Chapter 101: Dreamstone

Oh my god! This is really a dream stone! Zhang Pu was stunned for a moment. He could never have imagined that such a thing existed on Earth. Seeing the look in Zhang Pu’s eyes, the ninja was inwardly shocked. But before he could speak, Zhang Pu asked, “Where did you obtain this?”

When the ninja first got the stone, its fantastical appearance had completely captivated him. It did not resemble a stone in the slightest, yet it had the tactile quality of one. Thinking it a treasure, he had picked it up. Later, when he took it to various appraisers, none could identify its value. At high prices, no one would accept it, and at low prices, he could not bear to part with it, so it remained untouched for a long time. In his own heart, the ninja had always suspected it might be something precious.

Now that Zhang Pu was inquiring in this manner, his curiosity was piqued even further. Yet Zhang Pu seemed to have already set his sights on the item. The ninja felt a pang of reluctance, but the situation was one in which arms could not twist an opponent’s thigh. He did not believe he could do anything about it. Even if he were unwilling, attempting to wrest the stone away from Zhang Pu would be futile.

Thus, the ninja could only speak the truth: he had found it on a remote sea island off the northernmost tip of the island nation, near one belonging to the Rakshasa Kingdom.

Zhang Pu searched his memories as if imagining the region, wondering whether any legends or reports existed there concerning spatiotemporal tunnels. For the moment, he found nothing. Even having lived two lives, he had heard little of such matters on Earth.

The dream stone was indeed the essential prerequisite for a teleportation array. The array and the spatiotemporal tunnel possessed a remarkable similarity in their workings. As Zhang Pu held the stone and examined it, his conviction grew that it could not be of Earth origin. This stone existed only in the cultivation realm! Zhang Pu concluded.

This stone allowed one to create and activate teleportation arrays, transporting people through spatiotemporal tunnels to distant locations. Zhang Pu had remained in the cultivation world for a thousand years, even reaching the stage of crossing tribulations. He knew that after core formation, experts could craft teleportation arrays using such dream stones, supplemented by advanced spells and incantations to realize the dream. Of course, the distance the array could transmit depended on the builder’s personal ability.

“Is this your treasured collection?” Zhang Pu said calmly, as if speaking to himself rather than to the ninja.

“Yes,” the ninja answered honestly.

“I will keep it for you,” Zhang Pu declared, his tone leaving no room for doubt. It was as if the tiger had borrowed the pig and would never return it.

The ninja had no choice.

That fully concluded the matter.

Emerging from the cave, the ninja glanced up at the steep slope ahead. Such a slope would be dangerous even if one rushed down, and ascending would be like climbing to heaven. If it had been the ninja himself, he would have chosen a detour, at least for safety’s sake.

But Zhang Pu chose to climb it directly.

“I can still manage this slope,” Zhang Pu muttered to himself as he looked up.

Zhang Pu decided to ascend directly once more to further intimidate the ninja, lest he forget the pain after healing the wound. Once back with the team, the ninja might forget Zhang Pu’s power. He needed to impress the ninja deeply enough with his abilities that betrayal would never occur again.

Still employing the wind containment technique, supplemented by a trace of true energy, Zhang Pu carried the ninja aloft like riding the clouds and mists, rushing up the slope in a single breath.

The ninja was left stunned.

Upon reaching the summit, a mountain gazelle suddenly darted past from the side.

“What luck!” Zhang Pu exclaimed. Still using the wind containment technique, he moved faster than the gazelle itself—an extreme speed!

The ninja was truly dazed. It seemed Zhang Pu had just taken him flying like riding the clouds and mists, then pursued the gazelle with the speed of wind and thunder, all in one seamless instant! Even his master had not possessed such skill. As for their team leader, Lin Hongbin, who had come here, he was definitely no match for Zhang Pu.

The ninja remained dazed.

“Why stand there?” Zhang Pu had already slain the mountain gazelle and dragged it before the ninja. “Have you forgotten we have not yet hunted? It has come to deliver itself for you! Haha, I love grilled mountain gazelle most of all. Stir-fried with oil and green onions is equally delicious.”

It seemed that until the two of them returned the mountain gazelle to the camp, the ninja still regarded Zhang Pu as if he were a ghost.

Zhang Pu caught the ninja’s expression toward him for a moment and inwardly wondered whether his pretense had been overstated. Yet without it, he could not fully intimidate the ninja from the depths of his soul.

Zhang Pu and the ninja returned the mountain gazelle to the logistics team. Honestly, while the meat was fine, Zhang Pu felt he was inferior to others in cooking.

He stepped aside and no longer paid the ninja any mind, instead taking out the dream stone to examine it.

Liu Yingde had just finished his task regarding the tents. In fact, he disliked physical labor, and Zhang Pu knew this. Liu Yingde approached Zhang Pu, who happened to be holding the dream stone. Zhang Pu did not mind Liu Yingde seeing it. He thought Liu Yingde must be unaware of the dream stone, as no one on Earth should know of such a thing.

Sure enough, Liu Yingde did not recognize the dream stone.

“What kind of stone is this? It looks so strange,” he said.

Zhang Pu smiled without explaining, merely noting that it had been obtained during the previous outing.

Liu Yingde seemed concerned only with things that would benefit Witch Ghost Sect techniques, such as those he had auctioned. Having no interest in the dream stone, Zhang Pu felt relieved.

A while later, Zhang Pu told Liu Yingde to continue with his other duties and then immersed himself once more in research on the dream stone. The more he examined it, the more certain he became that it had come from the cultivation realm and was no ordinary object on Earth.

Did that mean that, apart from himself, other cultivators existed on Earth? Zhang Pu considered where the ninja had found the stone—on the sea area north of the island nation. Could the cultivators have arrived from there? Had other cultivators already come to Earth, though he did not know their strength? Unconsciously, Zhang Pu felt a vague unease in his heart.

But for the moment, the aroma of grilled meat drifted from the other side, mingled with the clear fragrance of branches, making anyone who smelled it—even with an empty stomach—salivate.

Zhang Pu set aside thoughts of cultivators for now, as preparations for dinner were underway.

Unexpectedly, Guang Cai and Cai Hua’s grilling skills were excellent, and the person brought by Zheng Lan was also a cooking expert. For a time, the people who had gone far away returned one by one, and the tents were set up. They would stay here tonight.

The game they had hunted was abundant, reflecting the extraordinary skill of these individuals. There were large items such as mountain gazelles, wild deer, and blue sheep, and small ones like mountain chickens, wild rabbits, snakes, and stream fish.