LABMY CH126

On the Ninefold Continent, there was a mysterious location that had been circulating for a hundred years. It was only a century ago that this place suddenly became known, yet for a full century, the six major forces united and strictly forbade anyone from going there.

This was the first time the six great forces had been so unanimous in reaching the same decision on a matter, which alone was enough to spark the curiosity of everyone on the Ninefold Continent. Not to mention, the place had such a peculiar name that one might doubt if they had misheard it.

That place was called the Warrior’s Sect.

Even a hundred years later, it was still prohibited for cultivators above the Earth Immortal level to enter.

Driven by immense curiosity, as soon as the century-long prohibition ended, the first batch of cultivators at the Mortal Immortal and Earth Immortal levels rushed to the Warrior’s Sect.

Setting off from the territory of Immortal Spirit Island, there was a ship designated for transport. In reality, with the strength of Mortal Immortals and Earth Immortals, they could travel thousands of miles in a single step without needing a boat.

However, to prevent anyone from sneaking over, the Sea of Falling Waters had become a true embodiment of its name—aside from Immortal Emperors, any other cultivator who set foot in the Sea of Falling Waters would have their spiritual energy come to a halt and sink straight to the seabed.

Even attempting to fly over it would grant them firsthand experience of what it meant to plummet from the sky.

Thus, at this moment, the existence of the boat became particularly necessary.

The cultivators waiting on the shore of Immortal Spirit Island had initially assumed that the boat was provided by the island itself. However, when they heard from the island’s people that it was arranged by the Warrior’s Sect, they were a bit surprised.

Filled with curiosity, they waited for a while until a boat finally arrived, floating upon the sea. The vessel was not large, only capable of carrying fifty cultivators at a time.

Yet, there were at least several hundred cultivators gathered here.

Immediately, some expressed their dissatisfaction.

“A boat this small—who is it even supposed to fit? What kind of stingy place is this Warrior’s Sect?”

“Are we seriously expected to wait?”

“A place that was forbidden for a century, and now that it’s open, they only provide such a tiny boat?”

“Seeing how small this boat is, I’m starting to doubt if there are actually any treasures over there.”

Amid the noisy complaints, the boatman stepped out from the vessel.

For a moment, the crowd fell silent—not for any particular reason other than the fact that a three-meter-tall giant had just walked out of a small boat. It was enough to shock anyone.

Especially since the boat wasn’t particularly tall to begin with. The giant’s presence made the cabin door seem even smaller. In that instant, the cultivators at the scene vaguely understood why the place was called the Warrior’s Sect.

The massive, muscular man spoke. “Line up to board the boat. Only fifty people per day.”

Upon seeing that the burly boatman’s cultivation was actually below the Mortal Immortal level, many cultivators did not take him seriously.

“You say fifty, so it has to be fifty? Why don’t you just make more trips?”

“Yeah, what’s up with your faction?”

The giant remained silent, simply watching them bicker. When someone attempted to push past the others and board the boat first, he swiftly raised his oar and struck the person down with a loud swoosh.

That cultivator was an Earth Immortal. The oar in the boatman’s hand glowed with golden light. That single strike was enough to shock most of the crowd. Only then did the muscular boatman speak in his deep voice, “Line up, or you don’t board.”

The crowd obediently formed a queue. However, at the fiftieth spot, a man and a woman were separated, with the man boarding first. When the boatman saw that the limit had been reached, he immediately rowed the boat forward.

Despite only lightly stirring the water, the boat instantly traveled over a thousand meters.

The male cultivator became upset. “Didn’t you see that my friend was still back there?”

“We came together! Now that I’m already on board, how can I just leave her behind?”

The boatman responded in his deep voice, “Apologies. The limit is fifty passengers. If more people board, the boat will sink.”

The male cultivator sneered. “You think it’ll sink just because you say so? How about this—row back, pick up my friend, and then you can step off. That way, the number will still be fifty.”

The boatman ignored him, but the male cultivator refused to let it go, even preparing to take action. The burly boatman suddenly turned around and shot him a look.

Even though the male cultivator had a higher cultivation level, the sheer size and presence of the boatman made him instinctively take a step back.

Realizing what he had just done, the male cultivator felt humiliated. Gathering spiritual energy in his hands, he was just about to attack when the boatman spoke.

“In that case, you can go back and accompany her.”

A golden light flashed from the boat, and the male cultivator let out a miserable cry as he fell into the sea. He had assumed his spiritual energy would stagnate and that he would sink, but to his surprise, he was instantly sent back to the shore of Immortal Spirit Island.

None of the passengers on the boat had even seen how the boatman had done it. Their gazes toward him turned wary.

In truth, however, only the boatman himself knew that it wasn’t his doing. It was the work of this boat—modified by the Sect Master of the Wangyun Sect and imbued with layers upon layers of restrictions.

The seemingly endless Sea of Falling Waters was crossed in just half a stick of incense’s time with the movement of a single oar.

When the cultivators disembarked at the Warrior’s Sect and stepped into the city gate, they finally understood what true astonishment felt like.

In the city, every man and woman stood three meters tall, with well-developed muscles. Even through their clothes, the bulging muscles beneath were apparent, as if about to burst through the fabric. Veins protruded from the backs of their hands.

The cultivators stepping into Warriors’ Sect for the first time widened their eyes in shock, finally understanding the true meaning behind its name.

A city filled with muscular figures—this was what it meant to be a “Warrior'”. No matter which part of the city one walked into, the sight was the same, leaving the cultivators from the other side of the sea utterly stunned.

