Chapter 1560 - Three Realm Sea Region

Su Ling didn't try to convince Liu Wuxie to stay and merely offered perfunctory courtesy. Liu Wuxie caught the meaning behind it, so he chose to leave instead of waiting for the Skyward Gate to push him out.

"The Three Realm Island," Liu Wuxie said. The sea gave him the best hiding place, with countless islands scattered across the ocean, and the Nalan Clan wouldn't find it easy to track him down there.

"If you're planning to go to Three Realm Island, I suggest you take a look at the Peach Blossom Island. Pirates might run rampant there, but I believe you can handle it with ease with your strength," Su Ling said. He had planned to recommend Three Realm Island anyway, since it was a lawless zone ruled by no one.

One side belonged to the oceanic clan, where humans couldn't penetrate, while the other side held reefs and scattered islands where fugitives seized land and proclaimed themselves island lords. The Nalan Clan's influence couldn't reach into the Three Realm Sea Region.

Now that the Spirit Martial Astral Domain had become unsafe, the Nalan Clan had issued a bounty on Liu Wuxie. Whoever captured him alive would receive one million astral crystals along with a ninth-grade spiritual pill.

As a result, many cultivators had joined the hunt for Liu Wuxie, and numerous experts had gathered outside the Skyward Gate within just a few days.

If Liu Wuxie kept staying in the Skyward Gate, he wouldn't just face the Nalan Clan, but he would face the entire Spirit Martial Astral Domain's cultivators.

He quietly etched Peach Blossom Island into his memory, certain Su Ling wouldn't mention it without reason.

"There's no time to waste, and I'll be taking my leave now," Liu Wuxie said. His choice of Three Realm Island matched Su Ling's thoughts perfectly, because the Three Realm Sea Region was lawless, its terrain tangled, and its islands countless. It was hard ground for the Nalan Clan to search for him.

Moreover, it gave him a chance to travel and broaden his experience.

He might have been the reincarnation of an Immortal Emperor, but he still had to keep pace with the era.

If he clung to old knowledge, the world would leave him behind.

The cultivation world shifted daily. New things like new races and new mythical arts emerged constantly.

If he failed to keep up with those changes, falling behind would only become a matter of time.

"Hold on!" Su Ling called out to Liu Wuxie.

"Is there anything else?" Liu Wuxie asked.

"If you go down the mountain like this, they'll discover you. Our Skyward Gate has a secret passage, and you can leave from there to bypass the watchful eyes," Su Ling said and led Liu Wuxie to the backside of the mountain.

He opened an old teleportation array built long ago to evacuate disciples and preserve the Skyward Gate's legacy in times of danger. They had activated it only a few times over countless years.

"Young Master Liu, take care of yourself," Su Ling said. He couldn't think of anything else to add, because if Liu Wuxie fell, the Skyward Gate would suffer a massive loss as well.

"Until we meet again," Liu Wuxie replied and stepped into the teleportation array.

Three Realm Island was famous because of the Three Realm Sea Region. This wasn't Liu Wuxie's first visit, since he had been there before to sneak into the Nalan Clan's underground workshop.

The island was small and sparsely populated, yet it served as a resting point for most cultivators. Liu Wuxie changed his appearance again and disguised himself as a middle-aged scholar.

A few cultivators stopped by from time to time to rest, but no one paid him any attention because his appearance and cultivation looked ordinary. After all, Liu Wuxie had deliberately suppressed his cultivation to the first-level Earth Immortal Realm.

The Three Realm Sea Region stretched endlessly and had become a paradise for many cultivators seeking treasures. Rumors claimed that the Three Realm Sea Region hid countless treasures.

Voices drifted over from nearby. "Mirages were seen in the Three Realm Sea Region several times in the past month, and that isn't normal."

These mirages had drawn many cultivators there.

"I also heard of it. The mirage that appeared this time is especially strange. It looked like a massive wheel," said a few cultivators as they flew toward the vast ocean.

Liu Wuxie looked in the direction they had left with a faint frown. He had never heard of a mirage that resembled a wheel. The direction they were heading was toward the Thousand Islands Sea Region, where countless islands were scattered across the waters, some ruled by pirates and others by primitive tribes.

The Thousand Islands Sea Region got its name from the thousand islands scattered throughout that area.

Liu Wuxie cast his movement technique and shot out like a meteor, vanishing from Three Realm Island. He flew for a full day and night before dozens of islands appeared ahead, spaced far apart. The largest island rivaled a major city, while the tiny ones looked like rocks protruding from the sea.

