After Chen Ming returned to Divine Wind Island from Jade Wave Island, everything appeared to carry on as usual, but behind the scenes, he began making preparations at a feverish pace.
First, he selected the two members of the Vanguard Team most skilled in concealment and reconnaissance and sent them to hide near Shattered Star Reef, keeping watch on the black-clad figures around the clock. Both had practiced a concealment art called the Turtle Breath Concealment Technique, which could suppress their presence to almost nothing. Even Nascent Soul Stage cultivators would struggle to detect them unless they were paying particular attention.
Then he had Liu Qingqing establish a permanent Divine Wind Island liaison office on Jade Wave Island under the pretext of "expanding trade channels." Its public function was to handle trade between the two islands, but its true mission was to secretly help Lu Chuan root out the traitor within Jade Wave Island.
Once everything was arranged, Chen Ming finally had a little breathing room to settle down and attend to his cultivation.
Recently, he had experienced far too much-exploring an ancient cultivator's cave abode, opening a new shipping route, being intercepted by Blood Hawk, scouting Shattered Star Reef at night, fighting a successor to the Netherworld Sword Art... Each experience had benefited him greatly, and his cultivation had unknowingly advanced further.
He could vaguely sense that he was drawing ever closer to the Great Perfection of Late Golden Core.
That day, after completing his usual morning stellar breathing exercises at Cliffside, he did not immediately rise. Instead, he sat on a reef rock, gazed at the vast, surging sea before him, and sank into thought.
He was considering one question-where should he go from here?
At present, there were three main paths before him.
The first was the