Chapter 454 - 441: Man-Eat-Man Southern Domain (Part 2)

Chapter 454: Chapter 441: Man-Eat-Man Southern Domain (Part 2)

"We’ll pass through a stretch of Great Li. Traveling non-stop at the Seeking Truth Ship’s speed, it should take a little over two months to cross. After that, we’ll enter the territory of the Nan Chu Country... It’s still several million more miles south from there to reach Dian Country. The time that will take is hard to say; it all depends on how smooth the journey is."

Bai Zichen was engrossed in manipulating the giant map, feeling that the fifty thousand Spirit Stones had been well spent.

This was a map of the Cultivation Continent sold by a merchant guild from the Central Domain in Zengguang Immortal City. It had been widely acclaimed since its release.

However, its steep price limited its audience to Core Formation True Men and above.

Alternatively, Sects would spend a fortune to purchase one, placing it in their main hall for multiple members to use.

He was rushing to cultivate the Great Sun Yuan Copper Bone precisely because he was about to enter an unfamiliar environment. Any additional means of self-protection he could gain would be beneficial.

The Southern Domain’s overall strength was slightly superior to the Northern Domain’s.

The Blood Sea Sect, with which he was familiar, was a Sect that ranked among the top three in the Southern Domain.

Even with the Blood God Son wielding the Abi Heavenly Prison Demon Sword, the Blood Sea Sect couldn’t firmly secure its position as the number one Sect in the Southern Domain. This just went to show how formidable the other powers were.

’The Hundred-Eyed Celestial Centipede that’s been ravaging the Southern Domain still hasn’t been taken down... The Southern Domain is notorious for its chaos. In comparison, the Northern Domain could be considered a land of order and simple customs.’

The Blood Sea Sect was an undeniable Demon Path Sect. It plundered every useful inherited bloodline, its newly advanced Nascent Soul cultivators routinely slaughtered tens of thousands of living beings, and many of its disciples used live humans to practice their Blood Dao Techniques.

One of their prized techniques required flaying a person’s skin and inscribing hundreds of Talismans on it before it could be successfully cultivated.

Despite all this, the Blood Sea Sect was surprisingly not considered to have the worst reputation in the Southern Domain. It was even seen as having some basic principles.

This small glimpse was enough to imagine the depths to which the Southern Domain had sunk, and the kind of man-eat-man ecosystem its Cultivators inhabited.

They reared mortals like livestock, periodically harvesting them for Blood Food.

Low-level Loose Cultivators and Cultivation Families were relentlessly exploited by the Sects above them, and their tribute consisted of more than just cultivation resources.

For a Clan to produce an exceptionally talented disciple was not necessarily a blessing.

They might be chosen as a backup body for a Nascent Soul Old Monster. Upon reaching adulthood, their Soul would be shattered, leaving only an intact physical body to be preserved in a thousand-year-old Yin Wood Coffin.

There it would wait until the day it was needed for possession, allowing a Nascent Soul to enter the most suitable vessel.

Those of slightly lesser value would be subjected to various Secret Techniques that forcibly stripped away their Spiritual Root aptitude and other talents, which were then transplanted into other Cultivators.

Having talent was no guarantee of success; it was more likely to lead to a quicker death.

Those Demon Path Sects could slaughter tens or even hundreds of thousands at a time without batting an eye. It was commonplace for them, perhaps done merely to save on a few Tier Three Spiritual Materials and refine a Low-Grade Demon Path Magical Treasure as quickly as possible.

And these were considered the better ones, because at least their actions had a twisted logic to them; one could understand their motives.

There were several other Sects that managed to be "outstanding" even in an environment like the Southern Domain.

They reveled in the pure pleasure of slaughter, watching the weak wail in agony and despair at their hands.

They might pass a village and casually toss down a few spells, admiring the tragedy unfolding on the ground from the air before leaving with a hearty laugh.

The Sect Cultivators from such places were the most terrifying, as their random slaughter could befall anyone at any time.

’The Southern Domain has several Great True Monarchs, but it’s certain that no Divinity Transformation Cultivator has emerged in the last ten thousand years... Otherwise, some Sect would have long since claimed the title of Super Major Sect. There’s no way they would have been humble enough to pass up the opportunity.’

Bai Zichen was only traveling to the Five Elements Sect to deliver the Demon-Extinguishing Elixir, not to seek revenge or kill anyone. With any luck, he wouldn’t even encounter a single Nascent Soul True Monarch.

Let alone provoking a Great True Monarch—the chances of that were far too low.

As for that Hundred-Eyed Celestial Centipede, however, he would have to gather clear information on its whereabouts and plan a route to avoid it.

As one of the Five Great Strange Insects of the Cultivation Realm, the Hundred-Eyed Celestial Centipede had a hundred pairs of compound eyes, each capable of shooting a different type of Divine Light.

The more types of Divine Light it mastered, the stronger the Hundred-Eyed Celestial Centipede became.

The appearance of a Hundred-Eyed Celestial Centipede always heralded great chaos. In a place like the Southern Domain, no Nascent Soul True Monarch would risk confronting the Tier Four strange insect unless the situation became completely dire.

’Given the situation in the Southern Domain, I probably won’t be able to keep using the Seeking Truth Ship after crossing the border. I’ll have to find another way to travel.’

Bai Zichen’s head throbbed as he thought about the descriptions of the Southern Domain’s local customs.

No wonder there was now such a huge gap in strength between the Southern and Eastern Domains, even though they had been developed around the same time.

The low-level Cultivators were like stalks of rice in a field, mown down clean, crop after crop, without even giving new shoots a chance to sprout.

If this continued, the Northern Domain might even catch up and surpass them in a few hundred years.

’In an environment like this, the conduct of the Five Elements Sect seems all the more precious. They are truly unstained by the filth around them... Perhaps the influence of their founding ancestor is simply too great. After all, he was a mighty figure who had a chance of reaching Divinity Transformation. That, combined with their well-established teachings, has allowed their principles to remain intact for a thousand years.’

One could only imagine how difficult it was for a Sect in the Southern Domain to maintain its principles and stand apart from the crowd.

Being ostracized and deliberately targeted by other Sects was a daily reality for them.

The main reason they had survived to this day was the Five Elements Annihilation Array, a Tier Four Top-Grade Array left behind by their founding ancestor.

This array was second to none in the entire Southern Domain.

As a Tier Four Array, the twelve Forbidden restrictions that the Five Elements Annihilation Array could activate were all purely offensive, each one more powerful than the last.