Chapter 592 Dunes
The hoverboard flew over the prairies with incredible speed. Our destination was the Sea of Demons and we didn't have much distance left before we got there. It would have taken us a month of travel just to get there by running but now we can cut that time tens of times over.
It took only half a day before we realized we entered the Sea of Demons. And it was not the prettiest sight to see after leaving a full land of green.
"What's wrong with the land here," I frowned as looked around.
The massive grasslands seemed to disappear and were replaced by deserted lands that extended as far as the eye could see, and in the extreme far distance was a cloud, a cloud so dark and big that it seemed to cover the entirety of the horizon.
"We entered the Sea of Demons. This is the rim of the region, the closer we get to the center of it the more you'll realize why it was called the Sea of Demons," said old Fu.
And he was right, because the further forward we went the more I began to realize, that it wasn't just a name, a sea used to be here before.
The giveaway was pretty obvious.
In front of me were massive white arches that extended high above us as we walked between the arches. At first, I thought they were some random rock formation, but the further we went through the arches, and I realized how 'sculpted' these things were, I came to understand that these weren't mountains or man-made arches, but the remains of a gigantic creature.
Only when we reached the other side of the creature did we get to see that it had the face of an angler fish.
Yes, a deep-sea creature that seemed to have died ages upon ages ago, but its bones were large enough for me to mistake them for the peaks of mountains.
And this was just one of many to come.
More and more of these carcasses appeared on the horizon as we kept moving forward. Some were as big as literal mountains and some looked long and sleek like endlessly long serpents.
"I wonder what life was like here before the sea dried out," said Shen Fu.
"Dried out? An entire sea that could host things this big?" I questioned.
"Well, you come from a lesser world, you come from somewhere where what you consider 'normal' has a different definition to what we call normal, look," he said as he pointed up.
High above us was a massive mountain that seemed to be flying along with its mass of land surrounding it like an island.
"What about that?" I asked.
"Why is it flying there?" he asked.
"I mean, it could be powered by some form of formation. Like the Heavenly Academy I told you about before," I replied.
He shook his head, "No, it is naturally flying, and it has been flying for a long time, and there are many like it. For you, the closest thing to that mountain isn't a flying island, but a planet hovering around an orbit. The beyond does not fall under the same laws of physics that you consider law and fact. It is different, so if you encounter a sea in the sky, don't be warned, it is natural, and if you encounter a flying mountain it is but the simple work of nature." He said.
Trying to grasp this information and understand it was bound to cause my brain some sort of aneurysm. Because he's telling me to forget everything I've ever known.
"I know that look on your face and what it means, but don't overthink stuff, what I want you to realize is that the laws of your world aren't omnipotent, but are malleable and flexible. They're not wrong, they're incomplete. What you know isn't the full truth."
I took his words to heart because if I were to try and 'rationalize' what I'm seeing I'll only end up harming myself.
This is in a sense like seeking Dao, one cannot understand it even if one sees it and knows of it. One can only accept it and seek to further enhance their comprehension.
In a sense, it's like seeking perfection.
What a simple yet incredibly complicated word.
Perfection means the final state of anything or form, it cannot be quantified or numericized, it cannot be measured or realized, it is a concept that can only be sought after never achieved. Because if one were to reach perfection it is imperfection in itself. Perfection means that you cannot improve or add upon it as it has reached its optimal state, but if you cannot improve upon something isn't that imperfection in itself?
I lightly slapped my cheeks twice to wake myself out of this spiral of thoughts that I was falling in.
There was no point in going down that rabbit hole as I'd come out with more confusion and questions than I ever went in with and to no avail.
"We're almost there, this thing is really fast," said Shen Fu. He probably said that just to remove my attention from what I was thinking of and he was right.
We're close as we entered into the clouded area.
"Get us closer to the ground, the atmosphere isn't friendly high above the Sea of Demons," he said.
I lowered the hoverboard and the two of us proceeded to fly over mounds of cold sand that seemed listless at points and immovable at times.
Something in the sand moved, and I realized that this Sea of Demons wasn't as dead as I first assumed. There was life in it, as even in a scalding hot desert, critters of the land do manage to live and survive.
Far up ahead in front of us was the first sign of life. Human life, sentient one. And it was the base of what seemed to be a mountain or a dead volcano.
Buildings were heavily packed all over the base of the volcano, and the sheer size of the city was incredible. Calling it a megapolis would be a severe understatement due to its sheer size and length, and even from all the way here you could see the people moving in and out of the city.
Around the city was a massive wall made by liking the bones of dead fish and old sea dwellers together, creating a barricade that seemed as high as a skyscraper all around the city.
I wondered if someone was building something this high and magnificent as protection, what were they protecting themselves from? After all, cultivators can easily fly over that wall… and the sea is dead.
Perhaps from whatever it was that moved under the sand before? But I didn't make any assumptions I would have to understand further once we're inside the city.
But my line of thinking was suddenly stopped as Shen Fu stood up and had both arms crossed as he looked not toward the city but right before it on the dunes.
"We're being ambushed," he said as he released his divine sense. Spreading it domineeringly and powerfully forward like a tidal wave.
If one had ever heard the roar of a lion, old Fu's divine sense closely resembled that. It was so boastingly powerful that it created a roaring sound as it pushed the sand aside in a shockwave.
This caused the people who were hiding in the sand to dive further down, hiding away and terrified from the owner of this Divine Sense.
This served as a warning to the people around us to not mess with us, and many a cultivator who lived long enough and was willing to lay in ambush clearly could realize that fighting someone like old Fu was nothing shorter than committing suicide.
The cultivators didn't dare show up as we passed them and I couldn't help but ask, "Was it wise to reveal your cultivation level?" I asked.
"Here, in these lawless lands, one's life can end in a blink. And the shrewdest and smartest of cultivators lived long not by challenging the impossible but by weighing the worth of their lives against the possible outcome and reward. For them, though we look like delicious prey, the moment they noticed the power difference we turned from prey to a rabid predator that they couldn't even risk offending," he said.
"I would understand that," I said, "But that wasn't the reason why I asked you that," I added as I slowed down the hoverboard.
Old Fu was confused about why I stopped the hoverboard.
After all, I'm not that dumb to have someone explaining to me why one should always show how mighty they are in the cultivation world, in case people forgot, I'm also a cultivator and I live and die by that rule.
"The reason I asked that was, we're going to an auction," I said.
Old Fu's confusion grew bigger but he didn't stop me from further explaining.
"I mean, we're broke, and they looked like they had money, so I didn't tell you that because I was afraid of them robbing us, but it's because if we scare them, we won't be able to rob from them…"
Old man Fu's brows rose, he looked at the sand and then said "Oh…"
"Yeah…"
"Well, it's not too late, let's head back to meet our friendly patrons shall we!"
"I like how you're thinking," I replied to him in a grind and drove the hoverboard back.
We do need some money after all.
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