Chapter 35: Unexpected Arrival in the Beast World

In the next instant, Qin Jinxuan felt the world before her eyes shift, the familiar road vanishing completely as the car unexpectedly glided onto an expanse of open sand.

Directly ahead, a towering rainforest, lush with verdant foliage, stretched toward the clouds.

Cheng Lan, however, did not stop.

Instead, he pressed the accelerator, driving another few dozen meters until he found a massive, irregularly shaped rock, half-submerged in the sand.

Only then did he slowly bring the car to a halt beside it, positioning it perfectly to conceal the vehicle behind the stone.

Just as Qin Jinxuan pondered his deliberate choice of this particular spot—

She heard the crunch of tires on sand behind her.

Turning her head, she witnessed the air shimmer faintly as several more cars ‘popped’ into existence from the very spot they had just traversed.

One of the vehicles, failing to react swiftly and not anticipating the stationary bus ahead, collided with its rear in a resounding ‘thud.’

Fortunately, the sandy terrain naturally slowed their momentum, and the car’s speed hadn’t been excessive.

The impact resulted in only a slight jolt, with no apparent severe damage to the vehicle’s front.

Moments later, several heads emerged from the car windows, their faces etched with alarm as they frantically scanned their surroundings.

“Where… are we?” Qin Jinxuan turned back to Cheng Lan, her voice laced with bewilderment.

“The Beast World.” He had already begun unbuckling his seatbelt.

“Any world where you can perceive living creatures and thriving flora can only be the Beast World.

The adjacent Mech World, on the other hand, is a stark cyberpunk landscape, utterly devoid of anything but cold metal constructs.”

“Wait for me here in the car.

I need to scout the immediate vicinity.”

“Can’t we come with you?” Qin Jinxuan inquired, a hint of concern in her tone.

“No,” Cheng Lan replied firmly.

“Have you observed anything amiss about this place?”

Only then did the young woman truly begin to scrutinize her surroundings.

Before the rock lay the dense rainforest, while behind them stretched a relatively short coastline.

Including their own, numerous vehicles were now scattered across this golden beach, embraced by the jungle’s green expanse.

At one end of the beach, a small, gently rising hill broke the horizon.

Aside from the towering rainforest, which felt oddly familiar, nothing else seemed particularly out of place…

Qin Jinxuan closed her eyes, attempting to perceive the Etheric Energy swirling around them—

The next second, her eyes snapped open, a note of surprise in her voice.

“The Etheric Energy here is far more abundant than in the rift we visited previously.”

“Precisely.” Cheng Lan nodded, his gaze darkening.

“Therefore, you must understand what this implies, correct?”

The young woman pondered for a moment, her expression growing grave.

“Could powerful beasts be lurking here?”

“Excellent,” Cheng Lan affirmed, nodding with satisfaction at her deduction.

“It seems my previous lessons were not taught in vain.”

He paused.

“Your ability isn’t suited for reconnaissance, and coupled with your inexperience in navigating complex environments swiftly, bringing you along would only hinder my scouting efforts.”

Having said this, he turned his head to Lidoa in the back seat.

“Lidoa, should danger arise, I’ll be relying on you.

There are many people here, so don’t reveal your true nature as an android unless it’s the most dire of circumstances.”

“Understood, Master!” Lidoa immediately straightened up, nodding obediently.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back swiftly.”

No sooner had the words left his lips than Cheng Lan vanished, melting into the car’s shadows.

“Oh,” Qin Jinxuan sighed softly, watching his figure abruptly disappear from the driver’s seat, though she couldn’t pinpoint the reason for her own lament.

“Lidoa,” she addressed the young woman in the back seat.

“What should we do now?”

“I don’t know,” Lidoa replied, shaking her head as well.

Meanwhile, beside the bus and the assortment of cars strewn across the beach, people gradually began to emerge—a group of around two dozen individuals.

Among them were middle-aged couples holding hands, a young man whose crumpled suit spoke of an abrupt transition, a ‘trendy’ youth sporting fashionable streetwear, a woman in a butler’s uniform, and even twin sisters with matching ponytails.

A collective bewilderment painted every face as they instinctively converged, their voices rising in a cacophony of confused discussion.

“Where in the world are we? Weren’t we just on the bridge moments ago?” a woman in a dress asked, her voice laced with panic as she gripped her bag strap tightly.

“I have no idea… One blink, and the bustling highway outside my window transformed into a sandy beach.

Can you even believe it?” the man beside her echoed, his eyes darting frantically.

“Hey! Were any of you driving near the New Port Bridge just now?” a voice suddenly called out.

“Yes! I was just driving along, and then suddenly, I was here!” another replied.

“Everyone, check if your phones have signal!”

An unknown voice let out a startled cry, and the crowd instantly fell silent, everyone fumbling for their phones—

“Nothing…” someone mumbled softly, their fingers still frantically toggling airplane mode.

“Me neither…”

“Damn! No signal!”

Just then, a young man, a veritable ‘prince’ adorned from head to toe in designer brands, suddenly raised his phone.

“Watch this! My phone can make satellite calls; I even used it while climbing snowy mountains overseas!”

At his words, every gaze in the crowd converged on him in an instant.

He swiftly dialed the emergency number, confidently activating the speakerphone function—

“Hello, the number you have dialed cannot be reached temporarily.

Please try again later.

Sorry…”

“Damn it! No! Even satellite signals can’t be found!” The ‘prince’ stared dumbfounded at his phone.

“Ah…” A chorus of sighs rippled through the crowd, the fragile spark of hope they had just found swiftly extinguished.

“What do we do now? We can’t even call for help…”

The murmurs of discussion slowly faded, and silence, like an encroaching tide, enveloped the bewildered crowd.

Just then, the ‘trendy’ youth in streetwear suddenly spoke up.

“Hey, do any of you remember that ‘disappearance incident’ that went viral online a while back?”

“What ‘disappearance incident’?” The man from the middle-aged couple lifted his head, turning to the trendy youth, clearly unfamiliar with the topic.

“It was a video that circulated wildly online a while ago—someone was walking perfectly normally on the street, then suddenly, they just vanished!” The trendy youth gestured dramatically with both hands.

“Back then, everyone claimed it was AI-generated, but now it appears…”

“Are you suggesting… we’ve also been caught up in one of those ‘disappearance incidents’?” The young man in the suit furrowed his brow, a deep crease forming between his eyes.

“So… was that missing person you spoke of ever found?” another voice inquired.

“There was no further news, so I’m guessing… they weren’t found…” The trendy youth’s voice dropped several notches.

Not far from the main group, a pair of twin sisters stood pressed close together beside a car.

The girl in the light blue dress clutched her sister’s sleeve tightly, her fingers trembling.

“Zhi Nian… what are we going to do?”

The sister addressed as Zhi Nian, clad in a matching light pink dress, gently patted her sister’s hand.

“Don’t worry, sis.

We were meant to be home for lunch, and if we’re not back by then, our family will surely call.

Once they discover our phones are unreachable, they’ll know something has happened and will undoubtedly find a way to search for us.”

She paused, then lifted her gaze toward the towering rainforest nearby.

“For now… there’s nothing else we can do but wait and observe, or perhaps look for any potential paths out of here.

Maybe we’ll discover a way back home.”