28: Chaotic Sea

Ten days later, dark clouds hung over the East Sea coast, and over a thousand Cultivators stood in the air.

Suddenly, a sinister laugh caused a commotion.

Everyone looked up to see a barefoot woman stepping on the back of a Nine-Winged Centipede King — it was Poison Lady Bu Meiniang of the Five Poisons Sect.

Rumors in the Jianghu claimed that she used the hearts of hundreds of Geniuses each year to feed her Gu King.

“Look! The Beast King of Myriad Beast Villa is here too!”

A giant lion, completely engulfed in flames, came treading the waves, and the middle-aged man seated on its back was precisely Beast King Xiao Zhan.

Just then, a crisp sound of a compass echoed from the Void Realm.

Old Man Tianji, the Pavilion Master of Tianji Pavilion, arrived, stepping through the air, and sighed as he looked towards the Chaos Sea: “Calamity, a calamity is inescapable.”

Besides these Seniors, some newly rising Geniuses had also arrived.

Sword Without Trace, known as the “Sword Dao Maniac,” carried a massive sword box on his back, within which the seventy-two Sword Souls were all transformed from the Martial Souls of the Genius Cultivators from various sects he had personally slain.

“Kid, don’t block the way!!”

The Blood River Ancestor made his appearance.

A bone boat, formed from white bones and blood, crashed towards Sword Without Trace, and everyone smelled a strong scent of blood.

Sword Without Trace’s eyes were cold. With a light wave of his right hand, the sword box opened with a rumble, and the seventy-two Sword Souls transformed into seventy-two streaks of light, weaving into a massive sword formation in the air.

Sword Intent crisscrossed, forming a solid barrier that forcefully blocked the bone boat’s path.

“Courting death!” The Blood River Ancestor roared in fury, his figure transforming into a giant blood-red palm that slammed down hard on Sword Without Trace.

Sword Without Trace did not dodge. He formed a hand seal with his left hand and, with a low shout, declared: “Heavenly Sword!”

His Martial Soul activated, and a brilliant sword light burst from his body, meeting the blood palm.

The Heavenly Sword and the blood palm collided, erupting in a deafening sound, and ocean waves surged skyward, forming a curtain of water.

Just as the two sides were in a stalemate, a majestic voice came from the horizon: “Enough, enough, neither of you are welcome!”

A hundred-meter golden Buddha appeared behind Immovable Wisdom King Xuankong of Suspended Temple. The golden Buddha pressed its palms together, standing between Sword Without Trace and the Blood River Ancestor.

“Stinky monk, don’t meddle!” the Blood River Ancestor cursed.

Howl—

A wolf’s howl caused the thunderclouds to ripple, and everyone looked up.

Xiao Qitian arrived, riding a war wolf that trod on clouds.

“Xiao Qitian!”

The Blood River Ancestor roared, and thirteen blood-colored chains flew out from his sleeve. Each chain was strung with three skulls, which were precisely the skull of the Blood Fiend Sect Elder whose sect Xiao Qitian had annihilated back then.

“His life is mine!”

Xiao Qitian had destroyed the Heavenly Sword Sect. Sword Without Trace’s father was once a Disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect, and from a young age, his father had instilled in him the belief that he must avenge them.

Sword Without Trace attacked, his Heavenly Sword, entwined with the seventy-two Sword Souls, formed the “Big Dipper Killing Formation.” This move had once caused thirty-six top-ranked experts to fall.

Just as the attack was about to reach Xiao Qitian, countless falling leaves appeared out of thin air, each leaf precisely blocking the attack path.

The Blood River Ancestor’s chains instantly snapped upon touching the leaves;

Sword Without Trace’s Heavenly Sword struck a leaf, emitting sparks as if metal had clashed.

“All guests I invite are honored guests of the Chaos Sea.”

Boundless Emissary slowly walked over, “If anyone dares to harbor murderous intent again, they will be killed without mercy—”

The Boundless Emissary raised his hand and lightly waved it. The Blood River Ancestor’s bone boat disintegrated, and the blood beneath the boat actually flowed back into his body, causing him to roll on the ground in pain;

Sword Without Trace’s sword box buckles burst open, and all seventy-two Sword Souls shattered. Sword Without Trace suffered a backlash and spat out blood.

The entire scene was dead silent.

Sword Without Trace looked in horror at his empty sword box, and the Blood River Ancestor trembled, clutching his throat, unable to even let out a scream.

The Emissary gently waved a hand, condensing all the fallen leaves into a giant leaf boat.

“Board the boat, everyone!”

...The giant green leaf boat passed through the East Sea and entered a mysterious dark swirling vortex.

Lu Chen entered the first-person observation mode of his Incarnation.

Although he couldn’t control the Incarnation, he could feel it.

This was equivalent to real-time monitoring of the Incarnation’s log.

