A choice?

Qu Zhengfeng chuckled once but didn’t answer. He simply sat down in front of the Mitian Mirror, taking out two jars of fine wine. He placed one jar before the withered bones and another before himself, saying, “The hardships of the world cannot stop me from following my heart’s desire. Why must Great Grand Master ask again?”

“Sigh…”

That set of withered bones suddenly let out a long, deep sigh.

Qu Zhengfeng merely grabbed one jar of wine and took a large gulp, likewise saying nothing more.

Standing like towering cliffs, the single sword of Yashan thrust down from the peak of the sheath, carrying a magnificent and majestic spirit.

Endless morning sunlight scattered across the mountaintop, the stone sword body seeming devoid of any life, having been silent for ages.

Throughout the interior and exterior of Yashan, all was peaceful.

That strand of spiritual consciousness that had been wandering outside Yashan finally began to gradually withdraw.

Hengxu Zhenren received the same result as always—nothing different, and it seemed no one was making a breakthrough.

He only said to Fudao Shanren, “I heard that your second disciple Qu Zhengfeng has returned to Yashan for closed-door cultivation, preparing to break through. Don’t you care at all?”

“If he breaks through, he breaks through. What’s there to worry about?”

Fudao Shanren rolled his eyes, seeming to mock Hengxu Zhenren’s lack of insight, his teeth constantly crunching and gnawing.

“He hasn’t broken through to Nascent Soul in over three hundred years, reaching the Soul Separation stage. Do you expect him to suddenly become enlightened in these two or three days? Really…”

“…”

These words weren’t without reason, but Hengxu Zhenren didn’t believe them, though the reasons couldn’t be shared with outsiders.

In the end, he still didn’t utter a single word of rebuttal.

In the Empty Sea, the scene remained boiling with activity.

Someone in the crowd suddenly cried out in alarm, “Look quickly!”

Originally, everyone’s attention had been focused on Jian Chou and Young Master Ruhua. With this cry of alarm, everyone couldn’t help but look in the direction the person was pointing, and immediately joined in the exclamations!

Jian Chou and Young Master Ruhua were currently in the due south of the Empty Sea.

In the northeast direction of the Empty Sea, that cultivator from the Northern Domain, Tang Buye, had previously stood on the head of a large fish and seemed to have triggered something as well—a beam of light entered his brow.

In the blink of an eye, Tang Buye actually vanished instantly!

The large fish dove into the seabed in a panic, fleeing in terror.

Where was Tang Buye?

Everyone was puzzled.

Looking carefully, someone with sharp eyes spotted a figure on a distant water surface: “Over there!”

The figure that had vanished instantly had reappeared on the sea surface thirty li away!

Water-space teleportation, range: the Empty Sea!

Nearly instantaneous travel!

“What?”

In the due south of the Empty Sea, standing on the sea island while holding that map-like sea disc, Young Master Ruhua had originally maintained a calm demeanor, but now he couldn’t help but cry out in alarm!

Crash, crash, crash…

The waves continued to roar, countless sprays splashing up and smashing against the deep black reefs, creating patches of snow-white foam.

Jian Chou stood on the highest reef of the sea island, yet not a single splash of waves touched her body.

Ahead, that black dragon had become just a blurred shadow.

She was pondering how to catch up with that dragon when she heard Young Master Ruhua’s exclamation and couldn’t help but turn to look at him: “What’s wrong?”

“…”

Young Master Ruhua didn’t speak immediately, only brought the sea disc close to Jian Chou’s face and pointed to a light spot in the northeast direction.

That light spot was like a star, flickering once, then actually disappeared from the sea disc in that instant, afterward appearing in another position on the sea disc, without any warning!

Jian Chou was shocked: “This is…”

“Teleportation.”

Nascent Soul stage cultivators could teleport their Nascent Souls, and cultivators above the Soul Separation stage who had comprehended the laws of heaven and earth could also teleport.

But this absolutely shouldn’t appear in the Empty Sea, among a group of Golden Core stage cultivators…

Young Master Ruhua’s lazy demeanor had completely faded away, replaced by a heavy solemnity.

A thought slowly arose.

Jian Chou looked at the sea disc and said, “Young Master has the ability to spy on the entire sea, and I have the ability to control islands. I wonder if others… also have this kind of fortune, and if so, what kind of abilities might they be?”

