Chapter 246: The Lost Continent

The wooden boat stopped, floating quietly on the sea surface.

Chen Shu lowered his head to observe the sea surface.

Beneath the sea, fish were swimming; some were swimming toward the mist, while others were swimming out from it.

They were all completely unaffected.

It was as if this were just a layer of ordinary mist.

Spirit Eye!

A faint light bloomed in Chen Shu's eyes. The new Ling Eye Technique he had obtained from the Spirit Sect did not block normal vision; instead, it superimposed another layer of vision. The spiritual power imaging captured by the Spirit Eye overlapped with the real world, constructing a special world.

Unlike what he had imagined, the mist, which possessed vast spiritual power before his eyes, did not bloom with the brightness of a sun; instead, it was pitch black.

Chen Shu looked at the surrounding sea surface again.

There were many points of light on the seabed; they were exotic beasts.

It is very normal to have exotic beasts in the ocean, but the density of exotic beasts in this sea area was somewhat too high. Within just a few kilometers, Chen Shu could discover at least dozens of marine exotic beasts. Yet, normally, the survival space required by even a single marine exotic beast would be far, far greater than this.

These exotic beasts were also wandering around this vicinity; some entered the mist, and some came out from inside, but none of them strayed far from the mist.

Chen Shu looked at this layer of mist again.

The corpses of the exotic beasts must have come from inside here, right?

The place where the exotic beasts on the island headed, and the final destination where the dragon whales disappeared to every time across the world, must be inside here, right?

What is inside here?

And what is it that causes them to die?

Could it be that this power, which feels like that of a god, comes from the shattered origin of the Reed God, and these exotic beasts are attracted by the origin, rushing over here to kill each other?

Chen Shu's brows were tightly furrowed, but regardless, the movement inside should have ceased as well.

Therefore, from about two days before Zhang Suannai arrived, up until today, no light or loud noises had come from this layer of mist again, the few days of storms had not sent any more exotic beast corpses, and as they arrived here today, the sea surface was also clean.

"Let me try!"

Seeing them standing still as if they had gone stupid, Zhang Suannai took the lead and stood out. She pulled an ancient Sword from somewhere and swung it forward.

"Swish!"

A streak of Sword Qi flew out, rotating.

In the blink of an eye, the Sword Qi submerged into the mist and quickly traveled far away; the light could no longer be seen.

It had not been blocked.

Zhang Suannai frowned. After more than ten seconds, she said to them, "It flew at least several kilometers; it wasn't intercepted."

Ning Qing, who was in the middle of the boat, also opened her eyes: "The thickness of this layer of mist is about two kilometers. Inside is a piece of land, and there are a great many exotic beasts in the sea."

"How many?"

"Many times more than outside."

"What about the sky?"

"I don't know."

"Hmm..." Chen Shu fell into deep thought, sweeping his gaze over the two of them, "What do you think?"

"Whatever you want."

"If you ask me, don't worry about it so much; let's go inside and take a look first!" Zhang Suannai paused as she spoke, "How about I fly my Sword in to take a look first? Anyway, Qingqing said it's only two kilometers; I'll be back in a moment! Exotic beasts don't eat people anyway!"

"Not yet..."

Chen Shu looked up at the sky.

A seabird flew over from the mist.

A moment later.

The seabird plunged into the mist again, flapping its wings vigorously to gain altitude, watching what was ahead.

Chen Shu's eyes were tightly closed, but he gradually furrowed his brows.

With the help of this seabird's vision and flight altitude, he saw a piece of land stretching boundlessly; he could not see the end longitudinally, nor could he see the end from left to right. In the sky above the land, many flying exotic beasts could be seen soaring.

Even more magically, this piece of land seemed to be divided into two parts. The dividing line was composed of an incomparably thick Spiritual Barrier, almost straight. On the right was a dense jungle with mountains and water, while on the left, not a blade of grass grew, and it was scarred and devastated.

A distant view that was extremely shocking.

The distance was too great, and the connection was interrupted.

Chen Shu opened his eyes.

