Chapter 166: Scenery Overseas

On the boundless sea, amidst a sea of desolate clouds and grim fog that stretched endlessly, a great ship shimmering with Jin Guang was seen pressing down the waves, weaving through them with reckless abandon.

No matter how the Lei Ting from the sky or the waves from the sea attacked, none could shake the great ship in the slightest.

A Middle-Grade Spirit Treasure: the 【Crossing-Void Golden Ship】!

This Spirit Treasure bestowed by Master Chongguang was perfectly suited for the harsh Qi environment overseas, cutting through waves and splitting waves with almost unparalleled success.

At the bow, Lu Yang stood with his hands behind his back, gazing far into the distance.

"What ferocious Qi."

With his cultivation, he could naturally see that this vast, endless expanse of desolate clouds and grim fog, and the waves, Lei Guang, and thunder born from it, were all manifestations of Qi.

"Unlike the continents within the sea, the Qi overseas is extremely chaotic and ferocious; ordinary cultivators cannot even contain it. These ferocious Qi give rise to even more ferocious celestial phenomena, and combined with the natural environment of the great sea, they finally formed this insurmountable boundary line."

Not just anyone can go overseas.

Just the ten-thousand-li thunderclouds generated by this ferocious Qi possess power comparable to his Twelve Palaces of Heaven and Earth Demon Tribulation Light, and they never cease.

Being within them, even a Qi Refining peak cultivator faces nine deaths and one life.

Fortunately, these thunderclouds have power but no status, so Foundation Establishment cultivators can still cross over; otherwise, even Foundation Establishment cultivators would struggle to withstand them.

"My opportunity..."

While calculating with his fingers, Lu Yang activated the Ultimate Heaven Instrument, opened the Heavenly Eye between his brows, and let a brilliant golden treasure light fall, which quickly revealed the direction for him.

At the end of the treasure light, he saw a ship much smaller than the 【Crossing-Void Golden Ship】.

"... Overseas cultivators?"

Seeing this, Lu Yang's eyes suddenly brightened.

Boom—!

In the sky were ten thousand golden snakes and flashing Lei Guang; in the water were surging dark currents and towering waves, and a three-masted great ship was struggling under the might of heaven and earth.

"Hold on! Hold on for me!"

At this moment, Chen Xinghai, the helmsman of the Green Han Dragon Boat, stood at the stern, gripping the rudder tightly with both hands, looking desperately at the howling wind and waves around him.

He never expected that a border shipwreck salvage operation, which was supposed to be perfectly normal, would encounter the legendary "Ghost Clouds" just as they were about to return; the Dragon Boat could not dodge in time and crashed straight in, and no matter how hard he tried afterward, he could never find a way out.

Thinking of this, Chen Xinghai couldn't help but look up at the sky.

As a helmsman who lived off the sea, he had once heard his father say that on the other side of the "Ghost Clouds" lay a heavenly paradise filled with gold.

Although at that time, he thought this was just his father talking nonsense.

Because not a single person who entered the "Ghost Clouds" ever came back alive; wasn't that going to a heavenly paradise? It was all nonsense used to fool children.

However, at this moment, Chen Xinghai sincerely hoped his father's words were true.

Hold on; as long as he persisted until he crossed the "Ghost Clouds," he would survive... As for whether the other side was a heavenly paradise or not, he didn't care anymore.

Crack—!

Just then, an unsettling sound of breaking reached Chen Xinghai's ears; turning around, he saw a boatman looking at him with a weeping face.

"Boss, I'm afraid it's over..."

"Shut up!"

Chen Xinghai also felt a bone-chilling coldness, because the 【Sea-Patrolling Immortal Talisman】, drawn personally by an Immortal Master of the Xian Alliance at the stern, had just appeared with some cracks, and the treasure light that originally protected the entire Dragon Boat firmly was also beginning to dim and was about to shatter.

And being within the "Ghost Clouds," once the talisman shatters, the consequences would be unimaginable.

"Send the guest expert to repair it!"

Chen Xinghai made one last effort; there was still an Immortal Master on his ship, invited at great expense from the Xian Alliance to preside, perhaps he could repair the talisman.