“I’m afraid everyone has a share.”

Young Master Ruhua answered.

On the sea disc, that light spot was still moving across the sea surface at a terrifying speed, and careful calculation showed that each movement was almost exactly thirty li.

This was just what Young Master Ruhua and Jian Chou could see, and in directions they couldn’t see…

Northwest.

Shen Ling Weitai joyfully raised his hand, flinging out a silver light that immediately transformed into a huge light circle floating on the sea surface. Then it suddenly contracted toward the center, the silver light becoming like a giant net that actually scooped up countless large and small fish and even shrimp from the seawater. No matter how they struggled, they couldn’t escape!

Deep Sea Binding!

Range: Empty Sea!

Due east.

Running barefoot across the sea surface, Xiao Jin hugged a large watermelon, extremely excited: “Hmph, let you bad fish steal my melon! All of you stay put!”

As his words fell, where he had run, a huge splash of waves suddenly exploded!

Crack, crack, crack!

The deep blue sea surface was instantly frozen, the expanding ice body immediately blasting apart the surrounding sea surface, turning into endless spray.

Sea-Tripping Stone!

Range: Empty Sea!

Southeast.

On a lonely reef, Jiang Wenchao crouched down and placed his hand into the deep sea.

Endless seawater lapped against the back of his hand, also bringing some small fish and shrimp that circled around his hand, opening and closing their mouths, telling him all the news from the sea.

“The black dragon went northeast!”

“There’s a monster that caught many of our companions!”

“Oh my, there’s a sea island that keeps running forward!”

…

The wondrous words were endless.

Jiang Wenchao understood and stood up again, looking northeast.

Fish Speech!

Range: Empty Sea!

Southwest.

Lu Xiangleng, dressed in white, floated above the sea surface, her finger tracing across her brow with a hint of confusion.

A thoughtful gleam appeared in her eyes, then she formed a hand seal!

Buzz!

After a terrifying vibration, a beam of light shot out from her body, spreading flat and covering three zhang around her!

An unstoppable aura immediately appeared.

Invincible Domain!

Range: Empty Sea!

Due west.

By the sea island, in the deep blue seawater, dark red robe corners floated as Xiahou She was completely submerged in the seawater.

That bloody mark running from his brow to his nose bridge seemed never to heal, and now thin streams of fresh blood seeped out…

“Triple amplification?”

Unfortunately, there were only three opportunities, otherwise he could have dominated the entire Empty Sea.

Slowly, Xiahou She lowered his eyelids and leaped out of the seawater. Countless droplets immediately slid off his robes, splashing up glittering waves.

He headed due east!

Due north.

“Hmm, this works?”

After that beam of light entered his brow, Zuo Liu’s face immediately showed an indescribable expression.

He widened his eyes and looked left and right—not a single person around.

On the small island of three zhang radius, there was only one large tree. Zuo Liu stood under this tree, gnawing on his brush handle, his eyes rolling around. Finally, he gritted his teeth and said, “Let’s try it!”

“Bang!”

A puff of blue smoke rose, and Zuo Liu completely disappeared from under the tree!

“Again!”

Young Master Ruhua had been observing the changes on the sea disc, still amazed by that constantly jumping light spot, when suddenly, the light spot located due north also disappeared!

This scene naturally fell into Jian Chou’s eyes as well.

She was equally surprised, widening her eyes and speculating: “Could it be that someone else has gained a teleportation ability?”

“…”

Young Master Ruhua remained silent.

The previous light spot’s teleportation distance was thirty li. What about this one?

Logically, it shouldn’t be much different.

So Young Master Ruhua’s gaze kept wandering around the area near the due north light spot, but unexpectedly…

A full half-quarter hour passed, and the small dot that had originally been due north on the sea disc still hadn’t appeared!

How was this possible?

Jian Chou furrowed her brow tightly: “This isn’t teleportation!”

“It’s invisibility!”

Young Master Ruhua spoke decisively, completing Jian Chou’s thought.

There were nine people who entered the Empty Sea, but no matter how they counted, there were only eight light spots on the sea disc. One person had vanished into thin air, clearly because the sea disc could no longer detect their existence.

There should be two possibilities: first, this person had already been eliminated; second, the ability the Empty Sea granted this person was invisibility, avoiding the sea disc’s detection!

