Boundless Sea

Beneath the vast, boundless stars, upon the calm Spirit Sea, amid the eerie, spreading mist, a strange, alluring figure sat cross-legged on the surface of Su Mo's Spirit Sea.

"Who's there?" Su Mo shouted, frightened by the sight.

He had never heard of anyone being able to enter someone else's Spirit Sea.

The Spirit Sea was where a cultivator's spiritual power gathered. It held the spiritual energy they absorbed from heaven and earth, which became spiritual power, liquefied, and gathered into a sea.

The Spirit Sea was also the very foundation of a cultivator!

From what little Su Mo knew about cultivation...

It was like a person's brain, where knowledge was stored. The Spirit Sea was where the spiritual power cultivated by that person was stored.

How could he let someone else sleep soundly beside his bed? And this was his Spirit Sea, no less... What if, when he was Entering the Dao someday, he accidentally manifested an adults-only booklet in his Spirit Sea? Wouldn't someone else discover his secret?

"Who are you? Why are you in my Spirit Sea?"

Su Mo asked nervously.

But the strange, alluring figure did not respond. She simply sat there meditating.

Su Mo waited for ages before he could stand it no longer.

He approached slowly and cautiously, gently waving a hand to part the mist.

As he drew closer, Su Mo saw a woman...

Long black hair spilled down the woman's back, and her slender legs, white as jade, were folded beneath her.

She was fair as ivory, her skin smooth as cream.

Full-figured yet graceful, she possessed an immortal's bearing and jade-like beauty.

The woman looked like a goddess who had stepped out of a painting. Her presence was noble as an immortal's, her expression transcendent and unworldly, yet her posture was seductively beautiful as a demoness...

A thin layer of white gauze draped her body. Beneath it, her voluptuous figure appeared and vanished within the mist.

She was like a fusion of a fairy and a demoness...

After a single glance, Su Mo felt warmth in his nose and raised a hand to wipe it.

He blanched... Why was his nose bleeding?

Su Mo immediately pinched his nose to stop the blood from gushing out.

His voice came out muffled, and he could no longer even speak properly.

"Y-you... you... who exactly... are you? Are you human... or a ghost?"

"Why are you in my Spirit Sea?"

The woman still did not respond. Her voluptuous, jade-like figure was half-concealed beneath her flimsy gauze dress, leaving Su Mo afraid to look directly at her.

I'm still just a child... Why do I have to face a trial like this?

"Y-you... say something..." Su Mo moved a little closer. "If you don't answer, I'm calling the police."

This shitty world... doesn't seem to have police.

Even if it did, they couldn't handle this, could they...

Hello, I'd like to report a crime. Someone broke into my brain?

Seeing that the woman merely kept her eyes closed and ignored him entirely, Su Mo had no choice but to move closer until he stood before her.

The woman's half-hidden, voluptuous figure came into sharper view. The sensual visual assault at such close range nearly made Su Mo lose control, and he silently recited the Dao De Jing... Do not look upon what is improper. Do not look upon what is improper!

"Who are you? Why are you in my Spirit Sea?" Su Mo tilted his head upward, afraid to look directly at her.

At last, the woman spoke.

"So noisy..." The woman opened her eyes impatiently. "Have you forgotten your big sister already?"

Su Mo blanched at her words, pointing at her with a trembling hand.

"Y-you... you... you're that Great Calamity!"

That voice was all too familiar. It had accompanied Su Mo throughout that night underground in West City.

It was pleasing to the ear, yet deeply eerie.

There was an ethereal, transcendent quality to the woman's voice. Su Mo would never forget it as long as he lived.

That night, this Great Calamity had used his hands to kill three Foundation Establishment experts. Her methods had been so utterly bizarre that Su Mo dared not even recall them.

The woman knitted her delicate brows, a trace of displeasure showing on her beautiful face. "What Great Calamity? Call me big sister."

"What do you mean, big sister... Why are you in my Spirit Sea?" Su Mo asked nervously.

The woman coquettishly brushed aside the loose hair over her forehead and gave an eerie smile. "I've been in your Spirit Sea all along."

Su Mo immediately said in alarm, "What? You've been in my Spirit Sea all along?"

"Hehehe..." The woman laughed alluringly at the sight of Su Mo. She found him amusing. Every time she saw this little brat, he gave her a completely different impression: sometimes innocent, sometimes composed, and sometimes entertaining.

