Chapter 365 World Stone
Wu Long sighed with relief that he didn't end the sole reason for this flimsy peace on the continent with his own hands losing the one safe trump card he had in the process. The irony in that would have been too much even for him.
He also looked closely at the people gathering in the air, as he could finally access his future opponents with a degree of certainty, even if not everyone was apparently here. Since earlier all he had were speculations.
'But still... there are too many here'
He thought as he watched three more people arrive and greet the old man. He thought about this before, but for a small mortal world, for there to be multiple people in the Seven Profound Realms was highly unusual, at least in the part of the Seven Boundless Worlds he was in.
The simple truth that there were this many practitioners of this level packed into an ordinary small world at the time it was shut off was hardly believable.
He could understand why there were Bahshi Assassins and the Azure Eagles as the latter likely launched an attack on the former, but then again Bahshi would not place any Seven Profound Realms cultivators to a remote branch in a small world.
It seemed that for every one answer he got he received several new questions.
He regretted that his conversation with the Tree Spirit was marred by the communication barrier that existed between humans and spirits, plant spirits in particular. Most crucially they never supplied information of their own that they thought was relevant to the question anyone asked, only straightforwardly answering the question.
And when asking, the questions had to be very specific, carefully worded to be as exact as possible as they did not get abstractions. A question "Where am I?" would elicit an answer "here" in the best scenario or a confused stare in a less fortunate case.
So in regard to the mysteries of this small world that he was curious about, he got next to nothing.
He knew that the Great Catastrophe that happened a little less than ten thousand years ago was not the war between the Bahshi Assassins and the Azure Eagles like he initially theorized, but an unknown explosion, thought to be a natural disaster or a cosmic calamity. This cleared his doubts as there had to be practitioners at least two Great Realms higher fighting to achieve such an impact.
He also got a confirmation of which part of the Seven Boundless Worlds he was in. But apart from that, the Tree Spirit seemed to struggle with the answers or did not know at all.
At this moment, Liang Yuhan discreetly looked around and her eyes widened when she recognized the aura of one of the three people below.
'Wu Long? What is he doing here?'
She then saw him slightly raise his head so that she could see the lower part of his face with a light smile peeking from under the bamboo hat, and could not help but be amused at this man.
"Senior... have you tried to reach the center?"
At this moment, the man who arrived after sensing the disturbance first, who was called Do Bishui asked with some hesitation, as none of them moved from the spot even after the elder shooed them away with his shaky hand.
"I tried and failed miserably, is that what you want to hear? Khu-khah, khem"
The old man barked back with visible annoyance of having to announce his failure. Even with his voice shaking and another bout of coughs at the end, his flash of anger made the man pale as he backed away slightly.
"H-have you seen the World Stone? I-is it intact?"
One of the three people who came later sheepishly asked, unable to hold back the question even as he saw that the old man wasn't too eager to talk about his attempt to access the inner sea. The others suddenly froze, their full attention on the old man with none of them even breathing as they feared to miss the answer.
"Haa~ I don't know. Khu-khu... Prior to that day I never thought I would question the durability of the World Stone, but since I have not breached the innermost part I wasn't able to confirm"
The old man's temper suddenly subsided as he sighed, his voice becoming exhausted and melancholic.
'The World Stone? They think whatever caused the Great Calamity could destroy the World Stone?"
Wu Long's eyes widened as he heard the name of the one thing that was thought to be indestructible. A World Stone was like a root of the Seven Boundless Worlds, it also served as the medium through which the small, minor and major worlds of the Seven Boundless Worlds were connected to each other.
Far from being destroyed it could not be moved as it maintained a certain position in space even if the earth or rocks it stood on were removed, and would not move or shake even the tiniest bit no matter the impact. It was believed that World Stones were fixed to the position of the core of the world it was located on. The only scenario in which it was theorized that a World Stone would be destroyed was if the world it was in was destroyed first.
As Wu Long expected, the one that this world had was located at the former center of the Big Continent that existed before the Great Calamity, the part which was now inaccessible.
But if it truly was destroyed, there was no way of traveling to the other worlds even if this world was healed.
"But the rift is rapidly healing, so much so that a new portion may become explorable soon enough"
The old man, who sensed that his words may have sounded too grim, added to the silent and somber group who instantly showed more lively expressions.
"If it is healing then it must be receiving Spiritual Qi from the outside through the link, then the World Stone must still be intact"
The Azure Eagle who came at the same time with Liang Yuhan sighed with relief.
"Is there land left in the center?"
"Ehehehe khu-khu khu-khu, hm, still looking to get something from this old man? If you are that curious why don't you go and explore? Have you no shame? Tsk tsk tsk, if your skin was even a bit thicker you could build a city wall with it"
The old man suddenly became grumpy again as another of the latecomers asked a question, seemingly spurred on by the fact that the discussion became a little lively for a moment. His face then began to redden as the old man shamed him.
"Khu-khu, that's it, enough. Go, go, all of you, go! Except Madam Liang of course, you are welcome to stay a little longer"
The old man started shooing them away, this time putting a little more of an annoyance into his voice indicating that he was going to start lashing out if they did not begin leaving.
The three who arrived last and the Azure Eagle immediately cupped their hands and left while Do Bishui turned, but was slow as he still hoped to hear what the old man wanted to talk about with Liang Yuhan.
"Hahaha, it is an honor to be allowed to stay a bit longer, Senior"
Madam Liang lightly laughed.
"Of course, who would refuse the company of such a beauty. Hm? You still haven't left? Are you going deaf by any chance?"
The old man smiled with his cheeks becoming rosy as he spoke to Liang Yuhan, but noticing the still loitering Do Bishui became grumpy at the drop of a hat.
'Lecherous old geezer, fine, I can just buy this information from her later'
Do Bishui half-turned his head to look at the old man with a side-eye, and snorted. He then took a cursory look at the three people standing below, lingering a bit longer on the silver masks of the twins, but not noticing anything of interest, took a step and disappeared in the distance.
The old man who stayed with Liang Yuhan maintained a goofy lecherous smile until he sensed that the others were truly gone and only then sighed with a tired look.
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