In the spirit-barren reaches of the far ocean, mortals felt nothing unusual, but accomplished cultivators immediately began leaking magical power from their entire bodies. It felt like a fish stranded ashore, like ice and snow bathed in sunlight-an irresistible, unrelenting decline that could not be eased, and that only accelerated.
Thunderstorm Sea was sufficiently unusual: it was neither Yazi's domain nor the Mirage Dragon's, and its raging waters and crashing thunder kept its spiritual power boiling violently. The Daoist had sent his incarnation there to wait for his quarry, with little need for special arts or spirit objects to conceal its presence. The far ocean was different. This was a spirit-barren land, and Baxia had lived here for thousands of years. Even the slightest fluctuation of spiritual power might alert him and beat the grass to startle the snake. Thus, to wait for Baxia to arrive, the Daoist's true body had specifically swallowed a Great Corpse Liberation Pill before entering the sea.
It served two purposes. The first was to conceal his Immortal Realm presence from Baxia's perception. The second was to seal his essence and lock his qi, reducing the leakage of magical power in the far ocean. Besides that, the Daoist had used the Void Arts restrictions on his Immortal Robe to catch and absorb the magical power escaping through his bodily apertures, providing a second layer of insulation to ensure nothing went wrong.
Now, it seemed the first objective had been achieved. The second had also worked, but its effect was somewhat poorer than the Daoist had anticipated.
It truly deserved its reputation as a place cultivators considered a land of death.
Baxia was clearly incredulous at the Daoist's sudden appearance. Wasn't he fighting Mirage Mother? How had he appeared behind him? Had that been an incarnation?