HSSB528: You have standards
The surrounding region of sea was completely enveloped by starlight. The sensory abilities of both Yan Zhaoge and the Northern Ocean Clone were affected greatly.
They could basically only sense where their eyes could see.
Still, looking down at the jade sword within his hand, Yan Zhaoge could barely feel some changes seemingly having occurred with it.
This proved that he had not failed in the most critical step. Shi Jun should have left via this spring source.
Like this, Shi Jun’s possible location had been narrowed down greatly. Looking for him would no longer be such a difficult thing.
Following the guidance of the jade sword, Yan Zhaoge began searching the surrounding area.
As they looked, Yan Zhaoge discovered that there were also Blood Dragon Sect martial practitioners in the vicinity. Still, they were behaving the same as their peers elsewhere as they were just roaming about randomly searching for clues.
While there were many of them, virtually being spread throughout the entire area as they searched, wanting to locate just one or two people within the Star Shifting Sea, especially people that could possibly be in hiding, it would never be enough however many of them they were. It was really like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Still, while they seemed not to have any clues at all, Yan Zhaoge felt that it was not purely luck that had brought them here.
He silently moved past these Blood Dragon Sect martial practitioners, their discussion also vaguely falling within his ears.
“Wanting to find people in environments like the Bewildering Maze Sea and the Star Shifting Sea is really too hard.”
“However hard it is, we still have to find them. That kid injured the grandson of Elder Nian and abducted the Chief’s daughter. Even we have to make the ground three feet lower, we still have to dig him out of here!”
“That’s right. Let alone him merely being a disciple of a guest Elder of Changli Mountain, even if he was really a disciple of Changli Mountain, we would still have to dig him out all the same.”
“Speaking of which, Elder Nian has left seclusion and hurried over with the Chief to the Star Shifting Sea. Slowly limiting the radius of the search with a secret technique, they should be able to locate that damnable bastard and junior apprentice-sister Shen very quickly.”
Hearing these discussions, Yan Zhaoge raised his brows slightly.
After having arrived at the Vast Ocean World, Yan Zhaoge had been continually paying attention to and gathering various types of information in other to better understand the world and its situation.
After having arrived at Changli Mountain, he had then performed extremely systemic research.
While the people of the Blood Dragon Sect had not clearly specified who it was that they were talking about, Yan Zhaoge was still able to identify who they were.
Nian Chen, the Grand Elder of the Blood Dragon Sect and also its previous Chief. He was the number one expert of the Blood Dragon Sect and also controlled their Sacred Artifact, the Nine Dragon Fingers.
Nian Chen was ranked third amongst the top ten Transcending Mortality experts of the Vast Ocean World.
Of course, this ranking did not take Sacred Artifacts into account.
Ten years ago, in order to achieve his breakthrough sooner, Nian Chen had stepped down from managing the daily affairs of the sect and handed the position of Chief over to his disciple, Shen Shicheng.
Still, Nian Chen’s word in the Blood Dragon Sect still held virtually ultimate authority.
Those who were not on good terms with the Blood Dragon Sect often mocked Shen Shicheng to be the Disciple Chief with a Grand Chief above him.
Shen Shicheng himself did not really mind this, Nian Chen trusting him quite a bit as well as he had handed the various matters of the sect both major and minor over to him to handle all these years, himself focusing on cultivating.
Still, from the looks of it, having originally been in secluded cultivation, Nian Chen had specifically made a trip to the Star Shifting Sea this time as well.
“The Blood Dragon Sect disciple whom Jun’er injured was Nian Chen’s grandson?” Yan Zhaoge stroked his lower chin, remembering that Nian Chen’s son had died young, only leaving behind a grandson Nian Wei, this being something that everyone of the Vast Ocean World knew of.
As he pondered, Yan Zhaoge heard those Blood Dragon Sect martial practitioners continue speaking, “Senior apprentice-brother Nian having yet to recover completely from his injuries, he is already going all around looking for senior apprentice-sister Shen. It must be hard on him.”
