Over the next half month, Chen Ming worked through the spoils he had brought back from Setting Sun Island while secretly gathering information about the Star Abyss Secret Realm.
Although the information the gray-robed elder had provided was limited, it had at least given him a clear direction-the entrance to the Star Abyss Secret Realm lay in a dangerous stretch of water at the far eastern edge of the Chaotic Star Sea, known as the Fallen Star Sea.
That sea was shrouded in strange spatial turbulence year-round. Ordinary cultivators did not dare approach it, and even Golden Core Stage cultivators could easily lose their way without an accurate route map-or even be shredded by spatial rifts.
Chen Ming studied the beast-hide map he had obtained from the sunken ship countless times. Comparing it with the gray-robed elder's testimony and nautical charts gathered from various sources, he finally narrowed down the approximate bounds of the Fallen Star Sea.
But the route marked on the map was incomplete. Several crucial waypoints had been deliberately blurred, seemingly by the mapmaker, who had not wanted whoever obtained the map to find the secret realm's entrance too easily.
"Looks like whoever drew this map kept something up their sleeve." Seated in the stone hall, Chen Ming frowned at the map in thought. "Either they wanted to keep the secret realm from being discovered too easily, or they left themselves a fallback to stop someone else from beating them to it if the map fell into other hands."
Wan Yao'er sat opposite him, holding a copy of Strange Tales of the Chaotic Star Sea she had just picked up at the Market. Turning to a page, she read aloud, "'The Fallen Star Sea lies at the far eastern edge of the Chaotic Star Sea and spans