The Unimaginable Floating Sea!

"Floating Sea?" Isaac looked at the invitation that had been specially delivered to him, one brow rising slightly.

The Floating Sea was currently the hottest battleground between the Flesh Cult and the Mechanical Cult. There were even Fifth-Order legendary wizards stationed there on both sides!

For wizards, reaching the Fifth Order qualified one to receive the title of demigod. Of course, not every Fifth-Order Wizard could earn that title, but unfortunately, the two stationed there both possessed the title of demigod.

Naturally, demigods at that level would not act lightly, so they were merely confronting each other there.

Still, their presence alone was enough to show just how intense the Floating Sea Battle had become.

A battlefield of that level was still highly dangerous for Isaac to enter with his Third-Order strength. However, after some thought, Isaac ultimately chose to accept the Cult's invitation and participate in the Floating Sea Battle!

The reason was simple: the contributions awarded there were incredibly high!

Although he had already charged into the top ten, it was not yet time for the rankings to be finalized. Someone could catch up to him at any moment, just as he had stormed into the top ten with unstoppable momentum.

Isaac was confident, but never arrogant!

The Flesh Cult was an ancient and powerful wizard organization with an extremely broad sphere of influence. It not only had many geniuses, but also a highly mature system for nurturing talent. With such a vast base, producing one or two freakish monsters was perfectly normal.

It would not be strange at all if there were High Wizards stronger than Isaac.

After all...

How many years had Isaac even been a wizard?

This ranking included every High Wizard in the Cult, not merely those of Isaac's age.

So if he wanted to secure that Floating City construction blueprint, he still had to keep working hard. Grinding was the proper path!

Of course, that was only one reason for his participation. Another was that, according to the intelligence provided by the Cult, the Mad Wizard Prank Master was suspected to have appeared in the Floating Sea!

Though it was only a suspicion, it was still worth trying.

After all, his divine art had already reached great mastery. Though he had not yet reached the limit of a High Wizard, there were only a few among his peers who could confront him head-on. He should now have the strength to take revenge!

But even if he still lacked that strength, it did not matter. He could first find out what level that guy was at. With his current power, no one of the same rank could stop him if he wanted to leave!

Even Fourth-Order Wizards might not be able to do it!

However, Isaac knew too little about the methods of Fourth-Order Wizards, so he did not make any rash judgments.

Matters involving one's life and safety were indeed not something to judge carelessly.

Overall, though, it was worth a try.

Floating Sea, Flesh Temple, Teleportation Hall. Isaac and a burly man stepped out of the teleportation gate. As they looked around, solemn expressions appeared on their faces.

"So this is the current Floating Sea? It really is... terrifying!" Phoenix, who had emerged alongside Isaac, felt an incomparably dangerous aura coming from every direction, and his expression grew grave.

Isaac nodded. As a wizard, he could see far more than Phoenix. The Magic Arrays engraved here had reached an utterly insane level!

Although many were Magic Arrays he had not mastered, with Isaac's knowledge, it was still quite easy for him to roughly determine their effects and power. There was only one word for them—invincible!

Within the range covered by those Magic Arrays, High Wizards could basically be killed at will!

As for anything beyond that...

Isaac did not know. However, according to the Cult forum, the Magic Arrays and various war Treasure Items arranged around the Flesh Temple could jointly contend against Fifth-Order legendary wizards. If a Fifth-Order legendary wizard personally presided over them, their power would increase severalfold!

At that moment, Isaac somewhat understood why the battle in the Floating Sea had remained deadlocked for so long. The Flesh Cult's forces were so formidable that the Mechanical Cult's could not possibly be any weaker.

When both sides' headquarters were as solid as iron barrels, the battle was bound to enter a stalemate.

Though shocked by the terrifying power of the Magic Arrays within the Flesh Temple, Isaac and Phoenix did not linger there for long. They soon left the Teleportation Hall and went to register their identities first.

