Beyond the Sea

Hao Nhien’s eyes sharpened.

“Bring me back where?”

The child shook its head again.

“Don’t remember.”

Hao Nhien waited.

The child continued trying to think, but no further answer came.

He did not press.

“All right.”

“Tell me when you remember.”

The child looked up.

It seemed faintly surprised that the interrogation had ended so quickly.

Hao Nhien smiled.

“I’ve already waited this long.”

“A little longer won’t matter.”

The child blinked.

Then gave a small nod.

A moment later, it sat down again, placing both hands behind itself and looking upward into the empty space where there was no sky.

Hao Nhien watched it for some time.

There were still countless questions he wanted to ask.

But in its current state, continuing would probably yield nothing.

“I’ll come back.”

The child nodded faintly.

Then closed its eyes.

It looked perfectly calm, as though the meeting had been nothing remarkable.

Hao Nhien looked at it once more.

Then withdrew his consciousness from the Cosmic Ark.

When he opened his eyes, Lang Tuyet was sitting across from him.

A jade slip and several pages of old notes lay on the table.

She appeared to have been waiting for some time.

The moment Hao Nhien woke, she set down her teacup.

“Finally decided to wake up?”

“I was starting to think something had happened while you were cultivating again.”

Hao Nhien looked slightly surprised.

Then smiled.

“I was only checking some changes in my soul.”

“Have you been waiting long?”

“Almost half an hour.”

Lang Tuyet looked him over.

A hint of scrutiny entered her eyes.

“Your aura has changed quite a bit these past few days.”

“Looks like that strange realm really did give you a considerable opportunity.”

Hao Nhien nodded.

He did not deny it.

The changes gained from the Fate-Convergence Realm were still gradually revealing themselves through the movement of True Qi and soul force.

Even he could not yet determine how far they would ultimately go.

Lang Tuyet seemed to understand that.

She did not ask further.

Instead, she pushed the jade slip toward him.

“I haven’t been sitting idle either.”

“I found several records in the Heavenly Spirit Merchant Association’s internal archive.”

“They’re incomplete, but there may be something worth examining.”

Hao Nhien accepted it and extended his spiritual sense.

The information inside was fragmented.

Most had been copied from ancient records that no longer survived intact.

Some sections contained little more than names.

Others referred to distant places even Lang Tuyet had never heard of.

But one term appeared repeatedly.

Earth Spirit.

“Earth Spirit?”

Hao Nhien looked up.

“Is it a level above Heavenly Spirit?”

Lang Tuyet nodded.

“Heavenly Spirit is only one level within the merchant association’s larger system.”

“The more important information—especially records extending beyond the region of the continent we currently know—is generally not kept here.”

“I tried searching for information about Earth Spirit and the origin of the ancient objects we have.”

“But with my current authority, what I can access is still extremely limited.”

“If we want more, we may need to find Earth Spirit itself.”

Hao Nhien continued reading.

“Where is it?”

Lang Tuyet paused.

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A trace of helplessness appeared.

“That is the problem.”

“I haven’t found a specific location.”

When Hao Nhien looked up, she immediately added,

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“It took considerable effort just to find this much.”

“These records were never meant to be freely accessed by outsiders.”

“Even inside the merchant association, very few people know they exist.”

Hao Nhien laughed.

He did not tease her further.

He moved his spiritual sense toward the end of the jade slip.

A short surviving passage referred to the Sea Region and another unusual name.

The New World.

According to the fragmented records, it was not an independent world.

It was a much larger landmass lying beyond the Sea Region, still part of the Ling Van Continent.

For most cultivators living in the region Hao Nhien knew, that place existed only in legends or in ancient records passed down from distant eras.

Several texts even suggested that the lands they currently inhabited were only a small portion of the true continent, separated from the rest by an immense ocean.

Hao Nhien read the passage again.

A thought slowly took shape.

“You suspect Earth Spirit is connected to the New World?”

“I wouldn’t dare say that with certainty.”

Lang Tuyet shook her head.

