Chapter 49

The darkness of the night soon settled on the island. Stars appeared and dotted the sky, painting the unknown universe with natural-looking yet mystical constellations. It was an enticing sight to behold.

Jiang Xiaofan had already dragged Ye Yuanxue far away from where Wang Ao and Liu Shi lay. Who cares about them anyway?!

Although the moon above the Sea of the Setting Sun looked tranquil, a mist of red blanketed its view, and gazing at it gave the viewer a feeling of uneasiness. It was on this night that the waves of the sea experienced a great change. They grew into swells, and the wave heights increased.

A small wind blew over and caused a whiz in the air like a child who was crying. Waves continuously slammed onto the coast. Every cultivator on the island all stood up in anticipation of the annual tides on the Sea of the Setting Sun that were to come.

*Boom*

The winds and the waves came stronger than before. All of a sudden, the water rose up in the form of a tidal wave that was at least eight meters in height. Even Jiang Xiaofan was at a loss for words. This is considered a small tide? Oh my gods! This is scary!

He hastily pulled Ye Yuanxue behind him. A tidal wave at this height had the absolute power to destroy anything within its range.

He didn’t understand how an island could withstand an annual turbulent storm like this and remain undamaged. This was abnormal!

The other cultivators held the same suspicion. They were all recently accepted, young disciples from other sects, and this was their first time at the Sea of the Setting Sun. Many of them were shocked at the spectacle of such a massive tidal wave. Once it hits, the island would undoubtedly be washed over!

However, what happened next quickly revealed the answer to their query. Just when the eight-meter-high tide approached the coastline of the island, it could proceed no further as if there was some mysterious force that stopped it. After it had struggled to move on, the tidal wave eventually crashed back into the sea and emitted a loud boom.

Jiang Xiaofan widened his eyes in amazement. Can it be the doing of the legendary Sea God?

The tidal waves continued their assault. Ye Yuanxue was surprised at the ongoing spectacle, and Little One continuously chirped as if it was shocked as well. The majestic scene before them was somewhat of an extraordinary phenomenon.

This show of display lasted for half a day. After the final wave had fallen into the sea, all of the cultivators rode on their rainbows and flew for the sea. They needed to rapidly retrieve the Sea of Heart because of its limited quantity.

Jiang Xiaofan was the only who ran a beeline to the sea. Who am I kidding? With this many people watching, there’s no way in hell that I’ll use the flying sword technique. I’d rather have everyone laugh at me for not knowing how to maneuver the sword than have them laugh at me for looking so unsightly in midair.

“Ai ya! Perverted Wolf, hurry up!” Ye Yuanxue shouted at him from above.

As a result, Jiang Xiaofan couldn’t help but make haste. At such a far distance from his destination, he began to channel his Shadow Steps. Like a bolt of lightning, he dashed for the water. Without time to slow down, he plunged headfirst and dived in search of the object.

He, however, immediately began to regret his rash action. Damn! This water looks deeper than I thought! I can’t even see the bottom of it. How come it looked so shallow at first? Come on, it’s only two meters from the surface to the bottom! With increased effort, he dived deeper and clawed at the black, smelly mud on the seafloor.

Forget it! Calm down! He resurfaced for air before sweeping the surrounding area with his spiritual awareness for the Sea of Heart. To his dismay, he searched for a long time but found nothing close in appearance to it. He even doubted himself, so he took out a portrait of the Sea of Heart and surveyed it a few times.

Most of the cultivators were gathered in this particular zone of the sea. Hours later, one person asked another, “Fellow Daoist, are there any gains on your end?”

“None. How about you?”

“Nothing either!”

“I have no lead here as well.”

“Empty-handed here too. Just what is going on?!”

The scene soon turned rowdy, and many cultivators grew doubtful. This wasn’t the first time that mankind had come in search of the Sea of Heart. They knew of the situation here. Even though the Sea of Heart was limited in quantity, it shouldn’t be this difficult to find. They had nearly searched the entire vicinity of the sea but could not find a single piece of it.

Ye Yuanxue didn’t venture into the waters, but Jiang Xiaofan didn’t want her to do so anyway. Staying onshore and keeping watch was already enough. After all, she was a girl. In addition, Ye Yuanxue’s cultivation was quite strong, and her spiritual awareness was exceptional. Her range extended far and wide, but even so, the girl shook her head in frustration. She couldn’t find anything.

I’ll just keep on searching then! Jiang Xiaofan was located at the shallow end. Unrelenting, he swept his spiritual awareness over every inch of the sea wherever the Sea of Heart could be hidden. Regardless of how hard he had tried, his efforts remained fruitless. There was nothing except mud, rocks, and seawater.

Not long after, one of the cultivators suggested that they should venture into deeper waters. Perhaps they would be able to find it there. This proposal was quickly approved by everyone. Many of them began to head for the deep zone.

Jiang Xiaofan naturally followed in line behind them. This was his first time at the Sea of Setting Sun. In other words, he was a newbie. He only knew what the Sea of Heart looked like. As to where it was commonly located or where it was most abundantly found, he had no clues whatsoever.

