Journey to the head

The bright blue glazed tiles have long since shattered into dust, scattered among the charred ruins.

The smell in the air was suffocating—an intense, overwhelming stench of blood, mixed with the acrid odor of burning, the putrid smell of rotting corpses, and a strong, salty tang of seawater.

The once bustling hawking of vendors, the light whistling of cultivators riding streams of light through the air, and the carefree laughter of male and female cultivators have long been crushed by another voice—the roar of the dragon race filled with destructive pleasure, the booming of the sea race's navy driving giant waves to destroy buildings, and the heart-wrenching yet quickly extinguished wails of countless human cultivators and mortals.

Pan Qin embedded himself deeply in the shadow of a half-collapsed coral wall, his emaciated body trembling like a leaf about to wither in the autumn wind.

His short jacket and trousers, worn according to local custom, were tattered and covered in mud and dark brown scabs, hanging haphazardly on his body.

His face was etched with deep lines by the years and fear, his eyes were filled with terror, and his heart was pounding wildly against his aging chest in terror and regret.

It's all over, completely over.
His chapped lips moved, and only hoarse breaths could be squeezed out of his throat.

I traveled a million miles just to die?!
If I had known this would happen, I would have preferred to have died in Yuheng back then! Now I've suffered for 170 years for nothing!

Back then, I broke my oath and fled after the battle of Lingsha City. I thought that after leaving several prefectures, I could just change my name and live out my life. Since my cultivation has stalled, I might as well accept my fate. With my Foundation Establishment cultivation, being a wealthy man shouldn't be a problem.

But I never expected that only a few years after I left, the Yunshan Sect had already established itself as a powerful force in the prefecture, and the spies from that intelligence department spread like a net in all directions, forcing me to leave even further away.

But before I could fully settle down, the Yunshan Sect had already become the so-called Northwest Garrison Commander of Cangzhou, ruling over the nine prefectures of the Northwest.

By the time I finished moving again, the Yunshan Sect would be on equal footing with Xuanwei, the Spirit Beast Sect, and the Qinglian True Sect, jointly governing Cangzhou!
Then I might as well escape to several states, is that alright?
As it turned out, Lu Qian had another stroke of good luck and was actually bestowed the title of "Yuheng Spirit" by Taiyi Paradise. His fame spread throughout the Yunshan Sect, and the entire Yuheng Continent had to give him face.
It's not safe to stay in Yuheng!
It's not that I hadn't thought about it; after all, I'm just an insignificant nobody, and perhaps the Yunshan Sect has already forgotten about me. But after secretly inquiring, I learned that in the battle of Lingsha City, one of Lu Qian's senior brothers and his mentor in array formation both died, which had a huge impact, and these stories were written into various classics of the Yunshan Sect.

The Yunshan Sect has never withdrawn its warrant for my arrest!

Why won't the Yunshan Sect give me a peaceful life? Why is Heaven so unfair to me?
I hide like a mouse, never able to show my true face. I have to move every few years, and I haven't been able to sleep peacefully for decades.

This is all the fault of the Yunshan Sect!

run!

But where can they run to?
After years of wandering around, I've finally made friends with all sorts of people and heard many rumors and gossip.

Since we can't stay on the Jade Balance Continent, let's go to the Immortal Fall Islands!

I've heard it's an incredibly wealthy paradise for cultivators, where rare and precious treasures are readily available. Moreover, the island's cultivators are all wealthy, virtuous, and emphasize freedom, democracy, and equality; it's a land brimming with truth, goodness, and beauty.

Once you arrive there, you'll receive free medical care to heal old wounds; free education to guide you in your spiritual practice; and if you can't find work for a while, you'll receive free spiritual stones as relief.

The locals are all very lazy. If you go there and are willing to work hard, you can quickly rise to the top and become a superior person.

Most importantly, even a Qi Refining cultivator has absolute autonomy within their personal residence.

The wind can enter, the rain can enter, but the elixir of immortality cannot enter!
Nothing could be better than this. So, cherishing the beautiful dream of Immortal Fall, she took out all her remaining savings and finally managed to buy a ticket to the Immortal Fall Islands.

Along the way, the vast sea stretched out before them, with fierce winds and monstrous beasts roaming freely. Half the ship's crew perished, barely surviving until they reached Xianyun. Upon disembarking, they were immediately met with a spit from a Xianyun cultivator.

"Oh dear! It's that country bumpkin begging for food again."

The dream of becoming an immortal has been shattered.

But one must survive, right? So for more than a decade, he tried every means to imitate the Immortal Fallen cultivators in his clothing, food, housing and transportation. Finally, he became half-similar, able to call himself a "new Immortal Fallen person," and could finally sit on the dock and loudly laugh at the country bumpkins who had just arrived.

How could the Immortal Fall Islands have become such a hell on earth in the blink of an eye?!
A loud explosion came from afar, and his body trembled. The tears of regret that were about to burst forth were held back.

