Chapter 438 - 412: Luoxia Port

Chapter 438: Chapter 412: Luoxia Port

In truth, not much preparation was necessary.

It took a day to cross the towering mountain range.

The mountain range’s altitude was extremely high, its peaks perpetually covered in snow. The air was so thin that even the circulation of his Spiritual Power was slightly affected. Li Yuan used the Earth Escape Technique to travel through the mountain’s interior, avoiding the harsh environment on the surface. However, the density of the rock layers in the core of the range was extreme, slowing his Earth Escape Technique to just thirty percent of its normal speed.

After crossing the mountain range, he arrived at the Spiritless District, just as expected.

The earth under his feet was like a desiccated corpse, drained of all blood. The concentration of Spiritual Qi plummeted to a negligible level, and a dry, bitter scent permeated the air. Vegetation was exceedingly sparse; the occasional shrubs were a half-dead, grayish-brown, their leaves withered and curled.

Li Yuan felt the change distinctly. The natural flow of Spiritual Power in his meridians slowed to less than ten percent of its rate in a normal environment, and absorbing Spiritual Qi from the outside world to replenish his Dantian became nearly impossible.

However, the purple trait related to his Spirit Vein continued to function steadily. Its passive effect, which automatically restored Spiritual Power, didn’t rely on the external concentration of Spiritual Qi. Instead, it drew from the energy cycle of the Golden Core itself, remaining effective even in the Spiritless District. While the recovery rate was much slower than in a normal environment, it was enough to cover basic Spiritual Power expenditure.

「Traversing the Spiritless District took three days.」

On the morning of the fourth day, the concentration of Spiritual Qi in the air began to rise.

The increase wasn’t uniform. Instead, the Spiritual Qi seemed to seep up from the ground to the east, carrying a damp, salty tang. Its attribute leaned toward the Water Element, and its texture was starkly different from the Spiritual Qi commonly found in Liangzhou and Jingzhou.

He had reached the periphery of an undersea Spirit Vein.

After another half day’s walk, Li Yuan stood on a ridge, the view before him suddenly opening wide.

The sea.

The gray-blue surface of the sea stretched to the horizon in the morning light, its waves churning. A sea breeze carrying the thick scent of salt rushed to greet him. The coastline snaked from north to south, dotted with several islands of various sizes near the shore. Their lush vegetation stood in sharp contrast to the Spiritless District behind him.

In the bay below the ridge, a port town was nestled against the mountainside.

Luoxia Port.

The port wasn’t large—nowhere near as bustling as White Mirror Market—but it benefited from a compact layout. Docks lined the inner curve of the bay, where over twenty ships of varying sizes were moored. The town’s main street extended from the docks up the hillside, flanked by a dense collection of wooden and stone buildings. All manner of flags and shop signs fluttered from the rooftops.

Li Yuan followed the mountain path down and blended into the port’s bustling crowd.

The docks were lively. Dockhands shuttled back and forth, shouldering wooden crates, while fishermen hawked fresh seafood from their stalls. A few Cultivators in short tunics squatted by the water’s edge, repairing their Magical Artifacts.

Li Yuan’s gaze swept over the ships moored in the port.

Three fleets, each flying a different flag, occupied three separate sections of the docks.

The northernmost fleet flew the Su family’s sky-blue flag. It consisted of three medium-sized merchant ships. Stacks of crates were piled on their decks, and the crew loaded and unloaded cargo in an orderly fashion.

The fleet in the middle flew a dark green flag embroidered with a family crest he didn’t recognize. It was composed of two large cargo ships, both sitting low in the water, obviously laden with heavy freight.

The southernmost fleet flew a grayish-white flag. It had two small, fast cutters with long, narrow hulls—clearly built for long-distance voyages. They had fewer crew than the other two fleets and not much cargo on deck, but every crate was affixed with a seal.

As his gaze passed over the third fleet, Li Yuan’s Dark Evil Insight detected a faint anomaly.

In the holds of the cutters flying the grayish-white flags, the seals on a few crates bore extremely faint traces of a Demonic Qi mark. The marks had been deliberately concealed, masked by an outer layer of a breath-concealing Array Pattern. A normal Cultivator’s Divine Sense would only register them as ordinary seals.

But the precision of Dark Evil Insight was beyond what an ordinary Cultivator could match.

’At the very least, this means the Evil Slaying Sect’s goods, or channels connected to them, have reached the coast.’

’Whether the Evil Slaying Sect established this outpost themselves or are using a local power to move their goods remains to be seen.’

Li Yuan didn’t linger. He retracted his senses and turned toward the Su family’s shop.

The Su family’s storefront in Luoxia Port was a three-story stone building. The first floor served as the shop, the second as a warehouse, and the 3rd Floor held private rooms for esteemed guests. After Li Yuan presented the letter of introduction from Xu Zhang, a clerk led him to the 3rd Floor.

He was greeted by one of the Su family’s stewards, a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator in his forties. With his dark, weathered face and large, coarse hands, he looked like a man who spent his life working with the sea.

"An associate of the Mingyuan Commerce Association?" The steward’s attitude became much warmer after reading the letter. "Steward Xu’s letter says you need Jade Tide Sand and Sea Pearl Powder. Both are part of our regular stock; we have plenty."

"I need five pounds of Jade Tide Sand and three ounces of Sea Pearl Powder. Do you have any that’s freshly gathered?"

"We have Jade Tide Sand in the warehouse, freshly retrieved from the seabed this very morning. Its spirituality is at its peak. The Sea Pearl Powder will take half a day, as it needs to be ground fresh." The steward stood, walked to the window, and called out. An apprentice ran up from downstairs, received his instructions, and went to prepare the items.

"Besides these two, what else does the shop have?" Li Yuan asked casually.

