On the beach.
Hu Yong, Shangguan Yun, Shangguan Yu, Nan Ming, and the other Xiantian Lifeforms of the Jade Dragon Army's First Squad stood watching the dark sea, their faces etched with worry.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three figures came swooping down from the peak of Crouching Ox Island.
"What happened?" Ju Wei's gaze swept over the crowd before settling on Hu Yong, who stood at the front.
"The commander went into the sea to train, and he's been gone for nearly an hour." Hu Yong spoke urgently. "Please, three honored ones, think of a way to help."
Earlier, when Zhou Hao went into the sea, Shangguan Yun, Nan Ming, and the others had waited to see how long their commander could last.
But after nearly half an hour passed without Zhou Hao coming back to the surface, and their shouts went unanswered, they had panicked.
When Hu Yong arrived and saw what was happening, he was at a loss, too.
Even Shangguan Yun and Nan Ming, both late-stage Xiantian God-Devil Body Refiners, couldn't last more than a moment underwater. He wouldn't fare any better!
Hoping for the best, they waited another half an hour. When nearly an hour had passed without any sign of him, Hu Yong knew they couldn't wait any longer.
The three Purple Mansion Cultivators were the most powerful people on Crouching Ox Island. If anyone could bring their commander back, it had to be them.
"Absurd! There's a Sea Eye deep in the waters around Crouching Ox Island. Not only is it bitterly cold, the whirlpools surging out of it have tremendous crushing power. How could a Xiantian Lifeform dare plunge into those waters so recklessly?" Ju Wei thundered.
"What good is all that talk? Hurry up and figure out how to save him!" Shangguan Yun said anxiously.
He'd been the one to suggest training underwater. If he'd caused the commander's death, he'd never be able to atone for it, even if he died a hundred times.
"Save him? Who's going to do that?" Zhu Sheng said with a mirthless smile. "Even a powerful God-Devil Body Refining Purple Mansion Cultivator wouldn't dare claim they could survive in water this cold. The three of us are Qi Refining Purple Mansion Cultivators. Our bodies are only a little stronger than yours. How are we supposed to save him?"
Everyone fell silent.
"Brother Qiu Ming, do you have any Gu that can withstand the cold?" Ju Wei asked after a moment's thought, turning to the middle-aged man who'd remained silent.
The middle-aged man had an ordinary face and a stiff, lifeless expression. If his eyes didn't move, anyone who didn't know better might have thought he was not a living person, but a statue.
"I'll try." Honored Qiu Ming flipped back his robe, revealing a miniature bamboo basket, no larger than his palm, fastened at his waist.
"Come out."
Black light rippled across the surface of the seemingly ordinary little basket. Then a menacing centipede, black all over with three long golden stripes along its back, darted out.
The Three-Striped Centipede grew as soon as it left the basket, swelling in the wind until, in the blink of an eye, it was more than twenty zhang long.
"Go."
Honored Qiu Ming barked the command and pointed at the sea. The enormous Three-Striped Centipede shot toward the water.
Splash!
The centipede plunged the front half of its body into the sea, while the countless hooked legs on its rear half clung tightly to the ice on the beach.
Hu Yong, Shangguan Yun, and the others watched hopefully, wishing that this extraordinary-looking Gu centipede could bring Zhou Hao back.
Honored Qiu Ming closed his eyes. Using a secret technique, he joined his soul with the Gu and searched for Zhou Hao in the icy-cold sea.
Before long, the Three-Striped Centipede had searched several places without success. As time passed, even its hard black shell had taken on a somewhat pale gray hue.
"I can't find him." Honored Qiu Ming shook his head.
"What's the point of looking? It's been more than an hour. Even a body-refining Purple Mansion Cultivator would be dead by now," Zhu Sheng said coldly. "We'd better report this to the city lord and let him decide."
"You!" Shangguan Yun glared at Zhu Sheng, furious, his eyes practically spitting fire.
Hu Yong and the others were grinding their teeth in anger, too.
It was bad enough that he wouldn't help. Now he was standing there making snide remarks. What a bastard!
"There's nothing else we can do." Honored Ju Wei thought it over and saw no other option. He turned to return to his residence on the mountaintop and send a message to Jade Dragon City.
Crouching Ox Island was more than thirty thousand li from Jade Dragon City, far beyond the range of their communication tokens. They could only contact the city through the communication array they'd set up.
Seeing that everyone had fallen silent, Honored Zhu Sheng felt immensely satisfied.
Ha! Serves him right!
That kid had been so disrespectful.
He got what he deserved!
Good riddance!
The Jade Dragon Army's new commander, on his first military assignment, had drowned at sea...
Honored Zhu Sheng turned toward the ocean, afraid he might burst out laughing.
But the moment he looked, his expression changed.
About a li from the beach, a figure suddenly shot out of the sea.
After leaping into the air, the figure landed steadily on the surface and strode toward the beach.
"It's the commander!" Hu Yong took a closer look and cried out in delight. "The commander's all right!"
Everyone turned to look. Even Ju Wei, who had just brought out his giant sword magic treasure, hurriedly turned around.
By then, Zhou Hao had already strode half a li. A fire dragon, as thick as an arm, coiled around his bare upper body, driving away the chill within him.
