When Disaster Strikes, Compassion Endures

"Today's foundation inauguration ceremony went very well. It was a complete success and gave us an excellent start for the future!"

"But it was only a beginning!"

"The subsequent development is equally crucial!"

"At this early stage, our foremost task is actually just one thing!"

Wang Mu said seriously.

Nie Tingting asked, "What is it?"

Wang Mu said, "The Ascension Convention!"

Nie Tingting was somewhat confused. "Haven't you already held Ascension Conventions on the five large islands nearby?"

"What does that amount to?"

Wang Mu chuckled and shook his head. "The islands of the Northern Region are as numerous as stars. These five islands are only the beginning!"

Wang Mu had already begun to taste the benefits of investing in mortals.

To outsiders, this was large-scale throwing money around—a complete waste, utterly not worth it.

But only Wang Mu himself knew.

He had spent his money right on the blade's edge.

At present, the four to five hundred thousand Cultivators across the five islands he had invested in were helping him cultivate and providing him returns almost every moment.

It had only been half a month since Wang Mu broke through into the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Yet he could already clearly feel it.

He was not far from the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.

One had to know that for an ordinary Cultivator to break through from the early stage to the middle stage, it took three to five years at the shortest, eight to ten years at the longest. Some might even remain stuck there for their entire lives.

What was more, the quality of Wang Mu's spiritual power surpassed that of an Earth Immortal.

The difficulty of breaking through was as different as heaven and earth.

Yet his cultivation speed remained this ferocious.

That was the benefit of having quantity enough to fill one's belly.

Still, Wang Mu did not dare relax.

After all, he was not racing against ordinary Cultivators, but against Children of Luck born with destiny.

Those fellows never played by common sense.

Every last one of them was a cheat-user!

So five islands were still far from enough!

Upon hearing Wang Mu's words.

Nie Tingting's lovely eyes opened wide. "Young Master, you... don't actually intend to hold the Ascension Convention throughout the entire Northern Region, do you?"

Wang Mu asked in return, "Why not?"

Nie Tingting found it unbelievable. "Even with the wealth of the Langya Merchant Association, it would be impossible to support such an undertaking!"

"You are wrong!"

Wang Mu looked calmly at Nie Tingting and smiled faintly. "Not the Langya Merchant Association! What we must do is gather the wealth under heaven and use it for all under heaven! So long as the wealth under heaven never runs dry, the Ascension Convention will never cease!"

Gather the wealth under heaven and use it for all under heaven?

What an enormous claim!

Nie Tingting's red lips parted slightly. She was stunned by those words.

Was this the grand blueprint in his heart?

He simply did not place the other merchant associations in his eyes at all!

"After working all day, I am tired as well! Read through what is on this paper carefully first. If there is anything you do not understand, ask me later!"

With his hands behind his back, Wang Mu slowly walked down the steps.

"Young Master!"

Nie Tingting's voice suddenly came from behind him. "May I ask why you insist so strongly on holding the Ascension Convention?"

Wang Mu looked back and looked upwards.

The girl stood atop the steps, her red robes blazing like fire. Her autumn-water eyes were full of moisture as she stared fixedly into Wang Mu's eyes.

She seemed to be incomparably eager for the answer she was about to hear.

At such a moment.

Wang Mu knew that he had no choice but to put on this act!

He turned around, returned to the desk, picked up a brush, and swept out a line of words on a blank sheet of paper.

"To establish the heart of heaven and earth, to secure the lives of the common people, to continue the lost teachings of the sages of old, and to open an age of great peace for all generations to come!"

At the sight of that line.

Nie Tingting sucked in a sharp breath. Her beautiful eyes sparkled as countless ripples surged within them, while it felt as though ten thousand sea beasts were crashing through her heart.

Her full chest rose and fell violently, as though it would burst through her clothes the next second.

"As the saying goes, the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility!"

Wang Mu raised his head and gazed at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle. "Perhaps this is the responsibility I must bear as the Young Master Wang!"

After saying that.

He slowly walked down the steps and, with a sweep of his sleeve, left the great hall.

He left behind only the dimly lit hall.

The girl stood alone in the high place, looking in the direction he had departed for a long time, lost in thought.

As though something had struck her heart.

Changlan Island.

The seaside dock.

Merchant ships were moored along the shore, while large numbers of mortals bustled up and down, constantly loading and unloading cargo.

There were also quite a few fishing households returning from the sea.

They dragged heavy fishing nets ashore, joy written across every face. Clearly, this haul had been abundant enough that their entire families would not have to worry about food or drink for the better part of a year.

