The Gong Family (41k)

High in the distant sky, two figures, one large and one small, flew slowly onward.

"Boss, how much longer until we get there? I'm tired of flying!" Zi Yan held a jade bottle, occasionally tipping out a yellow pill and popping it into her mouth, chewing with obvious enjoyment.

Tired of flying? Liu Yu was genuinely stunned by her shamelessness. Since leaving Jia Nan Academy, he had performed one spatial jump after another with this little burden in tow, exhausting most of his Dou Qi. Zi Yan had barely moved at all. If anyone was tired, it was him!

"If you're tired, save your strength. Chewing takes energy too," Liu Yu replied flatly, snatching the jade bottle from her hand.

After Liu Yu took her jade bottle, Zi Yan did not fly into the expected rage. Instead, she calmly retrieved another bottle of pills from her Storage Ring and quietly put some distance between them. Her adorable little face was filled with disdain. "So childish!"

*What the **! Ten thousand grass-mud horses instantly thundered through Liu Yu's mind. A little brat had just mocked him?!

After calming himself, Liu Yu tossed the jade bottle back to Zi Yan, inwardly scoffing. Little Miss Oblivious. Not a playful bone in her body! (Zi Yan: ...)

"We're heading to East Nether City in the Great Thunder Mountain Range. It's nearly ten thousand li from the Black-Corner Region. Even someone capable of using Dou Qi Wings would need almost ten days to get there from the Black-Corner Region. But thanks to me, we've already skipped most of the journey. We should reach East Nether City soon."

Liu Yu spoke slowly in a deliberately aloof voice, placing particular emphasis on his final few sentences.

"Mm, boss, you're amazing!" Zi Yan casually humored him as she savored her delicious pills.

As though sensing the turmoil inside Liu Yu, Zi Yan hurriedly changed the subject, lest her petty boss sabotage the pills he refined for her in the future. "Boss, why are we going to East Nether City?"

"East Nether City is the only city around the Great Thunder Mountain Range, or anywhere east of the Black-Corner Region, that has a Space Wormhole," Liu Yu answered coldly, his face expressionless.

"A Space Wormhole?" The unfamiliar term made Zi Yan pause, and she turned a curious gaze toward Liu Yu.

Though Liu Yu noticed her gaze, he had no intention of explaining.

"Boss~ Tell me about Space Wormholes! Please!" Zi Yan flew over, hugged his arm, and wheedled. Inwardly, however, she sighed. Having such an immature boss was exhausting! (Liu Yu: ...)

Seeing Zi Yan beg so earnestly, the magnanimous Liu Yu decided to overlook her earlier misbehavior and explained softly, "A Space Wormhole links two points in space through the spatial power of a Dou Zun expert. Our destination is the Eastern Continent. An ordinary Dou Zong would need at least seven or eight months to cross that distance alone, but a Space Wormhole can shorten the journey enormously. It should get us to the Eastern Continent in a little over half a month."

Chewing her pills, Zi Yan nodded with only a vague understanding.

As two streaks of light flashed across the sky, a stretch of mountains rose from the distant ground.

"The Great Thunder Mountain Range. We're here."

Liu Yu and Zi Yan crossed the plains. Once inside the mountain range, they saw broad roads branching in every direction, filled with people coming and going as a clamor of voices rose and fell.

Overhead, the whistle of rushing wind rang out constantly. Flying Magical Beasts of all manner of strange shapes beat their wings, carrying their riders deeper into the mountains. Those passing Liu Yu and Zi Yan immediately veered away. His powerful, forbidding Dou Emperor aura terrified those first- and second-rank Flying Magical Beasts.

"The Eastern Continent..." Liu Yu murmured, then led Zi Yan deeper into the mountains.

After seven or eight minutes of flight, the outline of an enormous city emerged faintly where the verdant peaks met.

As they drew closer, Liu Yu and Zi Yan reached the city gates. The Flying Magical Beasts overhead also descended onto an open area beside the gates set aside specifically for them.

Liu Yu and Zi Yan entered East Nether City without difficulty.

Once inside, Liu Yu first took Zi Yan to a luxuriously decorated inn and secured temporary lodgings. After settling her in, he concealed his aura and began wandering through the city.

Back in the Black-Corner Region, he had obtained little concrete information about who owned East Nether City's Space Wormhole or how to use it. He knew only that the city served as a stopover on the way to the Eastern Continent and possessed a Space Wormhole.

Thus, Liu Yu headed for the city's busiest gathering places. Wherever people crowded together, information always flowed most freely.

