Shang and the Sweeper continued towards the east. All the dangerous areas were now behind them, and the only thing between them and their target was distance.
The Sweeper was amazing at avoiding all kinds of beasts. Even though they had been traveling for over four days by now, not even a single beast had attacked them during all this time.
Even back when Shang had traveled in groups, they had been attacked by several beasts.
But the journey had been very relaxed with the Sweeper. The only problematic part had been the Reality Tear, but Shang had entered that of his own volition, knowing fully well what would await him.
Twelve hours later, the two of them reached their goal.
They had crossed the entire 700,000 kilometers.
"The Sky Lantern's territory is right in front of us," the Sweeper said.
Shang didn't need the Sweeper to tell him that. The surroundings were already saying as much.
A really strong wind had picked up in the surroundings. Normal plants were already nowhere to be seen, replaced by plants that didn't grow upward but in a diagonal manner. If one imagined some high grass being pushed backward by the wind, one could imagine how these plants looked.
Shang guessed that this was the only way the plants could resist such a constant and powerful wind. Luckily, the wind seemed to always move in the same direction.
Shang guessed that the wind was already over 150 kph fast, which would count as a devastating storm on Earth.
Surprisingly, the wind also didn't have the slight green tint of Wind Mana, but it was actually pure white, filled with Light Mana.
It was almost like the wind was actually a continuous wave of light.
"Is there anything I have to do?" Shang asked.
"There isn't much," the Sweeper said. "Compared to the Eternal Maw, the Sky Lantern is very peaceful. It even heals some beasts and even humans sometimes of dangerous ailments."
Shang was quite surprised by that. He knew that, even though everyone could basically regrow their entire body easily, there were still some chronic ailments, but they were very rare.
For example, there was a terrifying Spell that Poison Mages could use. That Spell essentially created a Poison Mana generator in someone's body, which would slowly transform the victim's Mana to Poison Mana. Of course, if the victim didn't have a Poison Affinity, they would slowly succumb.
Funnily enough, that Spell wasn't actually meant to kill the victim but to rob the victim's organization of resources. The victim could be healed, but due to the specific way the Spell worked, it would take a ridiculous amount of expensive resources.
There were a couple more Spells from different Affinities that could create something similar, but the one from the Poison Affinity was considered the strongest.
Of course, such Spells weren't usually used during a normal fight since they took a lot of concentration, Mana, and time to be cast. During a battle, using these Spells would be idiotic.
Because of that, only a rare few people would be inflicted by these kinds of Spells. These were not Spells for battles but for long wars.
And, apparently, the Sky Lantern was willing to heal such people of such afflictions, which was very unusual for a beast.
"There are only two small things you have to look out for," the Sweeper said. "First, don't attack anything, even if it attacks you. The Sky Lantern doesn't like aggression in its territory, and it will kill and consume anything that dares to show aggression to anything within its domain."
When Shang heard that, he actually found it ironic.
He had expected the Sky Lantern to be some saintly and peaceful beast after hearing about it from the Sweeper, but now, he could only snort.
Would a peaceful and saintly being immediately kill anyone that showed even the slightest aggression? Sure, some punishment would be in order, but immediately killing someone and eating them was a bit extreme.
Instead of a peaceful and tranquil elder, the Sky Lantern appeared more like an idealistic dictator now.
It felt quite hypocritical to Shang.
However, Shang wouldn't act upon his distaste. He wasn't nearly powerful enough, and the Sky Lantern didn't concern him. As long as it didn't try to hurt him, he wouldn't care.
"No aggression at all?" Shang asked.
"No aggression at all," the Sweeper confirmed.
Shang nodded. "And the second thing?"
"Don't use too much Darkness Mana," the Sweeper answered. "A bit is not a problem. We can probably keep our Cloaking Spells active, but we definitely can't use any other Spell with Darkness Mana. The Sky Lantern is not a big fan of Darkness Mana."
"For safety's sake, I would even suggest deactivating our Cloaking Spells for now. While we can probably use them, I don't want to take any chances."
Shang nodded and deactivated Shroud.
The normal colors of his body returned, making him appear more like a human again.
The Sweeper also deactivated her Cloaking Spell, but she didn't seem different at all.
"I'm fine with staying here for up to a month, but that's the most you will get. I can't waste that much time," the Sweeper told Shang.
Shang nodded. "That should be enough."
"Then, let's go."
Shang and the Sweeper entered the Sky Lantern's territory.
The more they advanced, the more powerful the storm grew.
Shang could even see some True Beasts being flung away by the powerful gales, which was quite impressive.
The power of the wind in the surroundings was already as strong as when the Storm Eagle had flown across its Zone back then.
The fact that there were still a couple of plants able to survive in this intense wind was already more than impressive.
By now, Shang could also feel quite a lot of High Beasts and Archbeasts in the surroundings. Instead of fighting and hiding, they were simply lying on the ground with closed eyes. It was almost like they were just enjoying the wind and the Light Mana that followed.
Over a long exposure, the wind in the surroundings was bound to injure most of these beasts. Being able to resist such a powerful wind was one thing, but staying inside it for days or weeks was something different.
The powerful wind would definitely tear out hair and slowly grind away at the skin of some of these beasts.
However, that was actually what these beasts wanted.
While the terrifying wind was injuring them, the dense Light Mana in the wind was healing them.
Even though beasts didn't have the mental capacity to train, they were essentially training just by being in this place.
One had to remember that the powerful bodies of the beasts were that powerful naturally. Beasts could become quite a bit more powerful by training their bodies.
The problem was just that they were too stupid to do that.
But in this place, they essentially didn't need to do anything.
They just needed to stay here.
'Is the Sky Lantern doing this on purpose? I mean, I wouldn't usually believe that a beast would be that smart, but the Sky Lantern is a Beast Lord. Maybe Beast Lords are smarter?'
The Sweeper and Shang continued traveling towards the east.
More and more Ancestral Beasts appeared in their surroundings, but none of them looked at them. They definitely noticed the two of them, but they just didn't care.
And eventually, they reached the Sky Lantern.