“But records mentioning Earth Spirit repeatedly appear alongside information beyond the boundaries of our current region.”

“Among everything I found, the New World is the most significant lead.”

“If you had to estimate the likelihood?”

Lang Tuyet thought for a moment.

“Probably less than thirty percent.”

Hao Nhien set down the jade slip and looked toward the sea.

From the courtyard, he could see lights aboard ships anchored in the harbor.

Beyond them stretched a broad darkness where sea and sky seemed to merge.

“Thirty percent isn’t that low.”

“Not when we have no better lead.”

Lang Tuyet’s expression immediately became wary.

“Don’t tell me you’re considering crossing the Sea Region.”

Hao Nhien turned back.

The look on her face almost made him laugh.

“I am considering it.”

“You really are…”

Lang Tuyet set down her teacup.

Her voice carried both exasperation and seriousness.

“Do you know how dangerous the Sea Region is?”

“The merchant association’s established routes cover only areas that have already been explored.”

“The farther outward you go, the less information exists.”

“Most ships that attempted to leave familiar waters never returned.”

“We don’t even know which direction the New World lies in.”

“How are we supposed to find a route across?”

Hao Nhien did not argue.

Those concerns were entirely justified.

Especially now, when his own strength had not fully recovered.

But the new clue was not something he wanted to ignore.

“I know the journey won’t be simple.”

“And I have no intention of leaving immediately.”

“But if Earth Spirit truly exists somewhere beyond the Sea Region, then sooner or later we will need to find a way there.”

Lang Tuyet remained silent for a moment.

Then looked at him suspiciously.

“You sound far too calm.”

“Do you already have some plan?”

Hao Nhien thought of the child he had just met within the Cosmic Ark.

The corner of his mouth rose slightly.

“There may be some hope.”

“But even I’m not certain yet.”

“What hope?”

“I just encountered an existence inside the Cosmic Ark again.”

Lang Tuyet frowned slightly.

“There’s someone living inside the Ark?”

“Not exactly a person.”

Hao Nhien considered his words.

“You could call it the Boat Spirit.”

“An existence bound to the Cosmic Ark.”

“I met it once before.”

“Afterward it fell into a deep sleep.”

“It only started awakening again over the past several days.”

Lang Tuyet stared at him.

She had personally witnessed many of the Cosmic Ark’s mysteries.

She had even gained an opportunity to reach Golden Core because of it.

But she had never known a conscious spirit existed within.

“How many more secrets are you hiding?”

She shook her head.

“The Cosmic Ark was already confusing enough.”

“Now it has a Boat Spirit too?”

“Don’t tell me it’s some ancient senior with heaven-defying cultivation who has lived for countless ages.”

Hao Nhien remembered the white-haired old man he had once seen.

Then the tiny child from moments ago.

He could not help laughing.

“It did look like a white-haired old man before.”

“But now…”

“Not old.”

A childish voice suddenly spoke beside the stone table.

It cut directly across Hao Nhien’s sentence.

Lang Tuyet turned immediately.

Hao Nhien paused as well.

At some unknown moment, a child of about five or six had appeared beside the empty chair.

It had a small face.

Clear eyes.

A completely calm expression.

As though suddenly appearing in the middle of someone else’s conversation were perfectly normal.

Lang Tuyet instinctively extended spiritual sense.

She immediately realized the child was not made of flesh and blood.

Its form was condensed from an extremely unusual kind of soul force.

More surprising was that from beginning to end, she had sensed no fluctuation warning of its appearance.

She looked at the child.

Then slowly turned toward Hao Nhien.

“Don’t tell me…”

“This is the senior you were just talking about?”

Hao Nhien looked at the child.

He was also somewhat surprised that it could appear outside the Cosmic Ark on its own.

But when he saw Lang Tuyet’s expression, he could not help smiling.

“It is.”

Lang Tuyet fell silent for several breaths.

Then looked back at the small figure.

“This senior certainly looks youthful.”

The child lifted its head.

