Chapter Ninety-Six: The Sea Barrier, I Love You

The Sea of Miasma had long since been spoken of among cultivators as a sea of terror.

They said it stretched for hundreds of thousands of miles, too vast to see its end. Towering ancient trees blotched out the heavens and hid the sun; within the dark forest, mists of miasma swirled thickly, laced with poison, weakening divine sense to less than a tenth of its usual reach. Worst of all, the woods teemed with countless demonic beasts, and no one knew from what corner they might lunge out in the next instant. Thus, without a squad, without careful preparation, no one dared to enter.

For disciples of a sect, such matters were the sect’s responsibility. But loose cultivators had no sect to rely on; they had to depend on themselves for everything. So, in a small mountain valley outside the Sea of Miasma, a modest market town came into being. At first, it was merely a place where loose cultivators formed temporary teams before entering the sea. Later, little by little, many people also brought out their gains from within the Sea of Miasma to trade here. Only then did the place gradually grow lively. By now, not only loose cultivators, but even many low-ranking disciples of sects frequented it.

Feng Ke'er knew very little about the Sea of Miasma, only that it was said to be extremely dangerous. She could hardly blunder in so recklessly. Spiritual medicines and herbs such as ginseng had long been used up, and she still had some monster crystals on her. Perhaps she could exchange them for something useful. Even if she found nothing worth having, it would still be good simply to gather information before going in. With that thought, she used her shapeshifting art to turn herself into an ordinary middle-aged male cultivator and went to have a look.

However, what this place lacked least of all was low-grade monster crystals. Crystals below the second rank were practically worthless here. More than that, the people here were shrewd to the bone. The middle-aged uncle into whom Feng Ke'er had transformed was only at the early Foundation Establishment stage, not young, unremarkable in appearance, the sort of passerby who vanished into a crowd without leaving a ripple. As a result, no one even bothered to strike up a conversation with her, let alone extend an olive branch and invite her to team up. Of course, she had no intention of joining anyone either.

So after wandering around for a long while, Feng Ke'er merely watched plenty of bustle and overheard a good deal of idle chatter and rumor. From this, she gained a preliminary understanding of the legendary Sea of Miasma.

Within the sea, spiritual energy was denser than outside, and the deeper one went, the richer it became. Thus, countless demonized plants and beasts had taken shape there. Likewise, the deeper into the dense forest one went, the fewer the beasts became, but the higher their rank.

By the rank of the monsters, people divided the Sea of Miasma into six layers. The outermost was the sixth layer, extending more than five thousand miles inward. This area was populated mostly by beasts below the second rank. The beasts appeared without end; the fifth layer, extending more than ten thousand miles inward, contained third-rank beasts; the fourth layer, extending more than thirty thousand miles inward, was home to fourth-rank beasts; beasts above the fifth rank were concentrated within the third layer and deeper.

The information Feng Ke'er could obtain grew scarcer and scarcer. She only vaguely learned that these three inner layers covered a wider expanse and that the beasts were sparser still. But it was said that the Sea of Miasma’s greatest treasures were all hidden within the third layer and inward. Especially the first layer. Rumor had it that this was the heart of the Sea of Miasma, where the miasma was thickest and the sun never shone all year round. It was the heart of the Sea of Miasma, and within it dwelled a demon king of vast and unfathomable power.

No one knew how old the demon king was. But he was famous for his love of collecting, and for loving all manner of artifacts, talismans, pills, and formations. Thus, over the years, countless mighty figures above the Void Shattering stage went there under the banner of treasure hunting. Yet fewer than one in ten ever came back alive. Hence, the heart of the Sea of Miasma was also called the Tomb of True Men.

Feng Ke'er had seen a sixth-rank demon cultivator before, so the demon king must surely be even more formidable than that. Her cultivation was limited, and she had entered the Sea of Miasma merely to replenish spiritual energy and grind monsters to level up. The treasure was indeed fine, but only if she had the fate to claim it. She had always been self-aware. With her present strength, it was better to slaughter some low-ranked beasts on the outskirts first.

After leaving the market, Feng Ke'er also made a field survey outside the Sea of Miasma. To her surprise, she discovered that the Sea of Miasma, this demonic domain in the eyes of the world, was in truth nothing more than a vast, boundless tropical primeval forest.

