A boundless ocean, the misty Northern Sea.
Inside an ancient palace on the seabed, three figures sat opposite one another amidst an oppressive atmosphere.
After a long silence, two beings of bizarre appearance nodded solemnly, as if consenting to an agreement.
Opposite them, a weathered, scholarly old man offered a faint smile, cupped his hands to the pair, and calmly departed.
Once he was gone, the remaining two exchanged a peculiar glance.
"That Li Canghai is actually willing to yield the Northern Sea's cultivation world with both hands. It truly caught this Emperor by surprise," the Sea Emperor Whale said, clicking his tongue. "Beili, what do you make of this?"
The Beili Great Sage pondered for a moment, then said slowly, "It is not difficult to understand. With the retreat of the Tianyuan Dao Sect's host, even if we haven't marched deeper into the human heartland, the Northern Sea is destined to fall into our grasp sooner or later. Powerful as Li Canghai's array skills may be, reaching to the heavens and plunging to the earth, he can do no more than stubbornly hold one place. By contrast, the fractured Central Plains holds boundless opportunity; that land suits him far better."
The Sea Emperor Whale muttered in a muffled voice, "Then are we truly going to aid him?"
The Beili Great Sage tapped the table, his tone resolute. "We help!"
The Sea Emperor Whale hesitated. "Yet that is the Tianyuan Dao Sect!"
The Beili Great Sage burst into laughter. "The Tianyuan Dao Sect of the past might have commanded dread, but today's sect possesses nothing more than an empty reputation. Besides, there is no need for us to strike in person. At most, we will dispatch some sea monsters to cause trouble for them. And if there is one thing our Northern Sea does not lack, it is sea monsters!"
That was indeed the truth.
Among the five continents of the Mountain Sea Realm, the region with the greatest number of monster beasts was neither the barren Western Desert nor the Million Mountains of the Eastern Desolation, but the Northern Sea, which occupied the greater part of the realm's territory.
Back when they destroyed the Yuan Demon Sect, the Northern Sea had amassed an army of hundreds of millions of monster beasts.
Although the Yuan Demon Sect was annihilated in that battle, the demon race had also suffered grievous casualties. Yet in a mere three hundred years, the demons had largely regained their vigor.
Had the Tianyuan Dao Sect not intervened, the Northern Sea would have fallen completely under their dominion long ago.
Now that Li Canghai knew his place and tactfully offered to yield the Northern Sea cultivation world, they were only too pleased to avoid a costly confrontation.
As for his request regarding the Central Plains, as long as they did not have to intervene personally, the Beili Great Sage and the Sea Emperor Whale were perfectly willing to dispatch monster beasts to harass the Tianyuan Dao Sect.
Having reached a consensus, the two turned their discussion to Li Canghai himself.
"His realm is lower than ours, yet his mastery over arrays is truly uncanny. Defeating him would be simple enough, but killing him would be exceedingly difficult."
"Indeed. In particular, the Seal of Mountains and Seas that he forged with his own hands has reached the rank of a spirit treasure. It defies belief. Just how long has it been since he achieved Soul Formation?"
"Infuriating! We have been at Soul Formation for nearly a thousand years without a single spirit treasure to our names, yet he forged one in just a few centuries. Could it be that human cultivators are inherently better suited to refining spirit treasures than us?"
"Fortunately, our conquest of the Yuan Demon Sect was not without its gains. My Sea Emperor Halberd will be ready to advance after another century or two of nurturing. Beili, why do you constantly delay refining a spirit treasure? Could you still be coveting that Meta-magnetic Divine Light? Give up on it. That old bastard Soul Refiner tampered with it before he died; there is no way to integrate it into a dharma treasure. If you ask me, you ought to listen to Monarch Qixia's counsel and refine your spirit treasure step-by-step!"
"Monarch Qixia... She cannot be trusted. As for the matter of the spirit treasure, I shall think on it further!"
***
Having emerged from the Sea Emperor Palace, the solitary figure covered a hundred li in a single stride.
A briny sea wind carrying a faint stench blew against him, tossing his grizzled hair and beard to reveal a scholarly, weathered visage.
It was none other than the only human Soul Formation cultivator in the Northern Sea—Li Canghai!
Glancing back toward the Sea Emperor Palace, he let out a soft laugh.
Human race, demon race—what did either have to do with him?
All he sought in this life was to ascend and become an immortal.
