The demonic clouds in the sky looked pitch-black, like ink. They were like ancient, unchanging, never-ending mountain ranges.
The atmosphere felt dark and oppressive. When one looked up, one felt boundless pressure.
Waves surged on the sea, coming one after another. The raging waters sounded like thunder.
Black snow drifted down from the sky, shining with faint fluorescence.
This region was a sea route in the Ash Gray Sea that people rarely traveled. More precisely, no one traveled this way except for Pirate Alliance seniors.
The Scarlet Blood Warship rode the waves as it traveled. The people on the ship had grown inured to the vile sea conditions long ago.
Since leaving the Pirate Alliance’s headquarters, they had already wandered the boundless Ash Gray Sea for more than ten years.
Nevertheless, they still had not found the legendary Mythological Seaway. However, they had already run into several dangerous situations. No one could let down their guard.
There was no life in this sea region. There were no islands around, either. Even the Demonic Dao factions in the Ash Gray Sea were nowhere to be found.
Xiao Suo and the Iron Hand Yama stood next to each other on the bow of the ship. As they looked at the black snow, they showed some worry and somewhat unsightly expressions.
“Captain, we still have not found that seaway… Are we lost?” the Iron Hand Yama asked sullenly, frowning heavily.
Xiao Suo took out a sea chart. After looking at it for a moment, he said, “The sea route is right. Perhaps the epoch has not started changing yet.”
That seaway that traveled past the end of the world, leading to the Great Beyond Sea, would appear only when the epoch changed.
However, going by logic, they had already wandered the Ash Gray Sea for a long time. The Martial Epoch should have already ended.
At this moment, many thoughts went through Xiao Suo’s mind.
He wondered whether his Big Brother Xiao Chen would emerge triumphant in the face of the epoch change.
He wondered how Xiao Chen would fend off the Black Dragon King. After leaving, he could not stop worrying about Xiao Chen.
Just at this moment, a black tornado suddenly appeared under the demonic clouds in the distance and swept over.
The expressions of Xiao Suo and the Iron Hand Yama changed at the same time.
“Damn it! This damned worm is here again!”
Xiao Suo called out sullenly, “Prepare for battle. Everyone, be careful.”
When that black tornado approached, one would be shocked to discover that it was not a tornado but a thick tentacle.
The demonic clouds seemed to hide a terrifying, mountain-sized beast. As it moved, it churned the demonic clouds for five thousand kilometers around.
“Bang!”
The demonic clouds let out an explosive sound like thunder. Endless black liquid poured out of the clouds like a waterfall, instantly covering the entire Scarlet Blood Warship.
Inside the bridge, Fei`er calmly maintained the defensive barriers.
When the black liquid touched the defensive barriers, it continuously eroded that energy barrier, producing a piercing sound.
This was the third time the group encountered this strange creature in the past ten years.
Even now, the crew of the Scarlet Blood Warship still did not know what this strange creature was. However, they barely escaped with their lives the previous times they met it.
“Pa!”
The black tentacle descended from the sky and lashed the defensive barrier like a whip.
The immense force tossed the large Scarlet Blood Warship into the air.
The crew on the ship felt the world spin as the force penetrated the energy barrier and struck their souls, causing them to grunt.
“Whoosh!”
A figure flew through the defensive barrier and charged into the sky.
“Captain!”
The Scarlet Blood Warship’s crew immediately let out startled cries.
Xiao Suo snorted coldly as he held the Scarlet Blood War Banner and soared into the sky, taking the initiative to clash with that black tentacle.
“Scarlet Blood inheritance, indomitable battle hunger!”
Xiao Suo’s indomitable battle hunger received a significant boost in the vast sea.
He swung the war banner and forcefully clashed with the black tentacle. Blood dyed the sky as he chopped off the black tentacle.
The chopped-off tentacle twisted like a snake as it fell into the sea.
However, after Xiao Suo chopped off this tentacle, more than a hundred tentacles came out of the clouds in the next moment, lashing towards him.
The tentacles moved extremely fast, leaving behind countless afterimages in the air.
“Pa! Pa! Pa!”
With so many tentacles, Xiao Suo found it hard to deal with all of them.
“Damn it! Let me see what exactly you are.”
