The vast, frozen mirror of pale-blue ice that had locked the Azure Abyss in place slowly melted behind them, dissolving under the endless expanse of the open ocean.
The double-hulled ironwood flagship—the Ocean-Dragon Royal Flagship—continued its steady voyage eastward, driven by the gentle, salt-scented maritime breeze. Three days after the terrifying Stage-6 Crimson-Void Sea Dragon was crushed five thousand feet into the ocean trench by a casual press of Li-Wen's palm, the jagged storm clouds of the deep-sea rift completely vanished.
Ahead of them, rising from the sparkling azure waves like a cluster of floating green emeralds, lay the legendary Sun-Spire Archipelago.
This vast chain of tropical islands formed the outer boundary of the Eastern Realm's Sanctum Zone. Here, ancient spiritual reefs grew deep beneath the crystal-clear waters, glowing with soft jade light. Multi-tiered wooden pavilions built from dark sea-cedar hovered over the calm lagoons on high stone stilts, connected by winding bamboo bridges. White sea-herons soared through the warm air, and the scent of wild ocean lilies and roasting sweet sea-tuber pastries drifted over the water.
Li-Wen stood on the quiet upper bow of the flagship.
CRUNCH... CRUNCH... CRUNCH...
His heavy leather boots made slow, rhythmically precise sounds against the polished dragon-scale steel plating of the deck.
His dark traveler's coat, unbuttoned at the top to expose his broad, iron-carved chest, fluttered gently in the warm tropical breeze. Across his broad back, the Pitch-Black Heavy Blade rested in absolute silence inside its unadorned iron scabbard, its terrifying kinetic weight completely concealed. His short hair, heavily streaked with pure white roots, caught the bright, golden rays of the midday sun.
In his left arm, he held little Xiao-Yue securely against his chest.
The small girl was wearing her clean, white sheepskin coat. Her small leather boots kicked rhythmically against Li-Wen's side, her face full of bright, innocent joy as she looked at the floating wooden houses and the shimmering jade lagoons below. In her small hands, she held her pink lotus lantern. The silver frame, bearing its tiny hairline crack, glowed with a soft, comforting ruby light that created a three-foot sphere of cool, fresh air around them, shielding her from the harsh tropical heat.
"Brother Li-Wen! Look at those little houses!" Xiao-Yue squeaked softly, pointing her small index finger toward a floating wooden pavilion where fishermen were drying glowing purple sea-ribbons on long bamboo racks. "The houses are standing inside the water! Don't their feet get wet?"
"They are built on ancient coral pillars," Li-Wen murmured, his deep, raspy voice flat, calm, and steady. "The water does not reach the floors."
"Can we go down there?" She asked eagerly, her dark eyes sparkling as she looked at a busy floating market square near the lagoon. "Look! That big wooden sign has pictures of sweet sea-cakes!"
Li-Wen looked down at the bustling floating market of the Sun-Spire Lagoon.
"We will go down," Li-Wen said.
Fifty paces behind them, Captain Lin-Hai and the twenty elite sailors bowed their heads in deep, trembling reverence. Captain Lin-Hai quickly stepped forward, offering a small, carved wooden token made of deep-sea whale bone.
"M-My lord..." Captain Lin-Hai stammered respectfully, keeping his eyes lowered. "This is the Grand Sovereign Pass of the Eastern Sea Fleet. With this token, no sect, guild, or island guard in the Sun-Spire Archipelago will dare to restrict your path or ask for tax coins."
Li-Wen did not take the bone token.
"I do not need a pass," Li-Wen replied flatly.
He gently adjusted his broad grip around Xiao-Yue's waist, stepped over the iron-wood railing of the bow, and calmly stepped out into the open air—three hundred feet above the lagoon!
"MY LORD?!" Captain Lin-Hai gasped, rushing to the railing in shock!
Li-Wen did not fall. He did not unleash flying spiritual energy.
The moment his broad boots touched the empty air, the absolute-zero kinetic density sleeping deep within his Stage-5 Peak Sovereign marrow created microscopic, invisible stepping platforms of condensed space beneath his feet!
STEP. STEP. STEP.
With steady, unhurried strides, the broad-shouldered man walked down from the three-hundred-foot sky as if descending a flight of smooth marble stairs, carrying the small girl in his arm, stepping onto the central wooden pier of the Sun-Spire Lagoon!
The surrounding sailors, dock masters, and island merchants who witnessed a man walking down from the open sky without a single drop of spiritual Qi fell to their knees instantly, their faces pale with profound, terrified awe!
The floating market of the Sun-Spire Lagoon was a vibrant, peaceful trade hub.
