“I never expected that after so many years, old Zuoqiu would still be so soft-hearted. He almost ruined our grand plan.”
At that moment, another ethereal voice suddenly appeared. Everyone turned back in surprise and joy to bow, seeing that the Sect Masters Guiyuan and Jingyuan of Wuyue Court had also arrived on the wind. Two of the four Sect Masters of Wuyue Court had come, showing the importance they placed on this matter.
Master Zhongnan nodded and said, “Years ago, when the incident with the single earth-attribute spiritual root disciple caused such a commotion, so many eyes were on Jiang Lifei. If Zuoqiu hadn’t intervened, she wouldn’t have been able to live so freely until today. Sigh, I can never understand him. I’ve asked, but he won’t say.”
Jiang Lifei’s constitution was peculiar in many ways, yet she had managed to live peacefully in the academy and Wuyue Court for six or seven years. Could it be that the ancestors who understood her strange nature didn’t have even a bit of curiosity? When these founders of the academy received the letter from Wuyue Court, they were all shocked. When they asked Zuoqiu, he sighed and said: “In my eyes, she’s just a little girl. It’s not necessary, I can’t bear it.”
These words were truly misguided. She was a foreign anomaly from overseas, absorbing immortal spiritual energy, with strange spiritual root attributes, and an innate ability to make monsters fear her. If any of her talents were fully understood and comprehended by the immortal cultivators of the Central Plains, it would cause huge waves in the cultivation world. From the day her identity was exposed, Jiang Lifei could no longer be an ordinary person, but a great treasure and mystery that everyone would pursue eagerly.
As they spoke, many more immortals arrived belatedly. Immortal Cuixuan and the others also brought Bai Ligelin and her two companions back to the East Sea. Mr. Shen, seeing that all the arrivals were important figures from the mountain sects, was both delighted and somewhat shocked. These reclusive sect leaders gathered here – was it for the sea calamity, or solely for the Yaksha and Jiang Lifei?
Lu Li held Bai Ligelin in his arms. She was motionless, seemingly asleep or unconscious. Mr. Shen lightly pressed her forehead, only to realize that someone had cast a sleep spell on her. He was not pleased and immediately asked, “What happened to her?”
Lu Li recounted in detail what had happened at Duke Ying’s mansion, mentioning that Ye Ye and Bai Liyueyue might have been killed and that Bai Ligelin had been emotionally unstable along the way, which was why Immortal Cuixuan had cast a sleep spell on her. Elder Han of the Dizang Sect, who had come with the Sect Master, immediately frowned and looked towards Vice Sect Master Wuzhenzi of Xingzheng Hall, his voice cold and filled with anger: “Which young prince seems to be a disciple of Xingzheng Hall? Xingzheng Hall truly produces outstanding talents!”
Ye Ye and Bai Liyueyue were considered quite exceptional among the young disciples recently accepted by the Dizang Sect, especially Bai Liyueyue, who was extremely intelligent and focused in her cultivation, particularly favored by the sect elders. The fact that both of them had been killed by Ji Tongzhou – under public scrutiny, the Dizang Sect couldn’t make a scene, so they could only glare at the people from Xingzheng Hall.
Before Wuzhenzi could speak, Wuzhengzi beside him cupped his hands and said, “My disciple has been emotionally unstable recently and may have had a conflict with your sect’s disciples, but he wouldn’t go as far as killing. Moreover, they were long-time acquaintances. Since no one has personally witnessed it, please remain calm for now.”
Elder Han of the Dizang Sect laughed dryly, “We all know about the Dragon Name’s sneak attack on Elder Xuanshan. With the loss of his backing, I’m afraid your esteemed disciple is more than just emotionally unstable, isn’t he? Master Wuzheng, even if it offends you, I must say, that your esteemed disciple is too focused on worldly gains and losses. For a cultivating disciple to be so immersed in secular power before achieving any great accomplishments in cultivation is not necessarily a good thing!”
Wuzhengzi calmly replied, “The heart that pursues gains and losses is also a cultivating heart. Losing the heart of cultivation would be even more absurd. What does Elder Han think?”