Suddenly.

A muffled peal of thunder sounded in the clear skies stretching ten thousand miles.

Several fishermen looked up blankly. There was not even a patch of Dark Cloud in the sky, so where had the thunder come from?

As though responding to their thoughts.

The sky darkened the very next moment.

An enormous Dark Cloud drifted over from afar, blotting out the sunlight. Heaven and sea became a stretch of gloom, and a suffocating pressure filled the air.

"Wave... wave..."

A young, dark-skinned man suddenly pointed at the Dark Cloud in the distance. Terror covered his face, and he could not even speak clearly.

"What wave?"

The person beside him raised a hand to shield his forehead and squinted towards the distance.

He looked carefully several times.

Then his expression changed instantly.

What covered half the sky was not a Dark Cloud at all.

It was clearly a Giant wave of unknown height, connecting heaven and earth as it flooded in from afar.

The Giant wave was pitch-black.

As if it were ink, with countless enormous shadows seemingly darting through it, exuding an indescribable pressure.

Everyone's expressions turned terrified.

That was not an ordinary sea wave!

Countless gigantic creatures were hidden in the seawater!

Sea Demons!

"The Sea Demons are attacking the island—"

No one knew who shouted it.

The entire beach fell into chaos. Some ran, some screamed, some stumbled and fell.

But they were far too slow. How could they possibly outrun a Giant wave that connected heaven and earth?

In the blink of an eye.

An unknown number of billions of jin of seawater crashed down from high in the sky, shattering the island's formations as unimaginable amounts of water poured onto the island.

Sea Demons covered the sky and earth as they rode the seawater onto the island.

The disaster had begun.

The islands of the Northern Region were as numerous as stars.

There were also many Cultivators.

But aside from a few territories such as the Northern Darkness Sacred Ground and the Langya Merchant Association, the other places ultimately did not belong to the Human Race.

In this boundless sea, from ancient times until now, the true Protagonists had always remained beneath the waves.

Sea Demons attacking human islands was not uncommon in the Northern Region.

There were countless such cases every year.

This time was no exception. Aside from the Demon Race that landed on the island being somewhat stronger, there was nothing unusual about it.

The island's Cultivators fought for an entire day and night.

At last, they drove back the Sea Demons. The tide receded as well, leaving behind ruins and devastation everywhere.

The surviving mortals looked at the incomplete corpses of their relatives around them and wailed aloud.

After finally finding two surviving relatives, they discovered that their injuries were so severe that they had only a breath left. There was no difference from being dead.

A small sect.

Had now become ruins.

A young Cultivator struggled to crawl to his feet. Looking at the devastation before him, his eyes were full of disbelief and sorrow.

"Senior Brother... Senior Sister... Master?"

"Where are you?"

"Answer me!"

He had only recently entered the Cultivation World and joined this small sect.

The sect was not large. Including its master, it had only a little over twenty members.

But it had been warm.

Every Senior Brother and Senior Sister had taken good care of him, teaching him cultivation, teaching him to hunt Demonic Beasts, and spending their own money to buy him robes and pills.

But now, everything was gone.

Covered in blood, he crawled and rolled through the collapsed Mountain Gate. His voice had gone hoarse from shouting.

At last, he found a familiar figure.

It was the Senior Brother who had doted on him most. Once graceful and elegant, he had now lost an arm, his Dantian torn apart by something unknown, and was barely clinging to life.

He wanted to save his Senior Brother.

But there was not a single thing he could do.

Several streaks of light flew across the sky. They were Cultivators from the island's largest faction, their cultivation profound.

He seemed to see hope. His eyes lit up as he knelt on the ground and cried out loudly.

But they merely scanned them indifferently and did not pause in the slightest.

Again and again.

He fell into despair, and the light in his eyes dimmed.

"Don't... waste your strength..." his Senior Brother said weakly. "In the Cultivation World... life and death are fated... they have nothing... to do with anyone..."

"No!"

The young Cultivator wept bitterly, pounding the ruins heavily as he raised his head and shouted at the sky, "I beg you, can someone come save us... save us..."

Rumble!

A low roar came from the sky.

Like a raging beast's bellow.

It drew nearer and nearer.

The young Cultivator looked up in astonishment, only to see enormous Flying Ships breaking through the clouds from afar.

A banner hung from every Flying Ship.

"The Langya Charity Foundation, together with all Daoist Friends of Heavenly Severing Island, is willing to weather this hardship alongside our brothers in the Disaster Area!"

"Through wind and rain in the same boat, let us rebuild our home together!"

"When disaster strikes, compassion endures!"

"..."