Chapter 291: Enter the Fourfold Sea Strait Valley

"Of course, this is my second time coming here," Ding Huan said.

Shan Beishu exclaimed excitedly: "Brother Ding, let me join you too, is that alright?"

Ding Huan laughed heartily: "Of course you can, but this time, Qi Jian and I are going to the Fourfold Sea Strait Valley with our heads on the line."

Shan Beishu sneered:

"The Fourfold Sea Strait Valley? Just a bunch of dreamers, Bai Chi. They think the Immortal Fortune of the Threefold Heaven Star Land lies in the Fourfold Sea Strait Valley—I spit! If there's any Immortal Fortune there, I, Shan Beishu, would admit I'm blind.

What's there to fear from a bunch of Bai Chi? I'll go with you."

"Perfect, then let's go now," Ding Huan said, delighted.

Shan Beishu was no ordinary cultivator—he wasn't just a Terrestrial Immortal at the peak, but also the last remaining cultivator of the Datong Academy.

The Datong Academy was once the number one sect in the Ascension Realm, and this "number one" wasn't some fake title like Huangshen Sect's—it was the real thing.

How could a cultivator from such a sect be ordinary?

Ding Huan led the way, and the three arrived at the edge of the Fourfold Sea.

Ding Huan immediately checked his teleportation array; he had tested it once before, and it had failed to respond.

After inspection, Ding Huan found the problem.

Some of the array flags had been corroded, but the main flag, forged from Void Sand, remained unharmed.

This delighted Ding Huan, and he immediately repaired the teleportation array.

After setting up the teleportation array, Ding Huan didn't just leave it as he had last time—he used the Dao rhythm of the Great Cosmic Art to construct a Starry Sky Protection Array around the teleportation array.

Ding Huan didn't know if this protective array would work.

But corrosion of teleportation arrays was usually caused by Dao rhythm corruption.

Now, by adding a Dao rhythm defense array, perhaps he could prevent the teleportation array from being corroded by Dao rhythm rules.

"Brother Ding, you're an expert in array arts?" Shan Beishu observed the grand array Ding Huan had set up, yet couldn't comprehend it.

He was a Level Six Array Master—quite accomplished in the Ascension Realm.

"Heh," Fu Qijian chuckled. "Brother Ding recently used a trapping and killing array to wipe out the Changyan Academy."

"You wiped out the Changyan Academy?" Shan Beishu stared wide-eyed at Ding Huan.

He simply couldn't fathom it—Ding Huan's cultivation should still be below Human Immortal, so how could he be so audacious?

"Right—they destroyed my friend's sect, so I naturally had to repay them," Ding Huan said indifferently.

The more important reason was that Shi Qiqiu, that old bastard, had been obsessed with killing him, so he seized the chance to eliminate Changyan Academy.

"No wonder you fled here—impressive," Shan Beishu sighed. He felt as if he'd chosen the wrong path, as if he'd fallen into a trap.

Ding Huan laughed: "Old Shan, if you're scared, you can back out anytime."

Shan Beishu glared: "What have I ever been afraid of? I just don't like stirring up trouble. I avoid trouble not because I'm afraid—I simply have no time.

If I spent my time dealing with trivial matters, I'd never have reached my current realm."

Fu Qijian wasn't pleased to hear this:

"Old Shan, I used to avoid trouble too—I devoted all my time to cultivation, yet after centuries, I was still stuck at Human Immortal Fifth Layer.

Only after I met Brother Ding did we start stirring up trouble everywhere—haha—and now, in just a few years, I've reached Terrestrial Immortal."

Fu Qijian even adopted Ding Huan's habit of calling him "Old Shan," since Shan Beishu had told him not to address him as "Senior."

"I can understand why you advanced to Terrestrial Immortal in just a few years with Brother Ding—if you've chosen to stick with him, I suppose you won't be able to avoid stirring up trouble."

Shan Beishu sighed.

He'd known Ding Huan only briefly, but he'd already grasped some of his nature.

This wasn't the kind of man who'd wait ten years to avenge a grudge—he was the kind who considered losing if he didn't retaliate by the next night.

He'd planned to follow Ding Huan for a few days, yet hadn't gained any benefit yet—and already, he'd signed up for a fight.

Though he spoke lightly, Shan Beishu knew full well: entering the Fourfold Sea Strait Valley meant fighting.

The three entered the Fourfold Sea, chatting as they gathered scattered Soul Crystal fragments, and without realizing it, arrived at the Fourfold Sea Strait Valley.

"You've sensed it too, right? No matter how you wander in the Fourfold Sea, you'll always end up at the Fourfold Sea Strait Valley."

Shan Beishu pointed at the Fourfold Sea Strait Valley, his tone grave.

"Old Shan, you don't know why?" Fu Qijian, now that he'd reached Terrestrial Immortal, seemed to talk more than before.

Shan Beishu glared: "What do you mean 'you don't know'? No one in the Threefold Heaven Star Land knows!"

After saying that, Shan Beishu ignored Fu Qijian and turned to Ding Huan:

"Brother Ding, getting down there won't be easy..."

"I've been down once," Ding Huan said with a smile, preempting him.

Shan Beishu was stunned again:

"You've been down once? How's that possible? This place is filled with natural prohibitions, mostly attack-based ones. That's bad enough—but the key is, your spiritual sense can't extend here."