Isaac was fine. He was already a member of the Cult and had been invited to join this battle, so the Temple's Magic Arrays would not do anything to him. Phoenix, however, was different.

After all, he was a member of the Truth Association. Though the Truth Association itself maintained a neutral stance, that neutrality was precisely what made it more worthy of vigilance. It meant it had connections with both the Flesh Cult and the Mechanical Cult. Who could guarantee that this Truth Association member entering here did not lean toward the other side?

The Truth Association was huge and had many members. Reality was not a game; its members would not share the exact same stance as their organization like NPCs.

Therefore, as long as one was not a member of the Flesh Cult, they had to report their presence and be monitored upon entering this place!

Even though Phoenix had come at Isaac's invitation to participate in this battle, he still had to undergo the Flesh Cult's inspection before formally joining the fight. Only after passing could he fight alongside Isaac.

Before long, Isaac brought Phoenix to the inspection hall. Compared to the other bustling places in the Temple, the inspection hall was rather quiet.

That was because the inspections here were far too thorough. They were so thorough that not only knights and Witches, but even wizards themselves would feel uncomfortable. Thus, the Flesh Cult's forces in the Floating Sea were mainly composed of wizards, with very few outside reinforcements.

There was no helping it. The battle over the Floating Island was extremely important, and many times, failure could stem from mishandling the smallest details.

But while others had such concerns, Phoenix did not. Though the inspection was somewhat detailed, it was still only a normal examination. The Flesh Cult would not use the data for anything. The inspections he underwent at the Truth Association were far more detailed, and he knew perfectly well that those data were used for research.

Some studied his authority, and naturally, others studied how to deal with him.

Phoenix understood this perfectly well, but he simply did not care. As long as it could improve his strength, anything was negotiable. As for what if they developed a method to counter him...

Simple. He only needed to become strong enough!

Phoenix was extremely confident in that regard!

Thus, with all those factors combined, he did not care much about being thoroughly examined. He was already used to it.

In the end, under the astonished gazes of the inspection hall staff, Phoenix walked out of the Magic Array looking utterly refreshed. Ever since the Endless Sea had fallen into chaos, he had been constantly rushing from place to place. Some were missions assigned by the Association, while others were invitations like Isaac's. In short, he had been extremely busy, and it had been a long time since he had undergone such an inspection.

Having one out of the blue like this was rather nostalgic...

"All done? There shouldn't be any problems, right?" Phoenix asked curiously as he looked at the report in Isaac's hand.

"Why would you ask something like that? Don't you know whether there's a problem or not?" Isaac asked curiously as he put away the report.

Naturally, there was nothing wrong with Phoenix. Isaac was simply curious why this guy would ask such a question.

"Because I don't know what the Association may have put inside my body," Phoenix said as if it were only natural.

"...You're... impressive!" Isaac shook his head and silently gave him a thumbs-up. Then he said, "Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with you. Everything is normal. The Truth Association didn't put anything in your body either, at least not anything detected here."

"As long as there's no problem." Phoenix nodded. He seemed concerned only with whether he could pass, so he quickly asked again, "What are we doing now?"

"Now..." Isaac glanced at the bustling Flesh Temple and smiled slightly. The Magic Book appeared before him. "Naturally, we go straight to doing missions."

The Magic Book in Isaac's hand flipped by itself without any wind, pages rustling loudly. It stopped after a short while, and strings of information continuously scrolled across its pages.

These were all the missions in the Floating Sea Battle.

Compared to before, Isaac could now see far more missions. This was not only because the battle had escalated and become more intense, but also because Isaac's authority had increased somewhat.

However, although there were now more missions available, there were actually far fewer types than before. This was the Floating Sea, and combat was the theme here, so the missions were naturally quite uniform.

It was unlike before, when there were not only defensive missions but also purely production-related missions that were extremely safe.

Of course, as the danger increased, the rewards became exceptionally generous. Combat missions in the Floating Sea not only awarded more contributions, but each mission's rewards were also exceedingly rich!

