A Failure's hopeful Journey

Chapter 178: Saxa Deserti.

The Imperial Sector team was the first to go through the tunnel. The process was not very hectic. It was quick and smooth. The teams all operated the random selector and then stepped into the teleporter. 

The dimensional pockets were not only diverse in the time flow but also the environment inside was completely different. It was said that some of the dimensional pockets were used to be inhabited by the natives who perished over time leaving behind their inheritances. These inheritances could be anything varying from Weapons, pills, techniques to technology, moral teachings. they were just lying there, waiting for someone to find them and claim them as his/her own. But don't make any mistakes these dimensional pockets are all unexplored areas. They are dangerous if you take them all as a joke. Some time ago a team of explorers headed by a Primal Soul expert entered a dimensional pocket. The team consisted of ten people. 

After a month only one person came back. The survivor reported how the team discovered a ruin. They explored the ruin but when they were returning from collecting the treasures they fell into a killing array. The grade of the array was unknown to them and after struggling for five days their team leader died. Th rest of the team followed. The survivor was only able to keep his life. He suffered from dementia and became a cripple forever. This was why the team members in this assessment were all repeatedly advised to be calm and careful. Also, they were asked to sign a no liability form, and a consent form was signed by the guardians of those who were not yet legally adults.

The teams continued to pass through the tunnel for 2 hours before it was You Xi Wang's turn. When his name was called to come to the stage You Xi Wang spoke to his master via text message, "Master, my teacher has a special condition. Can you send her back to Silica City?"

Alester Book replied, "Don't worry, I will personally watch over it."

You Xi Wang turned to Madison Midnight and spoke in a soft voice, "Teacher, someone will come to take you back to Silica City. Please stay here, okay?"

Madison understood that You Xi Wang made arrangements for her. She felt warm in her heart and replied, "I will follow your arrangements. Also, take care inside, be extra cautious. We all will be waiting for you all to come back safely, okay?"

You Xi Wang and the others spoke in unison, "Yes, Teacher." then they all walked over to the teleporter tunnel. Under the guidance of the introducer, You Xi Wang pressed the switch of the random selection panel. 

The panel was flickering with images of the dimensional pockets constantly. Just as the switch was pressed the picture froze and a rough desert came to their sight. You Xi Wang glanced at the brief description of the dimension they were going to enter. He did not get the opportunity to talk about this with his friends and the team was dragged inside the teleportation tunnel by a strong suction force. 

They all were holding hands when the suction force engulfed them. This was a precaution to prevent them from being teleported to different places. The Council had provided them with a protection jade which was carved with a mini teleportation array. This array would be triggered when the jade is cracked. The moment you are teleported to the council safe house, that is the moment you will be eliminated from the competition. These jades also worked as a life sign monitor. Another mini array was engraved on the jade piece. This array worked as an observation system. It would transmit some sort of signal across the dimensions, displaying their life status. 

...

In a desolate land, where there is no sign of shade as far as the eye could see, the void fluctuated. Soon a group of people emerged at the epicenter. This group was none other than You Xi Wang and his team. The people looked around in a daze. They were all still confused because of teleportation just now. It was the first time they have been through such a situation. Gradually, clarity returned to their eyes. 

Fenny looked around and kicked You Xi Wang in the shin and said, "Brat Wang, how come you are such a jinx? See, where you dragged us."

You Xi Wang rubbed his shin with an aggrieved reaction and said, "It's not my fault okay. Rather than fighting let's get to work. Settle down and I will give you guys an intro of this place."

The team quickly formed a huddle. You Xi Wang spoke, "This place is called, SAXA DESERTI. Meaning, the Stone Desert. The ground we stand on here is made of hard rock. As for what kind of rock Neo will analyst it later. The place is named as such because as you can see. As far as the eye can see it is a barren rock land. Though the explorer who was responsible to scout this place reported this place to be mountainous terrain."

Hercules made a weird face and spoke, "Why doesn't it show any mountain on the Hyperwave receiver?"