At first, they had thought the name “Warriors’ Sect” was unbearably crude and sounded awful, but upon witnessing the reality, they not only understood but even praised it.

Even the female cultivators here had muscles that seemed capable of bending a willow tree backward. Truly, this was Warriors’ Sect.

This also led to an odd phenomenon—whenever they spotted someone with a normal physique, they instinctively assumed that the person was also from the other side of the sea.

In reality, the female cultivators of the Warriors’ Sect could retract their muscles at will. Because the Body Refining Art was an extremely yang-oriented and forceful cultivation method, men, being naturally of the yang attribute, underwent irreversible bodily changes upon cultivating it.

Women, however, were different. Since they were naturally of the yin attribute, Jian Yuanbai had managed to create a special fusion between the extremely yang Body Refining Art and the yin essence of women. This resulted in a unique version of the technique for female cultivators.

When they didn’t use spiritual energy to cover their entire bodies, the exaggerated bulging muscles would return to a normal level. This change had originated from an incident where Jian Yuanbai once saw a female disciple of Wangyun Sect practicing the Body Refining Art, crying bitterly because of how grotesquely swollen her muscles had become.

At that moment, Jian Yuanbai felt an immediate sense of kinship—he deeply understood the feeling of not wanting a wife who looked like a brawny brute.

For men, being of the yang attribute, there was nothing he could do, but for women, there was room for adjustments.

After locking himself in the library for two months and undergoing yet another tribulation, Jian Yuanbai successfully modified the Body Refining Art into a special version tailored for female cultivators.

He and Mu Jingzhuo had originally assumed that, after this change, a great number of female cultivators would immediately restore their normal physiques. However, after spending so much time in their muscular forms, the majority had unconsciously grown accustomed to it. In fact, they even chose to maintain their muscular state by continuously covering their bodies with spiritual energy, even when they weren’t training or fighting.

Initially, they had found their bulging muscles hideous, so hideous that just looking at them made them want to cry. But after adapting over a long period—and given that everyone else looked the same—it no longer seemed ugly.

As the saying goes, if everyone is ugly, then ugly becomes the new beauty.

Moreover, the constant control over their spiritual energy refined their mastery of it, creating a positive cycle of growth.

Over a hundred years, Mu Jingzhuo often found himself wondering if he, too, should start practicing the Body Refining Art. Each time, Jian Yuanbai, feeling an ominous premonition, would drag him in disguise to the other side of the sea to see the world beyond the Warriors’ Sect.

And after a hundred years had passed, once Jian Yuanbai was certain that the Warriors’ Sect could keep the cultivators from the sea in check and prevent any major disturbances, he and Mu Jingzhuo began traveling through the vast world beyond.

Together, they experienced many things, even encountering the phoenix that had once schemed against Jian Yuanbai. However, by the time they came across it, all they saw was its lifeless corpse.

Mu Jingzhuo had initially thought that, on the other side of the sea, he could start anew as a man with no dark history, pure and untarnished. But Jian Yuanbai used his strength to show him what a pipe dream that was.

During their travels, they often heard complaints about Warriors’ Sect’s strict rule—only fifty people could board the boat at a time, and it only set sail once a month. However, these restrictions were set for the benefit of the Warriors’ Sect itself.

Cultivation was arduous. Even with an abundance of spiritual energy and a heaven-grade cultivation technique like the Body Refining Art, it was impossible to reach the peak in just a hundred years.

For an average person, it took fifty years to form a Nascent Soul, a hundred years to reach the Divine Transformation stage, another hundred years to ascend to the Mahayana stage, and yet another hundred years to become an Earth Immortal. In total, from the Golden Core stage to stepping into the ranks of immortals, it required over three hundred years.

In the realm of cultivation, Mu Jingzhuo, in some ways, had gained an influence not inferior to Jian Yuanbai. His achievements were legendary within the Warriors’ Sect—ten years to reach Divine Transformation, another ten years to reach Mahayana, and another ten to step into the ranks of immortals. By the time a hundred years had passed, he had already attained the Great Luo Golden Immortal stage.

Yet, despite his staggering progress, he never participated in any cultivation exchanges.

To this, Mu Jingzhuo could only sneer.

Others only saw him rise from the Golden Core stage to the Great Golden Immortal stage in a hundred years. No one—absolutely no one—knew what he had gone through.

And he could never bring himself to talk about it.

After digging himself a pit and setting a ten-year period of seclusion for intense cultivation, Mu Jingzhuo had attempted to escape on the third day, only to be caught by Jian Yuanbai.

The supposedly insecure and pitiful Sect Master Jian clung to him, asking in a sorrowful voice, “Do you hate me already after just ten years?” And then he vividly and thoroughly taught Mu Jingzhuo what it meant to trade three days for three years, what it meant to be the ultimate swindler.

Whenever Mu Jingzhuo recalled those days, his face would still turn red.

In this world, both of their lifespans were exceptionally long, yet even after attaining the strength of an Immortal Sovereign, Mu Jingzhuo only remained by Jian Yuanbai’s side for a thousand years. A thousand years of life—for an Immortal Sovereign, that was as fleeting as ten years for a mortal. For any Immortal Sovereign, it was unthinkable.

A thousand years passed in the blink of an eye. When Jian Yuanbai finally regained his memories, he said nothing—only held the gradually cooling body in his arms a little tighter, kissed the still beautiful and delicate face of his young-looking dragon wife, and closed his eyes alongside him.

Wait for me.

I will find you again.

And we will fall in love once more.