Demon Sword Sect’s Undercover
Chapter 321 - 321 320 Living in Peace

321: Chapter 320: Living in Peace 321: Chapter 320: Living in Peace This face was hideously ugly, fierce bright as lightning, as though it would leap out of the water the next moment to pounce.

But Hou Niao didn’t draw his sword, he just steadily watched it.

Behind that ferocious face was a battered body, some parts even revealing fish bones.

One must admit the vitality of the Demon Clan, creatures like these Sea Demons, no matter how seriously wounded, as long as they were still in the sea, they would not die.

After a long while, Hou Niao slowly floated up, quietly flying towards Crab Claw Island.

This was a Red Chi, a rather noble breed among the Sea Demons, resembling a fish with a human face and a voice like mandarin ducks; its habitat should be in the deep sea, yet it was unknown why it came to the shallow sea, and also got so severely wounded.

On the return journey, he took out the Jade Scroll describing Sea Demons, carefully examining the habits of the Red Chi, and then he understood something.

Red Chi spawned once every hundred years; during this period, it would swim to the warmer waters of the shallow sea, which was more conducive to the growth of the fry; this process was very lengthy, lasting decades.

The fry grew up in the ocean, and most of the thousands and thousands of fry would die in all sorts of accidents—currents, attacks from marine creatures, falling behind, and so on—eventually only a few grew to maturity, then returned to the deep sea with their mother, which was another round of survival of the fittest among the Demon Clan.

There were jungle rules on land, and marine rules in the ocean; nowhere was a carefree paradise.

This injured Red Chi was just such a mother, a Sea Demon who had achieved the Demon Core, somewhat akin to the Ghost King of West Mang Mountain in terms of realm, but now Hou Niao was no longer a novice, nor did he need to fear it.

He departed, simply wishing to give creatures a way out; in truth, these marine creatures were the real masters here, with humans being the intruders.

What the Red Chi swallowed was not some food, but its own offspring.

As for whether to help this Red Chi, he had no experience in such matters, nor did he think the Red Chi would readily accept his help, fundamentally speaking, both were Cultivation Creatures, sharing the common trait of all Cultivation Creatures—guarding against everything.

Leave luck to the Heavenly Dao, life to nature.

Hou Niao continued his Cultivation, gradually expanding the radius of his flights around Crab Island as time went by, visiting the islands Duanmu Chai had mentioned one by one during this process.

Mainly to get acquainted, exchanging a few courteous word of long admiration, putting up a few inconsequential shows and then leaving; just as he disliked being unduly disturbed during his own Cultivation, so did other Cultivators.

At their level, relationships required life-and-death experiences to develop; Duanmu Chai had merely provided a start, how far it could go depended entirely on oneself.

Apart from continuing his Cultivation, he resumed his journey with nature, frolicking with seabirds, even going underwater with fish; of course, he did not dare dive too deep, sticking to the shallower areas around Crab Claw Island.

In this process, he actually got to play with the increasingly few little Red Chi as they yet did not understand the dangers and deceptions of the world.

Initially, the Red Chi resisted, but gradually it also accepted his presence, yet so far, person and demon had not exchanged thoughts, with the Red Chi showing no intention and him having no further requirement.

Both were wary of being exploited, thus maintaining a safe distance.

Hou Niao’s thought was simple, sea, land, and air were all environments Cultivators would encounter; humans were more adept on land, but when your realm advanced, some things became involuntary, learning from birds and fish in the sea was his attitude, essentially learning from nature.

A year later, he felt that he had achieved the initial purpose of his cultivation.

The Sword Control Technique had become instinctive during the relentless flying; no longer would he face any hesitation when drawing his sword.

The Earth Element Technique had made some achievements, allowing him to transfer the vibrations caused during tunneling smoothly to the omnipresent plants around him, according to the maximum extent of his current cultivation.

Especially on Crab Claw Island, he had formed his own Thousand-Mile Earth Map.

He could assert that unless someone was also proficient in earth tunneling and had a cultivation far superior to his, no one could possibly pull him out from the ground.

His precise control over the flying sword had shown preliminary progress, and it was no longer a matter of sending a sword out where sword trace depended seventy percent on control and thirty percent on luck.

There was also his Natural Dao Body, Shape-following Sword, Ram Horn Technique…

When all these combined, he knew that his cultivation might enter a slow lane of meticulous refinement next, with the remaining path requiring more time for contemplation.

Once again, this confirmed one thing – he apparently was not the so-called cultivation genius, was he?

It was time, time to start the real purpose for which he had chosen this place, the Three Night Thunder Law Regular.

On this particular day, he traveled directly west by Sword Control; the sky was murky, with a storm approaching.

The Thunder Triangle was a sea known for its harsh environment, formed south of the Purple Coral reefs, northwest of the Big Slope Trench, and southeast of the Nameless Desolate Island, spanning a thousand miles vertically and horizontally.

Due to the complex terrain on the seabed, this area was plagued by giant waves and frequent tsunamis year-round; clouds were thick, and thunder and lightning ravaged the skies.

Especially during the four or five months of winter, with twenty days of lightning and thunder out of every thirty, it was hence known as the Thunder Triangle.

Such a uniquely harsh environment deterred even cultivators from entering, and for those at the Tongtian realm, unlucky encounters with direct strikes by thunder could lead to injury, disability, or even death.

Out at sea, where spaces were broad and empty, any object could potentially become a target for lightning strikes, more so the higher one flew unless one soared above the storm clouds.

Hou Niao was waiting precisely for winter to come, and three hundred miles of sea travel also didn’t count for much to him.

Within the Thunder Triangle, devoid of islands or reefs, one could only fly, which brought significant danger to cultivators.

He never thought of flying directly into the core depths of the Thunder Triangle; for his current self, the edge of the Thunder Triangle near the Purple Coral area was a more suitable place for a novice’s cultivation initiation.

Several hours later, he had arrived at the Purple Coral area.

Here, the coral reefs were scattered like stars in the sky, and it was the last foothold before entering the Thunder Triangle.

The sky was dark, clouds hung low, and with thunder rumbling intermittently, only occasional flashes of lightning allowed glimpses of the coral reefs beneath his feet.

This was a wide expanse of coral sea reef, stretching hundreds of miles in length and dozens in width, with most hidden under the surface of the water, only a very few emerging above the sea level — his landing spots.

He kept his flying height extremely low, fearful that a careless mistake might end up attracting a deadly lightning strike instead of facilitating his thunder cultivation.

The lower altitude allowed him to see more clearly, but his field of vision was also greatly limited.

It took him a whole day to find a relatively suitable reef platform.

On the strangely shaped coral peaks, Hou Niao found himself a somewhat flatter area; whether or not he could successfully attract lightning into his technique would depend on his Qi Fortune this time.