Keep Pushing Me and I'll Deal with You

Qing Xuan had already made some preliminary plans regarding the choice of a cultivation ground with Qing Yi.

However, before the Dragon-Han Tribulation fully erupted, the two of them planned to make another trip to the East Sea after improving their cultivation.

Their destination was precisely the three immortal islands.

The East Sea was so vast that it seemed nearly boundless.

After Qing Xuan and Qing Yi left Buzhou Mountain and headed east, several thousand more years passed before they truly entered these waters, yet they still found no trace of the Three Immortal Islands.

The memories of his past life could actually tell Qing Xuan very little.

Beyond the sea lay three mountains: Penglai, Fangzhang, and Yingzhou.

The three islands were hidden in the depths of the East Sea, concealed by an Innate Grand Formation. Only those with fate could behold them.

As for where exactly they were in the East Sea, how far they lay from the shore, or how one could enter that Innate Grand Formation, no legend had ever seriously explained.

Even the opportunities upon the islands were subject to countless conflicting claims.

Some said the Yellow Central Plum grew on Penglai, while others claimed that spiritual root had always been hidden in Kunlun.

Some said the three islands had remained unmoving since ancient times, while others claimed they constantly shifted with the East Sea's Water Veins and spatial turbulence.

Over the years, the two had already discovered nine spiritual islands concealed by formations.

Their gains were not insignificant.

On the best of those islands grew a mid-grade innate spiritual root.

The other islands had each yielded something as well: three low-grade Innate Spirit Treasures, along with many spirit herbs and divine materials that had grown for countless years.

For an ordinary Golden Immortal, any one of those islands would have been enough to send them into a frenzy of delight.

But they were clearly not the Three Immortal Islands.

On this day, the two emerged from yet another nameless spiritual island.

The innate formation behind them closed once more. The lush island quickly vanished from the sea's surface, leaving behind only azure waves rising and falling with the wind.

Qing Yi held two freshly picked green spirit fruits and handed one to Qing Xuan.

"This one isn't it either."

Qing Xuan accepted the fruit and could not help glancing at her. "Why do I get the feeling that you sound a little happy?"

"I'm not."

Qing Yi took a light bite from the spirit fruit, but a hint of amusement was plainly hidden in her clear eyes.

"It's just that every time before you go in, you think this time is probably the right one."

Qing Xuan gave a slightly awkward cough. "There aren't many innate spiritual islands in the East Sea to begin with. We've encountered nine in a row, so one of them had to be the right one."

"But all nine were wrong."

"Then the tenth has an even better chance."

Qing Yi looked at him for a moment. She had clearly heard how unreasonable that argument was, but she could not be bothered to expose him further and simply turned her gaze back toward the distant sea.

Twenty-four Sea-Calming Divine Pearls spread out one by one at the young woman's side.

Their pearly light fell into the sea, revealing the Water Veins across tens of millions of miles around them.

They could not directly help the two find the Three Immortal Islands, but they allowed Qing Yi to distinguish the East Sea's currents, preventing them from losing their direction in waters that even Great Luo divine sense could scarcely cover.

The two continued deeper along one ancient Water Veins flowing eastward.

For several hundred years, all they saw was seawater.

Occasionally, enormous aquatic creatures swam beneath the surface. Upon sensing the auras of the two, they quickly sank into the deep sea, not daring to approach.

Along the way, they briefly stopped on a black reef exposed above the sea.

The reef was only a hundred zhang wide, battered by waves all year round. Its surface was utterly bare, without even the most ordinary seaweed growing upon it.

After Qing Yi finished eating a spirit fruit while seated at the edge of the reef, she looked down at the pit in her hand and casually pressed it into a crack in the stone.

A wisp of green light fell from the young woman's fingertip.

The hard reef silently split open a little. The pit sank within, tiny roots extending downward through the crack, and two tender shoots sprouted in an instant.

Qing Xuan stood nearby watching and smiled. "There isn't even a trace of soil here. Why plant it in a place like this?"

"There's water below."

Qing Yi raised a hand to shield the tender shoot from an incoming wave, her expression entirely natural. "When we come back, it may have already grown up."

