Five Frozen Centuries

Wei Huo stopped heading southward. His original purpose for heading south was to go to the Aerial Peak. However, he realized something throughout his nearly 20-Year journey.

Wei Huo realized that the Aerial Peak never seemed to increase or decrease in size no matter how near or far away he was from it. In other words, the rules of linear perspective[1] were not applicable for the Aerial Peak.

It was a known rule of perspective that objects would appear smaller when the distance was further, and objects would appear larger when the distance was nearer. However, the case was different for the Aerial Peak. Its size remained the same no matter one was near or far away from it.

Wei Huo realized that he might be arriving at the Aerial Peak in the next moment, or he might never reach the Aerial Peak no matter how long he walked because he could not estimate his distance with the Aerial Peak through its size.

Wei Huo had also noticed another problem. The gravitational force of the Earth was becoming stronger.

That was a problem that Wei Huo only noticed recently.

Here came the question. Under what circumstances will the gravitational force of a planet increase?

The answer is... An increase in density or volume[2].

The volume and density of Earth was increasing!

Although it did not influence Wei Huo much, it was destructive to humans after the time halt. Wei Huo’s concern grew. ‘Will humans become extinct because they couldn’t adapt to the current Earth after time halt ends?’

Fortunately, the time halt would only last for 300 years. That was a piece of information Lu Qiqi revealed to him. Although Wei Huo was curious how an artificial being like Lu Qiqi could know God’s plan, he still chose to believe in her.

‘There is still 100 years left before the time halt ends. I should head southeast to find that heritage, and then head back to the Northern continent to search for my parents. I will then build a shelter to protect my relatives and friends.’

However, Wei Huo had been thinking deeply after his encounter with the Demonic Ants. ‘What is God?’

Combining the Demonic Ants’ perspective towards humans, Wei Huo thought that God was neither benevolent nor cruel.

It was impossible for humans to guess God’s plan because both parties were on a different playing field.

Wei Huo thought he had uncovered the truth. However, he realized in the end that he had taken it for granted. It was as though he accidentally scattered sesame seeds outside anthills and this small action led the ants to think that the Ant God had presented them a gift.

That was why Wei Huo decided not to guess God’s will anymore. He continued heading southeast. With the stone-recorded scent, Wei Huo found the cave easily.

Similar to the Water Curtain Cave[3] in Journey to the West, the cave was hidden behind a waterfall. Wei Huo saw a strange big cat as soon as he set foot into the cave.

The big cat was at least six to seven meters tall, but it was currently sleeping on a moist gigantic stone. Wei Huo observed carefully and realized that the big cat was different from normal cats. Its fangs were long like a saber-toothed tiger, and it had dark purple fur. It looked very weird.

Wei Huo could see that the dark purple cat was ranked Rare through its Information Feed. According to his past experiences, it seemed like every cave was guarded by a Rare-ranked creature.

There was also a snake guarding the first cave that Wei Huo discovered. However, it had not evolved back then as Wei Huo went in too early. That snake would probably already be Rare-ranked if he were to go back now.

Probably due to Wei Huo’s passive skill effect, the Rare purple cat was fast asleep even when Wei Huo entered the cave.

However, come to think of it, that cat might be pretending to be asleep. After all, Wei Huo’s attack bar was at 367, but the purple cat’s attack bar was only at 101.

Wei Huo came across some humans protected by the golden light during his journey in search of the cave, they looked like statues. All creatures ignored them and treated them as part of the landscape. Wei Huo would ignore them at times. However, he checked the Normal humans’ attack bar this time.

As a result, Normal humans’ attack bar was only at one. Even the highest was only at three.

Humans were at the bottom of nature’s pyramid in terms of attacking power. Fortunately, Wei Huo did not discover any creature that has higher intelligence than humans.

The Intelligence Bar of human beings was generally over 80, but the Demonic Ants with the highest intelligence in the natural world were only at 60. The Intelligence Bar of the purple cat in front of Wei Huo now, was only at 45.

Intelligence has always been humanity’s advantage. Through knowledge, they became the Earth’s most powerful race. That was why humans still had a huge advantage even when time was halted.

Wei Huo believed that humans would reach the top of nature’s pyramid if they improved themselves with their advantages.

Wei Huo ignored the purple cat that was sleeping soundly as he was too desperate in getting the heritage. If the purple cat was still there after he got the heritage, he did not mind obtaining one extra Magical Stone. 𝑓𝑟eℯ𝒘𝗲𝑏n𝑜𝚟𝙚𝒍.𝒄o𝐦

Wei Huo walked deep into the cave. After an hour, Wei Huo discovered a plain stone door. However, not a single trace was left on the door even with Wei Huo’s destructive punch.

Come to think of it, the door should be protected by rules. Just like how game characters could not destroy the door of instances or some particular items.

How could he open the door?

Wei Huo was confused. There was not even a single hint on the door!

He examined the door. The door seemed to be made up of normal granite. However, Wei Huo would have blasted open the door with his punch if it was normal granite.

It appears that merely using brute force would not work.

“Looks like it’s time for solving puzzles. Finally, I can show off my intelligence as a human being! If the Demonic Ants can solve puzzles, as a human, I can definitely do it too!” Wei Huo was confident.

In the end, three hours went by...

Dispirited, Wei Huo sat on the ground while mumbling, “What f*cking door is this? There’s no clue at all. At least give me some hints!”

‘There must be some hints. I’m the one who didn’t find them.”

Wei Huo recalled the characteristics of the Demonic Ants. There must be some reason why Demonic Ants could obtain the heritages. Come to think of it, the Demonic Ants could not hear and see. However, they had a very developed sense of taste. Moreover, they communicated through scents.

Thinking of this Wei Huo started twitching his nose, trying to get a sniff of the smell nearby.

Humans had too many organs. If one was not focused, they could only feel it when there was a strong sensory stimulation. However, one would be able to pick up the abnormality easier if they focused their attention on one sense. ƒ𝘳𝗲𝑒𝒘𝐞𝚋𝚗𝐨v𝘦l.𝒄o𝐦

For example, at this moment, Wei Huo focused all his attention on his nose, and instantly caught a faint fragrance wafted through his nose.

Wei Huo followed this faint fragrance and moved forward. After about 10 minutes, he entered an unfamiliar place before proceeding banging his head into a wall.

Wei Huo was left speechless. “...”

It was a fake wall!

Attracted by the door, Wei Huo had only searched for hidden traps within the area. He never thought that the real entrance would be at another location.

[1] Linear perspective in painting is a set of rules used to draw 3-dimensional objects on a flat (2-dimensional) surface. There are two basic rules of linear perspective and one of them includes objects that are closer appears bigger. http://draw23.com/perspective

[2] There were speculations that the force of gravity of a planet increases as the planet’s density and radius increase. https://www.livescience.com/what-if-super-earth.html

[3] The Water Curtain Cave is an area featured within the famed Chinese novel ”Journey to the West”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Huaguo#Water_Curtain_Cave