At this, Serena Yunxiang herself was taken aback, murmuring, "Could this place once have been land? But that's impossible—there's nothing in our Holy Cult's history about such an absurd geographic change..."
The Cult of the Heavenly Demon has existed for twenty thousand years—a staggeringly long time—but in all those years, the Eastern Sea has always been the Eastern Sea. There was never any claim that it used to be land.
As for the history of the Everpeace Empire, it's even shorter, so there's no way they would know when the Eastern Sea changed.
"This stretch of sea is incredibly deep—even for Six Directions–realm cultivators like us, swimming here is barely tolerable. At the very least, it's a thousand zhang deep."
Quinn Shepherd stepped up to the massive cauldron, extended a finger, and sent out a thread of yuanqi straight upward. After a moment, he withdrew his qi, his expression grave. "It's even deeper than I thought—one thousand six hundred fifty-two zhang. Since this is a mountain god, there should be a mountain, and this temple ought to be built on Qu Mountain itself. Any mountain worthy of enshrining a god must be at least a thousand zhang tall..."
Serena Yunxiang and Lynn Ling immediately understood what he meant—the Qu Mountain God Temple must be located on Qu Mountain, and the surrounding area should have been a vast expanse of land.
Then came the great upheaval—the land turned into a boundless sea!
And the land where Qu Mountain once stood must have sunk two or three thousand zhang beneath the waves!
Just imagine—if the entire Everpeace Empire were struck by a sudden earthquake, sinking three thousand zhang and swallowed up by a deluge, what would that look like?
The continent where the Qu Mountain God Temple stands must have experienced just such a terrifying catastrophe.
Quinn Shepherd glanced around. Judging by this absurdly oversized cauldron, the owner must have been refining pills here—then disaster struck, and he never had time to retrieve the spirit pills inside.
Quinn peered into the cauldron and saw a few shattered metal fragments—likely the remains of broken weapons.
He jumped inside to take a closer look. The weapons inside were smashed to bits—nothing useful remained. But the patterns on the cauldron wall caught his attention: they were runes, yet unlike any he'd seen before, with a strange, alien beauty.
"This cauldron isn't from this era. Its runes are somewhat similar to those found in the Great Ruins, but they're also different."
After examining it for a while, he jumped back out.
Quinn dried off, took the lead, and said, "Drake Dandy took all our spirit weapons. We're unarmed—this could get dangerous. Stay alert."
Lynn Ling and Serena Yunxiang followed close behind. Lynn said, "The Six Directions Treasury can gestate spirit weapons—they fit better than any external weapon. If we can refine Six Directions spirit weapons, we should be able to defend ourselves."
Quinn was slightly taken aback. "How do you gestate spirit weapons?" he asked.
He'd once heard Serena Clearbrook, that great demon, mention it—she said spirit weapons are treasures gestated by the Six Directions Treasury. But he'd never understood how a treasury could produce a spirit weapon.
He still knew far too little about the Six Directions realm.
Serena Yunxiang exclaimed, "Cult Master, even you don't know this? Abbess Huifa at the Six Directions Hall lectured about the Six Directions Treasury gestating spirit weapons."
Quinn shook his head. "I've only been to the Six Directions Hall once—and I got kicked out to stand in the corner with you as soon as I arrived."
Serena recalled standing in the corner with him and couldn't help but smile.
Lynn Ling said, "Saying the Six Directions Treasury gestates spirit weapons is really just shorthand. What it produces is the form of a spirit weapon—form without substance. As long as you activate your technique, you can see yuanqi gathering in the Six Directions Treasury and transforming into the shape of a spirit weapon."
She activated the Nine-Dragon Emperor Art and said, "I trained under Libationer Barrett and took the path of merging martial and magical arts. My spirit weapon takes the shape of nine dragons."
She released her spirit weapon's form—a chorus of dragon roars echoed as nine dragons soared and circled around her. Then, behind her, the dragon heads converged, their bodies coiling together to form a massive hammer, over a zhang and a half long, with a head as large as a small mountain.
Serena Yunxiang looked surprised. "Princess Lynn, your spirit weapon is a hammer?"
"Not just that."
Lynn Ling explained, "I've taken the path of merging martial and magical arts, studying whether the Nine-Dragon Emperor Art can unify combat skills and spells. So this nine-dragon hammer is just one form of my spirit weapon—the nine dragons can separate and take other shapes. Saintess Serena, what's your spirit weapon's form?"
Serena Yunxiang smiled gently, activated her technique, and yuanqi streamed from her Six Directions Treasury, forming a thread of silk. That thread twisted and changed, weaving around her like a chain. She laughed, "This is my spirit weapon's form. Cult Master, what's yours?"