Its expression was extremely serious.

“I’m not old.”

“All right, all right.”

“You’re not old.”

Lang Tuyet smiled.

Then deliberately asked,

“So what should I call you?”

“Little Senior?”

The child frowned.

It clearly disliked the title.

Hao Nhien intervened.

“Just call it Little Spirit.”

“The name fits its current appearance well enough.”

The child turned toward him.

It thought briefly.

Then nodded, apparently having no objection.

Lang Tuyet laughed.

“Little Spirit?”

“That is much easier than calling you Senior Boat Spirit.”

Little Spirit did not respond.

Lang Tuyet finally breathed out.

But the curiosity in her eyes remained impossible to hide.

“What exactly is the origin of your Cosmic Ark?”

She looked at Hao Nhien, half joking and half serious.

“The more time I spend around you, the more I feel everything I learned in the merchant association amounts to very little.”

Hao Nhien smiled.

Then looked at Little Spirit.

“I don’t fully understand it either.”

“I obtained the Ark by chance years ago.”

“It helped me through more than one dangerous situation.”

“But as for its true origin…”

“Even now, I probably can’t explain it.”

“By chance again?”

Lang Tuyet looked at him skeptically.

“I think your luck is a little unreasonable.”

“Perhaps.”

Hao Nhien answered so naturally that Lang Tuyet did not know whether to keep questioning him or laugh.

In the end, she shook her head.

If even the owner did not understand his own secrets, there was little point interrogating him.

After a while, she returned to the Sea Region.

“Even the merchant association doesn’t possess a complete sea chart.”

“Most people who traveled too far never returned.”

“You still truly want to go?”

Hao Nhien nodded.

“Yes.”

“If Earth Spirit and the mysteries we are searching for may lie in the New World, then it is the strongest direction we currently have.”

Lang Tuyet frowned slightly.

She knew Hao Nhien was not reckless.

But his certainty still confused her.

“You sound very confident.”

“Is there still something you haven’t told me?”

Hao Nhien looked toward Little Spirit.

The Cosmic Ark had once carried him through unstable space itself.

It had endured the destructive force of Thunder Burst and terrifying spatial tears.

Compared with those things, an enormous sea did not seem like the most frightening obstacle in the world.

“We have the Cosmic Ark.”

“You’ve seen part of what it can do.”

“But its capabilities go far beyond that.”

Lang Tuyet turned toward the child.

“It can truly cross the Sea Region?”

Little Spirit nodded naturally.

“Yes.”

“You don’t even know where the New World is.”

“If we don’t know the road, we find it.”

For once, Lang Tuyet had no immediate reply.

Then she laughed.

“You make it sound very easy.”

Little Spirit looked puzzled.

“It is easy.”

Lang Tuyet shook her head.

But she did not continue arguing.

She looked from Hao Nhien to the child beside him.

“All right.”

“I’ll trust you this time.”

She set down her cup.

Her familiar smile returned.

“But if something unexpected happens halfway across, don’t blame me for complaining.”

Hao Nhien laughed.

“With you coming along, I’ll feel more at ease too.”

“You should.”

Lang Tuyet glanced toward Little Spirit.

“At least someone needs to think before acting.”

Little Spirit immediately replied,

“I think too.”

“What are you thinking about?”

“When do we leave?”

Lang Tuyet stared at it.

Then burst out laughing.

Hao Nhien could only shake his head.

Outside the courtyard, the sea wind continued to blow steadily, carrying the salt of the Sea Region.

Hao Nhien looked toward the distant lights beyond the harbor.

“Then it’s decided.”

He turned toward Lang Tuyet.

“We cross the Sea Region.”

“Anything we still don’t understand, we can investigate along the way.”

Lang Tuyet nodded.

Little Spirit looked equally satisfied, its clear eyes already turned toward the distant sea as though waiting only for Hao Nhien to summon the Cosmic Ark.

Hao Nhien looked at the two of them and smiled faintly.

“Make whatever preparations you need.”

“Then we set out.”