To ascend, one required a vast surge of spiritual opportunity to carry them up into the clouds of glowing light.
And once, the place with the most abundant spiritual opportunity in the Mountain Sea Realm had been none other than the Central Plains!
Even though the Central Plains was now shattered, the foundation beneath Mount Lanke remained intact.
As long as he seized Mount Lanke, he could ascend and leave, letting the world drown in a deluge for all he cared!
To him, whether allying with the Tianyuan Dao Sect in the past or joining hands with the two ancient demons now, both were merely choices on the path of cultivation.
The supposed divide between races could not sway him in the slightest.
Still, before that, he could use the banner of human righteousness to mobilize the Canghai Alliance, using them to grind down the Tianyuan Dao Sect's strength. Best of all, it might force their sole surviving Soul Formation expert, Liancheng, to reveal a weakness or two.
With these thoughts flickering through his mind, Li Canghai strode forward step by step, drawing further from the Sea Emperor Palace and ever closer to the human heartland.
Suddenly!
Upon reaching a canyon, his figure paused.
Looking down, he heard wave upon wave of furious roars.
Li Canghai froze. "A desolate beast?"
Revealing his presence, he descended into the depths.
Before long, the surrounding scene came fully into view.
Countless black-scaled pythons lay knocked unconscious, strewn haphazardly across the canyon floor.
Amidst the churning seawater, a colossal black dragon measuring six hundred zhang rolled and thrashed, its aura plummeting at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Li Canghai said in surprise, "This beast is clearly in the prime of its life, with blood-qi as boundless as the sea. Why does it show signs of passing away?"
Observing the magnificent black dragon, the thought of subjugating it sprang to Li Canghai's mind.
Though he could not discern its exact lineage, such a desolate beast was bound to be an ancient relic. With proper rearing, it might well mature into a fifth-tier desolate beast mount in the future.
A fifth-tier desolate beast was by no means a weakling!
Four supreme Great Desolate Beasts had taken part in the collapse of the Central Plains.
Within the Mountain Sea Realm, desolate beasts were favored by fortune far more than human cultivators.
At that thought, Li Canghai hesitated no longer. Reaching out, he released a small seal.
Lofty mountains towered and lakes and seas spread across the seal's surface.
In the blink of an eye, the Seal of Mountains and Seas expanded over the boundless canyon, ensnaring the giant black dragon.
A streak of profound light descended slowly, walling off the inside from the outside world.
Struggling to open its eyes, the giant black dragon caught sight of Li Canghai.
Its breath had dwindled to near nothingness. It managed only a single ragged utterance—"Master..."—before losing consciousness.
Li Canghai was taken aback. "Master? Could this beast already have an owner?"
***
The Central Plains!
Following the catastrophic war twenty years prior, the Central Plains that had once dominated the Mountain Sea Realm was now split into five continents.
One of them had even been rammed and sunk ten years ago by the legendary supreme Great Desolate Beast, Diao Hun Huang!
Every clan and cultivator upon it, along with the vast expanse of land itself, had been swallowed by the Yellow Springs Sea, their fates unknown.
Of the remaining four continents, Heaven and Earth Peak—which had once stood at the very center—was now entirely unfit for human habitation or cultivation.
Heaven and Earth Peak had been severed!
It was originally a fifth-tier spirit vein no weaker than Mount Lanke.
With the mountain range shattered, it unceasingly unleashed violent spiritual energy that ravaged the surrounding land day and night.
If a Soul Formation expert were willing to expend the time and painstakingly nurse it back, it might yet be restored to its former glory. But the current Tianyuan Dao Sect clearly had neither the manpower nor the energy to spare.
Of the former Tianyuan Five Elders, only one remained.
Furthermore, escaping from Broken Soul Cliff had severely depleted his vitality; how could he spare the effort to restore Heaven and Earth Peak?
Within Mount Lanke.
A pale-faced Liancheng looked at the old man before him, his gaze laden with hope.
"Ke Lianshan, are you confident?"
Facing the ancestor's eager gaze, Chess Saint Ke Lianshan nodded solemnly.
"Though the destruction of the Peach Garden caused my comprehension of nomological true intent to fall short at the last step, several centuries of cultivation have nonetheless granted me the foundation to condense a primordial spirit. Once the Lanke Chessboard is opened and my life soul retrieved, I will be able to smoothly break through to the Soul Formation realm."
Hearing this, Ancestor Liancheng could not help coughing heavily.