Long wooden walkways lined with sea-flower lanterns connected dozens of floating shops. The air was filled with the mouth-watering aromas of grilled deep-sea scallops, sweet palm-sugar cakes, boiled coral fruit, and iced lotus tea.
Li-Wen walked down the wooden boardwalk, his heavy leather boots making firm, rhythmic sounds against the sea-cedar planks.
Xiao-Yue's eyes were wide with wonder! She held her pink lotus lantern with one hand and pointed eagerly at a floating bakery stall decorated with colorful wooden sea-shell carvings.
"Brother Li-Wen! That one! The cakes look like blue stars!" She squeaked with a sweet, bright smile.
"We will buy a box," Li-Wen said.
They walked up to the bakery stall. The shopkeeper—an old woman with silver hair and warm, gentle eyes—was frying star-shaped dough cakes made from sea-tuber flour and sweet palm syrup in a large brass pan of aromatic nut oil.
When the old woman looked up and saw the tall, broad-shouldered man with white-rooted hair, carrying a heavy iron bar on his back and holding a sweet little girl in his arm, she smiled kindly.
"Welcome to the Sun-Spire Market, traveler," the old woman said warmly. "Would the little miss like a hot box of Star-Sea Cakes?"
"Yes, please, grandmother!" Xiao-Yue squeaked happily. "Two boxes! One for me and one for Brother Li-Wen!"
"Coming right up, little miss!" The old woman chuckled, expertly packing two wooden boxes with hot, golden-blue star cakes and wrapping them with red silk ribbon.
Li-Wen reached into his coat pocket and placed a medium silver piece onto the wooden counter. "Keep the change."
"Thank you, noble sir!" The old woman bowed politely, handing over the warm boxes.
Xiao-Yue immediately took a hot star cake from the opened box, blowing on it softly before taking a tiny, eager bite.
"CRUNCH!"
"Mmmmm~! It's so sweet and crispy, Brother Li-Wen!" She cheered, her small cheeks puffing up happily. "It tastes like sweet coconut and warm honey!"
Li-Wen took a small star cake and bit into it. The crisp outer crust gave way to a soft, warm, coconut-flavored interior that melted on his tongue.
"It is acceptable," Li-Wen murmured, a microscopic trace of warmth softening his stern, iron-carved expression.
However, while Xiao-Yue was happily enjoying her star cakes, the peaceful atmosphere of the Sun-Spire Lagoon was suddenly shattered by a deep, terrifying vibration that echoed from the center of the archipelago!
RUMBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEE—!
The calm, emerald waters of the lagoon began to churn violently! High wooden stilts supporting the floating pavilions shook, and hundreds of sea-herons flew into the sky in a panic!
From the direction of the Grand Sea Sanctum—a massive ancient mountain peak rising in the center of the archipelago—a column of dark crimson spatial Qi shot up into the high atmosphere, tearing a three-hundred-foot rift in the clouds!
"WHAT IS HAPPENING?!"
"THE SANCTUM SEAL IS BREAKING!"
"RUN! THE ANCIENT SEA DEMON IS AWAKENING!"
Panicked shrieks erupted across the floating market streets! Thousands of local villagers, shopkeepers, and low-level cultivators scrambled in sheer terror, abandoning their stalls and running toward the safety of the mainland docks!
From the high peak of the Grand Sea Sanctum, three figures flew out at high speed, coughing blood as they tumbled through the air, slamming violently onto the wooden boardwalk twenty paces away from Li-Wen's table!
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
They were three supreme ancestors of the Eastern Realm—the Three Sea-Vanguard Sovereigns, all formidable Stage-6 Mid-Grade Sovereigns wearing shattered jade armor!
Following behind them, bursting out from the fractured mountain base of the Grand Sea Sanctum, was a terrifying, hundred-foot-tall shadowy humanoid figure composed of ancient dark-red void blood and corrupted deep-sea spatial laws—the Stage-6 Peak Primordial Void-Blood Fiend!
"ROAAAAAAAR!" The Fiend howled, its voice carrying an ancient, soul-devouring curse that caused the surrounding sea water to turn pitch black! "Three thousand years of imprisonment! Today, I shall devour the blood of every living soul in this archipelago!"
The Void-Blood Fiend raised a colossal claw made of condensed crimson spatial spikes, aiming to crush the three injured Stage-6 Sovereigns along with the entire floating market square into non-existence!
"IT IS OVER..." Patriarch Blue-Ocean, the leader of the Three Sea-Vanguard Sovereigns, whimpered in utter despair, his chest covered in dark crimson blood as he looked up at the descending claw of death. "The ancient seal has failed... No one in the Eastern Realm can stop this primordial fiend..."
