Chapter 358: Endless Sea, Moulan

A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality

First, I want to thank everyone for their opinions and thoughts on how we should overhaul completed novels. We've reviewed nearly 2000 comments across multiple platforms and forum, and while we haven't responded to everything I can promise I HAVE read it all. First, I'm going to briefly go into some of the things which were discussed which may or may not work, because I don't want people to think I ignored anything. I'm putting those in 'spoiler' tags so people who don't care can skip it. Then, we'll talk...

Chapter 358: The Endless Sea, The Moulan

Han Li then suddenly spoke with a gentle smile, “Well then, knowing that the the State of Yue is currently in turmoil is enough for me!”

These incomprehensible words left the four with a feeling of profound mystery. They could only force themselves to give him a smile in return.

Han Li stood up and said amiably, “You can all go ahead and continue chatting! I am going to go to a different room.”

“As you please, Senior!”

“Best wishes, Senior!”

……

The four hastily saw off Han Li with respect.

Han Li casually beckoned with his arm and called out to Crooked Soul who had stood outside throughout the conversation. They then walked together to another stone kiosk.

……

Four hours later, Han Li stood at a corner of the mountain peak and lowered his head in contemplation.

He had participated in many discussions about the current affairs of the State of Yue. As a result, he had come to the conclusion that the current situation in the State of Yue could only be described as ‘chaotic’.

Under these circumstances, he only had two options.

One was to use a flying magic tool and fly to a country far away from the State of Yue, in order to find a place suitable for cultivation.

The other option was to restore the ancient transportation formation and take a gamble to see where the transportation formation would take him. After all, this precious ancient transportation formation was built underground for a reason. It was certain to be linked to a distant location.

At first glance, he felt that he should obviously choose the first option as it was more reliable. But after some consideration, Han Li felt that it was just as risky.

To the east and west of the State of Yue were the Devil Dao’s State of Tianluo and the Righteous Dao Alliance’s State of Fengdou. As a result, he would only be able to head north or south.

If he were to flee north of Yuanwu, there would be several tens of small and mid ranked countries, but Han Li knew that their cultivators wouldn’t be able to resist the attacks of either the Devil or Righteous Dao. Some of them had even attached themselves to the two great powers, becoming their puppets and occasionally engaging in both open and covert struggles with the other side. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for the State of Tianluo and Fengdou to conduct a wide-scale turf war, especially since they originally only had a small stretch of common border with one other.

Those countries would soon be turned into battlefields by the Devil Dao and Righteous Dao Alliance, and Han Li naturally wouldn’t be able to stay there.

But if he were to brave the dangers of travelling through these countries and continue north, he would arrive at the Heavenly South Region’s northmost area, the “Endless Seas”, where few cultivators dared to travel.

Not only was this sea extremely dark, it was also limitless and had many rare species of fishes living within. The fishes were extremely violent and were no less vicious than their high-grade demon beast counterparts on land. Even Core Formation cultivators would find themselves in extreme danger if they fell into the sea.

The thought of flying across the sea was but a mere fantasy! There was once a Nascent Soul cultivator who was curious about the end of the sea. After preparing fully, he then flew over the ocean water. After flying for over a year, he was still unable to see any end of the sea and hadn’t seen the slightest hint of land.

At that point, over half of his medicine pills and spirit stones had been exhausted, and he could only resentfully turn back. Otherwise, he would only be able to die at sea when he ran out of spiritual power, even if he was a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Naturally, Han Li wouldn’t indulge himself in the fantasy of crossing the sea. His only thoughts were to head down south.

South of the State of Yue, after passing through the State of Zijin and then another six countries, one would arrive at the Nine Nations Union, an inseparably close alliance of nine countries of various sizes.

This alliance between the nine countries was formed mostly for the purpose of combating their fearsome invaders, the Moulan Race’s “Spell Soldiers”.

When speaking of the Moulan Race and their magic soldiers, one wouldn’t be able to avoid mentioning the Moulan Prairies, home of the Moulan Tribes and a close neighbor of the Nine Nations Union.

The Moulan Race were completely different from the Yan people of the States of Yuanwu and Yue. Their people were completely nomadic, possessing a culture of fearlessness and a love for brandishing their sabers and spears. The Moulan Race were made up of countless tribes of various sizes, where small tribes would consist of several hundred thousand people and the large tribes would number several tens of millions.

