Chapter 1423: Zhongzhou

This diverged from Qin Sang's earlier assessment.

Was the Ghost Mother not an old monster of the ancient era after all? A master of that caliber could not have been a nobody, so why did the North Sea hold no legends of her?

"That's right!" Tan Hao nodded. He was about to say more when something occurred to him.

Reunited with an old friend and caught up in the joy of it, he had nearly forgotten the most important matter. He asked urgently, "Brother Qin, how did you get in here?"

Qin Sang raised a hand toward the sky. "By breaking the array, naturally. Didn't you?"

Tan Hao smiled bitterly and his words came in a rush. "This is bad! Brother Qin, you may not know it, but Pure Sea Sect itself is one enormous seal. According to Senior, every fire vein on the seabed for a thousand li around was relocated here by an ancient master's great power, concentrating a staggering quantity of crimson flame qi that could erupt at any time. The seal is now on the verge of dissolution. Senior Ghost Mother hesitated a long while before devising an unorthodox approach that would damage the seal as little as possible, and only then did she dare enter. If the protective array has been broken, I'm afraid..."

The words did not surprise Qin Sang. The various signs he had noticed since entering had already led him to much the same conjecture.

"I'm not the only one who came in. The Chaotic Devil Elder and his people are here too, and by now they've probably started hunting for treasure everywhere. How much longer can the seal hold?"

"The Chaotic Devil Elder is here as well?!" Tan Hao clearly knew the name, and the news alarmed him. "The seal was already fragile, barely holding together. The barriers on the pagoda, the golden roof, the herb garden and the rest are all parts of it, like so many frail pillars. Damage any one of them and the seal suffers, making a bad situation worse. That's precisely why Senior took only a portion of the treasures. She meant for me to retrieve the rest myself after I formed my Spiritual Infant, as a form of tempering. Brother Qin, you were harvesting spiritual herbs just now, weren't you? I took the tremors for the crimson flames battering the seal. I never imagined this place had already been exposed."

The most precious treasures in the Pure Sea Sect had already been taken by the Ghost Mother. What she had left behind for Tan Hao, herbs like the Spirit Cup Flower that had not merited her attention, were still enough to tempt a Spiritual Infant cultivator. Her strength could be inferred from that alone.

Qin Sang turned it over in his mind. No wonder Daoists Qi and Wang had found Pure Sea Sect so suddenly. Reckoning the timing, the phenomenon had been caused by Tan Hao and the Ghost Mother's entry. It had simply been too brief, and with conditions inside the sect so complicated, the two of them had overlooked it.

"Senior Ghost Mother isn't here? I was hoping to ask her to save someone as well." Qin Sang looked around and explained his purpose.

He had lost much of his interest in the treasures here. What he wanted urgently was to meet the Ghost Mother and ask whether Mute Girl could be saved at all. From Tan Hao's tone, the Ghost Mother had not only kept her word but treated him well, which suggested her nature was not a bad one.

Mute Girl's situation resembled Tan Jie's. Both had been implanted with a Heavenly Corpse Talisman during the Qi Refining Realm and had long since outlived the limits of their lifespans.

Whether the outcome was good or bad, the matter needed resolving.

"You too..." Tan Hao started, then glanced at his brother's grave with fellow feeling. "Brother Qin, you've come a step too late. Senior has already left the North Sea."

"What?" Qin Sang started as well and pressed him. "She went to Beichen Realm?"

"No." Tan Hao shook his head and hesitated. "Senior mentioned going to a place called Zhongzhou. I don't know where it is either. After we returned to the North Sea she spent all her time searching for a nautical chart, going so far as to infiltrate Mystic Heaven Sect and cause an enormous uproar there. Breaking into Pure Sea Sect served the same purpose. Once she had the chart, she set out immediately. She left me at Pure Sea Sect because it's sufficiently hidden, and because this place is deeply strange. Morning bells and evening drums sound here every day, and they clarify the soul. It helps my breakthrough..."

