Book 15, Priceless Treasure – Chapter 30, The Fog Sea
The metallic lifeform moved like a flash of light, streaking at high speed towards the east.
Within the living room of the metallic lifeform, Linley and Delia were seated facing each other, while Bebe and Jenkin were seated facing each other. Everyone was chatting casually.
“My homeland? It is a far more complicated place than yours.” Jenkin’s face was all smiles right now, so very different from the look of dread it had when he had been fleeing and travelling. “In addition, my homeland’s continent is fairly large. From the north to the south, it stretches at least a hundred thousand kilometers.”
Linley nodded slightly. The Yulan continent, from north to south, stretched only twenty or thirty thousand kilometers. Jenkin’s homeland was indeed much larger than the Yulan continent.
“Our place was primarily divided into three forces. The first type included the human societies, the second included the beastmen clans, and the final one included the aquatic races! There’s all sorts of religions there. Haha, I’m afraid you are going to laugh at me when I say this, but I actually had my own church amongst the humans and amongst the beastmen!”
Jenkin laughed. “Those beastmen had no idea that the Deity they worshipped was actually a human.”
Linley, Delia, and Bebe had been bored with their journey, and so they were happy to listen to Jenkin tell them some tales from his own material plane. It had to be said that Jenkin’s material plane, although not having as many complicated secrets as the Yulan continent, had far more people, Saints, and religions, all of which engaged in battle, while the various races warred against each other as well.
“Oho! I had no idea.” Bebe chortled. “So in your own material plane, you were actually such an amazing figure.”
Jenkin’s story did indeed have a rather ‘legendary’ feel.
“Alas.” Jenkin sighed. “But when one stands at the pinnacle of the continent, one feels lonely!”
Linley nodded slightly.
Actually, the vast majority of the experts who left the material planes for the Higher Planes did so out of loneliness!
“I knew very well how dangerous the Infernal Realm was, but I still chose to come. However, the degree of danger here in the Infernal Realm is far greater than I ever imagined.” Jenkin said gratefully, “If it hadn’t been for you three helping out, I wouldn’t even have been able to come up with five thousand inkstones.”
Jenkin wasn’t able to scrounge up five thousand inkstones, but to Linley’s group, five thousand inkstones was like a single hair on the body of nine bulls. While chatting with him, Linley’s group had felt that Jenkin was a fine fellow, and so Bebe had magnanimously agreed to help Jenkin pay that five thousand inkstone fee.
The tens of millions of kilometers passed without incident. Roughly a month or so later, Linley’s group arrived at the legendary Amethyst Mountains!
“This is the Amethyst Mountains?” Linley stood in front of the metallic lifeform. Peering through the metallic lifeform’s translucent windows, he could clearly see the vast, borderless Amethyst Mountains.
The Amethyst Mountains covered a great expanse of land, with a circumference of hundreds of thousands of kilometers. In the Infernal Realm, a circumference of hundreds of thousands of kilometers actually wasn’t too extravagant an amount of land, but it still stretched as far as one could see with the naked eye. In a single glance, all one could see was endless mountains, stretching off into the distance.
At the same time, a white fog floated above the Amethyst Mountains.
The strange thing was, it was only possible to see the fog. It wasn’t possible to see the Amethyst Mountains.
“Indeed, as it was said in the books, the Amethyst Mountains, despite being a mountain range, is also known as the ‘Fog Sea’. From the outside, one can’t see so much as a single rock. All one can see is an endless amount of white mist.” Linley sighed as he spoke, while the nearby Jenkin, Delia, and Bebe all stared, spellbound, at the beautiful sight before them.
An area of hundreds of thousands of kilometers, completely covered by coiling white mists. The light of the Blood Sun shone down from the skies into the white mist, creating brilliant scenes and colors that were indeed pleasing to behold.
“How strange.” Delia exhaled in surprised. “This large mountain range of hundreds of thousands of kilometers is actually completely wrapped by countless amounts of white mist, in a way which is so tight. The mist has persisted for countless years without dissipating. It truly is odd.” Delia couldn’t understand it at all.
Linley, Delia, and Bebe had at least learned some things from books regarding the Amethyst Mountains.
As for Jenkin, he was completely lost.
“This is the Amethyst Mountains?” Jenkin still couldn’t believe that this fog-shrouded area was the Amethyst Mountains.