Zhang Suannai stretched her neck and asked, "What did you see?"

"A piece of land."

"What land?"

"Perhaps... it is Nanzhou."

"What Nanzhou?"

"The Nanzhou of legend."

"Tell me in detail!"

"A strange world..."

Chen Shu told them what he had seen.

Intuition told him that before him was a piece of buried history, and as someone born into a family of historians, nurtured by Chen Jiaoshou since childhood, and who had himself seriously excavated the history of a certain period, the unknown before his eyes was full of charm.

This curiosity made it hard for him to restrain himself.

"I intend to go over and take a look."

"Seconded!"

"Seconded."

"I'll go scout the path first!"

After Zhang Suannai finished speaking, she didn't wait for their agreement; she threw out her Long Sword, muttered a prayer for the Sword God's protection, stepped onto the Long Sword, and flew diagonally into the mist.

This person is quite vigilant—

She wanted to test whether the mist would react to the entry of an outside Cultivator, so she flew in at an angle. If she encountered an unknown situation, first, if an invisible wall appeared in the mist, she wouldn't crash into it too severely; second, if she encountered danger, she could quickly change direction and fly back out.

"No... pro... blem..."

Zhang Suannai's voice came from far away in the mist.

Chen Shu felt somewhat helpless; he exchanged a glance with Qingqing and had no choice but to push the boat to its full speed to follow.

The two of them also entered the mist.

This layer of mist is truly strange.

It clearly seems to contain boundless great power, yet it appears so ordinary; whether it is birds, exotic beasts, or humans, all can enter and exit freely. Even when passing through it, it is just like walking into a layer of ordinary clouds and fog; apart from the field of vision gradually shrinking, there is almost no sensation at all.

But Chen Shu could still feel the Spirit Power it contained, and once he opened his Spirit Eye, it was pitch black.

The fog grew thicker and thicker, and nothing could be seen.

The field of vision shrank to less than ten meters.

Heaven and earth seemed to have turned into a chaos, and the small boat was the only thing in this chaos; amidst the vast white mist, the world was left with only the two of them.

After traveling for more than a kilometer, the white mist let in light, and their vision gradually recovered until the thickness of the fog could no longer block their sight, and the view before them suddenly opened up.

It was the same as what Chen Shu had seen before.

Changing the angle did not reduce its shock, it only changed the way the shock was delivered.

When Chen Shu opened his Spirit Eye again, he didn't know how many exotic beasts were hidden under the bottomless sea surface; the density far exceeded the outside, and the distant continent was also covered in dense points of light.

A figure was flying on a Sword ahead; she was sensible enough not to fly too high, instead staying close to the sea surface. She also stopped calling out, keeping her mouth firmly shut, and flew rapidly toward that dividing line on the front left of the land.

Chen Shu frowned and had no choice but to follow.

Ten minutes later.

Zhang Suannai stood on her Sword, suspended above the sea surface, and the wooden boat also stopped in front of the land; directly in front of them was that dividing line.

There were marine exotic beasts surfacing from the edge of the wooden boat, poking out their eyes to stare at them; there were also flying exotic beasts flying over from above the land, circling above their heads; and in the dense forest on the right, there was no telling how many land-based exotic beasts were hiding in the dark, casting their gazes toward them.

This feeling was very strange, making one's scalp tingle.

Until Zhang Suannai cast a glance, her gaze like a hawk, and said to them:

"There are people over there!"

"Where?"

Chen Shu immediately turned his head to look.

"There!"

Zhang Suannai pointed: "Very far! Inside that big pit!"

Chen Shu focused his eyes and concentrated.

He saw that on the left side of the dividing line, at least a kilometer away, there were indeed people hiding in the dark, seemingly spying on the situation on the other side of the dividing line.

Zhang Suannai didn't know where she pulled out another sword, held it in her hand, and said to them:

"I'll go take a look."

"Don't..."

Chen Shu had just wanted to refuse, but she had already flown far away.

At least two-thirds of the exotic beasts had their gazes fixed on her, following her as she headed in that direction.

