The Invisible Sea

The reserve disciples were having a hard time these days.

The spirit stones they had to turn in were increasing, and they couldn't cough them up. Sometimes they would get beaten up by the formal disciples.

Getting beaten was no big deal. After all, it wouldn't kill you. Who hadn't been beaten before?

But the formal disciples didn't just beat people. They would also take your valuables and keep them until you came back with spirit stones to redeem them after five years.

If you didn't come to redeem them after five years, they would just sell them off directly.

The reserve disciples had grievances but couldn't say anything about it. Even asking Elder Xiao for help was useless. He would just say these were the sect's rules and tell them to endure it.

Since they had come to Blue Sky Sword Sea and became reserve disciples without much ability, they could only abide by these rules.

When you became a formal disciple in the future, you would be able to collect spirit stones from the next batch of reserve disciples.

There was no right or wrong in this matter, just different standpoints.

Among them, Li Yang was probably the most miserable.

Because she had openly yelled at the formal disciples before, she was targeted the most viciously.

The sect rules forbid the Great Emperor Seedlings from attacking each other, but Liu Qing who was on good terms with Li Yang was not a Great Emperor Seedling.

The Fourth Law Elder directly demanded 5,000 spirit stones from Liu Qing. Half was protection money, and half was compensation.

If she couldn't cough it up, they wouldn't attack her directly. They would just have a group of reserve disciples stand outside her cave residence blowing suona horns.

They would also periodically paste flower wreaths on her cave residence and keep knocking on her door.

Although these were the acts of petty people, they were admittedly quite effective.

Under this mental torment, Liu Qing completely lost her mindset to cultivate. Even when she closed her eyes to nurture her spirit, she would hear the sound of suona horns in her head.

But Liu Qing really didn't have that much money. The spirit stones she had earned previously were already all returned to the reserve disciples.

Now, scraping everything together, she only had a little over 2,000 spirit stones.

The formal disciple who came to collect refused to accept this amount. He said it had to be a full 3,000 spirit stones.

Liu Qing frowned and softly said, "I will gather 3,000 spirit stones. Can you give me some time and come collect it in 20-30 years?"

"That won't do. It must be paid in full. Elder gave the order. Come back when you've gathered the full amount."

There was no room for compromise in the formal disciple's words.

But where could Liu Qing go to find 5,000 spirit stones? Even pooling everything she and Li Yang had, it was less than 2,000.

Unable to pay the money, the formal disciples continued their harassment, refusing to let Liu Qing cultivate in peace.

Li Yang finally couldn't stand it anymore. She grabbed one of the disciples blowing the suona horn and crushed it to dust in her hand.

The moment she made her move, a gold-robed Supreme Race at the Sea Inversing Realm second layer who had threatened them with force before walked out from the crowd.

"Formal disciple ranked 23rd, Sea Inversing Realm second layer Supreme Race, Hei He."

The Supreme Race introduced himself with one hand outstretched.

He had been waiting here for Li Yang the whole time.

Li Yang put down the disciple she had grabbed. Both her fists clenched tight as golden light shone from her eyes. The light point between her brows glowed radiantly like the blazing sun.

"Come on."

She uttered only this low growl.

The fight officially began.

Li Yang's injuries weren't fully healed, and her cultivation realm was far too low at the early Mountain Moving Realm.

Not every Great Emperor Seedling could cross a whole great realm to fight someone five or six small realms above.

Li Yang was far from capable of that.

The outcome of the skirmish quickly emerged. With overwhelming advantage, Hei He suppressed Li Yang.

"Great Emperor Seedlings just have slightly better aptitude. It doesn't mean their combat power is definitely higher." Hei He said flatly.

Li Yang wasn't really injured. She just couldn't win and was pressed down, gritting her teeth hard without saying a word.

"Collecting 5,000 spirit stones is punishment for your disobedience and arrogance, and it's to help you recognize your own limits."

Hei He patted his robes, straightening out some wrinkles. His expression was tranquil, as if suppressing someone like Li Yang was a common triviality to him.

"But we can only gather 2,000 spirit stones now. Isn't 5,000 a bit too much?" Li Yang asked through gritted teeth.

"Then that's not our problem anymore." Hei He replied flatly. "Just like when you wanted to monopolize the reserve disciples' business before, you didn't consider us either."

Li Yang had no rebuttal. She lowered her head with fists clenched tight.

"If you can't gather the full amount, then don't cultivate for now. Our methods are actually still more lenient compared to what could be done."

Hei He patted his clothes once more and said this final sentence.

"Know your place."

Pan Dadao came back.

He was tossed back by two formal disciples, but thankfully wasn't injured, just covered in some dust.

He immediately found Chen Xia and came up to him with a bitter face.

"Elder Si didn't agree."

Chen Xia wondered, "What's it to Elder Si whether I run my business or not?"

"When I killed Qiong Qi in the past, did he agree? Was that any use?"

"But... but..." Pan Dadao stammered a few times without managing to get a full sentence out.

Because he felt Chen Xia's words made quite some sense.

He was running his own business. Why did he need Elder Si's approval?

Chen Xia really had a way with fallacious arguments.

"What should we do now?" Pan Dadao asked in bewilderment.

Chen Xia crossed his arms over his chest and started dishing out ideas. "Just go tell those disciples, publicize some of my heroic deeds more, and naturally people will come to give money."

"When spreading word of my deeds, it's best to add a touch of fantasy, portray me as an upright person."

"For example?" Pan Dadao asked doubtfully.

"For example, I lopped off Old Demon Qiong's head in two strikes, clearing the skies for the reserve disciples. For this, I was willing to be jailed for 500 years."

Chen Xia gave an example.

But Pan Dadao felt something was off after hearing it. From any perspective, aren't you more like the old demon?

"Then how many spirit stones should we charge?" Pan Dadao asked again.

"However much they're willing to give, I'm not making any demands on that. One piece is fine, a hundred pieces works too." Chen Xia was very casual about it.

Give as much as you want, but you have to give something.

"Alright." Pan Dadao nodded. He fell silent for a moment before curiously asking again.

"What are you... going to use so many spirit stones for?"

He immediately added, "No need to answer, I'm just randomly asking. Do as you like."

Cultivators were always lacking in spirit stones, so Chen Xia's insistence on obtaining spirit stones even at the cost of falling out with Elder Si definitely hid some major implications.

And the implications really weren't small.

After all, spirit qi pearls cost 3,000 spirit stones each.

Pan Dadao would never have imagined the reason Chen Xia urgently needed to gather spirit stones was actually to buy spirit qi pearls to decorate his cave residence.

This was a bit beyond what cultivators nowadays could comprehend.

Chen Xia stretched lazily and got to his feet. He suddenly asked,

"Have you seen the ocean before?"

"Does... Sword Sea count?" Pan Dadao replied.

"Of course not," Chen Xia shook his head and continued, "I've seen it. It's azure, humid, with sea breezes, beaches, cliffs, seagulls, and you never know when the waves will rise. At sunset it reflects the dying light."

Pan Dadao shook his head. "Never seen it."

"I see." Chen Xia nodded. "I once kept the ocean in my eyes."

"But going around and around, so many hundreds or thousands of years have passed."

Chen Xia clapped once, gaze profound, tone gentle.

"And I haven't seen it anymore."

"Then... we're the same." Pan Dadao softly replied, head lowered slightly.

The two stood shoulder-to-shoulder, an uncommon occurrence.

After half a moment, Chen Xia's flat voice sounded again.

"You know I wasn't talking about the ocean, right?"

"Mm."

It was the first half of his life before all this.

The cannibal tribe member asks the pancake stand owner: "Add a touch of brains."