Chapter 19 - Mortal World

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  Guo Meifeng was momentarily stunned hearing Gu Xuan’s clueless question but in the next second laughed out loud in amusement.

  She continued to laugh her heart out for several seconds.

  Seeing this Gu Xuan had a blank look on his face, a little annoyed.

  She waved her hand as she said, “Sorry, junior brother. You gave the presence of a person who knows a lot, even talking about how I’m unsuitable to be a merchant despite not even having gone out of the Crescent Island even once. I somehow thought that you already knew how you were processing my words as I read the details about the Shadow Wolves Task.”

  “I’m sorry for breaking your impression towards me, senior sister. Can you tell me about the geography of the mortal world right now?” Gu Xuan replied, his voice slightly cold.

  Guo Meifeng didn’t mind his tone, and nodded as she rummaged through her desk again. After a while of looking, her gaze fixed onto a rolled parchment paper and after determining her thoughts, she put it on the table and spread it wide for the whole continent’s map to be visible even for Gu Xuan to see.

  She then rotated the parchment paper for Gu Xuan to be able to read the words.

  “Here’s the map of the continent. As a person with a reclusive personality, junior brother might not even know the name of the continent so I’ll start there.”

  “Um.” He just nodded, his expression relaxed slightly.

  “So, the continent is called, Blue Lotus Continent.”

  “...? Why Blue Lotus?”

  “I’m getting to that part. One day, about a hundred years ago, apparently, countless blue lotuses began to bloom in the clouds.”

  “At first, mortals, and even the four great sects were quite wary about it, but as months passed by, the blue lotus didn’t do anything so no one paid it any further attention and simply lived their lives.”

  “However, a few years later, as if a volcano became active, stones began to fall from the skies, and the source of the stones that fell were from the countless blue lotus that bloomed causing an immense amount of casualties to the mortals.”

  “Because the four great sects are settled in independent islands and because the land isn’t as much as the mortal world, the amount of casualties was still controllable.”

  “The falling stones from the increasingly blooming lotuses from the skies continued for a few years before eventually stopping when mortals started giving up and paying respects by kneeling on the ground towards the heavens, thus, the unknown continent was named to the Blue Lotus Continent.”

  Hearing Guo Meifeng’s story about the origin of the name, Blue Lotus Continent, Gu Xuan analyzed and thought of countless possibilities.

  And after a while, he nodded, ‘Although the falling stones stopped when they paid respects, it was probably just coincidence. As a person who knows about the vastness of the cultivation world, those blooming blue lotuses were probably a martial arts technique of a high-level cultivator. Not only one or two realms higher but probably even more higher than me. They were simply fighting in the distance, as their battle came near the continent, mortals, of course, suffered. It’s not unnatural for heaven-defying existences to fight for hundreds of years, the continent was even lucky to only be caught in the cross-fire somehow, not directly exterminated.’

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Upon having such thoughts, he couldn’t help but shudder, ‘Thankfully, I wasn’t born a hundred years ago or I might not know what killed me if I ever died. Just as I expected, the waters in this world are deep, just unexplored.’

  Gu Xuan’s thoughts were unknown to Guo Meifeng but seeing that he was nodding, she guessed that he understood so he continued, “Now, proceeding, the continent is divided into 4 mortal empires. Starting from the strongest, in the North is the Black Fire Empire with a few million people.”

  ‘A few million?’ Gu Xuan couldn’t help but frown, ‘The Crescent Island was a relatively big island but it only has a population of about 5,000. But now, just one part of the continent has a few million people? Just how big is it?’

  Guo Meifeng nodded at Gu Xuan’s expression. Even her, when she first studied the continent, she was quite surprised. As someone born within the sect, it’s normal to be scared of the number.

  “Next is in the western part of the continent, the White Horse Empire. It has a few hundred thousand people. Although it doesn’t possess as much population compared to Black Fire Empire, it focused on military growth and became comparable to the Black Fire Empire in terms of power.”

  The White Horse empire focused on military prowess so it’s comparable to the Black Fire Empire?

  That was what was written on paper but Gu Xuan had other thoughts, ‘That’s impossible. It’s impossible for a mortal of a few hundred thousand to match a few million in terms of military power. There’s a higher level cultivator guiding the White Horse Empire for sure. Or maybe they have a geographical advantage? but… it’s none of my business, after all, I’ll just be passing by to improve anyway and will not involve myself in meaningless power struggle because I know that I should spend my youth focusing on cultivation.’

  “Then, the last mortal empire, the eastern empire, The Empire of Five Swords.”

  Hearing the last empire’s name, Gu Xuan was relatively surprised but then nodded, “They have a unique martial arts technique?”

  Guo Meifeng was slightly surprised at Gu Xuan’s input but nodded, “Junior brother is really bright. That’s correct. Unlike the Black Fire and White Horse Empire that’s filled with mortals and basic combat teaching to their army, The Empire of Five Swords is a special existence. It began as a group of brother bandits with unique martial arts and some of them even reaching the 2nd layer of Qi Gathering Realm. They simply tried to live making passersby pay fees but over the past decades, they eventually lived a good life so they let poor people pass by, and charge merchants reasonable fees. As for why they aren’t as strong as the previous two empires, it’s because they are small in number with less than a hundred thousand and with the reduction of number, their army makes up with quality.”

  Gu Xuan wasn’t really interested in diving deeper but then noticed something amiss so he asked in curiosity, “What about the south?”

  Guo Meifeng shook her head, “The south has no empire. That’s why we have tasks such as what junior brother has taken. If not, most empires will either recruit those high-level bandits to be a part of them or deal with them, themselves. The southern part of the continent is the most free continent, meaning that it’s also the most chaotic. So in order to make our mortal territory peaceful, the sect deals with the bandits ourselves so that it will be livable to mortals, as well as so we could take in promising disciples from outside but promising disciples these days doesn’t come unlike in the past according to the elders because most of them are average.”

  “Our mortal territory? I see, so our sect is located in the south?”

  “That’s correct, junior brother doesn’t know about the sects as well? The Moonlight Sect’s territory is the South, the Azure Flower Sect in the North, The White Crane Sect in the East, and the Nightfall Sect in the West.”

  “I’ve heard about it before but it never registered since I wasn’t going out of the sect yet at that time.”

  “Is that so? As for the Red Cloud Mountain, it’s in the direction, north of the Blue Cloud City. When a Lower District disciple helps you get off the island later in our sect’s pier, they will drop you off the Blue Cloud City. Would junior brother like a copy of the map?”

  After thinking about it, Gu Xuan shook his head, “That’s unnecessary, I'd like to get a copy outside myself if I need to so that the journey will be more interesting. But thank you, senior sister, for telling me so much.”

  “You’re welcome, junior brother.” Guo Meifeng replied with a slight smile on her face.

  “Then, I’ll excuse myself, senior sister. I’ll see you in a year.”

  “I’ve already said this before but I’ll say it again, be careful on your travels, junior brother.”

  Gu Xuan no longer thanked after all, he had already thanked her once.

  After nodding to her, Gu Xuan walked out of the Mission Hall, this time, he will go off the island.

  The mortal world was far larger than he thought, and it was only in some continent that struggled to produce cultivators.

  Just by the fact that a country-side continent was already so big, the world was most likely so vast that Gu Xuan was sure that even if he lived for tens of thousands of years or even millions of years, he wouldn’t be able to see everything.

  But that’s a thought for another time, this time, he will focus on seeing what’s in front of him. What’s the point of thinking so much about the future that has yet to come?

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