"So handsome~~~" Watching Zhou Hao stride across the sea with a fire dragon circling him, Shangguan Yu felt her heart pounding wildly.
The others didn't have the same girlish thoughts as she did, but seeing Zhou Hao tread beneath his feet the frigid sea that had left everyone helpless—not to mention all three Purple Mansion Cultivators—they were shaken speechless for a long while.
"Why are you all gathered here? Did something happen?" Zhou Hao stepped onto the beach.
In that short one-li journey, the fire dragon had driven the chill from his body, so he stopped controlling it and let it dissipate.
"We gathered here because of you!" Looking at Zhou Hao's young, strong body, Zhu Sheng's jealousy only grew. He shouted in a shrill voice, "Commander Zhou, you're supposed to be guarding the island. What were you doing in the sea? We thought you were dead and were about to report it to the city lord."
"Do I have to report what I do to you?" Zhou Hao found his pompous airs even more repulsive and answered coldly.
He was just a retainer, a hired thug kept by the City Lord's Mansion. Zhou Hao called him "honored one" out of courtesy. Without that courtesy, what could Zhu Sheng do about it?
As commander of the Jade Dragon Army, Zhou Hao was one of Jade Dragon City's own. In status, he ranked below only True Person Muxuan, who held both the posts of city lord and general, and the two deputy generals.
He wasn't about to humiliate himself just to appease a retainer.
Zhu Sheng was so angry he nearly burst into flames. But when he saw the Golden Crow and Moon Rabbit Divine Patterns on Zhou Hao's back, he didn't dare say another word.
A young prodigy who could cultivate the first God-Devil Body Refining technique, the Chiming Nine Heavens Map, to the Xiantian realm was a treasure in any major power, sect, or clan.
He was nothing like Zhu Sheng, who'd lived for more than three hundred years and had only just reached the middle stage of the Purple Mansion realm.
"Haha."
Seeing Zhu Sheng's face turn red with anger while he held his tongue out of caution, Honored Ju Wei couldn't help laughing. Then he changed his tune. "It's a relief that Commander Zhou Hao is all right. Haha."
Zhou Hao took the Black Jade Dragon Armor from his storage treasure and put it on. Hu Yong then sent him a message, explaining what had happened.
"Many thanks to Honored Ju Wei and Honored Qiu Ming for your trouble." Zhou Hao clasped his hands and bowed to them. Seeing that Honored Qiu Ming's Three-Striped Centipede looked badly weakened, he felt especially grateful.
Though he was unharmed, the trouble had happened because he hadn't explained his plans in advance.
"It was nothing." Honored Qiu Ming nodded slightly, took out a few pills, and fed them to the Three-Striped Centipede before putting it back in the basket.
"I'm truly impressed that you could stay in water that cold for more than an hour, Commander Zhou Hao," Honored Ju Wei said with a smile.
"But if you go underwater to train again, be sure not to venture too deep. There's a Sea Eye at the bottom of these waters. According to the message left by the Jade Dragon City seniors who discovered this place, that Sea Eye is the source of the waters for ten thousand li around. The undercurrents there are far stronger than anywhere else in the region."
"Thank you for the warning, Honored Ju Wei. I'll be careful and stay away from it," Zhou Hao said with a nod.
A Sea Eye was where seawater flowed out.
Just as springs had their sources and wells had their shafts, seawater didn't simply appear from nowhere.
Aside from rainwater flowing down from the skies, most of it came from water continuously gushing out of Sea Eyes on the ocean floor, gradually gathering to form the sea.
Of course, a Sea Eye that sourced the waters for a mere ten thousand li was only a small one. To true Earth Immortals and Loose Immortals, it was nothing special.
The Sea Eye of the entire East Sea would be a truly rare and wondrous sight.
It was said that even Earth Immortals and Loose Immortals couldn't approach the true Sea Eye of the East Sea. Its terrifying power of Heaven and Earth could easily tear their bodies to shreds, leaving even their souls no chance to escape.
Besides source Sea Eyes, there were also enormous pits on the ocean floor where countless seawater currents poured in at all times—swallowing Sea Eyes, another wondrous sight unique to the sea.
After the three Purple Mansion retainers left, Zhou Hao calmed his soldiers and returned to his residence in the courtyard on the mountaintop.
"More than an hour of cultivation saved me at least two High-Grade Origin Stones." Sitting cross-legged in the quiet room, Zhou Hao sensed that the True Essence within him had grown even more robust, and felt quite pleased.
Besides, with the combined pressure of the cold and the weight of the water, the process of circulating his cultivation method to refine the impurities from the Heaven and Earth Essence in the water had also invisibly tempered and strengthened his meridians.
The hidden dangers from his previous rapid breakthrough had now been eliminated. More importantly, he seemed to see countless wisps of Blue Flower Water Vapor filling Blue Flower Space—and they hadn't even been produced by consuming High-Grade Origin Stones.
"The divine power in my cells has improved quite a bit, too. That fool Shangguan Yun wasn't wrong—training in the sea really is remarkably effective."
Zhou Hao immediately decided that he couldn't waste this month.
For everyone else, the waters around Crouching Ox Island were like a forbidden wasteland.
But for Zhou Hao, this place was a veritable treasure trove!
Today was our little divine beast's eighth birthday. The family's all going to eat together this afternoon.
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