4: Chapter 4: Unexploring the Hidden Land

He used the Space Channel to transport heavy stones one by one, repeatedly stacking and adjusting them. He laid large bluestones on the ground to raise it and prevent moisture, used medium-sized stones to fence off a tidy living area, and then filled the gaps with fine gravel to tamp down the ground.

After busying himself back and forth for a long time, a stable place to stay finally took shape.

Even with the ability to use the space, his entire body was already soaked with sweat. Sticky sweat mixed with dust clung to his skin, feeling stuffy and uncomfortable.

The only set of clothes he had on was already stiffened with sweat stains and covered in grime.

He looked around; the world was desolate. The entire Taoyuan Secret Realm belonged solely to him—it was absolutely private, safe, and there was no possibility of being disturbed.

"It's my own territory; I'll wear clothes if I want to and won't if I don't. I'm going to run around naked, who agrees and who disagrees!"

In the Taoyuan Secret Realm, there wasn't even a single flying bird, so naturally, no one answered.

Mo Yufei simply stripped off all his clothes and walked slowly into the pond naked. The cold stream water washed over him, instantly dispelling the heat and fatigue from his body.

He bent down to scoop up the stream water, carefully rinsing his body to wash away all the dust and sweat. Afterward, he picked up his discarded clothes, repeatedly rubbed and wrung them out in the clear water, thoroughly scrubbing away the dust and sweat stains.

He draped the clean clothes over smooth stones on the bank to dry, while he stood naked in the shallow water, letting the cool stream water envelop his body. Only then did he feel a dull, cramping pain in his abdomen.

His heart sank, and he immediately understood that it must have been the cold and bitter grass roots he had swallowed in his hunger. After all, how could a modern person have ever eaten such things?

But stranded in a desperate situation, he had no other choice. Even with waves of abdominal pain, he could only grit his teeth and endure it.

Over the next few days, he relied on handfuls of cold water and bitter, hard-to-swallow grass roots, struggling to hold on amidst hunger, abdominal pain, and exhaustion.

After surviving the long night of the sixth day, the light on the seventh day remained dim.

Mo Yufei checked his status panel.

Name: Mo Yufei

Status: Extremely Weak (Hungry, Indigestion)

Five Basic Physical Attributes:

Strength: 2

Constitution: 5

Speed: 3

Spirit: 8

Endurance: 4

Backpack Space: 51% full

Shelter Information:

Name: Taoyuan Secret Realm (Independent Micro-world)

Level: 1 (Upgradable)

Function: Space Channel (Energy 7/6)

Mo Yufei put away the panel, hoping that when he teleported, he would be sent to a place with food.

The Taoyuan Secret Realm had day and night cycles; during the day, the sun could not be seen, and the light was dim, like an overcast day, but at night, the starry sky could be seen.

Mo Yufei curled up on the largest stone he could find. The cramping pain in his stomach had not yet dissipated, and his body was so weak and sore that he couldn't lift his arms. His chapped lips stung every time they moved, and hunger and exhaustion had long since tortured him to the point of numbness.

Instinct was still supporting him, keeping him from falling completely into a coma.

Just as his consciousness was fading, a slight buzzing sound suddenly came from his mind. Immediately after, a light blue, semi-transparent panel appeared before his eyes without any warning.

He was stunned for a moment, forcing his scattered focus to look at the panel, his gaze fixed firmly on the shelter section at the bottom.

The originally gray interface was now glowing with a faint light. In the previously dormant function area, a teleportation button engraved with spatial patterns was slowly lighting up with a soft blue glow.

[Shelter: Taoyuan Secret Realm]

Level: 1 (Upgradable)

Function: Space Channel (Can be opened)

Use Shelter function?

The text was clear, and the glowing teleportation button hovered quietly in the center of the panel.

He did not hesitate any longer, his fingertips gently pressing on the illuminated teleportation icon.

The next moment, a large area of twisting and rotating gray mist suddenly surged before him. The churning mist carried obscure spatial fluctuations; it was the Space Channel leading to the myriad worlds.

He did not hesitate for a moment, forcing his weak body to take a step into the surging gray mist.

The twisting and rotating gray mist, carrying obscure spatial fluctuations, engulfed him completely. After a brief sensation of weightlessness, his feet landed heavily on solid ground.

It was a hard, slightly gritty concrete road, and before him lay a street he knew all too well.

