Eternal Life Begins with Learning

Chapter 379: Chapter 349: An Island Named Chixia

Days passed one by one. In these foreign lands, Chu Mu’s life seemed to have returned to the tranquility he had once known in Jade Emperor Valley.

He cultivated peacefully every day. After a certain period, he would consume a Spirit Milk Pill. Once its medicinal power was fully refined, he would return to his quiet cultivation for another stretch of time.

Aside from his Cultivation, he spent all his remaining time in this remote little Marketplace.

As the saying goes, one can see the whole picture from the smallest details. Although the Celestial River Marketplace wasn’t large and didn’t have many Cultivators, it offered a glimpse into the intricacies of the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World, which was nominally part of Great Chu.

If not for the fact that the Southern Border truly bordered Great Chu, separated only by a river, he would have found it hard to believe that this land and Great Chu were part of the same whole.

Every aspect of the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World was completely different from the Great Chu Cultivation Immortal World.

Separated by a single river, they might as well have been two different worlds.

The Cultivation system was fundamentally different, and by extension, so were all the related products that had evolved around it.

And what had evolved from all these differences was a world that was almost... brutal.

In the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World, a secular world in the true sense of the word no longer existed.

His initial guess had been proven completely right by the Celestial River Marketplace alone!

Time ticked by, and his methodical Cultivation continued without interruption.

He was like an entity detached from the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World, cultivating alone and silently observing everything about this self-contained Cultivation Immortal Realm.

In the blink of an eye, nearly three years had passed.

Inside his room, Chu Mu sat cross-legged, surrounded by empty Jade Bottles. Wangcai lay sprawled in a corner. Fed with the Demon Beast flesh Chu Mu occasionally bought, its aura had clearly grown stronger. Although it was still far from the Tier Two Late Stage, reaching it was no longer a completely hopeless prospect.

"Hooo..."

Chu Mu exhaled a breath of stale air. Looking at the empty Jade Bottles before him, he couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh.

Even though he had been restraining his consumption of the Spirit Milk Pills, three years of closed-door Cultivation had completely depleted his supply. Not a single one was left.

As for his Cultivation...

He sensed his own state for a moment, then glanced at the cultivation progress displayed on his Light Curtain Panel.

His Body Refining Cultivation had long been solidified at the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment. Aided by the Spiritual Milk Body Refining Pills, he had taken a firm step toward the Perfection stage of Body Refining and Foundation Establishment.

As for his Qi Cultivation, judging from the Skill Level progress shown on the Light Curtain Panel, he was more than halfway there, with only the final stretch remaining.

It might not seem like much, but without enough resources to support him, this seemingly small amount of progress could hold him back for a very, very long time.

This was especially true as his Cultivation of the Void Nether Saber Scripture deepened. The more profound his understanding of Sword Intent became, the more thoroughly his Essence, Qi, and Spirit were tempered.

Although the tempering and purification of his Essence, Qi, and Spirit meant an increase in his Magical Power, physical body, and Divine Sense, it also meant that reaching the Perfection stage within the same realm would be much, much more difficult for him.

As it stood, the sheer density of his Essence, Qi, and Spirit surpassed that of an ordinary Cultivator at the same level by more than fifty percent!

’There are always gains and losses...’

Chu Mu shook his head. Regardless, his supply of elixirs for supporting his Cultivation was now completely depleted.

There was clearly no point in continuing this period of seclusion.

The next step was to come out of seclusion, officially step into the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World, and gather the resources and knowledge he needed for his Cultivation.

He waved his hand, and the map of the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World was once again in his grasp. Its projection reappeared, a lifelike model of mountains and rivers.

Over the past three years, even while in closed-door Cultivation, just being in the Celestial River Marketplace and picking up on daily happenings had been enough to give him a clear understanding of the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World.

Chu Mu even felt that the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World perhaps couldn’t be considered a ’Cultivation Immortal Realm’ at all. ’Should it be called a Demon Cultivation Realm instead?’

Human concepts and values seemed to be almost nonexistent in the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World.

There was only the law of the jungle, where the strong, like Demon Beasts, were revered.

This seemed to be true even within the Marketplace.

Even though he had been in long-term seclusion and only occasionally entered the Marketplace to gather information, he had witnessed brawls break out on more than one occasion.

Under the negative influence of the Demon Beast Bloodlines, it seemed the whole world was full of psychopaths...

A single disagreement, or even a wrong look, could lead to a life-or-death battle...

The Marketplace had a ruling order, but... that order itself was composed of Bloodline Cultivators...

Walking to the window, Chu Mu gazed at the street outside. Though it was late at night, the Marketplace was still ablaze with brilliant lights, and quite a few Cultivators still milled about on the streets.

The Celestial River Marketplace was adjacent to the Chu River. The vast river teemed with Demon Beasts, and most of the Cultivators in the marketplace used it as a base for hunting them.

The No-fly Array Prohibition outside the Marketplace was also in place for this reason—to prevent being caught off guard by surprise attacks from Demon Beasts.

