At the boundary between Yu Abyss and the Ruin Sea.
The sea was gray-blue. Two octopus demons, one large and one small, were swimming swiftly just beneath its surface.
Their eight tentacles churned and slapped underwater, carving out two white wakes.
A figure sat steadily atop each of their large heads, one on the left and one on the right.
They were Xiao He and Idle-Fishing Boy.
Far away on the horizon, the silhouette of a sea mountain flickered in and out of sight.
The sea mountain floated between sky and sea, a mass of dark blue-green with shifting contours and light shimmering around its edges, as though the wind might scatter it at any moment.
Zhang Chao raised his round head slightly and asked, "Gurgle, gurgle-Boss, what's that place ahead?"
Xiao He sat cross-legged atop his head, a scroll spread across her knees.
There was no telling what the scroll was made of. It was bluish-gray with rough, ragged edges, and gave off a faint fishy smell when unfurled.
Scattered patterns and symbols covered it, winding and broken. A single glance made it clear that this was not the sort of finely detailed map circulated in the Human Race's market wards.
Stranger still, the map barely marked any large islands such as Chivalrous Heroes Island.
Places where Human Race cultivators gathered were nowhere to be found.
Instead, islands deep within the Ruin Sea and Yu Abyss were clearly marked, some even accompanied by annotations.
The handwriting was scrawled, its strokes hooking into one another.
This was probably a map drawn by a Demon Race cultivator.
"If that isn't a mirage ahead," Xiao He raised her head and glanced at the dark blue-green outline, "then it's very likely a large Demon Race settlement called Fenglin Island."
"It looks like we're