Chapter 00059: The Cultivation Ground
# The Cultivation Ground
Chapter 59
Novel: After the Myth
Chapter 59: The Cultivation Ground
Ding Huan didn’t linger anywhere.
He took a high-speed train straight to Luohe.
Compared to its usual bustling atmosphere, Luohe seemed unusually quiet.
The scandal involving Baiyu Group had dealt a heavy blow to the city.
If it weren’t for a few students from Luohe ranking at the top in the recent Blue Star Ten Great Academies examination, the city’s leaders would have been in even more trouble.
Ding Huan had no interest in visiting Baiyu Group.
He knew that all the top executives of the group had died overnight.
Only Ding Jie seemed to have disappeared.
Ding Huan suspected that someone had protected Ding Jie.
The fact that Baiyu Group had caused such a massive disaster by killing so many people made Ding Huan think that Ding Jie alone couldn’t have been responsible.
There had to be someone else pulling the strings behind the scenes.
As for the idea that Ding Jie could make the Saliu Gene a global sensation, Ding Huan could only laugh.
No matter how impressive the Saliu Gene was, it would take time to prove its worth.
It couldn’t become a global sensation overnight.
Ding Huan was almost certain that Yongtang Biotech and Dayang Biotech were the ones behind Baiyu Group.
As for who was leading the charge, he didn’t know yet.
What he did know was that a few months after the Saliu Gene scandal, Dayang Biotech and Yongtang Biotech jointly released a new gene therapy called Jianyuan Gene.
The effects of Jianyuan Gene were almost identical to Saliu Gene, and its anti-aging properties were even stronger.
If someone claimed that Jianyuan Gene wasn’t a modified version of Saliu Gene, no one would believe it.
Ding Huan planned to investigate this further in the future.
He suspected that his father, Ding Baishan’s disappearance was related to this gene therapy.
However, he currently lacked the strength to dig deeper.
Upon arriving in Luohe, Ding Huan’s first stop was Yujiang University.
If Geng Qianxing and the Gene Alliance had come to retrieve the endurance gene therapy data, they would have had to return to Yujiang University.
When Ding Huan arrived at his residence, he knew Geng Qianxing had escaped.
Geng Qianxing had carved two words outside his door: “Old Geng.” This was an inside joke between the two of them.
Ding Huan had once told Geng Qianxing that he didn’t call him “Old Geng” because he was afraid Geng Qianxing would think he was insulting him, so he called him “Little Geng” instead.
The fact that “Old Geng” was carved outside his door meant Geng Qianxing was subtly letting him know he was safe.
With Geng Qianxing safe, Ding Huan felt relieved and headed straight to Qianluo Mountain.
With his strength as a second-level gene cultivator and his mastery of the Wind Control Technique, Ding Huan reached Qianluo Mountain in less than half an hour.
It was evening when Ding Huan arrived at Qianluo Mountain.
The setting sun cast a reddish glow over the mountain range, as if a faint red carpet had been laid over the peaks.
The beauty was tinged with a sense of desolation.
Standing at the foot of the mountain, Ding Huan remained silent for a long time.
The desolation came from the fact that such a beautiful mountain range was now a place few dared to visit.
It was slowly becoming a haven for ferocious beasts.
Ding Huan had left Earth a year and a half ago.
Although he had been under surveillance and rarely paid attention to news about beast tides and ferocious beast rampages, he could vaguely sense that around this time, the beasts were becoming stronger and more vicious.
The Gene Alliance’s decision to organize a fleet to space a year and a half later might have been partly motivated by the search for a new habitable base.
With a sigh, Ding Huan began his ascent up Qianluo Mountain.
The first two times he had come here, he had been cautious and hadn’t encountered many ferocious beasts.
Even when he did, they were weak and harmless.
The strongest beast he had encountered was the Great Desolate Golden Ape.
If he hadn’t understood the nature of these beasts, he might have died on Qianluo Mountain.
Now, nearly half a year later, he wondered if the Great Desolate Golden Ape had grown stronger.
“Roar!”
As if in response to his thoughts, a blood-curdling roar accompanied by a gust of foul wind came from his side.
A mutated leopard pounced at him.
Ding Huan didn’t even turn his head or stop walking.
With a flick of his hand, he sent a wind blade slicing through the air.
A sharp cry echoed as the mutated leopard was split in two.
Ding Huan glanced at the nearby bushes, where the sound of fleeing beasts could be heard.
