Above the vast sea to the east:
Ten flying ships coursed through the sky. White light encased the surroundings of the flying ships. Two-winged angels crowded the flying ships. With ten flying ships, there were more than fifty thousand angels. Some ordinary cultivators also stood among the angels. While they looked ordinary, they gave off strong auras.
Second Young Master, Yehua, stood at the bow of the flagship.
However, this Yehua was not just a projection but the actual body.
Yehua held the deck’s railing as he looked sullenly into the distance.
Two columns of experts stood behind him. One column wore white and shone with white light. There were over fifty experts in this column, and the one at the end had four wings. As this person swayed, his four wings disappeared. Clearly, this column consisted of angels, and the one at the very end was a four-winged angel.
The other column was a motley crew dressed in diverse fashions and giving off varied auras.
“Second Young Master, Jiu Ming and the others should have finished their scouting in the Thousand Islands Sea by now, right?” one of the angels said with a smile.
Yehua remained sullen, saying nothing.
A silver-masked man in the other column said with a smile, “Jiu Ming and the others are four-winged angels. There are also two thousand two-winged angels. Even my younger brother, Cui Tong, is there. Such a lineup is more than enough to sweep through the entire Thousand Islands Sea. They must have finished long ago.”
“More importantly, Second Young Master sent his projection there as well. Nothing can obstruct him, even in an imperial dynasty. What more a remote and barren royal dynasty?”
“A royal dynasty? What a joke! Its emperor joined the cultivation world only a few years ago, yet it can be called a royal dynasty?”
“After capturing Ao Shun, Master will gain great glory in the Ten Thousand Sages Convention!”
The angels and other experts discussed happily.
Blargh!
Suddenly, the leader, Yehua, spewed out a mouthful of blood.
“Second Young Master?” Nearly everyone’s expression changed.
What happened? Why did Second Young Master suddenly vomit blood?
Yehua wiped the blood off his lips. Then, he scowled ferociously as he snarled, “Gu Hai? Gu Hai? How dare you?!”
“Ah? Gu Hai? Was Second Young Master’s projection…,” everyone said worriedly.
“We are not going to the Qian Nation anymore. Go to the Thousand Islands Sea, to Nine-Five Island!” Yehua said sullenly.
“Ah? Yes!” the person manning the helm answered immediately.
“Second Young Master, what happened to your projection?” a subordinate asked with a frown.
“Sneak-attacked by Gu Hai using a ritual array. Dead!” Yehua showed an icy expression.
“A ritual array? How can that be? Second Young Master’s projection has the strength of an early-stage Middle Heavenly Palace Realm. Even if this subordinate attacks with full power, I might not be a match for that projection,” an angel said with a frown.
Everyone looked at that angel. This angel should also be in the early-stage Middle Heavenly Palace Realm to say such a thing.
“Dongfang Bubai! Gu Hai used a ritual array to manifest a transsexual, Dongfang Bubai. Humph! A Middle Heavenly Palace Realm cultivator. This young master will take personal action and shred him to pieces!” Yehua snorted coldly as he slammed his hand on the railing.
Boom!
The flying ship’s railing shook slightly.
“Yes!” everyone answered.
——
Above another area of the vast sea:
Another ten flying ships sped towards the Thousand Islands Sea.
The Bat Ancestor, Chang Sheng, Chang Ming, the Chang Clan elders, many vampires, and many bat spirits stood on the flying ships.
“How much longer?” the Bat Ancestor asked coldly.
“Reporting to Primogenitor, it will take roughly ten more days at our current speed to reach Nine-Five Island,” a vampire replied respectfully.
“Go faster!” the Bat Ancestor ordered coldly.
“Yes!”
“Primogenitor, based on our previous information, Gu Hai’s son is on Nine-Five Island. How shall we deal with him?” Chang Ming’s second uncle asked with a frown.
“Gu Qin? Humph! Naturally, we will use Gu Qin to lure Gu Hai out. However, I want to turn him into a vampire before that. I want to use Gu Qin to deal with Gu Hai. I want to watch the father and the son fighting each other!” the Bat Ancestor snarled.
“Yes! Making the father and the son fight each other is the best. After we capture Gu Hai, we will turn him into a vampire as well. After that, he will listen to only Primogenitor’s instructions. We can slowly torture him then. We must also make him pregnant!” Chang Ming’s third uncle said with a fierce expression.
“Excellent! Hahahaha!” the Bat Ancestor laughed sinisterly.
“Primogenitor, what about the Nine-Five Island citizens?” Chang Ming’s fourth uncle asked.
“All of them have to die!” the Bat Ancestor replied coldly.
“Primogenitor is wise!” the vampires immediately said happily.
As the bat spirits and vampires discussed how to torture the Nine-Five Island citizens, Chang Sheng and Chang Ming frowned.
Two hours later, the Bat Ancestor and the vampires dispersed despite not having fully expressed themselves yet.
Now, only Chang Sheng and Chang Ming remained on the deck.
After everyone left, Chang Sheng set up a sound isolation barrier.
“Hah…,” Chang Sheng sighed.
“Father, Primogenitor and the others seem to be…they seem to be…,” Chang Ming said with a frown.
“You can tell?” Chang Sheng looked at Chang Ming.
Chang Ming shook his head. “This child does not understand. I am only curious. Second Uncle, Third Uncle, and Fourth Uncle all seemed to have gone crazy. Only destruction fills their minds.”
Chang Sheng nodded. “Indeed. Primogenitor’s and the others’ mental state is abnormal.”
“Ah?” Chang Ming gaped at his father. Is Father talking bad about Primogenitor?
