Chapter 72
Chapter 72
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Back to the Starting Point
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Seoran stepped onto the Teleportation Array and flew to the East Continent.
Smashing the teleportation pattern the moment she arrived was just icing on the cake.
It had already been five years since she’d cut off her own retreat.
Seoran hadn’t just been playing around during that time, either.
The only viable return route in the end was by sea.
So she’d collected nautical charts marking safe seas.
Seas depleted of spiritual energy due to the Great Rift had become useless, and the charts’ prices had plummeted accordingly.
The pile of maps she’d gathered had soon filled a whole box.
Thanks to that, she’d found a route leading all the way to the West Continent.
Now it was time to decide what to ride back on.
Seoran headed straight for a flying vessel shop.
“Welcome! What kind of flying vessel are you looking for?”
“A galleon-type one that can carry cargo—the biggest and fastest you’ve got.”
The shop assistant led Seoran inside.
“How about this one? It can load plenty of cargo, and its speed rivals personal flying vessels.”
Seoran asked with a hint of disappointment.
“Nothing bigger?”
“Customer, no one but a sect master could afford a flying vessel larger than this. It’s banned by the International Vessel Regulations.”
“Who the hell made a law like that?”
“The Ten Great Sects, of course.”
They were pulling every dirty trick in the book.
“I’ll just take this one.”
“Any modifications or add-ons you’d like?”
“Do you have a list?”
“Right here.”
Seoran took the list and scanned it.
It felt like the options menu when buying a car.
She checked off everything from top to bottom without a second thought.
“Add all of these, from here to here.”
“Thank you, customer! Please wait just a moment!”
The shop assistant vanished with a beaming smile.
Left alone to sip her tea, Seoran suddenly remembered one galleon-type flying vessel she’d forgotten about.
The transforming puppet ship she’d received as a reward for slaying the Black Scale Reverse Flow Blood Snake, that headache from the lower world.
She’d stuck it in the quarry when making her bamboo rocket and completely forgotten about it since.
It was terribly slow for a flying vessel.
But its unique transformation function intrigued her.
She planned to disassemble it properly once she got back.
The shop assistant returned from afar.
“Customer, modifications are done! Shall I deliver it?”
Thanks to spells, it really had been quick.
“No, I’ll fly it out.”
“Yes, I’ll prepare it right away!”
Seoran paid with a check and boarded the galleon.
Back in Taibon Valley, Seoran carefully loaded the Millennium Earth Spirit Wood and the mountain of spirit stones into the cargo hold.
A Qi Condensation cultivator didn’t need food for long voyages.
She deposited the leftover spirit stones in her main trading bank.
With preparations complete, Seoran said her goodbyes.
“I’m off now.”
The straight-trunked tree waved.
“Investigator Ryu, please visit again.”
And so Seoran left the great grove.
The galleon, shrouded in a concealment barrier, soared through the East Continent skies.
The cargo hold was packed, making the ship heavy, but Seoran’s heart heading home was light.
As it cleaved through the clouds, its speed began to slow.
The spiritual energy-depleted fringes of the East Continent—the so-called Shadowless Zone.
Seoran paused the helm and looked down at the ground.
Without spiritual energy’s purifying power, the Shadowless Zone was a horrific sight unfit for human eyes.
The entire surface was submerged in roiling murk.
No matter how many times she saw it, she couldn’t get used to the scene.
“Ugh...”
Seoran retched, then gripped the helm again.
She wanted to leave this land behind as soon as possible.
Injecting a surge of Pure Earth spiritual power, she accelerated the galleon.
The galleon soon reached the sea.
The winter sea sparkled under the sunlight.
Seoran landed the galleon on the water.
For fuel efficiency.
A vast horizon stretched before her, dotted with white clouds.
It was a romantic vista that stole one’s breath.
Any hot-blooded soul harbored the dream of captaining a ship like this.
Even seafaring Seoran couldn’t hold back.
“Hoist the sails!”
At Seoran’s command, the crew puppets opened their eyes in unison.
Add-on components she’d bought with the ship.
Twenty wooden puppets adjusted the sails with perfect coordination.
The sails billowed full with the wind.
The salty sea breeze whipped Seoran’s hair.
She donned a pre-purchased eyepatch over one eye.
Now no one could stop the captain.
“Unsinkable, set sail!”
Gripping the helm, Seoran channeled spiritual power.
The propeller at the stern roared to life.
Her Unsinkable (just named) surged forward.
“Full speed ahead!”
According to the nautical chart, there were no reefs nearby.
Seoran pushed the throttle without hesitation.
The Unsinkable charged west ferociously.
Seoran couldn’t hold back her laughter.
“Hahaha, ahahaha!”
Then a massive impact struck the Unsinkable.
“Hwaaaah!”
The Unsinkable shattered with a boom.
Seoran tumbled across the deck with the helm.
Too busy laughing her head off to watch ahead.
The deck turned to chaos in an instant.
The mast snapped clean off, and the crew puppets flew into the sea on impact.
The hull screamed as if we’re all gonna die.
