Translator: Noodletown Translations Editor: Noodletown Translations

Heavy snow lasted several days in Half City, but it didn’t dampen the customers’ enthusiasm.

After Mr. Fang demonstrated all kinds of high-level techniques and showy plays, the customers in the shop had a new topic added to their daily conversation.

With cups of milk tea in hand, Yue Yan and the other disciples of the Nanhua Faction quickly looked around, trying to find more than ten seats for their senior brothers and sisters, junior brothers and sisters, masters, and even aunt-master to sit together.

As the earliest customers from outside Half City who were brought here by Liu Ningyun, they usually followed the shop owner’s footsteps and played the newest stuff in the shop.

Soon, elders and disciples of the Nanhua Faction sat in a row with bowls of instant noodles or cups of milk tea in their hands. The first thing that they did was opening the game of Devil May Cry 3.

“Master! I thought hard for a whole day yesterday and came up with a combo!” While opening her game, Yue Yan said in excitement, “I feel like it will be even more powerful than those used by the Shop Owner!”

“Really? Are you serious? You came up with a combo?” Mo Xian rolled her eyes at Yue Yan and said, “Our master doesn’t use combos; she studied Royalguard all day yesterday and will continue today.”

“Oh…” Yue Yan had turned to another direction. “Aunt-Master Shui, do you want to see my new combo?”

…

Different from Origins Internet Café, the peaceful life which had lasted thousands of years in Xuanzhong Manor and Yuxu Faction was disrupted.

According to the ancient documents in the three saint factions, besides this huge continent, there were distant remote celestial islands on the sea outside the continent. There were cultivators and also all kinds of small mortal countries that would pop up frequently and quickly fall. Since there were many unknown dangers and risks in the vast ocean, those cultivators rarely had contact with the cultivators on this continent. Instead, those cultivators formed a system of their own, and they had also existed for many years.

It was clear that some ancestral masters had braved the rough ocean, took the high risks, and passed through the sea territories controlled by many terrifying fierce beasts. In the end, they drifted to that sea realm which was primarily comprised of the sea with islands scattered on it.

As a result, the three saint gates had recorded the customs and detailed information of that sea realm, and it was noted that it was a cultivation world as big as their own with grand masters of the Divine Palace Realm.

This was an area that the three saint factions had known about.

They also knew that this cultivation world wasn’t weaker than them, but the gap in strength between these two worlds wasn’t that big.

About 1,000 years ago, they even got the information that the other cultivation world was almost destroyed by a demon catastrophe, and it was highly unlikely that they had recovered their previous strength and even surpassed the three saint factions in only about 1,000 years.

However, the ancient documents also recorded that true immortals who lived in that realm had been to this continent as well, and they called this area the ‘Deserted Sea Realm’ and had even created teleportation arrays that led to their own mystical cultivation world.

It was said that in that mystical cultivation world, there were spiritual mountains, rich soil, and beautiful plants and flowers. Spiritual beasts flew in the sky, and spiritual plants grew all over the land. In that world, not only humans but demons had their own nations as well.

People all thought that the reason why the three saint factions could surpass other factions in cultivation techniques and spiritual spells without fighting over any spiritual mountains or treasure cave abodes with them was that they had the access to the Cultivation Realm. In fact, there was another reason for their dominance, which was that they had once had dealings with those distant cultivators and obtained huge benefits.

This was the only teleportation array that led to a place outside the Deserted Sea Realm. However, it couldn’t be used since a long, long time ago; it seemed to have been destroyed from the other end. As a result, the regions beyond the Deserted Sea Realm had become a legend among the high-level cultivators in the three saint factions. If not for the catastrophe in the Taixi Faction, they would have probably still taken it as a myth. After all, many years had passed, and the last group of disciples and elders who were teleported to the other end had never come back.

Who knew if the world on the other end still existed or not?

In the long river of time, the teleportation array had become a dead array. As time passed by, it was moved to another place for study.

If the building storing these ancient documents was burned down in a fire one day, perhaps the successors would soon forget this piece of useless history, and everything about that period would vanish in the river of time.

“Longyuan, Wanyin, you’re the most valued and talented disciples in Xuanzong Manor and the Yuxu Faction. With the Taixi Faction severely damaged, we’re in a crisis and have many issues on our hands, which is why we entrusted this task to you. I hope that you won’t disappoint us,” the Daoist of the Yuxu Faction who was wearing a white robe and a jade belt said slowly.

“How did your investigation go?” The purple-robed old man of Xuanzhong Manor stared at Li Longyuan and Ling Wanyin and asked succinctly, “Are they related to the people recorded in our ancient documents? Did they make things difficult for you?”

“No, they didn’t,” Li Longyuan answered, “But the stuff in this shop is indeed weird and amazing. They also have many delicacies such as milk tea and spicy sticks…”

Soon, the two disciples recounted all the snacks and games that they experienced.

“The newest and the most popular game they have now is Devil May Cry 3, which is a tough test for one’s control and skills. Although the game mainly focuses on warriors, cultivators can play it too.” When he got to the good parts, Li Longyuan talked while demonstrating Dante’s wicked sword techniques and fancy combos in the grand hall, thinking that it was very dashing.

The two faction masters looked at him and were at a loss for words.

…

Their report and demonstrations lasted half a day. After they were gone, the two faction masters looked at each other. “What do you get from their report?”

“The Law of Time?”

While murmuring these four words, they fell into deep thought.

…

There were demons in this world.

While humans usually cultivate for less than 100 years, demons cultivate for at least hundreds of years. Except for the royal members of the Demon Clan, the other demons must cultivate a long time before they could transform into human forms.

It took demons much longer time to increase their strength compared to humans, Likewise, the powerful demon clan usually enjoyed very long periods of power spikes.

Whenever a powerful demon master rose, it would bring a very long time of prosperity to the Demon Clan.

Of course, the Demon Clan’s degree of prosperity was much inferior to that of humans.

Demons were more like hermits in spiritual mountains, enjoying the life in the auspicious cave abodes hidden in all kinds of places and lingering in the ancient relics. In contrast, humans were more like explorers and conquerors, focusing on acquiring more land for generations without getting tired.

Humans usually lived in prosperity and luxury while demons enjoyed beautiful scenes and things that were rare in nature.

However, some demons liked the prosperity in the human world and came to the human civilization after transforming into their human form.

In the vast ocean, the dark sky merged with the dark water; it was dark all around. Right now, it seemed like a storm would come at any moment.

A majestic man wearing a silver robe with golden embroidered patterns stood on the ocean waves with a black-patterned heavy ji in his hand.

TL Note: Ji, a Chinese polearm, is a hybrid between a spear and a dagger-axe.

He bobbed up and down on the waves as if he were standing on boat, and the surging black waves underneath couldn’t affect him at all.

Soon, several huge ocean beasts rose from the bottom of the sea, and they were extremely respectful to the man and didn’t dare to do anything reckless.

They looked humble naturally as if this man was their master, and they were his subordinates.

With a deep voice, he seemed to be asking something, but it wasn’t any human language that was used on the continent.

His deep eyes gazed at the distance while a huge piece of land appeared from the horizon.