Chapter 422 - 390: [Chen]’s Lingering Question, Lying in Wait (Part 2)

Although they are called "clusters," world clusters actually have no boundaries. They are domains composed of infinite worlds. Even an expert at the Unity Realm couldn’t traverse a single Primordial World Cluster in their entire lifetime. According to statistics from the Three-Life Race, the number of known, inhabited worlds doesn’t even amount to a hundred-millionth of a hundred-millionth of the unknown, inhabited worlds.

It’s like tossing a single known grain of sand into a vast desert. That one grain represents the known worlds, while the rest of the desert represents the unknown.

World clusters are astonishingly large. Even when Jiang Qiu received the True Dragon’s inheritance and glimpsed the innumerable world clusters through the True Dragon’s eyes, he couldn’t possibly underestimate the sheer size of their domain. The territory of a single Great Realm was enough to leave Jiang Qiu in awe. Here in the Thunder Great Realm, it would take him a considerable amount of time just to visit all the important places. Due to the constraints of the Space-Time Law, it would probably take him several years to make a full circuit.

The legendary Thunder Restricted Area would take even more time to traverse. Such is the vastness of these worlds. The distances between world clusters are therefore immense. If Emperor Chen hadn’t reached the Unity Realm, he wouldn’t have mastered the method of entering a special Exotic Realm, and thus couldn’t possibly have left the Primordial World Cluster.

In other words, if Emperor Chen hasn’t fallen in some accident, he should exist in some world within the Primordial World Cluster. Yet to this day, Jiang Qiu had heard no news of a Dragon Race bloodline bursting onto the scene, nor any other earth-shattering reports of that nature.

’Perhaps the distance between worlds is too great, and the news simply hasn’t spread this far?’

’Otherwise, what could Emperor Chen be doing? He couldn’t have just found a resource-barren world to cultivate slowly, planning to return only after reaching the Unity Realm, right?’

’That’s completely out of character for Emperor Chen. He brought such a large contingent of the Demon Race with him; he must have wanted to conquer new lands. While the Dao Entry Realm is as common as ants throughout the Primordial World Cluster, not even worthy of mention in some lesser worlds, if Chen personally nurtured them, they would be something else entirely.’

’Perhaps those former Ten Great Demon Marshals have all been raised by him to become Fusion Realm Demon Kings. A Demon King already has what it takes to establish their own clan and lineage, to become a warlord in their own right. Take the Bloodthirsty White Tiger Demon Marshal who just appeared in the Thunder Great Realm, for instance. He is qualified to found a clan, and now he’s plunged the entire Great Realm into chaos, making life miserable for its people.’

Jiang Qiu suspected there was a connection between this Bloodthirsty White Tiger and Chen. He had no solid reason, just an intuition that came out of nowhere. ’Could it be an instinct from my Dragon Race bloodline?’

As this thought occurred to him, he glanced at Snow from the corner of his eye. His "feminized other half" provided further confirmation on an instinctual level. In other words, both of their consciousnesses shared an inexplicable belief that Chen might be connected to the Bloodthirsty White Tiger.

"According to the real-time coordinates for the Eight-direction Reversing Ship sent by Senior Celestial Star, Zuo Xuan’s ship has not yet been to the Thunder Great Realm. This place is currently at war, which means there’s a lot of profit to be made. He might just turn his ship around and pay a visit. We can lie in wait for him."

Jiang Qiu took a deep breath, and the mask on his face seemed to grow more profound. He could already picture the scene of the Eight-direction Reversing Ship being lured here.

’There’s no need to worry about him not knowing the Thunder Great Realm is at war. This is a renowned Great Realm, after all. Many powerful and noble figures have fled because of the conflict, and they would have certainly taken information with them.’

’Besides, the Eight-direction Reversing Ship must have some kind of special sensory function that would allow Zuo Xuan to detect the situation here from a great distance.’

’Otherwise, how could a place as remote as Blue Star have been detected—and plundered—by Zuo Xuan back then?’

