Whoosh~ Whoosh...
The sound of the tide rang in his ears. Sunlight fell on his eyelids, its dazzling halo gradually rousing his Divine Sense.
The young man struggled to open his eyes. What greeted him was a clear blue sky and the pitch-black head of a black eagle, which held a little strip of dried meat in its beak and looked down at him, as if to say:
You're awake?
"Holy..."
The young man propped himself upright and squinted around at the yellow beach, the coconut trees, and even the broken ship planks nearby. Beneath his bewilderment was the relief of having survived disaster. Famished, he accepted the strip of meat and took a bite...
Five-spice beef jerky?
The young man froze. Excitement filled his eyes at returning to the human world after months of crossing the ocean. He wolfed down the jerky, picked up the black eagle, and looked around, only for his gaze to go blank.
Behind the beach lay a primeval forest, which extended to a gigantic black mountain farther back.
The mountain resembled a barrier stretching across the earth, its edges barely visible to either side and its summit piercing the clouds. It exerted the crushing pressure of Mount Tai bearing down overhead.
Standing before that towering mountain in his old, yellowed robe, the young man was like a tiny shrimp that had just crawled out of the sea.
"What the hell is this place..."
After surveying his surroundings, the young man picked up the Heavenly Gang Mace from the sand and followed the little claw prints along the beach barefoot. Before long, he spotted the ridge of a roof atop a thousand-foot seaside cliff.
An eight-trigram emblem adorned the roof ridge. It appeared to be a Daoist temple...
Below the cliff was a cave entrance,