The steward smiled and retrieved a wooden tray from a cabinet, upon which sat five or six small trinkets.

"These are miscellaneous items we’ve dredged up from the seabed recently. Some of them are in decent shape. The local Cultivators don’t pay them much mind, but guests from the inland sometimes take a fancy to a piece or two."

Li Yuan’s gaze swept over the tray.

A few common-quality Water Attribute Spirit Stones, a piece of translucent, sea-blue ore, a rust-spotted short sword, and an oval jade pendant.

The jade pendant was a uniform pale green, its surface covered in fine lines etched by long-term immersion in the sea. The pendant itself was small, about two inches long, and hung from a faded silk cord.

’His ability to perceive traits within a three-foot radius activated.’

Li Yuan picked up the jade pendant.

’A green trait. Increases Divine Sense range in water by fifty percent and improves perception accuracy of Water Spiritual Power by thirty percent.’

"How much for this?"

The steward glanced at it.

"That one? It was salvaged from a shipwreck, no idea how old it is. If you like it, take it for twenty Spirit Stones."

"Deal."

Li Yuan took the jade pendant, and a panel popped up.

[Detected Equippable Item: Tidal Jade Pendant (Intact)]

[Trait Preview: Water Vein Insight (Green)]

[Effect: Increases Divine Sense detection range by 50% in aquatic environments; increases perception accuracy for Water Spiritual Power by 30%]

[Permanence Condition: Meditate for a total of 50 hours at an undersea Spirit Vein node.]

He paid for the Jade Tide Sand, the Sea Pearl Powder, and the Tidal Jade Pendant all at once.

The steward wrote out a receipt, and the apprentice brought up the prepared materials, packed in a box.

Li Yuan placed everything into his storage pouch and left the Su family shop.

After leaving Luoxia Port, he didn’t return the way he came. Instead, he followed the coastline north for about three miles until he reached a secluded bay.

Several uninhabited islets were scattered at the mouth of the bay. The closest one, about a mile from the shore, was small and covered in dense shrubs, looking like a green stone floating on the sea from a distance.

Li Yuan used a Water Escape Technique to skim across the surface of the sea, landing on the islet’s reef.

The islet was indeed deserted. There were no signs of Cultivator activity, nor the aura of any Demon Beasts.

On the southern side of the islet was a cliff face, long eroded by the sea. At its base was an opening half a man’s height, its lower portion submerged in the water. At high tide, it would be completely flooded.

Li Yuan stooped and entered.

The cave was not deep, ending after about a hundred feet. Its walls were covered in grooves carved by the seawater, and the ground was slick with a shallow layer of brine.

The cave ended at a flat rock wall. Carved into it were several patterns, now almost completely corroded by the seawater.

Li Yuan leaned in to get a better look.

’Not natural markings. These are the remnants of man-made Array Patterns.’

’The style is consistent with that of the Profound Nether Sect.’

Half-buried in the pooled water at the base of the rock wall was a bowl-sized copper object. Its surface was covered in verdigris and fragments of seashells, rendering its original shape almost unrecognizable, but he could make out that it was some sort of disc.

Li Yuan squatted, fished the object from the water, and used his Spiritual Power to clear away the debris from its surface.

A Compass.

It had a copper face, about six inches in diameter. The face was engraved with dense directional markings and Array Patterns, and at its center was a needle, rusted in place. A tiny symbol was cast into the Compass’s base, matching the inscription system of the Profound Nether Sect’s arrays.

’A navigational Compass from the era of the Profound Nether Sect.’

His trait perception triggered.

[Detected Equippable Item: Navigational Compass (Intact)]

[Trait Preview: Minor Directional Sense (White)]

[Effect: Slightly improves directional sense; reduces the chance of getting lost in unfamiliar environments.]

[Permanence Condition: Divine Sense reaches the level of Late-stage Qi Refining.]

’A white trait. The condition is already met.’

"Equip."

[Equipped: Navigational Compass (Intact)]

[Minor Directional Sense (White) has become a permanent trait.]

A spectral image of the Compass flashed for a moment in his equipment slot before dissolving into a white mote of light.

The improvement to his sense of direction was a passive effect and required no active trigger. Li Yuan closed his eyes to feel the change. His mental assessment of his own position relative to his geographical surroundings became clearer and sharper, as if he now possessed an infallible internal compass.

After stowing the Compass, Li Yuan extended his Divine Sense deep into the earth beneath the cave.

The perception from his Earth Vein Spiritual Hub penetrated the rock strata at the bottom of the cave. At a depth of about six hundred feet, it touched upon an extremely faint energy signal.

’The after-effects of a seal.’

The signal’s attributes were of the same origin as the seal energy he had sensed at the periphery of the sealed zone in Mozhou, but its intensity was lower by more than an order of magnitude. In Mozhou’s sealed zone, the energy fluctuations could be clearly felt even through hundreds of yards of rock, but here, the remnants were so faint they nearly blended into the background noise of the undersea Spirit Vein.

If not for the combined effects of his Earth Vein Spiritual Hub and his heightened Array Sensing, he would never have detected it.

’The Profound Nether Sect must have set up sealing nodes along the coast back in the day. The scale is far smaller than the one in Mozhou; it was probably just a peripheral branch of the entire sealing system. After centuries of decay, the seal’s primary function has long since failed, leaving only this faint remnant deep within the rock strata.’

Li Yuan committed the precise coordinates to memory.

’Every node in the sealing system could hold valuable information. Even if this node is tiny, there’s no ruling out the possibility that it contains some residual data or clues.’

Li Yuan exited the cave and returned to the islet’s reef.

The sea wind howled. In the distance, scattered lights began to twinkle in Luoxia Port as twilight descended.