Chapter 673: Deep Sea Giant Shadow, Postnatal Secret Realm! (Part 2)

Chapter 673: Chapter 363: Deep Sea Giant Shadow, Postnatal Secret Realm! (Part 2)

At this moment, Su Mu couldn’t help doubting how ordinary ancient Martial Artists managed to acquire so many resources for Cultivation; only he himself knew how much money and how many resources he had burned through along the way.

Right now he had only just advanced to Fifth Grade, yet the Cultivation resources he had consumed were likely already several times that of an ordinary Fourth-Grade Martial Artist; by the time Su Mu in the future Cultivated to Fourth Grade, the resources he spent would probably be enough for the Cyan Fish Gang to pile up a Half-Step Great Cultivator.

Setting aside other things for now, just to complete the remaining Immortal Golden Spots alone, the number of Profound Pattern Pills required would at least have to double.

However, after a brief silence, joy rose in Su Mu’s heart.

This matter was just like the Cultivation of the Flood Dragon Shocking Skill; one major method of Cultivating the Flood Dragon Shocking Skill was by eating— the more one could eat, the greater one’s potential.

Without a vast and solid foundation, how could one raise a grand edifice on flat ground.

The youth in the first-deck cabin quickly immersed himself wholly in Cultivation; not long after, under the night, the great ship left the Black Waters and sailed toward the open sea.

Time flew by; in the blink of an eye, two days had passed.

“Lower the sails, quickly lower the sails!”

“Be ready to activate the ship’s Grand Array at any time.”

A commotion rose from the deck, the lookout atop the mast shouting warnings; black clouds rolled over the sky like a city-crushing tide, thunderous Silver Snake lightning roared, dark clouds converged from all directions, and in an instant a torrential downpour poured like an overturned waterfall.

“What a heavy rain! At this rate it probably won’t stop for at least a day or two, we’ll have to linger here for a while.”

“Strange, I’ve been going out to sea for over thirty years, and this is the first time I’ve encountered rain this heavy.”

The more-than-ten-zhang-long ship now seemed tiny and helpless, battered and swept by the tempestuous waves brought by the storm; the hull shuddered violently, tossed along by the swell as if it might be swallowed by the giant waves at any moment. On the deck, each crewman’s expression was grave as they moved swiftly.

“Creak—!”

One after another came the sounds of cabin doors opening; the passengers inside, startled awake, stepped out to check the situation outside, and Su Mu too was roused by this sudden storm.

“Swish, swish, swish—!”

The rain poured in torrents, raindrops like Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needle relentlessly pounding every part of the hull, producing a rapid drumming sound; the dense curtain of rain even warped and blurred Su Mu’s vision, making it hard to see beyond ten zhang for a moment, which surprised him.

Having lived two lifetimes, this was still the first time Su Mu had encountered such a violent storm; the scene before his eyes involuntarily brought a name to his mind: the Triassic Deluge.

“Before the might of nature, Cultivators too are insignificant; perhaps only Great Cultivators of the Upper Three Grades can remain unafraid in the face of this.”

Standing on the deck, Su Mu could feel, from the faces and bodily movements of the many seasoned crewmen and numerous passengers, varying degrees of stiffness; before this Heaven’s might, even Cultivators could not help but feel fear.

Fortunately, the keel and hull of this ship, which measured over ten zhang, were extremely sturdy, and a protective Grand Array had been set upon it; soon, many passengers voluntarily helped to drive the Grand Array, and the situation quickly stabilized.

Su Mu also joined in, slowly infusing Qi Blood and Power into one of the array’s nodes, but soon he heard some anecdotes from the mouths of an older and a younger crewman.

“Third Uncle… do you think this storm might have something to do with that strange deep-sea giant shadow from earlier?”

“Enough, that damned thing is far too sinister. That black shadow in the deep sea was probably larger than several islands; I heard a Tao Family merchant fleet passed through that stretch of sea a month ago, and the entire fleet vanished without a trace— likely ship and men all destroyed. We were lucky then, managing to avoid that disaster from afar.”

The young man, around his early twenties, had a look of reminiscence in his eyes, his expression a mix of fear and a hint of excitement, while the old man’s face was full of lingering terror and palpitations.

Without changing his expression, Su Mu edged closer to the two, releasing a wisp of Spiritual Power amidst the roaring rain to quietly envelop the three of them.

“Elder, I just heard you mention a deep-sea giant shadow; could you speak of it in more detail?”

