Chapter 2723 - The Enormity of Eternity

Su Yi had already taken his Toad Palace Osmanthus Fruit in hand, and he was examining it closely.

He could roughly determine that the white toad had changed its attitude due to the yellowed scroll he carried.

“It really is a Toad Palace Osmanthus Fruit!” exclaimed Qin Suqing, her eyes lighting up with delight. “In that case, I can quickly attempt to challenge the Divine Wandering Realm!”

Luan Yunzhong stroked his beard and smiled so broadly that he couldn’t close his mouth. He’d been stuck in the Divine Wandering Realm for far too long. Now, with the support of a Toad Palace Osmanthus Fruit, he had no need to fear failing to break into the Silent Realm!

And if he reached the Silent Realm, his position in Sky Profound Court would soar.

Pu Xuan said softly, “The Toad Palace Osmanthus Fruit really is a treasure. Heavenly Monarchs might not be able to use it, but even they can give it to their children and disciples.”

During his long years as a ruler among inauspicious spirits, he’d given away countless treasures, many of which were rare and precious.

But this was his first time encountering a treasure as wondrous and full of the power of destiny as the Toad Palace Osmanthus Fruit.

Su Yi had already put his fruit away.

He didn’t need to rely on external items for his breakthroughs, and besides, he was still only in the early stage of the Unfettered Realm. It was far from time for his next breakthrough.

“If word of what happened here makes it back to the Blue Peak Continent, there’ll be talk of it on every corner,” said Luan Yunzhong, his heart full of delight. “Come on, let’s hurry to Blue Peak Port.”

The group promptly resumed their journey.

The River of Destiny wasn’t just endlessly enormous; it was deep, too. Throughout the ages, no one had ever determined just how far down it went.

Three hundred thousand feet beneath the surface, a badly battered little mountain floated in the water. There was a cave at its base.

At least, there had been; the cave now lay in ruin. It had been the white toad's home until not long ago.

The white toad sat nearby, its heart aching. It had taken forty thousand years for it to gather those four Toad Palace Osmanthus fruits, and it hadn’t been easy, either. Those four fruits represented its entire supply!

Yet now, it had given them all away at once. Of course, its heart ached!

The fruit he’d given the young man in blue had been particularly precious; its shell had a natural osmanthus marking. An Immeasurable Realm expert who acquired that fruit had a real shot at breaking into the Heavenly Fate Realm!

It might have looked like just a piece of fruit, but in truth, it represented an opportunity to become a Heavenly Monarch!

A chance like that would drive even Heavenly Sovereign-level factions mad with desire. After all, who wouldn’t want an additional Heavenly Monarch?

“I hope I was right and that unbelievable Daoist scripture really returned...” murmured the white toad. “Otherwise, giving those gifts was a complete and utter waste!”

Cultivators thought of the River of Destiny as a perilous place not to be traversed lightly, but the toad was born in its waters. The River of Destiny was the foundation of its Grand Dao.

Here in its territory, the surrounding thirty thousand miles of water, it was known by quite an impressive title.

The Lord of the Toad Palace!

Over the years, its name and reputation had spread far beyond its territory for one simple reason.

It could fight!

Others hoping to expand their territories had brazenly invaded these waters, only for the Lord of the Toad Palace to beat them all to death. Its ferocity was infamous.

Destiny, opportunity, fortune... all are predetermined by fate in all its wonders. Today’s meeting was a twist of fate, and its effects will surely become clear in the future!

The snow-white toad extended a hand as if trying to divine something.

This very encounter might well be the key to soaring into the heavens and returning to my roots!

The white toad burst into joyful laughter at the thought of it.

...

Blue Peak Port.

It was called a port, but in truth, it was a portal through space and time, hovering in the air above the River of Destiny.

Rumor had it that every such port was originally an Eternal Gateway. After the hidden realms inside Eternal Gateways were destroyed, the gates themselves remained. Prominent Eternal factions could then use them to create spatial tunnels to enable fast travel.

Blue Peak Port led to the Eternal Heavens Domain’s Blue Peak Continent.

When they arrived, Qin Suqing and Luan Yunzhong were both in high spirits.

They’d survived two close brushes with death. Both times, they left with unexpected good fortune.

First, they’d each acquired a share of the trophies of the battle in the Golden Spirit Hidden Realm. Added together, they were quite valuable.

Then there was the Toad Palace Osmanthus Fruit. That was even rarer and more precious.

Along the way, Qin Suqing and Luan Yunzhong had already considered what they’d do upon their return.

Su Yi could sense their joy, in part because Qin Suqing had taken it upon herself to tell him all about the Great Qin Empire along the way.

At first, Su Yi had been quite surprised that a faction of Eternal cultivators like Sky Profound Court would associate with a country like the Great Qin Empire.

But now, Su Yi was starting to understand.

The Great Qin Empire was full of powerful cultivation factions!

The nation was home to billions of people, with sects and cults of all different lineages and schools of thought.

But Sky Profound Court was the Great Qin’s only Eternal orthodoxy, its greatest sect!

Every orthodoxy required a continuous influx of fresh blood if it was to continue passing on its lineage. The Great Qin, with its billions of inhabitants, was responsible for sifting through its populace to find those qualified to cultivate in Sky Profound Court.

That aside, Sky Profound Court’s fortune had long since grown intertwined with that of the Great Qin Empire.

