A World Worth Protecting

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<em>Their cultivation is an illusion, but they’re living real lives…</em> Wang Baole sighed softly. He couldn’t describe the emotions he was feeling, but he knew that he would do everything he could to prevent the Federation, his home, from falling into a similar state.

<em>There’s nothing worth investigating here anymore. I should get a closer look at the seal… find out if there are other ways to get out of this place.</em> Wang Baole shook his head secretly. He was about to get to his feet and leave when the young woman next to him stood as well. She had a look of confusion on her face as she stared at Wang Baole. After some hesitation, she spoke.

“Fellow Daoist, please wait a moment.”

Wang Baole stopped in his tracks and turned towards the young woman who had spoken to him. He had sensed her gaze on him earlier. Through his Divine Will, he had also sensed something special about the young woman.

There was a strange fire inside her body. It was extremely well hidden. If not for the fact that Wang Baole’s cultivation was almost at the Planet realm and that he was a Dark Child, he wouldn’t have been able to sense the fire at all.

The fire appeared to be a kind of seed. A cultivator who must have been at least at the Planet realm had dispersed it at his moment of death. In fact… Wang Baole believed that this hadn’t been the only seed that the Planet realm cultivator had dispersed.

<em>Some remnant will of the native planet, perhaps?</em> Wang Baole wasn’t particularly interested after his initial glance. The chance of resurrecting oneself through remnants of one’s will was close to zero in the Earth Spirit civilization’s current environment. The only thing such remnants achieved was to allow its hosts to acquire some actual cultivation.

However, environmental constraints put a limit on how much actual cultivation one could get. One could only reach the Core Formation realm in the current environment.

If he weren’t trapped there, Wang Baole might have been interested in chatting with the young woman. However, he wasn’t in the mood for that now. After a brief glance, he spoke coolly.

“We’re not meant to be.” Having said that, he turned away and walked out. The young man called Taizhong, who was seated next to the young woman, sighed a breath of relief when he saw Wang Baole’s reaction. That being said, he had to uphold the pride of the person he liked, so he put a stern look on his face and snorted.

“Stop right there. No one said you could leave!” The young man was clearly used to having his way. He took a step forward as he spoke and made a grab for Wang Baole. But just as his hand was about to land on Wang Baole, he froze suddenly. A look of bewilderment appeared in his eyes as he stood behind Wang Baole. Things returned to normal in the next moment. It was as if he couldn’t see Wang Baole at all. He turned back to his companions, laughing loudly.

“Let’s grab a bite before returning to the sect.” Those words… were the same words that he had uttered earlier when they had first arrived. His repetition of those same utterances should have been a bizarre sight, but no one, including the other customers, the inn master, or his companions, including the young woman with a special fire inside her, showed any hints of confusion or suspicion. It was as if nothing was wrong.

The young man soon sat down, and his fellow disciples began chatting happily again.

“Senior Brother Taizhong, you’ve proven yourself once again…”

Time seemed to have rewound to the point when the five cultivators had first stepped into the inn. Only this time, Wang Baole had stepped out of the busy inn, his solitary silhouette looking lonesome as he walked into the distance.

He wasn’t particularly bothered by what those ordinary people had said. With his level of cultivation and a simple Dark Dream, he could modify the memories of everyone in the inn without their knowledge.

After his silhouette vanished completely from sight, the young woman called Xiuyan, who was seated next to Taizhong, looked up again. She stared into the horizon and at the spot where Wang Baole had disappeared with a slightly lost look in her eyes.

“Junior Sister Xiuyan, what are you looking at?”

“Nothing.” The young woman shook her head and returned to the conversation. Then, subconsciously, without her knowledge, she trembled once.

She also didn’t know that at that same moment, almost a million people across the entire Earth Spirit civilization, in numerous cities as well as the remote wilderness, and of varying levels of cultivation and status, who all looked different from one another, had trembled slightly too.

Wang Baole, who had been walking inside the city and had been prepared to depart, had sensed something at that same moment. His brow creased slightly into a frown, then smoothed out gradually. He ignored the feeling, took a step forward, and entered the abyss, disappearing from the city. When he reappeared again, he was amongst the stars. He wasn’t in the form prior to his reappearance. Instead, his form looked blurry, like a cloud of mist. The mist seemed to melt into the cosmos. Unnoticed by both the naked eye and one’s Divine Sense, it raced silently into the distant cosmos.

