Chapter 00228: Look out for hidden weapons!
# Look out for hidden weapons!
Chapter 228
Novel: AFK Game: Portal to Another World
Chapter 228: Look out for hidden weapons!
The maneuver of crossing a river on a single reed placed high demands on one's Lightness Skill, requiring both jumping prowess and body-lightening techniques.
On Earth, the world record for the standing long jump is only just over three meters, but the Wuxia world clearly doesn't play by the rules.
This bunch of Jianghu swordsmen could all perform maneuvers that would make Sir Newton nail his coffin shut overnight, scaling walls and leaping over roofs.
So, a standing long jump of two zhang wasn't considered all that rare.
But that was the extent of it.
The river was nearly thirty meters wide, impossible to cross with ordinary Lightness Skill.
However, the person who had laughed wildly and declared he would cross the river on a single reed stepped onto a branch he had thrown out.
He immediately sprang up as if from a springboard, then landed on a log floating past on the river, bouncing up once more.
He was waiting for this exact opportunity, hoping the debris on the river could form a path for him to leap across.
However, just as you'd expect, the unexpected happened.
Just as he was about halfway across, while descending to find his next foothold, he suddenly saw that the steadily floating piece of driftwood he was aiming for had disappeared.
That was to be expected.
Who could guarantee the river's current would remain at a stable speed? The moment it accelerated, you were out of luck.
And so, the crowd on the bank watched helplessly as the man, with all the grace of a failed dive, landed butt-first in the water, creating a massive splash before being immediately swept away by the current.
“Such a petty trick, and he called it crossing the river on a single reed. Truly laughable!”
A young master in white robes in the crowd scoffed on the spot.
He cupped his fists towards the people behind him and said:
“Everyone, my apologies. Treasure belongs to the capable. Don't blame this little brother for taking the first step.”
With that, he leaped up, like a great bird taking to the sky, or perhaps more like a paper airplane gliding towards the opposite bank.
His speed wasn't fast, but he covered a great distance, flying more than five zhang with that single jump.
At first, everyone watched as if it were a show, thinking he was another braggart whose skills couldn't match his ambition, just waiting for him to fall into the water.
But then, the man pulled off a baffling maneuver, stepping on his right foot with his left to gain altitude in mid-air, and continued gliding toward the opposite bank.
Good heavens, that move truly took everyone by surprise.
They had all been waiting to see him make a fool of himself, but now they were the ones who looked foolish.
As they watched the man glide farther and farther, seemingly about to reach the opposite bank, someone couldn't stand it anymore.
“Watch out for hidden weapons!”
“Take my Plum Blossom Dart!”
“I brought Flying Locust Stones, too!”
Hearing this, the man who was just about to make it across hastily tried to dodge the hidden weapons, but in doing so, he lost his balance.
“You... are despicable!”
Leaving behind only that faint cry, the man fell when he was still about ten meters from the bank.
He swirled in the water for a moment and then vanished.
Not only was the river hard to cross, but there were also saboteurs.
This was normal; watching someone else succeed can be more painful than failing yourself.
It's just human nature.
But the situation fell into an awkward stalemate.
Everyone knew the Fire Ganoderma was hard to obtain, yet no one wanted to give up.
If someone else snatched the prize, they would be miserable for a lifetime.
Yang Yiyi, flushed with excitement, whispered, “Brother Li, shall I go give it a try?”
Strangely, there was no answer from Li Chengxi's end, or perhaps there was, but Yang Yiyi couldn't hear it clearly.
Even more bizarrely, though she clearly hadn't heard a response, she said to herself, “No problem, I'll be careful.”
It was as if she had received Li Chengxi's encouragement, feeling particularly motivated.
Yang Yiyi pushed aside the people blocking her path, and without wasting any words, she stomped forcefully on the ground.
Her entire body shot forward as if she were riding the wind.
But even with that miraculous strength, Yang Yiyi couldn't possibly clear the nearly thirty-meter-wide river in one go.
