Chapters 1794 - The Corpse-Strewn Ruins

Three days later.

Islands both big and small were scattered throughout the far reaches of the Eastern Sea.

“Everyone, get in line! We’re going to check you all one by one!

“We of the Black Turtle Spirit Race are acting on the orders of Jade Firmament Immortal Palace. Please, don’t make our jobs difficult!

“If you want to pass through these waters, cooperate. Line up and leave an imprint of your soul on this Soul Rock.

“Relax. We don’t care if you’re a heretical cultivator or an irredeemable villain. Leave an imprint of your soul, and you’re free to leave.”

“But we must warn you that the surrounding ninety thousand miles of sea have already been sealed off, with outposts at regular intervals. Don’t even think of simply trying to go around us!”

...A group of Black Turtle Spirit Race experts clustered in the distant seas, sealing the path ahead.

The one who’d spoken just now was a thin old man of the Black Turtle Spirit Race. He had a dignified, imposing look on his face, and his cultivation was in the Saint Realm.

Numerous cultivators stood before him, obediently waiting in line and accepting the Black Turtles’ arrangements. One by one, they left imprints of their souls on the ten-foot Soul Rock.

Su Yi and the Red Dragon Dao Monarch were here too.

With their abilities, they absolutely could have simply slipped past the outpost, but when they saw this, Su Yi couldn’t help but be curious.

“Fellow Daoist, might I ask what happened here?” Su Yi walked up to the end of the line and casually asked the man waiting there.

The man responded in a hushed whisper, “You haven’t heard? Last night, word spread that the famous Su Yi has fled into the Eastern Sea to prevent the Immortal Realms’ top factions from hunting him down!

Su Yi was stunned. “This is happening because of him?”

“That’s right!” said the man waiting in line. “After word spread, Jade Firmament Immortal Palace, Floating Mountain, the Kui Ox Spirit Race, and several other top factions issued a joint proclamation. Su Yi is now wanted throughout the Eastern Sea!”

“By now, practically every faction in the Eastern Sea, regardless of size, has gotten involved. They’re investigating every suspicious character in these waters.” Here, the man’s eyes shone with derision. “But it seems to me that their investigation is nothing but empty posturing. With Su Yi’s abilities, how could mere small fries possibly locate hi... Huh? Where’d that guy go?”

The man suddenly discovered that Su Yi had vanished. He looked around, but to his shock, the young man he’d been conversing with had practically evaporated into thin air. There was no sign of him whatsoever!

Was that guy perhaps Su Yi?

The man’s heart shook.

A moment later, he shook his head and rejected the idea.

The Su Yi of rumors was like a tyrannical demon god, and his hands were drenched in blood. They said he could scare an Immortal King out of their wits with a single glance!

That young man wasn’t tyrannical at all. How could that possibly be Su Yi? He was definitely just some shady character who ran off for fear that they’d discover his identity!

......

A little boat carried Su Yi and the Red Dragon Dao Monarch deeper into the Eastern Sea.

“Do my enemies really have nothing left up their sleeves? To think they’d resort to such coarse methods to find me,” said Su Yi. When he thought back to what he’d just seen, he couldn’t help but laugh.

The Red Dragon Dao Monarch said, “Your Excellency, since they’d taken action against you, I’m sure this isn’t the full extent of it. I suspect that they’re doing this to inform everyone entering the Eastern Sea that you’ve come. They’re just trying to make a complete mess of things.”

Su Yi said approvingly, “You’re right. That’s what they’re really after. They might not be able to find me, but they can use my enemies to target me. Enemies, like, say... the divine children from the God Domain.”

He paused, then said, “By now, the whole world knows that in less than a month, the Giant Whale Spirit Race will lead a group of experts into the ruins of the Dragon Palace, including no small number of divine children.”

“That aside, numerous experts of the Immortal Realm’s top factions will participate.

“Given the circumstances, all they need to do is reveal that I’ve appeared in the area, and countless people will pay attention. That will, in turn, cause unpredictable trouble.

“Ultimately, they really don’t have anything else up their sleeves. Otherwise, why would they go to all this trouble?”

“Aren’t you worried, Your Excellency?” asked the Red Dragon Dao Monarch.

“They’re the ones who ought to worry,” Su Yi said calmly. “So long as I live, they won’t be able to eat or sleep in peace. Would you believe me if I said that Jade Firmament Immortal Palace, Floating Mountain, and the other factions hostile to me have long since readied themselves for battle? They’ve made ample preparations out of fear that I’ll attack out of nowhere.”

The Red Dragon Dao Monarch had a strange look in her eyes. She said softly, “I’m sure that’s the case.”

She too had heard that, not long ago, the Sovereign had single-handedly crushed the Church of All Spirits. He’d also snuck into the Church of the Exquisite Goddess undetected, then killed eight Immortal Kings.

Given the circumstances, what prominent faction wouldn’t be worried that he’d do the same to them?

“Your Excellency, where are we going?” asked the Red Dragon Dao Monarch.

“A place where I can prove my Dao and enter the Miracle Realm,” said Su Yi. His eyes shone with anticipation.

