The Calamity of the Tide has persisted for over three months.
Fang You has no idea about the situation in other major territories, but the situation in the Fallen Star Caverns has gradually stabilized.
The Blackrock Alliance, bolstered by the reinforcement of two top mercenary groups and the addition of several Sixth Awakenings, found their once precarious oasis becoming impregnable. The oasis defenders and mercenary powerhouses cooperated closely, repelling wave after wave of invading aberrant tide.
Of course, this was also thanks to the guarantees and supervision of the Burning Flame Merchant Guild; otherwise, the oasis would have found it difficult to fully trust these mercenary groups whose high-end power far surpassed their own.
Following the Blackrock Alliance, other major oases such as Sword Flower City, Blazing Oasis, and Wavecrest City successively posted commissions, receiving reinforcements led by the Burning Flame Merchant Guild.
Thus, while it remained uncertain when the disaster would end, the greatest crisis for the major oases had passed.
Not all oases posted commissions.
The great oasis of White Tower had no need for external aid, and neither did the elite oasis of the Holy Serpent Society. Fang You did not seek them out, nor could he find them.
—These elite oases rarely traded with the outside world, and their whereabouts were naturally difficult to find. Thousand Faces couldn't locate them either. Although, this was partly because Thousand Faces' work focus was elsewhere.
“However, to say the situation is stable only refers to the major oases. For the small oases, which are as numerous and insignificant as grains of sand…”
He shook his head.
Even elite oases were hard to find, let alone small oases that seemed to have no presence at all.
In the beginning, their flying ship rescue missions ended after a short period precisely because they couldn't find these small oases.
“This is the wrath of heaven, the calamity of the aberrant realm!”
“Under the disaster, ordinary oases are like tender young grass, struggling to survive yet still being crushed and shattered by an irresistible, immense catastrophe.”
“Only the major oases have the power to resist, and only super oases can remain stable. But are super powers guaranteed to be stable? If, one day, a terrifying calamity were to descend, would our Burning Flame Merchant Guild, or Blue Star, be as powerless as these small oases are now?”
Too insignificant.
Not enough power.
Fang You shook his head, retrieved a slightly dim divine crystal from his Heavenly Net Hand, and drew down the power of the world. He was like a cultivator sitting beneath a waterfall, allowing the surging power to wash over and infuse him. Closing his eyes, he refined these divine factors, beginning his daily cultivation practice.
…
…
The power of the cataclysm had stopped growing. Simultaneously, Thousand Faces, who had been undercover within the邪神 (xié shén - evil god) faction for several months, sent a message.
"The Bloody Emperor has redeployed several tribes stationed on the blockade line. The seal at several entry and exit points has significantly weakened. Concurrently, beings like the Bloody Emperor, the Flesh King, and the Black Wing Myth are also suspected to have left the blockade zone."
"The latter is not confirmed and cannot be ruled out as a trap."
Indeed, the Bloody Emperor had blockaded Blue Star for over half a year. It was not impossible that he couldn't wait any longer and wanted to test their defenses.
Alternatively, these evil god servants might have encountered more urgent matters.
It was impossible to say for sure.
Trap or no trap, it was a fifty-fifty chance.
"Should I test it?"
"Although I don't need to use these passages at all, it seems impolite to stand by and do nothing while watching the Bloody Emperor's performance."
His thought flickered through his mind; whether to test or not was a trivial matter.
He instructed Thousand Faces to continue investigating and then closed his eyes, resuming his cultivation.
Cultivation knows no day or night.
Time flowed exceptionally fast in a cultivation state. As he condensed divine factors bit by bit, his physique, spirit, and divine sense continuously strengthened, this wondrous feeling was utterly intoxicating.
He was clearly not asleep and could keenly feel the passage of time, yet he still had the illusion that half a month had vanished in the blink of an eye.
No wonder divine beings, despite their long lifespans, rarely appeared, leaving behind only legends, true or false, in the mortal world.
It was not uncommon for veteran divine beings to enter seclusion for years or even decades.
Fang You, of course, did not. He was still young, and this half-month was not "completely immersive cultivation." He woke up intermittently to handle administrative tasks filtered by Little Illusion, and occasionally engaged in skill training.
