Life in the Blue Sky Sword Sea was always rather dull. There were occasional bits of excitement, but only occasionally.
Chen Xia would often sit alone in the pavilion outside his cave, cultivating with turtle breathing techniques while thinking about the future. His goal of escaping from the Blue Sky Sword Sea had never changed, but it didn’t seem so easy to actually accomplish.
He didn’t know any mystical techniques for fleeing, and even if he did, he probably still couldn’t escape. The sages of the Blue Sky Sword Sea certainly understood mystical techniques better than he did.
So his only option was to slowly endure, but the problem was that he couldn’t endure forever.
The end of the Great World was fast approaching, and the conclusion was imminent. According to what other cultivators said, the Blue Sky Sword Sea, which had produced an emperor in the last era, would receive "special attention" from the Heavenly Dao.
Unless someone at the emperor level lent a hand to help the Blue Sky Sword Sea, it would face annihilation. The Blue Sky Sword Sea might vanish entirely from the celestial realm, leaving only ruins behind.
If there was enough time, the Blue Sky Sword Sea didn’t actually need to groom Chen Xia as the elixir of life for the ailing emperor. He could have been nurtured as the next emperor.
But time was running out.
Chen Xia couldn’t wait indefinitely, or else even the Old Fisherman wouldn’t be able to save him when the end of the Great World finally arrived.
Although he still had his nascent soul as a backup, if his original body died, his soul and spirit would inevitably be diminished. Unless absolutely necessary, Chen Xia wanted to maintain the integrity of his consciousness.
Thinking of this, Chen Xia couldn’t help but feel vexed. Based on previous logic, escaping the Blue Sky Sword Sea meant he had to defeat the Old Fisherman. And even if he did that, he would still have to face the sect leader at the sage level, as well as the not-quite-dead previous emperor of the Sword Sea.
If he could really defeat all those people, he wouldn’t need to escape at all - the entire Blue Sky Sword Sea would be his.
Chen Xia calculated that there were currently only two possibilities for preserving his life.
One was that the emperor of the Sword Sea would peacefully pass away, and everyone could simply disband without trouble and say their farewells for now.
The other was that the White Emperor would come to the Blue Sky Sword Sea early to claim the immortal swords, destroying the entire place in the process, allowing Chen Xia to escape in the chaos.
Actually, there was a third possibility:
With a bit more luck, all of the Boundary Realm sages and the emperor of the Blue Sky Sword Sea might die in accidental mishaps.
For example, slipping while walking and accidentally falling onto the tip of an immortal sword, and the like.
This last possibility was a bit too fantastical, so Chen Xia just entertained the thought without actually believing it could happen. But a bit of luck never hurt, right?
Other than that, there truly was nothing else in the Blue Sky Sword Sea for Chen Xia to worry about. His current status was quite lofty, his cultivation and combat prowess were strong. Without all these entanglements, how carefree life could be.
But the myriad things in the world simply cannot all go as one wishes.
Chen Xia understood this, but still felt it was a pity. However, dwelling too much on such pessimistic thoughts was not the way of people.
Moreover, contrast was needed in life.
Whenever Chen Xia felt vexed, he would think of Qiong Qi, and immediately felt better.
Qiong Qi had lost his head and was already down in the underworld.
Meanwhile, Chen Xia had become an elder of laws in the Blue Sky Sword Sea, above even formal disciples and ordinary elders.
With this contrast in mind, Chen Xia's mood improved tremendously.
Thinking of Qiong Qi also reminded Chen Xia of something Zhang DaoMing had casually mentioned after Chen Xia left prison. At the time, he had asked Chen Xia a question:
"After you killed Qiong Qi, did the master of his forbidden zone give you any trouble?"
"What trouble, what forbidden zone master?" Chen Xia of course pleaded ignorance. He had simply lopped off the head without concern for the consequences, leaving the Old Fisherman to sort it all out.
After all, it came down to the same refrain:
Did you emperors want to live or not?
This was called seizing the Son of Heaven to command the feudal lords.
Although in this case, Chen Xia was both the seizureer and the Son of Heaven.
Or in short, seizing himself to command the Old Fisherman.
Seeing that Chen Xia was unaware of the forbidden zone master, Zhang DaoMing realized why he had dared to behead Qiong Qi - it was purely the recklessness of an ignorant calf who did not fear the tiger. He then explained:
"The forbidden zone masters are the top figures of the realms, comparable to emperors. They are the pinnacle combatants under the various heavenly emperors, with twelve in total stationed in the forbidden zones.
