Chapter 400: Sea Region Hunt!
Over the following days, an increasing number of disciples from the three great immortal sects poured into Mystic Heart City.
In the past, Core Disciples were elusive figures. Now, while not exactly crowding the streets, you couldn’t walk far without bumping into one.
From the Cloud Sea Sect alone, familiar faces like Qin Hao, Chen Tian, and Feng Lie were present, alongside more than a dozen unfamiliar Core Disciples. The vast majority of them had reached the Golden Core realm, with some even at the late Golden Core stage.
Mystic Heart City, which previously housed only a handful of survivors, suddenly bustled with life.
The three great sects pooled their efforts to patch up the surrounding ruins, rendering the battered structures barely habitable. Thanks to their early arrival, they claimed the prime real estate—the Dragon Nest District. The inferior Whale Belly and Shark Ridge Districts were left for the other cultivation sects trickling in later.
During a brief respite, Jiang Chen sought out Han Xin. “I say, Old Tie.”
Han Xin’s eyebrow twitched. “Little Jiang, are your bones itching for a beating again?”
Jiang Chen sighed in mock surrender. “Alright, alright… Senior Sister Han, does that work?”
Han Xin scoffed, her lips curling. “That’s more like it.”
Dropping the banter, Jiang Chen asked, “You’re a formidable formation master, and your grasp of geomancy is even sharper. So, what’s the actual situation with Mystic Heart City’s feng shui?”A proud smirk touched Han Xin’s lips. “Currently? The entire geomantic layout of Mystic Heart City has been utterly obliterated. It’s completely beyond saving.”
Jiang Chen pressed further. “If—and I mean purely hypothetically—could an even more brilliant formation master hijack this ruined geomancy to weaponize the entire city?”
Han Xin frowned, her suspicion piqued. “What are you getting at?”
Jiang Chen rubbed his chin. “Something about this place feels off. It feels like…”
“Like what?” she prompted instinctively.
“Like it was deliberately left intact for us,” Jiang Chen said, his tone dead serious.
Han Xin shook her head, dismissing the paranoia. “Stop jumping at shadows. The city is crawling with Core Disciples from the three great sects. If there was a trap, do you really think none of them would have noticed?”
Jiang Chen paused, then gave a slight nod. “Fair point.”
“However…” Han Xin hesitated before adding, “A true apex formation master *could* theoretically manipulate the shifting geomantic currents to lay down a lethal array.”
Hearing this, Jiang Chen’s eyebrow arched.
Outside, a sudden cacophony of voices drifted into the room.
“Is this Mystic Heart City?”
“Why is it nothing but rubble?”
“Look, the disciples of the three great sects are already here!”
Flying ships, shuttles, boats, and avian spirit beasts descended upon the city in a steady stream. These were the Core and formal disciples from the myriad other cultivation sects. Hundreds arrived in a single wave. Combined with the three great sects, the city’s cultivator population swelled to nearly a thousand.
And that number would only climb. Many sects were located at the far edges of the Azure Realm and required weeks of travel.
According to Qin Hao, even though the Canglan Sea’s environment was rapidly deteriorating, it was slated to become a massive trial ground for the major sects. This was primarily a prelude to the upcoming Thousand Sects Dharma Assembly, forcing the younger generation to interact and size each other up.
Standing by the window, Jiang Chen watched the descending cultivators. Instead of finding safety in numbers, a cold knot of anxiety tightened in his gut.
Unable to shake the feeling, he bid Han Xin farewell and slipped away from the encampment, making his way back to the ruined Dragon Subduing Pagoda.
Directly beneath it lay the well used to imprison the flood dragon. It wasn’t a standard well; it was a massive, yawning sinkhole. The water inside was a sickly, ink-green hue, radiating a bone-piercing chill that frosted the surrounding air.
Jiang Chen hadn’t returned to explore its depths. Instead, his eyes traced the intricate, ancient runes carved into the stone lip of the well.