Skill cultivation was much more arduous. Even with cheat-like point allocation, it was not easy. It was no exaggeration to say, "My strength is entirely due to my own efforts."
But arduous or not, he had to practice. He needed to strengthen both his foundational cultivation and his combat power.
Furthermore, the two types of cultivation did not conflict.
Divine cultivation required time, pure time and resources, to accumulate divine factors bit by bit. Skill cultivation was instantaneous but consumed a large amount of physical strength, life energy, and mental energy.
Fang You often used skill cultivation cards or practiced legendary skills like "Tree of Life" himself. When his physical strength was depleted by more than half, he would then transition to the divine cultivation state, simultaneously grinding divine factors and recovering his stamina and energy. Afterward, upon recovering to eighty to ninety percent, he would resume skill cultivation.
He found this repetitive cycle quite comfortable.
The uninitiated cultivation level of the legendary skills on his status panel was visibly increasing. Among them, his most frequently used skill, "Tree of Life," had now reached [Uninitiated: 60%], with a promising future.
Suddenly,
"Boom—"
A clap of thunder exploded, but its source was not from Blue Star, but from the aberrant realm, from its deeper, unfathomable regions.
Aside from the sudden thunderclap, Blue Star itself showed little change. The sky was azure, the grass green, the lake clear. However, when Fang You arrived at Spark Oasis, he froze.
The entire sky seemed to have cracked open. One half was a bloody red, with a faint red moon hanging in the distance; the other half was as black as ink, from which no light could penetrate, and even his gaze felt as if it were being swallowed by this absolute darkness.
Spark Oasis was also affected by the "sky裂 (liè - tear)," as if during the red moon calamity.
On countless plants, a seductive blood-red glow appeared. They seemed to have drunk a jar of life essence; their leaves, which were only the size of a fingernail, grew to the size of banana leaves in mere breaths. The veins on their leaves pulsed like heart arteries, as if blood were flowing within.
Roots grew feet, trunks grew eyes… familiar forms of pollution and transformation appeared throughout Spark Oasis.
Some were unfamiliar.
The lights in the oasis flickered out one by one, then a faint, dim blue light appeared, which upon closer inspection, resembled wisps of wandering spirits. Outside the oasis walls, colossal skeletons emerged from the earth. These were the skeletons of aberrant creatures, their forms in life vaguely recognizable.
However, had these aberrant corpses not been shattered and cremated by them?
Countless warriors stationed in the oasis were astonished and terrified. They were battle-hardened, but the scene unfolding before them was too horrifying. Ripples of unease spread through their hearts, their hands tightening on their weapons as they quickly sounded the alarm.
“Has the calamity changed again?”
Fang You gazed at the sky, at the long, endlessly extending crack that had split open. His divine sense spread out, and in a hazy fashion, he seemed to perceive more details, his gaze nearing being swallowed by the absolute darkness.
“This kind of sky crack… looks somewhat familiar?”
Suddenly, cold sweat broke out on his back.
The last time he saw a similar scene was in Xidina’s memory fragments!
Cannot look!
It was as if he were about to witness something, a great secret slowly unfolding before his eyes. Fang You suppressed his intense curiosity, forced himself to look away, and sent a warning to An Jianyou and others.
Ordinary people could not see too much, but staring at the sky crack anomaly could still lead to contamination and erosion.
Fang You had been worried initially, but then he realized that Spark Town's emergency response to the disaster was much stronger than he had imagined.
The town immediately activated the Myriad Wood Tendrils Defense Formation. This formation could not only be inscribed on the city walls but, when the circuit was complete, formed a massive barrier covering the entire town.
Within the wood tendrils outside the city walls, countless tiny light particles surged, and then from the city walls, pale brown branches, as if formed from light projections, continuously extended towards the sky, forming a vast net in mere moments, resisting and weakening the pollution's intrusion from the outside.
Even earlier than the wood tendrils barrier was the Dawn Lighthouse installed within the town. The pure white tall tower emitted a brilliant golden light the moment the anomaly appeared.
There was no need to dispel the gray fog here, but the light of the Dawn Lighthouse could also protect the residents living nearby from pollution.
With the combination of these two, the chaos inside and outside the town quickly subsided.