“Let’s go. We’re heading down now.” Linley, with a thought, made the metallic lifeform disappear into thin air. Linley, Delia, and Bebe all flew downwards, while Jenkin was caught slightly offguard at first, but he then quickly stabilized himself and also hurried downwards.
The surface of the Amethyst Mountains was covered by the Fog Sea.
Outside the Amethyst Mountains, however, there was a veritable flood of people flying about. The number was so staggeringly high that it could be described as shocking to hear. Many Deities remained at the borders of this Fog Sea, hoping to be lucky enough to encounter amethysts.
On the surface area in the perimeter outside the Amethyst Mountains, within Linley’s line of vision, there were at least three ancient castles.
As Linley’s group of four drew near, immediately, two middle-aged men dressed in black uniforms flew over. They couldn’t help but glance in Delia in surprise, clearly noticing that she was a Highgod Fiend. In their hearts, they were puzzled. “A Highgod Fiend would come here to harvest amethysts?”
Highgod Fiends, when serving as escorts, would receive compensation far greater than what they could receive by mining amethysts. Generally speaking, only Demigods and Gods would come harvest amethysts.
After realizing that Delia was a Highgod Fiend, the two immediately put on a noticeably better attitude. One of them, a golden-haired man, smiled and said, “Might I ask why you have come?”
Bebe laughed and said, “The three of us are just going in to take a look. This kid here is coming to harvest amethysts.”
“Oh?” The golden-haired man nodded. “The Amethyst Mountains are jointly governed by our eighteen clans. But of course, we won’t stop outsiders from going in. Whether for the purpose of tourism or for mining amethysts, all who enter will each pay five thousand inkstones.”
Linley nodded slightly. The rule of paying an entrance fee of five thousand inkstones was a rule that had persisted for countless years. Even the record books had noted this.
“What if you don’t have inkstones?” Jenkin suddenly asked.
“Don’t have them?” The middle-aged man glanced at him sideways, then laughed calmly. “If you don’t have any, that’s fine as well. We can still let you in, but we won’t give you a writ of passage, so when you come out...you will have to pay us three amethysts!”
“Writ of passage?” Linley raised an eyebrow.
The golden-haired man nodded. “Right. Everyone who pays five thousand inkstones can receive a writ of passage. When you come out, as long as you return the writ of passage to us, you can leave.”
Linley’s group now understood.
“If you want to pay five thousand inkstones, please come to the centralized entrance point.” The golden-haired man pointed to a distant, gaudily built palace gate.
Actually, the Amethyst Mountains were very vast. One could enter them by any point through the air or the land.
“Remember. The writ of passage you receive has to be returned. If you want to flee....” The golden-haired man smiled. “Then you will suffer the attacks of the experts of our eighteen clans. Heh heh. Just a reminder, that’s all.”
Linley laughed calmly. “Thank you.”
Immediately, he led Delia, Bebe, and Jenkin towards that entrance.
“Boss, that fellow seems to be rather arrogant. He keeps on saying ‘eighteen clans’ this and that.” Bebe muttered.
“Bebe, don’t mind him.” Linley himself knew exactly how powerful these eighteen clans were. “The Redbud Continent has only a single amethyst mining area. This is an astonishing treasure site. You know how much an amethyst is worth. Can you imagine how many amethysts the Amethyst Mountains produce?”
Bebe was startled.
Amethysts? Every single Redbud Castle and Blacksand Castle had a large amount of amethysts for sale, so many that one couldn’t even count them all.
“The ‘Amethyst Mountains’, which produces an inexhaustible amount of amethysts, is truly a treasure site! The wealth of any of the eighteen clans is far greater than that of the Boyd clan’s.” Linley sighed in amazement. “For the eighteen clans to be able to monopolize this treasure site, the Amethyst Mountains, has to mean that they have the support of an Asura. And what’s more, most likely there is more than just one Asura behind them!”
The Amethyst Mountains was the only amethyst production site within the Redbud Continent, but the Redbud Continent had nearly twenty prefectures, which meant nearly twenty Asuras.
If one just spent a little bit of time thinking about it, one would understand that the power of these eighteen clans had to be so great that not even a Seven Star Fiend like Elquin, much less an ordinary Highgod Fiend, would dare cause trouble for them!
At the entrance to the Amethyst Mountains.
