Beyond The Thin Layer

A very old memory suddenly surfaced in Hao Nhien’s mind.

Back then, he had understood almost nothing about what had happened to him.

He only remembered sitting down.

Allowing his awareness to sink deeply into meditation.

Then opening his eyes to discover that everything around him had changed.

He had seen no road.

It had not felt like an ordinary journey.

Hao Nhien remained silent.

But he did not immediately connect the two experiences.

Little Spirit’s explanation remained far too vague to explain something that had happened so long ago.

He looked at the child.

“But this island clearly still lies within the Sea Region.”

“The mountains, the sea, the spiritual energy… none of them seem very different from outside.”

Little Spirit tilted its head.

“When you have traveled as much as me…”

“You won’t ask that.”

Hao Nhien had no answer.

Lang Tuyet laughed quietly.

“I like that one.”

Little Spirit ignored her.

It turned toward the window and looked at the dark sky beyond the valley.

After a moment, the child suddenly said,

“Prepare to go.”

Hao Nhien immediately looked at it.

“Go where?”

“Outside.”

Lang Tuyet was surprised.

“Off the island?”

Little Spirit nodded.

“Not only island.”

Hao Nhien watched it.

“You remember the route now?”

The child thought for quite a while.

“Don’t remember the route.”

“Then how do we leave?”

“Close now.”

“What is close?”

Little Spirit pointed toward the sea.

“Exit.”

Hao Nhien and Lang Tuyet looked at each other.

This time, neither asked another question.

The next morning, the Cosmic Ark prepared to leave the island.

Hao Nhien had decided to continue the journey.

Whatever meaning the ceasefire between the two clans held, there were still matters his group had to accomplish.

Tieu Lan remained unconscious within the protected room aboard the Ark, her life force still weak and showing no clear sign of recovery.

And they had not yet found the New World.

He could not remain on the island indefinitely.

Hoa Can and Loi Trach both wanted to organize a formal farewell.

Hao Nhien refused.

“There is no need for ceremony.”

“You have more important things to do than seeing us off.”

Hoa Can looked reluctant.

“You will not stay a few more days?”

Hao Nhien shook his head.

“We still have to continue our journey.”

Loi Trach nodded slowly beside him.

“Then the altar…”

“Let it remain as it is.”

Hao Nhien looked at both men.

“But do not assume everything is solved simply because Fire and Lightning can coexist inside a formation.”

“What happens next must still be decided by the two of you.”

Hoa Can was silent.

Then answered,

“I understand.”

Loi Trach nodded as well.

“We will continue discussing it.”

Hao Nhien smiled.

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“That is enough.”

When the Cosmic Ark returned to its enormous ship form beyond the rocky coast, many tribespeople from both clans gathered to see them leave.

The Fire Spirit Clan stood near the eastern rocks.

The Thunder Spirit Clan gathered farther west.

The groups remained distinct.

But they no longer deliberately maintained the vast distance between them they once had.

Several people who had once faced each other with weapons now simply stood in silence, watching the enormous vessel prepare to leave shore.

Hoa Can approached Hao Nhien.

“Whatever happens in the future, the Fire Spirit Clan will remember what you did.”

Loi Trach looked toward him.

Then said slowly,

“The Thunder Spirit Clan will as well.”

Hao Nhien looked at both men.

“Then remember these seven days.”

“The rest, I believe you can find your own way through.”

He said nothing more.

Lanh Hoa had already boarded.

Lang Tuyet followed.

Little Spirit stood near the bow, curiously watching the people gathered on shore.

When Hao Nhien stepped aboard, the Cosmic Ark slowly pulled away from the rocks.

Water struck softly against the hull.

People on shore raised their hands in farewell.

Some shouted in their own languages.

Others simply bowed.

Hao Nhien stood near the bow and watched the island gradually recede.

Deep within the valley, the Fire-Lightning altar still remained.

The flame continued burning.

Lightning occasionally flashed.

He did not know how long that balance would last.

Nor could he be certain how many more peaceful days the two clans would manage.

But at least when the Ark departed, no one on the island was preparing for battle.

The island gradually became smaller within the white mist.

At that moment, Hao Nhien’s soul suddenly trembled faintly.

He paused.

The sensation came from behind.

So thin it was almost impossible to detect.

It was not True Qi.

Not ordinary spiritual energy.

Nor did it carry the circulating rhythm of the Quan Family Soul Art.

But Hao Nhien was not entirely unfamiliar with it.

For an instant, he remembered the vague sensation that had appeared when he crossed beyond Foundation Establishment and truly formed his Golden Core.

He slowly closed his eyes.

The strange force continued reaching him.

Very little.

Not enough to cause any visible change in his body.

What caught Hao Nhien’s attention was the distance.

The Cosmic Ark had already traveled far from the island.

Yet the sensation had not disappeared.

He quietly circulated the Quan Family Soul Art.

He did not pull.

Did not absorb.

He simply observed.

The faint fluctuation remained.

It seemed to seek out a familiar position within his soul on its own.

Hao Nhien slowly opened his eyes.

He looked back toward the island, now almost completely hidden within the mist.

Images from Heavenly Eye briefly surfaced in his mind.

The altar.

The eye-shaped symbol.

The things that had once happened with Hoang Sam.

