"What does it matter if you lose a little face for everyone's safety? That senior casually gifted you such a precious treasure as Dream Incense. If we go back and build a better relationship with him, we might even obtain more treasures."
Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm pouted, sounding a little expectant.
"Forget it, let's go and look somewhere else. Didn't you say earlier that this is the Ancient Desolate Sea, a famously Forbidden Land? Since we've entered, we shouldn't keep thinking about hiding in one spot. We should seize this opportunity to explore and search for treasures properly."
Ye Yunfei said with a laugh.
For the time that followed, Ye Yunfei continued forward. No matter where he reached, torrents of massive waves containing terrifying power would come rolling and crashing towards him from all sides. Ye Yunfei continuously swung his fists, shattering the waves that surged towards him, swallowing Divine Pills specifically meant for replenishing stamina at regular intervals.
With his realm advancement, Ye Yunfei's strength in various aspects had improved somewhat, so dealing with those waves had become a bit easier than before.
"Be careful. There seems to be a very terrifying aura of danger ahead," Hun Lao suddenly said to Ye Yunfei.
Even before Hun Lao finished speaking, Ye Yunfei's feet halted—he had already stopped long ago.
This was because Ye Yunfei had also sensed it. On the sea surface of a stretch of ocean ahead, wisps of eerie black mist drifted everywhere, and an indescribably immense aura of peril quietly pervaded the water.
In this particular stretch of sea, there were none of the gigantic waves seen in other areas. At a glance, it was utterly calm, with no sea breeze, no ripples marring the sea's surface. It looked like a huge, smooth mirror, except this smooth mirror was covered with strands of black mist.
"Let's take a detour," Ye Yunfei said, looking at the eerie sea ahead and feeling as if he was having difficulty breathing. He swiftly retreated at his fastest speed.
Right at that moment.
Splash…
At a certain spot in that eerie sea ahead, a black mountain peak slowly began to rise from the seawater.
Then Ye Yunfei saw that on that black mountain peak were two enormous, bizarre eyeballs.
These two eyeballs appeared completely pale, a deathly white laced with black threads.
As the black mountain peak continued to ascend, Ye Yunfei soon realized what it was: the head of a Jiao dragon.
The entire head of this Jiao dragon was jet-black; from a distance, it looked like a black hole.
"That's not right. This Jiao dragon has no life force left. It's a Jiao dragon corpse, not a living one," Huang Shang suddenly spoke up.
"A Jiao dragon corpse?" Ye Yunfei was startled upon hearing Huang Shang's words.
"Yes. This Jiao dragon is saturated with intense corpse energy. Moreover, because its corpse energy is too terrifyingly powerful, condensed and not dissipating, we couldn't sense it immediately. I suspect this Jiao dragon corpse was refined by some expert in corpse refinement," Huang Shang said with a grave expression.
"Regardless, this Jiao dragon is extremely fearsome. Let's just avoid it," Ye Yunfei said.
Ye Yunfei continuously retreated, putting distance between himself and that eerie stretch of sea, then changed course to go around it.
Ye Yunfei understood: anything that could make him feel such terrifying pressure probably meant that Jiao dragon's strength surpassed even that of a Heavenly God. If a fight broke out, he would most likely not be a match.
After making a wide detour around the eerie sea, Ye Yunfei continued onward.
Suddenly…
Rumble…
An earth-shaking roar came from a stretch of ocean ahead. The seawater in that area began to churn and surge violently. The waves already present there grew even more frenzied, thousand-zhang-high waves cascading backwards into the sky. The sea surface and the air above were thrown into complete turmoil.
The space above the sea was struck and constantly cracked apart by the waves carrying terrible force, resulting in black, gaping spatial fissures that spread out like spiderwebs.
Then Ye Yunfei saw, amidst the thousand-meter-high waves, a red coffin swiftly traveling through them.
The coffin was immense. Eight creatures, each a hundred zhang tall, completely pitch-black with pointed heads, bulging bellies, and crimson eyes, worked together to carry the red coffin as they strode across the sea surface in great strides.
Wherever these eight giant creatures passed, dark whirlwinds immediately rose around them, emitting eerie, howling cries that stung the ears and terrified the heart.
The eight monsters carried the massive red coffin, quickly running off in one direction.
Seeing this, Ye Yunfei immediately stopped.
"What kind of monsters are those? Too terrifying! Just the aura they emit makes it impossible for us to get close," Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm couldn't help but say.
"If I'm not mistaken, those eight should be the legendary Yasha Deities, a rare race. It's said the Yasha Deity race doesn't need to cultivate; they naturally become gods upon reaching adulthood. They are a race with extraordinarily formidable overall strength," Hun Lao explained.
"For eight Yasha Deities to carry a coffin together, the owner of that coffin must be of immensely noble status. Such an existence is not one we can afford to provoke," Hun Lao added.
Ye Yunfei hurriedly stayed where he was.
Some time later, the eight Yasha Deities in the distance had carried the large red coffin until it disappeared from sight over the sea's horizon. Only after that stretch of sea had returned to calm did Ye Yunfei dare to continue forward.
