Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

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Gazing at the Life Span column, Zhao Sheng's smile grew even deeper.

The Spiritual Clan Bloodline was indeed very magical, with a whopping 149 years of Life Span, easily crushing the average members of the Human Clan.

This was only a defective bloodline; if it were a Pure Blood Spiritual Clan, who knows how many years of Life Span they could have, likely easily surpassing sixty years and rivaling a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

Truly a blessed race!

After sighing in admiration, Zhao Sheng's gaze shifted to Talent.

[Absolute Rationality: Temporarily block emotions and desires, perceive the world with extraordinary intellect, and handle any affairs with absolute rationality. The cost is the gradual loss of emotions and desires.]

Absolute Rationality Talent is really sinister!

Zhao Sheng had tried it once. At that time, he felt like he had become a superior artificial intelligence, without joy or sorrow, without love or hate. His abilities in thinking, memory, logic, reasoning, and more improved vastly in an instant, giving him a feeling of extraordinary fearlessness and omnipotence.

Absolute Rationality... it's terrifying, and also thrilling, very addictive!

But its cost is even more terrifying. After trying it once, Zhao Sheng decided he would not use it again unless absolutely necessary.

Zhao Sheng's eyes moved downward and saw a large area of grey in the talisman section.

The grey indicated a seal, meaning with his current cultivation, he could not draw these kinds of talismans.

Zhao Sheng counted and found that there were only twenty-four First-Order Talismans that he could draw. Among them, the most valuable was the Invisibility Talisman, the rest were of little significance.

Putting away the data panel, Zhao Sheng pondered for a moment before his body slipped out of the cave like a fish, swimming towards the sea surface.

...

One day later, sunlight showered the ocean, the sea breeze howled, stirring waves upon waves, the sea surface glistening.

On the boundless azure sea, a shadow suddenly appeared in the distance on the sea surface, speeding forward swiftly, tearing through countless waves and causing the water behind it to part, leaving large patches of white foam in its wake, looking like a white line from afar.

Suddenly,

the white line came to an abrupt halt, and the shadow instantly enlarged; a giant and slender swordfish burst out of the water with a roar. It glided through the air, flying over thirty feet before plunging back into the sea.

Ah, let's do it again!

Zhao Sheng, riding on the swordfish, faced the pounding sea wind with extreme excitement.

He slapped the sleek forehead of the swordfish. This huge swordfish was very spiritual, its tail thrashing vigorously as it leaped out of the water again with the help of the sea's force, gliding swiftly forward.

The speed of the swordfish was as fast as a horse on land!

In just half an hour, the man and fish had traveled over a hundred miles, making a great companion for traveling.

Without a sea chart, Zhao Sheng did not know his exact location but guessed he was on one of the routes in the Outer Star Sea.

The Shattered Star Sea was immensely vast, with no one knowing its true size.

Cultivators, based on human activity areas, divided the Shattered Star Sea into the Inner Star Sea, the Outer Star Sea, the ocean, and the unknown seas.

The Inner and Outer Star Seas together came to be known as the Shattered Star Sea in a narrow sense.

The Inner Star Sea, being early developed with the largest islands and generally higher concentration of Spiritual Energy than the Outer Star Sea, was the most prosperous. It was densely inhabited by the Human Clan and was a coveted area for Sects and Cultivation Families.

The Inner Star Sea, with the Star Algae Sea at its center, is roughly circular, with the outermost perimeter formed by the Thirty-Six Star Constellations as the core of the First Defense Island Chain.
Stay connected through empire

The expansive area between the First Island Chain and the Second Defense Island Chain is called the Outer Star Sea, which is home to countless small islands.

The Second Defense Island Chain, centered around Dragon Head Island, includes secondary core spirit islands like Dragon Horn, Dragon Claw, and Dragon Scale, totaling one hundred and eight islands.

The Turtle Island where the Zhao Family resided was one of the "Dragon Scale" level spirit islands.

The Second Island Chain is crucial, tasked with defending against the Demon Clan's invasions from the distant ocean. Whenever the Demon Clan initiated a sea beast tide, the island chain bore the brunt of the early fierce attacks, always suffering heavy casualties.

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Every time Zhao Sheng thought of the Zhao Family's current state of development, he couldn't help but think of the saying, "Born in sorrow, die in peace."

