CHAPTER 281: AT SEA

The first customer was followed by the second and third.

In no time, word spread and several thousand cultivators rushed to buy longevity pills.

However, while buying the pills, they also bought other things, including weapons and talismans.

Three months later, Shen Xu turned to Zhen Yuan with a satisfied expression.

"Ayuan, we got a lot of good things." He exclaimed.

In fact, most of what they got was useless for their cultivation.

However, Zhen Yuan and Shen Xu didn’t despise them.

After all, these things could later be exchanged for useful resources.

"It’s time for us to leave." Zhen Yuan said and Shen Xu nodded before turning to Dongfang Jing and Chen Yi.

"What’s your plan? Will you come with us or leave alone?" He asked.

Hearing this, Dongfang Jing and Chen Yi glanced at each other.

The secret realm would close in a little more than one hundred years.

During that time, they planned to walk around, searching for supplies.

However, they were knowledgeable people and knew the secret realm would become more dangerous in the next few decades.

Considering that, they hoped to travel with Zhen Yuan’s group but were also worried about inconveniencing others.

"Is it okay?" Dongfang Jing asked with a cryptic expression.

"It’s okay." Shen Xu answered.

If he and the others planned to retreat, they wouldn’t allow Dongfang Jing and Chen Yi to follow them.

However, they planned to walk around and would likely not need to enter the space.

Most importantly, selling longevity pills and receiving so many treasures would attract greedy people.

Since Dongfang Jing and Chen Yi acted with them, they wouldn’t be spared and would face pursuit.

Considering that they were the source of the trouble, Shen Xu and Zhen Yuan wanted to travel with Dongfang Jing and Chen Yi to prevent them from being implicated.

"In that case, let’s go together." Dongfang Jing said.

After that, the group boarded Shen Xu’s flying ship and left the island.

However, they didn’t head to shore and instead flew further into the sea.

Inside his and Zhen Yuan’s cabin, Shen Xu held a demon core with a satisfied expression.

"Finally." He said.

After killing the nightmare beasts, Shen Xu and the others collected their demon cores.

Unfortunately, the demon cores were stained with evil qi and couldn’t be used.

At first, they thought the demon cores were unusable and prepared to seal them in an airtight box.

However, at this time, Zhen Yuan suddenly had an idea.

Since nightmare beasts were a type of soul beast, couldn’t soul nourishing dew purify their demon cores?

Thinking of trying their luck, they soaked the demon cores in a container of soul-nourishing dew.

Unexpectedly, the plan worked and after three months of continuously changing the soul-nourishing dew, the demon cores were finally purified.

"We can refine these demon cores to improve our soul power." Shen Xu said and Zhen Yuan nodded.

However, he soon frowned.

"Xiaoxu, your soul power is already at the peak of level seven and can’t advance until we go to the Tianxuan continent. Let’s save the demon cores for the time being."

"What about you?"

"I also don’t plan to cultivate my soul power for the time being." Zhen Yuan said with a thoughtful expression.

His soul cultivation was the early stage of level eight; body cultivation was the peak of level seven and qi cultivation was the early stage of the fusion realm.

After thinking about it, Zhen Yuan felt he needed to harmonise his cultivation.

As a result, he planned to push his qi cultivation and body cultivation to the early stage of level eight before he considered advancing his soul cultivation.

’I have accumulated enough laws to advance my qi cultivation to the peak of the fusion realm. However, now is not the time to retreat.’ He thought.

While Zhen Yuan was thinking, Shen Xu suddenly startled and grabbed his lover’s hand.

"What’s wrong?" Zhen Yuan asked.

"I forgot to tell you something?" The double said and Zhen Yuan raised his eyebrow in question.

"Do you remember how the evil swallowing cauldron was not completely closed?"

"I remember. What about it?"

"It wasn’t an accident." Shen Xu sighed and began explaining.

He received a lot of information when he contracted the evil swallowing cauldron and the enlightenment cup.

Among the information was an explanation of why the cauldron was opened a crack.

According to the information, the cauldron was originally completely sealed.

However, after billions of years of swallowing and nurturing evil qi, the evil in the cauldron bred a nightmare beast.

This nightmare beast thrived in evil and became very powerful.

In the end, it sacrificed its power to open a crack in the cauldron, successfully escaping to the outside.

Fortunately, its power was almost gone and it had to cultivate all over again.

Otherwise, the Yunshan secret realm would have long changed from a blessed land to a land of evil.

"We came just in time." Shen Xu said and Zhen Yuan narrowed his eyes with a thoughtful expression.

"It seems we have to keep a close eye on that cauldron. We can’t let it breed another powerful nightmare beast."

"Don’t worry." Shen Xu assured and quickly explained.

"It will take more than a billion years to breed a nightmare beast powerful enough to unseal the cauldron from within. Even then, as long as you are here, we can easily close the crack."

"In that case, we just need to be aware of the problem but it’s nothing to worry about."

Over the next two years, the ship sailed over the seemingly endless sea.

Occasionally, the seven left the ship to collect sea spirit grasses and fight sea monsters.

However, they hadn’t encountered a major opportunity.

On this day, the seven were drinking wine on the deck while discussing whether to go back.

Suddenly, the sea began to boil and a trace of red appeared in the water.

"What’s going on?" Yang Shi asked, looking at the sea.

"An underwater volcano is about to erupt." Feng Xue said and Shen Xu nodded.

"I sense it too." He said.