Chapter 394: Coming Across the Sea

Over at the Half-City branch, a heavy snow had been falling continuously for several days, yet it seemed entirely unable to dampen the customers' enthusiasm.

After Shopkeeper Fang demonstrated various high-end techniques and dazzling maneuvers, it was clear that a new topic had been added to the daily conversations of the clientele within the shop.

Yue Yan and a crowd of other disciples from the Nanhua Sect, holding milk tea, scanned all directions to see if there were any contiguous blocks of over a dozen seats available for their senior and junior martial sisters, brothers, and even their master and martial uncles to sit together in a single row.

As a batch of the earliest customers from outside Half-City to enter the shop, brought over by Liu Ningyun, they could be considered the most trend-setting group, generally following the shopkeeper's lead in whatever he played.

Thus, one could soon see a whole row of Nanhua Sect elders and disciples, of all ranks, seated together, some holding instant noodles and others holding milk tea, their very first action being to open the *Devil May Cry 3* game interface.

"Master! I pondered long and hard yesterday and came up with a combo chain!" Yue Yan said excitedly as she launched the game. "Using it feels even more powerful than the shopkeeper's!"

"Oh, please, a combo chain," Mo Xian rolled her eyes at her. "Your master, the venerable elder, does not practice combo chains. She spent the entire day yesterday researching Royal Guard, and today she must continue her research (getting beaten up)."

"Oh..." Yue Yan had no choice but to turn elsewhere. "Martial Uncle Shui, would you care to look at the latest combo chain developed by this disciple?"

...

Unlike the Origin Internet Club, the tranquil peace enjoyed by several great sects like Xuanzhong and Yuxu for thousands of years had recently been shattered.

According to the ancient chronicles of the three great sects, apart from the existing entire continent, in the exceedingly distant overseas immortal islands where dragons and serpents rose from the land, cultivators also existed, alongside various mortal petty kingdoms that arose in the morning and perished by dusk; because the vast ocean held too many unknown perils, they rarely maintained contact with the continental cultivators, forming an independent system that had likewise been handed down for untold years.

It was rumored that ancestors had once braved the wind and waves, risking mortal danger to cross the territorial waters where many terrifying marine beasts congregated, and had drifted to that sea region dominated by islands, with various landmasses scattered here and there.

Therefore, explicit records existed regarding the customs, local conditions, and human geography of that sea region, and it was even known that the cultivation world there similarly possessed experts of the Divine Court Realm, making it a massive cultivation world no less inferior to their own.

This was an area that the three great sects had long since explored and recognized.

However, that cultivation world was merely not inferior to theirs, and there would not be too grand a disparity in terms of strength.

There had even been news of a demonic calamity a thousand years ago, which nearly overturned that entire cultivation world; it was feared that within a thousand years, it would still lack the capacity to recover to its original level, let alone surpass their three Great Sacred Sects.

Yet the ancient texts recorded that in an even more distant era, existences suspected to be like Earth Immortals had once set foot upon this land, which they called the "Barren Sea Realm," and in that era, they had even constructed a teleportation array leading to that mysterious cultivation region.

It was rumored that the place possessed spiritual mountains, fertile soil, elegant foliage, and luxuriant flowers, with spiritual beasts soaring through the heavens and spiritual items growing everywhere, where not only humans but even demons possessed their own kingdoms.

The reason why the three Great Sacred Sects could dominate the cultivation domain, never contending with the various extant worldly factions for the blessings of spiritual mountains or the treasured lands of grotto-heavens while their cultivation methods and spells still far surpassed those of other factions, was believed by the world to be due to the cultivation domain itself; in truth, there was another part to the reason, which was that they had once exchanged what they had for what they lacked with those cultivators, deriving immense benefits.

This was the sole teleportation array leading beyond the "Barren Sea Realm," but in the distant past, it had become utterly impossible to utilize for teleportation, seemingly destroyed from the other end by someone, such that the world beyond the "Barren Sea Realm" became a legend in the mouths of the three sects' high officials; indeed, had it not been for such a major incident occurring in the Taixi Sect, they would likely have treated these records merely as myths and tales of the supernatural, given that after so many years, all tidings had ceased, and even the last batch of disciples and elders recorded to have gone to the other side of the teleportation array back then had never returned.