Zhongzhou. The Ghost Mother wreaking havoc at the Mystic Heaven Palace.

That single answer carried an enormous amount of information.

Ever since learning the North Sea's name, Qin Sang had wondered what the "North" stood in relation to. It seemed Zhongzhou was another immortal cultivation world entirely.

What kind of world it might be, he had no idea. Was it another cage of the same sort, or did it hold an altogether different landscape?

And Pure Sea Sect had possessed a nautical chart leading to it! Its origins were anything but simple.

With thoughts racing, Qin Sang questioned Tan Hao further and learned that he had never seen the chart himself.

A genuine shame. A step too late, and he had missed not only his chance to wake Mute Girl but the nautical chart as well.

Yet the Ghost Mother's first target had been Mystic Heaven Palace. Did the palace also hold a nautical chart to Zhongzhou? Dominating an entire realm and never once declining, it seemed more than likely.

Wait...

Qin Sang suddenly remembered the mysterious ice box in his Thousand-Jin Ring. Could the man in white have stolen it out of Mystic Heaven Palace amid the chaos?

To think that everything he had experienced in the North Sea could be strung together through the Ghost Mother.

"I'm somewhat confused. What exactly are Senior Ghost Mother's origins?" Qin Sang frowned slightly.

Tan Hao hesitated a while before deciding to tell Qin Sang everything. Failing to revive Tan Jie did not erase what Qin Sang had done for the brothers, and he had never been a man to forget a debt. The Ghost Mother had placed no restrictions on him disclosing it.

And knowing the Chaotic Devil Elder had surfaced in Pure Sea Sect, Tan Hao understood perfectly well that those treasures were no longer his.

"Senior once told me she isn't a cultivator of the present age. She slumbered here for a time." Tan Hao lowered his head and glanced at the ground beneath his feet.

Qin Sang nodded slightly. So he had not guessed wrong.

Tan Hao continued without pause, "What's more, a devilish monster is sealed here as well. Pure Sea Sect was the seal's warden."

Another devilish monster! Qin Sang's chest tightened. He thought wryly that he must be fated to cross paths with ancient devils. Others went their whole lives without meeting one, and he had already encountered three.

"Something went wrong with the seal back then. Pure Sea Sect exhausted everything it had to stabilize it and the entire order perished. Senior Ghost Mother awoke because of that same upheaval. Once awake, she went looking for a certain person, and as soon as she had recovered part of her strength she traveled to Beichen Realm to search. There she ran into Saint Tian Yue. They fought a great battle, and Saint Tian Yue sealed her inside Abyssal Ruin."

What Tan Hao described covered the Ghost Mother's history before her imprisonment in the water prison. He went on to explain, "When we returned to the North Sea, Senior went to Mystic Heaven Palace first. Her reluctance to break into Pure Sea Sect stemmed from the fear that the devilish monster wasn't dead and she'd commit a terrible mistake. Fortunately the devil never appeared... or rather, there's no trace of the devil's aura left within the seal, at least."

Saint Tian Yue. The formidable figure who had fought his way across the entire North Sea and planted his sword at the Corner of Heaven! Even ancient cultivators had proved no match for him.

He had likely taken the Ghost Mother for an intruder violating the established order.

Qin Sang offered her a moment of silent condolence.

"Who was the Ghost Mother looking for?" he asked, cutting in.

Were there other old monsters lurking in the immortal cultivation world, keeping themselves out of sight? Thinking of Bai, of the jade skeleton, of the Ghost Mother herself, Qin Sang considered it more than likely. This world concealed far too many secrets.

"Senior said she was searching for descendants of the witch race. But the North Sea and Beichen Realm both belong to humans." As Tan Hao spoke, confusion and bewilderment showed on his face.

He knew the what but not the why. It was from the Ghost Mother that he had first heard of the witch race at all.

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