The Earth Spirit civilization wasn’t very big. It took Wang Baole only half a day to reach the edge of the civilization. He saw the seal that spanned the edge of the civilization from one end to the other.

Wang Baole morphed from his mist-like form into Long Nanzi again and stared at the honeycombed shape of the seal for a very long time. His brow gradually furrowed into a deep frown. He dared not try to break the seal rashly. He didn’t have a good feeling about the seal.

His Planet realm palm was now useless, and a great number of his Dharmic Battleships were damaged or destroyed. His Emperor Armor had lost most of its spirit energy and was useless now too. Honestly, he didn’t have many tricks up his sleeve at the moment.

After a long bout of silence, Wang Baole sent his Divine Will into his storage bag. Zhao Yameng was sitting inside one of the Dharmic Battleships inside, meditating silently.

Sprawled next to her and snoring loudly was the donkey. As for Little Wu… he was waiting on Zhao Yameng at her side while glancing at her from time to time.

Zhao Yameng opened her eyes a moment after Wang Baole’s Divine Will slipped into the storage bag. Then, with the aid of his Divine Will, she took a look at the seal around the civilization. Little Wu also got a look at it.

“Yameng, help me take a look. See… if there’s any way to break this array formation!”

Wang Baole had told Zhao Yameng what had happened as soon as he had been teleported there. They were in a dangerous position. Even though he could hide his aura because he was in his essence body, Zhao Yameng couldn’t. Her presence might be discovered by the man-made Eternal Star once she left the storage bag. As a result, after discussing it with Zhao Yameng, Wang Baole had decided not to let her out.

With the aid of Wang Baole’s Divine Will, Zhao Yameng examined the array formation in detail. A frown appeared between her delicate brows, and she sighed a moment later.

“This man-made sun is the core of the Violet Gold civilization. The array formation inside the sun was refined by three Eternal Star realm cultivators… Even my master at the Heavenly Spirit Sect wouldn’t be able to break it. Baole, this seal isn’t something that can be broken by us,” Zhao Yameng said softly. She was worried too, now that she knew the predicament Wang Baole was in.

Wang Baole fell silent when he heard her reply. Something flickered in his eyes imperceptibly, and he sent a voice transmission to Little Wu.

“Little Wu, anything you can do about this?”

There was a lost look in Little Wu’s eyes when he heard Wang Baole’s question. Nevertheless, he did his best and pretended that he was giving the question a lot of thought. Finally, he dejectedly shook his head.

Wang Baole gave Little Wu a meaningful look, then ignored him entirely after that. Instead, he stared thoughtfully at the array formation before him. The gears in his head spun furiously. He suddenly pulled out a jade slip from his storage bag.

Xie Haiyang had given him this jade slip. He had told him that Wang Baole could use it to communicate with him while inside the imperial cemetery. Wang Baole had no intention of contacting Xie Haiyang except as a last resort. The three-way deal that Xie Haiyang had made had left a bad taste in Wang Baole’s mouth. That had been why he hadn’t thought once about contacting Xie Haiyang when he had been on the Eternal Star. He held the jade slip up now and stared at it with great reluctance.

<em>This array formation may be powerful, but Xie Haiyang might be able to do something about it with his vast resources! I’ll think of something else if I can’t establish contact with him. Even if I manage to contact Xie Haiyang, if the price he sets is unreasonable, I’ll cut off all ties with him then… If worse comes to the worst, I’ll head for the man-made Eternal Star. The right-hand elder is obviously recuperating inside. I’ll fight to the death in order to kill him. The worst that could happen would be me blowing up my Eternal Star Fire!</em> Determination appeared in Wang Baole’s eyes after a long moment. He sent his Divine Will into the jade slip in his hand and tried to reach out to… Xie Haiyang!

As soon as his Divine Will entered the jade slip, a blinding light erupted from the device. Before Wang Baole could speak, Xie Haiyang’s voice drifted from the jade slip and rang out in Wang Baole’s mind.

“Brother Baole, haha, it’s been a long while since you last contacted me. I was beginning to miss you. I admit that I was in the wrong. Please forgive me. I was wondering if I should send some materials over to you. We’re such good friends, after all. Besides, you’re an important customer of mine.” Xie Haiyang’s voice brimmed with zeal and warmth as it traveled through the jade slip. Despite Wang Baole’s slight disapproval of what Xie Haiyang had done, he couldn’t help but feel slightly appeased.