And from his observations, most Low Tier Bloodline Cultivators had no way to completely counteract the negative corrosive effects of their Demon Beast Bloodlines.

They could only rely on Calming and Focusing Elixirs to suppress the negative effects of their bloodlines.

As for whether there were any Secret Techniques that could completely eliminate the negative effects of a Demon Beast Bloodline, although he had never seen any, he had no doubt that such techniques existed.

After all, take the Vast Sea Chen Family, for example. Their lineage had been passed down for tens of thousands of years. If they couldn’t avoid the negative erosion from their bloodline, the tyrannical and lustful nature of the Flood Dragon would have surely caused their lineage to die out long ago. It would be impossible for them to have survived to this day, let alone maintain their stable rule over the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World.

However, while such techniques might exist, they were clearly only accessible to a very small minority.

As his thoughts churned, he looked down at the map in his hand again. His gaze settled on an island in the coastal region at the bottom of the map.

The island was named Chixia. Compared to the surrounding islands that were scattered about like stars, it was quite massive.

Chixia Island was located in the Vast Sea, about a hundred thousand miles from the mainland. That wasn’t considered too far, but judging from the distribution of islands on the map, it was undoubtedly the core of the near-shore sea.

It was also one of the few overseas territories directly administered by the Chen Family.

From what he had gathered, Chixia Island was situated in the near-shore sea and was equipped with numerous Teleportation Arrays. It was also the core of the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World’s Flying Boat transportation system, radiating out across the near-shore sea and connecting the Outer Sea with the mainland.

It could be described as the central hub of the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World.

A place like this perfectly suited all his needs for this trip to the Vast Sea.

He pondered for a moment, roughly measuring the distance using the map’s scale. As he came to a rough answer, a thought seemed to strike him, and he let out a slight, inexplicable smile.

This map of his only recorded the mainland of the Vast Sea and a portion of the near-shore islands, yet the territory it covered was probably half the size of the entire Great Chu.

If he were to include the Outer Sea, which wasn’t even recorded on the map, then the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World—a region that seemed like just a quiet corner of Great Chu’s territory—was probably no smaller than Great Chu itself. In fact, it might even be vaster.

It was no wonder that colossal powers like the Righteous Alliance and the Longevity Sect were so wary of the Vast Sea Chen Family. The Chen Family had reigned supreme over this immense territory for tens of thousands of years.

After the incident at Jingmen, the Longevity Sect’s momentum had been soaring. But with the Vast Sea’s latest vacillation, even after many years, he knew that the once-raging war had fallen into a strange stalemate for quite some time.

Although minor skirmishes were constant, in all the years that had passed, there had never been another war as grand and tragic as the initial Battle of Jingmen.

Clearly, both the Righteous Alliance and the Longevity Sect had become vigilant against the Vast Sea Chen Family. They feared the Chen Family would strike while they were down, or worse, swoop in at the end to reap all the benefits.

But due to the deep-seated conflict between the two sides, the war was difficult to end, resulting in this protracted stalemate.

’Or maybe this is all just a facade?’

The sudden thought occurred to Chu Mu, but he immediately shook his head, banishing such ideas.

No matter how the situation in the Cultivation Immortal Realm evolved—who won, who lost, who prospered, who fell—for him, it would only bring trouble, not benefits.

His thoughts shifting, he walked out of his room. After going to the rental office to return the lease, Chu Mu didn’t linger in the Marketplace any longer.

He headed straight out of the Marketplace. A Flying Boat materialized, and leading Wangcai, he leaped aboard.

The Flying Boat ignored the No-fly Array Prohibition and shot into the sky, soaring through the clouds. In just a dozen breaths, it had left the area covered by the no-fly restriction and was heading toward the Vast Sea.

On the Flying Boat, Chu Mu leaned back in the cabin as usual. He seemed to have long grown accustomed to this drifting, unsettled life.

With a wave of his hand, a pile of Jade Scrolls and books he had purchased from the Celestial River Marketplace landed on the table.

He casually picked up a Jade Scroll and probed it with his Divine Sense. A text on basic Alchemy Skill appeared before him.

The Alchemy System, which centered around Demon Beasts, didn’t differ much in its overall framework from the Alchemy Skill of the Great Chu Inland. However, the foundation of alchemy was to ’know the subject and know the ingredients.’

And his knowledge was based on the system of Spirit Medicines, not one where Demon Beast parts were the primary ingredients.

Spirit Medicines were numerous and varied, and so too were Demon Beasts.

While he wouldn’t be starting completely from scratch, mastering this Alchemy System based on Demon Beast materials would certainly require a period of dedicated study.

He needed both the knowledge and the experience.

Chu Mu immersed himself in a sea of books, and the "Spiritual Radiance Blessing" descended upon him.

The Flying Boat continued to weave through the sea of clouds, its speed not particularly fast.

Although his final destination was the distant Chixia Island in the Outer Sea, there were countless Cultivation Immortal Marketplaces, both large and small, along the way. There would always be times to stop...

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