Mortal: My name is Ma Liang, and I also possess a magic brush.

As soon as Nangong Wan stepped out of the teleportation array, she quickly scanned her surroundings and saw a vast desert in front of her, with only Fuyunzi by her side.

Her heart sank, and she asked, "Where are the others?"

Fu Yunzi pointed behind him: "Look, over there."

Li Huayuan and Shi Jingtao were flying in from a distance when Nangong Wan saw them and quickly used her divine sense to urgently say, "Quickly back to the tower! We've been tricked!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Yue Zhanchen and Chu Jiangli flew over from the other side, carrying a naked figure, which was Ma Liang's fake body.

The group landed on the ground, and Yue Zhanchen threw the fake body directly to the ground.

"I caught that kid over there!"

He then looked at Nangong Wan, "Fellow Daoist Nangong, you just said we were deceived, what exactly happened?"

Nangong Wan strode forward, grabbed the fake body's hair, and demanded, "Tell me! Who are you? Where is the real Ma Liang?"

But the fake body remained blank-eyed, and no matter how she questioned it, it remained silent.

Nangong Wan flung aside the fake body's hair, drew her sword, and placed it against his neck. With a slight effort, the blade sliced ​​through his skin.

Strangely, no blood flowed from the wound.

"How is that possible?"

The group released their divine senses to investigate. They could clearly feel the presence of a living human body. Li Huayuan even stepped forward and patted the fake body's face and pinched its arm. The touch and aura were no different from those of an ordinary person, making it no ordinary puppet or corpse.

"What...what is this thing?"

Looking at this bizarre existence, Nangong Wan felt a chill and swung her sword to cut off the head of the clone.

The next moment, the headless body turned into specks of spiritual light and vanished.

"Let's go! Let's go back to the tower! The real Ma Liang must still be inside!" Nangong Wan made a decisive decision.

Everyone felt that the other party's methods were extremely strange.

This technique is neither an illusion nor a puppet technique. "We must capture him and force him to reveal the origin of this method!"

Once the agreement was reached, the group immediately flew towards the Blood Forbidden Land.

But they had already gone far from the forbidden area. After flying a short distance, they saw a tower slowly rising on the distant horizon.

"Oh no!" Li Huayuan shouted in alarm, "The tower is flying up! He's trying to escape!"

Not only Li Huayuan and his group, but also the surviving disciples from various sects around them were stunned.

The tower rose from the deep pit, growing higher and higher. After reaching a certain height, the tower tilted slightly and, accompanied by a piercing whooshing sound, sped away into the distance!

Nangong Wan and the others had just arrived at the edge of the Crimson Forbidden Land, wanting to give chase, but the tower had already become a small black dot, making it completely impossible to catch up.

Enraged, Yue Zhanchen unleashed his natal greatsword, unleashing a powerful sword light towards the tower. "You've harmed so many of my disciples, and you just let me get away like this!"

……

Less than a day after the tower flew away, all the Nascent Soul stage cultivators from the seven major sects arrived at the Crimson Forbidden Land, and the six demonic sects also sent people to investigate.

After hearing what had happened, everyone searched the deep crater created by the explosion, but found nothing.

Although some minor frictions arose between the various factions afterward, they were quickly quelled.

Time flies, and when Han Li emerged from seclusion after completing his Foundation Establishment, he heard about Ma Liang's deeds and couldn't help but be surprised.

"Unexpectedly, Senior Brother Ma rode away in a tower. The seven major sects searched for a long time, but still could not find any trace of the tower."

He looked up at the sky. "Senior Brother Ma, where did you go?"

……

At this moment, Ma Liang was in an elegant room, leisurely sipping tea, while the Awakening of Insects on the table continued to swim around.

He had long since regained his original appearance, his jet-black hair had returned, and more importantly, he had broken through to the early stage of Foundation Establishment, and his depleted life force had also recovered considerably.

Ma Liang put down his teacup and looked at the large mirror floating in front of him.

The mirror reflects an endless sea, stretching as far as the eye can see.

