Apothecary examined Village Chief and grumbled, "Old age means you can't rely on your bones, and you barely have any left. Still insisting on showing off—happy now?"
Village Chief panted, "He was hurt worse than I was. I've fought almost every powerhouse from High Heaven."
"Listen to yourself bragging."
Apothecary first used needles to stabilize his wounds, shaking his head. "And yet someone still cut off your hands and feet with a sword, didn't they?"
"When I passed the Human Emperor mantle to Quinn, I knew this day would come—someone from High Heaven would come looking for him."
Village Chief's gaze grew distant. "High Heaven won't tolerate a living Human Emperor. I'm old, crippled, ruined—they don't care about me. But the new Human Emperor, they'll do anything to wipe him out. Star Lord Jonas is one of High Heaven's top powers. This time I stopped Jonas and made him back off, so whoever goes after Quinn next won't be someone that strong. He has to follow the rules. If he doesn't, I'll force them to."
Apothecary prepared medicine for him. "What about after you die? Will they still follow the rules then?"
Village Chief was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled. "Alive, I'm the Human Emperor; dead, I'll be a heroic ghost. Maybe this life will end, but my battle spirit stays evergreen. Maybe you should get out and see the world too."
Apothecary shivered, shaking his head. "I'm not going anywhere. If someone wants to go, let them."
Mount Sanctus, western lands.
Star Lord Jonas's chariot reached the summit. He forced his cultivation to surge, about to return to High Heaven, when suddenly he coughed up blood and collapsed in the chariot. His wounds burst open, and with difficulty he raised his hand to the four maidens: "Light incense..."
The four maidens were startled. The green-robed girl quickly took out three sticks of incense and lit them at the altar. Smoke curled upward, and after a moment, a face appeared in the sky, gazing down.
"I ran into the old Human Emperor."
Star Lord Jonas panted, "He's old and crippled, but still alive—and even stronger than before. He wounded me. What he means is: if the old generation goes after the new Human Emperor, he'll intervene. But for the younger generation, he won't interfere."
"He's still alive?"
The face in the sky showed surprise, and a distant, ethereal voice came down: "Star Lord, who do you propose High Heaven should send to eliminate the new Human Emperor?"
Star Lord Jonas replied, "Victor Bloom."
The face in the sky grew grave. "You want to mobilize Lord Bloom?"
Star Lord Jonas nodded. "The old man is dying, but the new Human Emperor is still young, not yet grown. If we eliminate him now, we'll cut off any future trouble."
A beam of light descended from the sky, shining on Star Lord Jonas, forming a road of radiance. The face above said, "Lord Bloom may not be willing to descend. You'll have to persuade him yourself."
Star Lord Jonas said to the four maidens, "Jade, Selena, Aurelia, Aurora, you will stay here and take my four treasures to assist Lord Bloom in killing the new Human Emperor. I'm returning to High Heaven. Lord Bloom will descend soon."
The four maidens answered and stepped down from the chariot. The two suanni beasts pulled the battered treasure carriage up the road of light, returning to High Heaven.
When the radiance faded, the four maidens exchanged glances. Jade said, "Master ordered us to follow Lord Bloom and kill the new Human Emperor, but we still don't know who the new Human Emperor is."
Selena said, "The report came from Loulan Golden Palace, so someone still needs to go there. Aurelia, Aurora, you two go to the Golden Palace. Jade and I will wait here for Lord Bloom to descend."
The other two girls nodded and went down the mountain. They didn't cross the Great Ruins, but instead traveled through the western lands, the Flame Desert, and the Snow-Peak Plateau, heading straight for Loulan Golden Palace.
Without Star Lord Jonas, they dared not enter the Great Ruins directly.
Eastern Sea.
Quinn Shepherd, Serena Yunxiang, and Lynn Ling drifted across the vast ocean. At night, the water suddenly shimmered as countless glowing fish surfaced, turning the sea into a field of jewels.
Quinn rode the rolling waves forward, and the glowing fish leaped from his surf one after another, racing ahead with the waves—a delightful sight.
Some fish had two whiskers on their foreheads, each tipped with a transparent, fist-sized bulb of flesh, resembling lanterns. At night, these bulbs glowed with a gentle light, so the locals called them lantern fish.
The lantern fish also had wing-like fins. When they burst from the waves, their four fins would flutter as they glided dozens of yards through the air before splashing back into the water.
Sometimes these strange fish would swim alongside them, fluttering their fins and floating nearby, lighting up the path across the sea.
Occasionally, some huge fish appeared, stretching one or two zhang long, flapping their fins and staring curiously at them.
Serena Yunxiang, ever playful, noticed that some of the big lantern fish had gained spiritual intelligence and tried to tease them. She taught them to speak, word by word, and to her surprise, one of the big fish actually spoke a couple of human phrases.
They also passed through the sea-folk's domain, where many mermaid girls surfaced, tails flicking as they followed their waves, swimming around them and singing beautiful love songs. The lyrics told of two girls falling for one boy, with all the moods and thoughts of the girls. Nearby, several sentient giant clams and other shell spirits drummed on their shells to accompany the song.
On the waves, Lynn Ling and Serena Yunxiang grew shy from the sea-girls' songs, sneaking glances at the boy beside them and feeling secretly annoyed.
They realized Quinn Shepherd wasn't focused on traveling or listening to the mermaids' lovely songs, but was lost in thought, absorbed in his own enlightenment.
They didn't know what he was contemplating. Though he wore a smile, his mind wasn't on the beautiful scenery or the girls at his side.
Quinn had spent the whole journey trying to comprehend a Six Directions–level Grand Unification Art, and in recent days had reached a critical moment.
"That bastard deserves to be single forever!" the two girls cursed him in their hearts at the same time.