Burning Flame Oasis did not build a Dawn Lighthouse, but it had many awakened powerhouses, and the chaos was quickly brought under control.
The terrifying sky crack catastrophe lasted for several hours before gradually dissipating, as if nothing had happened, if one ignored the mess left behind in the oasis due to the anomaly.
According to incomplete statistics, the sky crack anomaly appeared in multiple major territories.
It was clearly visible in the Fallen Star Caverns, the Shattered Sea, and the Dim Yellow Ruins, and all were affected to a similar degree. Many major oases were once again gripped by panic due to this event.
Perhaps the dark period had lasted too long, for this time the panic did not reach its peak before slowly receding.
The aberrant tide… had weakened!
Initially, the frenzied aberrant tides that continuously assaulted the oases became fewer. Soon, powerhouses discovered that the aberrant creatures' monstrous self-healing speed had also declined!
At this moment, people saw a glimmer of hope. Many astrologers and scholars predicted that the disaster was about to end.
As expected, over the next month, the cataclysm gradually eased and subsided. The scale of aberrant tides encountered by Burning Flame Oasis, numbering over a thousand, decreased from dozens per day at its peak to a dozen, then a few, then once every few days.
The occurrence of Heaven-level aberrant creatures also became extremely rare. When one occasionally appeared, it was quickly eliminated by a Sixth Awakening powerhouse.
The ease with which they acted made even titled Sixth Awakening powerhouses find it incredible. It was only then that they remembered that this was the normal level of Heaven-level aberrant creatures. The ones they had been dealing with all this time were abnormal!
The cataclysm lasted a total of half a year and officially ended today.
“However, the impact of the cataclysm has not completely disappeared. The self-healing speed of these aberrant creatures is still 3-4 percentage points faster than it was half a year ago.”
“Perhaps this influence will truly dissipate as time passes, or perhaps… it won’t?”
If it were the latter, and the influence solidified as a characteristic of the aberrant creatures, it would be quite troublesome.
Fang You mused.
With the end of the disaster, the employment relationships between the major oases and top mercenary groups officially concluded, and it was time to settle the commission fees. The Burning Flame Merchant Guild would play a crucial role in this, and there would still be a considerable amount of work.
Mentor Fang only needed to briefly review the overall direction to ensure it was correct. The selection and delivery of other rewards, as well as communication between various factions, would be handled by his own personnel.
“The calamity has come to a temporary halt. The Burning Flame Auction, suspended for half a year, can also be held again, and then…”
…
…
Just as Fang You was contemplating the development strategy for the coming period, in the Shattered Sea, a Hegemon Conference was once again convened.
The so-called Hegemon Conference consisted of only the four human hegemons of this great territory.
Several years ago, there were only the Red Lotus Empire, the Ancient Moon Dynasty, and the Seven Stars Alliance. Later, the Grand Mi Chaos City also joined the ranks of hegemons, representing the many factions of the Grand Mi Chaos Archipelago.
Naturally, in an ancient great territory like the Shattered Sea, there were far more than four hegemons among the super powers.
The Seven Stars Alliance could be considered a collective of seven super oases.
The Ancient Moon Dynasty had the Wang, Lin, Ye, and Chen clans internally. Each of them managed several or even dozens of oases, with some developing to the super oasis level. They were even comparable to some hegemons in outer great territories and were true super oasis powers, though nominally subordinate to the Ancient Moon Dynasty.
Similarly, the Red Lotus Empire also governed the Karen Family, the White Maple Family, the Rose Duchy, and the Tulip Duchy.
There were also more or fewer other super oasis powers that existed independently.
There were even more "super powers" with only divine beings but no foundational super oasis of level seven or above, such as the Hidden Kill Pavilion, the Mission Guild, Shadow Island, the White Lotus Society, the Amen Sect, the Federation, and so on.
However, just as super oases and great oases existed on two entirely different dimensions, within the Shattered Sea, the hegemons' circle and the circle of non-hegemonic super powers were two entirely different tiers.
Only the four human hegemons were qualified to participate in the Hegemon Conference and decide the direction of the Shattered Sea.
The interval between Hegemon Conferences typically ranged from over a hundred years to over a decade. However, recently, within a short span of six months, this was already the fourth Hegemon Conference.
"The cataclysm has ended."
