A Blue Lotus rose above Hao City once more.
The tremendous disturbance made even Jin Ling, who was cultivating beside Li Yu, stop.
"I'll be going out to sea for a while. You've mastered the basics of the Purple Glow Art and count as a cultivator now, but your body still hasn't finished growing. If you feel a stabbing pain in your meridians, go see Fellow Daoist Lu." Li Yu stopped practicing Yi Light Condensing Edge and rose to his feet.
Jin Ling nodded repeatedly and wished him well. "Teacher, may favorable winds fill your sails."
The Five Lotus Sect's office.
Li Yu had never seen so many fellow disciples gathered together. There was barely room to stand.
Yet amid the crowd, one area had plenty of empty space around it. Three Daoists in blue robes stood there with swords on their backs. Li Yu asked Xiong Meng about them and learned that they were disciples of the Mount Lao Sword Sect. Since the expedition would be entering their waters, they needed to accompany the group to avoid any misunderstandings.
The Daoist at their head had a face like polished jade and wore his hair fastened with a wooden hairpin, but his brows were knitted as though something deeply troubled him. His name was Luo Guan, and he was Sun Yuanji's eldest disciple. He had previously negotiated with Ying Ruomu, hoping to buy the latter's Supreme Spirit Pearl. The Mount Lao Sword Sect had sent him this time partly to clear the suspicions surrounding him.
To Luo Guan's left stood a female disciple named Xu Wei, a disciple of Zhang Mingxia.
She was tall and straight-backed, with a cool, aloof face, brows sharp as blades, and snow-white skin. Standing there, she resembled a block of ice, making even the air around her seem to congeal. Looking at her was like seeing a sheathed sword that might ring out at any moment.
The last Daoist looked utterly weary and kept yawning. His blue robe was rumpled, as though he had not changed it in ages, and his long hair was half tied up, half loose. His bearing was lax, yet carried an indescribable air of carefree ease.
His name was Qin Jian, and he too was Sun Yuanji's disciple.
He was also the only one of the three Mount Lao disciples whose true strength Li Yu could not discern.
Just then, Yuan Hao came downstairs. He first explained the results of the recent investigation. Apart from the six disciples who had died, four others had boarded Ying Ruomu's ship. Two of them were members of the Rizhao Hao Clan.
Thus, this incident no longer concerned only the Five Lotus Sect. The Rizhao Hao Clan also needed an answer.
"Your mission is to find them all. If they're alive, I want to see them. If they're dead, I want to see their bodies."
After saying this, Yuan Hao swept his broad sleeve. A lotus appeared beneath his feet, lifting him into the air as he led the way toward the harbor.
His disciple Jiang Shan immediately spoke. "Everyone, please follow me."
On the vast, mist-shrouded sea, Li Yu stood beside the ship's railing, examining the two talismans he had been given.
One was a Sea-Diving Talisman, which would allow them to breathe freely beneath the sea.
The other was a Locator Talisman. Once activated, it would mark the location and transmit its coordinates to a magic artifact called the Mystic Heart Lotus. That artifact was currently in Yuan Hao's possession. As soon as they activated the talisman, he would send people to them as quickly as possible.
To get to the bottom of this affair, the Five Lotus Sect's Hao City Branch had spared no expense.
The sea was immense. Before they knew it, half a month had passed, and they were nearly beyond the coastal waters.
That day, Li Yu felt the ship stop and immediately looked toward the bow.
Jiang Shan, who led the Five Lotus Sect disciples, cupped his hands toward Luo Guan beside him. "Senior Brother Luo, we've reached your territory. Sorry for the trouble."
Without expression, Luo Guan removed the wooden hairpin from his hair and drew it through the air toward the tranquil sea ahead.
In an instant, a gash seemed to open above the sea, revealing the true waters within, deep and turbulent. As the great ship sailed inside, waves rose and battered its sides. Even with the protection of its formations, Li Yu could feel the ship rocking constantly.
Overhead, the clear blue sky gave way to dense dark clouds, gusting winds, and a steady drizzle.
Rumble!
