Aboard the emerald rock tiered ship, Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang gave in to their passions. Tender affection blossomed between them, and for a time they were inseparable as glue and lacquer. Finding the intimacies of man and woman utterly delightful, neither of them brought up the matter of setting out for the other shore.
He did not mention it, nor did Yuan Weiyang, sharing a tacit understanding.
Two or three years slipped by in this manner. When the Holy Venerable encountered Xu Ying over the Heavenly Sea, he asked in surprise, "Dao Ancestor Xu, when did you return from the other shore?"
Xu Ying flushed with embarrassment, and only then truly resolved to depart the Three Realms.
Reluctantly parting from Yuan Weiyang, he summoned Shi Tianyang, the guard of the ferry to the other shore, and activated the emerald rock tiered ship to set sail.
The tiered ship cleaved through the void, venturing ever farther into the distance. After several dozen days, it finally arrived at the cosmic frontier, beside the Chaos Sea.
The other shore shala tree had grown considerably larger. Its lush foliage resembled a feathered crest, and its roots sank deep into the Chaos Sea to draw nutrients. This tree had been planted by the two scouts from the emerald rock tiered ship, who had left their imprints upon it so they could pinpoint the Three Realms' coordinates within the Chaos Sea.
However, those two scouts were already dead, rendering their imprints useless.
Xu Ying moored the tiered ship beside the tree and left his own imprint on its trunk. Instantly, he felt a portion of his consciousness connect to the tree, allowing him to sense every root tip extending into the Chaos Sea.
It was an extraordinary sensation, as if he possessed countless tentacles of his own capable of swimming through the Chaos Sea.
One had to understand that near the Chaos Sea, any Great Dao lost its potency and ceased to exert any power. The Chaos Great Dao stood so supreme, with hardly any truth capable of surpassing it, that all others were suppressed beneath it.
Yet this shala tree could actually take root in the Chaos Sea and draw nourishment from chaos itself. One could not help but marvel at the wonders of life.
If this tree grew to maturity, hewing its timber into a boat would allow one to sail across the Chaos Sea.
Shi Tianyang chuckled and remarked, "The other shore shala tree is indeed a plant that can grow within the Chaos Sea. However, once removed from the Chaos Sea, it withers and dies. It cannot be refined into a treasure, and attempting to comprehend the Chaos Great Dao from it is utterly impossible. In the past, many powerhouses on the other shore harbored such notions, yet none ever gained anything."
Xu Ying gazed at the shala tree. Its feather-like leaves swayed gently in resplendent colors.
Could this tree truly not be forged into a treasure, or serve as a medium to comprehend the Chaos Great Dao?
He shook his head and urged the emerald rock tiered ship forward, sailing into the Chaos Sea.
There were two routes from the Three Realms to the other shore. The first was aboard an emerald rock tiered ship, which allowed safe passage back and forth. The second was to enter a summoned cave abyss.
However, the second path was far too perilous. The moment one entered a cave abyss and emerged on the other side, the master of that cave abyss could easily detect their presence.
Moreover, it was excruciatingly slow. Back when Emperor Haotian perished, Milun and the seven other eighth-realm experts of the Dao Realm had spent six hundred thousand years journeying from the other shore to the Three Realms.
Naturally, one could also take the route through the Taishang Cave Abyss. That cave abyss possessed a fissure, meaning travel to the other shore would not require nearly as much time.
However, Daoist Wukong had already taken that route and likely alerted the master of that cave abyss. Thus, the safest method remained boarding the emerald rock tiered ship and taking the Chaos Sea ferry passage.
This was Xu Ying's first time setting foot in the Chaos Sea. As the emerald rock tiered ship ventured into the boundless sea of chaos, their surroundings plunged into darkness, illuminated only by the vessel's own emerald luminescence.
The ship parted the surrounding Qi of Chaos, preventing it from drawing near.
Its hull was engraved with numerous principle scripts of the other shore. Under the combined channeling of Xu Ying and Shi Tianyang, these branch-like markings pulsed from time to time, undergoing wondrous shifts.
The surroundings were deathly still.
It was so unnervingly quiet that not a single sound could be heard.
Beyond the ship, no Great Dao could be sensed either—except for the Dao of Chaos. Xu Ying had learned a Chaos Dao technique of the other shore from Mingman and cultivated a Chaos Cave Abyss. Right now, that Chaos Cave Abyss was exceptionally active, spinning incessantly as it drew power directly from the Chaos Sea.
Xu Ying felt his own Chaos Great Dao rising continuously, advancing a hundred times faster than if he were cultivating with total devotion back home.
Among the Daos he had mastered, the Chaos Great Dao was the most difficult to grasp. He had barely cultivated it to the eighth tier of the cave abyss, and even that had relied on the support of his other cave abysses.