When Liu Wuxie descended onto the nearest island, it wasn't the biggest or the smallest, yet he immediately spotted signs of a primitive tribe. The races living here were ancient, and humans weren't the only ones among them.

"The Tri-Glyph Island!" Liu Wuxie saw three characters carved into a reef at the island's edge. The island formed a triangle, which explained its name.

He walked along the shoreline into the deeper reaches of the region, where life was simple, and fishing sustained most people. Oddly, the people he encountered were mostly elderly and weak, with scarcely any adults in sight.

Deeper inside, taller buildings rose where the wealthier population lived. A wide road ran through the center of the island, stretching from one end to the other.

Various goods like conches the size of a head, rare pearls, seaweed, corals, and many more lined the street.

Liu Wuxie scanned the island with Ghost Pupil and found roughly a few thousand residents. Most goods catered to foreign cultivators. He planned to rest there for a day and leave the next day, since he had no specific target and only wanted to temper himself.

The inn looked crude, and only a few guests stayed here besides Liu Wuxie. Because the island sat close to the sea, most buildings used pavilion-style designs for ventilation.

A breeze drifted in, soothing the mind and easing fatigue. In the distance, a black warship appeared and slowly approached the island.

Liu Wuxie frowned when he spotted a black skull flag, the mark of a pirate, hanging from the warship. The island was located near the outer edge and wasn't prosperous, so it made no sense for pirates to loot such a place.

When the fishermen on the shore noticed the pirate ship, they fled at once and hid inside their homes, not daring to stay outside. The natives didn't have high cultivation, but living here for a long time had conditioned them to the environment.

After a little more than a dozen breaths, the warship finally reached the dock. Every island had a dock, and this island was no exception. The smaller boats near the shore either shattered or got shoved aside by the pirate warship.

With a loud rustle, the shops along the street slammed shut. The lively street from moments ago fell dead silent in the blink of an eye. Even the inn's owner vanished without a trace, leaving behind a bag outside the door.

Over a hundred pirates disembarked from the warship and strode into the street. Liu Wuxie soon noticed a bag outside every shop. With a sweep of his divine sense, he saw that those bags contained astral stones. Afterall, astral crystals were too high-levelled for ordinary people to produce.

The pirates began collecting the bags. A single round could bring in hundreds of thousands of astral stones, which was a decent profit for such an ordinary island.

Liu Wuxie watched quietly, and the residents seemed used to it. Pirates came every month to collect tributes under the disguise of "protection," claiming it kept the island from being attacked by others. They never realized they were the greatest bullies.

All the astral stones the island's residents earned flowed straight into pirate hands.

A girl who had only just learned to walk toddled onto the street with a candy in hand, paying no attention to the approaching crooks.

When the pirates saw the little girl ahead, they burst into strange laughter. They loved kidnapping children most, raising them into pirates when they grew up. They would turn women into tools for reproduction, while they trained men into new pirates.

That was why Liu Wuxie had seen so few children playing outside since arriving on the island. This girl must've wandered out on her own while her family wasn't looking.

"Xiao Yi, come back!" A shop's door cracked open, and a woman called out urgently for the little girl to return.

However, the little girl kept walking forward, drawing closer to the pirates, and the pirates walking over had already noticed her.

Seeing the little girl wander too far, the shop's door opened wider, and a woman hurried out toward her. But the pirates had already closed in by then.

"What a beautiful woman. Let's take her back and offer her to the chief," a pirate said.

The woman's appearance was decent, and on this island, she counted as a rare beauty.

The woman scooped up the little girl and tried to retreat to the shop, only for the pirates to block her path.

"Little beauty, don't be in such a hurry to leave," the pirates jeered as they surrounded her.

"Honored Misters, we've already offered our tribute. Please don't make things difficult for my daughter and me," the woman said, hugging the little girl tightly as she bowed. She had offered astral stones for this month, and she hoped the pirates would spare them.

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"You know our rules. As long as you appear on the street, you'll have to come with us," said the leader of the pirates with cultivation at the higher levels of the Void Realm.

In this region, cultivators at the higher levels of the Void Realm could be considered experts. Once he finished talking, he reached out without hesitation to grab the woman.

The pirates had forced this island to sign a contract requiring it to pay tributes every month. The streets also had to be empty when they came, and they would take away anyone seen outside.

"Don't take my wife!" A burly man rushed out with a fork in hand, shielding the woman behind him.

"You're courting death!" the pirate leader roared in anger and swept his palm out, blasting the burly man away and slamming him into the corner of the street.

"Don't hurt my husband!" The woman flared and moved to attack, revealing her cultivation at the fifth-level Void Realm, even higher than her husband's.