https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-971-Crossing-the-Southern-Ocean-Turbid-Waves-Swallow-the-Flames/13463561/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-973-A-Beach-of-Soulstones-Soulcleaving-Mastery/13463563/
Chapter 972: Soul Severing Cliff, Yellow Spring Sea, Top Desolate
Chapter 972: Soul Severing Cliff, Yellow Spring Sea, Top Desolate
Rushing!
A black mountain ridge, as if split by a blade, stood diagonally on the ground, the sky windless and cloudless, the night deep and dark.
Only the massive waves, as thick as city walls, rolled in from afar, crashing against the cliff with a deafening roar.
Wave after wave, the black cliff stood firm and unmoving.
The dull yellow waves seemed powerless against it, gradually retreating after countless futile attempts.
As the tide weakened, the scene at the base of the cliff began to reveal itself.
Smooth, pearl-like pebbles covered the shore, and bones of unknown beasts littered the ground.
A breeze began to blow, pushing a skull along the gentle shore, rolling it until it collided with a charred corpse.
Bang!
The charred corpse, which had been blackened and lifeless, suddenly emitted a pale green flame.
The skull, already cracked and weathered, instantly turned to dust.
The pale green flame, as if exhausted, flickered and then vanished, dissipating into the corpse.
"Hmph..."
A muffled groan suddenly sounded, and the corpse moved strangely!
His wrist twitched, feeling around on the ground for a moment, then with great effort, he rolled his body over.
This single movement seemed to have used up all his strength.
Swish!
His eyes suddenly opened, but all he saw was pitch black, with no moon or stars.
"Where am I?"
Luo Chen struggled to move his lips, but no words came out, only a murmuring in his heart.
He tried to extend his Divine Sense, but for some reason, it was suppressed to within a hundred feet of his body, unable to explore any further.
This suppression was even stronger than when the Yin-Yang Residual Realm had deployed the Yellow Wind Great Formation!
Unable to seek help from the outside, Luo Chen turned his attention inward.
It was better not to look. Once he did, Luo Chen's heart sank.
Bad!
Very bad!
Worse than when he left the Southern Frontier!
His Nascent Soul was in a dire state, the little figure unable to open its eyes, as if any movement would cause it to disintegrate.
His entire body, from his meridians to his acupoints, contained no trace of mana.
If that were all, it would have been bad enough, but even his physical strength, which he relied on the most, was nearly depleted.
His Origin Power was exhausted, his meridians cracked, and his bones, once incredibly strong, were now riddled with fissures. Even the Hundred Toxin King Insect, hidden in his stomach, had fallen into a deep slumber.
All this was due to the murky yellow waves!
Luo Chen gradually recalled what had happened.
After he threw the slow-moving Black King away, the waves came too quickly, sweeping him up in an instant.
He thought he could burst forth with all his strength and break free.
But he didn't expect that the murky yellow waves would nullify his mana as if it were being absorbed by the water.
With no choice, Luo Chen frequently used other techniques.
The Rebirth Holy Fire burned everything, but in the endless murky yellow waves, it was like a drop in the ocean.
His sword qi surged, and the Yuan Tu Sword attempted to cut a path through, but each strike felt as if he were cutting through air.
He intended to cross the Yellow Sea with his physical strength, but within it, he felt weightless and disoriented.
Worse still, the murky yellow waves seemed to dissolve everything, gradually eroding Luo Chen's body.
In desperation, Luo Chen continuously activated his Origin Power to protect his body.
Even this wasn't enough!
Luo Chen resorted to his ultimate trump card, the Wilted and Flourishing Divine Flame!
It must be said that compared to the relatively weak and incomplete Rebirth Holy Fire, the fifth-stage Spirit Fire he had cultivated for nearly three hundred years did not disappoint.
By recklessly expending his mana to activate the Wilted and Flourishing Divine Flame, he managed to withstand the erosion of the murky yellow waves time and time again.
This allowed him to hold on until the end.
But the cost was the complete depletion of his mana.
And his body, overstrained by the Wilted and Flourishing Divine Flame, suffered severe backlash.
Not only that...
When Luo Chen inspected his Purple Mansion, the once lush and vibrant Spirit Fire Tree now hung limp and lifeless.
Communicating with the fire spirit yielded little response.
Luo Chen understood that in the end, his mana was insufficient to sustain the Wilted and Flourishing Divine Flame without collapsing his Nascent Soul. The fire spirit had exhausted its own reserves to preserve a bit of his life force.
This was the fire spirit's automatic act of protection.
"To think that I, a proud Dan Sect master, who has defeated many powerful enemies and even mortally wounded a Hua Shen, would be nearly killed by a mere wave."
"Ha ha..."
A bitter laugh, raspy and rough, emerged from Luo Chen's throat, the sound grating and continuous in the night.
It sounded pitiful, but it was actually good news, indicating that Luo Chen was regaining control of his body.
The immediate danger had passed, and after a brief assessment of his condition, Luo Chen began to think about his current situation.
"Those murky yellow waves... they seem familiar?"
Clearing his mind, Luo Chen searched through his memories, ignoring the intense pain in his head, determined to find the source of the familiarity.
