50: Welcome to the farm

The Tower Ship sailed into the collapsed sea.

There was no violent turbulence, no tearing pain.

The moment he passed through the vortex entrance, Jiang Chen only felt that everything around him fell into a strange “stagnation”.

The next moment, light twisted, and space folded.

They had entered the Guixu.

There were no crystal palaces here, nor treasures everywhere.

Before their eyes was a broken world.

Giant, dilapidated architectural fragments floated in the sky, like toys smashed by immense force.

The earth was torn apart, with bottomless, pitch-black Rift Valley like ugly scars.

Countless deadly spatial cracks, like transparent ghosts, silently roamed the air.

In the distant mid-air, a Golden Core Cultivator screamed as half of his body was swallowed by an invisible crack, disappearing instantly.

Blood gushed, and his mangled remains fell, quickly to be ground into nothingness by another crack below.

Countless Loose Cultivators, like hyenas thrown into a gladiatorial arena, frantically darted through this shattered space, fighting to the death over a exposed spirit mine or a fragment of an ancient herb.

“Stay close to me, conceal your Qi, and don’t touch anything.”

Lin Xuan, the leader of the Tingchao Pavilion, spoke in a cold voice.

He took out an ancient beast-skin sea chart and, comparing it to the surrounding wreckage, carefully planned their route.

The others in the team also had tense expressions, their spiritual energy shields at maximum, each step as if treading on thin ice.

Only Jiang Chen.

He walked in the middle of the team, as if strolling in his own backyard.

He didn’t even activate his shield.

Just now, a Tingchao Pavilion Disciple was horrified to discover a tiny spatial crack silently appearing before Jiang Chen.

He was about to speak a warning.

Yet, Jiang Chen seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, shifting his foot half an inch to the left, just barely brushing past the edge of that crack.

Once, it was a coincidence.

Twice, it was luck.

But along the way, dozens of times, Jiang Chen was able to make the most precise evasive movements a split second before those untraceable cracks formed.

He wasn’t dodging.

He was “strolling”.

This space, a veritable death trap even for Golden Core Cultivators, seemed to hold no secrets for him.

Zhao Wuliang followed at the end of the team, looking at Jiang Chen’s back, his body trembling uncontrollably.

His eyes, which once could glimpse heavenly secrets, now saw a sight more terrifying than any heavenly secret.

Around Jiang Chen, the Law of space was not being avoided by him.

Instead… it was actively avoiding him.

This monster was no longer “using” the rules.

He was “assimilating” the rules!

Lin Xuan also noticed Jiang Chen’s abnormality, and the indifference in his eyes finally gained a hint of solemnity.

This “research specimen” was far more dangerous than they had anticipated.

Their team did not stop anywhere.

They moved straight through the chaotic battle zone, heading towards the deepest part of the Guixu.

Along the way, some ignorant Loose Cultivator teams, seeing their well-equipped state, harbored ill intentions and tried to approach.

“Scram!”

Lin Xuan didn’t even turn around, merely spitting out a single cold word.

The next instant, the bodies of those few Foundation Establishment Cultivators were squeezed by an invisible large hand, blood forced from their seven orifices, turning them into shriveled corpses that plummeted into the abyss below.

The dignity of the Tomb Guardians was not to be provoked.

Finally, they reached their destination.

A massive altar, carved from a single block of black giant rock, floated at the very center of the Guixu.

Around the altar, there was no one.

It had already been cleared by the Tingchao Pavilion people in advance.

On the altar, there were no ancient treasures as everyone had imagined.

Instead, rows of corpses were neatly arranged there.

There were men and women, old and young, all Cultivators who had “accidentally” died in the Guixu over the years.

Their bodies were preserved with a special technique, their faces still showing the terror and unwillingness from before their deaths.

And in the center of all the corpses.

Was a massive “sea eye” a hundred zhang in diameter, bottomless.

Wisps of black cold air continuously emerged from the sea eye, lowering the surrounding temperature to freezing point.

“We’ve arrived.”

Lin Xuan stopped, turning to look at Jiang Chen.

His face showed a strange expression, like an invitation, yet also like a display of pride.

“Fellow Daoist Jiang, welcome to the ceremony.”

Before his words finished.

Inside that “sea eye,” the seawater began to churn.

A figure slowly rose from the pitch-black deep hole.

It was not human.

It had no fixed form, composed entirely of high-density seawater, merely maintaining a rough humanoid outline.

A pair of “eyes” formed by whirlpools looked at everyone on the altar.

A vast, profound aura of a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator enveloped the entire scene.

“Patrol Sea Envoy” adult!

All the Tingchao Pavilion Disciples, including Lin Xuan, respectfully bowed their heads.

The water elemental life paid no attention to its subordinates.

Its “gaze” locked directly onto Jiang Chen.

A cold Soul fluctuation, not belonging to human language, directly sounded in Jiang Chen’s mind.

“Welcome to the ‘breeding ground’, anomaly.”

Jiang Chen was expressionless.

The Patrol Sea Envoy’s Soul transmission continued, carrying the coldness of stating a fact.

