51: A chaotic world on a planet, tales of alien races

The miasma rain teahouse was built facing the street, with rough bamboo as its frame, covered with wide banana leaves. Several strings of wind-dried animal bones and dark-colored pottery bells hung from the eaves, tinkling in the wind, mixing with the clamor of the market, creating a unique southern border ambiance.

Li Yinglong led Lin Xiaowan into the teahouse and found a quiet corner by the window to sit down.

The bamboo chairs swayed slightly, making pleasant, soft sounds.

He casually ordered a pot of the local “Mist Rain Purifying Heart Tea” and a few coarse tea snacks, then dismissed the attentive waiter. His gaze fell upon the bustling street scene outside the window, but in reality, his spiritual consciousness had quietly sunk into the newly upgraded “Spirit-Connected Edition records of strange tales of the universe” Jade Slip in hisHuai (bosom).

As soon as he probed it, he felt a distinct difference.

In the past, within the “Broad Knowledge Edition” Jade Slip, information was disorganized, classification was crude, and retrieval was difficult. It was like entering an abandoned storeroom, where one had to rummage through things oneself, only to find scattered, vague, and hard-to-discern fragments of information.

Now, within this “Spirit-Connected Edition,” the scene was completely new.

Wherever his spiritual consciousness reached, it was as if he had stepped into a magnificent, well-ordered Secret Realm.

Information light points sparkled like a galaxy, categorized and meticulously organized.

In addition to the original major categories like “Spirit Plants,” “Yao Beasts,” “Minerals,” and “Miscellaneous News,” it further subdivided into more than a dozen refined subcategories such as “Sect Lineage,” “Regional Secrets,” “Cultivation Technique Tracing,” “Secret Realm Exploration,” “Medicinal Pill Analysis,” “Magical Artifact Atlas,” “Basic Formation Explanation,” and “Record of Foreign Races.” Below these were even deeper branches, layer upon layer, vast as a sea.

With a slight thought, wherever his intention pointed, relevant information would converge and appear as if summoned, arranged and combined with unparalleled speed.

Furthermore, he could directly construct complex search conditions within his spiritual consciousness, such as limiting by time, region, or associated individuals, achieving pinpoint accuracy, no longer suffering the difficulty of finding a needle in a haystack.

The level of detail in the information was also incomparable to the past. It not only provided an overview of events but also included source verification, comparison of multiple accounts, and even an assessment of the reliability by the Hundred Scholars Sect itself.

Li Yinglong sighed inwardly, thinking that the three hundred and fifty Low-Grade Spirit Stones were well spent.

The precision and accessibility of information, on the path of Cultivation, sometimes surpassed a Spirit Pill or a Magical Artifact.

For a Family to develop long-term, such investments were essential.

He collected his thoughts, focusing his spiritual consciousness on the intersection of “Regional Secrets” and “Sect Lineage,” constructing a search query:

“The cause of the Spirit-Severing Land around Linhai City on the shores of the East Sea, related to the ancient Sect, ‘Three Immortals Sect’.”

The Jade Slip vibrated slightly, and light flowed. A torrent of information, well-ordered, poured into his Sea of Consciousness. The detailed content far exceeded the brief message he had purchased earlier for two hundred Spirit Stones.

The amount of information was quite substantial, capturing Li Yinglong’s attention.

It turned out that this “Spirit-Severing Land” and the mysteriously vanished “Three Immortals Sect” were actually tied to the lingering effects of an ancient, earth-shattering war that spanned vast, misty waves!

This matter must begin with a celestial anomaly tens of thousands of years ago, an event that started beyond the heavens and concluded in the mortal realm.

(The following content serves as an important transition, so it is quite lengthy. Please bear with me, esteemed readers.)

In primordial times, the universe was desolate. East of the Divine Land, the azure sea was boundless, its misty waves vast.

Then one day, the firmament tore open, and a rogue star, carrying immeasurable light and flames, crashed down from beyond the nine heavens!

Its power was immense, its might unfathomable, and it plunged directly into the deepest part of the East Sea.

The impact of the stellar remnant was powerful enough to shatter the primordial world!

Under this catastrophe, the East Sea was overturned, tens of thousands of acres of waves evaporated completely, revealing a seabed that had never seen the light of day.

The earth veins surged, land sank, and the sea rose. The formerly flat seabed violently uplifted, and mountain-building occurred in an instant, forming a scattered cluster of over a thousand islands, large and small.

The largest among them were four giant islands, with mountains and rivers connected, earth veins linked, forming a single entity, later known as the “Islands of a Thousand Islands.”

However, the power of the rogue star was not limited to changing the world!

Within its stellar core, there was a strange, anomalous power that absolutely should not exist in this realm. It was released with a thunderous impact, pervading the newly formed Thousand Island Sea Region, lingering for years, like an eternal curse, completely twisting the Laws of all things here!

The first to be affected were the myriad aquatic creatures that originally inhabited the deep sea.