Hyperwave receiver, a tab style gadget fitted with micro receivers to interpret the sound waves emitted by the worldly structures. This gadget would have worked fine on Metropia or any other planet as the rotation of the planet makes everything such as mountains, oceans, lakes, deserts, and plains emit a different kind of natural structures to emit soundwaves due to the rotation. But inside the dimensions, the plains are constantly in a state of rest. 

Fenny smacked Hercules on the head and spoke, "Muscle Mountain, this is a dimension, the world is in a state of rest. How to emit hyper waves?" she was the don of the team. Only some people were spared of her ridicule. Though it was good as her bubbly temperament kept the atmosphere from getting bland. 

You Xi Wang spoke, "Well this place is a piece of good news and a piece of bad news. Which one first?"

You Zhichi spoke, "Bad one."

You Xi Wang replied, "The spirit energy here is lower as you guys would have already felt by now. And we might not be able to find a source of food and water for a few days." he glanced at everyone as they sighed and their shoulders dropped. 

Yuki asked, "The good news?"

He again spoke, "This place has a spirit lake under the surface."

Lena asked with a weird face, "Captian, did you not say that the spirit energy here is lower in concentration."

You Xi Wang nodded and said, "This place is a contradiction, the spirit energy is condensed into liquid form. The rock in this place is the cause of this anomaly. This thing extracts the spirit energy in the air and condenses it into a liquid form which is channeled under the surface. This is why this place is so desolate. If you try to cast any spirit to construct in this place. It will fall within a day no matter how big it is. "

Neo squatted down and used his physical strength to dig out a handful of rock from the surface. He tried to sense the earth element inside the rock. the more he sensed the more surprised and weird his face became. Fenny asked, "Bro, are you okay?"

Neo spoke in a trembling voice, "This thing is not natural. The composition of the rock is not what can be called natural."

His words made the others change faces and Allan spoke, "Calm down and then explain." his patience helped Neo calm down. He stood up and spoke, "Usually every kind of rock, stone, mud, and sand will contain some sort of imperfection. Like rocks are brittle, mud is soft, sand is too loose. Yet this ground is perfect. I can mold it, carve it and blow it with a breath. How can something like this be natural?"

Finally, everyone realized the problem. They did not figure out the origins of this rock ground but they all understood that this place sure wasn't easy to survive in. Neo dropped the rock in his hand and the ground acted like water. The dug-out piece connected back again and if not for knowing where it has been dug out from, one would never know about this. 

You Xi Wang squinted his eyes at the phenomena in front of him and said, "Looks like we cannot dig an underground cave to live." as he shook his head.

You Zhichi spoke, "Now, either we select a direction and move forward to explore, or we set up camp here?"

Everyone was silent, they have never expected this survival test would be so weird. You Xi Wang took out two iron rods of the same length. He bends them and held them in his hands. He started to walk around and suddenly felt the rod in his hand tremble. He shifted his stance and the rods started trembling more and more. He spoke to the team as they watched his weird act, "Let's move in this direction. Maybe we could find something.

Illahi asked him, "Captain, what were you doing with those roads?"

Fenny asked with confusion, "Detecting magnetic field?"

You Xi Wang replied as he shook his head, "Half true, I was detecting but it was not magnetic field."

Fenny opened her eyes wide and spoke, "This world is at rest, so no motion means no magnetic fields. What did you detect?"

You Xi Wang replied, "Spirit energy field. I circulated the spirit energy in a loop just like a magnetic field. You know that Spirit energy resonates with itself right? So the loop through the iron rods sensed the varying density of the field."

Everyone spoke in unison, "NERD."

You Xi Wang pursued his lips and inside his heart, he thought, 'It was just a wild guess. How would I know if this method works?'

The system spoke, [Good, guess.]

You Xi Wang thanked the system and the group carried on with their journey to the eastern hemisphere. They walked in a queue and followed You Xi Wang, who guided them with the two iron rods.