“What you perceive as the ‘ Guixu Secret Realm,’ the so-called ‘Dragon Palace Ruins,’ are merely lies to trick those fools outside into their deaths.”

“Here, it is nothing.”

“Here, it is the… stomach of the Divine Magic ‘Kun’.”

These words, like a cold heavy hammer, struck Zhao Wuliang’s heart.

He looked at the sea eye in disbelief, then at the surrounding shattered space, his face drained of color.

The so-called Secret Realm Treasure hunt.

From the very beginning, it was a meticulously designed… feeding.

They were not Treasure hunters.

They were food.

The Patrol Sea Envoy’s eyes, formed by whirlpools, turned to the corpses on the altar.

“The ‘Kun’ has been in slumber since the Ancient War. But its hunger instinct has never disappeared.”

“If it is not fed periodically to keep it asleep, once it awakens from hunger, the entire East Sea, along with all living beings, will be swallowed by it in one gulp.”

“We, Tingchao Pavilion, as ‘Tomb Guardians,’ have the duty to feed it.”

The Patrol Sea Envoy’s will was cold and cruel.

It raised an arm made of water and pointed at the altar.

“Begin.”

Lin Xuan bowed in acceptance, then waved his hand at the Disciples behind him.

“Throw!”

Several Tingchao Pavilion Disciples flew up, and like throwing garbage, they tossed the Cultivators’ corpses from the altar, one by one, into the bottomless sea eye.

There was no sound.

The corpses fell into the sea eye, instantly decomposed by an invisible force, disappearing without a trace.

“These are not enough.”

The Patrol Sea Envoy’s voice was unperturbed.

Lin Xuan understood and snapped his fingers.

From the shadows behind the altar, several Disciples dragged out a dozen tightly bound Loose Cultivators with gagged mouths.

They were the “lucky ones” captured alive during the clearing operation.

Now, they looked at the sea eye, their eyes full of despair and pleading, their bodies struggling violently.

“No… don’t…”

A female Cultivator broke free of the cloth in her mouth, letting out a desperate shriek.

The next moment, she was kicked into the sea eye by a Tingchao Pavilion Disciple.

The shriek stopped abruptly.

“Continue.”

Living people were thrown into the sea eye, one after another.

The Patrol Sea Envoy seemed to enjoy this scene and explained to Jiang Chen:

“These blood and Soul, imbued with spiritual energy, will make the ‘Kun’s’ dreams sweeter.”

“In its pleasant dreams, it will unconsciously leak out fragments of the Law of power from the old era.”

“That is the true ‘Treasure Trove’ of the Guixu.”

The Patrol Sea Envoy’s gaze refocused on Jiang Chen, and in its whirlpool-like eyes, there was undisguised greed and curiosity.

“And you, anomaly.”

“That Divine Magic aura on you is an unprecedented great tonic for the ‘Kun,’ a delicacy it has never tasted.”

“I am very curious, if you are swallowed by it, what kind of pleasant ‘dreams’ will it produce?”

“And what level of Treasure will it… ‘excrete’?”

As his words fell.

Lin Xuan, and all the surrounding Tingchao Pavilion Disciples, locked their gazes on Jiang Chen.

Killing intent, undisguised.

In their eyes, Jiang Chen was no longer a “research specimen.”

He was the highest-grade, the grand finale… offering in this sacrificial ceremony.

Zhao Wuliang was so frightened his legs went soft, almost collapsing to the ground.

He finally understood that he was brought here not because he had any value.

But to witness with his own eyes the fate of this Devil Head who severed his destiny, being cast into the abyss as food.

This was the Tomb Guardians’ reward to him, their “dog.”

Facing this certain death, Jiang Chen showed no fear on his face.

He didn’t even look at the surrounding Tingchao Pavilion Disciples.

He looked at the sea eye, as if admiring a work of art.

Under everyone’s gaze, he voluntarily took a few steps forward, standing at the edge of the sea eye.

He looked at the Patrol Sea Envoy, composed of water elements, and asked,

“Do you want to see a grander fireworks show?”

A trace of confusion appeared in the Patrol Sea Envoy’s will.

Jiang Chen smiled.

It was not mockery, nor provocation.

It was the genuine pleasure of a hunter spotting desirable prey.

“Let me help you ‘feed’ it.”

“I guarantee, it will give you an unprecedented ‘surprise’.”

Before the Patrol Sea Envoy could react.

Jiang Chen leaned back voluntarily.

His entire body, perfectly straight, plunged into that pitch-black sea eye that devoured everything!

“No!”

Zhao Wuliang shrieked, unable to comprehend what was happening before his eyes.

Lin Xuan and the Patrol Sea Envoy were also stunned.

Suicide?

Impossible!

The moment he fell into the darkness.

Jiang Chen’s Divine Demon Body furiously activated!

But he wasn’t for defense.

An extremely pure, primitive, and domineering “predator” aura, surpassing all living beings in this world, erupted from his body!

This was not prey falling into a trap.

This was a hungrier, more ferocious prehistoric beast, breaking into another beast’s lair!

He was going to turn this “feeding” into a “food snatching”!