Chapter 202: South Sea Shore

The South Sea Shore, south of the South Ridge.

Lin Chao's figure appeared; the valley was quiet, the trees were dense, and the flowers were in full bloom.

"Ten thousand years of time have wiped away all traces."

Lin Chao stood under a large tree and let out a long sigh.

This place was where he and the butterfly-bird had lived in seclusion.

Originally, there had been a flower garden, a vegetable patch, a courtyard, a house, and also him and the butterfly-bird.

But at this moment, nothing remained.

It was as if the events of the past had never happened, and everything was merely his own imagination.

Lin Chao's figure flashed; he was going to the South Sea, the place where they had perished in their previous life.

Not long after, a young man and woman arrived in this valley.

"Xiaocang, are you sure it's here?" the young man asked with an expression of disbelief.

"It must be right. Our Dragon Emperor Research Society has studied the Dragon Emperor for over a hundred years and checked countless documents and records to find this place.

In his later years, the Dragon Emperor must have lived in seclusion somewhere nearby," Li Xiaocang said with certainty.

Chen Ju'an was speechless.

This Dragon Emperor Research Society had been established for less than twenty years, right?

Of course, he naturally would not say this out loud.

"According to our field research and interviews with cultivators, it has been concluded that the Dragon Emperor lived in seclusion in Nanshan with a little girl during his later years.

This piece of news was even put forward by Nightingales.

It's just, who exactly was that little girl?

Could she be the Dragon Emperor's daughter, or perhaps... his lover?"

"Shh." Chen Ju'an's eyelids twitched wildly. "Xiaocang, don't talk nonsense about such things. That is the Dragon Emperor; if you were to fabricate stories about him... be careful of being heard and getting knocked out by a club while walking at night."

"Don't worry, I won't talk nonsense, it's just a guess.

That guy Nightingales said the Otherworld is preparing to film a movie about the Dragon Emperor, so I have to make some contribution to the... script, yes, the script, right?" Li Xiaocang looked around. "There are no traces of anyone living here, though?"

"Xiaocang, even if the Dragon Emperor lived here, after ten thousand years, everything would have ceased to exist," Chen Ju'an advised from the side.

"That is the Dragon Emperor; the place he lived must be extraordinary!" Li Xiaocang took out some Dharma Artifacts, not knowing what she was tinkering with.

Two quarters of an hour later, Li Xiaocang waved her hands, a look of helplessness appearing on her face.

"I didn't find anything."

"I think we should go back, right?" Chen Ju'an said from the side.

"No, we are going to the South Sea Ruins!" Li Xiaocang's eyes burst with light.

"Go to the South Sea Ruins?" Chen Ju'an's expression changed slightly. "It's dangerous there!"

"Hmph, the South Sea Ruins are very close to here.

And not long after the Immortal World Channel opened, around the same period, a strange creature appeared in the South Sea, resembling a butterfly-bird.

It had no wings, kept flying while stumbling, and carried stones to fill the sea.

Many cultivators have seen that creature.

Do you think it's possible that... that creature is related to the little girl who was by the Dragon Emperor's side?"

"Xiaocang, you have quite an imagination; you can even link two completely unrelated things together." Chen Ju'an shook his head. "Fine, I will accompany you to the South Sea Ruins, but... don't go too deep!"

"Don't worry, I have my own sense of proportion!" Li Xiaocang laughed.

Chen Ju'an scratched his hair, feeling quite helpless inside.

A sense of proportion, my foot.

Some time ago, a cultivator claimed to have an ancestral ancient book that recorded secret information about the Dragon Emperor, such as some of his romantic affairs.

For this, Li Xiaocang even spent thousands of Spirit Stones to purchase it.

As it turned out, the content inside the ancient book was blush-inducing.

There was little text, and it was mostly illustrations.

This infuriated Li Xiaocang to no end.

"Let's go, we're going to the South Sea Ruins!" Li Xiaocang said with great interest.

The South Sea Shore.

Lin Chao stopped in his tracks.

He looked ahead, feeling a sense of emptiness in his heart.

"The South Sea... is gone?"

Ahead, the sea in Lin Chao's memory simply did not exist.

Lin Chao still remembered that when he finally perished, the butterfly-bird held him while watching the sea.

