Chapter 221: Artificial Meteorite

Chapter 221: Artificial Meteorite

Ji Xinghuo's thoughts were racing.

But he quickly restrained himself, knowing that he couldn't kill indiscriminately for spiritual energy sources, nor would he deliberately stir up trouble and incite war.

Live and let live, but if others insist on killing each other, then I can take advantage of the chaos.

However, he had no idea where the Highlanders and the Ferocious Beast tribe would clash or the scale of their conflict, and it would be highly inefficient for him to go looking for them.

"I need an intelligence channel."

Ji Xinghuo took out a simple map to examine.

This map was downloaded from the Internet and then printed.

Its maker was a veteran star explorer who had spent decades in the starry realm and was familiar with the Thousand Peaks and Forest Sea as well as the surrounding areas. He had once adventured and hunted in the Bloody Highlands for a long time, encountered many foreign tribes, and could speak both Highlander and Beastman languages.

Even so, the map was still crude and imprecise.

The Bloody Highlands was simply too vast; according to the explorer's estimate, its area exceeded four hundred million square kilometers, and without satellites, it was extremely difficult to create a high-precision map.

Only the more famous places were marked on the map.

These included peaks over ten thousand meters high, main mountain ranges, cities, tribes, and dozens of roads, as well as some dangerous forbidden zones.

The further east of the Highlands the map detailed, the more information it provided, but the further west, the less information was available.

This was because the map maker's activities were mostly confined to the eastern part of the Highlands.

Ji Xinghuo compared the map with his surroundings for a while and found that the Highlander tribe he had encountered before was not marked on the map, nor was the nearby gathering place of the Ferocious Beast tribe. Obviously, either he had ventured into a relatively remote area, or there were simply too many such tribes on the plateau to be worth marking.

His gaze fell on a prominent location on the map.

"Cliff of Heaven's Fall."

Flipping the map over, there were over a hundred simple introductions written on the back, including the Cliff of Heaven's Fall, which was listed at the top.

The Cliff of Heaven's Fall was a city located in the eastern part of the Bloody Highlands.

It was built on top of a mountain peak, and the entire mountain was a huge, intact rock. The cliffs surrounding it were vertical to the ground, with a drop of more than a thousand meters. The peak was flat as if cut by a knife, with an area of over one hundred square kilometers. Various tribes lived together in the city.

The Cliff of Heaven's Fall was one of the famous cities in the eastern Bloody Highlands. It wasn't the largest in scale, but due to its relatively good order, it had become a trading place for countless tribes and races in the surrounding area.

Many foreign adventurers and hunters were also willing to make the Cliff of Heaven's Fall their base.

The Cliff of Heaven's Fall was originally one of Ji Xinghuo's destinations.

He just hadn't expected to go there so soon.

He estimated that he was about two thousand four hundred kilometers away from the Cliff of Heaven's Fall, and if he rushed at full speed, he could arrive in three days in the starry realm.

"Let's go take a look."

"I should be able to get some useful information at the Cliff of Heaven's Fall."

Ji Xinghuo made up his mind and urged Qinghong to speed up slightly.

Not long after, he discovered the Ferocious Beast tribe again but chose to ignore them and detour instead.

Based on the movement direction of these fierce tribesmen, Ji Xinghuo roughly guessed the location of their gathering place and deliberately took a detour to avoid conflict with these unreasonable, red-eyed fanatics.

While rushing towards his destination, he also took the opportunity to search for the Gale Beast along the way.

Unfortunately, he found nothing.

As he continued his journey, the natural scenery of the highlands unfolded before him—snow-capped peaks, vast grasslands, dense forests, winding rivers, and deep valleys. It was a breathtaking panorama that stretched endlessly, reaching the far end of the world.

At first, Ji Xinghuo would pause to admire the views, but after a while, the novelty wore off, and he became desensitized to the beauty.

Moreover, there were dangers lurking everywhere.

The highlands were fraught with peril—various beast herds and monsters were the least of his concerns. The most dangerous were the people.

Wherever he went, there were bound to be tribes of Highlanders and fierce tribesmen nearby.

In addition, there were also Dan people, Huang people, Highland Headhunters, Lingjiao people, and more. None of these "people" were friendly to outsiders. Their first reaction upon encountering foreigners in the wild was to consider whether they could kill them and offer them as sacrifices to the Red Emperor.

Ji Xinghuo had no desire to provoke these bloodthirsty followers, and he did his best to avoid them. However, there were a few inevitable encounters.

And so, they fought.

If someone seeks to do me harm, I shall repay in kind.

These fanatics were asking for death, and Ji Xinghuo certainly wasn't going to show them mercy. He eliminated them all and reaped a substantial amount of spiritual energy.

The third day.

