Eternal Life Begins with Learning

Chapter 385: Chapter 355: Deeper into the Outer Sea

「Several days later.」

From the harbor of Crescent Island, an unadorned Flying Boat soared into the sky.

Chu Mu stood at the bow, his Divine Sense spreading out to observe everything around him, leaving almost no blind spots.

It was the same Flying Boat as before, but with a few differences.

During his two years of Artifact Refining in Chixia City, he had made significant modifications to the Flying Boat, adapting it for the environment of the Vast Sea Territory.

These modifications mainly focused on the Flying Boat’s Concealment.

Previously, the boat’s Concealment relied on the Concealing Array Prohibitions carved onto it. While effective, it could hardly escape a determined scan.

Besides, he had been in the Great Chu Cultivation Immortal World before, not the Sea of Demonic Beasts he was now heading to. The dangers of the two locations were on entirely different levels.

For this modification, he had reforged the hull, integrating the Tier Two Upper Grade Wind Attribute, along with various rare Wind Attribute Spiritual Objects, and supplemented them with all kinds of Concealing Array Prohibition Runes.

With these changes, the Flying Boat could practically merge with the wind, becoming one with it. Its Concealment was vastly improved.

Furthermore, due to the special properties of the Wind Attribute, the Flying Boat’s speed had also increased by a large margin.

As the Flying Boat traversed the sky, it had only just reached its apex when the conspicuous vessel flickered a few times and dissolved into the wind, vanishing from sight.

If a Cultivator were to scan the area now, unless they were proficient with Wind Attribute powers or had a Cultivation level far exceeding Chu Mu’s, they would likely find it impossible to detect the Flying Boat’s presence.

The Flying Boat traveled leisurely, its pace unhurried. Compared to its top speed, its current velocity could even be considered slow.

Upon first arriving in this Outer Sea, a veritable Demon Beast territory, he was more vigilant than ever, even though he was still on the fringes of Crescent Island, a relatively safe zone.

’After all, humans have motivations that can be understood.’

’Demon Beasts, on the other hand, act purely on instinct!’

’In this Sea of Demonic Beasts, I can never be too careful!’

Chu Mu held the Jade Scroll Sea Map, his vigilance unwavering as he observed the surrounding sea.

Although the Vast Sea was teeming with Demon Beasts, it was obvious that Tier Two Demon Beasts weren’t exactly a dime a dozen.

Basically, every Tier Two Demon Beast had its own fixed territory.

This territory was either an island or a specific area of the sea.

According to the Demon Beast Atlas, the size of a Demon Beast’s territory depended on its Cultivation and species.

Some Demon Beasts preferred to live in groups, so their "territory" was more of a clan’s domain.

Others were solitary, in which case their "territory" was often little more than the beast’s own lair.

These solitary Demon Beasts were easy to identify, as there were generally no other Demon Beasts within their territory.

Moreover, a solitary Demon Beast with no others in its territory was obviously the easiest type to hunt.

At the very least, he wouldn’t have to worry about stirring up a hornet’s nest.

The Flying Boat continued forward at a steady pace, without pausing or changing direction.

The Sea Chart was very clear: for thousands of miles around Crescent Island, there were still several islands that served as gathering places for Cultivators.

It was obvious he wouldn’t find much of value in a sea region like this.

Moving with extreme caution, it still took him several days to cross the thousands of miles of this sea region.

Beyond this point, the Sea Chart was a blank slate. All the charts that could be bought on the market ended here.

And now, this boundless expanse of sea stretched out before Chu Mu’s eyes.

He briefly sensed the stack of Storage Talismans he carried, and after a moment of thought, the Flying Boat moved forward once more.

Chu Mu remained extremely vigilant and cautious. The Flying Boat advanced slowly, occasionally hovering in the sky. The Jade Scroll in his hand that had recorded the sea map was now replaced with a blank one, on which he recorded the details of the sea regions he passed through.

Although the sea surface was calm, it was clear that Demon Beasts were lurking in the depths below.

On the Flying Boat, Chu Mu waved his hand, and a dozen or so small, Hunting Falcon-shaped Puppets materialized before him.

Like the old Bamboo Dragonfly Puppets, the main purpose of these Hunting Falcon Puppets was reconnaissance.

However, the design of these Hunting Falcon Puppets was better suited for the Vast Sea environment.

Named for the Hunting Falcon, their speed was naturally astonishing.

Through a sacrificial burst, these Hunting Falcon Puppets could, for a short time, achieve a top speed that was in no way inferior to his Flying Boat.

Such speed, combined with the falcon’s small size and reconnaissance abilities, made them a formidable asset for him in this land teeming with Demon Beasts!

And he had refined over a dozen of these Hunting Falcon Puppets.

With a mere thought, several Hunting Falcon Puppets shot out, hovered briefly in the sky, and then plunged into the sea like cannonballs, vanishing in an instant.

At the same time, several projections appeared on a circular disk in Chu Mu’s hands. Each projection displayed the reconnaissance feed from one of the Hunting Falcons.