Chen Xia frowned. "Twelve? That seems like a lot."
Zhang DaoMing shook his head and waved his hand. "You don't understand. The twelve forbidden zone masters of this realm are recognized by the Great Heaven as being above even the great sages, beneath only the emperors. It's said they can rival quasi-emperors in strength."
"Because emperors cannot appear within the realms, when emperors from other heavens come to a realm, their strength is reduced to that of quasi-emperors, inferior to the twelve forbidden zone masters."
"So from the perspective of the realms, the emperors are below the twelve forbidden zone masters."
Chen Xia grinned. "So powerful, yet I was able to behead Qiong Qi without incident?"
Zhang DaoMing was taken aback, also realizing the flaw in this logic. He muttered to himself first:
"That's right, even if Qiong Qi was only a young emperor nurtured by a forbidden zone master, he shouldn't have been so easily killed by you without any reaction."
"The 300,000 spirit stones you borrowed were likely paid as compensation to the forbidden zone master by the Blue Sky Sword Sea, which is a lot, yet still not enough, especially since the current Blue Sky Sword Sea cannot produce a new emperor. The forbidden zone master certainly wouldn't let the matter rest so easily."
"Unless..."
Zhang DaoMing paused as the thought struck him, raising his head to look at Chen Xia, his tone becoming more serious as he continued:
"Unless the Blue Sky Sword Sea compensated with some other treasure as valuable as Qiong Qi's life."
Chen Xia raised his brows, also gaining understanding. "A treasure as valuable as Qiong Qi's life," he echoed.
"Mm," Zhang DaoMing felt this was increasingly possible the more he guessed. He looked at Chen Xia with furrowed brows, not daring to speak his mind.
What could be more valuable than Qiong Qi's life?
Naturally, it was Chen Xia, the one who had taken Qiong Qi's life.
Upon realizing this, Chen Xia had to admire the Blue Sky Sword Sea's cunning ploy of using him to appease the forbidden zone master.
Once he became the elixir of life and the Sword Sea emperor lived into the next era, what more would there be to fear from someone under an emperor?
Chen Xia previously didn't know about this, but based on the Old Fisherman's reaction, it was likely true.
The biggest confirmation was when Chen Xia had asked the Old Fisherman about the fate of the 300,000 spirit stones, and the Old Fisherman had only said they were compensation to the great figure behind Qiong Qi, without specifying who.
At the time, Chen Xia had curiously asked, "Was Qiong Qi really worth 300,000 spirit stones?"
"He was, and it still wasn't enough," the Old Fisherman had replied, without further explanation or mention of the forbidden zone master behind Qiong Qi.
Given the Old Fisherman's temperament, if he had truly gone out of his way to help Chen Xia and paid a price for it, he naturally would have brought it up to Chen Xia.
But the Old Fisherman didn't say anything, only that 300,000 spirit stones was not enough.
From this, it seemed the Blue Sky Sword Sea had engaged in some duplicity and human trafficking.
They had falsely sold off Chen Xia, the young emperor.
Seeing Chen Xia's furrowed expression, Zhang DaoMing sighed and shook his head, advising:
"One lifetime is not long. Don't dwell on too much, or life will not be carefree. Think less and there will be less vexation."
"Self-deception?" Chen Xia frowned back.
"This is living with insight," Zhang DaoMing shook his head, hands clasped behind him as he continued:
"What's the point of worrying so much now if you don't have the capability? Better to bury it deep down and pretend it never happened."
"Wouldn't that make me a cuckold?" Chen Xia raised a brow.
"The problem is, you currently are a cuckold. Can you really stand there cursing them to their faces?"
Zhang DaoMing's courage grew as he spoke, even daring to say such things.
Chen Xia frowned, considering for a bit, and had to admit there was some truth to it. He clasped his fists in thanks to Zhang DaoMing.
"Thank you for the reminder."
His figure turned as he strode away swiftly.
Zhang DaoMing sighed, feeling that counseling others was not easy. Fortunately he had succeeded, but soon he realized something was off.
"Where are you going? Your cave is this way!"
Chen Xia didn't look back, striding purposefully toward the sword peaks.
That was where the highest hall in the Blue Sky Sword Sea was located.
Zhang DaoMing hurriedly chased after him, anxiously shouting:
"This is just speculation between us, it hasn't been confirmed yet!"
Chen Xia waved him off, stepping even faster as he called back:
"No confirmation needed."
He wasn't going to argue principles with the Old Fisherman, but to pluck some pension money.