Abyss Zones

In the woods, seven humanoid beings completely covered in armor and gear walked slowly forward. Suddenly, the one walking at the very front—a shapely figure clad in green armor—spoke up: "Captain, there's someone ahead." "A human subspecies, or some other humanoid race?" the humanoid being clad in red armor among the group asked in a low voice. The green-armored one shook her head. "I can't tell, but it's definitely not a Spartan Warrior." "Come, let's make contact. Everyone, be ready for combat," the red-armored leader decided after a moment of silence. The group then continued forward. Emerging from the woods, they first glanced at the colossal horned dragon lying dead on the ground before cautiously approaching Yu Xian and Little Nora. "Hello, we're members of the Kaman Hunting Group. I'm the frontliner, Chun Mu," the green-armored one stepped forward and said as amiably as possible. Yu Xian glanced at Little Nora. In an instant, their knowledge synchronized, allowing him to understand what Chun Mu said. This was not the common tongue of the Myriad Realms, but the language of Swamp Humans. Swamp Humans were a human subspecies that had lived in marshes and bogs for generations. Their skin was exceptionally smooth and moist, allowing them to move rapidly through mud and even remain underwater for hours without surfacing for breath. However, their weakness was equally evident: they were terrified of aridity. Once their skin lost moisture, it cracked easily, and they would rapidly lose hydration until they died. "Hello. I'm Salty Fish, and this is my partner, Little Nora," Yu Xian said, nodding with a smile as he looked at Chun Mu. Chun Mu stopped about four or five meters from the campfire and asked, "May we rest here for a bit? It would be a good opportunity for us to exchange information about this place." "Be my guest," Yu Xian nodded in agreement. In that brief instant, he had already finished conferring with Little Nora. The strongest among the seven was the one in red armor, whose combat power was 1—on par with Little Nora before her enhancement. The remaining six members possessed power between 0.8 and 0.9. Converting that into Earth's ranking system, the red-armored leader was God rank, while all the others were Dragon-rank. Without a doubt, this was a formidable team. As long as the Ancient Cosmos Dragon did not intervene, they were more than capable of sweeping through all the draconic creatures here. "Sir Salty Fish, have you also come in pursuit of the Forbidden Fruit?" The members of the Kaman Hunting Group sat together, taking out water canteens one after another to pour water into their armor, after which Chun Mu inquired politely. Yu Xian asked in surprise, "A Forbidden Fruit?" "Yes. A week ago, a Forbidden Fruit fell from the Abyss into this shattered plane. Did you not know?" Chun Mu nodded. Yu Xian shook his head. "I truly had no idea. My partner and I have been in this plane all along. Have many people entered?" "Several hundred factions, roughly. Most are relatively friendly, though there are a few you must watch out for," Chun Mu nodded. Just then, a woman in purple armor from the Kaman Hunting Group chimed in: "Take the Spartan Warriors, for instance. Their methods are exceedingly overbearing. The moment they spot competitors, they strike to kill. You must be extremely cautious if you run into them." "Spartan Warriors..." Yu Xian glanced at Zhenwo Changjing, but she clearly had no intention of offering an explanation, so he turned his gaze to Little Nora. In the next second, Little Nora's voice sounded in his mind: "Big Brother, I know about this! The Spartan Warriors are also known as Iron-Blooded Berserkers. Their king only became a Transcendent because of a Forbidden Fruit, and he eventually led their entire clan to take root on a world fragment in the Abyss, gradually becoming a local powerhouse there. That big sister is right. The Spartan Warriors take pride in dying in battle. Whenever they encounter competitors, they view them as enemies and fight to the bitter end." "That unhinged, and they haven't gone extinct yet? They must be pretty strong, huh?" Yu Xian couldn't resist remarking after hearing that. Chun Mu smiled wryly. "Ordinary Spartan Warriors are only at the Heaven Rank, but the Spartan King possesses peak Star Rank strength. Those weaker than him are no match for him, while those stronger than him wouldn't bother coming to such a remote and barren region in the first place." "..." Yu Xian was momentarily speechless. Judging by Chun Mu's words, this place was considered a relatively remote region of the Abyss? Curious, he asked, "The Abyss is divided into zones?" "Of course it is. The area we are in right now is the 'Carapace-5' zone. Powerhouses at or above the Li Rank generally don't come to areas like this; they stay in the 'Bone Zone' or the 'Viscera Zone.' There are even legendary powerhouses who venture into the Abyss's absolute forbidden zone, the 'Head Zone.'" Chun Mu was somewhat surprised by Yu Xian's lack of common knowledge, but nodded and explained. Yu Xian felt a bit confused after listening, and muttered, "The names of the zones in the Abyss are bizarre." "They're actually not hard to remember. There are two forbidden zones in the Abyss: the Head Zone and the Heart Zone. The rest are the Bone Zone, the Viscera Zone, the Skin Zone, and the Carapace Zone. However, each zone is further divided into sub-zones, and where we are now is the Carapace-5 sub-zone," Chun Mu said with a smile. Yu Xian frowned. "Why does that make it sound like the Abyss is a living creature and we're inside its body?" "Who knows? It's been called that since ancient times. Maybe the Abyss really is a colossal turtle, and we're standing on its shell for all we know," Chun Mu replied with a laugh. By this time, the roasted meat in Yu Xian's hands was done. He smiled and offered, "The roast is ready. Would you like some?" "No, thank you. We brought our own rations," Chun Mu politely declined, simultaneously retrieving a beverage from a storage ring, unclipping the mouthplate of her helmet, and chugging it down in hearty gulps. From then on, Yu Xian ate his meat while they drank their beverages, chatting back and forth occasionally. After resting for about fifteen minutes, the members of the Kaman Hunting Group rose to bid farewell and headed off in another direction. Clearly, they had deduced the route Yu Xian had arrived from and deliberately chosen the opposite way. Walking at the very front, Chun Mu spoke up only after they had put some distance between themselves and Yu Xian: "That person probably isn't an Abyssal. He's most likely a newcomer from some other world." "Even so, he is very strong. If we can foster goodwill, we should do our best not to offend him," the red-armored leader said. The woman in purple armor asked in surprise, "Very strong? How come I couldn't sense it?" "That yellow duck beside him is actually a Garuda. A single-ring Garuda's strength should be roughly on par with mine, and it is obviously Salty Fish's subordinate. Do you think this Salty Fish could be weak?" the leader explained flatly. Although he could not inspect Yu Xian's or Little Nora's stats, the leader was widely experienced and had roughly determined their strength based on Little Nora's physical characteristics alone. He simply could not be certain how much stronger Yu Xian was than him. Chun Mu smiled and said, "I noticed that as well, which is why I shared so much intelligence with Sir Salty Fish. Who knows, perhaps we might become friends in the future." Under normal circumstances, even after confirming the other party was not an enemy, they wouldn't have provided so much free information like this. Chun Mu's judgment was actually slightly sharper than the leader's. She had an intuition that Yu Xian was exceptionally confident—so confident that he had no fear whatsoever of ill intent from them, which was why he had sat calmly by the campfire the entire time. This meant that unless Yu Xian was playing an Empty Fort Strategy, he was unquestionably formidable—powerful enough to eliminate all seven of them in an instant. Meanwhile, listening to the group's conversation, Yu Xian came to a sudden realization. *So that's what they were thinking.* He realized that even without exposing his strength, his attitude alone had leaked a great deal of information. He truly was still too green.