Over the next two months, nothing much happened at Little Cinnabar Hall.
The only change was that Chen Xia’s status grew higher and higher. Whenever the Little Cinnabar Hall Master saw him, he would respectfully call him “Sir”. His expression was very reverent, just short of kneeling down and calling him “Dad” directly.
Chen Xia’s status could be said to have risen along with him, and he now had quite a high position across the whole Qing Province. Those ancient clans who had once looked down on him like he was dirt, now didn’t even dare to talk loudly to him.
If you wanted to use the phrase “when one person gains the Dao, even the chickens and dogs ascend” to describe it.
Then he was playing the role of the chickens and dogs.
Although in Chen Xia’s eyes, he was probably not even as good as chickens and dogs.
The Little Cinnabar Hall Master had great self-awareness, so he treated Chen Xia with exceptionally intense respect, and made sure all his treatment was raised to the highest level.
Chen Xia was easygoing, so the two got along more and more amicably.
During this time, the Qiu Family patriarch came to Little Cinnabar Hall once, led by Qiu Yi. He sincerely met with Chen Xia, and very politely opened his mouth.
“Sir, we are both of the human race. Please accept these small gifts.”
Chen Xia had always been open-minded about gifts, and accepted them all. Then he casually chatted with the Qiu Family patriarch for a while.
It was just some words about uniting, saying that of the eight great powers in Qing Province, the Qiu Family, Huang Family and Little Cinnabar Hall were all human powers, and should unite to take another step in Qing Province, to truly contend against those ancient monster clans.
Chen Xia just felt it was like children playing house, and didn’t give a definite response, just absentmindedly said “Okay, okay.”
By the end the Qiu Family patriarch had nothing left to say. He glanced at Qiu Yi, then looked at Chen Xia again, before respectfully taking his leave.
Chen Xia shook his head, feeling that the Qiu Family patriarch was thinking too much. Of the eight great powers, you three families unite and then you want to contend against the other five?
On what grounds?
It certainly wasn’t because three was greater than five.
It was only because of Chen Xia.
Otherwise there was no logic in three being greater than five.
The patriarch hadn’t directly said those words, but he certainly had his own schemes, or hadn’t figured out his own position.
Chen Xia shook his head and didn’t bother with it. He stood up to tidy up the medicinal ingredients he had obtained, preparing to refine some pills and medicines for himself after a period of days.
By then his body would also be mostly recovered, and he could try leaving this Qing Province and heading towards the so-called beyond the realm.
Dead Star Sea.
A not-so-large ferry headed over, and exchanges could be heard from within.
“Rumor has it the ruins of Blue Sky Sword Sea are around this area. Let’s search carefully. As long as we find the ruins of Blue Sky Sword Sea, we can fish up some treasures from them, and that will be enough for us to gain a huge profit.”
A doubtful voice asked,
“Really? But this place doesn’t look at all like somewhere a prosperous sect once existed. It’s too desolate and lifeless, with barely any fallen stars.”
A blunt voice rebutted,
“Blue Sky Sword Sea was destroyed so many years ago, of course it would be desolate now! And the map shows it’s around this area, we definitely won’t go wrong.”
After he spoke, there were no more sounds of doubt, just someone cautiously saying,
“Rumor says Blue Sky Sword Sea was sealed off by the seven great sects, won’t there be some huge danger inside?”
“Hmph, no damn huge danger. After they fished up all they could carry, of course they didn’t want others to profit too, so they certainly had to seal it off.”
The blunt voice disdainfully said,
“If it were me, I would also seal off Blue Sky Sword Sea, and come back slowly to take things later.”
The ferry continued to travel swiftly between the stars, following the direction on the map, and soon arrived outside a lifeless star system.
The doubtful voice asked,
“Is this Blue Sky Sword Sea? Why does it look so much like a dead star system?!”
“Blue Sky Sword Sea was terminated by the Great Dao, of course it would be a dead star system now, what else could it be?”
That reasoning was sound. But everyone on the ferry looked at the dead star system, and no one dared approach.
A total of thirty-six cultivators gradually walked out onto the deck of the ferry. They were led by a tall cultivator, who looked at the dead star system ahead of them and spoke in a blunt voice.
“Who will go take a look first?”
After that, no one spoke. After a long pause, a soft voice spoke up.
“I heard... I heard there are... cultivator ghosts inside dead star systems...”
The tall cultivator frowned and disdainfully said, “What the hell is there to be scared of, you’re at least at the level of Moving Mountains, yet you’re still afraid of dead ghosts that you could slap to death with one palm?”
“But, but...” The soft voice still wanted to explain.
The tall cultivator waved his hand to interrupt. “Alright, we didn’t travel across half the starry sky just to return empty-handed. So we’re all here to search for treasures, no one wants to go back empty-handed, right?”
“So let’s go in together. I don’t believe it, with thirty-six people, thirty at the Moving Mountains peak, and six at the Toppling Seas level, we’d be scared off by cultivator ghosts!”
“Whoever dares to follow me in, come now!”
After the tall cultivator finished speaking, he headed towards the dead star system without the slightest hesitation, and added,
“Let’s be clear. If there are any rare treasures inside, you guys who don’t go in won’t get a share.”
Some people gradually followed after the tall cultivator. They were all cultivators at the Toppling Seas level like him.
The rest at the Moving Mountains peak gritted their teeth and didn’t hesitate any longer, following along.
A total of thirty-six people headed into the dead star system together.
The instant they stepped into the dead star system, they saw ghostly figures of cultivator ghosts flitting about between the dead stars.
But the ghosts didn’t attack them. As soon as they saw the group, the ghosts cried out in alarm and frantically fled.
The tall cultivator laughed loudly and disdainfully said,
“Didn’t I say, what’s scary about dead things? It should be them afraid of us.”
The other Moving Mountains peak cultivators also gained morale, and smiles appeared on their faces as they grew less cautious.
The thirty-six continued deeper in, but didn’t see any treasures, just some bizarre shriveled dead stars.
The further they went, the more they felt something was off.
Because the ghosts gradually decreased, while the ghosts on the outskirts were actually more numerous.
Until they reached the center of the dead star system.
What lay before them was an extremely empty scene.
Hundreds of thousands of dead souls and ghosts gathered together, stacked from bottom to top, like a towering mountain that shocked the world!
The thirty-six cultivators looked at the peak of the mountain of souls with frightened expressions.
Atop it sat a figure, like the god of millions of souls, lofty and high above.
Its face couldn’t be seen clearly, its bearing vague, as if it were sleeping.
The thirty-six cultivators didn’t dare to speak, even their breathing slowed, as they wanted to flee back the way they came.
The tall cultivator had just lifted his foot.
The figure suddenly raised its head, and the millions of souls below it began to tremble and writhe.
It looked straight at them, and sent out a greeting.
“Hello.”
The millions of souls let out piercing shrieks!
The thirty-six cultivators were scared out of their wits.
Thirty years later.
The thirty-six cultivators who had gone to Blue Sky Sword Sea to search for treasures returned to their own stars. None of them were clear where exactly they had gone treasure hunting, or even remembered roughly where it was. They only spoke of their terror towards the great danger within the dead star system.
Afterwards, the great danger within the dead star system was termed by many cultivators as—
Ancestor of Dead Stars.
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