primordial Qi?”

However

Chen Jin looked up at the hundred-meter-tall Bronze Giant Gate and felt he was probably overthinking things.

“This thing, even ten heavy trucks couldn’t pull it, right?”

“Not to mention that although the temperature in this deep valley is much lower than outside, it’s still one to two hundred degrees. A truck’s engine simply couldn’t withstand it.”

“But there’s no need to use traditional machinery. Perhaps I can use some kind of thruster?”

“For example, strapping rocket engines to the iron chains. With the thrust of rocket engines, there should be hope of pulling open this Bronze Giant Gate.”

“Or perhaps blast it open directly with explosives? But it would probably take at least tens of thousands of tons of TNT to have any hope, right?”

After seriously considering it, he ended up laughing at himself.

These ideas were just brainstorming for fun. Even if they were theoretically feasible, the practical execution would be extremely difficult, let alone the cost.

He felt he shouldn’t aim too high and should first honestly figure out how to kill the moth and teleport it back to sell for money.

Coincidentally.

The moth thought the same.

Just as Chen Jin was secretly pondering, he suddenly felt his body stiffen, as if an invisible force had pounced on him, pinning down all his limbs!

Chen Jin was greatly alarmed and tried to resist with all his might, but he was then horrified to find that the familiar sense of strength did not come. His muscles felt as if they had been anesthetized; instead of tensing, they went limp and he collapsed.

“How, when did I get poisoned?”

This was Chen Jin’s first reaction, but he soon realized that this wasn’t like being poisoned and cutting off his connection to his body. It felt more like a suppression… from a soul level!

That’s right, he could feel that the invisible force had nothing to do with the material plane, but was directly suppressing his soul!

Before Chen Jin could figure out how to counter this force, a terrifying “buzzing” sound rang out. Chen Jin turned his eyeballs, his peripheral vision catching sight of the moth, which had somehow flown to his side. Its extremely human-like face contorted slightly, its mouthparts moving, and Chen Jin felt a mixture of longing and curiosity.

It seemed curious about the taste of his flesh and blood?

The next moment, the moth’s mouth split open from beneath its head, revealing its millstone-like bony maw.

It gently bit Chen Jin’s calf, and with a single closing motion, Chen Jin’s calf was crushed with no resistance, as if placed in a hydraulic press.

The moth didn’t rush to swallow. Instead, like an elegant gentleman, it ground Chen Jin’s calf bit by bit, quietly enjoying this rare blood meal until even the bones were completely ground to powder. Only then did it pick up Chen Jin’s immobile body and begin the next stage of feeding.