Chapter 797: Chapter 497: Exploration (Part 2)

The results of the probing made Wang Zhifan realize that the island was not a good place to set foot on. If he attempted to go up there, a battle was bound to occur. The outcome of the battle was uncertain; he was likely to win, but there might be a cost to pay.

"There’s no need to step into unknown danger just to satisfy a bit of curiosity. At the very least, I should figure out what gains can be made before taking action... I’ll mark the location for now."

After some thought, Wang Zhifan decided to retreat. The primary reason was that the risks and rewards were not balanced: the enemy’s strength was definitely not weak, but the reward might very well be zero. He didn’t see the need to invite trouble upon himself.

This little incident made him realize that the introduction wasn’t wrong; this world harbors dangers and hides secrets, possessing significant exploration value.

He then wandered around the nearby area for a while longer, discovering that from this point, purple whirlwinds and floating islands became slightly more frequent.

In particular, those whirlwinds composed of purple mist—Wang Zhifan wasn’t clear about their nature—but they were undoubtedly a dangerous factor.

It’s just that Wang Zhifan’s survival and defense capabilities were strong enough that he didn’t need to pay much attention to the trouble they might cause, otherwise an ordinary person approaching them would likely be torn to shreds.

After searching for a while, Wang Zhifan discovered a second target that caught his attention.

It was a massive spaceship slowly navigating through the purple mist, its overall length surpassing a kilometer, resembling a colossal monster.

The cylindrical silver-gray metal hull, with a rugged, savage style adorned with many high-tech touches of firepower jets, made it an impressive sight.

Wang Zhifan sensed that there were many living creatures inside this spaceship, so he went invisible and slowly approached. After confirming that the creatures onboard hadn’t detected him, he used the Deceitful Shadow Shoes’ ability to walk through walls, invisibly penetrating into the interior, with the process being astonishingly smooth.

The interior of the spaceship had spaces of varying sizes, connected by a myriad of passages, with several bizarre and ugly-looking creatures actively and diligently performing their duties.

There were tentacle creatures that looked like cooked noodles intertwined together, short and sturdy potato-like beings with pointy tops, and possibly mutated bellflower-like pot creatures, providing a peculiar glimpse of how alien beings could appear capriciously and bizarrely.

He maintained his invisible state while touring the spaceship’s interior, ready for an outbreak of attacks should he be discovered. However, to his speechless surprise, these aliens, presumably of high technology, never once noticed the intruder in their territory; no one realized he was there.

Thus, Wang Zhifan grew bolder, searching along the way until he likely found the spaceship’s control or conference room. Within a space filled with strange instruments, he saw an alien resembling a pointed-top potato demonstrating something to other aliens.

From what he could see, the seemingly high-ranking potato-like alien used an instrument to project an image of a stone slab with a concave center, speaking continuously for several minutes without pause, followed by projecting a map-like object, speaking for an even longer period, meanwhile frequently pointing and gesturing on the map, projecting the concave stone slab once more, emotions oscillating between agitation and excitement.

Wang Zhifan couldn’t understand their language, not even able to determine if the monotonous noises they made constituted a language. Yet, he believed that the expressive methods of intelligent beings were universal, and gradually, he gleaned some understanding.

"The map they’re showing must concern this Void Realm; I can even make out the area I just visited on it... 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

From their demeanor, they appear to be searching for something here, likely that concave stone slab...

This stone slab is incredibly important to them, hence their restless urgency..."

Upon analyzing the aliens’ intentions in this place, Wang Zhifan couldn’t help but wonder what allure that unremarkably shaped, rough-looking concave stone slab in the projection had, to prompt such a team to persistently search in a perilous location.

The dangers stem from the fact that Wang Zhifan sensed these aliens’ physiques being rather weak, comparatively smaller even than that of regular Earth humans.

Their technology did not quite reach the heights of miraculous prowess either, and should they encounter dangers in the surrounding areas, such as facing a large purple whirlwind, they would likely face disaster, not to mention other hidden hazardous factors.

Indeed, things unfolded as Wang Zhifan suspected. Just when he intended to watch their meeting a bit longer, he suddenly sensed a terrifying presence appearing on the side of the spaceship, advancing rapidly towards it.

To avoid danger, he immediately left the spaceship to return to the external environment, witnessing an extraordinary giant beast emerging from the vast purple mist, approaching the alien spaceship with hostility.

The beast was not of flesh and blood, nor of steel or stone, but more like some sort of energy creature.

Overall, it resembled a purple moth with many fine hairs on its surface, the size spanning a hundred meters, and moving eerily and chillingly, it flapped and swiftly closed the gap to a thousand meters from the alien spaceship.

The alien spaceship was evidently very wary of this creature, commencing an immediate acceleration to flee, terrified of being touched by the eerie giant moth, not even utilizing any attack or deterrent measures.

However, as Wang Zhifan watched the spaceship pull further away, believing it had escaped to safety, he suddenly saw the hundred-meter-long purple moth appear abruptly in their path, colliding fiercely with them.

In an instant, the alien spaceship, stretching a kilometer in length, had its hull shattered, yet the hundred-meter-long purple moth remained unscathed, diving through the breach into the spaceship. The ship swiftly turned into fractured wreckage floating amidst the vast purple mist.

"How did that moth-like enormous creature suddenly appear in front of the spaceship? Just a moment ago, it was following behind."

Witnessing the entire course of events left Wang Zhifan deep in thought, suspecting that the moth possessed space-manipulating capabilities. Yet strangely, during the collision, he hadn’t felt any spatial disturbance, contrary to his understanding of space powers.

Driven by curiosity, he felt compelled to approach and observe the purple giant moth; however, during his stealthy approach, he suddenly realized the moth and the wrecked alien spaceship had vanished. The place where they were became a vacant spot, filled only with the slowly drifting purple mist.

This scene left Wang Zhifan even more perplexed, and he paused to contemplate for a while before deciding to leave.

But before departing, another spaceship suddenly appeared in his field of vision, sailing slowly from a distant location.

The spaceship appeared as silver-gray and cylindrical, with a unique rugged feeling that made Wang Zhifan realize it was an almost identical existence to the spaceship that disappeared earlier.

Yet in the next moment, he experienced a mental jolt, determining that it wasn’t merely similar but entirely the same spacecraft, only now it wasn’t destroyed, but had been returned to a perfect state.

"What the heck? It was all destroyed, yet it’s restored just like that? And where’s that purple giant moth?"

Full of bewilderment, Wang Zhifan decided to approach for observation, soon sensing that the moth which had entered the spaceship earlier was gone, and inside, the various aliens were in their normal working state, just as he found during his previous exploratory visit.

Such a bizarre occurrence completely defied his comprehension, and driven by curiosity, he infiltrated again to confirm.

But just before entry, he instinctively glanced towards another direction, suddenly discovering a purple dot moving in that direction, heading towards the spaceship’s path.

"Is that the purple moth from before? How did it suddenly move so far away?

No, this seems like some kind of reenactment, a continual reenactment of the previous collision event!"

Even without witnessing a second collision between the moth and the spaceship, Wang Zhifan’s intuition grew overwhelmingly strong, realizing that the situation before him was far from ordinary; what appeared as a coincidental occurrence was an inevitable scenario being endlessly recreated.