Cultivators also existed within these tribes, but they were called “Spell Warriors” instead of cultivators. It is said that they are indistinguishable from common cultivators, and the divisions of cultivation as well as the cultivation techniques are extremely similar. The only thing that differed were that the Spell Warriors of Core Formation rank and higher didn’t care much about external items such as magic tools and talismans. Instead, they were focused on mastering their elemental Daoist magics to perfection. They even had secret earthborn techniques where they merged with the prairie. Their research had produced a variety of extremely strange and formidable magic techniques, and in turn created a new school of magic techniques that distinguished the Moulan, which they called “Spirit Techniques”.

By relying on these incisive “Spirit Techniques”, the Moulan Race’s spell warriors were able to contend and even gain the upper hand against cultivators of equivalent rank.

As the Moulan Race’s spell warriors grew increasingly numerous, their need for spirit vein locations and spirit stones intensified to the point of significantly worsening the depletion of cultivation resources. This shortage was further exacerbated by the extreme lack of natural cultivation resources in the Moulan Prairie.

As a result, the Moulan Race’s spell warriors had their gazes set upon the abundant Spiritual Qi and resources of the nine countries for as long as anybody could remember. They had often launched attacks against these countries in order to seize their spirit veins, spirit stone mines, and other such resources vital to cultivators.

Naturally, the cultivation world of the nine countries were unwilling to allow their resources to be seized by these savage cultivators. In the end, a bloody war of magic had erupted.

In the beginning, the nine countries had individually resisted, but they had quickly suffered defeat at the hands of the united armies of the Moulan Tribes, surrendering a large portion of their resources and land.

Having now experienced the ferociousness of the Moulan, they learned from their defeat and hastily formed the “Nine Nations Union”. By using underhanded and deplorable methods, they were able to gradually defeat the Moulan Race’s spell warriors and retake their land.

But having just tasted victory, the Moulan Tribes were naturally unwilling to simply give up. After endless years of strife and warfare, mutual hatred had bloomed within both sides. The death toll had grown to such a degree that even the mortals of Moulan and Yan had been influenced.

As of now, the people of Moulan didn’t dare to set foot within the borders of the Nine Countries. Likewise, those of Yan didn’t dare to travel too deeply into the Moulan Prairies.

As for how many people there are in the Moulan Tribes, nobody truly knows. The Moulan Prairie was far too large, and the Nine Nations Union had only tangled with a small portion of the Moulan Tribes.

Although the Moulan Prairie wasn’t endless like the Black Devil Sea, it was said to require five years for someone to travel from one end of the prairie to the other end. Furthermore, “Moulan Prairies” was just a name given by the Moulan tribes. At the other end of the prairie lay the Moulan Tribe’s true enemy: the “Soaring Tribes”.

The Soaring Tribes were another nomadic tribe, who called these grasslands the “Heaventide Prairies”. This was due to their long-held beliefs in their patron God, the “Heaventide Beast”.

There was no reason for two nomadic tribes to live on the same prairie, and the two ethnicities had formed a relationship of fatal enmity. It was unknown for how long their soldiers and cultivators had been fighting one another.

In any case, a huge battle was certain to take place every hundred years or so at the center of the prairie. Ten million mortal soldiers would fight, while tens of thousands of cultivators battled throughout the sky. Naturally, the ultimate victor would be decided by the battle in the sky.

Han Li had learned all of this from rumors and ancient records of all kinds.

It was said that at the other end of the Moulan Prairie existed an incredibly huge Great Empire. The entire Heavenly South Region wasn’t even as large as a tenth of it.

Han Li found those rumors hard to believe and had difficulty imagining a country that was over ten times larger than the entire Heavenly South Region.

Of course, all this had nothing to do with Han Li’s current plans. They were just random thoughts that had rushed through his mind.

After he set aside his wandering thoughts, he eventually came to the conclusion that the Six Sect’s evacuation wouldn’t end within the nearby countries. They would definitely make a detour to the Nine Nations Union. After all, the cultivators of the nine countries had battles with the Moulan spell warriors every other year and a war every ten years. They would definitely welcome the Six Sects and provide them with great assistance.

Naturally, the spirit veins and other such locations of value allocated to them would depend on their abilities.

If Han Li were to return to Yellow Maple Valley, he would just continue to be cannon fodder. This meant he definitely couldn’t head south.

Although he had already come to a clear answer on what he should do, he received a great headache once he thought about it again. First, he would see whether or not he could restore the transportation formation. If he managed to successfully repair it, he would then reconsider whether or not he would use it.

‘At best, I could return if I’m dissatisfied. At worst... Well, this option did hold a certain degree of danger after all!’ Han Li thought with a bitter smile.

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