A handsome young man with faint blue clouds swirling around him and a face as sharp as a knife's edge spoke.
This conference seemed less somber than the previous three.
"But the lingering influence has strengthened the source of calamity hidden in the deep sea! Perhaps in two hundred years, perhaps sooner, we will face another aberrant tide!"
"The calamity will be more severe with each occurrence!"
A tough man with an arm forged from steel spoke heavily.
The handsome youth chuckled, "There's no need to be so serious. We haven't refused, have we? We waited until the cataclysm ended for safety. Otherwise, would any of you dare to venture into the Filthy Sea a few months ago?"
A consensus had already been reached; they would hunt down and clear out the source of calamity rooted in the depths of the Filthy Sea, which triggered a domain-wide aberrant tide every two to three hundred years!
Today's conference was to discuss the timing and details.
Whether they could find this so-called "source of calamity" and how much danger they would face on this expedition, none of the divine beings present knew for sure. However, due to the interplay of various parties, the "disaster eradication operation" was a foregone conclusion.
Since it had to be done, the divine beings present hoped for results… while ensuring their own safety.
Magnificent voices echoed in the vast hall, and the ever-changing light in the northwest and southeast corners illuminated the majestic figures shrouded in profound divine charm.
More noble existences spoke, and their discussions lasted for several hours.
"How will the Sea Serpent Palace and Wind Spirit Island be arranged?"
"These two major powers have little contact with us humans and are well-sealed. However, they have agreed to send strong individuals to eradicate the source of calamity once it is identified."
This was after a certain existence had spent countless efforts to persuade them.
A joint operation of the six hegemons? Completely impossible. Not only was close cooperation between humans and sea serpents and wind spirits difficult, but even among humans, it was hard.
There was no shortage of conflicts of interest between the four hegemonic powers, and even between individual divine beings, there were many old grudges.
Incidents where two divine beings clashed, one was defeated, and the other had to pay a ransom to survive, although not common, were not infrequent on the scale of time.
When such individuals met, let alone cooperated, they would fight if they didn't restrain themselves.
—Hadn't they both advanced to the divine realm? Couldn't they act a little more freely?!
This disaster eradication operation was also a joint effort maintained at a certain distance.
The four hegemons set the strategy, and other forces naturally could not be excluded. One more divine being meant one more source of strength. How could the four hegemons bear the burden themselves?
"Old rules, each faction either pays money or provides personnel."
"What is the intention of your Grand Mi Chaos City?"
Both the Red Lotus Empire and the Ancient Moon Dynasty ruled over great oases and super oases within their respective territories. However, Grand Mi Chaos City was merely the administrator of the Grand Mi Chaos Archipelago, which was the region with the most scattered forces in the Shattered Sea.
"Naturally."
The representative of Grand Mi Chaos City spoke, "You can trust the strength of our Grand Mi Chaos City." After all, this was a joint action of the four major powers, and they influenced the oasis forces in various parts of the Shattered Land from all aspects, almost encompassing everything they had.
"What about ordinary super powers?"
"Give them some sweetening, and it won't be difficult to mobilize these divine beings. Although they are a bit weaker, they are divine beings after all."
"Hidden Kill Pavilion… the Pavilion Master is currently injured and likely won't appear."
"The Federation has two divine beings; they must send at least one."
"Mission Guild… no, what about the Burning Flame Merchant Guild? They are rumored to have three divine beings?"
"It's two, and one genius at the half-step divine realm who can contend with the weakest divine being. However, the Burning Flame Merchant Guild's foundation is not in our Shattered Sea, and it will not be easy to persuade them. At most, they will contribute some money."
"No matter. The two divine beings of the Burning Flame Merchant Guild are too young; their presence or absence makes little difference."
"Let it be arranged like this. Notify all major forces."
The noble beings who could make decisions for the four hegemonic powers spoke one after another, quickly setting the tone.
Less than two days later, Fang You, who was far away on Blue Star, received a message from Qianqiu.
He was slightly taken aback.
"An operation to find and excise the residual influence of the evil gods?"
"Does this residual influence also have a concrete form? Or does it mean that the hegemons of the Shattered Sea possess secrets unknown to me?"
Mentor Fang twirled the pen in his hand, lost in thought.