Having just entered the field for such a short time, Young Master Ruhua didn’t believe anyone could be eliminated so quickly, so there was every reason to believe they were dealing with the latter.

“This is getting more and more interesting…”

Fudao Shanren was indeed an imaginative Enforcement Elder.

Young Master Ruhua hooked his finger, and a light blue trumpet flower appeared out of thin air, held between his fingers.

“The Empty Sea forms its own realm, so it grants each entrant different abilities that complement and counter each other. No one knows whether they might encounter abilities that clash with their own…”

“Why worry about it?”

After thinking for a moment, Jian Chou became philosophical.

Young Master Ruhua looked at her: “Fellow Daoist Jian Chou seems quite open-minded.”

“We are cultivators. Though we may have started cultivation at different times and may have different levels of cultivation, the abilities we master remain constant. The abilities given by the Empty Sea might be withdrawn at any time, but our own abilities will never disappear. Rather than pinning our hopes on the Empty Sea’s abilities to help us hunt the dragon and extract dragon tendons, we should think more about our own abilities.”

After speaking, Jian Chou smiled.

She glanced at the black dragon on the sea disc. Originally heading due east, in the time they had been talking, it had actually changed direction and was now heading due north.

A good opportunity!

In that instant, she didn’t hesitate and directly controlled the massive sea island beneath her feet, charging madly toward the northeast!

Boom!

Endless waves shattered, splashing up patches of snow-white foam!

The entire sea island trembled due to this frantic speed.

Standing on the sea island, Young Master Ruhua hadn’t yet had time to fully process what Jian Chou had just said when he was suddenly shaken by her abruptly soaring speed.

“What’s this?”

“Taking a shortcut—the black dragon is right ahead!”

Jian Chou answered decisively, increasing her speed by another twenty percent!

In just the blink of an eye, they could actually see the black dragon’s outline again.

It was still frantically swinging its massive tail, swimming through the endless deep sea with an expression of extreme terror: I’ve been fleeing for so long, why is that shadow monster still following me!

The black dragon, or rather the little earthworm, was completely baffled and just kept fleeing north.

It didn’t notice at all that just diagonally behind it, to its southwest, a sea island was already breaking through the waves!

The moment she saw the black dragon, Jian Chou directly said, “Let’s join forces to slay the black dragon. We’ll split the dragon tendons in half. How about it?”

“Deal!”

Young Master Ruhua also cast aside the distracting thoughts caused by the various anomalies on the sea disc and directly shook his sleeve robe. The hundreds of flowers embroidered on it seemed to have absorbed water and instantly came alive.

Nearly a hundred fresh flowers actually flew out from his sleeve, and Young Master Ruhua pulled them together to form a colorful flower blade!

However, every petal on the flower blade gave off a sharp, cutting sensation.

The moment Jian Chou controlled the sea island to approach the black dragon, Young Master Ruhua directly leaped into the air and slashed toward the black dragon!

Endless flowers immediately flashed in the blade light, and endless floral fragrance also pervaded the air after this slash.

The entire surface of the Empty Sea was momentarily filled with an extremely mysterious fragrance!

The blade light swept up massive waves and, while the black dragon was completely unaware, struck its enormous body with tremendous force.

The hundred-zhang giant dragon, caught completely off guard, was actually cut in half by Young Master Ruhua’s slash!

“Roar—”

The massive roar shook heaven and earth, carrying the madness of pain!

The front half of the black dragon’s body continued its momentum, still charging toward the distance…

But…

Not a drop of blood!

That blade had severed the black dragon’s body into two sections, but at the wound there was only a patch of snow-white dragon flesh, with no trace of red blood visible.

The section of dragon body with only a tail and no head crashed into the seawater, still seeming alive and struggling. Even the severed wound began an incredible healing process…

The dragon tail remained unchanged, but at the healing wound, a new shape seemed to be forming, vaguely resembling a new dragon head.

In that instant, Jian Chou’s mind went “buzz.”

Black dragon…

What a joke!

This so-called “black dragon” was essentially just an earthworm that Fudao Shanren had casually dug up!

And earthworms…

Thinking of this, she was immediately horrified and couldn’t help but curse under her breath: Master is too treacherous!

Seeing Young Master Ruhua chasing after the remaining half of the black dragon, Jian Chou didn’t hesitate to shout, “Fellow Daoist, stop! This situation is a trap!”