With spiritual sense, even prohibitions could be countered.

For a cultivator, without spiritual sense, you're naked—like a tiger with its teeth and claws ripped out.

The implication was clear: going down meant getting hurt, and once down, you couldn't come back up.

"Right, so I prepared some treasures," Ding Huan said, pulling out three items resembling parachutes.

Shan Beishu sighed:

"No wonder you made it here after wiping out Changyan Academy. You must've known the Jiuyuan people would hunt you—so as soon as you destroyed Changyan, you ran, right?"

Ding Huan hadn't known Jiuyuan would hunt him—but he had the Great Calculation Art.

"Facing Jiuyuan, I'll flee only this once—next time, I won't run."

Ding Huan walked to the canyon entrance, gripping the parachute treasures in his hand.

Shan Beishu and Fu Qijian stood one on each side of Ding Huan.

For them, Ding Huan's cultivation was, after all, still a bit low.

"Activate your treasures, let's go down." After Ding Huan finished speaking, he leaped down, simultaneously activating the treasure in his hand.

This time he didn't, like last time, carefully climb down the cliff wall like a turtle, but instead leapt straight down.

Shan Beishu and Fu Qijian also didn't hesitate, following Ding Huan as they leapt down, also activating the treasures in their hands.

Watching the treasure transform into a parachute that completely enveloped his body, it could not only slow the speed of descent, but also block attacks from various offensive restrictions.

Shan Beishu was completely stunned.

What a genius idea—how had he not thought of it?

Ding Huan, however, was overjoyed. He felt his Star Domain expand; everything around him was beneath the domain, and his divine sense wasn't suppressed in the slightest.

Not only that, Ding Huan was certain that as long as Shan Beishu and Fu Qijian were within his domain, their divine sense could likewise extend fully outward.

Originally Ding Huan had still been worried that there were too many powerhouses down below, and his talismans wouldn't be enough to handle them all.

Now he didn't have a single worry left.

It seemed choosing to advance to the Star Domain realm in Lingyuan Valley was the right call.

"Brother Ding Huan, my divine sense seems usable—wait, no, it's your domain?"

Shan Beishu, upon sensing at the first moment that his divine sense could be used, realized it wasn't that his own divine sense had grown stronger, but rather Ding Huan's domain.

Ding Huan laughed heartily: "Yes, exactly my domain. I didn't know this before either, but now we have nothing to worry about…

As long as you're within my domain, your divine sense can extend fully."

Ding Huan had originally wanted to say that as long as they didn't leave the range of his domain, Shan Beishu and Fu Qijian's divine sense wouldn't be affected.

But then he immediately thought, the Fourfold Sea Canyon is only this tiny place—how could Shan Beishu and Fu Qijian possibly leave the range of his domain?

"Impressive." Shan Beishu couldn't help but praise.

How could he not know about a cultivator's domain? He himself also had his own Earth Immortal domain.

Under normal circumstances, a cultivator only truly forms a domain after cultivating to the Human Immortal realm.

That's not to say there are no domains below Human Immortal, but because domains below Human Immortal are too poor. They're all ambiguous at best, only able to crush low-level cultivators with aura, unable to take any substantial form.

But domains above Human Immortal are only constructed within the range of one's own strength, mainly used to prevent sneak attacks, to gather momentum for divine abilities, and to control one's own space.

When could a domain block the environment's suppression of divine sense?

Combined with his earlier sensing when Ding Huan was cultivating, Shan Beishu grew increasingly certain that the cultivation method Ding Huan practiced was extraordinary.

With the boost of divine sense, the speed of the three suddenly increased.

Originally it would have taken a day or two to reach the bottom, but now the three only used one or two hours to land at the bottom of the canyon.

Because the three were moving too fast, the man-made offensive restrictions near the bottom of the canyon didn't even have time to activate.

The three people landing simultaneously were immediately discovered.

"Kid, I knew you'd come down again. Not bad—actually held out a few years before coming back down, hehe…"

A hehe voice rang out. Ding Huan didn't need to turn around to know it was that rooster-hair old fellow again.

"Old man, we meet again." Ding Huan smiled.

Shan Beishu sighed with emotion: "There's still a seabed blue crystal river here. Too bad these blue crystals haven't yet turned into bluestone—otherwise they'd be worth a fortune."

The rooster-hair old man let out another sly chuckle:

"You two are this kid's companions? Looks like he didn't tell you about digging away a thousand zhang of seabed blue crystals here. That's really not very loyal of him."

"You dug away all these seabed blue crystals?" Shan Beishu was shocked.

Ding Huan rubbed the back of his head:

"Who else but me?"

Shan Beishu sucked in a cold breath. He knew very well what seabed blue crystals were.

Such a long blue crystal river, as a whole, couldn't be cut apart by ordinary treasures.

The fact that Ding Huan could cut away over a thousand zhan meant Ding Huan had an immortal artifact.

"Hand over the seabed blue crystals…" The rooster-hair man stopped mid-sentence abruptly, then carefully sized up Shan Beishu again.

After a good while he suddenly sensed something was off, then punched out with a fist.

Boom! The distant blue crystal river swayed repeatedly under the force of his punch.

"My divine sense has recovered?" The rooster-hair man's voice trembled as he spoke, looking at his own hands in some disbelief.

Shan Beishu knew the reason. He glanced speechlessly at Ding Huan.