They bore a striking resemblance to the script he had seen in the Seal Bone Tomb.
Patriarch Kechen had been dead for over a millennium—he certainly hadn’t crawled out of his coffin to help the Mo Clan suppress a flood dragon. That left only one logical conclusion: whoever carved these runes had inherited the Patriarch’s legacy. Whether they held a fragment or the complete inheritance remained a mystery.
I just don’t know how many Yellow Springs Alliance members are hiding within the Mo Clan of the City Lord’s Estate and the other five great families, Jiang Chen thought, his mind spinning with calculated paranoia.
He meticulously memorized the runic patterns, burning them into his mind. Even if they were obsolete in the current Azure Realm, knowledge was power, and they might serve as a useful reference later.
…
Over the next few days, disciples from every sect used Mystic Heart City as a forward operating base, launching hunting and exploration parties across the Canglan Sea. Golden Core experts spearheaded every group, guaranteeing formidable combat power.
Tailing behind Chen Tian, Jiang Chen effortlessly skimmed a hefty profit off the top.
Soon, their group arrived at the turbid current zone where they had previously hunted water demons. With the entire Canglan Sea corrupted into foul waters, this area had devolved into a nightmare. The water demon population multiplied by the day, turning the zone into a lethal gauntlet.
Dark brown whirlpools churned violently within the ink-green sea. The piercing shrieks of water demons and the guttural roars of deep-sea monsters wove together into a spine-chilling symphony.
A school of Wave-Chasing Shrimp Spirits lay in ambush beneath the murky surface, preparing to skewer Jiang Chen’s group. Before they could even twitch, Chen Tian casually swiped his hand. The sea itself cleaved in two, instantly exposing the lurking predators.
The shrimp spirits froze in shock. But as Long Ao charged forward, flanked by Han Xin and Xuanzang, the monsters’ vicious glares melted into sheer terror.
Hanging safely in the backline, Jiang Chen put on a show of effort, lazily firing off a few water arrows. He didn’t care if they hit; it was all about looking busy.
Chen Tian caught sight of this blatant slacking and sighed. “Junior Brother Jiang, I know you’re a spirit farmer, but you still need to hone your combat skills. What will you do when you face real danger alone?”
Jiang Chen flashed a shameless grin. “Senior Brother is absolutely right.”
Half an hour later, the group stood amidst a bountiful harvest. In this corrupted sea, the stronger the monster, the higher the market value of its core materials.
Noticing the darkening sky, the group prepared to board the Shattered Moon Flowing Frost and head back.
Suddenly, the ink-green ocean in the distance began to stratify. The surface whirlpools ground to a sluggish halt, while massive, bluish-black bubbles erupted from the lower depths. It looked as though a leviathan was dragging itself across the seabed.
Long Ao’s eyes gleamed with predatory excitement. “A sea monster. And definitely one with profound cultivation.”
Ordinary beasts couldn’t manipulate the ocean currents on this scale. To warp the environment so drastically, the creature had to be at least five hundred years old.
Moments later, a moving reef breached the surface. As the water cascaded off its back, its true form was revealed: a colossal sea turtle with a carapace spanning over two hundred feet across.
“A Black Crystal Profound Turtle,” Jiang Chen identified immediately.
“Every inch of that thing is a treasure!” Long Ao added, licking his lips.
Yet, something was wrong. The normally aggressive apex predator wasn’t attacking. Instead, it was frantically churning the water, carving massive wakes into the sea surface.
It seemed to be… fleeing?
As the beast drew closer, the gruesome reality became clear. The turtle’s massive left forelimb had been violently sheared off. Worse, the absolute center of its shell—the most impenetrable armor it possessed—was caved in, shattered by an impact from something infinitely more terrifying.
ROAR!
Before anyone could process the sight, a deafening, abyssal dragon’s roar detonated from the ocean floor. An apocalyptic pressure erupted upward, slamming into the group like a physical tidal wave.
Instantly, the color drained from everyone’s faces!