The butterfly-bird said she liked the sea very much and had always wanted to go see the ocean.

Thus, they lived in seclusion south of the South Ridge.

When he finally perished, Lin Chao had also brought the butterfly-bird to the South Sea.

But at this time, the South Sea was long gone.

Ahead, there was only chaos, various storms, and intermittent thunder and lightning.

"What happened here?"

Lin Chao was distraught.

The South Sea was gone.

The butterfly-bird was also gone.

He sat on the reef, looking at the chaotic area ahead, recalling those final years.

He wanted to see what the butterfly-bird looked like after growing up, but because the butterfly-bird had fed him too much fresh blood, it could never grow up.

Even now, Lin Chao still feels very self-reproachful.

Especially when seeing the incomplete appearance of the butterfly-bird in Qiyuan World.

If it hadn't met him, the butterfly-bird would likely still be in the Wusheng Well at this moment.

Lin Chao looked ahead, just as he had in the past, when he accompanied the butterfly-bird to watch the sea.

Time passed quietly.

Outside the South Sea Ruins, the figures of Li Xiaocang and Chen Ju'an appeared once again.

"Ever since the incident two thousand years ago, the South Sea Ruins have become very dangerous. Let's be careful and not enter the depths," Chen Ju'an reminded from the side.

"Mm." Li Xiaocang nodded, a trace of regret on her face. "It's a pity we were born two thousand years too late. If we had been born two thousand years earlier, we could have seen that peculiar creature of the South Sea, and we could have seen the South Sea."

"That creature—do you think it has any connection to the little girl beside the Dragon Emperor?" A painting suddenly appeared in Li Xiaocang's hand.

On the painting, there was a creature resembling a butterfly-bird, flying while holding a pebble in its beak.

"Who knows?" Chen Ju'an actually did not care about these things.

The two walked toward the South Sea Ruins together.

Suddenly, Li Xiaocang stopped in her tracks: "There is someone ahead."

Chen Ju'an immediately became vigilant and looked inside.

Instantly, a figure in green robes came into view.

That figure was sitting on the reef, their back desolate, yet they gave off a sense of extraordinary bearing.

It was as if that person had been sitting there for a very long time.

Thinking of something, Li Xiaocang shouted a reminder: "Fellow Daoist, there is danger in the South Sea Ruins; do not stay here for long."

The figure on the reef was none other than Lin Chao.

Hearing the voice, he felt something.

He turned around, his figure flashed, and he appeared before Li Xiaocang and Chen Ju'an.

Chen Ju'an immediately took a half-step forward, his eyes full of vigilance: "Greetings, Senior."

Li Xiaocang glanced at Lin Chao, a strange look flashing in her eyes.

"Many thanks for the reminder," Lin Chao said, his voice as calm as Water. "May I ask you two, what happened to the South Sea, and why has it become like this?"

The wariness in Chen Ju'an's eyes grew even stronger.

The incident in the South Sea had happened two thousand years ago, yet the person before him was unaware of it.

"Two thousand years ago, an incident occurred in the South Sea, and the entire South Sea suddenly vanished," Li Xiaocang said enthusiastically, not as vigilant as the other.

She always felt that the cultivator before her was no ordinary person.

"Is that so?" Lin Chao frowned.

An incident capable of making the entire South Sea disappear was somewhat powerful; an Ordinary True Spirit Realm cultivator could not possibly achieve such a thing.

Moreover, the South Sea Ruins before him were filled with peculiar storms everywhere, which was extremely dangerous; this was also not something that could be caused by human power.

"So that is how it is. Many thanks to you both."

Unfortunately, the incident in the South Sea was not important to him.

What he wanted to do most right now was to find the butterfly-bird.

"Why did Senior come here?" Li Xiaocang was quite bold; her eyes rolled as she asked.

"Before entering seclusion, I had visited the South Sea. I did not expect that upon returning, the South Sea would have already undergone such great changes," Lin Chao said softly, making up a reason at random.

Chen Ju'an's inner vigilance grew even more.

This indicated that the man before him was at least in the Nirvana Realm.

The Great Heavenly Venerable Realm grants a lifespan of over a thousand years.

