Cultivating with Top Enlightenment

Chapter 1020 - 441: A Fortuitous Misstep

Ning Qi continued moving toward the depths of the Sea of Realms.

Because he himself had fused with the Sea of Realms’ energy, he was regarded by the Sea of Realms as a part of itself and was not subjected to the impact and invasion of its energy.

When Ning Qi had first stepped out of the True Martial Spirit Realm, he had already experienced once how terrifying the Sea of Realms’ energy was. Now, facing the threat of the Mountain Ancestor becoming an Immortal, Ning Qi no longer had any intention of continuing to test the Sea of Realms’ intensity.

After stepping into the Black Water Area, Ning Qi felt as if he had entered a land of eternal night.

The Black Water Area bordered the Gray Mist Area; within it, the Sea of Realms’ energy was like black seawater, silent and still, giving one a feeling of panic just by looking at it.

Thus, the Black-Haired Donkey, that kind of Fierce Beast possessing will which Ning Qi had encountered before, called this place the Black Water Area.

The black water flowed quietly, overall calm and without ripples, as though the night had buried all things.

Ning Qi was immersed in it, swimming toward the deeper Chaotic Flow Area.

The Black Water Region was still relatively calm; even feeling one’s way in the dark, one would not lose direction, but the Chaotic Flow Area was different.

Before long, Ning Qi stepped into the Chaotic Flow Area.

Compared to the Black Water Region, the Chaotic Flow Area did not have a clear boundary line.

But the moment one stepped into it, one could feel a distinct difference.

The first thing Ning Qi sensed was that the entire Sea of Realms seemed to have grown violent, and its blackness had become much deeper.

In this region, the Sea of Realms’ energy formed vortexes of chaotic flow, which began pulling at him as he was immersed within them.

Ning Qi did not immediately choose to resist, but went with the flow.

At once, he was dragged by the chaotic currents, constantly pulled deeper inward.

These chaotic vortices were linked ring upon ring, large rings encompassing small ones, like layers of ripples spreading outward.

Sometimes the forces between rings had the same tendency, and once one fell into them, one would be dragged into an even larger vortex.

Sometimes the forces between them were strangely repulsive; falling into them, one would immediately feel as if the whole body were being torn by two terrifying, gigantic powers. If one’s fleshly body were a bit weaker, one would definitely be ripped in half.

Ning Qi silently felt everything, and an involuntary sense of despair rose in his heart; he could not help but sigh inwardly.

No wonder only the Sea of Realms’ Fierce Beasts could remain within the Sea of Realms. As for this Chaotic Flow Area, likely only Fierce Beasts at the Unity Realm would dare set foot here.

What was even more frightening was that these chaotic vortices were not only pulling at him; they were also eroding his power, and Ning Qi even faintly felt that they were devouring his strength.

No wonder that Black-Haired Donkey said it had once gotten lost in here and nearly died.

In such a terrifying place, even a Sea of Realms Fierce Beast at the Unity Realm like the Black-Haired Donkey could hardly survive. As for any Unity Realm Cultivator from within a Spirit Realm, if they were exiled to the Chaotic Flow Area, they would probably die immediately.

Ning Qi furrowed his brows.

He thought of the twisted monsters the Saint Ancestor had summoned from the Sea of Realms during the previous war.

Those twisted monsters were formed by assembling severed limbs of all kinds of living beings, incomparably bloodthirsty and evil. They would actively attack worlds and the beings within them, driven by a powerful desire for destruction.

He wondered if those twisted monsters had also been born because of the tearing of these chaotic flows?

In any case, compared to a world, the Sea of Realms seemed to contain far more unknowns and mysteries.

Suddenly, Ning Qi’s whole body trembled; the Sea of Realms’ energy within him condensed, and he employed the Sword Dao Rules, turning his body into a sword.

In an instant, Ning Qi escaped the pull of the chaotic vortices, and the sharp Sword Intent allowed him to shuttle through layer after layer of vortex.

If he were not a Cultivator at the limit of the Unity Realm, as well as a master of a realm, and had not fused with the Sea of Realms’ energy, it would likely have been very difficult to so easily break free of the Sea of Realms’ chaotic flows.

Even though he had shaken off the pull of the chaotic flows, as long as Ning Qi kept moving deeper, he could not escape the chaotic currents at all; he merely continued shuttling through ever larger chaotic flows.

After entering this place, both Ning Qi’s line of sight and his perception were greatly restricted.

This place was even darker than the previous Black Water Area; even his perception of external energies became extremely blurred.

Because the chaotic flows naturally caused energy to become more disordered, trying to sense other energies within them was, as one could imagine, exceedingly difficult.

Ning Qi transformed into a sword body and continued shuttling toward the depths.

After some time, Ning Qi’s figure came to a halt. He looked at the Sea of Realms ahead, narrowing his eyes.

"Right now, the range my sight and Spiritual Sense can perceive at most radiates out to only about one li."

"That is not the worst of it. More frightening is that, even though I am regarded as a part of the Sea of Realms, I have once again begun to be affected by the pull of the chaotic flows."

He could indeed turn his body into a sword and break free of the earlier chaotic flows, but as he went ever deeper, the power of the chaotic flows in the depths increased by countless times. Even he was beginning to feel somewhat strained.

Ning Qi felt a slight shock in his heart.

Having cultivated to this realm, he should have been riding high, laughing proudly over the Three Realms. Even in the face of the Mountain Ancestor, who was about to become an Immortal, Ning Qi did not fear him and intended to fight him.

But on this journey into the Sea of Realms, confronted with the boundless chaotic currents before him, Ning Qi once again felt his own insignificance, and the vastness and terror of the Sea of Realms.

He recalled the experience during the Mountain Ancestor’s becoming an Immortal: to step through the Immortal Door, one had to strip away all the Sea of Realms’ energy.

The Sea of Realms is boundless, yet to become an Immortal one must leave it behind. Faced with such a terrifying Sea of Realms, can sentient beings truly detach from it?

Ning Qi also thought of what the Saint Ancestor had said: the Sea of Realms is like muddy water, and Cultivators are like lotus roots growing within the mire. Only those who cultivate into lotus flowers that emerge unstained from the mud can become Immortals.

However...

The Mountain Ancestor had not abandoned the source that, under the radiance of the Golden Immortal Sect, forced the Sea of Realms’ energy out of his body—that remnant of Buzhou Mountain he had summoned from the Sea of Realms.