Chen Shu frowned and waited, his peripheral vision glancing to his side.

On the sea surface, a huge shark fin was swimming; this shark's body was also exceptionally slender, and its face had whiskers; it seemed to be a Dragon Shark, which is as famous as the Dragon Whale. Although one is called a whale and one is called a shark, their actual strength is almost equal, equivalent to a Six-Stage Martial Artist underwater.

"Hey!"

Chen Shu asked: "What are you doing here?"

The Dragon Shark stopped, glanced at him, and then continued swimming.

Ning Qing was expressionless.

"..."

Chen Shu didn't care either and continued to gaze into the distance.

The left side of the dividing line was like a Battlefield of modern warfare, filled with pits and cracks of all sizes, mixed with Spirit Power that was difficult to distinguish from afar. The person in the small pit had completely hidden themselves, while Zhang Suannai hovered over the pit, and for the time being, no conflict broke out.

About ten minutes later.

The tall girl flying on her Sword flew back.

"How is it?"

"There are five people! They are speaking the language of Yiguo! They are Wise Humans! All of them are Cultivators! One is Fifth Stage and four are Fourth Stage!" Zhang Suannai was clearly very excited and said to them, "But they are wearing clothes from ancient times, their pronunciation is also a bit strange, and they recognized at a glance that we are outsiders!"

"Come down and talk."

"Okay!"

Zhang Suannai jumped off the Sword and hopped onto the boat.

Clang.

The sea rippled in a circle.

Chen Shu saw from afar that a head had poked out of that pit again, seemingly observing his side.

"This really is Nanzhou! You guessed right!"

"They said so?"

"Yes!"

"And who are they?"

"They are people from Nanzhou, and they don't look very different from us people of Yiguo." Zhang Suannai struggled to organize her words, "They said they have been staying here since our Great Xia period, and back then they still had close connections and interactions with Great Xia."

"Get to the point." Chen Shu frowned, "Why are they isolated here?"

"They want us to..."

Zhang Suannai glanced at the exotic sea beasts circling the small boat, set up a sound-insulation barrier, and then continued:

"Stay away from these exotic beasts."

"Why?"

"They said that our world originally had no exotic beasts; exotic beasts are invaders from the starry sky. Don't be fooled by the usual gentleness of exotic beasts; that is because ancient gods stripped away their ferocity. But every once in a while, exotic beasts will instinctively come here and then slowly turn back into violent, bloodthirsty monsters. Legend has it that many years ago, their leader killed the beloved wife and child of the Great Xia Shengzu, so they were sentenced by Shengzu to stay here for all eternity, generation after generation, forever guarding this evil place. They must either be responsible for killing all the maddened exotic beasts or be devoured first by the maddened exotic beasts, so they have no choice but to fight the exotic beasts for generations."

After Zhang Suannai finished speaking, she secretly glanced at the two of them.

The roommate still had no expression.

Chen Shu frowned: "Exotic beasts did indeed appear suddenly..."

"Yes, yes!"

Zhang Suannai nodded hurriedly and added: "They also said that people often arrive here due to shipwrecks, and they asked us to follow them back to the capital city, where they will arrange for people to send us back."

"..."

"What do you think? Say something!"

"There are many suspicious points."

"I think so too!" Zhang Suannai nodded repeatedly and looked at him, "And then?"

"Can you determine their numbers and cultivation levels?"

"My Spiritual Sense is the best in the world! Besides, their cultivation methods and Spells are relatively primitive; they can't hide from us at all!"

"That is another suspicious point."

"That is indeed true..." Zhang Suannai's fair brows furrowed slightly, "Why doesn't the outside world provide them with updated cultivation methods and Spells?"

"Let me go over and take a look again."

"You don't trust me?"

"Let's not go over together for now."

"Hmm..."

Zhang Suannai thought for a moment and felt that it made sense, so she sat upright on the boat, placed her two Swords horizontally across her knees, and decided that if any problem arose over there, she would rush over immediately.

Haha, everyone, save your monthly tickets and vote tomorrow; I heard there is a double monthly ticket event tomorrow.