He never imagined that the second branch, which was once considered hopeless, would hit rock bottom facing extinction and then bounce back dramatically, staging an impressive drama of united effort and spirited strengthening.

When the second branch hastily moved to the Shattered Star Sea, they were complete strangers in a strange land without even a single Foundation Establishment Cultivator; eventually, they were assigned to a secluded island in the Outer Star Sea.

Besides the Spirit Vein, they had to start everything from scratch.

In those early years, the second branch lived in indescribable hardship, teetering on the brink of extermination several times.

At that critical moment, a powerhouse emerged from the second branch—Zhao Xuanji.

This man possessed three spirit roots, was naturally intelligent and brave, first successfully joined the Sky Sun Sword Sect, and later became the disciple of a Foundation Establishment Ninth Layer Cultivator.

At merely forty-four years old, he had successfully achieved Foundation Establishment. He then led the Zhao Family to secure a foothold and increase their influence day by day.

A hundred years later, Zhao Xuanji, who had advanced to the late stage of Foundation Establishment, after planning for decades, finally snatched the ownership of Dome Turtle Island from a declining family, becoming one of the top hundred Cultivation Families in the Outer Star Sea.

Regrettably, even such a formidable man couldn't survive the Core Formation Tribulation, and he passed away on Dome Turtle Island over fifty years ago.

More than fifty years later, the Dome Turtle Zhao Family boasts four Foundation Establishment Cultivators and over a hundred members of the Qi Refining class. There are over three hundred thousand from the nearly five generations of close relatives.

Family members spreading beyond five generations are not just on Dome Turtle Island but are also scattered across many islands in the Outer Star Sea; an exceedingly small number of branches even moved to the Inner Star Sea.

As Zhao Sheng pondered, the swordfish unknowingly swam more than two hundred miles.

As the afterglow of the setting sun fell upon Zhao Sheng's face, a black dot suddenly appeared on the sea surface.

Zhao Sheng caught a glimpse of the black dot out of the corner of his eye, and was abruptly jolted awake. Following that, he twisted the swordfish's head, and with a flick of its tail, it changed direction and quickly swam towards the dot.

After a moment, the black dot grew larger and gradually revealed the silhouette of a three-masted ship, its size not a bit smaller than the East Dome.

Zhao Sheng stood up tall on the back of the swordfish, squinting his eyes.

By now, he could clearly see that on the bow and both sides of this large ship, three towering and dazzlingly bright giant Dragon-shooting Crossbows were installed, models that were thirty percent larger than those he had seen set up in Lush Peach Mountain in his previous life. The Mystic Iron Crossbow Arrows on the racks glittered with runes, as thick as thighs and easily surpassing one and a half meters in length.

Seeing this, Zhao Sheng felt a surge of malice towards the ship.

As soon as the malice arose, his Danger Perception was immediately activated.

In an instant, the three-masted ship was suddenly shrouded in a layer of black, red and yellow lights jumping out from various parts, and on the second deck, two thick black mists churned incessantly.

Feeling a pang in his heart, Zhao Sheng was overwhelmed with an acute sense of danger.

At that moment, he felt a bit of an urge to beat a retreat.

However, before he could act, a figure suddenly flew out from the bow of the ship, hurtling quickly towards him.

A few breaths later, a giant, mountainous man with a red beard and a bald head, standing on a huge trident, looked down at him from above,

"Kid, where's your ship?... Sunk?"

The giant man's voice thundered like roaring thunder and a lion's bellow, making his ears ring.

Suppressing the urge to cover his ears, Zhao Sheng showed a most sincere smile to the giant man, "Senior, I encountered Magic Thieves before and was fortunate to escape disaster. After several days of drifting, I finally ended up here."

"Hmm, Qi Refining Third Layer, not too shabby! Get on board with me!"

Without giving Zhao Sheng a chance to object, the giant man waved and released a black iron chain as thick as a wrist. The chain flew out like a snake, quickly wrapping around Zhao Sheng.

Then, the giant man yanked the chain, effortlessly pulling Zhao Sheng off the sea surface and swiftly onto the large ship.

Whoosh!

The chain was retracted, and Zhao Sheng stood on the deck, flexing his arms. Turning his head to look at the group of bare-chested burly men approaching him, he once again wore a sincere smile on his face.

"Hello, everyone, my name is Zhao Dingtian!"