No matter how thoroughly he searched, there was no trace to be found.
In the end, Luo Chen had to give up.
"I don't know if Hei Wang managed to escape, but I hope he doesn't get involved."
Luo Chen sighed inwardly, ceasing his futile efforts. His mind grew calm as he began to cautiously channel his nascent soul's power.
At this moment, the nascent soul was as fragile as a porcelain doll.
A single misstep could cause it to shatter.
If that happened, the vast amount of power contained within the nascent soul would surge out, likely overwhelming and destroying his already fragile body.
Fortunately, Luo Chen only needed a tiny bit of power.
Just a tiny bit!
Enough to open his storage ring.
A flash of light from his fingertip, and a pill was extracted and gently placed in his mouth.
Gulp.
Swallowing the pill, Luo Chen closed his eyes.
He didn’t actively refine it, allowing the pill's medicinal energy to slowly nourish his body.
Time passed slowly.
The sound of the receding waves seemed to gradually return to his ears.
Luo Chen dared not imagine what would happen if the turbid yellow waves were to surge back while he was in this state.
As dawn approached,
Crack, crack sounds came from Luo Chen’s body.
Large patches of scorched, black skin peeled off from his body.
Luo Chen sat up abruptly.
Huff.
He expelled a breath of stale air. Naked and without time to be relieved that his Xuan Dust Armor wasn’t on, he instinctively moved a few steps back.
Splash!
The turbid yellow waves surged, hitting the soft sand where he had been.
With the tide’s ebb and flow, Luo Chen's heart calmed slightly.
After a night of recovery, his powerful physical body, relying on its remarkable vitality, had managed to recuperate enough to generate a bit of origin power, giving him the ability to move.
He looked at the turbid yellow sea surface, which seemed capable of swallowing everything, with a mixture of fear and familiarity.
"Where have I seen this before, or in which ancient text have I read about such a scene?"
"Never mind, I need to leave this place first!"
With a tap on his ear, the Heavenly Staff materialized. Luo Chen leaned on it, struggling to stand up, as if using a cane.
Without another glance at the turbid yellow sea, he turned and walked away.
In one glance, the black cliff that seemed to have been split by a blade caught his eye.
In an instant, Luo Chen remembered everything.
He seemed incredulous, turning back to look at the turbid yellow sea, his lips moving as he struggled to utter two names.
"Yellow Spring Sea!"
"Soul Severing Cliff!"
Whisper, whisper...
A sea breeze blew, and the man, simply clad in a hemp robe, stood alone with his stone staff, seeming so small in the vast world.
...
On a rugged mountain path, Luo Chen walked alone.
Information about this forbidden zone in the Northern Sea flowed through his mind like a gentle stream.
The Northern Sea was vast, with countless dangerous areas.
Through repeated explorations by human cultivators, many of these dangerous areas were conquered, becoming protective barriers for major sects.
Places like the Polar Night Heaven and the Endless Valley.
Even the Purple Spirit Island, which was difficult for living beings to approach, had been conquered by Luo Chen and turned into a medicinal garden for cultivating purple monkey flowers.
However, there were still many places that cultivators found hard to reach, or that required great sacrifices to explore.
For example, the Sunken Sea that Luo Chen had visited, and the Soul Severing Cliff before him!
According to legend, the Soul Severing Cliff was a forbidden area deep in the demon sea, discovered by an independent cultivator in the early days. Later, the Northern Sea sect, the Yuanmo Sect, organized a group of nascent soul and golden core cultivators to explore it, but more than half of them perished, hence the name "Soul Severing."
Afterward, the Soul Suppressing Old Ancestor of the Yuanmo Sect personally explored the Soul Severing Cliff and reaped great benefits.
However, he only explored it once and never returned, until the Yuanmo Sect was destroyed.
Such a forbidden area left a deep impression on Luo Chen.
In fact, he had even seen it once.
The reason he couldn’t recall it last night was that he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. Instead, to escape the pursuit of the Scattered Moon, he used the Puppet Eyes technique to witness it.
Later, after forming his nascent soul on Dragon Abyss Island, Luo Chen had once attempted to revisit the Yellow Spring Sea and the Soul Severing Cliff.
Unfortunately, he found nothing on his return journey.
That experience taught him that the Yellow Spring Sea was not fixed in one place, and the Soul Severing Cliff moved along with it.
It was a wandering forbidden zone!
"Could it be that I collided with the moving Soul Severing Cliff, which is why I was swept into the Yellow Spring Sea?"
Luo Chen, halfway up the black cliff, caught his breath, looking down and smiling bitterly.
Surely not that unlucky!
But the only explanation that made sense was this one.
A stationary Yellow Spring Sea could be ignored, and with proper preparation, one could avoid it.
However, if the Yellow Spring Sea was in motion, its speed was unpredictable.
Especially since Hei Wang, following Luo Chen’s orders, had been swimming quickly and collided head-on with it.
There was another mystery, though. According to Luo Chen’s understanding, the Soul Severing Cliff was extremely bizarre; once a living being entered, their soul would become dazed and unable to resist, allowing the Yellow Spring Sea to swallow them whole.
