396: First deep-sea exploration

Dragon Seeking City stands on the coastline, towering high, with outer walls reaching three hundred meters, sufficient to withstand most ocean waves.

The city walls are equipped with a fifth-grade Formation, built by Formation Dao Players, not yet complete, but already capable of assisting low-grade Cultivators in resisting fifth-grade sea beasts.

This is the players' base camp and starting point for their East Sea exploration.

On this day, the sky was clear and bright, with not a cloud in sight.

Dragon Seeking City's gates were wide open, and the Formation created an opening. The first collective exploration force consisted of over a hundred thousand players, with the lowest grade being Mortal Foundation Cultivator.

Powerful Golden Core Cultivators like Ye Chun and Wang Long served as the vanguard, always maintaining the forefront of the force.

Other slightly less powerful Golden Core Cultivators were interspersed throughout the force to protect other exploring players.

The mission objective was clear: to bring as many Cultivators as possible to the far sea, then for each to disperse using their own methods, all enabling live broadcasts, and striving to gather intelligence.

"Everyone!"

Ye Chun stood at the front of the team, scanning the group.

As a former professional player and captain, Ye Chun was not a lone wolf player; he possessed a certain level of command ability.

However, asking him to lead a massive team of over a hundred thousand people was still somewhat beyond his scope.

Fortunately, beside him was Wen Xinghai, a Golden Core Player from Red Rain Pavilion, specifically responsible for this exploration.

Wen Xinghai was shrouded in a circle of eerie green miasma, exuding an aura that warned others to keep their distance.

His Cultivation Dao Lineage seemed related to the Southern Mountains, completely different from other players, but ultimately, it was the Immortal Foundation Golden Core Path, forming a seventh-grade colored Golden Core.

His combat power was considerable, his methods bizarre, and most importantly, he had a habit of commanding, which earned him the respect of the crowd.

He gazed at the sea and spoke:

"Since the version update, the entire map has opened up, and many players have explored in all directions, attempting to find Opportunities.

"However, the north is blocked by the Qingling Sect and the Yuyao Kingdom, making it impossible to find Opportunities. We can only wait for the Yuyao Kingdom to pass down their Dao Lineage, and no one knows if there are traps within.

"The south is the same; it seems simple and easy, seemingly with many hidden places passed down from the old era, but in reality, the Demonic Sects in the south have been operating for countless years, leaving only scraps for us players.

"The Western Great Desert is vast, with no teleportation arrays in the middle; merely crossing it requires extremely high cultivation. And in the civilized cities further west, Yan Xiao caused trouble for quite some time. The Secret Realms and treasures that we players painstakingly found were all taken away, leaving only a pile of trash."

As Wen Xinghai spoke, he swept his Spiritual Sense over the expressions of the players.

Sure enough, many players' expressions changed.

At first, they were indifferent, but then they became somewhat gritting their teeth.

Wen Xinghai continued:

"It can be said that after the new version opened, our players' outward exploration has been a failure, not having obtained any decisive Dao Lineage Legacy.

"The only thing that could be considered a gain is the Yao Race's Body Tempering Method outside the northern wall, but wanting to cooperate with the Yao Race outside the wall also carries the risk of antagonizing the Yuyao Kingdom, a true dilemma.

"All this time, our players' exploration can truly be described as a failure, useless, and a waste of time.

"Therefore, today, we gather here to march towards the East Sea, to raise the first great banner of our players' exploration, and let everyone witness what it means for Opportunity and risk to coexist!"

Wen Xinghai stretched out his palm, pointing towards the East Sea:

"There are sea beasts there; fifth-grade sea beasts are not uncommon, and there might even be intelligent Yao Race members.

"This is a risk; it could very well lead to our team's annihilation.

"We might even encounter fourth-grade Yao Race members, against whom we would be completely powerless.

"However, this is also an Opportunity.

"Legend says there are Dragons in the East Sea, whether True Dragons, Dragon Descendants, or Great Flood Dragons. If we can hunt even one, that would be an unprecedented Dao path, allowing everyone to Ascend on the spot.

"Even if we ultimately cannot find Dragons, the boundless sea offers infinite spiritual energy, and Heaven And Earth Treasure are inexhaustible.

"I hereby declare that in this exploration mission, whatever treasures anyone obtains will belong entirely to that individual!

"Only intelligence needs to be shared!

"Alright, enough idle talk, now everyone listen to my command—

"Attack!"

After all, they were all players, and after listening for a bit, they wanted to find the skip button.

Wen Xinghai also didn't bother with further pleasantries and directly explained the loot distribution model.

The key to this mission was intelligence gathering, so everyone needed to enable live streaming and share the intelligence obtained with their Spiritual Sense.

Other spoils of war, even fifth-grade or fourth-grade treasures, would all follow the "personal loot" rule, meaning whoever acquired it first would own the treasure.

Undoubtedly, this directly ignited the enthusiasm of all players.

With Wen Xinghai's command.

The massive force of over a hundred thousand people immediately set off.

To conserve stamina, everyone traveled east on flying boats, not flying freely.

Wen Xinghai positioned himself in the middle of the Formation, releasing his Spiritual Sense to carefully observe all directions, ready to command at any moment.

Ye Chun and Wang Long acted as vanguards, one on the left and one on the right.

Soon, the team passed over the shallow sea without encountering any danger.

Then the team entered the near-sea region.

The waves gradually became somewhat violent, and the occasional small islands and reefs seen were desolate, devoid of human habitation or spiritual energy.

Wen Xinghai's expression turned somewhat serious.

A swirl of miasma surged around him, and his water-patterned long sleeves also turned emerald green, as wisps of light green Qi mist surged eastward.

Through the rapid spread of this miasma, Wen Xinghai's Spiritual Sense intensity increased, allowing him to more precisely probe the situation ahead.

"Be careful, thirty li to the northeast, a group of sea beasts has appeared, led by... a fifth-grade one!"

A pale blue giant shark, its dorsal fin exposed, led a group of sharks to attack the team.

Their speed was incredibly fast, continuously stirring up the surrounding seawater, ultimately forming an overwhelming tsunami that surged diagonally towards the fleet of flying boats.

Boom!

A loud explosion.

The diagonally upward waves were actually evaporated by the intense flames. The leading giant shark's expression turned cold as it leaped into the air, soaring upwards, continuing its ascent.

Wang Long, holding a fiery red long spear, snorted coldly. His Fire Dao Cultivation Technique circulated at full power, letting out a roaring blaze, and he became entangled in battle with this fifth-grade sea beast.

"Be careful, a hundred li to the southeast, a giant turtle is approaching here, also fifth-grade!"

The giant turtle, carrying an island on its back, stepped along the continental shelf, moving step by step towards the fleet of flying boats.

Water droplets emerged from its huge nostrils, pointing straight up, while its mouth sucked in seawater downwards, launching a fierce attack on the flying boats.

This time, Ye Chun stepped forward to meet the challenge, immediately engaging in battle.

Wen Xinghai looked at the two fiercely battling directions, his brows furrowed.

These two fifth-grade sea beasts were clearly actively attacking them.

Considering the range, it couldn't just be about defending their territory (because there were two sea beasts).

In other words... "As expected, there are Yao Race members preventing us from going deeper, aren't there?"