"We've been flying over this boundless sea for a whole year. When will we finally reach the Chaotic Star Sea?"

While Ma Liang was feeling utterly bored, he suddenly saw a swirling mass of dark mist approaching from the horizon. "Oh no, it's ghost mist!"

He rushed to the mirror, grabbed the mirror with both hands, and pried it to the side. As the view in the mirror shifted, the giant tower flying outside also changed direction.

But the ghostly mist seemed to possess sentience, and it changed direction, rushing straight towards the tower.

Ma Liang dared not hesitate and once again manipulated the mirror to spin rapidly. The giant tower instantly swept across his body and sped off diagonally.

Fortunately, the tower's flight speed far exceeded the speed at which the ghost mist spread, and it eventually grazed the edge of the ghost mist and bypassed it.

Only after creating enough distance between himself and the ghostly mist did Ma Liang finally breathe a sigh of relief.

"This boundless sea is fraught with danger; we cannot afford to be careless in the slightest."

He had just finished sighing when Jingzhe crawled up his arm and stopped in front of him, flicking its tongue.

Ma Liang reached out and patted its head. "Alright, it's okay now."

After three years of growth, Jingzhe has grown from a small snake into a white snake as thick as two fingers, its entire body translucent white, and it has become increasingly agile.

"Alright, go wait in the next room." Ma Liang patted Jingzhe's head and turned to walk towards the bedroom next to the private room.

Pushing open the door, a futon was placed on the wooden bed, and the figure standing on the other side was the woman who had impersonated her martial uncle back in Huangfeng Valley.

He sighed softly, a look of helplessness on his face:

"The painting is finished, but you can't do anything with it; it just looks realistic."

"He's not at the Foundation Establishment stage, just an ordinary mortal, and can't even help in a fight."

He stepped forward and touched the other person's cheek. Looking at the lifelike yet empty appearance, he felt a surge of irritation.

"Just looking at it like this makes me even angrier."

As soon as he finished speaking, he casually waved his hand, and the figure turned into specks of spiritual light and vanished without a trace.

Ma Liang stopped thinking about it, walked to the bedside, sat down cross-legged, took out the "Canglan Gathering Yuan Technique" and looked at the cultivation method of the Foundation Establishment chapter.

He held his breath and focused his mind, following the energy flow path described in the cultivation technique, drawing upon the spiritual power within his body to begin his cultivation.

Time flies, and four years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Although Ma Liang has no shortage of spiritual herbs and pills, most of them are for the Qi Refining stage, which is of little use to him at the early Foundation Establishment stage. In the past four years, his cultivation has barely reached the edge of the mid-Foundation Establishment stage.

Throughout his journey, the dangers of the Boundless Sea never ceased, forcing him to constantly evade them.

On this day, he looked at the mirror with nothing to do. He thought it was still an endless sea, but suddenly he saw a blurry outline appear at the end of the sea.

Ma Liang suddenly stood up from the couch, staring intently at that spot—it was an island!

It is a seemingly lifeless desert island, but it is ultimately a sight outside the sea.

His eyes lit up with wild joy. "I'm here... I've finally arrived!"

"Five years... Do you know how I spent these five years?"

Ma Liang gazed at the silhouette of the deserted island in the mirror and thought, "All they do is eat and sleep!"

Ma Liang did not rush to maneuver the tower toward the Chaotic Star Sea. Instead, he adjusted the mirror to make the giant tower rise higher and higher until the scenery below was completely obscured by the clouds. Only then did he propel the tower forward.

After flying for about ten more days, he stopped his journey and reached out to scrutinize the mirror, zooming in and out on his vision.

After passing through layers of clouds, the view below was finally revealed.

Several islands were scattered about, but not a single ship or cultivator was in sight. Ma Liang frowned: "Have we not reached the Chaotic Star Sea yet?"

As he was wondering what was going on and was about to continue controlling the tower to fly, he suddenly saw bursts of spiritual light erupting from the distant sea.

He quickly shifted his gaze to that direction and saw three cultivators besieging a huge sea beast. As their spiritual energy clashed, the waves surged.