Recently, the Surging Sea has started to make waves, big waves at that.
The ferocious waves are beating the shore, killing a group of trees, exceptionally turbulent.
Chen Xia sits at the door of the Little Cinnabar Hall, which is also at the peak of Inverted Mountain, and can just see the huge waves coming in.
He only had this to say about it:
"The flood dragons inside are starting to go crazy."
They weren't hit by him, so they're owed some discipline and are getting itchy.
In these days, Qiu Yi is also living around the pavilion, studying the arcane chapters of the Profound Chaos Dao, while also battling Chen Xia in chess.
Though Qiu Yi usually goes easy on him, otherwise Chen Xia would have no gaming experience.
Nowadays when Qiu Yi speaks to Chen Xia, it's directly with her mouth, though somewhat stuttering, but Chen Xia is used to it now and doesn't laugh at her.
"You, you, your knigh... is gone."
Qiu Yi opens with a cannon attack to eat the knight, stuttering as she speaks, a look of smugness on her elegant face, as if saying Master, you've taught me too well!
Chen Xia just blankly looks at the chessboard, with a somewhat hopeless look.
It's over.
He looks up and asks Qiu Yi in a negotiating tone: "From now on, I'll always go first, ok?"
Even if he'll lose, at least he can get to eat a knight.
Qiu Yi shakes her head. "No, no."
"A double negative indicates agreement," Chen Xia explains.
"Tha...that's my stu...stuttering." Qiu Yi still firmly shakes her head, her pretty eyebrows furrowed, looking completely unwilling to negotiate.
Chen Xia frowns, thinks for a bit, "Then with my Boundary Crossing soldiers, can I leap across multiple steps to take your Prime Manifestation knight?"
Now it's Qiu Yi's turn to be dumbfounded, her elegant face stunned. But she quickly waves her hand and says, "What...what logic is that?"
Chen Xia smiles and says, "Just adding some realism to chess, you wouldn't have any complaints against my Boundary Crossing soldiers, right?"
Qiu Yi's elegant face is stunned, but soon she grits her teeth and purses her lips and says, "No."
She didn't stutter on that word.
"Haha," Chen Xia laughs heartily. He had to let himself win a round!
After this, Qiu Yi rarely played chess with Chen Xia again, perhaps afraid of the Boundary Crossing soldiers. She became more diligent in cultivation matters.
Her talent was also quite good, and her Prime Manifestation peak cultivation soon showed signs of breaking through to the Great Vehicle realm.
Chen Xia didn't have much to teach her either. He felt cultivation was more reliant on self, just like when he was at the Blue Sky Sword Sea. Old Fisherman didn't teach him anything either.
It was purely won by Chen Xia's own reputation.
Thinking of the Blue Sky Sword Sea and Old Fisherman, Chen Xia felt somewhat emotional again.
Although Old Fisherman had wronged Chen Xia, he had nothing to say about his dedication to the Blue Sky Sword Sea, having died with no regrets.
At his last breath, he gave Chen Xia the point of the Immortal Sword of the Blue Sky Sword Sea, as compensation.
Chen Xia didn't know if it was enough, but he held no resentment towards Old Fisherman, after all he had also cut off dozens of years from Old Fisherman's lifespan using the Ignite Blood Extinguish Soul Method.
The two of them were even.
As for the Blue Sky Sword Sea, Chen Xia had very complicated feelings for it.
Previously he only wanted to escape from it, but after really running away, looking back, he began to miss it.
Maybe it was different from previous years.
Thinking this, Chen Xia leaned his chin on his hand, looking at the horizon halfway shrouded in dusk, his thoughts wandering, as if he had returned to the pavilion in front of his cave abode in the Blue Sky Sword Sea.
He continuously stretched his thoughts, unwilling to sever them.
"Mas...master." Qiu Yi's crisp voice cut his thoughts off.
"What is it?" Chen Xia didn't turn his head, asking indifferently.
"Have you... met the Great Emperor, coming from beyond the region?" Qiu Yi's tone was curious, and oddly didn't stutter much.
"Met him," Chen Xia nodded.
Qiu Yi's pretty eyebrows raised, even more curious now, "Then the Great Emperor really is invincible in the world, like the rumors say?"
Chen Xia thought for a bit, and nodded, "Should be."
"Why should be?" Qiu Yi was a little puzzled.
"Because the Great Emperor I met was dead," Chen Xia indifferently replied. "So I don't know if he could be called invincible in the world."
"The Great Emperor can...die too?" Qiu Yi was a bit shocked.
"Of course, the Great Emperor is just very powerful, not immortal," Chen Xia explained.
Qiu Yi wrinkled her brows, pondering a bit. She felt Chen Xia did have a point, so she didn't dwell too much on it. And Chen Xia had even met the Great Emperor, making her even more reverent of him.
Even Great Powers at the Realm Moving level wouldn't be qualified to meet the Great Emperor, right?
Chen Xia half-lay in the chair, closing his eyes.
In fact, it wasn't only the Great Emperor he had met, but the final glory of the Blue Sky Sword Sea.
At the center of the Star Region.
Among the current powers, the trend was towards alliance. Everyone found allied powers and seized their own territory and opportunities at the dawn of the great world.
Powers with descendants of the Great Emperor were especially popular in these alliances. Many sects were willing to join hands with powers who had descendants of the Great Emperor.
It was called having prospects.
When the descendants of the Great Emperor rose in the future, they would at least be quasi-Saints guaranteed. By then, these sects would also rise with them.
Powers without descendants of the Great Emperor could still survive though. For example, the seven great sects previously reliant on the Blue Sky Sword Sea had now formed an alliance.
Although lacking descendants of the Great Emperor, they still occupied a place in the Star Region.
Apart from that, powers with Supreme Races were not to be looked down upon either.
Foremost among them was the Three Thousand Flame Feather Crows.
The prodigy Chi Yu of their race was starting to make a name for himself in the Star Region with his mastery of the Iron Fist. He feared no one, even willing to compete against descendants of the Great Emperor.
Most absurd was that many descendants of the Great Emperor even recognized him.
Among those most familiar with him were Emperor Capital and Qiu Li. They were fellow disciples with Chi Yu, and had all been trampled by Chi Yu before.
Back then a joke spread in the Blue Sky Sword Sea, as a descendant of the Great Emperor you could get away with not fighting other descendants, but you must have fought Chi Yu.
He was publicly recognized as the stepping stone for descendants of the Great Emperor back then.
But it was different now.
Now he had truly made a name for himself, gaining the title of small invincible among the Supreme Races. He was already fighting the monster races on the level of descendants of the Great Emperor.
Presumably his next step would be to challenge the two brothers Emperor Capital and Qiu Li.
Legend said when Chi Yu battled, he fought as if he didn't want his life, with three thousand flame armor on his body, as if burning away his divine sense too. He never retreated once when fighting, only charging forward blindly.
In a recent battle against another supreme monster genius, although Chi Yu was a minor realm lower, he relentlessly pursued and fought him.
Some cultivators who came out from the Blue Sky Sword Sea also felt this was baffling, wondering aloud,
"Can cross boundary combat be contagious?"
Truly incomprehensible.
That battle ended with Chi Yu's tragic victory. He was covered in blood, with only a few hundred flames left, their light dim.
The supreme monster genius a minor realm above him lay half-dead nearby.
Chi Yu stood silently, not bothered by the fresh blood on him. His gaze looked towards the horizon.
That was the direction of the Blue Sky Sword Sea.
"I won't retreat again," he said in a voice only he could hear.