Whoosh!
Waves rolled and clear waters surged as a large ship laden with passengers puffed smoke, sailing steadily across the sea.
Several hundred passengers were aboard, including ordinary folk struggling to make a living, merchants from north and south, and many fierce-looking martial artists carrying swords and sabers.
Changqingzi, the Sword Pavilion's eldest disciple, leaned against the railing, his long robe fluttering in the wind and his hair disheveled. He gazed into the distance as the great city of Haijin drew ever closer.
Even after several days, the memory of the Sword Pavilion's dragon vein collapsing still left Changqingzi unable to calm his heart.
At the time, he had truly considered slitting his own throat, returning to heaven and sacrificing himself for the Dao.
To the martial artists of this world, dragon veins were both Dharma and Dao, which was why crystallized dragon vein energy was also known as a "dao seed" or "golden core."
His thoughts tangled, Changqingzi sighed.
Dragon veins were the source of the supernatural. This had been an unassailable truth.
Yet from this day onward, that belief, which had endured for fifteen hundred years since the Immortal taught his arts, had been shattered. At this moment, the ages had been divided into old and new.
The martial artists' thousand-year quest for dragon veins had come to an end.
Who could have imagined that the Ancestral Dragon Vein would collapse, scattering numinous energy throughout heaven and earth?
And moreover-
"An art from Beyond the Heavens?" Changqingzi murmured. Turning his right palm over, he brought a newspaper before his eyes.
It was the Great Xuan News, the most widely distributed and extensively printed newspaper of the day, its copies reaching every corner of the world.
Its name alone made it clear that the newspaper fell directly under the