Chapter 1621 (Raw 1603): Long-Distance Trip to the Grave Sea
The black-clad arhat did not hold back this time. With the support of the scriptures, not only were his injuries completely healed, but his combat prowess also increased by at least twenty percent.
Furthermore, the Holy Son Ming Xuan had already injured Auntie Bai and the three First Elders, resulting in a significant decline in their combat prowess. Given this and the black-clad arhat being a match for them in the first place, the four were not as lucky as before. They could not flee, and all died at the black-clad arhat"s hands.
These people died very miserably, their physical bodies completely shattered, left without a corpse.
The Holy Son Ming Xuan chanted scriptures, helping these people purify their souls. Then, he used the purified beneficence to cleanse his physical body further, turning his aura gentler and more dignified like a living Buddha arriving in the world.
"Fifty-Ninth Arhat greets the Holy Son." The black-clad arhat bowed deeply while performing a cupped-fist salute, not daring to tarry at all.
The seventy-two arhats were ranked by their strength. "Fifty-Ninth Arhat" meant that he was ranked fifty-ninth among the arhats.
It was not only their t.i.tle but also represented their glory and strength.
The Holy Son Ming Xuan nodded slightly and said calmly, "You have news about the person that Master is searching for. Tell me everything you know in detail."
"Yes!"
After the Holy Son Ming Xuan received a thorough report, he could not help finding it unfortunate.
The black-clad arhat clearly could have captured Xiao Chen; however, this Fifty-Ninth Arhat was too arrogant, overestimating his own strength.
The arhat not only failed to capture Xiao Chen but even got himself captured and nearly sold off as a slave.
"Holy Son, please punish me." The black-clad arhat lowered his head and admitted his mistake, knowing that it was his mistake that allowed Xiao Chen to escape.
The Holy Son Ming Xuan"s expression remained even, not showing any anger. He said calmly, "Just make up for it with your contribution. Now that we know his rough location, it is no longer like searching for a needle in a haystack."
The seventy-two arhats and four Protectors were spread out across the vast Grave Sea Region to look for one person; calling their efforts "searching for a needle in a haystack" was no exaggeration.
Now that they knew Xiao Chen"s general location, they could a.s.semble everyone, which would make searching for him much easier.
Bringing the black-clad arhat with him, Ming Xuan went to the Myriad Image Tower of Purple Sun City. That was where information brokers gathered in the Thousand Great Realms.
One would be able to get information about almost anything there. Using the Myriad Image Tower was the most effective method to find a person in Purple Sun City.
After paying a sufficient price, the Holy Son Ming Xuan and the black-clad arhat received word of Senior Liu"s hiding place.
Xiao Chen definitely ran already. Now, the only thing they could do was find out his destination.
Such secrets would take the Myriad Image Tower a long time to uncover. Asking Senior Liu, a person who was very close to Xiao Chen, was the most direct and most effective method.
The Holy Son Ming Xuan knocked on the door of a rather desolate courtyard on the western side of the city and waited.
When a guest came to visit, Senior Liu did not think too much of it. He did not fear many people in Purple Sun City.
When Senior Liu opened the door, he immediately saw a white-clad monk—the Holy Son Ming Xuan.
"You are?"
"The Black Lotus Church"s Holy Son Ming Xuan."
Senior Liu"s expression flickered. Then, he turned around and fled without hesitation.
However, it was already too late. The black-clad arhat was faster than Senior Liu.
The Holy Son Ming Xuan waited quietly as the sounds of an intense battle came from the courtyard. It took a long time for peace to return.
After four hours, the black-clad arhat walked out of the courtyard with his clothes in disarray. Then, he reported, "He went to the Grave Sea. As for the exact location, this fogey is unaware."
"The Grave Sea? That already narrows it down by a lot. Inform the other arhats and the four Protectors to gather at the Grave Sea."
The two turned around and quickly left this place.
Inside the dilapidated courtyard, Senior Liu lay sprawled on the ground, confusion in his unfocused eyes. Clearly, he had fallen for a mysterious mental art of the Buddhist sect and been tricked into speaking of Xiao Chen"s location.
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In the blink of an eye, two months pa.s.sed. With the speed of the 3-Star pirate s.h.i.+p, Xiao Chen"s group arrived at the Grave Sea ahead of time.
As the name implied, the starry sea was a sea formed by stars melting at the end of their lives.
However, in reality, it was not that simple. There would always be a starry sea at the center of every astral region.
The thousands of realms that made up the astral region revolved around the starry sea with it as the core.
The existence and origins of the starry seas were still unknown. Among the various opinions, the most mainstream was that they were seas formed by stars melting at the end of their lifespan.
A starry sea was the center of every astral region. These places gathered the peak sects of the entire astral region. The Spiritual Energy there was fivefold to tenfold of what the outside had.
