Splash, splash...
The boundless azure sea rose and fell beneath the caress of the sea breeze.
Countless small islands, scattered like stars across a chessboard, bobbed with the waves. Their arrangement was remarkably orderly, as though crafted by the wondrous hand of nature, and distinctly neater than the islands of the Eastern Isles.
"Yoo!"
A clear cry suddenly rang out from an island spanning more than ten li.
In an instant, all the islands trembled slightly. Identical cries rose from them one after another, like some mysterious ritual that, though not sacred, was profoundly solemn.
After roughly the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the cries gradually faded, replaced by faint rustling sounds, as though some sort of demon beast was feeding.
At the same time, the masses of dark green seaweed floating on the surface dwindled at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Yet immediately afterward, even more seaweed surfaced, surrounding the small islands.
"They're... giant turtles?!"
High above the ocean, a handsome young man in a dark green Daoist robe looked down at everything unfolding on the water, his face filled with irrepressible shock.
They were enormous!
Even the two old turtles from the Northern Frontier and Spirit Turtle Island measured only a hundred zhang across.
And the largest creature he had ever seen, the skeleton of the Sinful Dragon that had stirred up the blood sea tide, had measured only a little over three thousand zhang at most.
These colossal turtles before him, each resembling an island, actually spanned ten li. The largest among them had a shell that spanned more than fifty li-and that was merely the portion exposed above the water!
"And all this seaweed!"
Standing atop the Nine-Colored Auspicious Clouds, the young cultivator stared fixedly at the kelp spirit plants