The once invincible island cultivators have completely failed, and the "Six Pillars of Immortal Fall," on whom all their hopes were pinned, have completely disappeared. Some say they have been slaughtered long ago, while others say they are still persisting. But all Pan Qin can hear and see is that the Dragon Clan and the Sea Clan are launching a full-scale attack on the Immortal Fall Islands.

Even the six pillars of immortality could not withstand it, so how could the remaining sects of primordial spirit, nascent soul, and golden core possibly withstand the elite army of tens of millions of dragons and sea creatures led by several True Monarchs of Refining Emptiness?

Massacres, routs, and mass exodus are taking place on hundreds of thousands of islands in the Immortal Fall Islands. Even if one manages to break through the layers of encirclement and search by the dragons and sea creatures, where can one escape to?

Fleeing outwards is impossible; the Starry Sea is boundless, already the enemy's territory, and there are ever-growing hordes of wild beasts and unpredictable, inescapable gales. Flying is impossible, swimming is even more so. Except for a few truly powerful individuals with astonishing luck, fleeing overseas will only lead to death as fish.

To flee inland is merely a form of slow suicide. The dragons are advancing at breakneck speed, with vast swathes of sea falling every day. Escaping from one island to another is simply a matter of dying in a different place.

This once prosperous and thriving paradise for cultivation has been completely shrouded in death and despair.

"Fellow Daoist Pan, where should we escape to next?" a hoarse voice asked in a low voice beside him.

Pan Qin has extensive experience in escaping and hiding over the past 170 years. This is why he was able to survive the first round of massacres in this hellish situation with his meager cultivation. Now, he has formed a small group of escapees with the surviving cultivators.

Pan Qin shook his head bitterly. If he had any other options, he wouldn't be hiding here waiting to die.

Another disheveled man said, "I'm not going to run away. I think if I stay here, there's still a chance of survival."

The people nearby were all startled, and their eyes lit up when they heard the word "lifeline".

"Think about it, there are tens of thousands of islands with spiritual veins in the Immortal Fall Islands, and hundreds of thousands more islands without spiritual veins but still habitable. There are a total of over a billion mortals and hundreds of thousands of cultivators. How could the Dragon Clan and the Sea Clan possibly kill us all?"

"Even if the dragon race wanted to, the sects on the six continents would never sit idly by! After all, we are all human, how can we just watch ourselves be slaughtered by alien races?"

Pan Qin listened expressionlessly, a cold laugh escaping his lips.

If the six continents wanted to attack the dragon and sea races, why would they have waited until now? Besides, don't you immortal cultivators know how popular you are?

The man continued, "Besides, the dragon and sea races don't like living on land either. What's the point of killing us all and leaving the land's spiritual veins empty here?"

Pan Qin's heart stirred; there was some truth to that statement.

"If we kill all the islanders, who will cultivate the spiritual fields, plant the spiritual herbs, mine the spiritual mines, and harvest all kinds of spiritual treasures? They rule the Immortal Fall Islands, so who will work for them?"

"In my opinion, this massacre won't last long. Once they've killed all the resisting cultivators, they should stop."

“Before, we had the Six Pillars of Immortal Demise and various sects and immortal factions above us. In the future, it will simply be the Dragon Clan and the Sea Clan above us. What difference does it make who rules the world? Life will still go on, won't it?” Some people nodded frequently, agreeing wholeheartedly. Others snorted.

"With the sea monsters ruling over the fallen immortals, how can we humans still live like human beings? We will definitely be controlled and become their slaves, our lives less valuable than grass, forever destined to be the sea monsters' beasts of burden."

The man sighed, "So what if we're treated like slaves? It's better to live a miserable life than to die. Besides, if we keep hiding, we might end up being treated like slaves in the end, but what if we surrender now?"

Everyone else was stunned.

"Think about it, these sea monsters really don't know anything about the island. We can lead the way for them! They want rare treasures, spirit stones, and beautiful women. We'll lead them to them. Don't we know where those people are hiding?"

"You, you're going to be a dog for the siren—"

"What's wrong with being a dog? If you voluntarily become a dog now, your future will be bright. You won't be able to be one later!" He became more and more excited as he spoke. "You all know your own cultivation level and your previous status, right?"

"In the future, when the Dragon Clan and the Sea Clan rule Xianmi, they will also need capable subordinates. As long as we curry favor with them, they will be first-class citizens, we will be second-class citizens, and other island cultivators will be third-class or fourth-class citizens! At that time, even Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators will have to defer to us!"

The group fell silent, several people showing interest but too embarrassed to speak up.

Stimulated by the potential for survival, Pan Qin shared his insights: "There's no use thinking too much now. First and foremost, you have to survive this round of massacres."

A louder commotion slowly approached from a distance, mixed with wails and screams, and everyone's expression tightened.

"The sirens are now in a bloodthirsty frenzy. If you run up there now, even if you kneel down and beg to be their dog, ha, they'll turn you into a dead dog right now."

"If you really want to be a compliant citizen on the island, you'll have to wait until the Dragon Clan's higher-ups issue a decree to pacify the people and prohibit killing."

