Void Cultivation

The woman only smiled brilliantly when she witnessed this scene. A few seconds later, Caster arrived with Tyler in tow.

He glanced at the chair beside his master, which she was still facing as she gently stirred the tea in her cup.

However, even after staring at the seemingly empty chair for a long time, he did not discover anything unusual about it. In the end, he could only withdraw his gaze and look back at the elegant figure of his master.

The young woman continued stirring the tea with the same calm expression on her face for several more seconds. The silence persisted to the point where the spoon seemed to move by itself, slowly circling the cup in a rhythmic motion.

Only then did she release the spoon and raise her eyes to look at the two of them, particularly Caster.

"Alright. I want to send the two of you to Sky Mist City. There will be a situation there that I need you to handle while I’m away. Moreover, I want you both to protect Grey and watch over your junior—"

She suddenly paused in the middle of her sentence.

As she looked at Caster, a strange glint flashed through her eyes. She lightly cleared her throat before continuing.

"I also want you two to keep an eye on your senior sister as well. We all know how stupid and reckless she can be. During this period, she’ll undoubtedly do something foolish, provoke someone she shouldn’t, or somehow end up offending an existence she cannot possibly deal with."

Hearing her words, both Caster and Tyler nodded in understanding.

Naturally, they knew exactly who she was referring to.

The woman in question possessed extremely high self-destructive tendencies and had an extraordinary talent for getting herself into trouble. In fact, it was almost a miracle that she had managed to survive this long without accidentally offending some terrifying old monster.

After making sure that they understood her instructions, the young woman waved her hand dismissively.

"You may leave."

The two of them bowed slightly before departing from the small magic ship.

When they reappeared above the sea, Caster waved his sleeve and a large ghostly ship materialized out of thin air. The vessel looked ancient and eerie, as though it had sailed out of the underworld itself. Wisps of pale mist drifted around its dark wooden hull, giving it an ominous appearance.

Without any hesitation, the two boarded the ship, and Caster piloted it towards Sky Mist City.

Although his cultivation base was more than enough to cross this distance safely, even if he encountered powerful sea creatures along the way, Caster had long grown accustomed to travelling by magic ship whenever he ventured out onto the sea.

It had become an ingrained habit.

Moreover, most sea creatures inhabiting the waters surrounding Sky Mist City deliberately avoided magic ships that sailed upon the sea’s surface. Through countless years of experience and painful lessons, they had learned that such massive wooden vessels almost always carried powerful cultivators aboard.

If they recklessly attacked and destroyed one of these ships, they would inevitably provoke cultivators whose strength far surpassed their own.

As a result, within the peripheral waters of Sky Mist City, magic ships were a common sight that countless sea creatures and mutated beasts greatly feared and avoided.

They would rather detour for hundreds of miles than foolishly provoke the unknown experts hidden upon those ships.

When Caster’s ghost ship finally disappeared into the distance, the young woman slowly stood up from her seat.

Then, she took a single step forward.

Her figure vanished.

When she reappeared, she was already standing above the deck of the small magic ship.

She did not look in the direction where Caster’s ghost ship had disappeared. Instead, she turned her gaze toward a direction that was almost completely opposite.

The sea breeze blew gently, causing her long white hair to flutter softly behind her.

A faint smile appeared on her lips.

"It’s time that I pay a visit to an old friend who still owes me a few favours. Moreover..." She paused briefly, her eyes becoming deep and unreadable. "I’m certain that he’ll be very interested in this piece of news."

As soon as her words fell, her figure disappeared once more.

At the same time, the gentle-looking magic ship beneath her feet also began to fade away, as though it had never truly existed.

Within a few short moments, both the woman and the ship had completely vanished, leaving behind only the endless black sea and the sound of the cold wind blowing across its surface.

When she reappeared, she was already standing above the pitch-black sea, where the icy winds blew relentlessly across the endless waters.

Her long white hair and flowing robes fluttered wildly in the fierce gale. The pungent scent of salt and decay carried by the sea breeze drifted into her nostrils, but she paid it no attention. She merely stood there silently, her gaze fixed on the dark ocean beneath her feet.

Her expression remained calm and solemn.

A few moments passed.

The sea breeze suddenly became even fiercer, causing enormous waves to rise and crash against one another. The gloomy sky darkened further, and the little sunlight that had been peeking through the thick clouds gradually disappeared.

Then, without warning, the sea began to churn violently.

Boom!

The surface of the ocean split apart as two enormous crimson eyes slowly opened beneath the water. They were unimaginably large, like two blood-red moons hidden beneath the sea. Their scarlet glow illuminated the dark waters and cast an eerie red light over the surroundings.

