Chapter 137: Revisiting Qingguang Island

Chen Mobai put down the notebook he was holding. His mind remained restless for a long time. After a long while, he solemnly stood up, cupped his hands, and bowed towards the direction of the Grand Void Temple, performing a Tianhe Realm salute.

Although Liu Zengpei was a stranger to him, if Chen Mobai were to achieve anything significant in the future, he must not forget this person's kindness.

"Is this turtle shell from the Tianhe Realm, or was it originally on Diyuan Star?" Chen Mobai picked up the turtle shell that had been pressing down on his talismans. To anyone, it looked like a perfectly ordinary object, devoid of any spiritual energy. This was precisely why Liu Zengpei, despite having kept this "treasure" for fifty years, never realized it was this very shell that allowed him to travel between the two realms.

Chen Mobai couldn't figure it out. The only thing he was sure of was that the Grand Void Temple was definitely not simple. Or perhaps the statue of the Grand Void True God was an incarnation of a powerful being?

However, with Liu Zengpei's example as a lesson, Chen Mobai knew that if a treasure was unwilling to reveal itself to you, you wouldn't gain any serendipitous encounter even if you held it for decades. Ultimately, one still needed to be powerful oneself.

With this thought, Chen Mobai picked up Liu Zengpei's last notebook. It didn't contain his diary entries; instead, it held his insights on cultivating the "Black Water Art." Although Liu Zengpei had purchased many cultivation techniques and spells printed and sold in the immortal sect markets, his foundation was already established, so he didn't switch to other practices. He had always cultivated this Qi-refinement technique from the Five Elements Sect.

After reading through it, Chen Mobai gained considerable insight. Although he hadn't switched to cultivating the "Black Water Art" itself, he had thoroughly practiced the spells associated with this technique. He considered himself to have made some progress, but compared to Liu Zengpei, who had immersed himself in it his entire life, Chen Mobai had only just begun.

Chen Mobai gained immensely from reading Liu Zengpei's insights into the Black Water spell system. He felt that if he were to fight Yang Jing again now, he could win much more easily.

However, these were not the greatest gains. This notebook unexpectedly contained the methods for setting up and breaking the "Ren Water Thunder Array" restrictions. With this, upon returning to the water mansion, Chen Mobai wouldn't need to use the Tier 2 Yimu Divine Thunder Talisman to easily open the remaining two side halls. He just wondered what exactly Liu Zengpei had left inside.

Liu Zengpei surely wouldn't have imagined that decades later, Chen Mobai would inherit his turtle shell and water mansion. But perhaps it was destiny that he had left behind the method to break the Ren Water Thunder Array restrictions in his notes.

Chen Mobai looked it over and found that it required "Black Water" to be cast, which he happened to possess. The method for breaking it would require some practice, which might take a while. Since he had nothing else pressing to do recently, he decided to practice it first.

It was time to return to the Tianhe Realm to check. If the demon beast siege on the island had ended, he would leave Qingguang Island and go back to the water mansion. Thinking this, Chen Mobai decided to go to the Tianhe Realm tonight to assess the situation.

After dinner, he returned to his room, carefully placed the turtle shell under his pillow, then opened his phone and, after a long time, clicked "teleport." A silver light flashed, and after a month's absence, he finally returned to the Tianhe Realm.

But as soon as he returned, Chen Mobai sensed something was wrong. The entrance to the tunnel he had dug was blocked. His expression subtly changed. Chen Mobai switched to combat mode, with his talisman needle box in hand, and cautiously moved aside the wooden planks and dirt blocking the entrance, piece by piece. After about half an hour, he finally saw the light of day again.

After waiting for a while and confirming there was no danger, Chen Mobai poked his head out. He looked around, and his expression changed drastically. His wooden house had collapsed, and he didn't know what kind of battle aftermath it had endured. It was precisely this collapse that had blocked the tunnel entrance he had dug.

Chen Mobai became even more cautious. After clearing the debris from the entrance, he emerged and looked outside. The sight was even more shocking. The wooden market stalls that had lined the island were now largely collapsed and shattered. The entire Qingguang Island looked as if it had been ravaged by a giant monster, with the highest peak of the island bitten away, leaving a massive gap.

The once bustling streets were now fragmented and covered in battle scars. He saw many mangled demon beast corpses, but no human remains.

Reaching a high vantage point, he looked out. Several of the spirit trees forming the "Heavenly Wood Divine Light Array," which should have been visible, were broken. Some had been directly uprooted and turned into charred wood.

Chen Mobai took out his phone and checked the remaining spiritual energy concentration on the island; it was only 1 point.

"What a tragic battle this must have been." When Chen Mobai had teamed up with Qi Rui, he had heard the latter say that as long as Qingguang Island's spirit vein remained, the Heavenly Wood Divine Light Array could continuously draw spiritual energy from it to protect the entire island. But now, it was clear that the entire Qingguang Island's spirit vein had been depleted during the fierce battle. Such a destructive act, like draining a pond to catch fish, would not be undertaken by even Tianhe Realm cultivators unless absolutely necessary. After all, Qingguang Island had been managed by the Divine Wood Sect for decades, and cultivating the island's spirit vein had cost tens of thousands of spirit stones. Unless it was a desperate, life-or-death situation, they definitely wouldn't have resorted to such a drastic measure, draining it to the roots.

Chen Mobai used a Wayfinding Talisman, which could locate areas with the strongest spiritual energy. He quietly followed, arriving at the highest point of Qingguang Island, the peak that looked as if a giant beast had gnawed at it. Looking around, he found it had turned into scorched earth. He walked to what appeared to be the site of the final battle, where the teleportation array was located.

Chen Mobai saw even more horrific signs of battle. The ground was littered with ashes of used talismans, shattered magical artifacts, and empty porcelain bottles for elixirs. The earth had turned dark red, yet there were no corpses.

He approached the collapsed and breached teleportation array hall. Innumerable streams of blood seeped out, staining half the hillside red.

Chen Mobai gritted his teeth and turned towards the west bank, which his squad had previously guarded. The array flag spirit trees were broken, devoid of all spiritual light, and lay withered on the cliff. Traces of battle were visible here as well, and it was precisely here that Chen Mobai discovered why there were no bodies.

On the distant sea surface, dozens of Black Plague Birds with blood-red eyes floated, gnawing on the bodies of cultivators submerged in the water. It seemed that after Qingguang Island was breached, the demon beasts had swarmed in, treating the cultivators' bodies as food.

He wondered how many people had escaped through the teleportation array. Were there any surviving cultivators elsewhere on the island? Were the members of his own squad still alive?

As Chen Mobai pondered, he crouched down on the cliff to avoid attracting the attention of the Black Plague Birds. He dared not stay long. After using a cleansing spell to eliminate all scent from his body, he returned the way he came, into the underground tunnel of his wooden house. After covering it up again, he returned to Diyuan Star with a heavy heart.