Those mists of miasma were not so frightening either. Feng Ke'er had studied archaeology, and she knew something of the subject. In tropical forests, the air is naturally humid and prone to fog. Add to that the dense jungle, where the decay of dead plants and animals produces poisonous vapors that do not disperse easily, and together these create what people call miasma. At noon, when the sun was strongest, it could barely pierce the layered canopy overhead, and then the miasma would thin. At night, the miasma was at its thickest, but even then it was only as if a white gauze curtain had been hung through the woods.

After cultivating the Clear Wind Spell, Feng Ke'er had become immune to all poisons. So after seeing the poisonous fog in Ten-Thousand-Ants Forest, thick as rice porridge, this little bit of miasma was nothing at all to her.

Still, from her own experience, divine sense was indeed affected. But it was not as terrifying as the rumors claimed. In the sixth layer of the Sea of Miasma, her divine sense was only weakened by half. And among all her combat abilities, her strongest by far was divine sense. Before practicing the third level of the Clear Mind Spell, it had already surpassed that of cultivators of the same rank by hundreds of times. After practicing the third level, her divine sense advanced by leaps and bounds, able to cover several thousand miles in all directions, astonishingly on par with early-stage Ascension cultivators. So even if it was weakened by half, it hardly mattered. Moreover, from her experience, such restrictions imposed by the miasma actually tempered divine sense. For cultivators, the stronger the divine sense, the more efficient everything became. Heh, the Sea of Miasma was a wonderful place to train divine sense. She liked it.

Just then, Feng Ke'er received an alert from Feng Jiu. Compared with being hunted by a Golden Immortal of the divine realm, what were the low-ranked beasts of the sixth layer worth? She had no other choice; with almost no preparation at all, she hurriedly slipped inside.

Facts proved that this was a wise move.

In the nearly five-thousand-mile-wide sixth layer, beasts were the most numerous, of every attribute—metal, wood, water, earth, and fire—and all were below the second rank. Here, Feng Ke'er was king.

However, after staying for a little over a month, she planned to move elsewhere. Although the monsters here were numerous as hairs on an ox and low in rank, with little resistance, making it easy for her to slaughter them as if reaping rice, they did nothing for her advancement. More importantly, what she urgently needed was to fill the twelve hungry dantians in her body. Yet after more than a month of hard work, those dantians were still only half-full at best. More crucially, this was also the most active zone for cultivators. Where there are people, there is conflict. In the cultivation world, the strongest fist decides everything; killing and robbing for treasure was nothing unusual. And she carried too many secrets. So, for safety’s sake, and also for some peace and quiet, she decisively advanced into the fifth layer.

She mixed in the fifth layer for three years. She gained countless spiritual herbs, medicines, beast hides, and crystals. Having learned from experience, whenever she accumulated enough, she would refine pills, draw talismans, and make artifacts. Hard work paid off: not only did her assets swell, but her attainments in pills, talismans, and artifacts also improved by leaps and bounds. Most delightfully of all, the rice cooker had accidentally been refined into a lower-grade treasure artifact. Ha-ha!

During that time, Feng Ke'er successfully advanced two minor stages, bringing her cultivation to the seventh level of Foundation Establishment. The Heaven-Defying Treasury, as usual, turned forward by two pages. There were no new abilities, nor any surprises, because Grand God Pangu, just like her, spent every day doing nothing but grinding monsters.

The small purple bean above the dantian region had grown to the size of a peanut, its color still a pure imperial purple. Yet it shone with brilliant luster, as gorgeous as a gemstone. Feng Ke'er still had no idea what this thing was. Grand Master Tongtian seemed to have vanished without a trace; even when she advanced, he no longer uttered a sound.

But her divine sense had expanded by nearly another fold, and with continual experimentation she gradually learned to control the cold qi released by the purple peanut. It was formidable. Once the cold qi erupted, a radius of more than a hundred miles would instantly become a world of ice and snow. Wherever that cold qi reached, third-rank beasts—no matter their attribute, no matter whether they were in the sky or underground—would all be smashed to pieces and vanish into smoke and ash. Feng Ke'er had always favored group attacks when killing monsters. Exterminating a whole clan was the way of the world, as always neat and clean. She never showed mercy. But this thing consumed far too much spiritual power and qi. Each use required three days for her to recover. What kind of wasteful extravagance was that? After trying it twice, she only simulated its use within the black dantian and no longer brought it out for real combat.

