Setting out from Qingluo Guard in Longzuo Prefecture, Great Qian, one could pass through Unfrozen Port and cross thousands of miles along the Unfrozen Ocean south of the North Ice Wasteland to reach Far North Prefecture in the northern lands of Great Zhou.
Compared to other sea routes, this was the safest route to Northern Zhou. Though one had to cross the North Ice Wasteland and might encounter considerable drift ice along the way, it avoided the countless unpredictable dangers of directly crossing the open ocean—hurricanes, sea beasts, whirlpools, sea fog, and other calamities.
Though the North Ice Wasteland was barren and desolate, it at least had scattered human and barbarian settlements where travelers could replenish supplies and take shelter in emergencies.
The Truth-Seeking Continent where Northern Zhou lay differed from the Frontier Continent where East Qian stood. Its terrain was long and narrow; its widest east-west span was only a little over thirteen thousand miles, while its longest north-south distance approached one hundred thousand miles. Its territory was vast, roughly more than thirty percent the size of the Frostmoon Main Continent.
Four human nations stood upon the Truth-Seeking Continent, divided between the immortal and demonic factions, and had collectively opened up more than forty prefectures.
Compared with East Qian, West Jin, South Qin, and the other nations on the Frontier Continent, where humanity had been developing the wilderness for less than ten thousand years and each nation still had room to grow, conflicts were relatively few.
On the Truth-Seeking Continent, however, the earliest records of development could be traced back over twenty thousand years. Land suitable for human habitation and reproduction had long since been claimed, so conflicts and disputes among the four nations were plentiful, and wars occurred with considerable frequency.
Not only were nations belonging to the