After making a circuit, Liu Yu obtained the information he wanted.

East Nether City had only one faction: the Gong Family. Its ranks included more than one Dou Zong and several Dou Huang experts. It was the sole dominant power within a thousand li, monopolizing the Space Wormhole and the surrounding resources.

There were also numerous rumors about the Gong Family's origins. The most widespread claimed that the family had migrated from the Eastern Continent, where it had once wielded considerable power. For some unknown reason, it had left that continent, settled in the Great Thunder Mountain Range, and established East Nether City and its Space Wormhole.

East Nether City was said to have existed for a thousand years. If the Gong Family had indeed built it, then the family was at least a thousand years old!

That was rather frightening. How astonishing must the accumulated foundation of a family that had stood for a thousand years be? It also offered a glimpse of just how deep the waters of the Eastern Continent ran!

As he pondered this, Liu Yu began to hesitate. Should he really go to the Eastern Continent?

He had previously understood that, across the entire Dou Qi Continent, every continent other than the Central Plains Continent was hardly worth mentioning. Their strongest experts should, at most, be Dou Zun.

The Northwest Continent, for instance, was a place where Dou Zong experts could already reign supreme. On the surface, it did not even seem to have any Dou Zun. That glimpse suggested that, outside the Central Plains, the other continents were much of a muchness.

Of course, his omniscient perspective might have given him preconceived notions and a one-sided understanding of the other continents. The little information he had gathered in East Nether City alone had already overturned his assumptions.

That feeling of things slipping beyond his control left Liu Yu unsure whether he should continue to the Eastern Continent. But then he reconsidered. However deep its waters ran, could they possibly be deeper than those of the Central Plains? Even on the surface, the Central Plains started at Dou Zun, with plenty of Half-Saints as well. There were the Three Great Magical Beast Families and the Ancient Eight Clans, while Hun Tiandi lurked in the shadows, watching like a tiger eyeing its prey.

Viewed that way, the Eastern Continent could only be so formidable. The sole difference was that he knew the Central Plains fairly well, whereas the Eastern Continent was unknown to him.

"The Eastern Continent... Let's see whether I can learn anything about it here in East Nether City..."

With that thought in mind, Liu Yu resumed wandering through the streets.

Liu Yu appeared silently at a gathering place for merchant caravans near the city center.

"Cheng Biao, your Cheng Family has another elder leading the caravan this time. Are you heading to the Eastern Continent to hunt for treasure again?" a somewhat burly middle-aged man asked the tall, thin young man before him.

"Old Chen, do you think that's possible? Three years ago, two Dou Wang elders of our Cheng Family led a party to the Eastern Continent. We never heard from them again! Our family suffered terrible losses! Who would still want to go to that damned Eastern Continent?"

Cheng Biao's expression was distinctly ugly as he spoke. The Cheng Family had only two Dou Huang experts, its patriarch and ancestor, along with four Dou Wang elders. The disappearance of those two elders three years ago had cost them two Dou Wang experts for nothing.

The middle-aged man called Old Chen sighed as well. After hesitating a moment, he finally voiced the question troubling him. "Cheng Biao, has anyone who went to the Eastern Continent ever come back?"

"Who knows? Ever since this Space Wormhole opened, rumors suddenly started circulating that the Eastern Continent was full of ancient ruins and cave dwellings left behind by Dou Zong, or even Dou Zun. So many people went there in that first wave, but only a handful returned. And even those disappeared shortly afterward. There's something..."

Cheng Biao hastily shut his mouth halfway through. The caravan gathering place was crowded, with eyes and ears everywhere. One careless word could bring disaster spilling from his lips, and the Cheng Family would not be able to protect him then.

Seeing Cheng Biao's reaction, Old Chen instinctively glanced around. Clearly, he too knew the consequences of speaking recklessly in East Nether City.

"Ah, if the boundless Death Demon Sea didn't lie between East Nether City and the Eastern Continent, we could go treasure hunting ourselves instead of having to use the Gong Family's Space Wormhole." Old Chen sighed, a trace of fear flashing across his face at the mention of the Death Demon Sea.

Cheng Biao's expression also grew solemn at the name. Traveling to the Eastern Continent through the Gong Family's Space Wormhole offered at least a sliver of hope of returning. Crossing the Death Demon Sea, however, meant certain death! Forget returning alive—even reaching the Eastern Continent alive was a delusion!

Every major city in the Great Thunder Mountain Range had clear records concerning the Death Demon Sea.