After numerous improvements, the transmission of this reconnaissance feed, relayed between the Hunting Falcons, had a range that far exceeded the maximum coverage of his Divine Sense, reaching a distance of nearly thirty miles!

In other words, as long as he had enough Hunting Falcon Puppets, everything within a thirty-mile radius was under his surveillance. Although it couldn’t reveal every minute detail like his Divine Sense, any slight disturbance would inevitably trigger the perception system he had specifically designed for the puppets.

At this moment, on the projection screen before him, images flickered like flowing water. In the deep seawater, constant alerts flashed as Demon Beast sea fish of all shapes and sizes were highlighted and displayed on the projection.

However, judging by the cultivation auras recorded by the Hunting Falcons, these Demon Beasts were all the weakest of their kind, occupying the very bottom of the Vast Sea’s food chain.

Strictly speaking, these sea fish couldn’t even be considered true Demon Beasts; they were roughly equivalent to mortals with Qi and Blood Cultivation.

In the Bohai Sea Cultivation Immortal World, the purpose of such Demon Beasts was similar to the mortals raised in Beast City—they were merely raw materials for Qi and Blood Pills and had little other value.

With a thought from Chu Mu, a Hunting Falcon Puppet that had been observing from concealment suddenly accelerated. Its sharp body, combined with the abrupt burst of speed, pierced through a sea fish’s head in the blink of an eye.

The moment blood stained the seawater, an invisible hand seemed to descend from the sky, and in the next second, the fish’s corpse was hovering before Chu Mu.

"Silver Thread Fish..."

With a single glance, the corresponding Demon Beast species from the Demon Beast Atlas surfaced in his mind.

The sea fish was called a Silver Thread Fish. After entering Tier One, its body would grow rapidly, from its current length of over two meters to several meters long.

The Silver Line along its spine would then transform into protruding Silver Thorns. When facing an enemy, it could fire these Silver Thorns from its body to attack.

Thus, it was also often called the Silver Thorn Fish.

Once it metamorphosed into a Silver Thorn Fish, the most useful parts of its entire body were the Silver Thorns growing from its spine.

The Silver Thorns were hard and sharp. Even those grown by a mere Tier One Lower Grade Silver Thorn Fish were comparable to many Tier One Middle Grade Spiritual Materials.

They were widely used in the field of Artifact Refining within the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World.

Furthermore, these Silver Thorns were highly poisonous and were often used in poison-refining.

Therefore, in the coastal seas, these fish were often raised on a large scale. Once their Silver Thorns matured, they would be induced to fire them off, then be raised again until the thorns regrew. This cycle would repeat until the fish died, at which point it would be skinned and deboned, or refined into Qi and Blood Pills for sale.

However, the fish’s potential was limited. According to the Demon Beast Atlas, its bloodline limit was merely Tier One Late Stage.

In other words, at its absolute peak, a Silver Thorn Fish could only reach the strength of the Tier One Late Stage.

After observing it for a while and gaining a more direct understanding of the fish, Chu Mu flicked his hand, tossing the corpse aside. Wangcai seemed to have been waiting for this moment.

With a single leap, it caught the fish corpse in its mouth. Amidst the sounds of chewing, blood and gore splattered across the deck, staining it red.

Chu Mu shot it a glance and chided it with a laugh. Wangcai immediately ducked its head, stuck out its tongue, and licked the bloodstains off the deck in a few swipes. It then looked up at Chu Mu, wagging its tail and seeking praise, looking for all the world like a silly dog.

Seeing this, Chu Mu couldn’t help but smile. The feeling of loneliness in the deep sea seemed to dissipate quite a bit.

The Flying Boat continued on its way. Whether it was bad luck or something else, for the next several dozen days, the boat roamed over thousands of miles of sea, yet he found nothing of value.

He would either detect a Demon Beast’s presence, only to find after some reconnaissance that it was part of a large pack. Eager as he was, he could only retreat dejectedly when faced with dozens or even hundreds of Demon Beasts.

Or, he would find some Low Tier Demon Beasts, which he couldn’t even be bothered to deal with himself. He would simply order Wangcai to charge down from the Flying Boat, kill them, and devour them as "blood food" for its next transformation.

As for the solitary Tier Two Demon Beasts that the Demon Beast Atlas mentioned in abundance, he hadn’t found the slightest trace of one in all these days.

However, while he hadn’t seen any suitable Demon Beasts, he had seen quite a few Cultivators hunting Demons in this Outer Sea.

But the Flying Boat’s Concealment was exceptionally effective, and it was further enhanced by the surveillance system built from the Hunting Falcon Puppets, which covered a thirty-mile radius.

Every so-called encounter with other Cultivators was basically an advanced warning from this surveillance system.

To avoid potential trouble, he always steered clear from a great distance whenever he detected the presence of other Cultivators.

However, these repeated encounters with Vast Sea Cultivators also seemed to reveal a certain truth to Chu Mu.

The unknown sea region he had considered to be fraught with danger was, for other Vast Sea Cultivators, likely a familiar area that had been swept clean countless times.

’If I want to hunt a suitable Demon Beast, I’ll have to go deeper into the Outer Sea, toward even more distant, unknown waters...’

「...」

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