Chapter 591: The Giant Eagle Reappears

‘Decades of bitter cultivation… A cultivator’s fortune is truly unpredictable…’

Chu Mu sighed softly, unable to hide the complex emotions welling up inside him.

Immortal Dao Cultivation could be summarized in a single word: contend.

To contend with the heavens for one’s destiny, to contend with others for opportunities…

To not contend, to not seize what you can—in this Cultivation Immortal Realm, that meant being left behind.

Take his current fortune, for example. Hadn’t he risked his life to seize it?

Looking back at the opportunities he had encountered over his years on the Immortal Path, it had always been impossible to tell fortune from disaster, and every one of them had been a desperate struggle against others.

Clearly, he was one of the lucky ones.

Putting everything else aside, the mere existence of Spiritual Radiance had undoubtedly spared him from countless bloody conflicts.

Otherwise, with his practically abysmal aptitude, he never would have had enough talent—much less the abundant time, energy, and resources—to support his practice of the Hundred Skills of Cultivation Immortal.

His only other path would have inevitably led him to be like the teeming masses of the Cultivation Immortal Realm—like the countless low-level Cultivators in Bazhou City, the old Chu Capital City, or the Demon Suppression Islands, all struggling bitterly and squandering their lives.

All for a few Spirit Stones, for a pitifully small amount of cultivation resources, they struggled, wasted away, and even put a price on their own lives to be driven at others’ whims…

Haaaah…

His heavy thoughts swirled and finally coalesced into a long, slow exhale.

He was favored by fortune.

He was very lucky.

Chu Mu pursed his lips, reining in his thoughts. He looked up toward the top of the chasm, his gaze seemingly piercing through the immense height to where Zhao Shuang and the others stood.

His gaze lingered for a moment. After a brief pause, Chu Mu pointed a finger, and several projections from the Cyan Bird Puppets materialized before him.

The surveillance recordings from the Cyan Bird Puppets, chronicling the decades he had spent in seclusion, all appeared before him.

The images flickered by at a speed the naked eye could hardly discern, revealing all the changes this stretch of sea had undergone over the decades.

After about an hour, the image abruptly froze, then began to play at a normal speed.

Against the vast expanse of sky and sea, a Giant Eagle with wings like swords blotted out the sun. A colossal Ink Cloud Fierce Ape, standing hundreds of feet tall, seemed as fragile as a child in the eagle’s grasp, pinned effortlessly beneath its talons.

The Giant Eagle opened its beak and spat. A palm-sized, crimson Cloth Banner unfurled, growing larger in the wind. Chains erupted from the crimson Giant Banner, crisscrossing until they had completely bound and imprisoned the Ink Cloud Fierce Ape.

Finally, the chains seemed to wrench something from within the Violent Ape’s body. The beast let out a mournful howl, all of its wild defiance vanishing. Though filled with unwillingness, it could only prostrate itself obediently beneath the Giant Eagle’s talons in a show of complete submission.

At this, the image froze. Chu Mu’s brow furrowed slightly. After a moment of contemplation, he turned to look at Wangcai, who was lying at the mouth of the cave.

He called out softly, and Wangcai shot to his feet, trotting over with his tail wagging.

He pointed to the submissive Tier Three Violent Ape in the image. Wangcai blinked and shook his head repeatedly.

“So, this is a Tier Three Demon Beast from the outside that arrived after you left?”

Chu Mu asked again. The surveillance footage had clearly recorded Wangcai’s previous rampage across this stretch of the sea.

However, once Wangcai had finished his “playtime,” the Cyan Bird Puppet assigned to monitor him had returned to the Sky-Breaking Flying Boat, so the subsequent shift in power in this part of the sea was not fully recorded.

This scene was likely captured only because the Violent Ape happened to flee into the surveillance range of one of the other Cyan Bird Puppets, which was why such a clear recording was made.

When Wangcai shook his head and let out a low growl, confirming his suspicions, Chu Mu paused in thought. He glanced at the frozen projection before deciding not to dwell on it.

The chain of events was quite clear.

This Violent Ape must have been an outsider, a Tier Three Demon Beast that arrived after Wangcai’s rampage and naturally became the overlord of the area Wangcai had just cleared out.

As for the Giant Eagle, which he had crossed paths with once before, it was clearly tied to the Profound Serpent Race.

That Giant Banner, if he wasn’t mistaken, had to be the Ten Thousand Beasts Banner, known as an ultimate treasure among the Vast Sea Demon Beast Races.

However, the Giant Eagle’s Ten Thousand Beasts Banner was clearly not the main one. It was more likely a Ten Thousand Beasts Division Banner derived from the Profound Serpent Race’s primary banner.

Back on the Demon Suppression Islands, the core of the terrifying Beast Tides that had annihilated countless Cultivators lay in these very Ten Thousand Beasts Division Banners.

Spiritual Demons would manipulate the Ten Thousand Beasts Banner to control demons with low Spiritual Wisdom. These controlled demons were often the overlords of their own sea regions, capable of easily commanding the countless other Demon Beasts within a vast area.

Piece by piece, this interlinked system formed a seemingly simple yet incredibly effective hierarchy for the Beast Tides.

Under this system, the fatal flaw of the Demon Beasts—their low Spiritual Wisdom—was transformed into a terrifying advantage: an utter fearlessness of death.

The situation was clear, but it didn’t really have much to do with him.

Now that the matter of the ruins was settled, given his circumstances in the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World, he certainly couldn’t afford to place himself in any more danger.