A tremendous thunderclap sounded. Li Yu felt the spiritual energy of the Yi Xiao Thunder Talisman hidden in his sleeve grow more active. He hurriedly suppressed it with his divine sense, lest the extraordinarily dense essence of thunder around them draw it out and trigger it.
This was the Mount Lao Sword Sect's maritime territory, known as the Thunderclap Domain.
At the very center of the Thunderclap Domain stood a mountain rising above the sea, called Flowing Wave Mountain. In ancient times, the divine beast Kui Ox had lived upon it. Its eyes were like the sun and moon, and its voice was like thunder. Whenever it entered or left the water, wind and rain followed, giving rise to terrifying waves that battered the coastal waters of the Eastern Lands, flooding and sweeping through its nations.
Taking pity on all living beings, the founding patriarch of the Mount Lao Sword Sect had fought Kui Ox for three years. With support from other masters of the Eastern Lands' Daoist sects, he had confined the beast's movements to these waters. Kui Ox refused to submit and constantly tried to break out, causing thunder to roll through the region. Thus, it had come to be called the Thunderclap Domain.
Later, although Kui Ox perished in its tribulation, the name of these waters endured.
Precisely because of this, the Thunderclap Domain abounded in spiritual treasures of the thunder and water attributes, and cultivators who practiced corresponding arts often came here to try their luck.
"Fellow disciples, spread out from here. Master will wait aboard the ship for news from you." Jiang Shan's voice sounded at the bow, reaching everyone's ears.
"Senior Brother Jiang, may I ask how long we're to search? What if we never find them?" a Five Lotus Sect disciple could not help asking.
Jiang Shan replied, "One month is the limit."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. That was an amount of time they could accept.
Just then, Jiang Shan's voice rang out again, somewhat sterner. "But let me make this clear beforehand. If any of you leave the ship and simply find some hidden reef to idle away a month, don't blame Master for showing you no mercy when you return."
Those who had intended to coast through the assignment wore bitter expressions at his words.
As streaks of spiritual light lit up and descended into the Thunderclap Domain, Li Yu activated the Sea-Diving Talisman in his hand and leaped over the side of the ship.
Flowing Wave Mountain.
At the bow of a broken ship stranded on the shore, a grave-faced Ying Ruomu caught a talisman that flew toward him. After reading the information on it, a flicker of delight crossed his face.
He employed an evasion art and soon arrived within Flowing Wave Mountain.
Within the mountain lay a lake whose surface flickered ceaselessly with lightning. A tall young man in white stood at its center.
His face was like the bright moon, his expression serene. A bronze sword in a plain silk-wrapped sheath hung at his waist. No matter how powerful the lightning was, the moment it came within three inches of him, an invisible, biting edge cut it apart.
"Elder brother, the people from our sect and the Mount Lao Sword Sect have all come, just as you predicted!" Ying Ruomu immediately called out when he saw the white-robed young man, waving the talisman in his hand.
The instant his words fell, the young man vanished from the center of the lake, appearing as though by teleportation before Ying Ruo-
mu.
At some unknown moment, the talisman had also fallen into his hand.
After reading it, the young man nodded and said calmly, "Very good. This is the last thing. Once it's finished, I can return to Kunlun."
Luo Guan rode his sword light toward a formation node somewhere in the Thunderclap Domain.
These nodes normally gathered the sea's thunder and water spiritual energy, so the Mount Lao Sword Sect used them to nurture Sword Embryos. With luck, one might obtain a sword that had developed spiritual awareness and use it as a bonded sword.
His sword light raced wildly over the sea, and Luo Guan soon reached his destination. Yet he discovered a stranger standing on the reef where the node lay.
It was a tall young man in white.
Luo Guan halted his sword light. Before he could voice his question, the other man spoke first. "You're Luo Guan, aren't you?"
"That's right. May I ask, Fellow Daoist..."
Before Luo Guan had finished speaking, the white-robed young man had already reached out and grasped the bronze sword at his waist. He nodded and added, "Then that will do."
Boom!
The ringing of a sword leaving its sheath resounded above the sea like startling thunder, lingering for a long, long time.
Luo Guan's face went pale. The wooden hairpin sword in his hand broke in two, his chest was slashed open, and blood sprayed out, staining the sea red.
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