Who knew if it still existed?

But as time slipped away in the long river of years, the teleportation array had long since become a dead array, no longer resting in its original location, but having been moved elsewhere for people to study.

If one day the pavilion of ancient texts were to catch fire and accidentally destroy these records, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, descendants would forget this entirely useless memory, and the past events would also vanish into the river of time, with no one ever remembering them again.

"Longyuan, Wanyin, the two of you are the disciples most highly regarded by myself and the Palace Master of Xuanzhong, and you are also the most outstanding younger generation of our two sects. Now that we are in an eventful autumn and the Taixi Sect has encountered a great disaster, we still have far too many vital matters to handle, and can only entrust these affairs into your hands. I hope you will not disappoint us." The Taoist of the Yuxu Sect, dressed in a white robe with a jade belt, spoke slowly.

"How is the investigation proceeding?" The purple-robed old man of the Xuanzhong Palace was instead concise and comprehensive, staring down at Li Longyuan and Ling Wanyin. "Is it truly related to those recorded in the sect's ancient texts? Have they intentionally made things difficult for you?"

"That is not the case," Li Longyuan replied candidly. "However, the things inside this shop are indeed exceedingly strange and wondrous, and there are also many delicacies such as milk tea and spicy sticks..."

Soon, the two of them began to speak volubly and incessantly about various snacks and games.

"The latest and most popular game there now is called *Devil May Cry 3*, which heavily tests operation and technique. Although it mainly takes martial artists as its primary subject, cultivators can try it as well." Speaking in a state of excitement, Li Longyuan began to demonstrate Dante's spastic sword techniques and various bizarre, twitchy combo chains in the grand hall, considering himself to be exceedingly cool and dazzling.

The two sect masters watched, "..."

...

After winding and turning about for a long while, by the time the two youths went down, the two sect leaders finally exchanged a glance: "Did you catch anything from that?"

"The Law of Time...?"

The two murmured, repeating those four words, falling into deep thought.

...

Between this heaven and earth, there existed demons.

Humans cultivated for decades, whereas demons cultivated for centuries; apart from a few true royal and noble lineages among the demons, the demonic kind all had to undergo an extremely prolonged period of cultivation before they could take on human form.

The enhancement of the demon race's strength had historically required a cycle much longer than that of humans, and correspondingly, a powerful demon would also experience an exceptionally lengthy period of peak prosperity.

Therefore, the rise of every powerful demon race expert would bring about a period of extremely long-term prosperity and flourishing.

Of course, in terms of the degree of prosperity, the demon race could in no way keep pace with the footsteps of humanity.

They were mostly like recluses within spiritual mountains rather than pioneers and conquerors like humans, who tirelessly expanded borders, took up residence in hidden grotto-heavens and blessed lands everywhere, and lingered around one desolate ancient ruin after another.

Consequently, the human race possessed much grandeur, while the demon race possessed much exquisite splendor.

Yet there were also demons who admired the bustling prosperity of the human race and took human form to come among humans.

Within the vast ocean, there was only the darkness where the water and sky merged into one color, a somber sky looking as though a torrential downpour were about to be startled into existence in the next moment.

A magnificent man holding a black-patterned heavy halberd, clad in a silver robe with gold embroidery, stood treading upon the sea; the ocean waves supported the soles of his boots just as though they were supporting a floating skiff, and though the black waves surged tempestuously beneath his feet, they could not affect him in the slightest.

Before long, several colossal sea beasts revealed their heads from the bottom of the sea, yet they behaved with utmost reverence towards this man, not daring to show the slightest insolence.

It was just like the innate humility felt by a subordinate when facing a superior.

His voice was deep, as if he were inquiring about something, yet it was not any human language spoken upon the continent.

His deep pupils gazed into the distance, where upon the far sea horizon, a massive landmass was gradually coming into view.

.