Chapter 285

  Moon Lake (XI)

  Was I getting a rundown of the 'top ten known prodigies'? Of course I was.

  "There was actually the change in the tenth ranking just recently, when Shi Fen managed to defeat..."

  It was a long hour, suffice to say.

  Of the 'top ten' kiddos battling away for the ranking, only one didn't belong to any of the Holy Lands: number 2, Xiong De, a vagrant cultivator who is rumored to have inherited some or another ancient art in some or another ancient tomb.

  All other members belonged to the Holy Lands.

  Do I truly think that these are the actual top strongest kids in their age range? Doubtful. Though, the way Wei talked about the number one sounded like he really might be the strongest, as his stories reminded me a lot of protagonist aura.

  Nobody knows his name, just that he appeared out of nowhere under the banner of Buddhism and has not lost a single duel since then. Not just against his generation, but even some of the more senior cultivators of the world.

  The story went that the Eastern Monks found the boy as a babe, wrapped in a tattered yet beautiful blanket. When they picked up the child, the heavens rumbled and a streak of rainbow lights appeared above them, bathing the world in glamor.

  The kid went on to begin cultivating at the mere age of two, reaching Foundation Establishment by nine. He was fourteen when he supposedly broke into the Spirit Manifestation Realm. And now, a decade on, he was in his mid-twenties and in the same realm as I, the Revolving Core Realm.

  It had all the hallmarks of a protagonist but also the stepping stone of one--I mean, his story sounded less like a story of struggle and fighting against the current and more like he was just... given everything and did the best of it.

  But, honestly, how much of Wei's words can I even trust?

  One of the first things he yapped about was how there were rumors that the sixth-ranked Liao Yan and the eighth-ranked Long Mu were star-crossed lovers whose sects had been warring for centuries. Proof of that?

  There was none.

  He just 'heard it' someplace.

  Which meant literally nothing.

  It was slightly interesting, however, to take a glimpse of a world beyond my little sanctuary. Though I've wandered and seen quite a few things by now, I was still wholly ignorant of the world at large, truth be told. I don't even know precisely how many Holy Lands there are, but that's not on me; it seems that not even the world itself knows just how many there are.

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  At least five seem to be in everyone's lists: Heavenly Star Sect, Soul Sanctuary, Immortal Spear Sect, Immortal Sword Haven Sect, and Void Ascension Sect.

  But there's also like eight others that dip in and out of people's rankings, so... ugh, whatever. Let them sort it out--it has nothing to do with me.

  As we continued eastward on foot, the terrain finally started to change. Rolling hillsides began to grow taller and sharper, with more jagged edges, and before long we were adrift amongst a rather spectacular set of gorges and canyons, occasionally trekking the uppermost edges and occasionally traversing the maws.

  The utter shock came when we chanced upon a legitimate five-mile drop--it was a gash spanning about four hundred yards across and at least a dozen miles onwards, almost as though it had been cut by a sword. Honestly, it's kind of amazing that's where my mind first went, though a singular glance inside dispelled that notion.

  There were far too many jagged protrusions jutting out every which way, and an entire ecosystem existing within it. Four-winged, white-feathered owls seemed to occupy the cluster of red-soaked trees curving out of the side of the cliff, with six-tailed red monkeys chartering their neighborhood, where the trees were more sharp, though still equally red.

  The scale was astronomical, once again reiterating just how inconsequential and small I still am--if I slipped and fell from the edge, no matter my cultivation, I would splatter and die just like any mortal.

  "There's a legend about this place," Wei said.

  "One immortal or another attacked with a sword and left it like this?" I interrupted.

  "Oh? You've heard of it too, Master Lu?"

  I nearly rolled my eyes but held back. I'd begun noticing this pattern a while back, in that this world, too, had the tendency to assign banal acts of nature to some mythological force.

  Was it possible that some cultivator did carve this place up? I mean, sure. But it was equally likely that it's the result of millions of years of erosion and natural phenomena.

  "Let's go." We continued walking, making sure to stay the safe distance from the edge, as there were quite a few 'loose' points where we saw chunks of dirt roll and tumble into the abyss below.

  At our pace, we went past the gash in just shy of two hours, though its sheer scale, I feel, is kind of permanently seared in my brain.

  It also marked the distinct and complete change of terrain--the hills and the grassland were completely gone, replaced by serpent peaks of the mountains to the south and desolate dirt, sand, and cliffs elsewhere.

  There were still some trees to the north, decorating the horizon, though they were growing thinner in number by each mile.

  It was about four days into our journey by foot, during which nothing really happened, that I saw it in the distance--the shoreline.

  It seemed massive, spanning miles on either side.

  But then, we kept getting closer... and the shoreline kept extending. And kept extending.

  And it just went on.

  By the time we braced the sandy shore, I literally couldn't see the ends of anything--not of the shore, not of the water itself, nothing. It was as though it all stretched into infinity.

  ... speaking of water.

  It certainly was unlike any other lake I've ever seen in my life--though the depths of water seemed to appear almost icy blue, the surface was riddled with stranger and stranger phenomena. It was as though the entire top surface of the lake had experienced an oil spill, causing the colors to shift and swirl and for it to appear toxically magical.

  But, it wasn't oil--it was just the way that the light itself seemed to interact with the body of water.

  It had a prism-like effect, but pushed to an extreme; as light touched its surface, particles seemed to disperse on impact, finding their way into the water independently, causing remarkably odd clusters of colors to appear everywhere, in all manner of shapes.

  And this was just at night--I truly wonder, come morning, what the hell this place will turn into.

  Regardless, we've finally come to our destination!

  ... so, where the hell is everyone?!!