Everyone nodded in agreement. At that moment, a monk emerged from the rubble, his face, covered in sweat and blood, filled with excitement.

"Fellow Daoists, there is hope! There is hope!"

A group of people suddenly surrounded him.

"I've heard some news: the Taiyi Paradise on the Jade Balance Continent is sending 'Mustard Seed Boats' to evacuate cultivators from the island! The nearest evacuation point is at the Beimu Ruins on Beimu Island!"

The news was like a flame erupting in black smoke; everyone grabbed him and bombarded him with questions.

This news was being frantically spread among the desperate and panicked cultivators. Shell Island was a large island on the edge of the Immortal Fall Islands, near the Jade Balance Continent. If the Taiyi Paradise were truly coming to their aid, they might indeed appear there!

"They came to rescue people? Are they really that kind?"

"Kindness? Bah! It's nothing but profiting from disaster. Think about it, if Taiyi Paradise could take the cultivators and wealth from the island to Yuheng, it would be of endless benefit to them!"

"So, does that mean the other continents will also come to pick them up?"

"That's what they say, but we still don't know where the other continents pick them up. Beef Island isn't too far from us, so perhaps there's still hope."

Hope, such a luxurious word in this hell, instantly ignited the life in everyone's eyes, but also numbed everyone's ability to think.

"Let's go! Let's go!"

Including Pan Qin, the cultivators, like moths to a flame, immediately decided to flee to Shell Island. Even those who had previously said they would stay and become obedient citizens chose to follow the crowd.

If I could really go to the Jade Balance Continent, it would certainly be better than being a slave!

Pan Qin bit his tongue hard, the excruciating pain and the taste of blood briefly overpowering his fear, squeezing out the last bit of strength from his body. He and his companions, hunched over, pressed themselves against the shadows of the broken walls and began their escape towards the island of Beimu.

The once beautiful bay with its shimmering blue waves and silvery white sand has now been turned into a pool of blood.

The group hid behind the rocks, their legs trembling with fear at the sight before them. The seawater was a viscous, murky dark red, and the waves churned up fragments of limbs, entrails, and broken bones. The endless corpses, like rotting seaweed, rose and fell with the waves, densely covering the surface of the sea.

Some corpses were pushed ashore by the waves, forming a fleshy embankment. Various carrion insects and strange birds hovered above the pile of corpses like thick dark clouds, emitting a chilling buzzing sound.

Thousands of islanders and low-level cultivators were being roughly herded together. Several tall, blue-scaled deep-sea yakshas, ​​wielding bone halberds, were laughing and gathering the crowd, as if driving a herd of livestock to slaughter.

"Kneel down! You lowly mud worms!" A shark leader with the cultivation of Golden Core roared. With a single swing of its huge bone blade, a water blade sliced ​​through the waist of more than a dozen cultivators in the front row, their internal organs and blood splattering out, causing a chorus of shrill and desperate screams.

"The Dragon Ancestor has decreed!" A sea lizard captain leaped onto the reef, his voice shrill and piercing, "You inferior race, so arrogant and presumptuous, have seized this archipelago and usurped the Dragon Palace! Your crimes are heinous! Today, the Dragon's might descends to settle old scores! Your sins can only be washed away with blood—kill!"

The sea monsters, unable to contain themselves any longer, pounced on the crowd. In an instant, a cloud of blood shot into the sky, staining the nearby sea even redder. A gigantic crocodile emerged from the waves, its gaping maw swallowing dozens of people whole, the sounds of its chewing sending chills down one's spine. Those once radiant and arrogant island cultivators now pleaded and knelt in blood, yet they could not escape the fate of being crushed by its claws.

Not far away, a dozen female cultivators were bound together in a row by some kind of mermaid silk. Several sea monsters pushed and shoved them to come closer. One of the sea monsters saw the shark leader, fawned over a female cultivator, and ripped off her disheveled clothes, revealing her slender and beautiful body to the leader.

But the shark leader glanced at him impatiently and said, "Ugly! Humans are too ugly, get out of my way!"

The siren laughed: "To each their own. The dolphin clan loves to play with these human girls. Their leader just killed a few and instructed me to send ten more over."

Pan Qin covered his mouth, not daring to watch any longer, and led everyone to escape in a different direction.

Everywhere were broken walls and scattered corpses. The group moved through the chaos with extreme tension, praying that they would not encounter any patrols of the sea creatures.

However, what they feared most came to pass. Just as they reached another beach, one of them was inadvertently discovered by the sea creature guards. Immediately, a horn sounded, and a large horde of sea monsters surged in from all directions. In the ensuing panic and chaos, Pan Qin and his companions were surrounded by an enemy force several times their size.

My life is over!

Just then, a powerful spiritual pressure flashed by, and the surrounding sea monsters exploded into dust!
A human Nascent Soul cultivator stood before them, frowning as he asked, "Do any of you have a sea chart? Do you know where Mother Shell Island is?"

Pan Qin was so shocked he almost screamed, and instinctively pinched his thigh.

I recognize this cultivator! He... he's already at the Nascent Soul stage! (End of Chapter)