"Wow! What an imposing Boat House!"
As soon as Clam Girl Ming Yu boarded the Heaven Patrolling Boat House, she and Flower Fairy Ami eagerly entered the complex of buildings onboard. They road around, selecting their favorite pavilions as their dwellings.
The Boat House was brimming with towering pavilions, winding corridors, and high-peaked eaves, in no way inferior to the Guanyun Mansion on Little Green Cloud Peak!
Then, Shen Mo, smiling, took Zhao Lingyin by the hand for a stroll around the Boat House.
The couple soon selected an exquisite dwelling among the many pavilions to serve as their future bedchamber.
Opening the window of this new abode, they could gaze down through the faint mist coiling around the ship, taking in the entire vista below. Adjoining their bedchamber were several spacious rooms that could serve as their Alchemy Room, Forge Room, and cultivation chamber. Outside, winding corridors connected to other pavilions and kiosks.
While Zhao Lingyin joyfully arranged the furnishings in their bedchamber, Shen Mo retrieved nurous Array Path Manuals and formation-setting materials, busying himself at various locations on the Heaven Patrolling Boat House.
The first formation he established was a Spirit Gathering Array. This array was relatively simple; even an entry-level Array Master could set it up with ease.
However, perfectly embedding the formation into the Heaven Patrolling Boat House increased the difficulty significantly.
If not done this way, when Shen Mo shrank the Boat House to store it in his Universe Bag, any formations laid upon it would disintegrate. Only by fusing them into an integral part of the vessel could they remain unaffected when the Boat House was deployed or stowed, preserving the formations and Prohibitions onboard.
Simultaneously, the entire Boat House emitted a faint glow as it broke through the clouds, sailing towards the sea region under the dominion of Demon Lord Ming Cang.
***
PLOP!
Ming Yu leaped from the Boat House. Her human attire swiftly receded, and the clam shell, previously shrunken and concealed on her back, rapidly expanded. In the blink of an eye, she reverted to her true Clam Girl form.
Then, she gently fanned her crystalline clam shell, sending out pulses of undercurrents mixed with wisps of demonic power.
This was a unique communication thod employed by the great demons of the Marine Race, akin to cultivators using Divine Sense transmission. Through this technique, they could communicate with the less intelligent, low-ranking mbers of the Marine Race.
A mont later, her twin clam shells surfaced. Ming Yu’s head poked out from the opening, and she said excitedly, "Elder Brother, my mother’s palace is nearby on the seabed. I’ll lead the way; just follow ."
With that, she subrged back into the seawater.
After the world’s cataclysmic changes, Demon Lord Ming Cang had relocated her palace to the deeper regions of the Immortal Burial Sea and had ceased dispatching sea-patrolling generals to the surface.
If Ming Yu hadn’t been able to communicate with the low-ranking Marine Race creatures, Shen Mo would have had to search area by area, undoubtedly wasting a significant amount of ti.
Promptly, he activated the Heaven Patrolling Boat House, and it plunged into the deep sea.
This vessel could traverse the sky, burrow underground, and navigate the seas unimpeded. As long as they remained aboard, Shen Mo didn’t even need to cast the Water-Avoiding Palm for himself, Zhao Lingyin, or Ami; the Boat House’s innate Prohibitions were sufficient to shield them from the seawater and its imnse pressure.
"Shen Mo, the underwater scenery is so different from the world above ground. It’s like two entirely separate realms," Zhao Lingyin murmured, nestling beside him. She watched, sowhat entranced, as fish, shrimp, snakes, turtles, and all sorts of peculiar sea beasts swam past.
Nearby, Flower Fairy Ami cooed in agreent.
Neither of them had ever been to the seabed before. Witnessing the dreamlike underwater vistas for the first ti, they were filled with astonishnt and a touch of joyful wonder.
Zhao Lingyin had rarely even left her sect, so this was her first ti at sea.
As for Ami, in the previous world her Flower Fairy clan had inhabited, though there were boundless oceans, they were all lifeless seas. The seawater was incredibly toxic; apart from so poisonous Gu insects and the creatures that fed on them, no other living beings existed there. The clan’s Big Moro also forbade mbers from venturing out to sea without permission.