Ji Xinghuo rode on Qinghong across a vast grassland, where the grass grew taller than a man. The wind blew in waves, creating an endless sea of grass.

As far as the eye could see, there were towering peaks that scraped the clouds, their tops covered in snow. A meandering river flowed through the highlands, nourishing countless species, and between the mountain peaks, there were deep canyons housing majestic forests. It was truly a magnificent sight to behold.

However, he had no heart for appreciation.

He glanced at the map and saw that he was just over a hundred kilometers away from the Cliff of Heaven's Fall and would arrive sometime in the afternoon.

"We're almost there."

They were pack monsters with high intelligence, often ambushing their prey from the concealment of riverbanks and roadsides. They would also employ encirclement tactics.

The previous night when Ji Xinghuo had set up camp, he had been attacked by a pack of these fear wolves.

Qinghong had easily detected and eliminated them.

Just now, Ji Xinghuo had feigned ignorance of this pack's presence and fired the first arrow. The rest of the fear wolves immediately charged out of the grass, howling to intimidate their prey.

From his perspective, it looked like a dozen giant snakes were slithering rapidly through the grass.

The fear wolves were fast and worked together seamlessly, spreading out and encircling their prey from multiple directions.

However, they were still slower than Qinghong.

Qinghong maintained her pace and direction, unfazed by the wolves.

Ji Xinghuo nocked and fired arrows rapidly, each one finding its mark. The fear wolves realized their peril and tried to flee, but they couldn't outrun the arrows. In less than ten seconds, the entire pack had been annihilated.

Qinghong turned back.

Ji Xinghuo jumped off and inspected the corpses, but found nothing of value.

After all, they were just ordinary monsters, with only one elite among them.

He collected his arrows and mounted Qinghong again, continuing on his way. The encounter with the wolf pack had been but a brief interlude, netting him over 30 units of spiritual energy.

After traveling several more kilometers, Ji Xinghuo encountered other people, mostly hunting parties, but also some lone individuals. They were all headed to Heaven's Fall Cliff, just like him.

On the plateau, everyone remained constantly vigilant.

Unless absolutely necessary, no one would approach or interact with strangers.

Even though Ji Xinghuo spotted a few other people from Earth and what seemed to be a hunting company team, he had no intention of making contact.

As he drew closer to Heaven Fall Mountain, the peaks became steeper and more treacherous.

Ji Xinghuo became even more cautious.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, he noticed a unique mountain peak, not Heaven's Fall Cliff, but a cliff over ten kilometers away. It was a sheer rock face that extended from the waist of a tall mountain, an extremely steep and spectacular sight.

Such cliffs were a common sight in the vicinity of Heaven's Fall Cliff.

But none had such a massive drop.

Ji Xinghuo estimated that the drop from the top of the cliff to the bottom was over two thousand meters.

The most striking feature was that the bottom of the cliff met with the river.

It reminded him of a famous attraction on Earth, the "Preacher's Rock" in Northern Europe. That cliff overlooked a fjord with a drop of over six hundred meters, an extremely dangerous and breathtaking sight. But this cliff before him was even more imposing, over three times the height of "Preacher's Rock"!

"Perhaps..."

A brilliant idea formed in Ji Xinghuo's mind.

Without hesitation, he urged Qinghong to change direction.

Soon, Qinghong arrived at the bottom of the cliff and craned her neck to gaze up at the sheer rock face. It felt as if the sky itself was about to collapse, an awe-inspiring sight.

"The drop must be over two thousand meters!"

"Terrifying," Ji Xinghuo exclaimed.

If this were on Earth, it would undoubtedly be a world-famous attraction.

He looked at the river below, over a hundred meters wide, and casually picked up a stone to throw into the waters. He nodded in satisfaction; the river was deep, and the current wasn't too strong.

"Perfect!"

Ji Xinghuo patted Qinghong and guided her to circle the mountain's base, looking for a more gradual slope to climb. They found one on the opposite side and began their ascent.

Even this gentler slope would be unscalable for an ordinary person.

Qinghong climbed a third of the way up, but the incline soon became steeper, with sections angled at seventy to eighty degrees, offering no foothold. However, Qinghong was a master climber, and her powerful claws easily dug into the rock face. She resembled a giant gecko as she swiftly ascended the sheer cliff.

Ji Xinghuo sat on Qinghong's back, his legs clamped tightly together, the howling wind in his ears making his heart pound.

It took nearly an hour to reach the summit.

Here, the temperature had dropped to below minus ten degrees Celsius, and the biting wind felt like ice knives on his face.

Looking around, everything below seemed diminished in size. In every direction, endless peaks and mountain ranges stretched to the horizon. After crossing the summit, they descended a few hundred meters to the cliff they had seen from below. This side was sheltered from the wind, and it was quieter here.

The cliff top was wide and barren, with nothing but rocks.