The crowd watched as she began to fall, and just as she was about to hit the water, she suddenly bounced up again.
The Fish Leap Technique had two merits: one was jumping very high, and the other was the ability to skip on the surface of water, though only twice.
Yang Yiyi figured that by relying on the Fish Leap Technique's ability to skip twice on water, combined with the driftwood floating downriver, she might just have a real chance.
Once she ate the Fire Ganoderma, she would be invincible!
Harboring this naively simple thought, Yang Yiyi stamped her feet on the water's surface again.
The yielding water acted like solid ground, propelling her body even farther.
To the onlookers, Yang Yiyi looked just like a skipping stone, bounding farther and farther across the water.
The next part of the process was expected to be much like what happened to the young master in white; she would surely face a volley of hidden weapons as she neared the other side.
But, as one might expect, the unexpected happened.
Yang Yiyi had been aiming to land on a piece of driftwood floating on the river, but as she descended, she realized the log she had picked out was nowhere beneath her.
Instead, it was off to the side, at least seven or eight meters away.
So, the people on the bank who had just taken out their hidden weapons instead watched as Yang Yiyi plunged into the river with a splash.
They all sighed in unison, thinking another unskilled fool had come to show off and embarrass themselves.
As she fell into the water, Yang Yiyi felt a buzz in her head.
The frenzied excitement that had gripped her, as if she'd been pumped full of adrenaline, rapidly faded away in the icy river water.
Yang Yiyi knew how to swim.
After all, she'd been a tomboy since childhood, running wild all over the place, and was no stranger to catching fish in the river.
She thrashed a few times, broke the surface, and quickly hugged a nearby piece of driftwood.
Yang Yiyi was still thinking about the Fire Ganoderma.
She felt she had already crossed more than half the river and couldn't be far from her goal, so she clung to the driftwood and tried to paddle toward the opposite bank.
But as she clung to the log and looked up, she saw only a bare rock on the opposite bank.
There was no trace of any Fire Ganoderma.
“Are you clear-headed now?”
“Brother Li? What's happening? Where is the Fire Ganoderma?”
“There's no Fire Ganoderma. You were all hallucinating.”
“Huh? When?”
“From that pink pollen.”
On his end, Li Chengxi could right-click with his mouse to view the attributes panel, not just for characters, but for items as well.
The flower they had just seen was called the 'Heart-bewitching Peony'.
Its pollen had hallucinogenic and stimulating properties.
Once someone with weak internal energy inhaled it, an illusion of the object they most desired would appear nearby.
In other words, this substance made people see what they wanted to see, while turning a blind eye to anything they didn't.
Moreover, the hallucination was contagious.
When one person said there was a Fire Ganoderma on the other side, everyone else came to believe it too.
The only difference was that the Fire Ganoderma each person saw looked slightly different, as it was merely a hallucination and not a shared illusion.
A person in this state was deaf to advice.
Even if told it was fake, they would choose to ignore it.
This was why Yang Yiyi had been unable to hear Li Chengxi's voice earlier.
However, while this stuff was dangerous, breaking its effect was simple.
A splash of water to wash the pollen off the body would do the trick, which was why Yang Yiyi came to her senses after falling into the river.
“There's no way any treasure would be left near the entrance. It would have been cleared out long ago by the countless people who've visited Thunder Mountain Treasury. Think about it, this place only opens once every twenty years. How could a hundred-year Ganoderma possibly be left lying around near the entrance?”
It was such an obvious flaw, yet none of the people affected by the pollen noticed it, which just went to show how muddled their minds had become.
Yang Yiyi looked back at the bank and saw a very faint pink mist lingering around the crowd.
All their faces were flushed, and it was obvious at a glance that they were in an unnatural state of extreme excitement.
Clinging to the log, Yang Yiyi sighed. “This Thunder Mountain Treasury is far more dangerous than I imagined.”
She was likely only just realizing that now.
(End of Chapter)