"Bring out the Lanke Chessboard so I may examine it."
Chess Saint Ke Lianshan complied. A square, decaying wooden chessboard settled before Ancestor Liancheng.
Compared to its prime, one corner of this rotten wooden board had broken away.
More notably, fewer than one hundred and eighty white stones remained upon it!
In that past battle, to defend the Central Plains, Sect Master Mo Shouzhuo had exerted every ounce of his power to drive the spirit treasure Lanke, yet in the end he still could not prevent the Central Plains from shattering.
Not only that, but the white stones—hailed as a supreme offensive treasure—had been mostly depleted, leaving a mere eighty-one.
Meanwhile, every single black stone, which possessed divine soul defense capabilities, had dimmed.
All of this had been wrought by Monarch Qixia!
Ke Lianshan could not resist asking, "Ancestor, can the Lanke Chessboard be opened now?"
Ancestor Liancheng shook his head, sounding thoroughly despondent. "It would be exceedingly difficult. This spirit treasure was meant to suppress the spiritual opportunity of the Central Plains. The collapse of the Central Plains inflicted unimaginable trauma upon it, causing the artifact spirit to enter a state of dormancy. To awaken it, either Senior Brother Mo Shouzhuo would have to be alive, or you—the only one recognized by it—would have to ascend to Soul Formation."
A troubled look surfaced on Ke Lianshan's aged face. "Yet if it cannot be opened to retrieve my life soul, how am I to advance to the Soul Formation stage?"
Unlike other sects in the Mountain Sea Realm, the Tianyuan Dao Sect placed very few constraints upon its disciples.
It was precisely because of this that prominent clans stood in great numbers and noble houses ran rampant.
Yet behind that superficial leniency lay the most extreme form of control.
The moment a cultivator of the Dao Sect stepped into the Nascent Soul realm, a portion of their life soul would be severed and kept within the sect.
This was nothing like conventional soul lamps or life plaques.
Ordinary soul lamps and life plaques merely retained a wisp of a disciple's soul aura, used to monitor the vital status of important members.
Their purpose was far more about early warning than control.
Yet the life soul severed by the Tianyuan Dao Sect was truly a vital component of a cultivator's divine soul!
Lacking this fragment, breaking through to the Soul Formation stage was virtually impossible.
Thus, while countless sects across the world suffered from traitors to varying degrees—even holy lands like the Mingyuan Sect and the Yuan Demon Sect—the Tianyuan Dao Sect alone had never seen a single Nascent Soul True Person betray them in three thousand years.
All of it rested upon this extreme measure of divine soul control!
In light of its efficacy, the Tianyuan Dao Sect had even applied this method to their guest elders—the outsider cultivators who joined the Star Gate to cultivate on Heaven and Earth Peak.
Naturally, whenever a cultivator showed promise of breaking through to Soul Formation, the Tianyuan Dao Sect would return that portion of the life soul to its host.
And the vessel used to store those life souls was none other than the spirit treasure, the Lanke Chessboard!
Yet that was precisely where the problem lay!
Only two people could activate this spirit treasure: the former sect master, Mo Shouzhuo, and Ke Lianshan, who had earned the artifact spirit's acknowledgment.
Mo Shouzhuo had fallen, and with the artifact spirit dormant, Ke Lianshan could not possibly open the Lanke Chessboard from the Nascent Soul realm.
They were trapped in an impasse!
*Thump!*
Ancestor Liancheng slammed his fist onto the table before him, fury written across his face.
"That Demon Phoenix!"
Ke Lianshan knew whom he was cursing. Curious, he asked, "Ancestor, the five of you joined forces, and she was already heavily wounded from the two great battles in the Mingyuan and the Central Plains—rumored to have even borrowed the power of the supreme Great Desolate Beast, Diao Hun Huang. Even then, you could not slay her?"
"She is a phoenix of the upper realm, an entity not even the Great Venerable could subdue. For us to slay her was never going to be easy." Ancestor Liancheng spoke with a mixture of fury and lingering dread, slowly revealing secret lore. But in the next breath, he sneered, "Though she did not die, she is certainly in agony. Once you reach Soul Formation and reunite the Central Plains, and once I rebuild Heaven and Earth Peak to summon Elder White Tiger's avatar down to this realm, we will surely obliterate her!"
Reuniting the Central Plains, rebuilding Heaven and Earth Peak?
How could that possibly be simple?