However, while he couldn’t break free, he could still resist to some extent.
"Was it because my soul foundation was strong, or perhaps the Soul Suppressing Technique was continuously active, allowing me to retain a sliver of life?"
Luo Chen didn’t think he was particularly powerful.
In such a bizarre place, even a Huashen powerhouse wouldn’t dare to venture in personally. Relying on his nascent soul alone, it was impossible for him to last long.
It was incomprehensible!
Luo Chen glanced once more at the boundless, dusky sea in the distance, sighing deeply.
Before ascending, Divine Lord Youli had warned him that a great calamity would unexpectedly come in the future.
Could it be that he had stumbled upon the Yellow Spring Sea and was destined to return his soul to the Soul Severing Cliff?
This was too unexpected!
He didn’t even have the chance to activate the residual Misfortune Insect aura on the Hybrid Essence Cauldron.
"Still, I should find a safe place to recover first!"
Stepping on the rugged mountain rocks, Luo Chen continued moving away from the Yellow Spring Sea.
...
As night fell again, the sound of the tide gradually faded.
Luo Chen stopped at a cave formed by a large stone indentation.
This place was decent; it provided shelter from the wind and rain, and the view was excellent, allowing him to see the distant sea.
The only drawback was the lack of spiritual energy!
But this wasn’t a significant issue, as Luo Chen hadn’t found any spiritual veins on the island after a full day of searching.
He would have to make do.
With a thought, bottles and jars filled with pills appeared before Luo Chen, all of which he had accumulated over the years.
Most were of the highest quality!
Ordinary pills had long been depleted during his daily cultivation.
Only these most precious pills were worthy of being kept by his side.
"I wonder if they will be enough to restore my magical power?"
Luo Chen murmured, his eyes filled with worry.
During his crossing of the Southern Ocean, he had used many of his reserves to restore his magical power.
At least the Southern Ocean had some stray cosmic energy, but here, it was as if he were in a dead zone, with nothing to rely on except the pills.
Moreover, he needed to not only restore his magical power but also nourish his body to generate origin power for any unexpected situations.
Although he hadn’t found any spiritual veins or living creatures on the island, who knew what might happen?
Only by recovering to his peak condition could Luo Chen feel at ease and have the strength to find a way out of this place.
But...
"Can I really leave?"
Gazing at the pitch-black sea, Luo Chen’s heart sank.
...
Without any spiritual veins, restoring magical power was a difficult task.
Especially since Luo Chen needed to allocate some of his magical power to repair his physical body, the process was even slower.
Time passed quietly, and before he knew it, several months had gone by.
One day, Luo Chen stood up and left the stone cave.
Standing on the Soul Severing Cliff, he gazed at the distant, dusky sea.
A faint fluctuation of spiritual power surrounded him, and his overall state of energy was excellent, indicating that his efforts over the past few months had not been in vain.
But Luo Chen remained cautious.
Looking into the distance, Luo Chen pondered deeply.
Over these months, he hadn’t just been in seclusion; he had also conducted experiments from time to time.
The Soul Severing Cliff wasn’t very high, about three thousand feet, and he was at the halfway point on the shaded side.
The island wasn’t large, measuring roughly eight hundred miles in length and width.
In such a small area, the Soul Severing Cliff stood out prominently.
But the Yellow Spring Sea was vast!
Even with his Golden Eye, which could see for thousands of miles, he couldn’t see the edge.
Furthermore, his experiments had confirmed that the island and the sea were constantly moving.
Although the speed varied, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, and occasionally stopping, they were indeed in motion.
Luo Chen judged that they were currently near the Southern Frontier and had been stationary for a long time.
Additionally, there were a few other discoveries.
This place had no spiritual energy, and even when he activated the True Meaning of Law, he couldn’t draw on primordial energy.
This discovery left Luo Chen deeply alarmed!
Primordial energy was omnipresent, unless one left the world.
If he couldn’t draw on primordial energy without leaving, what did it mean?
Luo Chen needed only a moment to realize the answer.
There was a power far greater than his, shielding his connection to the cosmos, rendering the True Meaning of Law ineffective.
What kind of power could surpass him so greatly?
A Huashen?
Even an ordinary Huashen powerhouse might not be able to do this.
Only a being like Divine Lord Youli, who was infinitely close to the Lianxu stage, could achieve this.
Combining this with the constant movement of the Soul Severing Cliff, Luo Chen had a hypothesis.
"Divine Lord Youli once said that it’s impossible to break through to the Lianxu stage in this world. Only the top Great Desolate beings from the Mountain and Sea Realm can do so without restriction."
"If this island, the Soul Severing Cliff, and the Yellow Spring Sea are all part of a Great Desolate, everything makes sense."
"Just like the Spirit Dragon Grotto in Central Region!"
"But is this Great Desolate alive or dead?"
Luo Chen took a deep breath, slowly withdrew his gaze, and planned to return to his cave to continue his cultivation.
However, his gaze paused for a moment at the bottom of the cliff.
After the tide had receded, the soft, black sand shimmered with a strange, ethereal glow.
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
Report