Ji Xinghuo approached the edge and peered over.

Even though he knew he wouldn't fall, he still felt dizzy and his legs turned weak. It was an instinctive human reaction.

He found a stone weighing several dozen kilograms and threw it off the cliff.

Then, he looked at his watch to time its descent.

"1, 2, 3..."

At around 22 seconds, Ji Xinghuo heard a faint plop from below, but his sharp ears caught the sound clearly.

The speed of sound in the Star Realm was 1024 meters per second, and the gravitational acceleration was similar to that of Earth, approximately 10 meters per square second.

Subtracting the two seconds it took for the sound of the splash to travel upwards, the free fall time of the stone was roughly 20 seconds.

Ji Xinghuo quickly calculated in his head.

He soon arrived at an answer: the height of the cliff was a little over 2,000 meters, with an error margin of less than 30 meters. According to the free fall formula, the stone should have reached a speed of 200 meters per second, equivalent to 720 kilometers per hour, when it hit the river surface!

"That's fast enough!"

Ji Xinghuo's eyes lit up.

Imagine, what would happen if you were hit by a stone traveling at 720 kilometers per hour? What if that stone weighed several tons?

In fact, he had thought about this back on Earth—about capturing certain objects in motion and releasing them as weapons using his dimensional pocket.

However, he had never been able to put his plan into action.

The ideal option would be to use space-based weapons dropped from orbit, but how would he catch them? If he missed and failed to capture the falling object with his dimensional pocket, he would be crushed to death, becoming the butt of a cosmic joke. Renting a plane to carry steel ingots up to a high altitude and then dropping them was equally challenging.

Moreover, there were countless satellites orbiting Earth, and space travel required support from official agencies, which would expose his secret.

In short, there were too many obstacles.

Ji Xinghuo had no choice but to abandon the idea.

Now, this cliff on the plateau presented the perfect opportunity!

Ji Xinghuo walked around and quickly found a suitably large boulder. He pushed against it; it probably weighed about twelve tons, but its size made it impossible to fit into his dimensional pocket. So, he transferred some items into Qinghong's dimensional pocket to free up space.

After rearranging, he managed to fit the boulder into his pocket.

"I can't fill up the entire space; I need to leave some capacity free, just in case."

Ji Xinghuo examined the boulder; its shape was irregular, and its descent would be affected by air resistance, preventing it from reaching its theoretical speed.

He drew out Lei Chi and began chipping away at the stone.

Soon, the boulder was roughly shaped into a sphere with a smooth surface, reducing its weight to about ten tons.

He placed it into his dimensional pocket, occupying approximately three cubic meters of space.

"Perfect."

Ji Xinghuo walked to the edge of the cliff, with only one final test remaining: figuring out how to capture the falling boulder with his dimensional pocket during its descent.

He strapped the parachute to his back, activated his Saint Scale Armor, and took a few deep breaths.

Then, he jumped off the cliff.

As the wind howled around him, Ji Xinghuo free-fell with his eyes open, staring at the river surface rushing up to meet him, like an infinite wall.

The iris of his right eye flickered as he activated the Myriad Phenomenon Empyrean Sight.

His descent speed increased, and when he was about a hundred meters from the ground, with only a few seconds left, he finally deployed his parachute to slow down. Nonetheless, he still plunged into the river, creating a massive splash before sinking into the depths.

For an ordinary person, such a high-speed fall, even into water, would result in instant death, turning them into a bloody mess.

But for Ji Xinghuo, it was a minor issue.

He quickly surfaced, gazing up at the sheer cliff, a smile spreading across his face.

After a few seconds, a small black dot fell from the sky, gently landing on the water—it was Qinghong, who had jumped after him.

"Let's do it again!"

Ji Xinghuo mounted Qinghong and returned to the top of the cliff. He strapped on his parachute, activated his Saint Scale Armor, and took out the ten-ton boulder from his dimensional pocket, placing it at the edge of the cliff. After making all the necessary preparations, he pushed the boulder off the edge, and it began to fall.

Ji Xinghuo jumped after the boulder, his body pressed against it as they fell together at high speed.

5 seconds... 10 seconds... 15 seconds...

The boulder picked up speed, hurtling towards the river surface.

It was like a meteor falling from the sky!

When they were about a hundred meters from the river surface, Ji Xinghuo's hand, which had been pressed against the boulder, suddenly moved, and he captured the falling boulder with his dimensional pocket.

The boulder vanished, and he immediately deployed his parachute to slow down before landing in the water.

Climbing out of the chilly river, Ji Xinghuo stood on the shore, unable to suppress his smile. "Artificial meteorite! I did it!"

---

I'm sorry, I have a high fever today, and my head is spinning.

The kinetic energy of this stone is approximately 200 million joules, equivalent to the energy released by the explosion of 48 kilograms of TNT.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end