Ke Lianshan looked helplessly at the ancestor. *You have to open the Lanke Chessboard for me first!*
Seeming to realize the flaw in his vision, Ancestor Liancheng fell into pensive thought.
After a long while, he settled on a course of action.
"Go on for now. I have the broad strokes of a plan, though it still requires some preparation."
Ke Lianshan reminded him, "Ancestor, I do not have much time left. This matter must be carried out before my lifespan runs out."
With that, he bowed respectfully and took his leave.
After he departed, Ancestor Liancheng remained immersed in his earlier thoughts.
In his view, restoring the Lanke artifact spirit was not something achieved overnight; what it lacked was simply time.
And time... could be found in the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven!
As he pondered, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door.
Ancestor Liancheng frowned and asked without looking up, "What is it?"
The disciple outside said respectfully, "News of Luo Chen has arrived from the Eastern Desolation. He was an individual Ancestor specifically ordered us to watch, so having received word, this disciple came at once to report."
"Luo Chen!" Ancestor Liancheng exclaimed in surprise. "He isn't dead yet?"
Receiving permission, the disciple entered and respectfully presented a jade slip.
Sweeping it with his divine sense, Ancestor Liancheng grasped the gist of it.
Immediately, his face turned grim.
Not only was Luo Chen alive, but he had surfaced in the Western Desert, joining hands with the Demon Phoenix's younger sister, Qingluan, to fight powerful foes.
Thirty-six eminent monks of the Hanging Temple had formed an array potent enough to confront Soul Formation experts, yet the two of them had shattered it together.
Now, their fame was echoing across the world, with rumors claiming that united, they could slaughter every True Person under heaven!
Utterly outrageous!
"I knew that brat was an untamable, ungrateful wolf. He gave Senior Brother Mo Shouzhuo his word, then turned around and made peace with Qingluan."
"No matter. Once I open the Lanke Chessboard, I will cast a technique to find his severed life soul, destroy his spirit, and sever any chance he has of reaching Soul Formation!"
As he muttered to himself, the disciple below had yet to withdraw.
"Is there something else?"
The disciple kept his head lowered. "Luo Chen did not merely appear in the Western Desert; he seems to have returned to the Eastern Desolation, leaving a few traces behind. Our elders stationed in the Eastern Desolation ask whether they should attempt to persuade him to return to the sect?"
Ancestor Liancheng raised an eyebrow. Should he sever the boy's head, or tame him into a hound?
Faint images of Luo Chen's past duel with Qingshuang drifted through his mind.
Such a talent could never be allowed to reach the Soul Formation realm; otherwise, he would easily turn the tables.
Yet taking him into the fold to serve as an enforcer might not be a bad choice.
As he hesitated, his gaze gradually settled upon the Lanke Chessboard.
Suddenly, his eyelids twitched.
One of the black stones had grown even dimmer.
The recovery of the Lanke artifact spirit was far less optimistic than he had imagined!
The matter of Luo Chen was of little concern; the pressing priority was restoring this spirit treasure that underpinned the very foundation of the Dao Sect!
***
The Eastern Desolation!
Mount Cangwu.
The enormous true form of the Qingluan had rested across Zhoukong Hall for ten full years.
A hazy white glow continually diffused from her body, making her seem almost illusory, as if she might melt into the void and vanish from this world at any moment.
Suddenly!
The Qingluan began to tremble violently. Threads of blood spread out from her heart, weaving across every inch of her body.
These blood threads appeared exceedingly fragile, as though they might snap at any second.
Above Zhoukong Hall stood Tongxuan Hall, which had towered there for millennia.
Its master seemed to sense something. Forcibly waking from slumber, she cast down a beam of dazzling golden light that enveloped the Qingluan.
"Did something happen to Luo Chen?"
A haughty, overbearing voice sounded, carrying a faint touch of puzzlement.
Yet very quickly, the voice's owner understood.
"Quite the boldness. This seat thought he would never dare attempt a divine soul nirvana in his lifetime."
Though the voice dripped with mockery, compared to its usual haughty indifference, there was now a clear hint of approval.
The golden light gradually faded, as if she no longer cared whether the divine bird lived or died.
And indeed, moments later, the abrupt blood threads vanished back into the Qingluan's body.
The trembling Qingluan slowly grew calm, allowing the hazy white light to envelop her once more.
It was as though nothing had happened at all.
Chapter 1014