"The Primordial World is so vast. Once we find the Three Immortal Islands, we may not pass through here again."

Qing Yi said, "Then we'll make a special trip. You don't have any objections, do you, Qing Xuan?"

Seeing Qing Yi's expression that plainly said, keep arguing and I'll deal with you, Qing Xuan agreed with great enthusiasm.

Qing Yi did not use the power of creation again. She merely allowed the young shoot to take root in the stone crack before rising and returning to Qing Xuan's side.

The two set off once more.

Qing Xuan had not given this small incident much thought.

Until more than eighty years later, when a familiar-looking black reef appeared once again at the point where sea met sky.

At the edge of the reef, a small tree barely a foot tall swayed gently in the sea breeze.

Its roots had pierced the hard rock and firmly embedded themselves beneath the sea, while several emerald leaves had already sprouted from its branches.

Qing Yi stopped walking.

She landed upon the reef and reached out to touch the little tree.

The green markings that had not yet fully faded from its branches and leaves were precisely the power of creation she had placed within the fruit pit.

"This is the one I planted."

Qing Xuan had also arrived at her side, his expression gradually turning serious.

There was no mistake.

They had indeed returned to the place where they had stopped eighty years ago.

Yet throughout those eighty years, they had followed the ancient eastward Water Veins illuminated by the Sea-Calming Divine Pearls. They had never changed direction, much less taken a detour.

"It wasn't us who came back."

Qing Xuan turned to look at the calm sea behind them. "It was this sea that brought us back."

Qing Yi looked back toward the direction from which they had come, her eyes stirring slightly.

"We never changed direction, and the Water Veins always flowed east. If we still returned here under those circumstances, then whatever lies ahead has likely been sending any living beings approaching it elsewhere."

"And it isn't merely concealing its aura."

Qing Xuan raised his hand, and the Hongmeng Heaven-Measuring Ruler fell into his grasp.

"It has hidden that stretch of space from the East Sea as well."

As his words fell, the twenty-four Sea-Calming Divine Pearls lit up beside Qing Yi.

This time, the young woman did not use them to investigate distant Water Veins.

The twenty-four divine pearls sank separately into the surrounding sea, completely fixing the ancient Water Veins that had always flowed eastward yet somehow brought them back to where they began.

For the first time, the seawater that had surged for countless years came to a halt.

The perfect loop revealed a flaw at that very moment.

The Hongmeng Heaven-Measuring Ruler in Qing Xuan's hand pointed forward.

A violet-gold scale mark extended straight across the sea's surface.

There was no abnormality throughout the first ten thousand miles, but once the ruler's shadow reached a certain point, it vanished from its original location without warning and appeared on the sea behind the two in the next instant.

A smile appeared in Qing Xuan's eyes.

"Finally caught it."

He did not use the Heaven-Measuring Ruler to forcibly strike the grand formation. He merely stopped its shadow at the point where it had vanished, fixing the two ends of the space folded by the formation.

Qing Yi immediately understood. The twenty-four Sea-Calming Divine Pearls began spinning at once.

The motionless seawater slowly parted to either side, and a tide that had never existed within the East Sea flowed out from the depths of the folded space.

Wherever the tide passed, the scene of sea and sky before them gradually distorted.

First came a wisp of white vapor so faint it was almost invisible, followed by more and more mist pouring out of the void.

In only a few moments, an endless sea of white mist appeared before them, completely shrouding the world ahead.

Looking at this Innate Grand Formation hidden in the depths of the East Sea, silent for who knew how many ages, Qing Xuan finally let out a slow breath.

Qing Yi stood beside the newborn little tree and lifted her head to look toward the sea of mist as well.

"What if what lies within still isn't the Three Immortal Islands?"

"Then we'll continue looking after we come out."

Qing Xuan withdrew the Hongmeng Heaven-Measuring Ruler and extended his hand to the young woman, a smile returning to his face.

"But this time, we shouldn't be wrong again."

Qing Yi looked at him, then placed her hand in his palm.

"You said that the previous nine times too."

The white mist churned as two figures stepped into it side by side, soon vanishing from sight.