Chapter 1179: Utterly Confused...

At that time, Zi Xu noticed a strange red-yellow object placed in a small alcove inside the tower, resembling a divine stone. It seemed to contain energy, so Zi Xu, feeling a little mischievous, decided to take a closer look. He picked it up, examined it, but couldn't absorb any life energy from it. However, he did sense some bizarre spiritual energy circulating around. Acting on impulse, Zi Xu injected a bit of his own energy into it.

Immediately, everything went wrong. Zi Xu was blown to bits, though fortunately, as an immortal being, his body wasn’t physical in the conventional sense. The moment the stone-like object exploded, Zi Xu dispersed into a cloud of energy and then reformed himself into human shape.

By the time he had reformed, a large group of monks came rushing toward him. Only then did Zi Xu remember—these were monks, and the item he had grabbed was probably a relic, something he had only heard about but never seen before.

Realizing he had caused trouble, Zi Xu didn’t waste any time and fled. The moment he took off, a barrage of attacks followed him. There were over ten strikes, all using inner qi and manipulating heaven and earth’s energy.

Zi Xu was nearly scared to death but managed to evade by slipping through the gaps between the attacks. As he ascended higher into the sky, he readied himself for battle. If these had been ten immortals, he could have handled it, but if they were ten inner qi to the exterior cultivators, he would have no choice but to surrender and plead for mercy on behalf of the Han Empire.

However, as Zi Xu looked back, he realized that the attackers were only at the strongest level of Qi Refinement into Gang, and some were even at a more basic level of Qi Refinement.

Without hesitation, Zi Xu turned around and smashed those monks into the ground. Although they possessed methods that surprised him, Zi Xu was still powerful enough to subdue them easily. He also cast a spell that ensured none of them could get up again. After finishing the job, Zi Xu didn’t dare linger and flew away quickly.

Soon after, he was intercepted again. Suffice to say, after flying over that super tall mountain and continuing westward, Zi Xu encountered trap after trap. If he hadn’t been so powerful, he would have been killed by the monks. Even though he escaped, he didn’t come out unscathed. Eventually, he wised up and started flying southeast.

In his final, most perilous battle at sea, Zi Xu had to use forbidden techniques, nearly annihilating himself in the process. But in the end, he succeeded in taking down one of the Guishuang Empire’s inner qi to the exterior cultivators. Compared to fighting the great monks, the central plains had proven to be the truly terrifying place.

The great monks weren’t too hard to kill. They were on par with immortals in terms of inner qi, but they fought with far less effectiveness. At least immortals knew how to fight. Great monks, on the other hand, relied solely on mental energy and would only unleash their forbidden techniques in a desperate fight, but those techniques were mostly aimed at the inner qi to the exterior warriors.

Zi Xu decided that he would never return to that place again. It wasn’t just the sheer number of experts there; even ordinary monks had methods to manipulate heaven and earth’s energy.

After taking down the Guishuang warrior, Zi Xu had all but collapsed himself. Using a forbidden technique to change the weather, he managed to summon an already-existing tornado, which struck the Guishuang warrior with over twenty massive lightning bolts, turning him to ash. However, the tornado then swept Zi Xu away, dumping him into the ocean.

Fortunately, Zi Xu couldn’t drown. After several days of unconscious drifting, he finally crossed the equator. When the sun began to rise from the north, Zi Xu assumed he was in the south and kept flying... and flying... until he was nauseous from it. Then, one day, he noticed the North Star had disappeared.

At some point, Zi Xu realized that the constellations in the sky had changed. For an immortal like him, it was as if the world itself had transformed. He had become utterly lost, no longer even sure if the sun still rose from the east.

Just as he was preparing to fish for food and perhaps eat something, a beam of red light flew past, followed by a purple beam that entered his body. Zi Xu suddenly felt reinvigorated and immediately set off in pursuit of the red light.

Food could wait; after days of flying over endless ocean and vomiting from the monotony, anything different was a welcome change. If things kept going like this, Zi Xu was certain he would eventually go mad, and for an immortal, madness meant death.

Zi Xu pushed himself, even burning his own energy to catch up with the red light. But despite his efforts, the light was always faster, and he could only watch as it disappeared over the horizon.

Meanwhile, Lü Bu slashed ten or so pounds of meat from a massive kun fish's back with his halberd. Paying no mind to the frenzied creature, he casually carried the meat away. In a few swift steps, he had traversed a thousand meters and soon disappeared beyond the coastline, returning to the small cottage where he and Diao Chan now lived.

By this point, Lü Bu had determined that there was no one else around. Using his limited mental capacity, he figured it was probably because the creatures around here were too powerful for anyone without significant strength to survive.

"What’s that?" Lü Bu was just about to signal to Diao Chan when a streak of red light appeared in his vision.

"Ha!" Lü Bu leaped easily, dodging the red light. But the light seemed to have a mind of its own and continued to chase him. As Lü Bu moved through the air, the red light shifted and eventually caught up with him, merging into his body. Behind him, a fierce halberd blade manifested.

"What on earth was that?" Lü Bu felt a surge of comfort within his body and scratched his head, confused. Since there was no one else around, he and Diao Chan had been living a simple, secluded life. Compared to his days in Bingzhou, Lü Bu felt much more at ease here.

"Ahhh! I don’t believe this!" Zi Xu, meanwhile, was frantically flying in a direction once again, completely lost. The red light had led him south, and now he had accidentally flown into the Antarctic Circle during its period of continuous daylight. Zi Xu was utterly bewildered.

Squatting in the Antarctic, with temperatures hovering around minus twenty to thirty degrees Celsius, Zi Xu spent half a year trying to figure out whether the sun was moving north or south, rising in the east or west. He eventually gave up altogether when the sun set one day and never rose again...

Yes, it really didn’t rise again. By this point, Zi Xu had become used to feeling completely lost. What was the big deal if the sun didn’t rise? It hadn’t set for the past six months, so he just needed to get used to this. Nothing to worry about—except for the cold.

After squatting in the Antarctic for over half a year, Zi Xu finally gave up on trying to read the stars or track the sun and decided to start flying again. As for which direction to go in, it no longer mattered. He had long since abandoned hope of finding his way back. The world was truly vast, and you’d never know how big it was until you tried flying across it!

[Jia Wenhe, if I ever make it back to the central plains, you’ll be the first I seek revenge on.] Zi Xu silently vowed as he stared at the bewildering constellations above him.

Having lived so many years, Zi Xu finally understood that knowing how to navigate was a crucial skill—one he severely lacked.

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