If all went according to plan, the conflicts of the Vast Sea would have little to do with him for a long time to come.

The projected images continued to play, clearly presenting the evolution of this sea region over the past several decades.

However, aside from the disturbance caused by the Giant Eagle subduing the Violent Ape, this stretch of the sea showed no other anomalies.

The sea was calm, with few traces of the passing years.

When the final image froze, Chu Mu flicked his sleeve. The projection shattered, its fragments vanishing into the churning seawater.

He leaped into the water. A streak of crimson light flared in the abyss of the undersea chasm before rocketing upward. Moments later, he was hovering at the top of the chasm.

The crimson light dissipated, revealing Chu Mu hovering in the water. He took a single step, and with a ripple in space, his newly appeared form vanished into the Sky-Breaking Flying Boat.

Surveying the mottled scorch marks covering the Flying Boat’s hull, Chu Mu couldn’t help but shake his head with a self-deprecating smile.

He had clearly been overconfident this time while devouring and performing the Refinement of the Cyan Lotus Earth Core Flame. If he hadn’t reacted in time, he might not have failed the Refinement itself, but the chances of saving this Sky-Breaking Flying Boat would have been slim to none.

Even so, judging by the scorch marks before him, the Sky-Breaking Flying Boat had clearly sustained considerable damage.

Given the unique nature of the Sky-Breaking Flying Boat, repairing it would likely require a great deal of thought and effort.

As Chu Mu was pondering this, Wangcai landed in the Flying Boat right behind him. Chu Mu seemed to recall something. He beckoned to Wangcai, and his vast Divine Sense instantly enveloped the beast.

As his Divine Sense flowed through him, Wangcai’s Cultivation level—his very Essence, Qi, and Spirit—was once again laid bare to his perception without the slightest concealment.

Just as he’d expected, Wangcai’s Cultivation Progress was far more rapid than his own.

During his decades of seclusion, Wangcai had already broken through the threshold of the Tier Three Early Stage and entered the Tier Three Middle Stage within the first few years.

In the following decades, while it couldn’t compare to his own leap in just over a month, Wangcai’s Cultivation Advancement was still clearly discernible, thanks to the abundant resources.

Right now, however, Chu Mu’s attention wasn’t on Wangcai’s Cultivation Advancement. His Divine Sense flowed onward, delving deep into the beast’s bloodline.

The tracking Bloodline Divine Technique—one of his most important trump cards—was what he was most focused on.

The very reason a technique was worthy of the name “Divine Technique” was, at its core, its capacity for growth.

Much like a Cultivator’s Lifebound Treasure, it could grow along with the Cultivator’s own Cultivation progress.

A Divine Technique, then, grew stronger as one’s Cultivation progressed, and one could even unlock more of its profound mysteries.

In the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World, a considerable portion of the Cultivators he’d encountered had made their names through their Divine Techniques.

It was, in the truest sense of the saying, a case of one masterful skill being enough to dominate the world.

All sorts of unbelievable Divine Techniques, coupled with the universally powerful bodies of Bloodline Cultivators, had forged the unique bloodline Cultivation System of the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World.

And Wangcai’s Bloodline Divine Technique…

He had seen many tracking-related Divine Techniques and Tracking Techniques, but he had never before witnessed one like Wangcai’s, which could ignore Array Prohibitions and trace a target with such precision.

And now that Wangcai’s Cultivation had advanced, this Bloodline Divine Technique…

After a careful examination, Chu Mu guided Wangcai through several experiments, sealing the precise data into a Jade Scroll.

Comparing it with the data from his previous experiments, the change in the Bloodline Divine Technique before and after the Cultivation Advancement was perfectly clear.

‘An improvement of… about thirty percent.’

Chu Mu muttered to himself, setting down the Jade Scroll.

This result didn’t exceed his expectations.

For any Divine Technique, beyond its natural growth, the most crucial factor was the user’s own development of it.

And on that front…

Although Wangcai’s Spiritual Wisdom could be considered decent, it was clear that, for now, he relied more on instinct than intelligence, whether in his own Cultivation or in the throes of Battle.

Expecting the current Wangcai to develop his Bloodline Divine Technique on his own was clearly just wishful thinking.

And as for him, even though he could watch over Wangcai, creating tailor-made plans for his Cultivation, resources, and all other aspects, there was little he could do when it came to the Bloodline Divine Technique itself.

After all, while he could now catch a faint glimpse of the mysteries of Bloodline Divine Techniques, his Cultivation was still far too low for him to perceive their full profundity.

‘Tier Four… Nascent Soul. Perhaps that will be enough…’

Chu Mu was lost in thought. Back in the Foundation Establishment Realm, trying to perceive a Bloodline Divine Technique had been like searching for flowers in a dense fog; he hadn’t been able to make out a thing.

Now, in the Golden Core Realm, he could at last make out a thing or two when he observed it. He still couldn’t see the whole picture, but he could at least perceive the faint outlines of its structure.

If he reached Tier Four, the Nascent Soul Realm, he was certain he would be able to perceive all of its mysteries.

By then, a dream he’d long held might finally become reality.

With the help of his Spiritual Radiance, the inner workings of countless unbelievable Bloodline Divine Techniques would become crystal clear to him. That meant…

As long as he wished, he could make all those unbelievably profound and mysterious Bloodline Divine Techniques his own.

Observe, simulate, analyze…

And finally, he would take their essence, discard their dregs, and transform them into his very own Immortal Dao Divine Techniques…