Open Incarnation Log! Enter Observation Mode!

Instantly!!

Lu Chen felt as if he had put on VR glasses, entering the Incarnation’s perspective. The chaotic matter before his eyes suddenly became clear—it wasn’t seawater at all, but a living torrent composed of billions of dark energy particles.

Each particle was constantly splitting and recombining. Most terrifyingly, when Lu Chen tried to observe these particles, all the particles uniformly “gazed” back—they actually possessed a kind of collective consciousness.

After forty-nine days of drifting on the Chaos Sea, just as some Cultivators were on the verge of breakdown,

A massive black megalithic structure, shaped like a pyramid, emerged from the mist, and everyone held their breath.

The building was covered with mysterious runes, and even more bizarrely, these runes were not static but slowly swam like tadpoles, forming unfamiliar characters.

Everyone stepped onto the stone stairs. The heavy stone door automatically opened, revealing a honeycomb-like interior—a thousand hexagonal stone chambers neatly arranged.

“Please choose your stone chamber to rest in,” the black-robed Emissary said expressionlessly.

The crowd stirred, pushing forward.

“Where is Boundless? We want to see Boundless!”

The black-robed Emissary was unmoved, merely repeating mechanically: “Lord Boundless is not seeing guests right now.”

“How long do we have to wait?” an old man from the Heavenly Rankings glared.

A strange, eerie curve appeared at the corner of the Emissary’s mouth beneath his mask: “When you pass the life-and-death challenge... and choose the final victor, you will be qualified to see the Master.”

“This isn’t fair!” Sword Without Trace, a Genius from the Young Masters’ Ranking, was filled with unwillingness. “We, the younger generation, have only Cultivated for a few decades. We’re no match for these old guys on the Heavenly Rankings! Inviting us here is just sending us to our deaths.”

The Emissary turned to look at Sword Without Trace, his gaze substantial and chilling: “It doesn’t matter, everyone is equal. You have one year, and here are the advanced Cultivation Techniques left by the Master for you.”

At these words, the previously noisy crowd instantly fell silent, and expressions of pleasant surprise appeared on everyone’s faces.

They eagerly rushed into their respective stone chambers. When they looked at the walls, their expressions froze—there were no words on the walls, but a painting of a pitch-black coffin.

The surface of the coffin was covered with strange patterns, and these patterns twisted and writhed like living things.

“How... how do we learn this?” The Cultivators were full of confusion.

“This coffin... it’s staring at me!” a female Cultivator shrieked and recoiled, her magic robe soaked with cold sweat.

Several Cultivators with weak resolve immediately bled from their orifices.

The Blood River Ancestor’s Blood Soul Banner automatically unfurled, covering the coffin: “Interesting, too interesting. I feel my Cultivation increasing wildly?”

Sword Without Trace’s consciousness transformed into a Sword Soul and entered the coffin patterns. Following the complex patterns to circulate spiritual power, he actually comprehended Sword Intent;

Some whose Martial Souls were animals imitated the Vicious Beasts depicted on the coffin and entered a special Cultivation state, allowing their Martial Souls to simulate battles with the Vicious Beasts. Each battle increased their Cultivation by a fraction.

For a time, spiritual energy fluctuations rose and fell throughout the entire space, and everyone seemed to have found their own path to Cultivation.

Xiao Qitian was also looking for a suitable Cultivation method for himself.

The moment his fingertip touched the coffin, the Chaos Heavenly Tome flew out from his Sea of Consciousness, perfectly overlapping with the coffin.

Other Cultivators tried to break the coffin:

Old Man Tianji used his compass to deduce the coffin patterns and suffered a backlash that caused blood to flow from all seven of his orifices.

Someone tried to pry open the coffin seam, but the entire person was sucked into the coffin patterns and crushed into a meat paste.

Gradually, everyone discovered the taboo: anyone who harbored the thought of “opening” the coffin would suffer severe injuries at best, and death at worst.

Only Xiao Qitian, his consciousness entered a unique “coffin maze.”

Each time a level was solved, the coffin would light up with corresponding patterns, and then a progress bar would appear: 0.1%... 0.2%... 1%... A year passed in a flash, and Xiao Qitian had only opened 10%. The further he went, the harder the levels became, making it impossible to open completely.

Lu Chen suddenly realized that this matter was not so simple.

Boundless invited all the powerful experts of the current era here for only one purpose: to open the coffin!!

Why did Boundless know about this coffin, and what exactly was inside?

Vaguely, Lu Chen felt that this matter was very dangerous, and he should immediately destroy this world, but he was also very curious about what Boundless ultimately wanted to do.

He would observe for a while, and if the situation turned bad, he would destroy it immediately.

Suddenly, a cold voice echoed within the building.

“Cultivation time is over, next is the life-and-death challenge!!”