Infested by this anomalous power, fish, turtles, shrimp, crabs, and even many strange-shaped deep-sea species underwent sudden changes in form and twisted vitality.

Carapaces grew strange horns, scales turned into bone spurs, soft bodies developed pustules, and even more, their trunks swelled, and limbs mutated, actually shedding their aquatic nature and transforming into hideous monsters capable of shambling on land!

These mutated creatures were filled with profound malevolence, their intellect in Chaos, with only the instinct to devour and destroy. They occupied this newly formed island, fighting and devouring each other, turning this Thousand Island Sea Region into a bloody, defiled demonic realm. This scene persisted for nearly ten thousand years!

The evolution of all things is profound and unfathomable.

After several more millennia, under endless slaughter and the infiltration of anomalous power, that defiled land once again bred strange vitality.

Among the many mutated monsters, one branch gradually stabilized, evolving towards a humanoid form.

However, their forms, affected by the mutation of that year, presented extreme characteristics:

The males of this clan were mostly short, bloated, with short limbs and vulgar faces. Their Heart-Nature, however, was sinister, cunning, greedy, and despicable, especially skilled at enduring and sneak attacking.

Their females, on the other hand, were mostly well-proportioned, with beautiful faces, quite alluring in their youth. Yet, their Heart-Nature was often cold and ungrateful, admiring the strong and bullying the weak.

This group was later called the “Wo Clan.”

At that time, the Wo Clan, though humanoid, was essentially no different from wild beasts.

They lived in caves, ate raw meat and blood, had no writing, no etiquette, no Legacy, and no Cultivation Dao. They barely survived daily under the claws and fangs of the many mutated Yao Beasts spread across the islands, often serving as blood offerings, living a miserable and ignorant existence.

Another three thousand years passed, and a turning point finally arrived.

At that time, the Divine Land was in its ancient golden age, and a powerful individual unified the Divine Land, establishing the Immortal Qin Imperial Dynasty.

The Imperial Dynasty was prosperous, with many powerful individuals emerging, and the Cultivation scene was unprecedented.

Among them were also ambitious individuals who explored the four seas.

A vast fleet, commanded by Emperor Ren Zheng, carried artisans, grain seeds, and silks, sailing eastward into the great sea, seeking overseas immortal mountains and intending to spread the enlightenment of the Heavenly Dynasty.

However, the might of Heaven is unpredictable. When the fleet reached the deep parts of the East Sea, it suddenly encountered a rare millennium-old storm and hurricane.

The wind was fierce, the rain torrential, and thunder roared. Giant waves crashed like collapsing mountains. Even mighty warships were like fallen leaves on water, their masts and rudders instantly turning to dust.

The fleet scattered. One main ship, fortunately, was protected by the accompanying Cultivators who exerted all their strength, thus avoiding immediate destruction. However, it was swept away by the storm, deviating from its course, drifting for several months on the vast ocean, and eventually, by accident, stumbled into this demonic realm of a thousand islands, shrouded in anomalous power and isolated from the world!

The survivors on the ship were all elites of the Divine Land, including many knowledgeable scholars, experienced artisans, and even several accompanying Cultivators with considerable Cultivation.

As soon as they landed, everything they saw and heard filled them with shock:

Hideous mutated beasts, a dangerous environment, and that group of strangely shaped Wo Clan people, appearing like savages.

Initially, the Divine Land elites, driven by a desire to civilize, saw the Wo Clan’s suffering and offered aid.

They slaughtered mutated beasts and saved their clan.

Later, they even taught them farming, weaving, medicine, and writing, helping them build houses, clear fields, and defend against Yao Beasts.

The Wo Clan thus escaped ignorance and gradually developed intelligence.

However, regarding the methods of Cultivation, the powerful individuals kept it secret and did not transmit it.

The Wo Clan, receiving such great grace from the Divine Land, felt as if they had received heavenly enlightenment, shedding tears of gratitude. They prostrated themselves on the ground, kowtowing incessantly, not caring that their foreheads were covered in dust.

They cried out in the Divine Land’s elegant language, which they were just beginning to learn and still found awkward, mixed with their native dialect, proclaiming “Sect Master’s Sacred Virtue,” swearing by heaven and sun, stating that they wished their entire clan to assimilate, to be eternally subservient, to be a protector of the Divine Land, offering tribute every year, generation after generation.

Their demeanor was respectful and humble, their sincerity profound, almost moving people to tears.

The powerful Cultivators of the Divine Land saw the remarkable success of their civilizing efforts and felt relieved.

After the ship was repaired, they also collected samples of various mutated plants, minerals, and Yao Beasts from the island, sealing them in specially made Jade Slip boxes and talisman bags, to be thoroughly studied upon their return to the Imperial Dynasty.

With all matters concluded, they prepared to hoist their sails, break through the fog, and return to the Divine Land to report.

Unexpectedly, disaster began from this point!