Chapter 620 - 341: Soul Loss Syndrome

"Hm?" Lü Zhong’s gaze sharpened.

A familiar figure surfaced on the murky, churning sea.

Though her body was now a mangled mess, he recognized her at once: Zhao Lin, the Immortal Sect cultivator he had met once before in the East Sea.

What confused Lü Zhong was that she was now completely devoid of life.

’Strange... It was just a massive explosion...’

The explosion had been powerful, comparable to the self-detonation of a Golden Core. But for a Nascent Soul Cultivator, it should have only resulted in heavy injuries at worst—unless they were caught completely off guard.

After securing the Storage Ring from the corpse, Lü Zhong unleashed his Divine Sense without reservation.

It blanketed the surrounding sea for over twenty li.

Soon, he found two more Nascent Soul corpses, both at the Mid-stage. Also aboard the ship had been over a hundred cultivators at Core Formation and hundreds more at Foundation Establishment.

This discovery confirmed Lü Zhong’s earlier suspicions.

From what he knew, resources were limited among the Central Earth Sects. Consequently, high-level cultivation positions were strictly limited, with one person per post.

Cultivators further down the ladder could only advance if someone above them broke through to the next realm, perished, or grew too old for their rank, thereby vacating the spot.

The mighty Gui Miao Immortal Sect, despite ruling over the vast Southern Sect Land of Central Earth, only supported twelve Mid-stage Nascent Soul Cultivators.

Above them were three Great Cultivator positions.

As for a Divinity Transformation Grand Venerable...

Even by pooling all its resources, the entire Immortal Sect could only support one.

For the Gui Miao Immortal Sect to dispatch three Mid-stage Nascent Soul Cultivators and a Mountain Shaking Ship all at once... it was obvious their intentions were hostile.

What on earth had happened?

To find the answer, Lü Zhong began to retrace the events.

...

In his vision of the past, Lü Zhong saw that Zhao Lin and her two companions, along with the sect cultivators under their command, were all injured to varying degrees. The Mountain Shaking Ship they traveled on also showed significant damage.

Clearly, the sect cultivators had been through a major battle on their journey.

’What threat could they have possibly encountered to injure three Mid-stage Nascent Soul Cultivators and severely damage a Mountain Shaking Ship?’ Lü Zhong couldn’t imagine what had led to this. He moved to the ship’s navigation room, where its log was kept.

As he reviewed the log, he flipped to a certain page, and his expression immediately turned grave.

There were only a few short lines, but they indirectly revealed the purpose of Zhao Lin’s mission. The entry read: "Support Qing Yaozi, rebuild Changchun Valley, and stabilize the situation." Although the log never mentioned Bihai Sect by name, if Changchun Valley were truly rebuilt, the fate of the Bihai Sect would be self-evident.

’Qing Yaozi...’ Lü Zhong committed the name to memory.

He had been tied up healing Yu Feng’Er and hadn’t been able to get away.

To think that Qing Yaozi had not only secretly achieved Nascent Soul Formation but had also gained the support of the Gui Miao Immortal Sect, and now even dared to rebuild Changchun Valley.

’This man must not be allowed to live!’

Lü Zhong decided he would hunt the man down and kill him as soon as he had the time.

But for now, there were more pressing matters at hand.

He continued flipping through the log and soon found what he was looking for. The incident had occurred three days ago. Based on calculations from the nautical chart, they had been five hundred and fifty thousand li from Bihai Immortal City.

That area was far from the East Sea, part of a maritime region called the Lii Sea, located in the middle of the East Sea Route.

The Lii Sea region had always been the zone with the most frequent Sea Beast attacks. Seven or eight out of every ten ships that sank along the East Sea Route went down there.

When the incident occurred, the party from the Immortal Sect was already deep in the heart of the Lii Sea.

He read on, and the log detailed what they had encountered.

’They encountered a Demon Cultivator!’

Lü Zhong was stunned.

The log described a Demon Cultivator in golden robes. Zhao Lin had noted his power level as "suspected Half-Step Divinity Transformation." He called himself the "Lii Sea Great Saint" and had attacked the Immortal Sect’s Flying Ship the moment he appeared.

As a result, Zhao Lin and her two companions had no choice but to fight him together. After dozens of rounds, he heavily wounded them one by one. They only barely escaped the astonishingly powerful Demon Cultivator by using a Tier Five Spirit Talisman granted by the Luoying Grand Venerable, and even then, it came at the cost of severely damaging the Mountain Shaking Ship.

"Half-Step Divinity Transformation... that’s a being even stronger than a Great Cultivator," Lü Zhong murmured.

In his recent vision, he had seen that the explosion was caused by the detonation of the Mountain Shaking Ship’s Spirit Pool. Prying deeper into the past, he found that a strand of golden Demon Power had appeared within it.

It was this strand of Demon Power that had triggered the massive explosion.

Zhao Lin and the others had celebrated their escape from a Half-step Divinity Transformation, never knowing they had been perfectly trapped. A sudden, massive explosion had buried the three heavily injured Nascent Soul cultivators, along with the more than one thousand high and low-level cultivators aboard the ship.

At this point, the truth of the matter had come to light.

But one thing still puzzled Lü Zhong: Why would a Demon Cultivator suddenly attack the Immortal Sect’s Flying Ship? And a Half-Step Divinity Transformation Demon Cultivator, no less.

Furthermore, why did he appear in the Lii Sea?

And why call himself the "Lii Sea Great Saint"?

’In any case, that Demon Cultivator’s inexplicable attack saved me from a disaster,’ Lü Zhong thought. ’Otherwise, once those sect cultivators reached the Southern Barbarian lands, my own life might not have been in danger thanks to my Mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivation, but the Bihai Sect I built with my own two hands would have been stolen away by others.’

Even if he managed to reclaim it later, it would have already been picked clean.

As he was lost in thought, the Bihai Ship arrived.

The hatches on both sides opened, and a large contingent of Bihai Sect disciples filed out. Leading them was the Bihai Sect Leader, Su Caocao. Her gaze fell upon the sea, which was strewn with floating corpses.