Elder Han immediately became furious. Bai Liyueyue was his cherished and beloved disciple, and there was a nine out of ten chance she had died miserably at Ji Tongzhou’s hands. Yet the other party’s master was still so glib – how could he swallow this anger!
Just as he was about to berate them harshly, a thunderous boom suddenly erupted from far away. Blood-colored lightning covered the entire East Sea, and the pitch-black sky looked as if it was being burned by heavenly fire, with a crimson color seeping through. Three bolts of thunder struck in succession, with a force that could shake heaven and earth. Even these deeply cultivated immortals felt as if their hearts were about to be shattered.
The scattered but powerful demonic auras frantically gathered in one place, fleeing the range of the heavenly thunder without regard for anything else, flying towards this location. Master Sanghua closed his eyes to sense the vast demonic aura in the distance, suddenly saying, “Mr. Shen, since the Sea Sect has the art of demon control, can these great demon culprits be subdued for our use?”
Mr. Shen silently shook his head, “There’s no way to do that.”
The Sea Sect’s demon control techniques, originating from overseas and evolving over thousands of years, had long since become a system of its own. All the demons they controlled had to be tamed from their weak and chaotic early stages, nurtured with one’s spiritual energy. The stronger the master, the more the demon could grow. When encountering demons that had developed consciousness or those extremely fierce beasts, there was no method of taming them, only forceful extermination.
Master Sanghua sighed, “In that case, we can only kill them all. Not one can be left alive, otherwise, if that overseas woman uses them for her purposes, it will cause us much more trouble.”
The elder immortals from both the Mountain and Sea Sects had already rushed forward to meet the threat. The spiritual energy net around the East Sea had been laid out in recent days, as impenetrable as an iron cage, not even allowing a small insect to pass through easily. The horde of demons was trapped near the first layer of the spiritual energy wall, howling incessantly and fighting chaotically with the immortals.
Perhaps due to their fear of the heavenly thunder, they were a hundred times more ferocious than usual. Seeing that the first layer of the spiritual energy wall was about to be shattered, Master Sanghua threw his twin swords with all his might. This pair of dazzling cold swords transformed into a white-haired man in mid-air, with a stern face, darting out like lightning, fearlessly weaving through the demon horde, displaying extraordinary valor.
Siming was Master Sanghua’s most prized divine weapon, incomparable to those of ordinary elder immortals. Moreover, it had a special nature – wounds inflicted by it could not heal. With its departure, the momentum of the demon horde crashing against the spiritual energy wall immediately slowed for a moment.
Master Sanghua surveyed the layout of the spiritual energy net here and shook his head, saying, “It’s not enough. After five bolts of heavenly thunder, these spiritual energy nets will shatter. Not to mention the Yaksha and the sea of fire, and after the sea of fire, the foreign races will swarm in — leave the demons and fierce beasts to these juniors, we must immediately re-lay the spiritual energy net!”
The younger immortals were at the front killing demons, while the various sect masters were behind, laying out the spiritual energy net. In the distance, a bolt of thunder would strike, followed by a moment of silence. Sticky sea wind mixed with large clumps of hail and snow battered everyone’s bodies. The sky above the East Sea looked as if countless heavenly fires were hidden within the dark clouds, rolling and burning.
Suddenly, another bolt of thunder struck, sounding several miles closer. Lu Li and Lan Ya were shaken so badly they could no longer stand as if an invisible force was pressing down on them. Their heads throbbed, their bodies unable to withstand it, and their hearts were beating so fast they felt they might burst out of their chests. They fell to the ground, unable to get up.
Bai Ligelin was still unconscious. Lu Li held her tightly, only to see blood flowing from her nose. Nearby, Lan Ya cried out in shock, “Blood! Am I bleeding?!”
Lu Li then realized that he too was bleeding profusely from his nose, staining his chest red. The power of the heavenly thunder was pressing down on the three junior disciples with shallow cultivation, and in a moment, not only was blood gushing from their noses, but it also began to seep from their ears.