"That's right. I never left after entering your Spirit Sea last time!"

Su Mo's face darkened. "But didn't I only just form my Spirit Sea?"

The woman rolled her eyes. "What did you think? Your big sister went to great lengths to open up this Spirit Sea for you. Why do you think I let you see so many wandering souls underground that day...?"

I thought I was exceptionally gifted... Su Mo felt that the breeze in his Spirit Sea was a little chilly.

"Why did you open up a Spirit Sea for me?" Su Mo asked with a dark expression.

After being frightened for so long... Su Mo no longer felt quite so frightened.

The woman slowly rose and approached Su Mo. A faint fragrance drifted into his nose, and as her voluptuous body drew close, he could even feel the warmth coming from her.

Her face, beautiful enough to topple cities and kingdoms, came right up to his. The woman looked into Su Mo's eyes, and he instinctively averted his gaze.

Su Mo's eyes wandered, his body stiff, his expression awkward.

The woman laughed softly.

"Hehehe, how amusing. You're just a little brat, yet your mind is full of wild thoughts!"

Su Mo's little face reddened, and he did not dare utter a sound.

The woman stepped back and stretched lazily. Su Mo felt his nose growing warm again.

"Your big sister opened up a Spirit Sea for you because, naturally, I needed somewhere to stay for a while," the woman continued.

"Stay for a while... What does that mean?" Su Mo grew nervous again as an ominous premonition rose in his heart.

The woman said as though it were only natural, "It means your big sister plans to make a home in your Spirit Sea."

Su Mo's little face darkened, and he protested, "I refuse!"

The woman glanced at Su Mo with a half-smile. "You're welcome to try throwing me out!"

Despair covered Su Mo's darkened little face... He couldn't do it!

"Who... exactly are you?" Su Mo felt he had landed himself in enormous trouble... Sure enough... entangle yourself with ghosts, and karma would coil around you.

Just imagine having another person living inside you, watching everything you did.

"Human? What human? I already told you I'm not human." The woman giggled.

"Then what are you?" Su Mo asked.

"You wouldn't understand even if I told you. Once you can leave this little place someday, your big sister will tell you." The woman spoke slyly, though her tone held a trace of emotion an ordinary person could not understand.

"But how can you just live in my Spirit Sea? Won't you learn all my cultivation secrets?" Su Mo still refused to accept it.

The woman scoffed at his words. "You? Secrets? Those scraps of rubbish you cultivate? You should feel honored. With your big sister living here, perhaps I'll be in a good mood one day and give you a few pointers. Other people don't get a peerless opportunity like this."

"Are you really that powerful?" Su Mo asked doubtfully.

The woman curled her lip. "In this tiny place of yours, even the strongest person isn't worth a single glance from me!"

Su Mo pursed his lips, not believing her.

"Off you go, off you go. You're disturbing my rest."

The woman saw through Su Mo's thoughts, but rather than argue, she waved her hand impatiently.

With that wave, Su Mo was expelled from his own Spirit Sea.

After Su Mo's spiritual awareness departed, the woman lifted her head toward the boundless starry sky within his Spirit Sea. "He didn't actually believe that, did he...?"

Of course Su Mo believed it, and he felt terribly inferior!

My Spirit Sea wasn't even opened up by me...

Expelled from his Consciousness Sea, Su Mo opened his eyes and saw Gu Yu sitting beside him.

Dejected, Su Mo asked, "Third Senior Sister, does everyone open up their own Spirit Sea?"

Gu Yu, who had been marveling beside him, froze at the question. "Why would you ask that... Of course everyone opens up their own Spirit Sea!"

Just as I thought... If someone else opens up your Spirit Sea, you have no rights.

"My talent must be awful..." Su Mo was dispirited.

Gu Yu did not understand. Hearing Su Mo say this, he assumed Su Mo thought opening up his Spirit Sea had been terribly difficult. Did he think everyone else found it easy?

"Your talent isn't all that bad... Hard work matters more than anything!" Gu Yu consoled him with a complicated expression.

Your talent is downright freakish, all right?

But could Gu Yu say that? Of course not. Don't I have my pride...?

Su Mo sighed... Just as I thought, only my Spirit Sea was opened up by someone else. My talent really is poor.

But could Su Mo say that? Of course not. I have my pride too...

That night, the Academy's third and seventh disciples each harbored their own thoughts...