The Dao Lord allowed Quinn Shepherd to study the Dao Sword for fourteen days, yielding significant gains. Though Dao Sword is a sword technique, it contains mathematical sword logic that could be integrated into many other arts—a valuable reference.
After another half hour, Quinn's yuanqi gradually waned, the waves slowed and shrank. Lynn Ling immediately took over, casting a spell to summon a water dragon that carried all three of them forward, its scales shimmering silver under the moonlight.
Quinn relaxed, standing atop the undulating water dragon, letting Lynn ferry him westward through the night sea.
The Six Directions Treasury brings immense advances to any cultivator: spells, sword arts, and battle skills all ascend to the level of divine abilities, their power multiplied, as if the whole world surges within your veins.
At this realm, your cultivation method must connect the Spirit Embryo Treasury, Five Luminaries Treasury, and Six Directions Treasury into one continuous circulation, mobilizing all three. Quinn's Overlord Three-Core Art has body but no method; the Woodcutter Sage's transmitted dao has method but no door; the Grand Fostering Heavenly Demon Sutra is all-encompassing but lacks unity. Yet together, they can form a complete, integrated system.
But Quinn's ambitions went further—he wanted to weave in the Nine-Dragon Emperor Art's transformations, the Grand Buddha Mahayana Scripture's unshakable stability, and Dao Sword's profound numerology, forging them into his own Grand Unification Art.
The Nine-Dragon Emperor Art excels at change. Emperor Evan himself passed him this art and guided his training. Though Quinn's time with it was brief, he already grasped its essence: endless transformation.
The Nine-Dragon Emperor Art's transformations depend on the mind. Divine dragons are infinitely varied; through their changes, one can manifest sword moves, spells, and battle skills from any sect—sometimes as fierce as thunder, sometimes as soft as mist.
The Grand Buddha Mahayana Scripture is famed for its stability. The old Buddha did not personally teach Quinn, but permitted him to study in the Courtyard of the Many Heavens. After reading all twenty heavens, Quinn mastered its unshakable core.
The Grand Buddha Mahayana Scripture's twenty heavens, each blessed by gods and demons, grant unparalleled steadiness—unmoving as Sumeru Mountain, enduring amidst chaos.
Dao Sword excels in numerological technique, using mathematics to reveal the nature of heaven and earth and the dao. By the Fourteenth Sword, it nears true dao—where calculation becomes creation.
If he could truly fuse these three arts and integrate their strengths into his Grand Unification method, his progress would be astonishing—perhaps forging the world's supreme scripture, a dao that could reshape all others.
Yet after days of effort, his harvest remained meager. The techniques he tried to merge were already world-class, each one a sect-suppressing pinnacle scripture, vast as the heavens and deep as the sea.
If he truly succeeded in merging them, wouldn't it be the world's number one scripture—an unrivaled dao?
I've been a bit greedy, Quinn admitted to himself.
Quinn suddenly realized he’d been drilling into a dead end. These arts were already nearly perfect; forcing a formal fusion was beyond him and, in a way, missed the true essence.
If that's the case, why make things so complicated? he thought, letting the sea breeze clear his mind.
What I truly want are the dao-principles hidden within these arts. If so, why insist on fusing their forms? Merging their underlying dao would be much simpler, like water flowing where it wills.
In the beautiful, mysterious night atop the sea, this insight suddenly cleared his heart. His mood lightened; the ocean before him and the women beside him seemed more vivid and enchanting, as if the world itself had grown larger.
Trying to forcibly merge techniques was something he couldn’t do and, in fact, missed the essence. But merging dao-principles instead of forms—that was much simpler, like the tide following the moon.
He understood this point and stopped forcing things, instead letting his cultivation follow spontaneity—whatever felt natural and comfortable, he practiced.
After leaving the sea-folk’s domain, the ocean grew quieter. A giant old sea turtle surfaced, its shell mottled with scars, and voluntarily offered them a ride.
The turtle was a seasoned cultivator, floating on the water like a drifting island. As it swam westward, it asked them all manner of cultivation questions, its voice deep and ancient.
Quinn and the two girls answered all his questions, resolving many doubts. The old turtle was delighted and invited them to be his guests. Quinn asked, “Sir, where is your home? Where will we be your guests?”
"I call all four seas my home," the old turtle replied, "but some of my children live on my back."
As the old turtle spoke, dozens of smaller turtles leapt from the waves, landing on his vast shell with gentle splashes.
"Light the lamps!" the old turtle called.
The old turtle smiled, and enormous luminous pearls embedded in his shell flared to life, bathing the turtle-island in soft, radiant light.
The turtles on his back rose up on their hind legs, forming a circle around Quinn, Lynn Ling, and Serena Yunxiang, singing and dancing, patting their bellies and shells in lively rhythm.
Serena Yunxiang pulled Quinn into the song and dance on the radiant shell. After a moment, Quinn dragged Lynn Ling in too. The princess was reserved at first, but soon relaxed and joined the revelry.
The lively sea-island celebration passed swiftly. As dawn broke, the old turtle said, "Land is near, my friends—here we part."
Quinn looked ahead and saw land not far away, a city and docks shrouded in gentle spring mist, the first light glimmering on the waves.
They leapt from the turtle’s back, landing lightly on the damp wooden dock.
"Goodbye!" The turtles on the shell waved their flippers, calling out in chorus.
"Goodbye!" Quinn waved back. Only after the old turtle vanished beneath the waves did they finally step into Harborstate City.
"Enchanting ocean," Lynn Ling murmured, her voice soft as the morning breeze.
Serena Yunxiang’s gaze grew dreamy. "Such a mesmerizing sea night... but once ashore, we step back into the red-dust world."