’The fluctuations of a single Fusion Realm expert were enough to warrant a detour from him. Now, we have the Thunder Great Realm, a place where even Unity Realm masters have joined the fight and suffered heavy injuries. It’s far more likely he’ll detect this.’

Realizing this, Jiang Qiu conceived the plan to lie in wait. However, Snow pursed her lips, thought for a moment, and asked doubtfully, "But Senior Brother, even if Zuo Xuan really does descend here with the Eight-direction Reversing Ship, we might not be able to defeat him. He’s at the Peak of the Unity Realm."

She wasn’t wrong. As one of the Nine Venerables from the Nine Venerable Great Realm, Zuo Xuan was an existence at the Peak of Unity Realm. You could even call him the peak among peaks, possessing a special quality that set him apart from other Unity Realm experts.

’And I currently only have the strength of someone approaching the Half-Step Unity Realm. The difference between us is like heaven and earth; it’s practically impossible to win in a direct fight.’

’I might not even be able to outrun him if I tried to flee.’

However...

"In the worlds we’ve passed through, we’ve heard about Zuo Xuan’s reputation. He loves getting involved in major local conflicts, helping the stronger side annihilate the weaker one, and then capturing the survivors from the losing side to use as slaves. That’s something we can exploit."

Jiang Qiu stroked Snow’s hair and explained gently, "We just need to confirm which side is stronger between the Thunder Clan and the White Tiger Demon Clan of the Restricted Area. Then we can intervene at the right moment to stir things up. After that, when Zuo Xuan lets his guard down, we can storm the Eight-direction Reversing Ship and rescue a group of people."

’Based on past intelligence, it’s clear Zuo Xuan is an arrogant and overbearing man who believes himself to be peerless under heaven. And it’s true that almost no one can compare to him. He won’t even deign to speak with anyone who hasn’t reached the Unity Realm.’

’In other words, when he needs to personally resolve a local conflict, he’ll leave the Eight-direction Reversing Ship behind. He won’t believe for a second that anyone would dare make a move on his vessel.’

’In truth, the Eight-direction Reversing Ship doesn’t augment his power by much; it’s just a means of transport, something he isn’t particularly attached to.’

’We just have to seize the window of opportunity when he leaves the vessel. We’ll storm the Eight-direction Reversing Ship, find a group of people from Blue Star, and get them out. Next time, we can plan how to rescue everyone else.’

Jiang Qiu knew he couldn’t possibly save everyone in one go; it would have to be done in batches. In fact, a major goal of this first rescue attempt was to probe Zuo Xuan’s true strength and see just how powerful the man was.

The next step would be to wait for the Dusk Holy Ruins to open, go inside to temper himself, and then come back to see if he had a chance to eliminate Zuo Xuan for good... But that was the riskiest path.

Because before then, Zuo Xuan might have already sold Liu Zili and the others, or worse, used Refinement on them to create energy for the Eight-direction Reversing Ship. The consequence of delaying would be saving no one at all.

There was another possibility: that he himself would die inside the Dusk Holy Ruins. After all, according to Celestial Star, the Dusk Holy Ruins might even contain an opportunity for Transcendence beyond this world cluster. Countless mighty figures of the Unity Realm would come out of seclusion to enter. He wasn’t sure he could even survive getting involved; the most likely outcome was being slapped to death with a single palm strike.

So, unless it was absolutely necessary, he shouldn’t waste time or pin his hopes on such a high-risk gamble.

"Let’s go, Snow. We’ll pay a visit to the Thunder Clan first, and then the Restricted Area. We’ll see which side is stronger and, while we’re at it, get a feel for whether that Bloodthirsty White Tiger Demon Marshal has any connection to Chen.

From what I recall, it’s rare for the Demon Race out here to use a title like Demon Marshal..."

With a soft murmur, Jiang Qiu and Snow stepped into the void, traversing it toward their destination.