As he spoke, Su Mu took out a small stack of silver notes and handed them over. The roughly fifty-year-old elder hesitated, but the young man at his side had already happily reached out and accepted the silver notes first.

The elder immediately glared fiercely at his little nephew, snatching the notes back and only pulling out the smallest-denomination note before handing the rest back.

“I don’t know much about this either. Roughly twenty days ago, when we were passing near an inner-sea region, we caught sight from afar of a huge shadow moving beneath the sea surface.”

“Right after that shadow appeared, the heavens changed face in a very short span of time; vast swathes of dark clouds converged from all directions above that shadow and followed along, then came the torrential rain. From my experience, that shadow hadn’t even fully revealed itself— its size was likely larger than several small islands.”

At this point the elder’s expression grew somber, unwilling to continue as if afraid of inviting calamity.

“This old man knows only this much; anything more, I really don’t know.”

Su Mu fell silent for a moment at these words, while in truth the Fish-shaped Jade Pendant on his chest was quivering; the Sun Family Ancestor had awakened, his tone tinged with a trace of astonishment.

“Brat, the giant shadow they spoke of is most likely an Ancient Ruins moving in the deep sea. If it truly matches what they described— able to move on its own and possessing a portion of rule power that makes heaven and earth change color— then it’s most likely a Secret Realm.”

“A Secret Realm?”

Su Mu used Spiritual Power to converse with the Sun Family Ancestor.

“That’s right, a Secret Realm. A so-called Secret Realm is a world unto itself. Secret Realms are of two types: one is a small space naturally nurtured by heaven and earth— this is an innate Secret Realm;

“The second is a Postnatal Secret Realm, opened by a Cultivator who Refines a broken space. Such Postnatal Secret Realms are mostly the seclusion abodes of their creators, or preparations for their bloodline descendants or sect disciples; most contain the creator’s own Dao lineage and inheritance. Anyone capable of opening a Secret Realm was at least at Second Grade Cultivation in life.”

A Postnatal Secret Realm, formed by Refining a broken space, containing at the very least the inheritance of a Second Grade Great Cultivator!

Su Mu’s eyes suddenly lit up, but he was promptly doused with a bucket of cold water by the Sun Family Ancestor.

“Hmph, brat, don’t indulge in wild dreams. With your meager strength right now, even if you somehow managed to find the entrance to that Secret Realm, any random, inconspicuous restriction within would be enough to kill you a hundred times over in an instant.”

At these words, Su Mu drew in a sharp breath and sobered up; coming back to his senses, he found the uncle and nephew staring at him with eyes full of fear, their bodies trembling like chaff.

The next instant, a trace of apology flashed beneath Su Mu’s mask; he immediately ran the Small Wuxiang Profound Breath Technique, fully retracting the wisp of aura he had leaked, and only then did the two begin gulping down breaths of air.

Just as Su Mu was about to leave, the old man suddenly took out a roll of sheepskin from his bosom with trembling hands.

“This— this is a chart of that sea region; I’ve marked the place where that giant shadow appeared. I truly don’t know anything else.”

Su Mu was taken aback as he received the chart, and the uncle and nephew promptly fled as if escaping for their lives.

Only after Su Mu’s figure disappeared from sight did the two start gulping down air, exchanging glances, their hearts still pounding.

“So terrifying— the aura on that man was so terrifying. Third Uncle, do you think we might have just met a…”

“Shut up! You damned brat, you nearly got us killed. You dare accept just anyone’s money? You might not want to live, but I still want to live a few more years.”

“Bury what happened today in your stomach. Just pretend nothing ever happened.”

The uncle and nephew’s conversation did not escape Su Mu’s ears. Su Mu was helpless— he bore them no ill will; it was just that, upon learning that the giant shadow they mentioned was highly likely to be a place bearing the inheritance of a Second Grade Great Cultivator, how could he not be ecstatic.

“This truly is an unexpected boon.”

Looking at the chart in his hand, Su Mu unfolded it, memorized it, then carefully placed it into his primary Sumeru Ring.

The rain continued, and by the time the sky cleared and sunlight spilled down, three days had passed; this storm had lasted a full three days. At this moment, the crew were wearily clearing away the accumulated water and inspecting the hull.

As for the many passengers, once the rain stopped they did not linger long on deck; everyone’s expenditure over these three days had been immense, so they quickly returned to their cabins to meditate in seclusion.

Time slipped by, and another two days passed.

At dawn.

Through the dense fog, an island resembling the silhouette of a giant turtle appeared on the horizon— Profound Turtle Island had arrived!