Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 679 - 610: Homing Migration

Li Ang racked his brain but couldn’t think of any secrets he possessed that the Dream Eater might covet. "Like what?"

Lu Yunan said with a flippant tone, "For instance, your dad could actually be a demon swordsman from the Demon Realm, your mom might be an angel from the Upper Realm, and you could be their hybrid offspring."

"So, is it the Ghost Cry or Nephilim?"

Li Ang rolled his eyes. "Can you be serious for a moment?"

"I am being serious right now."

Lu Yunan pouted. "If you really suspect something, why not have a bunch of kids with the little maid, like ten or more?"

"What the heck?!"

"Have kids."

Lu Yunan stated matter-of-factly, "The children would, in a sense, be a part of the Dream Eater, taking up bandwidth from its reality manipulation abilities. If you have like a dozen at once, maybe it will be forced to show its true form?"

"Do you think this is pig farming?"

Li Ang rubbed his temples. Setting aside whether he, a non-human, and Chai Chai could even have children, if the Dream Eater was unwilling, it could easily alter memories and steal newborns from other families, claiming them as its own. After all, if the Dream Eater could modify the timeline, bypassing blood type and genetic tests would be a breeze.

Forget it, time for the next topic.

Not wanting to hear any more absurdities, Li Ang quickly changed the subject. "Has Zhao Ming contacted you lately?"

"No."

Lu Yunan shrugged. "Haven’t heard from him since returning to Black Mountain."

Some time ago, she received orders from Suo Luo to lead her people to the frozen tundra to search for something. Though it was called a search, it was more like digging pits. Every few days, Zhao Ming would send a location, instructing Lu Yunan to dig deep pits at specified sites, with set diameters and depths. Lu Yunan and her tribespeople dug for months, even crossing into the Extreme Cold territories, possibly the Arctic, but found nothing. Zhao Ming didn’t show any dissatisfaction. When the time came, he briskly sent them home.

"It’s all very suspicious. I get the feeling they’re secretly plotting something," Lu Yunan said. "You should also be careful in Chang’an. The safer a place seems, the more dangerous it can be."

"Mhm, you too."

Li Ang and Lu Yunan exchanged farewells and ended the communication. Li Ang then sat in the courtyard, lost in thought. So much had happened these past few days that recalling the moment he killed Ghost Shovel and climbed out of Li Yuan already felt like it had occurred in another lifetime.

Now, my main body’s Qi Sea capacity is nearly at the Middle Rank of Cloud Patrol. After enduring the Dream Morphing Illusion’s trials, my Heart Thoughts have increased from twenty to forty. Plus, I have the Dragon Fall Spear, which can change its size. If I were to encounter Zhao Ming now, I would definitely be much more composed...

As Li Ang contemplated, his Academic Palace Patrol Jade Pendant on his waist gently vibrated.

"Hm?"

Li Ang was taken aback. It was a summons from the Academic Palace. Could there be another special situation? He opened the courtyard gate, only to see Sui Yi, who lived not far down the same street, also opening his door.

"It must be a signal from the Supervision Department. Get ready and let’s go quickly."

Sui Yi belched, looking a bit wobbly, leading a horse out from his yard, and rode off in a hurry toward the west of the city. Li Ang didn’t have time to criticize Sui Yi’s bad habit of daytime drinking and used Telekinesis to find paper and pen, leaving a note for Chai Chai. He pressed the note under a teacup on the table and then also took a horse-drawn carriage to the city’s west.

At this time, the Academic Palace was on break, and dozens of figures were gathered in the lobby of the first floor of the teaching building. It wasn’t just the Academic Palace Patrol, including Sui Yi, but also some Doctors Li Ang didn’t recognize, along with Masters like Tantai Leshan and Xue Che.

TAP. TAP. TAP.

The sound of footsteps came from outside the building, and Lian Xuanyao, dressed in a black cloak, ascended the stairs and appeared before everyone. Following him was Cheng Juxiu.