Dense gray mist shrouded the surface of the Death Demon Sea all year round. That mist was exceptionally poisonous. Even a Dou Huang expert who inhaled a single breath would have their body corroded unless they expelled it promptly, losing all reason and becoming a savage "water ghoul"!

The water ghouls created by the gray mist lurked near the sea's surface. Their eyes were entirely gray, their faces deep purple, and their bodies as rotten and decayed as corpses. Yet their physical strength was terrifying. A Dou Emperor-level water ghoul could go head-to-head with a Dou Emperor of the same level using its body alone! Moreover, one could not afford to be scratched, or one might become another of its kind.

Not only that, but the Dou Qi released by water ghouls was also gray and equally poisonous. In short, upon encountering a water ghoul in the Death Demon Sea, half your life was already beyond your control.

Besides the gray mist, this Sea of Death contained another terrifying presence—the "Gray Beast"!

Gray Beast was the collective name for the aquatic magical beasts in the Death Demon Sea, all infected by the gray mist. There were many varieties, the most famous being the Ghost-Faced Sharks!

Ghost-Faced Sharks had human bodies, fish tails, and hideous ghostlike faces. They were best known for their demonic death song, which possessed the formidable power to seize people's souls and rob them of their minds. They ruled the Death Demon Sea, and according to records, the Ghost-Faced Shark Clan contained ancient monsters at the Dou Zun level.

Over the years, there had been no shortage of people courting death by attempting to cross the sea to the Eastern Continent. Sadly, they could not even withstand the gray mist before becoming water ghouls of the Death Demon Sea.

The most sensational attempt involved a veteran Dou Zong expert of the Great Thunder Mountain Range's Xie Family. With an impressive party of four Dou Emperors and over a dozen Dou Wangs, he took antidote pills specially designed to resist the gray mist and passed through the outer reaches of the Death Demon Sea, frightened but unharmed. They had been remarkably fortunate not to encounter its infamous water ghouls there.

That good fortune did not last long, however. While venturing deeper into the Death Demon Sea, they had the misfortune to encounter two Dou Emperor-level Ghost-Faced Sharks!

Though the two Ghost-Faced Sharks were at the Dou Emperor level, the Xie Family's party of one Dou Zong, four Dou Emperors, and numerous Dou Wangs appeared plainly superior. Yet, shockingly, the demonic death song of those two sharks instantly seized control of the Xie Family's Dou Emperors and Dou Wangs, who then launched a fierce assault on their own ancestor.

Even a Dou Zong expert like the Xie Family ancestor could not withstand attacks from six Dou Emperors and over a dozen Dou Wangs, particularly the sudden assault by his own family's Dou Emperors. He was severely wounded outright. At the final moment, he used spatial power to escape the Death Demon Sea, barely surviving.

Before long, however, the Xie Family ancestor died of his injuries, and the family declined from then on.

From that day forward, the Death Demon Sea truly became a forbidden land of death that every faction in the Great Thunder Mountain Range prohibited its members from approaching. No faction dared attempt the crossing again!

Secretly observing Old Chen and Cheng Biao, Liu Yu picked out several crucial details from their conversation: ruins, experts' cave dwellings, and the fact that almost none of those who traveled to the Eastern Continent through the Space Wormhole ever returned.

As for the Death Demon Sea, he had heard a little about it. It seemed to be a forbidden region of the Great Thunder Mountain Range.

Meanwhile, Old Chen and Cheng Biao, each burdened by his own thoughts, parted ways and returned to their respective inns.

When Cheng Biao returned to his room and prepared to cultivate, his consciousness suddenly plunged into endless darkness.

A tall figure in purple robes slowly emerged from the void. Looking at Cheng Biao's dull, vacant eyes, Liu Yu nodded inwardly. The Soul Bewitching Technique within the Profound Heaven Soul Art was truly formidable, cleverly using Soul Power to control another person's mind without anyone being the wiser!

Liu Yu then began asking for detailed information about the Space Wormhole and the Death Demon Sea. With his mind controlled, Cheng Biao mechanically recounted everything he knew...

After obtaining the information he wanted from Cheng Biao, Liu Yu repeated the process with Old Chen. Combining their accounts, he discovered a secret that was not really a secret.

Wasn't the Gong Family of East Nether City simply running a scam?! It was just like those ignorant young men and women in his previous life who were lured to some country by scammers. Liu Yu felt he probably understood the Gong Family's objective: trick people from the Great Thunder Mountain Range into going to the Eastern Continent to serve as free labor. Thanks to Xiaoshou Bingliangliang_dC and Wu for the monthly tickets.