“Alright, twenty thousand inkstones!” With a flip of his hand, Linley retrieved two long azurite strips.
The lady dressed in the long black uniform casually brought out four identical looking seals, giving one to each person in Linley’s group.
“Thank you, Mr. Linley.” Jenkin said gratefully. Actually, on the way over from the metallic lifeform, Jenkin had discovered...that amongst Linley’s group, the one who made the decisions was not the Highgod Fiend, Delia, but rather it was Linley.
“Let’s go.”
Linley flew directly into the air, heading alongside Delia and Bebe towards the foggy sea.
The light of the Blood Sun shone down on the gently flowing sea of fog, creating dazzling colors and one beautiful scene after another.
“So beautiful.” Delia laughed in a very happy manner. “Linley, look at that!” Delia pointed deeper into the Fog Sea, where tufts of white mist, under the light of the sun, formed winged horses that were galloping in the air.
“Vast and endless...it is so comfortable just looking at it all.” Linley laughed. “Let’s go take a look inside.”
As he spoke, Linley began to fly deeper in, but right at that moment...
“The four of you, halt.” A voice rang out.
Linley’s group of four came to a halt, puzzled. Turning, they saw a youth dressed in a black uniform armor fly over. “Can it be that you don’t know how dangerous this Fog Sea is? Why are you running rashly towards the Fog Sea?”
“Danger?” Puzzled, Linley pointed towards the others in the distance. “Aren’t there people in the Fog Sea already?”
As Linley saw it, if others could enter, then he should be fine to enter as well. In addition, those books he had bought regarding the Infernal Realm had given a brief description of the Amethyst Mountains. But of course, those books were not very thick, and they only devoted a few pages to each prefecture.
“Let me give you a warning.” The youth said solemnly. “The ‘Fog Sea’ of the Amethyst Mountains is very bizarre. Visibility within it is very low. Generally speaking, Gods only can see for a hundred meters within it. Therefore...no matter what, within the Fog Sea, everyone will stay only in the outer reaches. If you are a God, you cannot enter more than a hundred meters!”
Linley’s group began to listen carefully.
The youth said solemnly, “Everyone who goes in deeper, so deep that they can no longer see the outside, will never be able to come out again!”
Linley’s group was greatly shocked.
“Unable to come out?” Bebe called out in surprise. “How is that possible? It’s just white mist. Although visibility is low, if we fly in a straight line from within, why can’t we fly out?”
“You won’t be able to fly out!” The youth said solemnly. “As long as you are within the outer perimeter of the Fog Sea and can still see the outside world, you will be able to fly out. But if you are unable to see the outside world, you’ll be finished. Therefore, you must be careful when mining amethysts!”
“Even if there are amethysts just ten meters in front of you, no matter what, don’t pass through into that dangerous region! As soon as you enter it, you won’t be able to leave!”
The youth said solemnly.
Linley frowned as he looked towards the large number of Deities hovering at the borders of the distant Fog Sea, and he immediately began to understand. “Right. If the Fog Sea wasn’t dangerous, then these Deities probably would’ve charged deep into it long ago to find more amethysts. Why are they still at the border then?”
Linley was now certain that the Fog Sea definitely did have dangers within.
“Remember. At all times, make sure you don’t go into the forbidden area, even if there is a heap of amethysts hovering in front of you. Don’t go in.” The youth finished, then left.
Linley, Delia, and Bebe looked at each other. They couldn’t help but feel amazed at the marvels of nature.
“Delia, we aren’t here to harvest amethysts, just to take a look around. Come. Let’s go to some other places.” Linley didn’t care too much. He immediately led Delia and Bebe to fly around the borders of the Fog Sea, while Jenkin temporarily continued to follow Linley’s group.
Linley’s group walked for a while.
“The captain’s luck isn’t bad. He actually discovered amethysts just now. I’ve been here twenty years, but I haven’t found a single one yet. Hey, Olivier, have you gotten anything yet?” At this moment, there was a small team of ten or so people gathered together.
His hair was black mixed with white, and his robe was gray. It was Olivier, who had also come from the Yulan continent.
Olivier shook his head. “Bad luck.”
“Don’t be discouraged. Come, let’s go drink a few cups. My treat.” Their leader, the captain, said with a laugh.
The team flew towards the outer regions of the Fog Sea, drawing near the entrance, where a number of restaurants were located.