99: Chapter 99 Three Years After Three Years

"Three years, I've finally walked out of this ghostly place!"

The salty sea breeze blew over. Listening to the sound of waves crashing against the beach and feeling the wisps of Spiritual Qi, Ning Yuan opened his arms and quietly took it all in.

Before him was the boundless sea. Under the shining sun, ripples of light shimmered on the water, and the spray kicked up by the waves looked like clusters of starlight.

All of this gave Ning Yuan a long-lost feeling, a sense of being in another world that arose spontaneously.

Slowly lowering his raised arms, Ning Yuan's face was full of exhaustion. It had taken a full three years to walk out of that damned Sand Sea; the hardships involved were beyond words.

If Nangong Xi hadn't thought of a possible way to leave, let alone three years, they might not have walked out of the Sand Sea even in thirty or three hundred years.

After obtaining the Five Elements Universe Realm, Nangong Xi, who was originally raising the Spirit Devouring Worms for Ning Yuan, discovered that they were extremely sensitive to Spiritual Qi. She then suggested using their sensing ability to find a way out.

Ning Yuan felt it was worth a try, as one wouldn't know if it worked without trying. Thus, he proceeded to vigorously Cultivate the Spirit Devouring Worms, consuming a large amount of Spirit Stone resources.

Finally, under the sensing ability of the Rank Four Spirit Devouring Worm King and Ning Yuan's own efforts, they successfully reached the coast, though it had taken three years.

Immediately, Ning Yuan communicated with the Five Elements Universe Realm with his mind. With a flash, Nangong Xi and the others appeared before him. Upon emerging, The women all stared blankly at everything before them.

After a long while, The women realized it was real and broke into deafening cheers one after another.

"We're out, we're out, we're finally out!"

"It hasn't been easy, these three years have been so difficult!"

"This ghostly place, I never want to see it again!"

"..."

Indeed, these three years were truly far from easy!

During the following two-plus years, The women had taken turns coming out to accompany Ning Yuan for a period of time; they naturally wouldn't forget the hardships involved.

Among them, Tao Yao felt it most deeply. If Ning Yuan hadn't forcibly taken her away three years ago, then today, three years later, she would have at best been in a terrible state, if not already a desiccated corpse.

At this moment, Mu Qingyao shouted loudly, "Let's go, let's go! I don't want to stay here for even another moment!"

"That's right!"

"..."

The rest of The women chimed in. Mu Qingyao had spoken what was in all their hearts; no one was willing to stay here any longer.

"Although I don't know what lies across the sea, let's leave first and make plans later!"

Then, Ning Yuan took out a Rank Five spirit boat, the 'cloud command boat'. Its entire body was carved with white cloud patterns, and its appearance rivaled that of the flowing light boat.

The previous flowing light boat had taken two hits from the Hundred Poisons King and was already half-ruined. After crashing into the Sand Sea, it was severely damaged, so Ning Yuan hadn't even retrieved it at the time.

Whoosh!

As the cloud command boat appeared on the sea surface, everyone impatiently boarded the spirit boat. Then, under Ning Yuan's control, the boat braved the wind and waves, turning into a streak of white light as it headed into the open ocean.

Under the high-speed flight of the cloud command boat, the distance from the Sand Sea grew further and further until it completely vanished from everyone's sight, allowing the weight pressing on their hearts to finally drop.

Ning Yuan gazed at the scenery where the sea met the sky and felt his whole being relax, as if a great mountain pressing on his head had been moved away. At the same time, a wave of exhaustion hit him.

It was as if the fatigue accumulated over three years came flooding in like a tide upon leaving the Sand Sea, leaving Ning Yuan feeling extremely weary.

"I'm going to rest for a bit!"

Before his voice had even faded, Ning Yuan turned and left the deck, preparing to go into the cabin for a good rest. He wasn't like The women, who had stayed in the Five Elements Universe Realm and maintained a full state of energy.

Seeing this, The women repeatedly signaled Tao Yao with their eyes, but she remained unmoved, her face full of hesitation. Finally, having no choice, Tao Yao was pushed and pulled by the other women until she reluctantly arrived at Ning Yuan's room.

"Why are you here?"

Ning Yuan lay on the bed with his eyes tightly closed, yet he spoke calmly as if he knew exactly who had entered.

"I didn't want to come, they dragged me here!" Tao Yao retorted uneasily, her jade-like hands tightly interlaced, showing her inner turmoil.

"Given your cultivation, could they really force you?" Ning Yuan exposed her, then raised his hand and waved it at her.

"Come here. Don't worry, I won't do anything to you. If I were going to, I would have done it long ago!"

Hearing this, Tao Yao bit her red lip with her pearly teeth. After hesitating for a moment, she eventually edged toward the bed bit by bit and looked down at the man before her.

"Ah!"

Then, Tao Yao let out a startled cry as she found herself lying directly in Ning Yuan's arms. It turned out Ning Yuan had pulled her straight onto the bed and was holding her tightly.

Just as her heart was filled with confusion and panic, she heard soft snoring, which made her breathe a long sigh of relief. Then, she felt a surge of dissatisfaction; after she had gone this far, he had actually fallen asleep.

This made her both annoyed and amused, while that thread of affection continued to grow until it filled her entire heart.

Whether this thread of affection was born when he pulled her back from the abyss of despair in the Earth Abyss, or when he forcibly took her away in the Sand Sea, even she couldn't say for sure.

But those things were no longer important now because she had made her choice.

Furthermore, she had actually known all along that the so-called poison was a fake.

With her cultivation, how could she not distinguish whether something was poison?

As for why she didn't expose him then but instead agreed to follow him, perhaps it was that so-called thread of affection at work!

...Time flies like an arrow, and another three years passed by.

Ning Yuan and the others had been drifting at sea for three long years. During this time, they encountered neither islands nor people; there was nothing but seawater in every direction.

Initially, they might have been interested in the vast blue ocean, but after a long time, it felt like more of the same, and wasn't even as beautiful as the scenery inside the Five Elements Universe Realm.

So, once again, only Ning Yuan was left on the cloud command boat, silently controlling it to search for land.

One day.

Ning Yuan sat cross-legged at the bow of the boat with a fishing rod, quietly waiting for a fish to take the bait. Beside him, Tao Yao rested her chin in her hands, watching listlessly with glazed eyes, her mind clearly elsewhere.

"Ning Yuan, stop fishing! It's been so long and not a single fish has bitten. Wouldn't it be better to spend this effort to Cultivate?"

After an unknown amount of time, Tao Yao finally couldn't take it anymore and began grumbling at Ning Yuan. If it weren't her turn to come out today, she wouldn't have come out for anything; it was simply too tedious.

She really couldn't understand why he had such patience and even seemed to enjoy it, even though he had hardly caught any fish.

"Fishing requires a calm heart... Hmm? A boat is coming. It's been so long, but we've finally encountered a living person!"

Ning Yuan was just about to explain the joy of fishing to her when he suddenly noticed a black dot appearing not far ahead, sailing toward them. Looking closely, it was indeed a ship!