Xiao-Yue stopped chewing her star cake. She looked up at the terrifying, hundred-foot tall crimson shadow rising over the lagoon, her small brows furrowing slightly.
She wasn't scared. She simply reached out her small hand and gently tugged on Li-Wen's coat sleeve.
"Brother Li-Wen..." She whispered softly, pointing her small finger at the giant monster. "That big dark ghost is shaking the table. It's going to knock over my star cakes."
Li-Wen stood by the wooden table.
He did not look at the three bleeding Stage-6 Sovereigns lying on the floor. He did not draw the Pitch-Black Heavy Blade from his back.
His dark, void-like pupils slowly locked onto the Stage-6 Peak Void-Blood Fiend towering above the lagoon.
His physical marrow—purged of all void poison and refined to absolute-zero physical density—vibrated with a quiet, cosmic resonance.
"You are shaking her cakes," Li-Wen said softly.
His deep, raspy voice carried no anger. It carried no theatrical rage. It was a simple, flat statement of fact that echoed across the entire shaking archipelago like the chime of an ancient, heavy iron bell.
Li-Wen took a single step forward.
He did not punch. He did not unleash a martial art.
He simply extended his right arm, grabbed the Pitch-Black Heavy Blade by its dark iron hilt, and drew the blade three inches from its iron scabbard!
CLINK.
A microscopic, three-inch sliver of unadorned dark steel emerged into the open air.
CRACKLE—! SHATTER—! REPRESS—!
In less than a microsecond, a invisible, localized domain of absolute-zero sapphire kinetic mass exploded from the three-inch opening of the blade!
The hundred-foot-tall Primordial Void-Blood Fiend—a ancient entity capable of battling Stage-7 Supreme Ancestors—didn't even have time to swing its colossal spatial claw!
The moment the sapphire cold touched its crimson void structure, its dark-red spatial blood, its soul-devouring curse, its hundred-foot shadow body, and the three-hundred-foot spatial rift in the sky were instantly snap-froze into a single, massive, pale-blue crystal monument resting over the mountain peak!
CRUMB.
Li-Wen casually pushed the Pitch-Black Heavy Blade three inches back into its iron scabbard.
CLANG.
The moment the dark steel returned to its sheath, the giant pale-blue crystal monument of the Primordial Void-Blood Fiend collapsed silently into billions of microscopic, sparkling frost-dust particles that drifted lazily into the blue sky, completely vanishing into nothingness!
The dark crimson clouds vanished. The pitch-black sea water turned back into crystal-clear emerald waves. The heavy spatial vibration stopped instantly, leaving behind a warm, sunny, and perfectly peaceful afternoon.
The Primordial Fiend that had threatened to destroy the entire Eastern Realm was erased in less than a second—by drawing a heavy blade three inches from its scabbard.
Silence—absolute, pristine, and terrifying silence—descended upon the Sun-Spire Lagoon.
The three Stage-6 Sea-Vanguard Sovereigns lay on the wooden boardwalk, their eyes wide, their mouths wide open, staring at the broad-shouldered man standing by the bakery table in absolute, paralyzed horror!
"T-Three inches..." Patriarch Blue-Ocean whispered, his voice cracking violently in pure, hysterical shock! "He... he drew his blade three inches... and erased a Stage-6 Peak Primordial Fiend..."
"He is... he is the Northern Sovereign!" The second ancestor shrieked softly, slamming his forehead repeatedly onto the cedar planks! "THE MONSTER WHO ERASED THE WESTERN CONTINENT HAS ARRIVED IN THE EAST!"
All three Stage-6 Sovereigns fell onto their knees, bowing frantically toward Li-Wen, trembling like dry leaves in a winter storm!
Li-Wen did not look at the bowing ancestors.
He calmly turned back to the wooden bakery table, picking up the two warm boxes of Star-Sea Cakes in his right hand.
"Xiao-Yue," Li-Wen murmured gently, his raspy voice dropping into its flat, steady tone. "Hold your lamp. The cakes are still warm."
"Okay, Brother Li-Wen!" Xiao-Yue squeaked cheerfully, holding her pink lotus lantern in one hand and taking another big bite of her star cake. "Mmm! It's so sweet!"
Li-Wen held her small frame securely in his left arm, stepping past the three kneeling, trembling Stage-6 Sovereigns, walking calmly down the sunny wooden boardwalk toward the quiet inner islands of the archipelago.
The sun shone brightly overhead, casting a warm golden glow across the emerald lagoon, as the Northern Sovereign walked quietly forward, carrying his world safely in his arms.
See you in next chapter....