Xiao Suo furiously chopped off a few tentacles before soaring higher, entering the demonic clouds.
The instant Xiao Suo entered the demonic clouds, the tentacles retracted.
He swung his war banner in the hazy clouds, parting them for five thousand kilometers around.
“Whoosh!”
When the demonic clouds parted, Xiao Suo saw a giant cuttlefish radiating overwhelming Demonic Qi enter a ghost pennant.
“A Demonic Dao expert?”
This stunned Xiao Suo. The master of this strange creature was actually a Demonic Dao expert.
However, this was not an ordinary Demonic Dao expert. The evil air that he gave off seemed different from that of all the Demonic Dao experts that Xiao Suo had ever seen.
“Boom!”
Just as Xiao Suo was about to give chase, the dense demonic clouds reformed, and that person’s figure disappeared.
Xiao Suo showed confusion on his face, not giving pursuit.
After returning to the Scarlet Blood Warship, Xiao Suo told the Iron Hand Yama everything he saw.
Feeling dubious and confused, the Iron Hand Yama said, “A Demonic Dao expert? How could there be such a strong Demonic Dao expert in the Ash Gray Sea? If there were one, that person would have ruled the Demonic Dao long ago.”
Xiao Suo nodded. “I was thinking the same as well. Just the ferocious beast he controlled was already so strong. In that case, how strong is he?”
“If he is really that strong, he could have wiped us out easily. Why did he not do that? The biggest question is, what exactly does this person want?”
The two felt a headache as they discussed it. The situation seemed even more troublesome than they imagined.
“Captain! The seaway appeared!” shouted Fei`er from the bridge. This startled Xiao Suo and the Iron Hand Yama, prompting them to run over.
The Scarlet Blood Warship’s entire crew gathered on the bridge.
The light screen in the bridge showed boundless seawater flowing endlessly to a section of the horizon. The water looked like it reached the ends of the world.
Xiao Suo took out the sea chart and said solemnly, “That’s right. This is the place.”
After one went past the ends of the world, one would reach the Great Beyond Sea, an unknown sea region that no one knew anything about.
“However, what if we flow down with the water and fall into a boundless abyss?” Luo Nan asked somewhat worriedly.
The endless sea seemed like someone chopped off a part of it. No one knew where they would end up by following the water down.
“There will never be an exit if we do not take risks.”
At this moment, there was no turning back.
Whether they were willing or not, the Scarlet Blood Warship could only keep heading forward; they had no other option.
The Scarlet Blood Warship’s crew did not notice a ship following them far behind.
A man and woman stood on the bow of that ship. They were the Black Lotus Holy Venerate Ming Xuan and the Azure Lotus Holy Daughter Yang Qing.
“Unexpectedly, the Pirate Alliance also knows the secret of the Door of the Epoch. I thought only the Black Lotus Church’s Ancestor knew about it.”
Ming Xuan frowned slightly, feeling somewhat surprised.
“What should we do now? Should we try to sink them?”
“Just carefully follow them. That Xiao Suo also possesses unfathomable strength. To think that he could even scare away that beast with its overwhelming Demonic Qi. Right now, we had best not act rashly.”
Ming Xuan and Yang Qing had also suffered that ferocious beast’s attacks before. They knew full well how terrifying that strange creature’s strength was.
However, Xiao Suo had charged alone into the demonic clouds with his banner and managed to scare away that horrifying beast.
Yang Qing gave Ming Xuan a probing look, unable to figure out what he was thinking. Since he had the Black Lotus Holy Scriptures, why did he need to be so cautious?
Yang Qing did not know what Ming Xuan was planning.
“Boom!”
The Scarlet Blood Warship in front fell with the seawater.
In the next moment, everything was suddenly quiet. The Scarlet Blood Warship landed firmly on a sea.
This sea looked clear and transparent, appearing dark blue. There were no clouds around for five thousand kilometers. Everything seemed serene and peaceful.
This stood in stark contrast to the vile sea conditions of the Ash Gray Sea.
“This place is…?”
The crew appeared at the ship’s bow, showing confused expressions, not knowing how they arrived in this sea.
Xiao Suo sized up his surroundings. After a while, he said, “Is this the Great Beyond Sea?”