Before long, Shen Mo and his companions encountered the great demons of the Marine Race who, having received word, had co to welco them.
***
Shen Mo’s party stayed in the palace of Demon Lord Ming Cang for over ten days.
This Fourth-Order Demon Lord, whose immortal clam shell had been shattered by a Ten Thousand Eyes Demon three years prior, had still not fully recovered from her injuries.
Shen Mo had even used fragnts of her shattered immortal clam shell to reforge the Green Cloud Umbrella. He had not told Ming Yu about this, fearing it would cause her to worry.
Harboring a peculiar sentint he kept to himself, Shen Mo presented Demon Lord Ming Cang with several Grade V Elixirs. He had refined them using a newly acquired elixir recipe from his sect, and their effects were quite remarkable.
Demon Lord Ming Cang accepted them gladly and hosted a banquet for Shen Mo and his companions.
Afterward, she dispatched great demons to notify the other four Demon Kings—Lin Gu, the Human-faced Fish, and two others—summoning them to et with Shen Mo.
Shen Mo conveyed the intentions of the Riverside Sect and the other four of the Five Great Sects, expressing their desire to continue cooperating with the Marine Race as allies...
Afterward, he did not linger. Guiding the Heaven Patrolling Boat House, he burst from the sea’s surface and set course for Zhong State in the Red Fla Country.
Clam Girl Ming Yu chose not to remain with her clan. Instead, she stowed her clam shell, donned the attire of a human cultivator, and boarded the Heaven Patrolling Boat House to travel with Shen Mo and the others.
Shen Mo quite understood her decision.
Even though Ming Yu was a middle-stage Class III great demon, her disposition was akin to that of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old human girl. Naturally, she yearned to explore the wider world rather than remain by her mother’s side, engrossed in arduous cultivation.
On the return journey, Shen Mo released ten powerful Demon Soul Generals, commanding them to fly beyond the Ninth Heaven in search of the elusive entrance to the Vacuous Realm.
After attaining the Golden Core Realm, under the dual constraints of the Soul Splitting Rune and the Soul Refining Flag, Shen Mo could maintain absolute control over the Demon Soul Generals, even if they ventured tens of thousands of miles away. There would be no risk of losing contact or control.
After all, upon restructuring the sequence of the Soul Generals within the flag and delegating so authority, Class IV Demon Soul Generals like the Ghost Bride had regained a small asure of their gnosis.
If they were to break free from his control, it could lead to a catastrophe.
Driven by their innate obsession to "consu blood essence" and "strengthen themselves," they might flee far away, indiscriminately devouring living beings and plaguing entire regions.
Therefore, Shen Mo dedicated a considerable portion of his Divine Sense to commanding these ten Demon Soul Generals.
However, the expanse beyond the Ninth Heaven was even more vast and desolate than the outer reaches of the Immortal Burial Sea. For now, neither the Vacuous Realm nor the palace marking its entrance had been discovered.
After arriving in Zhong State, Shen Mo’s party stayed in Yan Tianjing for two months, reorganizing the all-but-defunct headquarters of the Defense Division.
They then set off again, visiting in sequence: You State’s Ghost Corpse School, Jing State’s Heaven Sword Sect, and Yue State’s Profound Moon School...
Their final stop was Yu State, to visit the Seven Stars Altar, which was located in the sa state as the Riverside Sect’s current mountain gate.
Patriarchs of the Golden Core Realm from all the major immortal sects had personally attended Shen Mo and Zhao Lingyin’s bonding ceremony, bearing lavish gifts.
Paying them return visits was, therefore, a matter of proper etiquette.
This series of visits naturally earned them warm receptions from all the major sects. In almost every case, Supre Elders personally hosted them. During their stays, they engaged in discussions on profound Daoist principles, exchanged pointers on immortal techniques, attended lectures on cultivation insights, and partook in unending immortal banquets.
Afterward, the Heaven Patrolling Boat House did not return directly to Chong’a Mountain but continued its journey to various locations.
They traveled to the extrely cold lands of the far north to trade resources with the Dark Ice creatures.
They ventured west to observe the ruins of a Spiritless Land, a desolate area created by so unknown powerful expert.
Then, they proceeded to the Southern Poison Zone, where they collected nurous venomous and exotic flowers and herbs.
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