Chapter 859: World of the Sea
“A few Class 6 Magical Beasts have come.” Nubis focused his attention on the dozen or so figures who flew over from the distance.
“They’re not magical beasts but humanoid organisms who have evolved from sea life,” corrected Jian Chen. He could tell with a single glance that they were not humans or magical beasts.
“There’s not much information regarding the Sea race in my inherited memories. However, these members of the Sea race really are intriguing. They’re basically the same as us magical beasts but they don’t need to reach Saint Ruler to gain a human form. They’re much better than us magical beasts.” sighed Nubis.
The people arrived before the two of them very quickly. They stopped twenty meters away, while their expressions were filled with caution.
There were thirteen people in total; twelve young men and one woman. The young men were all of average appearance, while the woman was slightly dashing. She exuded a refined aura of nobility and was clearly the daughter of some wealthy clan.
Perhaps it was because of the special factors in the environment of the sea that they lived in but their skin were not white. Instead, their skin was green, a very distinct feature that differentiated them from the humans who dwelled on the Tian Yuan Continent.
As Jian Chen and Nubis studied them, they looked back and examined them in return. However, they shifted their gazes from Jian Chen very quickly. Their eyes landed on the gold-clothed Nubis who had long, golden hair.
Most of those who lived under the sea had blue hair. Although a minority had hair of other colors, people with golden hair had never appeared. Nubis clearly stood out with his appearance among the people of the Sea race.
“Esteemed warriors, may I ask of your purpose here?” The rather good-looking lady asked curiously, while her eyes constantly studied Jian Chen and Nubis.
“The two of us are resting here. Is there anything you require?” Jian Chen asked indifferently.
“Miss, don’t pay any attention to them. We’re not far from Jass City now. For the two of them to rest in the wilderness, they clearly haven’t brought enough crystal coins to pay the fee to enter the city or they don’t have enough crystal coins to live in there. With miss’s great status, there’s no need to talk to these lowly people. It’ll only be depreciating miss’s status,” said a young man with a slightly good-looking appearance from behind. His gaze toward Jian Chen and Nubis was filled with disdain. He was unable to feel their strength at all, so he viewed them as ordinary people.
“Shut up, there’s no need to be so rude,” the lady reprimanded the young man with a slight frown. Afterward, she looked toward the two of them and asked, “Esteemed warriors, may I ask how many stars do you possess as Seasoul Warriors?”
Jian Chen and Nubis looked at each other. They had no idea as to how to answer this question. This was their first time coming to where the Sea race resided, so they were still extremely unfamiliar with the Sea race. They had no idea what a Seasoul Warrior was, how many stars they were or what they represented. If they answered it incorrectly, it would draw suspicion from the people.
Seeing how the two of them were unable to answer this question, the young man from behind could not help but speak out, “Haven’t you become Seasoul Warriors yet?”
“No, we indeed have not become Seasoul Warriors,” replied Jian Chen.
With that, all the young men behind the lady revealed expressions of contempt. Their gazes toward the two of them were filled with unconcealed disdain.
Skepticism appeared on the lady’s face, clearly not believing what Jian Chen had said. She was talented and practiced the Innate Spirit-opening technique of the eight great Sea race techniques. Her sensory abilities exceeded those on the same level and were able to spy on almost everything. Before, as she had passed this region, she had clearly felt the ripples of a powerful but extremely obscure energy. As a result, she rushed over and discovered Jian Chen and Nubis. However, her Innate Spirit-opening technique was unable to see through Jian Chen and Nubis; she could feel that the two people before her were not as simple as they seemed at all.
The lady hesitated slightly before asking, “Esteemed warriors, the Jass City is not far from here. Also, the grand auction held once every hundred years is about to start soon too. Why don’t the two warriors enter the city with me?”
“Alright, we’ll go in with the young lady.” Jian Chen agreed readily.
“Jian Chen, why do you want to enter the city with them now?” Nubis sent a mental message as he was extremely perplexed.
“Members of the Sea race are relatively special. Their sensory abilities completely exceed my expectations and they actually discovered the existence of the saint artifact. The artifact is unable to conceal its presence entirely, so we can’t take it out often. As a result, we can only cultivate outside, which is why we need to have a detailed understanding regarding the Sea race. Following them undoubtedly would be a fast and convenient way to this knowledge.”
“Yeah, that seems reasonable. I do have some information recorded in my inherited memories regarding the Sea race but I have no idea how long ago this is from. The Sea race must have experienced some great changes too like these Seasoul Warriors. I have no clue what they are.”
Afterward, the two of them followed the woman toward Jass City. They concealed their strength as they enveloped themselves with a layer of water-attributed energy and flew slowly. To the two of them who were both Saint Rulers, this was as easy as cake.
As they displayed their ability of flight, it immediately caused a great change in the gazes of the other people.
Along the way, Jian Chen and Nubis constantly asked vague questions regarding the situation of the Sea race. They learned a lot of useful information from the lady, gaining a deeper and deeper understanding.
Other than the fact that the Sea race was divided into three factions that they already knew, it was further split up into the inner and outer oceans. The inner ocean was the independent world where the two of them currently resided, separated by a barrier. It was the holy land of the Sea race where only highly-evolved, humanoid Sea race members had the right to enter.
The members of the Sea race who had yet to gain a humanoid form could only live in the outer ocean. The outer ocean was the world outside the barrier; not only was the environment horrible, there was a scarce supply of water-attributed energy of the world and it was filled with sea water.
