It's been two weeks since Bian left the Shelter of the Dead. He chose a random path and moved straight ahead.
Strangely, he never encountered any creature above the ordinary rank. And even the ordinary creatures he met were only two.
He met a few more zombies here and there, but they couldn't aid with his evolution in any way.
[Geno Points Acquired: 69 Ordinary Geno Points; 7 Primitive Geno Points, 7 Mutant Geno Points]
Much to his dismay, Bian had to dress and smoke the creatures instead of using the cauldron. There was never any guarantee that he would meet another creature, so he had to be frugal with the 'little' food he had.
Step by step, the blistering sun showed him no mercy. Not a second went by that he didn't pray to see something, anything at all, other than the dead, cracked ground beneath his feet.
'If I could find a shelter, it would be even better. I'd be able to strengthen the Solum Mirror and finally let it advance.'
As Bian was lost in thought, his shoulder crashed into a solid object.
"What the..."
If he was running, he would have surely been injured by... the invisible wall?
He placed his palm in front, feeling a smooth glass-like texture. He knocked on it twice to get a feel of its hardness and Bian was quite surprised by it.
"I don't think I can break this barrier."
He summoned the Scornful Bane, the Berserk Mutant beast soul katana which had gone back to its pristine form. A deadly slash landed on the barrier, causing the blade to bounce back.
Bian felt the reverberation of his attack in his hands, as they trembled incessantly. The barrier didn't even bulge one bit.
"Is it a wall?" Bao'er asked him.
Although it felt smooth and even, Bian couldn't be sure if it was a wall. He placed a palm on the barrier and moved alongside it.
"Let me check."
Not wanting to waste much time, he broke out in a sprint for at least ten minutes. His palm maintained contact with the barrier throughout.
Finally, when he came to a stop, he observed that his trailing footsteps were somewhat curved instead of moving in a straight line.
"I think we might be in a dome, Bao'er." Bian told her, but Bao'er looked confused by the word.
"A dome is like an upside-down bowl, that means..."
Bian tossed up the katana and held it in the midsection. Then he threw it towards the sky.
"We're completely enclosed."
The Scornful Bane flew high, before it hit the invisible dome with a loud clink and collapsed to the ground.
"If it's an upside-down bowl, can't we just go under it?" Bao'er asked with eyes sparkling, full of curiosity.
"That's actually quite clever." Bian smiled, very pleased with her reasoning and gave her a pat on the head.
He unsummoned the Scornful Bane, then activated Terraslip and went underground.
Bang!
'Still here, I'll just have to go deeper.'
The deeper Bian went, the more his hope faded. The barrier seemed to be present no matter where he went.
He had to give up and return to the surface.
"Alright Bao'er, this isn't a dome. It's a sphere. A very big, invisible but solid sphere which is like a circle."
"How do we get out?" she asked him. Bao'er also wanted to leave the desolate area.
Bian could only release a heavy sigh before he responded.
"We either have to break the barrier, or there might be an exit somewhere."
'So there was a large barrier present outside the shelter. That's probably what prevented the zombies from wandering about, and is probably the reason they all gathered to the shelter.'
That which acted as a barrier to protect the outside world, now acted as a cage that trapped Bian within.
Since it's a barrier created to hold even sacred-blood undead, it would take at least a super creature to break it. Bian definitely had no hope of destroying it anytime soon.
He rubbed his temple and contemplated his next moves.
It took two weeks for him to get to the edge of the barrier. How long would it take to search the entire area?
Half a year?
He couldn't afford to waste time like that. Not when the Executioners were getting stronger by the day.
"What do we do now?" Bao'er sighed and her belly rumbled afterwards.
Bian gave her a portion of smoked meat.
At least Bao'er was well fed and protected, since he fused the two beast souls of the ordinary creatures he killed into a Primitive armor.
Now they were worried about getting more water.
"What can we do? We're already coming from the center of the barrier. It would take too long to search the entire thing."
Although Bian said this, they really had no choice but to search the entire area. If they found a teleporter, then they could at least return home.
"How do you know we came from the center?" she asked him.
Bian was about to answer when he suddenly paused.
He didn't know they came from the center. He had just assumed so, especially since it would be reasonable to form the barrier with the infected shelter at the epicenter.
But how could he be sure that the shelter was the primary target of the barrier?
Bian suddenly jolted to his feet as realization hit him.
When he crashed into the barrier for the first time, it was shoulder first.
This meant he definitely wasn't walking from the center, as he should have crashed into it face first if he was.
"Bao'er, you're my lucky charm. Let's go to the center and see what we can find."
Bian picked her up and rested his back against the barrier, making sure to face the direction perpendicular to the tangent of that point.
In other words, the radius.
He moved straight to the center of the sphere.
Amazingly, he had acquired a geno core from one of the ordinary creatures he killed which could filter water from any liquid.
He used it to filter out the water from the blood and that water had lasted them previously, but now it was running dangerously low.
Bian decided to save the rest for Bao'er, since he could still manage for at least a month without food or water.
Already growing tired of the same scenery, he didn't waste any time appreciating the environment. They made a beeline straight to the center of the mysterious barrier.
Two weeks passed by in the blink of an eye.
The sunny skies overhead suddenly turned dark with heavy rainclouds forming.
Bian had to pause and look into the skies.
In all the time he spent here, not once had the weather changed.
The time always cycled between day and night, but the weather was always consistent.
Extremely sunny at day and almost pitch black at night.
He took a few steps back and the incandescent heat of the sun assaulted him once more.
With a few steps forward, the weather turned gloomy in an instant.
Bian and Bao'er turned to face each other, then looked straight ahead.
It was supposed to be sunny at this time of the day, but the path before them was eerily dark.
Not the same pitch black as night, but a disturbing darkness that came with rainy weather.
Green thunder flashed in the clouds, but not a drop of rain could be seen.
'Well, it's between this and the zombie-infested shelter.'
Although his fear of the unknown was great, it wasn't enough to diminish his courage to the extent that he would avoid the unknown no matter what.
Besides, all that awaited him in the zombie shelter were mad beasts of the sacred-blood rank which he couldn't even begin to follow in combat.
As Bian strode ahead, he couldn't help but wonder if he should activate the Emperical Aura.
On one hand, it would allow him to see any danger long before it approached him.
But on the other hand, it could also alert any creature residing in the depths of the central plains.
Eventually, he decided against activating it and moved carefully instead.
His camouflage and presence hiding wasn't going to fool any strong creature, plus there was no Ash Princess to take the fall for him this time.
The Dongxuan Aura was much more suitable since it couldn't be traced by most creatures and consumed very little energy in consumption.
Bian moved ahead with purpose, avoiding any reckless actions that could potentially bring dangers.
That meant no running, no loud noises and always checking the environment before he advanced.