He had never anticipated that cultivating the Chaos Cave Abyss within the Chaos Sea would yield such miraculous results.
He simply slowed the emerald rock tiered ship down, taking his time to comprehend the Dao along the way.
Shi Tianyang, on the other hand, grew anxious and urged, "Dao Ancestor Xu, speed up! The Chaos Sea is no gentle place; we shouldn't linger!"
Curious, Xu Ying asked, "Fellow Daoist Shi, you must have ventured into the Chaos Sea often. Are there perils here?"
"Perils? It's beyond perilous!" Shi Tianyang looked around nervously. "The dangers in the Chaos Sea are terrifying beyond measure! There are frequent storms and vortexes; once sucked inside, getting out is nearly impossible! There are also remnants of dead universes that even the Chaos Sea cannot dissolve. If our emerald rock tiered ship accidentally collides with one, we'll be smashed to smithereens! Worse still, ancient skeletons often drift through these waters. Left intact by the Chaos Sea, they still retain lingering essence and will seize the body of anyone they encounter!"
A universe in the throes of death could whip up towering tsunamis in the Chaos Sea, ripping any vessel—even one of emerald rock—to shreds.
There were also nascent Hongyuan rapidly expanding outward, transmuting the Qi of Chaos into bizarre Daos, forming stars and firmaments, and breaking down into spiritual energy and spiritual power. If one strayed too close, the tiered ship would disintegrate in an instant!
The sea also hosted all manner of eerie phenomena. For instance, Emperor Mingdao had once encountered the impact of a massive bell in the sea that knocked them all the way back to the Three Realms.
"One might even encounter space-time inversions and the reversal of cause and effect. Whenever I met scouts returning from across the sea at the ferry, I often heard them talking about such things. The stories they tell are downright sinister," Shi Tianyang said.
Still, keeping an open mind never hurt.
Right then, clamor drifted from up ahead. As they sailed closer, the Qi of Chaos gradually parted to both sides, revealing an enormous World-Crossing Golden Ship before their eyes.
Aboard the golden ship, numerous powerhouses of the dragon race were pulling together, desperately driving the vessel to withstand the encroachment of the Chaos Sea.
Xu Ying and Shi Tianyang's emerald rock tiered ship was small, yet it sailed smoothly as if on calm waters, whereas that colossal World-Crossing Golden Ship pitched violently, looking as if it could break apart at any second!
Xu Ying stared at the golden ship in disbelief. "Could there still be dragons surviving in the Chaos Sea? But the dragons fled the Three Realms tens of millions of years ago in search of the other shore..."
He surged his vital energy and called out in the dragon Dao tongue, "Fellow Daoists of the dragon race, when did you escape the Three Realms?"
Aboard the World-Crossing Golden Ship, the dragon powerhouses were startled by the voice and looked over, their faces filled with astonishment.
They were clearly stunned that a mere small boat could sail so steadily across the Chaos Sea.
"A human cultivator!"
A powerhouse whose attire suggested high dragon rank spoke in a heavy voice. "We just broke out of the Three Realms! Who might you be, sir?"
Xu Ying froze. *Just escaped the Three Realms?*
*But the dragons fled the Three Realms tens of millions of years ago!*
"My name is Xu Ying, and I am good friends with your dragon race's Far Ancestor..."
"Insolence!"
The dragon powerhouses aboard the World-Crossing Golden Ship flew into a rage, maneuvering the ship to bear down upon him. The dragon leader sneered, "A human slave, claiming to be friends with the Far Ancestor? Human, leave your ship behind!"
Shi Tianyang accelerated the emerald rock tiered ship, swiftly slipping past the World-Crossing Golden Ship and dodging the divine arts unleashed by the dragons.
Both vessels were soon swallowed by the Qi of Chaos.
Xu Ying looked back repeatedly, unsettled by the encounter.
Before long, another World-Crossing Golden Ship appeared ahead. This one had already been heavily corroded by the Qi of Chaos, covered in rust.
As the emerald rock tiered ship glided past, they saw that surviving dragons still remained aboard, each fueling the intact sections of the vessel to fend off the invading Qi of Chaos.
"Xu Ying!"
One of the dragons caught sight of the tiered ship and cried out as if seeing a ghost.
"You are that human slave Xu Ying! A million years have passed—how are you still alive?"
Xu Ying stood dumbfounded. Looking at the aged dragon powerhouse, he could faintly recognize him as the very same dragon leader he had encountered just moments ago!
"Slave, save us!" The dragon leader waved his hands at them.
The emerald rock tiered ship sailed right past. After a moment's thought, Xu Ying chose not to intervene.
Ahead, another massive World-Crossing Golden Ship entered their view, drifting motionless in the Chaos Sea. Riddled with gaping tears, it was battered beyond recognition.