Perhaps some connection existed between these phenomena.

But he still could not determine what it was.

Little Spirit had appeared beside him without him noticing.

The child looked up.

“Not certain.”

Hao Nhien was surprised.

“You know what I’m thinking?”

“No.”

He stared at it.

“Then why say ‘not certain’?”

Little Spirit tilted its head.

“Because you aren’t certain either.”

Hao Nhien laughed helplessly.

“You’re right.”

He withdrew his intention.

He did not continue investigating the strange force.

The island was almost gone from sight.

Ahead stretched the endless sea, small waves continuously breaking against the Cosmic Ark.

Before long, however, the ship’s movement changed.

A faint vibration passed through the hull.

Hao Nhien immediately recognized that it did not come from waves or currents.

Something ahead seemed to form an extremely thin barrier.

It could not be seen with ordinary sight.

But as the Ark approached, he could sense a difference in the surrounding spiritual fluctuations.

Little Spirit lifted its head.

“We’re here.”

Hao Nhien looked ahead.

“The exit?”

“Mm.”

Lang Tuyet stepped closer.

“Where?”

Little Spirit pointed toward the sea.

“Right ahead.”

Lang Tuyet followed its finger.

The water remained blue.

The sky still carried the same pale-gray clouds.

There was no door.

No spatial tear.

No visible formation.

Even spiritual sense detected only an area where the fluctuations were slightly unusual.

“You’re certain?”

Little Spirit nodded.

“Go through.”

Hao Nhien looked at the child.

Then examined the ship.

The Cosmic Ark remained stable.

There was no sign of pressure.

He remembered the many strange regions the vessel had already crossed.

Finally, he nodded.

“Then go.”

Little Spirit said nothing more.

The Cosmic Ark continued forward.

The moment its bow touched the strange region, the surrounding space underwent a change that was difficult to describe.

There was no explosion.

No flash of light.

Yet for an instant, Hao Nhien felt as though the distances between everything before him had been stretched.

The sea remained.

The sky had not changed.

But his sense of direction became strangely indistinct, as though the Ark had crossed a boundary that did not exist within ordinary perception.

A faint discomfort passed through the crown of his head.

Then vanished.

Immediately afterward—

BOOM!

A deafening explosion erupted ahead.

Before Hao Nhien could determine what had happened, a violent shockwave swept across the sea, carrying the thick smell of smoke and blood.

Screams rose amid chaotic impacts.

Directly ahead, a large ship had just been struck.

Its hull split apart.

Then broke in half between towering walls of water.

Broken timber and fragments of sail were thrown into the air.

Several figures fell from the deck and disappeared almost immediately beneath the churning waves.

Farther away, more than ten warships were locked in fierce combat.

Lightning tore continuously across the sea.

Flames erupted between hulls.

Waves were blasted high by spiritual force before crashing down like walls of water.

The clash of weapons, shouted commands, and repeated explosions transformed the entire region into a chaotic battlefield.

Lang Tuyet’s expression changed instantly.

“There’s a war!”

Lanh Hoa had already moved to the bow.

His hand rested on his sword.

Hao Nhien rapidly studied the surrounding vessels.

He did not know which forces they belonged to.

Nor why a battle of this scale had erupted immediately beyond the strange waters they had just crossed.

But before he could make a decision, the distant sea suddenly changed.

At first, it was only a vast ring of waves expanding outward from the center of the battlefield.

Then the surrounding water abruptly shifted direction.

Every current began flowing toward a point between the warships.

Several vessels tilted violently.

The combatants slowly noticed the anomaly.

A few cultivators hurriedly withdrew their techniques and turned toward the center of the sea.

There, the surface was sinking.

This was no ordinary whirlpool.

An enormous region of ocean suddenly collapsed downward, as though countless tons of seawater were being dragged into some impossible depth.

Massive rings of waves formed around the edges.

Broken wood.

Fragments of ships.

Even corpses.

Everything was pulled toward the center.

One warship attempted to turn away.

The moment it changed direction, the current caught it.

The hull tilted sharply.

Splintering cracks rang through the air.

Then, from the center of the sunken sea, something enormous and black began rising.

At first, it looked like a dark slab of stone emerging from the depths.

But as it continued upward, vast curves became visible.

They stretched far beyond the size of any warship present.

Seawater poured from its surface in white waterfalls.

It did not roar.

It did not cry out.

It simply rose.

And with every additional portion revealed, the surrounding sea distorted more violently.

The sounds of battle began to fade.

A cultivator preparing a technique stopped midway.

On the opposing warship, his enemy also froze.

Even the cultivators flying above the sea turned their heads downward.

Hao Nhien stood at the bow of the Cosmic Ark.

His expression grew grave.

He could not yet determine what was rising from below.

But the portion already exposed was enough to make every warship around it seem insignificant.

Beside him, Lang Tuyet unconsciously tightened her grip on the railing.

Lanh Hoa did not draw his sword.

He merely shifted his stance and positioned himself slightly ahead of the others.

Far away, the enormous black mass continued rising from the sea.

No one attacked anymore.

Not because someone had ordered a ceasefire.

Not because either side had abandoned its hatred.

But because, in that moment, every living person on the sea understood the same thing.

The battle between them no longer mattered.