The eyes stared directly at the young woman.

A terrifying chill spread through the air.

The moment those eyes appeared, the atmosphere seemed to freeze. The wind stopped for a brief instant before blowing even more violently than before. The clouds overhead twisted and gathered together as though the heavens themselves had sensed the awakening of a dreadful existence.

Yet, despite facing such a horrifying sight, the young woman’s expression remained unchanged.

She simply looked back at those enormous eyes in silence.

---

After the rumor spread that one of the Heaven’s Chosen of the Sects Alliance had been captured, Sky Mist City immediately fell into an uproar.

The news swept through the city like a violent storm.

Whether they were ordinary residents, rogue cultivators, or disciples of the various sects, everyone was discussing the matter. No one had expected that one of the proud Heaven’s Chosen of the Sects Alliance would actually be defeated and captured.

Even the seventeen sects fell silent for several days.

During that period, the atmosphere within Sky Mist City became extremely tense. It was as though a great storm was brewing beneath the calm surface.

However, after several days of silence, the challenges resumed once more.

This time, though, they became even more aggressive and forceful than before.

The disciples of the Sects Alliance no longer challenged ordinary cultivators. Instead, they specifically targeted the disciples of the various sequences.

Surprisingly, the sequence cultivators no longer rejected those challenges as they had done previously.

Instead, they accepted them.

The reason was simple.

The news that one of the Heaven’s Chosen had been defeated and captured had ignited a spark of hope within their hearts. For a long time, the disciples of Sky Mist Sect had been oppressed by the Sects Alliance and had gradually begun to believe that the Alliance’s geniuses were invincible.

But now, they realized that this wasn’t necessarily true.

If one of the Heaven’s Chosen could be defeated, then perhaps they too had a chance of fighting back.

Thus, many disciples who possessed high cultivation bases descended from the mountains and willingly accepted the challenges issued by the Sects Alliance.

Since both the Sky Mist Sect and the Sects Alliance had tacitly approved these battles between their disciples, several rules were established to ensure fairness and prevent unnecessary deaths.

After all, neither side wished to lose their talented disciples for no reason.

The rules were simple.

Firstly, only cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Realm were permitted to issue or accept challenges.

Secondly, only official disciples who had been personally accepted by their sects could participate. Piedmont disciples and ordinary outer disciples were forbidden from taking part.

These rules promoted fairness to a certain extent.

However, no matter how many regulations were put in place, the disparity in strength between both parties could not easily be bridged.

This was because, in the cultivation world, low-level cultivators always vastly outnumbered high-level ones.

This phenomenon existed everywhere.

For example, within the Scavenger Camps, there were significantly more Qi Accumulation cultivators than ordinary mortals. There, ordinary people were undoubtedly considered the weakest group.

But in Sky Mist City, the situation was slightly different.

There were many cultivators in the Qi Accumulation Realm, but there were also a considerable number who had already stepped into the Foundation Establishment Realm.

The Foundation Establishment Realm was an extremely important stage in a cultivator’s journey.

It was the realm in which a cultivator forged the foundation of their future path. The quality of that foundation would determine not only how far they could walk on the road of cultivation but also the speed of their future advancement.

A strong foundation could allow a cultivator to fight opponents stronger than themselves, possess greater reserves of spiritual energy, and display terrifying combat prowess.

Because of this, throughout countless eras, cultivators had always attached great importance to this realm.

However, in the current age, the era known as God’s Era, many cultivators no longer cared about laying a perfect foundation.

They rushed forward recklessly.

After all, in this cruel world, survival came first.

Everything else became meaningless if one died before reaching the peak.

With dangers lurking in every corner of the world and countless disasters occurring one after another, many cultivators preferred to increase their strength as quickly as possible rather than spend years perfecting their foundations.

As a result, compared to previous eras, the cultivators of this age could be considered significantly weaker.

Their cultivation realms might appear impressive, but their foundations were often shallow and unstable.

This fact was directly related to the challenges between Sky Mist Sect and the Sects Alliance.

A cultivator with a superior foundation naturally possessed an enormous advantage over someone whose foundation was average. Such individuals could even fight opponents above their cultivation level for a period of time without needing to activate their Special Brilliance Forms.

This was where the disparity between the two factions truly lay.

The Sects Alliance’s magical vessels were enormous, and each vessel carried its own leader and representative disciples. More importantly, every vessel contained a considerable number of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Their disciples had received superior resources and better inheritances from a young age.

In comparison, Sky Mist Sect simply could not compete.

From the very beginning...

Sky Mist Sect had always been at a disadvantage.