“Captain! Look!” Senior Tang shouted, pointing to the sea.
Everyone saw many broken ships in the dark blue sea. All of them had Pirate Alliance banners on them.
The Iron Hand Yama took a look and said, “These…these should be our seniors from the past. That strange ferocious creature broke all these pirate ships. Did all the people that the Pirate Alliance sent out in the past die in the hands of that strange creature?”
Xiao Suo muttered to himself, “That seems right. The seniors of the past must have died in the hands of that beast.”
However, Xiao Suo felt suspicious. Why did we, of all people, succeed in reaching the Great Beyond Sea?
Was the master of that beast severely injured, so he chose to flee after I discovered him?
However, this was not the time to think about this.
The urgent thing at hand was to find the Door of the Epoch!
“Captain! Look!”
Fei`er pointed to the distance where a door of light was hovering in the center of the sea.
Xiao Suo said decisively, “Charge in.”
“Whoosh!”
Right after Xiao Suo spoke, the sea level suddenly dropped at an extremely fast speed.
Before anyone could react, the Scarlet Blood Warship started to fall towards that door of light.
As the sea level continuously decreased, everyone saw that the door of light stood above a tall mountain.
—
Earth, China, Mount Tai.
Mount Tai was known as the leader of the Five Sacred Mountains of the Daoists. It was a famous mountain that was deeply respected, never lacking in tourists.
On this particular day, many tourists had climbed to Mount Tai’s summit during the night.
They all excitedly awaited the sunrise. If one failed to catch the sunrise when coming to Mount Tai, one would regret it for life.
However, seeing the sunrise required luck. If one ran into poor weather, one could only return disappointed.
However, luck seemed to be on the tourists’ side on this day.
The weather was good; there would definitely be a beautiful dawn scene. The tourists only needed to wait for the sun to appear.
The exhausted tourists on the mountain could not repress their excitement. They all took out handphones and cameras, waiting for the moment of the sun’s majestic arrival.
When the morning sun rose in the east, peeking over the horizon, it dyed the sky red.
A rainbow ring—showing blue on the inside and red on the outside—appeared above the ethereal fog in the distance, looking like the seven-colored halo above Buddha’s image.
This scene was the most famous spectacle of Mount Tai’s sunrise, the Buddha halo of Mount Tai.
The beautiful scene shocked the incredibly excited tourists, rendering them speechless for a long time.
“Boom!”
However, just at this moment, a gigantic, ancient-style warship bathed in rainbow lights appeared. The initially scarlet warship glistened and dazzled, looking holy and divine under the illumination of the morning sun.
“My goodness!”
“A ship!”
The tourists at the summit were all stupefied. To think that they saw a ship.
Some people immediately took out their handphones and started dialing.
Some called the emergency number. Some called their friends. Some called media outlets or television channels.
“Hello, is this emergency? I’m at the summit of Mount Tai, and I saw a ship flying in the sky. It’s true! I’m not lying. What?! I’m crazy? I really saw it. There is a ship, an ancient-style ship. That’s right. Yes, yes, yes. It is flying in the sky. I’m a fool?!”
“I’m really not lying?!”
“Shandong Daily News? There really is a ship flying in the sky!”
“Run! Quick! That ship is going to fall!”
Suddenly, a colossal shadow shrouded the summit of Mount Tai, immediately flustering everyone. That ship seemed to be falling towards them.
If that ship really fell, half the people on Mount Tai would die.
“Whoosh!”
Just at this moment, a figure suddenly appeared in the air.
As this figure looked at the falling warship, he frowned slightly. Then, he quickly made a move. “Endless cycles!”
This figure then took a step forward, seeming to break some sort of barrier of the world. Then, he reappeared at the moment when the warship just appeared. Without waiting for another second, he took out the Divine Universe Stele and stored the ship in it.
Back in the present, the tourists on Mount Tai’s summit appeared confused.
They felt like they forgot something, having only a faint inkling of it. Some people said that they seemed to have seen a ship appear under the clouds in the distance.
Some people said it was an illusion. Some people said that it was just a cloud in a similar shape.
No one noticed that a white-clad youth had appeared at Mount Tai’s summit at some point in time, fiddling with a stone stele and quietly descending the mountain.