"Mountain Master."

"Mountain Master, you have returned."

Upon seeing the figure of Lian Xuanyao, the whispers and discussions in the hall came to an abrupt halt, and Li Ang could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. The Mountain Master raised his hand to stop the greetings and nodded. "Keep it short. I too returned to Chang’an upon receiving the news. Juxiu, you report to everyone."

"Yes."

Cheng Juxiu bowed to the crowd and introduced, "The esteemed Teachers should know that for the past ten years, Dr. Gongyang Deming of our Academy has been in Dengzhou, leading disciples to supervise the construction of large iron ships capable of sailing deep into the Endless Sea. I was also a member of that team. The technological inspiration brought by the Heavenly Boat’s reactivation in recent years, as well as the emergence of the Spiritual Energy Machine, have greatly advanced the construction process of iron ships. The latest model can even sail more than eight thousand li.

However, starting from three months ago, we began to monitor some unusual phenomena. The activity regions of some sea beasts, which shouldn’t have left the depths of the Endless Sea, are shifting westward, toward the coastline of the Yu Country."

Cheng Juxiu took out a palm-sized cloth bag from his waist, opened the bag, and poured multi-colored scale powder into his hand. As the Qi Sea operated and Spiritual Energy was released, the scale powder in Cheng Juxiu’s palm soared, drawing in the air fantastic images of sea beasts, as well as a model of Yu Dainiang’s sailing ship for comparison.

A catfish with a lantern hanging overhead and nearly forty meters long;

A lamprey with centipede-like appendages and over fifty meters long;

A hundred-meter-long jellyfish covered in pores, capable of ejecting corrosive venom;

And some sea beasts with extremely bizarre forms, like a random mixture of slime, tentacles, shells, and eyeballs, defying verbal description, as if from the worst nightmare.

"Such giant sea beasts, even without any intelligence, could destroy ships and kill Cultivators solely with their bodily strength. Not to mention that some species also possess a certain degree of Cultivation Talent, able to swallow and exhale Spiritual Energy, releasing some simple superpowers."

Cheng Juxiu said with a grave expression, "Dr. Gongyang Deming led us to observe at sea for a long time, and finally confirmed that the migration of sea beasts is not an illusion. They really seem to have an agreement, moving toward the coast of Yu Country, eating and hunting while slowly moving. This event, known as ’Following the Land’s Reverse Migration,’ has only occurred a handful of times in the history of the Central Plains, each time bringing great disaster to the coastal towns."

"Wait," Talismanic Master Tantai Leshan frowned and said, "I have read in books that the ’Following the Land’s Reverse Migration’ occurs once every seven or eight hundred years. The first time in the Xia Dynasty, the second in the late Western Zhou, and the third in the Late Eastern Han Dynasty. And the most recent occurrence was in the Late Sui Dynasty, just over three hundred years ago. Because the situation was chaotic at the time, it was unclear after the event how many people in the coastal State Mansions had died."

"Correct," Cheng Juxiu nodded and continued, "There are many theories about the cause of the ’Following the Land’s Reverse Migration.’ Some believe it is a response from the Heavenly People—that the excessive deaths from wars in the Central Plains provoked Haotian to send down divine punishment, causing sea beasts to attack the land. Some believe it to be the lifecycle of sea beasts—the sea beasts have long lives, and every few hundred years, they come to calm and tranquil coastal regions to breed collectively. The theory that is most widely accepted in the Academy, which both Dr. Gongyang and I agree with, is that the migration of sea beasts must be linked to climate changes that occur every few hundred years—the cold weather and cooling seawater lead to the migration of the sea beasts. They don’t wish to come onto land and have no intention of harming humans. They are simply moving closer to the warmer waters near the coast. However, after careful inspection of each sea region, including the deep-sea areas, and comparing them with records from the past hundred years, no significant changes have been found."

"Then," Sword Study Master Cui Yixian asked sharply, "could it be human manipulation?"