The other beasts in the area had been frightened off.
Ding Huan decided to speed up his journey by using the Wind Control Technique.
Two hours later, he arrived at the entrance of a cave.
The rubble from the Great Desolate Golden Ape’s rampage was still scattered outside, but Ding Huan could sense that another beast had taken up residence in the cave.
Just as he was about to enter, a gray shadow shot toward him at incredible speed.
A first-level gene beast? Judging by its speed and aura, Ding Huan guessed it was a first-level gene beast, comparable to the Golden-Faced Thick-Tailed Ape he had encountered in Beilong Mountain.
The difference was that Ding Huan was no longer the same as he was back then.
With a wave of his hand, he sent another wind blade toward the beast.
Even without the wind blade, he could have sent the beast flying with a single punch.
“Splat!” Blood splattered as the wind blade struck the beast.
Surprisingly, the creature managed to twist in mid-air and escape.
Ding Huan was slightly surprised.
The beast looked like a giant squirrel, but its fur was far tougher, and its tail was unusually small.
The creature’s defensive capabilities were astonishing.
Even after taking a direct hit from his wind blade, it had managed to escape with only minor injuries.
Ding Huan didn’t bother chasing after it.
He needed to seal the cave entrance and begin his secluded cultivation and recovery.
He had brought enough food for half a month, but once he entered deep cultivation, he could stretch that to several months.
To avoid disturbances, he had to block the cave entrance.
…
Ding Huan was also concerned about air circulation, so he left some gaps when sealing the entrance.
As he walked deeper into the cave with a mining lamp, he realized his worries were unnecessary.
A cold breeze blew from the depths of the cave, indicating that it was connected to the outside.
The last time he was here, he had only ventured about a hundred meters into the cave.
Now, as a second-level gene cultivator, he planned to explore the cave thoroughly.
After walking nearly five hundred meters, Ding Huan still hadn’t reached the end of the cave.
The deeper he went, the colder it became, and the terrain seemed to slope downward.
The cave was damp and dark, making it unsuitable for cultivation.
After another two hundred meters, Ding Huan spotted some bones under the light of his lamp.
They were ancient, and he couldn’t tell what kind of creature they belonged to.
Upon closer inspection, he realized they were human vertebrae.
Was there danger here? Ding Huan became more cautious and slowed his pace.
After walking a few dozen meters, he heard the sound of flowing water.
His lamp revealed a larger space ahead, though he couldn’t see its full extent in the darkness.
The water seemed to be flowing from above, suggesting that this area was connected to the outside.
Ding Huan scanned the area with his lamp and found a small pond in the center, surrounded by wild grass and shrubs.
He found a dry, flat spot and set up his tent.
He decided to cultivate for the night and deal with everything else the next day.
The sound of the waterfall suggested that there might be some light here.
If not, it didn’t matter.
He had come here to heal and cultivate.
Once his eyes were mostly healed and he reached the third level of gene cultivation, he would leave.
As he began cultivating the Luo Shi Scripture, Ding Huan quickly entered a state of deep meditation.
The energy circulating through his meridians strengthened the qi in his dantian.
Even in this state, he could sense that the cultivation effects here were far stronger than outside.
The natural energy in this place seemed more concentrated.
Time flew by as he cultivated.
In what felt like an instant, the night had passed.
When Ding Huan opened his eyes, he noticed a faint light filtering in from outside.
Stepping out of his tent, he was pleasantly surprised to find that there was indeed light in this place.
The area he was in resembled a basin, roughly one to two thousand square meters in size.
The ceiling was still rock, with shrubs and grass growing from the cracks.
Seven or eight beams of faint light slanted down from above, indicating that there were openings to the outside, though they were angled.
While the light wasn’t enough to fully illuminate the space, it was sufficient for Ding Huan.
He took a closer look at the area, which was about three acres in size.
In the center was a pond with a small stream flowing into it.
Fish swam in the pond.
On the other side of the pond was a dilapidated wooden hut.
Ding Huan suspected that the human bones he had seen earlier belonged to the hut’s former owner.
The fish in the pond were likely brought here by that person.
Aside from the flat area he had cleared for his tent, the rest of the space, including the hut, was overgrown with moss and shrubs.
Realizing that he might be staying here for a while, Ding Huan decided to spend a day cleaning up the area.
He didn’t even need a knife to clear the shrubs—a few wind blades would do the job.
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(End of Chapter)