Chapter 240: Chapter 239: Sailing into the Sea of Fog, Toward the New Continent
The Dongning Sea Region.
White Iron Island.
An abandoned island, destroyed by a Beast Tide.
Thanks to its suitable location near the Mist Sea, it was chosen as the base for the advance team.
And thus, life had returned to it!
Near the port.
A militarized, enclosed fortress stood as their base.
Inside the Black Stone Hall, Su Ye sat in the main seat.
"Mr. Su, the exploration of the Mist Sea has yielded some results..."
Zhao Li handed over a jade slip, his demeanor calm and his explanation serious.
He was the leader of this base.
Exploring the Mist Sea was a top-secret matter.
Loyalty was the most critical criterion for selection!
Therefore, Su Ye had chosen Zhao Li to carry out this task.
He glanced up.
The once dark and scrawny youth had grown into a dark-faced man built like an iron tower, steady and resolute.
Zhao Li was the same age as Su Ye, now forty-six.
As for his cultivation, with the help of Blood Light Soul Splitting, as well as elixirs and Spiritual Objects, he had already reached the ninth level of Qi Refining!
After a few more years of consolidation to digest the pill toxins, he should be able to reach Qi Refining Perfection by the time he was fifty... At that point, he would have a chance to attempt Foundation Establishment!
For someone with Zhao Li’s aptitude, reaching this level of cultivation was quite good.
After all, not every cultivator was like Su Ye, unafraid of the effects of pill toxins and able to consume elixirs indiscriminately.
This was especially true since Zhao Li still needed to attempt Foundation Establishment.
Even with unlimited financial resources, he couldn’t just recklessly consume elixirs. Reaching Qi Refining Perfection by fifty was already quite impressive.
’If I ask the Cyan Profound Sect for a Profound Spirit Fruit Foundation Establishment Elixir and pair it with a rare treasure for Foundation Establishment, would that give him a forty percent chance?’
’It should... be enough, right?’ Su Ye wasn’t sure.
Even with his current status, he couldn’t guarantee success when trying to nurture a cultivator with a low-grade Spiritual Root to Foundation Establishment... The limitations of one’s Spiritual Root aptitude made the failure rate too high.
He could only provide external resources. Whether Zhao Li could successfully achieve Foundation Establishment... was up to the man himself.
’I hope so...’
Su Ye genuinely hoped that his old friend would succeed in his Foundation Establishment.
WHOOSH...
Su Ye’s thoughts flickered and drifted.
Then, they were drawn back in by the information flooding from the jade slip.
His eyes lowered slightly as his Divine Sense surged.
Soon, he knew all the details.
...
「Five years ago.」
After capturing Marina and pressing her into service.
Relying on the memories she provided of crossing the Mist Sea, the advance team had conducted multiple survey missions into the foggy expanse.
Their objective was to try and replicate the route through the Mist Sea that existed in Marina’s memory!
Because Marina’s memories were rather fragmented.
Accomplishing this was not easy.
As a result, the replication attempts had cost many lives.
To date, seven of the advance team’s spirit ships had lost their way and vanished into the Sea of Fog.
However, their sacrifices were not in vain!
"The route has been almost completely charted, and we’ve set up semi-permanent beacons along the way to serve as guides."
"Our ships can now travel back and forth along the route within the Mist Sea... We made four attempts over the last year, without the loss of a single ship or person."
"Our advance team has even seen the outline of the new continent!"
"However, we were blocked at the final step and couldn’t get past..."
Zhao Li said with a hint of regret.
But he didn’t state the specific reason.
Because he didn’t need to!
Compared to empty words, a video recording was far more powerful!
BZZZ!
With a thought, Su Ye’s Divine Sense entered the jade slip.
An incredibly clear image appeared before his eyes.
"This is the Third Advance Team, sixty-seventh day at sea..."
After this short, regulation report, the cultivator recording it...
...turned the recording device, pointing the ’lens’ toward the ship’s bow!
SHOO!
There, it could be seen.
At the edge of the horizon, the faint outline of a vast continent appeared!
"Comparing this with the images from Marina’s memory, the probability that this landmass is the ’God-Continent’ is as high as 97.64%!"
"It can be confirmed: a new continent has been discovered!"
However, between them and the new continent...
...there was a wall of gray fog, stretching from the sky to the sea and extending endlessly, like a rampart protecting the continent!
This was clearly the obstacle Zhao Li had mentioned!
Then, the scene changed.
At the same time, a voiceover began to explain.
"First attempt: attempted to enter with a spirit ship. Failure."
"This stretch of gray fog appears ethereal, but when it detects any moving target approaching, it solidifies into a tangible substance, like a barrier, repelling outsiders."
"The spirit ship attempted to enter. Upon impact, the bow was damaged and the ram was shattered. The ship was forced to turn back."
"This section of gray fog has been named the ’Gray Wall’."
"According to Ms. Marina’s memory, this ’Gray Wall’ was not an obstacle when she left... We speculate it might be related to bloodline?"
"Bloodline reason excluded... We had Marina attempt it in a small boat. The same obstructive effect occurred."
"Conclusion: it is an ’easy to exit, hard to enter’ type of restriction."
...
"Second attempt: attempted to breach with high-speed targets like puppets and demonic beasts, trying to force a way through before the gray fog could solidify. Failure."
"When a high-speed target enters, the ’Gray Wall’ will rapidly solidify, like hard ice, freezing the intruder solid."
"Furthermore, the gray fog is corrosive. The frozen intruder will quickly dissolve..."
"According to our tests, a Tier-2 spirit beast, a White Feathered Crane, survived for only six minutes and twelve seconds after being frozen."
In the image from the jade slip, the White Feathered Crane was shown beating its wings, charging into the Gray Wall at high speed. It was fast at first, but was then immediately frozen, unable to move.
Then... in despair, it dissolved and disintegrated into particles.
"Huh?" Su Ye’s eyes narrowed.
’This characteristic seems somewhat similar to the Blind Saintess’s Erosion of Nothingness?’
’Or rather... was Erosion of Nothingness created in imitation of the Gray Wall?’
Su Ye had no way of knowing.
"Third attempt: we requested the Fake Core cultivator, Qi Chengjian, to make an attempt..."
"The Gray Wall was shaken, and a passage several zhang long appeared. However, Mr. Qi soon exhausted his power and had to retreat. He was unable to cross the ’Gray Wall,’ and the gray fog immediately sealed the passage."
"However, it was observed that the passage through the Gray Wall extended one-third of the way through..."
"A month later, Mr. Qi tried again, with the same result."
Watching up to this point, Su Ye understood.
’This is simply a matter of insufficient power... Qi Chengjian is a Fake Core cultivator with third-tier combat strength. At full power, he can shake the Gray Wall.’
’But to penetrate the Gray Wall and open a passage to the new continent, his power is still lacking. This requires fourth-tier strength!’
’Fourth-tier, huh?’
Su Ye’s gaze flickered as he thought for a moment.
He was still some distance from that level, even with the help of the Ghostly Flood Dragon, unless he used his Quasi-Techniques... After all, he was only in the Early-stage Crystal realm.
Su Ye was reluctant to activate his Quasi-Techniques... The cooldown was too long. If he were to encounter a powerful enemy on the new continent while his Quasi-Techniques were on cooldown, it would be troublesome.
He wanted to break through the Gray Wall with his conventional combat power.
’I’ll give it a try. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just pull back...’
’Besides, who’s to say it won’t work?’
After all, this was the sea!
And I am the Pastor of the Sea!
