Chapter 312: If you take another step forward, you will score eight segments

Shen Qing clapped his hands, turned his head, and walked toward the ground, intending to leave Penglai Island.

Recently, he had successively destroyed the evil spirits' teleportation portals and the rift in Penglai Island.

However, Shen Qing guessed that the importance of this rift in Penglai Island should be far greater than that of the teleportation portal.

After all, this rift was directly involved by the heavenly way of the evil spirits' world.

Destroying this rift himself should allow his own world to take a big breath of relief.

As things stand now, the greatest threat should be the last teleportation portal passage.

According to the mother of the magic poison insect of Lan State, these teleportation portals are hidden inside evil spirits and brought to the secondary world.

This time, the evil spirits that came numbered four: one from the Capital's Heaven Thunder Sect, one from Wa State, and one from Lan State; these three have already been slain by Shen Qing.

So only one remains; Shen Qing guesses this last one is most likely located in the West, which is why he had Ao Feng inform the Holy Luo Empire.

Unbeknownst to him, Shen Qing had walked to the edge of Penglai Island.

Shen Qing raised his hand and tore open the edge of Penglai Island, opening a passage; stepping through, the heavens and earth shifted, and Shen Qing found himself in Bing Sea.

After leaving Penglai Island, Shen Qing immediately connected to the consciousness network; this breakthrough of the Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill had taken three days, and he did not know what changes had occurred outside.

As soon as he entered the consciousness network, a stream of words flooded into Shen Qing's mind—these people sure can chat a lot.

They chatted over ten thousand sentences in three days.

Shen Qing pondered whether to give them a paid model, charging ten taels of silver per sentence for idle chatter.

Shen Qing flew toward Great Wu while listening to what they were chatting about.

On the first day of Shen Qing's disappearance, this group treated the consciousness network like a teahouse, chatting about everything.

The next day things improved slightly; they discussed serious matters, namely the Martial Saint garrisoned in Great Wu's Western Regions discovering that many small countries beyond the Western Regions had erupted in war.

On the third day, the Martial Saint went to investigate and found that all the small countries had descended into chaos, fighting everywhere, with even traces of evil spirits.

Shen Qing connected the consciousness network to Shen Yin: "Ancestor, ancestor, can you hear me speaking?"

Shen Yin's voice came through: "Shen Qing, you finally appeared; you vanished suddenly for three days, we couldn't reach you; Ling Yue said you went to Penglai Island, but what is Penglai Island?"

Shen Qing gave Shen Yin a general overview of what had happened on Penglai Island.

Shen Yin's voice grew solemn: "What? You mean the evil spirits had contact with our world three thousand years ago?"

"And the heavenly way of the evil spirits' side is still using destructive power to invade our heavenly way?"

This exceeded Shen Yin's knowledge; he had always thought the evil spirits had only accidentally discovered their world a thousand years ago, but now he was told they had already interacted three thousand years ago.

This made him somewhat hard to accept; he needed time to digest, but Shen Qing couldn't be bothered to wait.

"Ancestor, what has happened these past few days? I heard them saying that large-scale wars have broken out outside?"

Shen Yin replied: "There is war; Zhu Xuan has already gone to investigate. Not only the states outside the Western Regions, but even the Holy Luo Empire side has erupted in fierce fighting, and it is even more brutal."

"Moreover, battles have broken out across the seas; yesterday, many sea beast corpses floated up along the coast, among which were the remains of several Golden Core Realm sea beasts."

Shen Qing raised his eyebrows: three thousand years ago, the evil spirits had contact with our world; the only side that knew was Penglai Island, where the Penglai Ancestor went mad and self-destructed, the elders were all wiped out, and the disciples were all wiped out.

This caused our world to know nothing about the evil spirits' world, leading the evil spirits to prepare for two thousand years while our side remained oblivious—calculating against the unaware, who knows how many hidden moves they have planted in our world.

"Does Great Wu have any war?"

"Not yet."

That shows the earlier cleanup was still useful.

Shen Qing lifted his head; ahead he could already see the coast of Great Wu, and he could also see many fishing boats. Suddenly, a huge wave surged up, revealing two azure dragons chasing a woman in the sea; their speed was not slow, they had reached Golden Core Realm.

In the consciousness network, Shen Qing said: "Ancestor, I won't say more; I have something to attend to."

East Sea Commandery coast.

The sky was gradually darkening.

Most of the fishing boats had already returned to shore; only two fishing boats remained at sea, fishing.

Finally, even the last boat couldn't hold out; a burly man hauled in his net, looked toward the old man on the other boat, and shouted.

"Old Man Li, stop fishing; it's getting dark, I think it's going to rain!"

The boat where the old man was was rather dilapidated, even the iron nails on its hull had rusted.

The old fisherman known as Old Man Li was still straining to pull the net, gritting his teeth and answering: "Little Sun, you go back first! I'll pull one more net and then return."

Little Sun shook the oars: "Old Man Li, don't overdo it; your son has already made us proud—he ranked first in the provincial exam, even Master Dongpo praised him. Just rest and enjoy your blessings."

Thinking of his son, Old Man Li's face also showed a smile, and his bodily fatigue eased considerably.

"Ah, he'll be setting off for the capital in a few days; this journey is dangerous, so it's best to join a merchant caravan. Moreover, whether he'll pass the spring examinations is uncertain; the more nets I cast, the more travel money I can save for him."

Little Sun laughed heartily: "Old Man Li, your hardship will only last this while; when your son returns, he'll come home in splendid attire..."

As they spoke, a huge sound came, interrupting their conversation; they turned their heads and saw a towering wave rising in the deep sea, rapidly approaching them.

With their eyesight, they could not see the several figures speeding beneath the sea.

"Old Man Li, run!!"

Old Man Li gritted his teeth, feeling a pang of reluctance, and drew his small knife to cut the fishing net; perhaps because he was old, he was nervous and failed to cut it with one stroke, needing two more cuts, which slowed his escape somewhat.

He strained to paddle the oars, but after a day's labor his strength was gone; his paddling speed was slow, yet the waves behind him grew ever more urgent.

In just a few breaths, the wave reached behind the old man; a huge wave exploded, and an azure dragon seized a woman-fish and leapt out of the water. The old man felt the shadow loom, his eyes filled with reluctance—reluctance for his son, who had ranked first in the provincial exam and was about to take the spring examinations; if he died, would it affect his son's chance to take the examinations?

But just as Old Man Li despondently closed his eyes, the imagined death did not descend; the towering wave did not crash down.

He cautiously opened his eyes and saw Shen Qing in a dark gold-trimmed robe raising his hand; the wave dispersed, and a cold voice sounded.

"Stay right there; if you take another step forward, you will"

"... score eight segments."