Immortal Cuixuan set up a water and earth barrier around the three, saying seriously, “Don’t step out of the barrier even for a moment. The heavenly thunder will only get closer!”
The heavenly thunder had not yet reached the shore, but even hundreds of miles away, it was already so terrifying. If it were to strike directly overhead, it would likely turn thousands of miles into scorched earth in an instant. The heavenly thunder from five hundred years ago had never come so swiftly, nor had it ever had such an astonishing power. The spiritual energy net laid earlier was far from enough. At this rate, when the sea of fire and foreign races arrived, it would likely be chaos. If Jiang Lifei and the Yaksha were to take advantage of this to sneak away, all their efforts would have been in vain.
Immortal Cuixuan was secretly anxious. Several thunderclaps sounded in succession, continuous and unbroken, like the slow footsteps of a giant approaching. The blood-colored lightning seemed to strike everyone’s hearts, causing them to tighten involuntarily. Far away, thousands of miles out in the East Sea, the water silently rose thousands of zhang high, like a pitch-black wall spanning heaven and earth. Everyone felt an enormous pulling force tugging at their bodies, desperately dragging them towards the East Sea.
The wall of seawater rapidly retreated, receding tens of miles in the blink of an eye, revealing a dry, abyss-like seabed — the seawater was being swiftly swallowed by the abyss. Many less experienced elder immortals couldn’t withstand this terrifying pulling force, crying out as they were blown backward, crashing hard against the spiritual energy net like small pets. The surging horde of demons that had not yet been eliminated was also dragged into the wall of seawater.
In this once-in-five-hundred-years celestial anomaly, even those with heaven-defying abilities were no different from insects. But even so, no one would close their eyes and wait for death. For how many years had cultivators repeated their heart’s desire to defy heaven? Resisting the laws of birth, aging, illness, and death, resisting the great barrier of the cycle of reincarnation — cultivation itself was a struggle. Perhaps the heavenly thunder and sea of fire of the sea calamity were indeed heaven’s punishment?
The usually aloof and reclusive immortals were no longer silent. They shouted like ordinary people, flying about in chaos, yet swiftly and frantically rebuilding the first layer of the spiritual energy wall that was about to shatter. At this moment, the increasingly violent sound of heavenly thunder drew near, as if a giant celestial god had walked up to them. The world was dark and lightless, with one unable to see the hand in front of their face. Only the endless red and black intertwined thunder clouds above were rolling and swirling.
The blood-colored lightning suddenly illuminated this dark world. The first bolt of heavenly thunder struck heavily on the dense spiritual energy net above, causing the three junior disciples in the water and earth barrier to involuntarily tumble up, down, left, and right like beans in a frying pan, crashing about within the barrier until they were bloodied.
Three bolts of heavenly thunderstruck in succession, nearly splitting the entire earth. No more immortals were shouting or running about chaotically now — even if they shouted, no one could hear them. Regardless of how many were experiencing heavenly thunder for the first time, at this moment, they all instinctively fell silent, exerting all their efforts to infuse spiritual energy into the spiritual energy net, praying that the heavenly thunder would not shatter it.
After three bolts of thunder, the thunderclouds suddenly retreated, carrying their earth-shaking power back to hover above the dried-up sea trench of the East Sea. All the immortals who had experienced the sea calamity five hundred years ago were stunned. Immortal Cuixuan looked towards Master Sanghua and urgently said, “Senior Sanghua, this…”
Even Master Sanghua’s usually calm face finally showed a trace of shock: “Even I have never seen such…”
How could the heavenly thunder retreat? He had experienced two sea calamities, and each time the heavenly thunder had to spend half a month to reach the shore, hindered and blocked along the way by the immortals’ spiritual energy nets. Eventually, its power would be stopped near Yangxi City, the thunderclouds would disperse, and then the sea of fire would come, similarly blocked by the spiritual energy nets, trying as much as possible to prevent these natural disasters from affecting the great cities. After the sea of fire was extinguished, countless foreign races from overseas would surge in.
This process usually took at least several months, and at most dragged on for two years, giving these immortals ample time to make various preparations. What was going on with this sea calamity?