“Senior apprentice-brother Nian and junior apprentice-sister Shen are really a perfect match for each other. With junior apprentice-sister Shen having come to the Star Shifting Sea this time, senior apprentice-brother Nian specifically came over to escort and protect her. Who would have thought that such a thing would have happened; of course senior apprentice-brother Nian would be unable to sit easy.”
“Senior apprentice-sister Shen has been abducted for such a long time, her whereabouts unknown. I’m just afraid…”
“Silence! Don’t you know how to watch your words?”
Yan Zhaoge had to smack his lips at that, “Good kid, you’ve dealt with the two people of the Blood Dragon Sect’s younger generation with the deepest backgrounds at the same time. No wonder the Blood Dragon Sect’s completely blown up.”
“You have standards, I like that.”
As he soundlessly and covertly passed over the heads of those Blood Dragon Sect martial practitioners, Yan Zhaoge’s mind drifted randomly.
Whatever Shen Ying resisted marriage, had love at first sight together with Shi Jun whereupon they eloped together…
Whatever Nian Wei had untoward intentions, with Shi Jun bravely charging in, rescuing Shen Ying and escaping, with Nian Wei instead maligning him as having abducted her in retaliation…
He was naturally biased towards Shi Jun, all of his thoughts viewing him in a good light.
“Thinking is useless. I’ve got to find them first,” Yan Zhaoge ceased in those thoughts that were all over the place and turned back to focus on the jade sword in his hand.
The people of the Blood Dragon Sect had a secret technique as well, currently gradually locking down the target area to draw near to this place. Not being able to ignore them, Yan Zhaoge had to find a way to locate the two missing people as soon as possible.
Following the guidance of the sword, Yan Zhaoge tried to locate the correct direction and coordinates yet was unable to find anything despite a great amount of time having passed.
Yan Zhaoge frowned, coming to where the sword had reacted the most intensely. Sinking into the depths of the sea and examining the reefs there, he still failed to make any discoveries.
After pondering for a moment, Yan Zhaoge slowly rose upwards, yet did not immediately surface as he instead searched around the hidden undercurrents between the bottom as well as the surface of the sea.
“To think that it would be here!”
After a while, Yan Zhaoge smiled slightly, moving alongside the flow of the seawater as a whirlpool shockingly appeared before his eyes. This was a whirlpool that lay parallel to the seawater, strangely pointing upwards as it formed an inconspicuous stretch of empty space within the seawater.
Here, the reaction of the jade sword was exceptionally intense.
Yan Zhaoge broke through the flow of water, traversing that empty stretch of space where no water existed and continuing past it, stepping directly into the whirlpool.
Passing through the centre of the whirlpool, Yan Zhaoge shockingly entered a formless passageway and was sent into a foreign dimension.
Just having entered the foreign dimension, Yan Zhaoge knit his brows slightly as he saw that his surroundings were filled densely with a faint purplish fog.
This fog was like grease as it was very viscous, being very hard for one to move within.
Yan Zhaoge tried it out and found that moving forward was easier than moving backward. While moving back was not hard for him, if one was not a Martial Grandmaster, it would be hard for them to leave this foreign dimension as they would only be able to struggle continuously forward.
“Jun’er and the girl should indeed be trapped here,” Yan Zhaoge thought as he broke through the encirclement of the purple fog and entered the foreign dimension proper.
A deep, massive valley appeared before Yan Zhaoge, which he promptly entered only to feel wary, “There are traces of more than just one or two people. Other than Jun’er and the girl, there were others as well.”
Entering the depths of the valley, Yan Zhaoge saw a messy scene as though the entire place had been swept through by some kind of powerful force.
A dense smell of blood permeated the air. As Yan Zhaoge gazed around the area, he saw that there were a few corpses lying on the ground, all of them in the garb of Blood Dragon Sect martial practitioners.
Beside one of these corpses was, shockingly, a damaged spirit artifact. While everyone else had been damaged badly with detached fingers and broken bones, there was only this person whose corpse was still generally intact due to having been protected by the spirit artifact.
Drawing near, Yan Zhaoge looked down to see that it was a youth with seven lines of sword scars running across his chest.