But just moments later…
Rumble…
An earth-shattering roar came from a stretch of sea in another direction. That area was thrown into complete turmoil, thousand-zhang waves crashing against the sky, heaven shook and earth quaked, seawater surged upwards as if it were the end of the world.
Then Ye Yunfei saw a dozen or so creatures clad in long white robes swaying and drifting along.
These dozen or so creatures had faces as pale as paper. They wore tall, pointed hats made from white paper, and the shoes on their feet also appeared to be made of white paper. They looked like a dozen paper dolls crafted from white paper—extremely bizarre.
These dozen creatures carried a white coffin. The white coffin wasn't particularly large and seemed very light, as if a gust of wind could blow it away.
But wherever the white coffin carried by these creatures passed, the sea surface instantly boiled, and the world was plunged into a state of utter chaos.
"What's going on? First, we saw one coffin, now another. This is too unlucky," Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm said.
Ye Yunfei immediately halted.
Even though the white coffin seemed light and flimsy from a distance—as if a poke from a finger could puncture it—the aura it emitted made Ye Yunfei feel immense pressure.
This was, after all, the Ancient Desolate Sea. Nothing that existed here was simple, and Ye Yunfei had no desire to provoke it.
After a while, the dozen creatures carrying the white coffin disappeared into the distant sea, and that stretch of ocean gradually began to calm. Only then did Ye Yunfei dare to continue forward.
But after a while, Ye Yunfei saw four giants carrying a stone coffin, running in huge strides across the sea surface. Each step the giants took caused the sea surface to deeply depress and the seawater to boil violently.
"What in the world is happening? We've seen three coffins in a row now, and all three look so bizarre. This is far too unlucky," Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm couldn't help but exclaim.
"Look! Over there's another coffin! It looks like it's made of gold. Could it be Chaos True Gold? That's a premium treasure for forging artifacts. A golden coffin that large must require an immense amount of Chaos True Gold. That's a rare treasure indeed!" Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm suddenly pointed in a direction and cried out in astonishment.
On the sea in that direction, there was indeed a coffin with a body of dazzling gold. The coffin emitted a brilliant golden radiance, illuminating that stretch of sea in a golden glow.
Three golden horses with wings pulled the golden coffin as they galloped swiftly forward across the sea surface.
On the back of one of the golden horses sat a small, golden figure.
"It looks like a member of the Celestial Gold Race!" Ye Yunfei's gaze sharpened as he looked at the small golden figure on the horse's back.
The 'Transform Body into Artifact' secret art that Ye Yunfei cultivated was obtained from the Celestial Gold Race, so he shared a deep friendship with them.
Later, several elders of the Celestial Gold Race took their clansmen and returned to their Mother World. They had sent no news ever since. Ye Yunfei hadn't expected to see a Celestial Gold Race member here.
"This is the Ancient Desolate Sea. Even though you have ties with the Celestial Gold Race, this powerful Celestial Gold Race member doesn't know you. And from the looks of it, he's merely helping to pull the coffin. The aura emanating from that coffin is so terrifying; it must certainly contain a being of overwhelming power inside. So, don't try to greet him," Hun Lao immediately reminded Ye Yunfei just as he was about to impulsively call out to the Celestial Gold Race member.
"Right. This is the Ancient Desolate Sea. Every being here could be incredibly powerful. I'd better mind my own business," Ye Yunfei nodded in agreement upon hearing Hun Lao's words.
Moments later, the three golden horses pulling the golden coffin also disappeared into the distant sea.
For the time that followed, Ye Yunfei saw coffins of all sorts.
"Have you noticed? These coffins all seem to be heading in the same direction. How strange. What in the world is going on?" Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm spoke up.
"Yes, those coffins do appear to be heading in the same direction. But let's not get involved. Every owner of those coffins is someone we cannot afford to provoke," Hun Lao said.
"We've been traveling for so long and still haven't found a place to settle. I think we should just turn back. The senior from before treated us well. Let's rest on that little island instead of wandering around this Ancient Desolate Sea. These places always make me feel uneasy," Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm suggested.
"Let's keep going for a bit longer. If we still can't find a place to rest, then we'll turn back and swallow our pride to go rest on that little island again," Ye Yunfei thought for a moment before replying.
In truth, Ye Yunfei also didn't want to wander aimlessly through this Ancient Desolate Sea. The key point was that this place was too bizarre, and he could run into some terrifying existence he couldn't handle at any moment.
If he continued wandering around recklessly like this, he might provoke some fearsome being he couldn't afford to offend, and then he'd be in serious trouble.
"Look! There's what seems to be a rather large island over there!"
Right at that moment, Golden-Horned Dragon Silkworm suddenly pointed towards the distant horizon where water met sky and cried out joyfully.
Ye Yunfei's gaze followed, and he immediately saw an island at that location, and its scale seemed quite substantial.
"Excellent. Let's go take a look."
Without hesitation, Ye Yunfei immediately sped up and charged in that direction.