Immortal of the Nine Realms

After several days of sailing, the huge ship finally entered the Sea Dragon Sect’s territorial waters. Here, one could find an island populated with many mortals every couple of hundred miles, and each island had a population that ranged from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, so it wasn’t really fair to call the Sea Dragon Sect a “sect,” really, as it was more like an empire—a maritime empire!

Watching the contours of land appear in the distance, the Sixth King smiled and pointed, saying, "That's Green Mountain Island over there."

The island's green mountains resembled towering swords, and one could feel the rich spiritual energy from afar.

Everyone couldn't help but sigh in admiration at the sight.

The former owner of Green Mountain Island, Xue Fenggui, was quite famous even in the Flame Empire. If Fang Chen hadn't killed him, then it was very likely that he would have reached the mid-stage of Foundation Building, or even the late stage, at that. It was quite a regretful thing.

"Who wants to go and take over that island?" asked Fang Chen with a faint smile.

Daoist Ya stepped forward. "I'll go."

Several early-stage Foundation Building Realm cultivators volunteered to lend him a helping hand.

They had already discussed how the loot would be split before they set sail—Fang Chen would take thirty percent of everything, and the rest would be distributed among them.

Most of those here were more interested in the main island and the islands which housed the mid to late stage Foundation Building experts, so no one jumped to vie with Daoist Ya for the island.

Fang Chen dispatched several disciples from the Qingzhou Sword Sect to accompany them before sailing toward the next island.

Half a day later, the huge ship arrived at yet another island, but the port was very quiet and empty. There were no Sea Dragon ships around.

Standing on the deck, Sixth King peered into the distance and chuckled. "They must’ve received the news. Immortal Sea Dragon might not be dead,” he said. “It’s very likely that he was the one who sent them a message. I bet there’s not a single Foundation Building Realm cultivator left in the sect."

"They can take their spiritual materials and treasures and leave, but they can’t take the spiritual fields and springs away,” said a Foundation Building Realm cultivator.

The Sixth King smiled. "There will always be some fish that slip through the net. With so little time, they won't have time to take everything. I reckon they fled in a hurry as soon as they received the news, so there’ll still be a lot of good stuff left on the islands we can take."

Everyone nodded in agreement, finding his reasoning sound.

If they had been in their shoes and received a piece of intel that stated that a Golden Core Realm might come knocking, they’d also turn tail and flee as far away as possible!

Several Foundation Building Realm cultivators volunteered to take over the island, and as usual, Fang Chen sent a few disciples from the Qingzhou Sword Sect to accompany them.

It only took them a few days to take control of the nine islands of the Sea Dragon Sect. All the Foundation Building experts of the sect had fled without exception. They clearly didn’t even want to take the risk of resisting.

By the time they arrived at the main island, there were only a few people left on the ship with Fang Chen.

Immortal Sea Dragon was the one who usually resided on the main island. Foundation Building Realm cultivators who wanted to moor their ships were usually barred from doing so here. That was naturally, a Golden Core Realm expert wouldn’t waste their time seeing cultivators in realms lower than them.

Fang Chen didn’t appear exactly excited, but the same couldn’t be said about the Sixth King and the others, who were very curious about the place. This was the first time they ever set foot into a Golden Core Realm’s cultivator cave dwelling. There were surely many things to be obtained here since Immortal Sea Dragon likely hadn’t had the chance to come back and fetch his stuff. Today's harvest ought to be fruitful, they reckoned.

There was a dense fog that surrounded the island, which made it difficult to see anything beyond ten zhang.

The captain had seen his fair share of the world, so he tensely warned them, “A formation has been set up here, esteemed seniors. If we can’t uncover its mysteries, we can be trapped inside it easily.”

This was a formation likely set up by a Golden Core Realm cultivator, so there wasn’t a need to mention how dangerous it could be. If they became trapped inside, everyone might end up stranded here.

Frowning, the Sixth King turned Fire Cloud Immortal and the rest and asked, "Is anyone here proficient in formations?”

Jin Nan thought for a moment, then tactfully said, "We're only at the Foundation Building Realm, so we haven't had the opportunity to explore the Dao of Formations yet. "

Where would cultivators like them encounter such advanced formations? Like the inheritance of sword cultivators, professions such as Formation Masters, Pill Masters, and Artifact Masters needed very rare inheritances.

Everyone turned sulky. If they couldn't get past this formation, they’d have no choice but to turn back. Keeping their life was most important.

The Sixth King turned to Fang Chen. "What do you think, Sect Leader Fang?"

Fang Chen smiled faintly. "Give me a moment."

The crowd was surprised. Did Fang Chen know formations?

To them, the combination of sword inheritance and formation inheritance really painted the picture that Fang Chen was an elite disciple from a prestigious sect who had come down into the secular world to mingle with a few farmers….

Fang Chen closed his eyes. His divine soul instantly appeared in the sky.

In this state, the fog had been lifted, and Fang Chen could see right beneath the sea, where there were many crimson-gold stone steles inscribed with special runes.

These crimson-gold stone steles faintly circulated spiritual energy and were interconnected. They were clearly the source of the fog that permeated the island.

Fang Chen was quick to notice that the spiritual energy in a few spots in the formation didn’t seem to flow very smoothly, and they even went stagnant in their circulation for a few moments in specific spots

After studying the spiritual energy movement for a while, Fang Chen determined that he should be able to seize these few moments of stagnation that arose to land on the island. So, after memorizing the patterns and timings, his divine soul appeared above the island.

The island was not large. Its size was roughly the same as that of Grand Xia’s capital.

In front of a luxurious cave-dwelling, there were ten acres of spiritual fields and three spiritual springs. Many spiritual herbs had been planted in the spiritual fields, and judging from their spiritual energy fluctuations, they were at least of lower to middle grades, with some being of high grade.

There were currently a few young disciples wearing green robes on the island. They were chatting with each other as they watered the spiritual field with spiritual spring water. They didn’t seem to have received news of what had transpired.

‘Those two people Immortal Sea Dragon mentioned should be here,’ thought Fang Chen as he began to search through the place quickly. He had overheard Immortal Sea Dragon tell the Heavenly Southern Sect’s ancestor that he had captured two important figures. Fang Chen wanted to see if these two people could help him confirm the identities of Immortal Sea Dragon and the Heavenly Southern Sect’s ancestor.

Before long, Fang Chen stumbled upon two familiar faces inside the cave-dwelling, one old and one young. Fang Chen had seen this pair before, aboard that ship he had taken to sail to the Flame Empire.

‘So, the Sea Dragon Sect's young sect master was searching for these two that day.’ As this thought struck Fang Chen, he heard the girl speak.

"Is there any hope we can escape, Uncle Zhong?" she asked tentatively.

The middle-aged man sighed lightly. “Don’t worry, young lady. You are the last direct descendant of the Jiang family. They wouldn't dare to harm you. So, there’ll be many chances for us to escape if we can keep our lives."

"I'd rather die than become their puppet," whispered the little girl.

The middle-aged man's expression turned serious. "You can’t speak so lightly of death. You're the Jiang Family’s—the ancient first family’s—last descendent. If you die, your family's bloodline will cease to exist!"

The ancient first family? Fang Chen's eyes lit up. That family they speak of had to have quite the background since it dared to give itself such a title. It was very likely that they were from a first-tier empire, even. However, from their conversation, it seemed that the so-called ‘ancient first family’ was already in tatters.

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