However, when that guest expert appeared before him, Chen Xinghai's already meager hope was completely extinguished, because at this very moment, that Immortal Master's face wore an incredibly relaxed smile, his eyes were empty, as if his soul had flown beyond the heavens, showing no reaction to anything in the outside world.

"Possessed!"

Seeing this scene, Chen Xinghai's heart suddenly sank; this was the most terrifying aspect of the "Ghost Clouds," and also the source of this name.

Legend has it that it was a battle of unprecedented scale.

Powerful cultivators from the entire cultivation world joined hands to fight against the extraterrestrial demons that suddenly appeared on the sea; their battlefield turned the sky blood-red and the waves into a sea of blood.

In the end, the cultivators of the cultivation world won, but they also paid a price; the area covered by the "Ghost Clouds" was their former battlefield, where the dead souls wandered in the dark clouds, turning into Lei Guang like golden snakes, and their obsessions stirred the sea, becoming the endless giant waves.

The higher the cultivation, the more easily one would be affected by these dead souls.

Once the influence became deep, one would fall into the memories of these dead souls, unable to extricate oneself; people at sea called this "possession."

At the same time, although the extraterrestrial demons were defeated, they were not exterminated.

Therefore, the remaining cultivators, to constantly fight against the extraterrestrial demons, chose to put aside past grievances and stand together, finally forming the unified Xian Alliance of today.

"Boss! What do we do!?"

The voice came from his ears again, interrupting Chen Xinghai's escapist thoughts, pulling him back to reality, forcing him to face the desperate situation before him.

But what could he do?

He was merely a sea-dweller under the Xian Alliance; if not for the Dragon Boat, he alone in the "Ghost Clouds" would have already turned to dust and vanished.

Thinking of this, Chen Xinghai couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh and collapsed on the ground: "No hope, just wait to die."

"After all, there's nothing left to fear."

Since they had reached this point, was there anything more terrifying than death?

Then he saw the "Ghost Clouds" before his eyes, which should have never dispersed, suddenly churn, and then boundless Jin Guang tore them apart forcibly.

Within the Jin Guang, a great ship was seen crossing the void and breaking through the air; the ship was thirty-six stories high, each story more majestic than the last, as if those thirty-six layers of fierce clouds; within these "Ghost Clouds," it was simply like a towering Shenshan, and wherever it passed, the waves flattened, and ten thousand Lei Ting could not shake it.

Chen Xinghai blinked.

He was wrong; something even more fierce had come from the other side of the "Ghost Clouds"!

The next second, he, who had just been sitting paralyzed on the ground, leaped into the air with incredible agility and shouted towards the sky: "Immortal! Immortal, save me, Immortal!"

His cry received a response.

In an instant, Chen Xinghai felt the world spin; when he waited and looked back, the "Ghost Clouds" had become a background board far away on the horizon.

Around him, the waves were calm, and the sky was clear and endless.

The towering, mountain-like golden ship that had just been there vanished into thin air.

Did he escape?

For a moment, he even suspected he had merely had a somewhat terrifying dream, until he saw a handsome, dignified figure appear on the ship.

"A humble subject, Chen Xinghai, greets the Venerable Master!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Xinghai ran all the way to Lu Yang and bowed deeply, saying, "Thank you, Venerable Master, for saving me from peril and distress!"

Upon hearing these words, Lu Yang raised an eyebrow.

He had saved Chen Xinghai mainly to inquire about the other's origins, to gain some understanding of the overseas lands, and to avoid stumbling into trouble.

However, as soon as Chen Xinghai spoke, he realized something was amiss.

'The same language?'

Different regions have different languages and even accents; this is perfectly normal. As far as he knew, the vast Jiangbei alone had dozens of accents.

Yet the language spoken by Chen Xinghai at this moment was extremely standard "True Speech," unanimously recognized by the Holy Sect, the Sword Pavilion, the Pure Land, and the Dao Lineage—essentially the official tongue. This was clearly something a normal overseas cultivator could not possess; either he had ties to the mainland,

or the overseas power behind him had ties to the mainland!

(End of this chapter)