Upgrade Specialist in Another World

Everything was a blur as the surrounding scenery started to change when Bai Yunfei stepped through the portal.

He hadn’t even fully adjusted himself to the change when Bai Yunfei took out the Fire-tipped Spear and pointed it to his right.

“Ah! Hold on, stop! I don’t mean any harm!!”

A terrified voice called out to him. 

Bai Yunfei’s Fire-tipped Spear was just less than an inch away from the person’s throat.

Bai Yunfei glanced at him. The man was practically as pale as a ghost, either from blood loss due to all his wounds or from being frightened by the Fire-tipped Spear. Either way, the man was in bad shape. His aura was severely weakened and his already sparse soulforce was far too busy trying to heal his wounds.

“Who are you?”

Bai Yunfei asked, his hand and spear never wavering from its spot.

“Zhao Xijun! Head of the house of Zhao from the Capital! I came to this pocket to look for the Extreme King Pills like you, sire. I decided to take the other portal to safety because of my wounds, I thought this was the way out…I just wanted to leave this place, please spare me, sire…”

Bai Yunfei could see Zhao Xijun was beside himself with terror. The man really did want to leave this place and never expected to come across another person here. There was also a hint of dissatisfaction at the fact that Bai Yunfei was here—if Bai Yunfei was completely unharmed, what was he doing here instead of up on that mountain? This was supposed to be the way out!

Bai Yunfei stared at the man for a few seconds longer before he withdrew the Fire-tipped Spear. “Stay a hundred meters away from me.”

“Ye-yes…”

Sweat dripped from Zhao Xijun’s nose as he furiously nodded his head as if he had been pardoned and flew not one hundred meters backward, but three hundred.

The house of Zhao was nothing more but a second-rate family in the capital since he was the strongest person they had. The Extreme King Pills were meant to be his family’s saving grace and way to fortune, but that didn’t happen, unfortunately. The talented and younger generation had seen to him being unable to complete his task and having to bow out after being injured in the mist. 

When the two portals were presented to him, Zhao Xijun decided that his life was far more important and chose to leave. Unfortunately, Bai Yunfei showed up in this place as well and nearly killed him.

It was suspicious though. Why was Bai Yunfei here? Someone as young and strong as him should’ve been heading up the mountain for the Extreme King Pills with the others!

That wasn’t very important though. Zhao Xijun first fled to safety a few hundred meters away before anything else. He heaved a sigh of relief when he was certain that Bai Yunfei didn’t mean to kill him.

But when he looked around himself, tragedy struck him again!

The place they were in was not the outside world, but a hill out of a sea of hills! What he thought was Crushed Stone River was actually somewhere else in the pocket!!

It looked a little similar to Crushed Stone River, but everything beyond a kilometer of where they were was just…a blob of chaotic nothingness!

In other words, they were somewhere else in the pocket!

While Zhao Xijun was panicking by himself over this realization, Bai Yunfei was coming to the same conclusion, albeit with a calmer reaction. Where he was wasn’t his primary concern though. He was only focused on narrowing the direction of where his Soul Sentinel Scarf was reacting strongest to.

He touched at his scarf again with glee as he felt the resonance grow stronger. Scanning the area, Bai Yunfei sent his soulsense around to see what was there.

“I can only sense up to a little over a hundred meters around me just like before. Is this place like before? It looks the same, is this a separate part of the pocket then?” 

Bai Yunfei took a second look around. 

“I can feel it though. Something’s ‘calling’ me…or calling the Soul Sentinel Scarf actually. It’s here. I just can’t see what’s doing the calling, what does this mean? Is this intentional? Do I really have to go find it?”

He looked around at the seven hills in the vicinity. A first, second, third, and even fourth glance would just tell him the same thing. The place was just filled with stones and nothing else…

There was no vegetation, no animals, and not even dirt. It was just stones and pebbles all the way through.

The hills he and Zhao Xijun were standing on was composed entirely out of pebbles and stones!

“It’s only stones…what does this mean…?”

He couldn’t understand it. There was nothing here that stood out amongst the rocks, there wasn’t anything but the rocks. If not for the resonance he was feeling from the Soul Sentinel Scarf, Bai Yunfei would’ve regretted his decision not to go to the mountaintop for the Extreme King Pills.

One step at a time, Bai Yunfei walked around the place to look area by area in hopes of finding something that would prompt a change in the Soul Sentinel Scarf’s response. But that ‘signal’ was still the same as always.

He came to the top of the hill he had been standing on and peered over the pile.

Right over there was another figure.

The person was a few hundred meters away, meaning they were beyond his soulsense but not out of eye range. Like Zhao Xijun, this person was quite heavily injured as well. When he saw Bai Yunfei appear over the hill and stare at him, the figure turned white in the face and immediately made for the other hill away from Bai Yunfei and out of sight.

“Seems like plenty of people thought this was the way out…”

Bai Yunfei muttered to himself. He, of course, hadn’t any idea of ‘killing’ those who were injured as long as they didn’t try to cause trouble with him. He walked back down the hill to look around the place again.

“Whew…”

On the hill to the right, the person Bai Yunfei saw heaved a sigh of relief when he realized he wasn’t being chased. He glanced around the eggshell-like place he was in and cursed to himself. “Damn! This isn’t Crushed Stone River, where in the blazes is this!”

“Excuse me…”

A voice from the side called out to him, scaring the man something fierce. He whirled around with a golden shield appearing in front of him to use what little soulforce he had left to protect himself from whoever was in front.

“Don’t be so hasty, friend, I mean no harm! I’m injured like you and just want to leave this place.” The same voice spoke, this time with a little more urgency. A middle-aged man in yellow appeared into view. It was Zhao Xijun and two middle-aged men in their thirties came up into view.

The young man sighed again in relief when he saw these three men meant no harm. Still not putting away his soul armament though, he glanced at them warily, “What do you want?”

Zhao Xijun managed a smile. “Friend, can you not see that we are like you? Unable to fight anymore? We only wish to invite you to our group for a better chance at survival…”

He paused briefly. “We are all heavily injured and no longer need to fight for the Extreme King Pills. It’d be in everyone’s best interest to work together and find the way out…”