Nine Star Hegemon Body Arts

Chapter 7111 A Youth Returns Home

A flying boat sped across the sea as quickly as lightning. Despite this, the sea was deathly still. This was the infamous devil sea, an ominous place that everyone avoided. However, this ominous place now looked oddly calm and serene.

The devil sea connected the nine heavens and ten lands. At the same time, it could be said to also split the nine heavens and ten lands into separate pieces.

Back when Long Chen had entered the Primal Chaos World from the Sovereign Emperor Heaven, the devil sea was simply uncrossable. People who wanted to enter the Primal Chaos World had to squeeze their way through spatial cracks, and nobody knew how many people had died in the attempt.

As countless people attempted this journey, they gradually came to find some comparatively safe passageways. The number of people gradually increased. However, those passageways were under the control of the major forces. Apart from those who had a good relationship with these forces or enough money to establish one, there was no way for people to use those passageways.

Even the Huayun Trading Company invested a vast sum to open a pathway themselves. But this passageway could not be considered very stable, and it was also incredibly expensive to send people through. Normally it was only used for transmitting messages.

Now that the great era had come, the walls between worlds had faded. The major factions constructed transportation formations capable of moving across worlds. The nine heavens essentially surrounded the Primal Chaos World, and now, they were actually linked. This link was growing stronger, which meant that it was becoming more and more convenient to move between them.

On the other hand, the new era had only just arrived. The spatial laws had changed very recently and were not fully stable. As a result, constructing new transportation formations was an incredibly expensive endeavor, and whether it could be done at all depended on the location. In some places, the spatial energy was exceptionally turbulent, making it impossible to build a transportation formation. People were forced to use flying boats instead to cross those regions.

The devil sea was so vast that even for Divine Sovereigns, crossing it would take months, and that was assuming nothing unexpected occurred. The devil sea looked calm on the surface, but no one knew what kind of dangers lurked within its depths. Thus, even a triple-manifestation Divine Sovereign would not dare to cross it directly. They would definitely use transportation formations instead.

The Huayun Trading Company’s current setup involved forty-nine transportation formations, as well as sixteen regions that had to be crossed by flying boats.

Atop the flying boat, Long Chen stared blankly at the devil sea below. Zi Yan gently leaned against his shoulder, her eyes closed in contentment. It was very rare for the two of them to have any time alone, and Zi Yan truly cherished it. If the situation at the academy hadn’t been so urgent, she could have easily stayed on the flying boat for another month.

Zi Yan slowly opened her eyes and looked at Long Chen curiously. “What are you thinking?”

“This devil sea reminds me of the Martial Heaven Sea Ring from the Martial Heaven Continent.”

“They really are similar. The Eastern Wasteland, the Western Desert, the Southern Sea, the Northern Source, the Central Plains.... It hasn’t even been that long, but it feels like forever ago. Is it because the Martial Heaven Continent disappeared, so the Heavenly Daos are wiping away its memory of it?” Zi Yan sighed.

“Perhaps. The cycle of the Heavenly Daos... the Martial Heaven Continent was destroyed, so a new continent will be born. All karma relating to the Martial Heaven Continent gradually fades away.” Long Chen sighed as well.

He thought back to the world-destroying battle, and the Martial Heaven Continent’s star-field core. The Martial Heaven Continent had entrusted everything to him, like a mother entrusting her children to their big brother.

Long Chen felt a pang of guilt inside him. That defeat was something he had always viewed as his greatest failure and regret...

“Are you thinking of Qingxuan?” Zi Yan suddenly asked in a teasing tone.

Long Chen was a bit surprised this time. “You could tell? Can you read my mind?”

Zi Yan giggled proudly. “Hehe, women are very sharp in this regard!”

“Zither Fairy, it seems you really have become bedeviled! Don’t worry, I will help you purify your heart and cast away your demons!” Long Chen solemnly formed hand seals.

That appearance of his made Zi Yan burst into laughter. She thought back to her sweet memories.

“It really is a cycle. I wanted to save you from being a devil, but all this while, you’ve been the one saving me.”

“Zither Fairy, tell me, what is the Dao? What is the King Dao? What is the Hegemon Dao?” asked Long Chen.

Zi Yan once more laughed. She replayed their first meeting in her mind. At that time, Long Chen and Zi Yan had been with Mu Xue and her mercenary group. They had gone to the Immortal Intoxication Pavilion to relax. Those faces flashed through her mind—it truly felt like an eternity had passed.

Zi Yan grew serious once more. “You were thinking of Qingxuan just now. Why didn’t you seem happy? Were you recalling something bad?”

Long Chen shook his head. “I wasn’t recalling anything. Actually, that’s exactly the problem: I fail to recall it... When Qingxuan died on the Martial Heaven Continent, she told me she went through a thousand reincarnations to wake me up from the red dust. A thousand lifetimes, a thousand worlds. She found me every time and tried to wake me... But I have no recollection of this at all.”

Long Chen felt pained inside. His memories were gone. Other than this lifetime, he couldn’t recall anything Yu Qingxuan had done for him. Furthermore, when Yu Qingxuan was reborn in the immortal world, she didn’t recall anything from the Martial Heaven Continent, either. What did that mean? Also, if he really had gone through a thousand reincarnations, then did that mean only he and Qingxuan had met by destiny? What about all the women he loved so much and who loved him—just what kind of karma tied them together? What had happened during those countless reincarnations?

Zi Yan saw Long Chen’s expression and gently caressed his cheek. She softly said, “Don’t get lost in a past you can’t change. Take hold of the present. How can you grasp the future if you cannot let go of the past? Those regrets will become shackles that bind you. I want you to be the same young man as before even after experiencing everything that life has thrown at you...”

Her passion and warmth made Long Chen suddenly grab her face and kiss her tightly, catching her off-guard. She instantly turned red.

“That wasn’t what I was talking about!”

Long Chen smiled naughtily. “Wouldn’t I be stupid if I didn’t catch your hint? Hehe, that young man back then was just this free and unrestrained! That’s what I call taking hold of the present!”

Zi Yan snorted. But the wicked smile on Long Chen’s face really made him look similar to that young man back then. It felt like that fellow really had returned.

Long Chen chuckled. “If I had been this brash, maybe I would have won you over earlier?”

Zi Yan rolled her eyes. “If you had dared to act like this with me back then, I would have killed you.”

Her initial impression of Long Chen truly hadn’t been very good. She had viewed him to be practically a beast. However, now that she knew Long Chen wouldn’t get lost in the past, she was able to relax a little.

Suddenly, a giant battleship appeared behind them. At the same time, an oppressive power locked onto them.