High above the Wando Archipelago, Shen Mo hid among the clouds, moving and resting intermittently.
The Soul Refining Flag floated beside him, commanding ten Demon Soul Generals as he continued to search for Jiang Lingfeng.
Thus far, his efforts had yielded no sign of her. Instead, his journey had offered him insights into the myriad cultures on the countless islands and smaller nations within the Wando Archipelago, all vastly different from those in the Red Fla Country.
Their clothing, food, shelter, transportation, weddings, and funerals were all strongly characterized by the local mariti culture, yet they also vaguely reminded him of customs in the Red Fla Country.
For instance, in weddings, the groom used not a traditional red bridal sedan but a fishing boat adorned with red fabric and fishing nets. In funerals, the deceased weren’t cremated or buried in coffins underground. Instead, after being dressed in finery, their bodies were committed to the sea.
There were many more such practices, all intriguingly diverse, adding a touch of color to Shen Mo’s otherwise mundane search.
He also encountered nurous priests in the Wando Archipelago.
In the eyes of the islanders, these priests could summon wind and rain, calm the seas, and were considered beings of great power.
However, most of those Shen Mo t possessed only the strength of the Body Tempering Realm; those in the Qi Gathering Realm were so few they could be counted on two hands.
This made sense. Cultivators who relied on the resentful energy from mortal deaths couldn’t progress as quickly as the evil cultivators of the Red Fla Country.
After all, in the cultivation world of the Red Fla Country, evil cultivators could not only draw upon such malevolent energy for their practice but could also absorb similar power from the rich nature’s spiritual energy, refining it into their own Mana.
These capabilities were far beyond what the deficient priests here, with their incomplete thods, could ever hope to achieve.
What surprised Shen Mo was that many priests who used living people for cultivation also protected their islands from savage Sea Beasts and even concocted dicines for the seriously ill.
On the rare occasion he encountered a priest of cruel disposition, one who ruthlessly slaughtered islanders for cultivation, that priest was swiftly slain by the combined efforts of priests from neighboring islands.
As for the islanders on that cruel priest’s island, many were claid by neighboring islands, and eventually, a new young priest took his place.
It feels like... the relationship between a rancher and their livestock! Shen Mo pondered.
He didn’t believe that these cultivators, who used mortals as fuel for their cultivation, would be as compassionate as cultivators from immortal sects, who willingly protected ordinary people with no cultivation.
They likely viewed mortals as assets, akin to livestock.
Ordinarily, they would offer a degree of protection to prevent excessive deaths among the mortals. However, when it ca ti for their own cultivation, they would slaughter them without rcy.
Of course, Shen Mo wouldn’t interfere in a way of life that had developed here over two or three thousand years.
Even if he were to kill every priest in the Wando Archipelago, he lacked the capacity to protect the tens of millions of islands and their hundreds of millions of inhabitants from the Sea Beasts.
Moreover, if he acted, the number of islanders dying in the short term could surpass the total killed by priests over the past century.
It could even lead to the extinction of their people, or, decades later, a new generation of priests might arise out of the struggle for survival.
The current state of the Wando Archipelago will ultimately have to be changed by them, Shen Mo mused. Perhaps, when Xiaoyu and the others mature, the situation will gradually improve.
As he traversed thousands of islands, Shen Mo also selected several youths whose parents had been killed by priests, casually spreading a simplified cultivation thod for the Bloody Fiend Body.
It was rely a casual act on his part, requiring little effort.
Shen Mo only parted with so low-grade talismans he could craft at will; he didn’t even spare a single dose of Yang-strengthening Powder.
If this could sohow improve the distorted relationship between cultivators and mortals in the Wando Archipelago, it would be a worthy return for the twist of fate that had led to him being rescued by the local fishern.
「Three days later,」 Shen Mo arrived at Bright Sand Country, the largest nation in the Wando Archipelago.
This mariti nation commanded a vast expanse of sea, ruling over islands numbering in the hundreds of thousands, with a population reaching several hundred million.
The main island, ho to its capital, was comparable in size to half a province in the Red Fla Country. This island alone was inhabited by over a hundred million mortals.
After briefly recovering, Shen Mo once again dispatched his Demon Soul Generals, continuing his search across vast seas and countless islands.
Upon reaching a certain small island, his expression subtly changed. Transforming into a beam of escaping light, he descended into the small courtyard of a house built from shells and reef stones.
The sun was setting.
After dinner, the master of the house and his wife had put their young children to bed early. The couple, having recently shared an intimate mont, lay nestled together, speaking of private matters.
"My dear, when will Priest He deliver the promised reward?" she asked.
"Why are you in such a hurry?" the husband mumbled indistinctly. "I had Stone and Crab ask around. Priest He took that Drunk Immortal to the Capital City; they won’t be back anyti soon."
"Once he receives his reward from the important figures in the city, he’ll naturally share so benefits with us."
"I’ve thought it over. Instead of asking for money or grain, I’ll try to get a chance for our Blackie to beco Priest He’s disciple..."
Upon hearing this, his wife suddenly beca agitated, "Have Blackie beco Priest He’s disciple? Are you mad?"
"Don’t you know what those priests are like? Forget about him learning any skills; I’m afraid Priest He might eat him!"
"Besides... even if Blackie manages to learn Priest He’s skills, won’t he end up following him, eating people and drinking blood? He’ll beco more terrifying than the Sea Beasts!"
Her husband grew tense and urgently hushed her, saying impatiently, "What do you know? It’s always better to be the one eating than to be eaten!"
"On our island, looking back three or four generations, which family hasn’t offered up one or two mbers as sacrifices?"
"According to tradition, once Blackie and Shaoyao are grown, one of them will have to be chosen as a sacrifice for Priest He’s cultivation."
"If Blackie can beco Priest He’s disciple, at least he and Shaoyao won’t be eaten!"
At that, the woman fell silent, her weeping ceasing.
Just then, the wooden door creaked as if blown open by the wind.
"That’s odd, I rember bolting the door," murmured the hoowner. He got up, threw on so clothes, and went to close it.
But then, he cried out in alarm, grabbing a fishing spear from the main room, ready to fight the uninvited guest standing in the doorway.
This unexpected guest was Shen Mo.
Shen Mo glanced at the fisherman, a strange light glinting in his eyes—the Soul Searching Spell!
An invisible force of soul power spread out in all directions, stirring layers of strange, indescribable ripples in a profound way.
Shen Mo cast the Soul Searching Spell not only on the hoowner and his wife but also on the fishern he had ntioned—Stone and Crab—and indeed, on all the adult n and won on the island.
Due to the vast disparity in their spiritual strength, the souls of those subjected to the spell wouldn’t suffer significant harm.
A few breaths later, a cloud of mist, accompanied by a faint golden glow, enveloped Shen Mo, and he vanished, transforming into a streak of light.
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