The emerald rock tiered ship drifted quietly through a breach in the golden vessel. Remnants of skeletons could still be seen aboard, slowly dissolving into the Qi of Chaos.
As their ship sailed on, one World-Crossing Golden Ship after another came into view, each bearing different degrees of corrosion, each more dilapidated than the last.
Eventually, no more golden ships appeared.
"That was probably a temporal echo," Shi Tianyang guessed. "Such echoes happen often in the Chaos Sea. Our ship was caught in those ripples and swept across different timelines. Once the ripples pass, everything will return to normal."
Puzzled, Xu Ying asked, "Is it truly just an echo? Why could we see figures from tens of millions of years ago?"
Shi Tianyang paused, then offered another guess. "Most likely, a Hongyuan is being born nearby, kicking up temporal echoes across the Chaos Sea. That phenomenon isn't uncommon."
Xu Ying still found it incredible—the birth of a Hongyuan, ripples in time, meeting people from tens of millions of years ago, and witnessing the progression of their death, decay, and disappearance.
Xu Ying asked, "What happens during the echo of a Hongyuan's destruction?"
Xu Ying widened his eyes; he had never encountered such bizarre wonders back in the Three Realms.
Shi Tianyang replied, "Not even an Immortal True King could survive the echoes of that kind of might!"
Xu Ying laughed. "That makes no sense! If no one could survive such echoes, then who spread the tale that one could trace the entire lifespan of a universe?"
Shi Tianyang thought it over and said, "I suspect it was probably experienced by a Lord of the Great Dao from our other shore."
*Could this bell be the very one that rammed the World-Crossing Golden Ship carrying Emperor Mingdao back into the Three Realms?*
Xu Ying saw ripples stirring in layers across the Chaos Sea from the chime of a bell. The ripples closely resembled structures of Dao patterns, talismans, and principle scripts, yet were far more profound. His heart stirred, and he hurriedly summoned the big bell that had been cultivating inside his Martial Dao Cave Abyss.
The big bell had been instructing the Zhuxian broken sword in its cultivation when it suddenly flew into the air, expanding in size. It cried out in bewilderment, "Ah Ying, what are you doing?"
*Dong—*
A melodious bell toll suddenly resonated above them, causing ripples to crease the surface of the Chaos Sea. A wondrous force rippled downward, immediately imparting numerous creases onto the surface of the big bell as well.
The tolling drifted into the distance until it faded completely.
"Ah Ying, did you let another bell scribble all over me?!" the big bell cried out in bitter despair.
Xu Ying retrieved the big bell and immediately inspected the bizarre textures upon its bronze wall. Yet the moment he laid eyes on them, Qi of Chaos began gushing from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.
A chill ran down his spine, and he dared not look again.
Shi Tianyang also took a glance, only to violently spew mouthfuls of Chaos Qi, nearly getting dissolved on the spot!
Both men shivered in terror. Xu Ying hastily shoved the big bell back into his Martial Dao Cave Abyss, lingering dread gripping his heart.
"Ah Ying, what did you write on me?" the big bell's voice echoed from within the Martial Dao Cave Abyss.
"Master Sword, what's wrong with you? Wake up!" Xu Ying hurriedly brought the Zhuxian Sword out of the Martial Dao Cave Abyss. The Zhuxian Sword groggily regained consciousness; it, too, had glimpsed the textures on the bell's wall moments ago and nearly dissolved into the Qi of Chaos.
"Master Bell, don't come out!" Xu Ying warned. He exchanged a horrified look with Shi Tianyang. Even the personal sword of Sword Master Tongtian could not withstand the textures on that bell's wall.
Xu Ying's eyes flickered. "The imprints on Master Bell might be an extraordinary structure of the Great Dao. But this Dao structure is so supreme that a single glance invites assimilation! It operates on the same principle as the emerald rock destroying the Three Realms! But..."
*Just what was the origin of that bell flying past?* he wondered.
Shut away inside the cave abyss, the big bell wallowed in self-pity for a while before coming to terms with it and resuming its cultivation in solitude.
As for the Zhuxian Sword, Xu Ying relocated it to the Taiyi Cave Abyss to prevent it from being assimilated by the big bell.
In the chaos, days and months lost their meaning. The emerald rock tiered ship sailed across the sea without sense of direction, the two men merely supplying power and letting the vessel steer itself toward the ferry of the other shore.
As Xu Ying contemplated the Chaos Great Dao, his comprehension deepened day by day. His Chaos Cave Abyss gradually expanded outward, as though an entire Chaos Sea were harbored within.
One day, Shi Tianyang's delighted voice rang out: "Dao Ancestor Xu, we've reached the ferry to the other shore! Oh no! They've already noticed my disappearance and replaced the garrison general!"
Chapter 726