At this particular time, even Ye Yuanxue joined in the search for the object. Despite it all, what made Jiang Xiaofan speechless was that the girl had somehow found a small boat and calmly stood on top of it.

She waved at Jiang Xiaofan and suggested, “Perverted Wolf, come on aboard.”

Jiang Xiaofan violently shook his head. There’s no way that I will get up on there! The reason was that once he was up there, he would have to immediately lie down on the boat.

Puzzled, she snapped at him, “What’s up with you?! Even though soaking in the water feels very nice, soaking too long in it is not good for you! Besides, that’s deep water! You only get motion sickness from flying swords, right?”

Jiang Xiaofan continued to shake his head. I’m fine. As long as I don’t use the flying sword technique, I won’t get sick. I’ll just swim across there!

To be honest, what Jiang Xiaofan really wanted to say was that he also suffered from motion sickness on boats. Once he got aboard, he would lose all his strength. However, he didn’t have the courage to speak the truth. He was afraid that once he told her, Ye Yuanxue would then ask him why he didn’t get nauseous from walking instead.

There were at least eighty, if not a hundred, cultivators who had come to the Sea of the Setting Sun. Nearly everyone headed for the deep zone by maneuvering their flying swords in midair while scanning the waters with their spiritual awareness.

“What’s happening? Where is this smell of blood coming from?!”

A while later, Jiang Xiaofan also sensed that something wasn’t right. The scent of the seawater increasingly smelled like blood. He scooped some water in his hands and examined it. All of a sudden, his eyes bulged. Gods! This looks like red ink!

The discovery of the red water startled him, and chills ran down his spine. He then gazed up. The color of the waters in the Sea of the Setting Sun was nearly identical to that of the sunset. Yet, the water in his hands was blood-like. Most importantly, the stench of blood filled his nostrils.

“Retreat! Get out of there at once!”

He shouted to the people in front of him. His instinct told him that this place was full of danger, and an ominous feeling welled up inside of him. He had goosebumps, and his hair stood on end.

Looking at the cultivators who stared back at him with a dazed expression, he hollered again, “This area’s treacherous! Leave here immediately!”

After he had warned them, he ignored them and desperately pushed Ye Yuanxue’s boat with all his might towards the shore. Because his cultivation was based on the peerless, primordial Buddhist Sutra, his spiritual instinct was stronger than that of an average cultivator’s. He could feel a giant shadow beneath the waters about to swallow him up. His entire body trembled with fear.

Despite Jiang Xiaofan’s two warnings, the other cultivators paid no heed and merely laughed.

In their eyes, he was just a chump who couldn’t maneuver the flying sword and relied solely on swimming. Nobody was willing to believe his words. Ye Yuanxue, who accompanied him, was definitely beautiful, but they saw her as someone who also couldn’t maneuver the flying sword because she had to use a mortal boat as a means of transportation. They shook their heads at the two and moved on ahead into the deep zone.

Only Ye Yuanxue knew that Jiang Xiaofan would not say something without reason. She stood back up on the boat and released her powerful spiritual awareness. Even though her instinct wasn’t as strong as Jiang Xiaofan’s, she could sense a certain sort of change occurring in the water.

“Get out of there this instant! You guys, seriously….” Ye Yuanxue muttered. She wanted to warn them out loud, but before she could do so, an enormous tentacle rose above the water. Swift like lightning, it *pff* pierced a hole through the flying sword into the nearby body of a male cultivator. As his innards spilled out, the water below him was dyed crimson.

The scene erupted into chaos, and the cultivators lost their calm. At that moment, multicolored sword lights and saber qi filled the sky and ferociously attacked the tentacle from all angles. A vast number of them even raced towards the shore on their flying swords with horror in their expressions.

Just then, approximately a dozen large columns of water rose from the surface of the sea. Each water column was encircled by a tentacle with numerous, hideous suctions on it. What was even more terrifying was that, in the blink of an eye, the bodies of several cultivators had been pierced through. Blood further mingled within the seawater.

Not long after, the body of a huge monster emerged. It was as massive as a mountain and covered in small spikes. Its body above the water was at least thirty meters in height, and below it was countless tentacles. There were at least thousands of them. Its most noticeable feature was its pair of red eyes. Each was the size of two small houses combined, and its appearance terrorized the people down below.

“Wow! What a giant squid!”

Jiang Xiaofan’s eyes bulged so far that they nearly fell out of his sockets. He gulped loudly in nervousness.

Running for his dear life, he pushed Ye Yuanxue’s boat with every ounce of energy in his body but soon realized that tragedy had struck. His feet seemed to be entangled with something. He could not break free.

*Woosh*

He was abruptly hauled into the air. He then discovered that a disgusting tentacle had been wrapped around his left leg and nearly vomited at sight of it. Without a moment’s hesitation, he balled up his right hand into a fist and viciously punched at the tentacle.

He was soon overcome with helplessness. His current body strength was incredibly strong, and even a Phantom Saint cultivator would ball up in pain from his punch. Unexpectedly, his punch didn’t seem to have any effect on the squid-like monster. It was as if he was hitting a block of cotton.