During his thirty years of seclusion in the Spring and Autumn Space, his cultivation reached the peak of the Saint Realm. All he needed now was an opportunity, and he could smoothly break into the Miracle Realm and become an Immortal King!

This was one of the reasons he’d come to the Eastern Sea in the first place.

Furthermore, he’d thought of the perfect spot to realize his breakthrough!

After proving his Dao and becoming an Immortal King, it wouldn’t matter if others on the expedition into the ruins of the Dragon Palace realized who he was. He’d have nothing to fear whatsoever.

......

Another three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Along the way, Su Yi encountered numerous roadblocks and would-be investigators, but they amounted to nothing at all; they couldn’t affect his travel plans at all.

After passing through a stretch of seas known as the Sunken Heavens, they arrived in the far reaches of the Eastern Sea!

The Sunken Heaven was like a boundary marking the far reaches and the periphery of the Eastern Sea. Those yet to become immortals dared not venture beyond this point. They weren’t strong enough; proceeding any further meant almost certain death.

Even experts of the Immortal Dao faced all manner of perils when they ventured past this point.

Boom!

The dome of heaven was overcast. Lightning ran rampant, and resplendent arcs of electricity tore through the sky, ripping open massive rifts.

The turbulent seas churned, and fierce gales howled past. The sight was enough to fill even Immortal Lords’ hearts with dread.

Yet the little boat carrying Su Yi and the Red Dragon Dao Monarch floated steadily through the churning, turbulent waters.

Suddenly, a pair of lake-sized, blood-red eyes lit up far beneath the waves. It was a sea monster the size of a mountain range, lurking in the darkness of the seabed, a terrifying, mysterious sight.

But a moment later, the massive, ferocious creature shuddered and wailed.

It could sense a terrifying, imposing pressure, like that of a ruler. It imposed an absolute suppression on the sea monster’s bloodline, and its heart and mind almost broke down!

It was faint, but the creature heard a woman’s voice emanating from above the water’s surface.

“Your Excellency, are you hungry? A one-horned Baxia lives at the bottom of the ocean. How about I catch it for you?”

The beast. It was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Who is that woman? Does she want to eat me? That’s just too terrifying!

The massive sea monster quivered with helplessness. It suddenly felt tiny and weak.

A calm male voice rang out. “I’ll pass. Baxia devour the baleful energies of heaven and earth year round, and their flesh isn’t at all delicious. I can’t work up any appetite for them at all.”

“Okay!”

The conversation soon faded away, and the terrifying pressure bearing down on the sea monster disappeared.

The beast gasped for breath. It didn’t like this feeling at all. As the hegemon of these waters, it would never have guessed that it might one day escape disaster because its flesh was too low-quality to be worth eating...

......

On the road ahead, it didn’t matter how many terrifying creatures lay dormant beneath the waves. With the Red Dragon Dao Monarch accompanying him, they might as well not have been there.

She didn’t even need to use her cultivation base. The draconic majesty emanating from her was enough to make the ferocious sea monsters collapse from sheer fright!

This was the terrifying power of a dragon! They were the top predators of the sea, like the hegemons of the ocean!

Even human experts of the same cultivation were typically far from capable of contending with a dragon.

Of course, there were no absolutes in this world. There were always a few special cases and exceptions to otherwise ironclad rules. Some people could transcend the usual limits.

People like, say... Su Yi.

“We’re here.”

After another day of traveling, a massive black cloud appeared over the distant waters. It was so huge as to blot out the sun, shrouding everything beneath it in the darkness of an eternal night. It enveloped the entire dome of heaven.

It was faint, but shockingly, an enormous continent floated within the black cloud! It was so enormous that there was no end in sight!

“Your Excellency, what is this place?”

“One of the seven great forbidden grounds of the Eastern Sea. Prior to the Age of Fallen Immortals, they called it the Corpse-Strewn Ruins,” said Su Yi, his eyes shining with reminiscence.

This was a mysterious ground, a holdover from the Primeval Era. It was shrouded in dense, baleful death qi year-round.

The Corpse-Strewn Ruins contained numerous terrifying, ferocious ancient corpses. Even the weakest of them could kill Immortal Lords.

Some of the stronger corpses could kill even Immortal Kings!

There were even ancient, forbidden zones within the Corpse-Strewn Ruins that contained corpses comparable to Great Realm experts. Their strength was enough to make one’s heart shake.

When Wang Ye visited the Corpse-Strewn Ruins, he encountered a corpse comparable to a Great Unity Stage expert! They were a sword cultivator, too.

That aside, some places in the Corpse-Strewn Ruins were swathed in a calamitous power of the Laws year-round. Even at Wang Ye’s peak, he couldn’t possibly have explored them.

Su Yi had chosen the Corpse-Strewn Ruins to break through because of a highly distinctive mountain in one of its forbidden zones.

They called it the Lifeless Mountain, for rumor had it that all who ventured there died, and it was shrouded in such dense death qi that not even grass grew there.

But the Lifeless Mountain produced a treasure, a type of good fortune nowhere to be seen in the outside world——Dao-Refining Pearls!

These were treasures that would tempt even Great Realm experts, and they’d drive Immortal Kings to madness.

Similarly, they’d play a crucial role when Su Yi became an Immortal King and established his foundations in the Miracle Realm!