Chapter 45: The Smuggler, the Traitor Who Sold His World

"Master."

Silly was sprawled on a wooden plank, looking somewhat aggrieved.

The entire sea had been churned into chaos by the appearance of the dragon whale, and after half a day, the wrecked ship had long since been swept away, its whereabouts unknown.

By the time Chen Yang found him, it was already the next day.

"You really are both foolish and dull, boy. With such commotion, you didn’t even think to come out and look."

Chen Yang seized the initiative, and with a sweep of his light, sped off toward the dragon whale.

When the crowd saw Chen Yang return with Guo Xiaoshan, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

The dragon whale was much faster than the sea vessel; with a single swim, it covered hundreds of miles. Wherever it passed, all sea monsters retreated. In just over ten days, they reached the place where Yu Guo had left the sea eye.

It was a desolate island shaped like a crescent moon.

"Go on."

Chen Yang patted the dragon whale’s round head. A peculiar dragon’s cry seemed to answer him.

"Senior, the precise location of the Immortal Mansion should be a hundred and twenty-three miles northeast, beneath the sea."

The people brought by the Four Seas Merchant Guild did indeed have some skill; with scant information, they calculated the exact location of the sea eye in less than half a day.

"Let’s go, then!"

Chen Yang nodded. The Xuan Yuan Water Control Banner conjured a mist that enveloped the group, carrying them toward the sea eye.

The seafloor was ten thousand fathoms deep. The deeper they descended, the greater the pressure. Without a water-manipulating treasure, even a Nascent Soul cultivator could not withstand such crushing force. How Yu Guo, who was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, had survived this relentless pressure was a mystery.

Could it be that Yu Guo was also one of those chosen by fate?

If that were so, and all those chosen by fate were such as these, it was no wonder this world had declined into its current lawless state.

As they drew near the seabed, fierce currents surged all around—pulling, smashing, dragging, twisting. If not for the Xuan Yuan Water Control Banner’s marvels, with the current cultivation limits of this world, ordinary means would never have allowed them to approach the sea eye.

"Senior, there! The Immortal Mansion is there!"

A streak of multicolored light pierced the gloom and caught everyone’s eye. Sima and the others pointed, unable to contain their excitement.

Chen Yang saw it too. Manipulating the water, he neutralized or diverted a thousand different currents of force. What seemed a short distance took hours to traverse, but finally, they drew close and took in the Immortal Mansion’s entirety.

The Crystal Palace.

The entire Immortal Mansion towered majestically; just the main gate alone was over a hundred feet tall, the whole structure sparkling as if carved from crystal.

"This doesn’t look like a place for people to live. Crystal Palace—could it be a Dragon Palace?"

Chen Yang’s heart was filled with doubt. The palace was simply too vast to be a human dwelling.

But the Dragon King of Mount Shu had long since vanished, and he had never seen a real Dragon Palace before.

Beneath the Crystal Palace was the sea eye, breathing in and out boundless essence of water, providing endless fortune to the creatures of the Four Seas.

The placement of the Crystal Palace was ingenious. Though situated amidst the chaotic currents of the sea eye, it lay precisely at the node where the turbulence canceled itself out, leaving the palace unshakably stable.

"Senior!"

The crowd was filled with anticipation. After observing for a moment, Chen Yang had already decided on his course of action. He nodded, waved the Xuan Yuan Water Control Banner, and parted a waterway straight to the palace entrance.

They pushed open the hundred-foot-tall doors to find a pool about ten yards wide. A layer of milky-white fluid just covered the bottom.

"This... this is..."

"Primordial Spirit Liquid."

"Truly the dwelling of an ancient immortal!"

A single drop of this Spirit Liquid was the equivalent of a supreme spirit stone.

Except for Chen Yang and his foolish disciple, everyone else was nearly overcome with frenzy.

Watching the others crowd around the pool’s barrier, greedily inhaling the faint aura of innate spirit, Chen Yang only shook his head. He ignored them, pulling his disciple into the main hall.

The grand hall was empty, save for piles of gold, jewels, rare treasures, and spiritual materials, dazzling the eye.

Chen Yang immediately spotted a transparent crystal over ten feet tall, radiating a chill. Within, it seemed, a black tortoise slumbered.

"Northern Black Tortoise True Gold."

This was one of the nine supreme divine metals for sword forging in the universe. Chen Yang had already collected seven, among them the Black Tortoise True Gold.

But the piece he had was only the size of a fingertip, and so had never manifested such a miraculous vision.

Aside from the Black Tortoise True Gold, countless treasures and spirit materials unseen in the world for tens of thousands of years were scattered about.

Here in the grand hall, they were tossed recklessly on the floor, as if meant only for decoration.

"No wonder, after leaving this Crystal Palace, Yu Guo went from a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator to a late-stage Nascent Soul master in just a hundred years."

After letting his disciple collect the supreme sword forging metal, Chen Yang led him to the side halls.

The Crystal Palace contained three main halls: the central hall and two side halls.

The main hall was strewn with rare treasures and spiritual materials.

The left side hall, however, was completely empty except for a massive jade bed.

Finding nothing there, they proceeded to the right side hall. The moment Chen Yang entered, he felt something was off. The space was violently distorted. A half-severed corpse was pinned to the floor by a bronze spear.

The blood was long since drained, but the flesh and skin looked almost lifelike.

The corpse’s face was twisted in agony. Beside its right hand, which lay on the floor, was a line of small, dark red characters:

"Do not ascend. Do not ascend."

"Master?"

Unlike Chen Yang, who regarded the scene with indifference, Guo Xiaoshan was seized with a chill upon seeing it.

Chen Yang chuckled, glanced at it, and said,

"That should be Yu Guo. ‘Do not ascend’—heh... A fitting death, a marvelous end."

He received the world's blessings, yet did not wish to bear the responsibilities that came with them. If this wasn't a fitting, marvelous end, what was?

Seeing his master so utterly unperturbed, the chill in Guo Xiaoshan’s heart melted away as quickly as frost beneath a spring sun.

"So that was the President Yu they mentioned along the journey? This ‘Do not ascend,’ this..."

Chen Yang knew what he wished to ask, but the foolish boy couldn’t find the words.

"In the end, it’s just another world. Perhaps he encountered an enemy he could not overcome. Besides, the people of that world hold deep hostility toward those who ascend from this one—or rather, toward those who sneak across."

"Sneak across?"

Chen Yang nodded with a smile.

"In ancient times, true ascension may have existed. But cultivators only knew how to take, never to give back. Moreover, cultivation focused solely on power, not the Dao, draining the world’s very essence.

"When the world’s source is depleted enough, ascension becomes impossible. What passes for ascension these days is nothing more than a band of thieves, stealing from their own world and smuggling themselves into another—a gang of world-burglars, nothing more."