The more the cultivation world of the Great Qin Empire flourished, the firmer Sky Profound Court’s foundations, and the greater its wealth and prestige, but the reverse was also true.

This was different from the mundane nations Su Yi knew about.

Qin Suqing explained with a simple metaphor: the Great Qin Empire was Sky Profound Court’s garden. When the crops flourished, the sect had an ample harvest.

Except that Sky Profound Court wasn’t harvesting its “crops” for sale and consumption, but to increase the sect’s fortune and recruit suitable disciples.

That aside, the Great Qin had billions of inhabitants and an abundance of cultivation factions. Competition was thus inevitably fierce.

Those who could rise to prominence were dragons and phoenixes among men, the proud sons and daughters of heaven.

This competition also helped Sky Profound Court sift through the ranks of would-be disciples.

It was somewhat reminiscent of raising poisonous worms. You’d let them fight amongst themselves and compete bitterly. Whoever emerged was the strongest of the bunch.

By the same token, if external foes threatened the Great Qin Empire, the lofty, transcendent Sky Profound Court wouldn’t remain a bystander.

Simply put, the Great Qin and Sky Profound Court were inextricably tied, their fortunes connected!

According to Qin Suqing, the Great Qin’s territories were expansive. It was like a vast world in its own right.

The vast majority of its cultivators weren’t qualified to enter Sky Profound Sect to cultivate, but it was home to no small number of Undying Realm Master Gods!

Moreover, several Eternals of Sky Profound Court had positions in the imperial court of the Great Qin!

A nation like this was naturally far from comparable to the empires of the mundane world.

It wasn’t just Sky Profound Court. The Yu Family, Fire Dragon Temple, and Bluebird Palace had similar ties with other nations.

This was apparently commonplace throughout the Eternal Heavens Domain.

Apparently, Heavenly Monarch-level factions sometimes controlled over a hundred nations!

Of course, all of this was just a way to expand their influence and pass on their legacies.

The Eternal Heavens Domain was home to numerous systems of cultivation, all of them different.

“Fellow Daoist, what we just described is just one way of doing things. The Eternal Heavens Domain is vast, with orthodoxies as numerous as the trees in a forest. Our Sky Profound Court is the greatest orthodoxy in the Blue Peak Continent, but by the standards of the Eternal Heavens Domain as a whole, it’s at most second-rate,” said Luan Yunzhong with a sigh. “Take my young mistress and me. You might not believe this, but although we’ve both stepped into Eternity, neither of us has ever been to any of the Eternal Heavens Domain’s other continents.”

“Why?” exclaimed Su Yi.

Luan Yunzhong laughed bitterly. “The Eternal Heavens Domain is just too enormous. Disregarding the other continents, even just the Blue Peak Continent is like an endlessly vast world. Not even Immeasurable Realm experts can gauge its size.”

Qin Suqing agreed completely. “My father said that only Heavenly Monarchs are capable of measuring the continents of the Eternal Heavens Domain.”

Su Yi had learned along the way that the Eternal Heavens Domain had thirty-three continents, four seas, five celestial capitals, and six pure lands.

That aside, it had numerous mysterious grounds and forbidden zones.

He’d anticipated that the Eternal Heavens Domain was large, but he hadn’t expected a single continent to be so enormous that Eternals like Luan Yunzhong and Qin Suqing could only sigh and lament their own inadequacy.

Luan Yunzhong quickly added, “The thirty-three continents of the Eternal Heavens Domain aren’t connected by land. If you want to travel between them, you have to pass through the River of Destiny’s Ports of Ushering. Fellow Daoist, do you know how much it costs to travel between continents?”

Before Su Yi could respond, Luan Yunzhong raised three fingers. “At least three thousand pieces of Eternal Essence Gold!”

Eternal Essence Golds were a secret treasure of the Path of Eternity. They were so precious that Eternals used them as currency.

A single Eternal Essence Gold could buy an Unfettered Realm cultivator enough medicine to fuel a month of cultivation!

Three thousand pieces of Eternal Essence Gold were indeed no small sum.

Luan Yunzhong was a peak Divine Wandering Realm expert, and he’d saved bitterly for countless years, but he’d still only accumulated just under two thousand pieces of Eternal Essence Gold. Furthermore, this was in preparation for breaking through.

However, it was nowhere near enough to cover the cost of traveling across continents!

Su Yi finally understood how difficult it was to visit the other continents of the Eternal Heavens Domain. Those beneath the Eternal Dao would live and die without ever getting the opportunity!

And even most Eternals wouldn’t waste their money on something as extravagant as cross-continental travel unless it was absolutely necessary.

“Eternal Essence Gold? I actually have a bit,” Pu Xuan said suddenly.

“How much?” asked Su Yi.

“Not much,” Pu Xuan said with a laugh. “Ten thousand pieces or so. If you need them, I can give them all to you.”

He flipped his palm, and a bag of holding full of Eternal Essence Gold appeared. He passed it to Su Yi.

Luan Yunzhong and Qin Suqing fell silent. The atmosphere was suddenly stifled and oppressive.

Time passed, but Su Yi didn’t accept the bag of holding. Instead, he patted Pu Xuan on the shoulder and laughed. “I quite liked the way you said that!”

Who wouldn’t love to have a friend who’d give away Eternal Essence Gold at the drop of a hat?