The Nirvana Realm grants a lifespan of over two thousand years.

Hearing this, Li Xiaocang's eyes lit up: "Then Senior must have seen that strange spirit of the South Sea?"

The South Sea was remote, and few great cultivators came here.

Li Xiaocang had always wanted to find a cultivator who had seen that special creature to ask about some details.

"What strange spirit?" Lin Chao raised an eyebrow.

"It's this." Li Xiaocang flipped her hand, and the painting unfolded instantly.

On the painting, a creature was holding a pebble in its beak, seemingly trying to fill the South Sea.

Lin Chao's gaze instantly went blank.

Was it here that the butterfly-bird had already turned into the appearance it had over at the Duodao Sea?

She had been holding pebbles in her beak, regardless of the passage of time.

Lin Chao felt immense heartache and self-reproach.

He had a guess in his heart: perhaps the butterfly-bird of that time had given him its wings and fed him its blood, becoming too weak to maintain its human form.

In the end, it transformed into a butterfly-bird and, for some unknown reason, began carrying stones to fill the sea.

"This strange spirit seems to have appeared over a thousand years into the Dragon Calendar.

It kept carrying stones to fill the sea, which seems to have lasted for several thousand years.

Two thousand years ago, the South Sea suddenly underwent an anomaly, and this strange spirit also disappeared.

I have always suspected the identity of this strange spirit; I guess it might be related to the Dragon Emperor," Li Xiaocang said slowly, not noticing that the expression on Lin Chao's face had changed drastically.

"She disappeared along with the South Sea anomaly?" Lin Chao asked immediately, his face filled with anxiety, his aura leaking out for a moment.

"……Yes." Li Xiaocang was somewhat puzzled; Lin Chao's aura was exceptionally profound and powerful, pressing down on her until her breathing became rapid.

"Two thousand years ago, a ray of light suddenly appeared in the South Sea.

The entire South Sea vanished; some speculate that the South Sea was entirely absorbed into the Edge of Heaven," Li Xiaocang continued.

Beside her, Lin Chao took a deep breath.

"Many thanks."

His figure disappeared.

Beside her, Li Xiaocang drew a deep breath: "Who is this senior, and why is he so interested in that strange spirit?"

"Perhaps he knows that strange spirit?"

"How is that possible! Strange spirits have appeared for nearly ten thousand years; apart from a True Immortal, even a powerhouse of the True Spirit Realm cannot survive for ten thousand years.

Most importantly, according to my guess, that strange spirit is related to the Dragon Emperor. Could it be that he is the Dragon Emperor?" Li Xiaocang tilted her head, "Although he is good-looking and very strong, compared to the Dragon Emperor in my heart, he is still far behind."

Chen Ju'an smiled helplessly: "Just because that strange spirit knows the Dragon Emperor, does that mean it can't know anyone else?"

"What you say makes sense, but if that's the case, wouldn't he be from the same era as the Dragon Emperor?

Then he must be a True Immortal, and True Immortals would have long since ascended to the Immortal World by now.

Or perhaps he is the Pill Saint Shi Qing, capable of refining Immortal Pills to extend one's life by a thousand years?" Li Xiaocang speculated.

"No need to guess; he definitely has nothing to do with the Dragon Emperor.

That strange spirit might also have nothing to do with the little girl by the Dragon Emperor's side."

"Sigh." Li Xiaocang frowned, "I refuse to believe I can't dig up the Dragon Emperor's romantic history!"

"The Jiuzhou of that time was deep within a swamp.

A great man like the Dragon Emperor, where would he find the time to concern himself with matters of the heart?" Chen Ju'an sighed leisurely, "If not for the sacrifices of the Dragon Emperor and other predecessors, where would we have the leisure to come here and investigate the Dragon Emperor's past today?"

"You are right." Li Xiaocang fell silent, but she immediately added, "Precisely because of that, we should investigate the Dragon Emperor's past even more clearly, so that the world may better understand the greatness of the Dragon Emperor.

Look, if it weren't for Empress Xiang Qi and Pan revealing that the Dragon Emperor sacrificed himself to open the Immortal World Channel, who would even know that this was done by the Dragon Emperor?

The Dragon Emperor... he was too foolish, too silly."

(End of this chapter)