In addition, after every advancement, the six large dantians would split once. By now, within the dantian region, there were a total of twenty-four dantians of various sizes. The newly split smaller dantians were also distributed around the six large ones, and in terms of attributes, they seemed to be trending toward each large dantian splitting out a complete set of five-element small dantians centered upon itself. Looking at Grand Pangu’s cultivation journal, the old god had also experienced dantian splitting, but his divided only into three... So at first Feng Ke'er had been horrified. But as the splitting continued, she discovered that apart from consuming a great deal of spiritual energy, there seemed to be no other ill effects, and so she became accustomed to it. Sigh.

It was just that so many dantians were hard to feed. Feng Ke'er took up her sword and shifted her battlefield to the fourth layer.

Ten years later, Feng Ke'er’s cultivation reached the great completion of Foundation Establishment. Her various combat indices were no longer what they once had been. Full of confidence, she moved on to the third layer, which only True Men at the Void Shattering stage dared to test.

One noon, twenty years later, above the third layer of the Sea of Miasma, spiritual energy surged and rolled, rushing frantically toward a certain point. An hour later, it circled there, gradually solidifying, until under the sun it formed a red cloud more than ten miles in diameter, lingering long without dispersing.

Clouds gathered atop the head in red—this was a heavenly omen that appeared when cultivators condensed their cores. But how could it be so grand in scale? Even condensing an infant soul would not be this exaggerated!

Could some monstrous aberration have appeared?

The True Men cultivating there all put down their work and stretched their necks toward the red cloud.

Boom, boom, boom!

On the horizon, all manner of beasts surged forth like a tide.

“Bad news, a beast tide! A beast tide has erupted!” someone shrieked in warning.

When people looked more closely, their souls nearly flew apart!

What beasts? There were even more half-human, half-beast demon cultivators within!

There was no more curiosity at all. Good heavens, the True Men hurriedly summoned their flying treasures and, like arrows released from a bow, shot out toward the outside of the Sea of Miasma.

...

That’s right: Feng Ke'er was condensing her core.

She had originally thought she would form her core very quickly, but she never imagined that only after the purple-black peanut had turned blue-green, the size of a glass marble, and after all thirty-six dantians, large and small, had grown to the same size and all turned white, could the core finally be condensed.

The crystal core, thirty-six dantians, each one a ravenous glutton devouring spiritual energy. It was fortunate that this was the third layer of the Sea of Miasma. In any other place, it simply could not have supported her!

After the final circulation of reversed spiritual energy, with a pop, the blue-green crystal core split open into thirty-six petals, like a blooming blue lotus. In the blink of an eye, they flew into the thirty-six dantians one after another. Compression, solidification... after a day and a night, the golden core was complete!

And there were thirty-six of them!

They were the size of vinegar bowls, perfectly round, and their color was not the golden hue of legend, but a magnificent, noble purple-gold.

A clear female voice sounded: “Master has advanced, Core Condensation, first level!”

Bang, five-colored auspicious radiance burst from Feng Ke'er’s body.

The auspicious light rippled outward like a shockwave. Wherever it passed, the red clouds vanished, the beast tide vanished, and the mighty figures vanished as well... In an instant, within a thousand-mile radius, all things fell silent. Vital energy surged into her lower abdomen like a tide.

“Master has advanced, Core Condensation, second level!”

The five-colored auspicious radiance of advancement burst out again...

“Master has advanced, Core Condensation, third level!”

...

After wave upon wave of five-colored auspicious radiance spread outward, the clear voice kept crackling on and on. At last it announced: “Master has advanced, Core Condensation, great completion!”

The five-colored auspicious radiance spread over a radius of a hundred thousand miles!

No more vital energy poured into her lower abdomen.

A quarter of an hour later, the auspicious light ceased to burst forth. Deep within the second layer, the demon cultivators on the highest alert finally wiped the cold sweat from their brows. Catastrophe! Within a radius of more than a hundred thousand miles, anything that breathed had been wiped out!

Heavenly Treasury Chronicle, Chapter Ninety-Six: The Sea of Miasma. Update complete!