A faded bus stop sign stood by the road, and he could recite the bus routes on it backward.

The glass door of the convenience store nearby was half-open, and the lettering on the sign was a familiar pattern he would glance at twice every day on his way to work.

The office building standing in the distance was the very place he worked, and even the billboard on the side of the building was exactly the same as the one in his memory.

Even the breakfast shop at the corner that he often visited had its rolling shutter half-pulled down; everything was exactly the same as the world he originally lived in.

The smell of car exhaust, the lingering scent of street food, the smell of dust—these smells that he once found mundane or even annoying were now incredibly vivid.

Having struggled for seven days in the Taoyuan Secret Realm, barely surviving on grass roots and spring water, and finally waiting for the shelter's teleportation function, he had imagined countless worst-case scenarios in his mind.

He thought he would be teleported to a dangerous cultivation world, facing the slaughter of demonic beasts and cultivators.

Or perhaps he would fall into a fantasy magic world, encounter unknown, eerie creatures, or even end up in a more desolate wasteland to continue his survival.

He was full of anxiety and vigilance toward the world he was about to arrive in, and even held a sliver of expectation for an alien world, but he never imagined that he would actually return to this ordinary, plain world—a world without spiritual energy, without magic, and as mundane as could be.

Mo Yufei stood frozen on the spot, his body still covered in the mud and grass clippings from the Taoyuan Secret Realm, his chapped lips slightly parted, his heart filled with a complex mix of emotions.

There was the relief of surviving a disaster, but even more so, an inexplicable sense of disappointment. It was clearly a return to a familiar place, yet it caught him off guard more than traveling to any strange, alien world ever could.

It wasn't until a faint, chaotic noise reached his ears that he slowly snapped out of the absurdity and disappointment of this teleportation.

An extremely shrill scream suddenly pierced the sky, one after another, making one's scalp tingle.

Immediately following, the sound of chaotic and panicked footsteps surged like a tide, and countless figures fled wildly from the alleys and shops on both sides of the street.

Their clothes were disheveled, their faces pale as paper, and their eyes filled with extreme terror. Some people didn't even bother to pick up their shoes when they fell off, just focusing on rushing forward, crying out in terror.

"Run! There's a monster!"

"Don't look back! Get out of here!"

The panicked shouts reached his ears intermittently. He stood in the opposite direction of the fleeing crowd, standing alone in place, his face full of confusion and helplessness.

The lingering pain in his stomach from eating grass roots for days remained, and his body was weak and powerless. He had just escaped from the desolate Taoyuan Secret Realm, only to return to a familiar city in the blink of an eye, yet the scene before him was bizarre and terrifying.

Mo Yufei furrowed his brows, his gaze sweeping over the chaotic crowd around him, his heart full of questions: What exactly happened? What were these people afraid of, and what were they running from?

He was still trapped in the shock and disappointment of returning to a familiar city, standing there absent-mindedly, but the shrill, rising and falling screams in his ears became increasingly piercing, suddenly waking him up.

Mo Yufei shuddered, suddenly coming to his senses. He instinctively looked in the direction from which the screams came. The next second, his blood seemed to freeze instantly, and a bone-chilling cold rushed from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, making every hair on his body stand up.

In the middle of the street not far away, a person in tattered clothes, covered in dark red stains, was pouncing wildly like a beast onto a passerby who couldn't escape in time.

Its movements were stiff yet swift, completely devoid of any human reason. It opened its bloodshot mouth and bit fiercely into the neck of the person beneath it. The ear-piercing sound of chewing and the victim's painful whimpers, mixed with the smell of blood, drilled into his ears.

The people around were terrified out of their wits, only caring about fleeing desperately; no one dared to step forward to stop it.

Mo Yufei froze on the spot, his hands and feet cold, his mind blank, and his whole body trembling violently and uncontrollably.

This bloody, absurd, and terrifying scene before his eyes ruthlessly shattered all of his luck.

An absurd yet incredibly clear thought exploded wildly in his mind—

This is... a zombie?!

Those terrifying creatures that only existed in movies and novels had now actually appeared before his eyes, appearing in this world he thought was familiar and safe.

Extreme fear instantly gripped his heart, making it difficult even to breathe. The lingering pain in his stomach was completely suppressed, leaving only boundless panic that rendered him unable to move.