Seoran stood, clutching the dislodged helm.
“What? What happened!”
Her eyes met someone’s.
A deep-sea giant poking its head above the waves.
She looked like an ordinary little girl, but her head was bigger than Seoran’s Unsinkable.
The deep-sea giant rubbed her forehead with a tearful pout.
Seoran realized what had happened.
The Unsinkable had rammed the deep-sea giant at full speed.
Headbutting the forehead of the one who’d just surfaced.
As Seoran pondered fault, the child giant burst into tears.
“Waaah!”
It wasn’t a sound for the ears—it vibrated through the body.
Even shaking the hull with a drrrrr.
Seoran apologized frantically, but it was no use.
Her voice was drowned out by the thunderous wails.
*****
Moments later, the deep-sea giant girl stopped crying.
“Hng, it hurts...”
Exhausted from soothing her, Seoran said weakly.
“I’m really sorry. But why are you in such shallow waters?”
Deep-sea giants lived in the abyss.
Their size meant only the deep sea could fully submerge them.
It was odd for a deep-sea giant child to be in the middle of coastal waters like this.
The deep-sea giant sniffled.
“I came out to play alone and got lost.”
Feeling pity, Seoran offered.
“Want to go with big sis? I’ll help you find your parents.”
“Mom and Dad said not to go with strangers.”
Seoran nodded.
“Good girl. Big sis will head out then. Bye-bye.”
Seoran sailed off in her half-wrecked Unsinkable.
Then turned around a ways off.
Returning to the deep-sea giant, Seoran said.
“We meet again. We’re not strangers now, right?”
The deep-sea giant looked puzzled.
“Uh, I guess so...”
“Good. What’s your name?”
“I’m Soso.”
The name didn’t quite fit, but Seoran kept that thought to herself.
With the Unsinkable leading, Soso followed.
Seoran’s lost-child escort didn’t last long.
Two presences approached from the horizon, defying perspective—deep-sea giant parents.
“Mom! Dad!”
“Soso! Our daughter, Soso!”
“Where were you? We were so worried!”
Seoran’s half-wrecked Unsinkable waddled into the dramatic family reunion.
“Hello, I’m Ryu Seoran.”
Soso, who she’d spent about enough time for a cup of tea with, shouted.
“This big sis brought me here!”
The parent giants shed tears of gratitude.
“Thank you so much!”
“How can we ever repay this kindness!”
Seoran, who’d done nothing, waved it off.
“No, no. I didn’t do anything.”
Of course, her sincerity didn’t get through.
“Don’t say that!”
“Exactly, you helped our Soso!”
“No...”
The deep-sea giants seemed ready to invite Seoran home.
No matter how much she declined, it didn’t work.
Only after saying she was in a hurry did she escape their kindness.
The dad giant asked.
“But where are you headed, benefactor?”
“To the West Continent.”
The mom giant asked gravely.
“What? You plan to cross the world’s center?”
“The safe route goes through there, so probably?”
Soso suddenly yelled.
“Big sis, you can’t go there! A bad dragon lives there!”
“A dragon?”
The mom giant answered Seoran’s question.
“Yes, the One-Eyed Dragon blocks the world’s center, attacking anything that passes indiscriminately.”
“One-Eyed Dragon?”
“Oh, that’s a nickname. It has one eye missing, so we call it that. Dragons are nameless spirits, after all.”
Seoran was flustered by the news she’d never heard before.
“The One-Eyed Dragon is blocking the world’s center?”
“It’s been over two thousand years now. No idea why, but it won’t leave. A few hundred years ago, it even killed an Incarnation cultivator attempting to fly over.”
“It’s awfully ferocious!”
Seoran realized why the One-Eyed Dragon was unknown in the East or West Continents.
The only beings capable of killing Incarnation cultivators on the human plane were dragons that had completed their orbs.
A dragon on the verge of ascension bent on slaughter—even Incarnation cultivators couldn’t escape alive.
Why it hadn’t ascended was a mystery, but heading to the world’s center now was suicide.
Seoran turned the ship around immediately.
“I’d have been in mortal danger if I hadn’t known. Thanks for the info. I’ll be off now.”
Soso waved.
“Bye, big sis!”
As Seoran departed, the dad giant said.
“This hardly repays our debt. Let me teach you a fine martial art. It’s not meant for other races, but no matter now.”
The dad giant used the Mind Transmission Art.
The Mind Transmission Art was a spell for transferring specific information to others.
(Seoran had learned it in the East Continent, for reference.)
After the Bluetooth file transfer, Seoran asked.
“Won’t you get punished for sharing it like this?”
“Our kind is already half-extinct.”
Seoran asked seriously.
“Don’t tell me, the One-Eyed Dragon?”
“No, low birth rates did us in...”
“Oh...”
A all-too-familiar societal issue.
Seoran accepted it readily.
Bonus: She learned Soso was the last bloodline of the deep-sea giants.
Parting from the deep-sea giant family, Seoran reluctantly turned back toward the East Continent.
Seoran, three squares back.