Of course, there were a few species of the Sea race who could not take humanoid forms due to innate limitations. As a result, they only needed to reach to reach the 14th Star as Seasoul Warriors to gain the right to enter.
Seasoul Warriors were the cultivators of the Sea race. Their strengths were divided into a total of eighteen stars. According to how magical beasts were measure, one class was equivalent to two stars. 1st Star and 2nd Star Seasoul Warriors were equivalent to human Saints and Class 1 Magical Beasts, while 3rd Star and 4th Star Seasoul Warriors were equivalent to human Great Saints and Class 2 Magical Beasts. Continuing with this pattern, 11th Star and 12th Star Seasoul Warriors were equivalent to Class 6 Magical Beasts, 13th Star and 14th Star Seasoul Warriors were equivalent to Class 7 Magical Beasts, 15th Star and 16th Star Seasoul Warriors were equivalent to Class 8 Magical Beasts and 17th Star and 18th Star Seasoul Warriors were equivalent to Class 9 Magical Beasts.
In the territory of the Sea race, crystal coins would form naturally from the water-attributed energy. Not only were they the currency used by the Sea race, they were also a crucial object for cultivation. The coins were as important as Monster Cores on the Tian Yuan Continent but the only difference was that when they absorbed these coins for cultivation, there would not be any aftereffects.
Other than the three halls that divided the world, there were many other organizations of various sizes, existing in the forms of clans or tribes.
Other than all this, Jian Chen also learned something extremely important. There would often be humans or magical beasts who moved about among the Sea race too; they were virtually all foreign cultivators who lived quite close to the region of sea. They would bring in objects from outside to trade with the Sea race to obtain what they needed.
Although the majority of the Sea race did not antagonize foreign humans or magical beasts, there were exceptions. Some members of the Sea race were extremely xenophobic so whenever they saw outsiders, there would often be conflict or deeds of murder and robbery. Even powerful human Saint Rulers and Class 7 Magical Beasts were not exceptions to this fact.
As a result, if outsiders wanted to move about among the Sea race safely, they needed the support of a powerful organization.
Jian Chen also gained some understanding of the lady’s identity. She was the daughter of a clan patriarch several tens of thousand kilometers away and was called Kai Ya. She had cultivated for over two hundred years and this was the first time she had lead a dozen or so 12th Star Seasoul Warriors to participate in the auction of Jass City held once every hundred years.
As Jian Chen traveled towards the city, the high-ranking members of the ten protector clans and Mercenary City all gathered in a floating hall in Mercenary City.
“Everyone, this is the situation. The sea goddess is not dead and Jian Chen fled into the territory of the Sea race with the Winged Tiger God. Let’s talk about just what we should do.” A great elder narrated the information he had learned from Ling Yuanzi in detail.
Within the floating hall, all the other people were extremely stern with the grand elder of Mercenary City being the only exception.
The sea goddess was an influential existence from the ancient times. She was someone that matched up to the greatest human expert Mo Tianyun, the ancient Winged Tiger God, and the war god of the Hundred Races, Aergyns. She was one of the four supreme champions that surpassed Saint Emperor.
Now that so many years had passed, the war god Aergyns had fallen. The ancient Winged Tiger God and Mo Tianyun had both disappeared, it was extremely likely that they have passed away from old age. They were no longer with them, yet the sea goddess still existed. This piece of news caused an extremely great shock to the ten protector clans and made all of their expressions become ugly.
“Yuan Qingzi, is this true? Are you sure the sea goddess is not dead? And that it’s not some other expert posing to scare us?” asked a representative from a protector clan. His tone was stern.
“I’m absolutely certain about this. Other than me, there’s also Bi Yifei who witness this.” Ling Yuanzi growled. He had yet to recover fully from his injuries, so his face was sheet-white and ghastly.
“Ling Yuanzi, are your injuries from the sea goddess? I feel that your origin soul is extremely weak. It has suffered extremely great damage,” said a ruddy old man.
Ling Yuanzi shook his head. As soon as he thought about this, he felt a wave of shame and resentment. As an impressive Fifth Heavenly Layer Saint King, he had actually fallen to such a state all from a junior who was far weaker than he was. This was a great embarrassment.
“It was Jian Chen. I never thought he’d reached Class 7 as a Radiant Saint Master. He paid five hundred years of his life as a price to cast the forbidden Radiant Arte, injuring me heavily,” said Ling Yuanzi with gritted teeth. Hatred toward Jian Chen churned within him.
With that, everyone present was surprised. Changyang Qing Yun from the Changyang clan and the grand elder of Mercenary City both became mixed in emotions. They wanted to help Jian Chen very much but they lacked the power to do so. This was also connected to the Winged Tiger God. If the problem regarding who the Winged Tiger God belonged to was not resolved, they could not help Jian Chen at all as this would only intensify the disagreement between the protector clans.
“It’s about time I told everyone this. Yuan Qingzi is right. The sea goddess has indeed not passed away and still remains alive,” said Tian Jian. His voice was flat and reserved.
“Tian Jian, how are you so certain that the sea goddess’s not dead?”
“Tian Jian, since you knew the sea goddess was still alive, why didn’t you tell us earlier?”
Two representatives from different clans asked at the same time.
Tian Jian replied slowly, “Many years ago, I fused my origin soul with the hall and borrowed its power to observe the world. I sensed a terrifyingly powerful energy from the Sea race and confirmed that it was the sea goddess. As for why I didn’t tell you all, do you believe this is good news? Knowing would actually make you all worse off, making you all worry.”