With only a quick glance, Isaac spotted many materials that could be used to construct a Floating City!

Quite a few of them were even core materials!

Of course, even though they were all combat missions, the targets of Floating Sea missions differed from those before. Previously, there had mainly been two kinds of combat missions. One was ambushing the Mechanical Cult's ambush teams, while the other was the resource-plundering operations Isaac had completed the most.

The combat missions in the Floating Sea were different. Here, it was nothing but killing!

Lock down an area, then kill every person within it who was not on the Flesh Cult's side!

The reason for such extremity was mainly tied to the Floating Sea's unique nature.

The Floating Sea derived its name from two reasons. First, it was a sea located in the sky. Beneath its seabed was not solid land, but empty sky. Below that sky lay the Endless Sea's ordinary oceans.

A sea floating in the air—this was one origin of the Floating Sea's name.

The other was related to what the Floating Sea produced.

As a creation of the Great Wizard, the Endless Sea contained countless secret treasures and wondrous sights. The Floating Sea was one of them. A sea floating in the sky was already miraculous, but even more miraculous was that it could give birth to islands capable of floating in the sky as well—Floating Islands!

That was right. The Floating Sea's special resource was the Floating Island, an important material for constructing the ultimate weapon known as the Floating City!

Though Floating Islands were not indispensable materials for constructing a Floating City, having them would undoubtedly greatly reduce the cost and difficulty of construction!

The fact that it naturally produced such a special resource as Floating Islands already made the Floating Sea incredibly important. What drove people even madder was that it produced them at no slow pace!

According to the research of the Cult's wizards, Floating Islands in the Floating Sea could be created in two ways. One was natural incubation: gathering the magical power of the four elements and forming an island from nothing. This method required no effort, as it would gather on its own, but it was slow. Even with the Endless Sea's concentration of magical power, a Floating Island meeting the minimum standard would take at least ten years to form.

Of course, that speed was not actually slow. It was already enough to drive many wizard organizations mad.

Ten years was nothing to supernatural beings. It would pass in the blink of an eye.

But besides natural incubation, there was an even faster method: moving ordinary islands into the Floating Sea and using the Floating Sea's special magical power to assimilate those ordinary islands, turning them into acquired Floating Islands!

Compared to the first method of natural incubation, the second was vastly superior!

Not only was the time dramatically shortened, assimilating a Floating Island meeting the minimum standard did not even require half a year!

Furthermore, such Floating Islands were no different from normal Floating Islands!

How could such a heaven-defying trait not drive people mad?

Fortunately, the Flesh Cult had been the first to discover this sea region. They had occupied it early on. Although other forces had become extremely covetous after discovering it, they ultimately chose not to join the struggle out of fear of the Flesh Cult's terrifying strength. Otherwise, the current battle would have been even livelier and more chaotic!

After all, the Endless Sea still contained many undiscovered treasures and wondrous sights. There was no need to devote too much energy to this place—except for the Mechanical Cult...

They had already been hostile toward the Flesh Cult. Now, they naturally could not sit by and watch the Flesh Cult possess such a treasure trove. Thus, battle erupted at once and quickly spiraled out of control!

Before long, Isaac selected a suitable mission from the dense flood of missions—attack Incubation Field A1976. The mission was simple: kill and destroy!

Kill every Mechanical Cult wizard and construct in the area, then destroy every Floating Island currently being incubated, as well as those already incubated but not yet taken away!

Simple and brutal, with no technical difficulty whatsoever.

And if one was strong enough, it could be carried out extremely efficiently.

However, Isaac and Phoenix would not be the only members carrying out this mission. The Floating Sea was unlike other places. Third Order was merely the baseline combat strength here. Any slightly important location was generally guarded by Fourth-Order Miracle Wizards, sometimes more than one!

A place incubating Floating Islands was naturally an important location. Thus, Isaac and Phoenix would not be the main force responsible for killing. Their primary task was destruction.

As for the killing...

That would naturally be handled by the other two Fourth-Order Wizards.