“Those who desire destruction eventually go mad. Only killing and slaughter remain in Primogenitor’s mind. Furthermore, he is boundlessly arrogant. I feel worried. Haha! Maybe I am overthinking,” Chang Sheng said bitterly.
“Father, what do you mean? Why do I not understand?” Chang Ming asked.
“Ming`er, I hope you can do one thing from today on,” Chang Sheng said with a solemn expression.
“Father, speak.”
“See nothing, and hear nothing,” Chang Sheng said seriously.
“Huh?” Chang Ming felt confused.
“Don’t participate in the fight between Primogenitor and Gu Hai. No matter when it is, don’t participate,” Chang Sheng said seriously.
“Uh…” Chang Ming still felt confused.
However, Chang Sheng’s determined gaze had Chang Ming nodding his head.
——
Nine-Five Island:
Nine-Five Island continued shaking, but it could not levitate. Miao Chen investigated the bottom of the sea and quickly swam up. When he came out, he happened to see Dongfang Bubai killing the enemies.
Boom! Dongfang Bubai exploded Jiu Ming with one needle.
Miao Chen shivered. How can this be? That is Jiu Ming, yet he died so easily?
After that, Dongfang Bubai attacked again. The three four-winged angels could not resist, instantly exploding and even blasting Yehua’s body into a twisted state.
Finally, Dongfang Bubai sent out another three needles, exploding Yehua in the blink of an eye.
Miao Chen: “…”
Feeling shocked, Miao Chen flew over and heard Gu Hai and Dongfang Bubai’s conversation.
“Of course, at the moment, it is only sufficient to support you alone. Zhang Sanfeng and Dugu Qiubai cannot appear with you. Coincidentally, you can watch my Nine-Five Island. We are about to make it fly into the sky.” Gu Hai smiled.
“That’s good!” Dongfang Bubai released his bated breath.
However, the eyes of Gu Qin and the others lit up.
With Dongfang Bubai protecting Nine-Five Island, even an early-stage Middle Heavenly Palace Realm cultivator could not do much damage.
“Your…Your Majesty!” Miao Chen interrupted everyone’s conversation.
“Oh? How did it go?” Gu Hai immediately asked with a serious expression.
“There is indeed something at the bottom of the sea. It seems to be a Go board. A Go board is anchoring Nine-Five Island,” Miao Chen said with a frown.
“A Go board?” Gu Hai suddenly raised his eyebrows.
“Yes!” Miao Chen nodded.
“Bring us over,” Gu Hai instructed.
Whoosh!
Gu Hai, Bing Ji, and Miao Chen quickly arrived at the seaside. With Miao Chen leading the way, they headed underwater.
Nine-Five Island had broken off from the seafloor. Large amounts of shattered rock littered the area. If Gu Hai had come alone, he would not have seen anything clearly, as the water was turbid with silt; however, Miao Chen could. Soon, he led Gu Hai and Bing Ji to a particular pile of rubble.
Above the rubble, a green net covered the bottom of Nine-Five Island. However, many golden threads below the net were pulling on Nine-Five Island and preventing it from flying.
The strange arrangement of the golden threads seemed to have black and white Go stones on them.
Boom!
When Nine-Five Island pulled, the golden threads gave off a bright light radiating into all directions of the vast sea.
“What is this?” Bing Ji exclaimed.
“These golden veins stretch all over the Thousand Islands Sea. Nine-Five Island is connected to this vein network. I guess that it is not just Nine-Five Island but all the islands in the Thousand Islands Sea.” Miao Chen frowned.
“The Thousand Islands Sea is really a Go board, and all the islands are Go stones?” Bing Ji gaped.
Miao Chen nodded. “That should be right. I once heard that in the past.”
“Since Nine-Five Island is a Go stone, what should we do? This is a super-large Go stone. There would be no way to remove it without a large force that can lift the entire Thousand Islands Sea—with more than a thousand islands—into the sky.” Bing Ji frowned.
“No!” Gu Hai’s eyes suddenly lit up.
“Huh?” Bing Ji and Miao Chen looked at Gu Hai in confusion.
“The Thousand Islands Sea is a large Go board; there is no doubt. However, look at the golden veins connected to Nine-Five Island. How many are there?” Gu Hai smiled.
“Sixty-two veins?” Bing Ji answered.
“No. They are thirty-one line pairs.” Gu Hai smiled.
“Thirty-one?”
“That’s right. We had already guessed that the Thousand Islands Sea was a large Go board. It should be a Go board with the Thirty-Three Line-Pair World Go Puzzle. We had studied the islands’ positions but could not ascertain which islands were white and which were black. However, the veins linking the Go stones seem to be the perfected Thirty-One Line-Pair World Ritual Array. Thirty-one? We have been searching for it to no avail. It turns out that it is here.” Gu Hai smiled.
“Ah?”
“Don’t worry. It is not difficult to free the island from this network. However, this Thirty-One Line-Pair World Ritual Array is hard to come by. We want to spend some time comprehending it first,” Gu Hai said with narrowed eyes.
As Gu Hai spoke, he extended his hand and tapped the junction of two golden veins.
Clack!
Suddenly, a crisp sound came from the junction.
A large portion of the veins immediately left Nine-Five Island.
“We shook free? Your Majesty, have you solved the Go puzzle?” Miao Chen asked in pleasant surprise.
“No, I have not. However, Nine-Five Island can fly now.” Gu Hai smiled.
——
At the same time:
When Gu Hai tapped the vein network, playing a black Go stone, his move seemed to have affected the entire Thousand Islands Sea.
Boom!
Nearly simultaneously, all the regions of the Thousand Islands Sea shook intensely.
Overwhelming waves soared up around the one-thousand-odd islands as if a great calamity was imminent.