Most of the Spirit Jade ore veins and mines were concentrated in the starry seas as well. Everything was logical, as though the will of heaven arranged it to be so.
The starry sea was the center, the center of an astral region.
To pirates, the starry sea was where pirates should really be. Pirates that had not adventured in the starry sea were not true pirates.
The vast sea was where pirates truly belonged. Of course, aside from the romance of it, the great truth was that plundering in the starry seas led to the greatest harvest.
In the past two months, Xiao Chen consumed and refined the Heavenly Yang Pill, continuously using the Baleful Yang Energy and Baleful Yin Energy to cleanse and temper his Veritable Essence Energy.
Be it the Baleful Yin Energy or the Baleful Yang Energy, these external things existed for tempering Veritable Essence Energy. One should not put the cart before the horse, focusing on those two energies instead of the Veritable Essence Energy.
Xiao Chen possessed extremely high comprehension ability. Furthermore, he comprehended the Taiji Dao; hence, the cultivation in this realm came naturally to him.
With the Veritable Essence Energy mediating, the Baleful Yang Energy and the Baleful Yin Energy in his dantian formed the appearance of a Taiji Yinyang diagram.
Such a situation had never happened to anyone else before, as Xiao Chen was the only person in this world who understood the Taiji Dao.
Ordinary people found it hard to grasp the balance between Yin and Yang. However, Xiao Chen did not face any difficulty at all; everything proceeded smoothly.
His cultivation crossed the Yang Essence Stage, leaping straight to the half-step Primal Core Realm.
Xiao Chen also brushed the threshold of being one with the world, something that only Primal Core Venerates understood.
One could say that in the past two months, his strength experienced a quant.i.tative improvement, a great leap forward.
Compared to when Xiao Chen was in Purple Sun City, his combat prowess had increased severalfold, due to his immense acc.u.mulations.
Once Xiao Chen finally broke through to the Primal Core Realm, he would have a qualitative breakthrough. The benefits from his vast acc.u.mulations would last his entire life.
In the past two months, Xiao Suo, Luo Nan, and Fei`er all experienced improvements in their strength as well. Although these were not as exaggerated as Xiao Chen"s, these were still much greater than normal.
Naturally, all this was thanks to Xiao Chen. Before he left, he spent a lot of Spirit Jades in the Pirate Alliance to purchase plenty of resources for them.
The pirate s.h.i.+p floated peacefully on the starry sea, sailing a great distance and advancing rapidly.
The water of the starry sea was not water in the ordinary sense. It was strongly corrosive and horrifyingly heavy. If ordinary people fell into the water, they would be melted into bits with nothing left.
Even regular cultivators faced oppressive restrictions to their speed in the starry sea. Flying in the air was a struggle since their ma.s.s would be too great and the pull on them extremely horrifying.
This gave the people in the air the illusion of the water being magnetic and pulling them into the sea.
For a pirate s.h.i.+p to travel normally in the starry sea, it had to be at least a 3-Star vessel. Just the water"s corrosive nature could melt the hull of the s.h.i.+p, not to mention traveling for long distances.
In such a vile environment, the oceanic ferocious beasts born in this sea were naturally harder to deal with.
Xiao Suo, where are we now?
Xiao Chen"s voice rang out in Xiao Suo"s ears. Xiao Suo, who was in the control room, immediately replied, "Captain, we just crossed the border of the Grave Sea and can be considered to be formally in the Grave Sea."
Xiao Suo"s tone was rather calm, containing a trace of happiness. It had been many years since he was in the starry sea.
After leaving Purple Sun City, Xiao Chen asked everyone to address him by his name. There was no need to be so polite.
However, everyone held respect and grat.i.tude for Xiao Chen and was not comfortable with doing so; they compromised by calling him captain.
It was like heaven was watching over them. During their time in the periphery of the Grave Sea, the Black Scimitar Pirate Group pirate s.h.i.+p had not met any large storms or oceanic ferocious beasts. The skies were clear with gentle winds and a bright sun.
Xiao Chen entered deep thought. The two months of peace did not dispel his wariness.
The Black Lotus Church would catch up sooner or later. The Jiao Snake had already departed to seek out other opportunities.
Xiao Chen needed to rush to the sect where Pan Huang"s disciple, Ye Zifeng, was as soon as he could.
However, the Grave Sea was vast and boundless, even vaster than hundreds of great realms added together. In reality, finding the sect of Senior Ye Zifeng was truly something of a challenge. Traveling there would require a lot of time.
Furthermore, this did not take into account any accidents that they might encounter, such as oceanic ferocious beasts, other pirate s.h.i.+ps, factions antagonistic to the Pirate Alliance, or storms.