Dual Cultivation God Returns

Chapter 670  Empty World

Wu Long continued on the journey through the shard of the World that just recently was connected to the one with the Three Continents.

Over the next few days he passed several continents and islands that were not supposed to be there based on the knowledge of what this World was before, and thus were likely created by the Great Calamity, causing some spectacular and unique topography to form them.

There were understandably no signs of civilization here, only wilderness.

He continued traveling onward, feeling the level of Spiritual Qi constantly rising, signifying that this World was rapidly healing.

There were now near constant tremors going through the ocean floor, indicative of collisions with other shards, but most of the tremors were coming from deep within, and the skies were gradually but clearly becoming higher.

All of this told Wu Long that as this World was healing, it was likely compressing back to its original state as the Great Calamity caused it to explode and expand outward, its shards floating, held together and connected only by gravity of the relatively intact core, and large streams of lava and Spiritual Qi going through the higher levels.

And even as he traveled, the gaps between the intact parts of this World were very rapidly closing in, making it easier for him to move.

Though he had already known a route through which he could travel without encountering the massive gaps with no land in between, having witnessed the current state of this World from the Blue Moon Secret Realm, and thus was not wavering in which direction he traveled, this rapid healing of the World made it significantly easier for him.

There were several Space Distortions much like in the Central Sea of the Three Continents, but much more unstable as there were no World Stones within them to stabilize, and also unlike it, they were haphazardly shaped, some stretching in an uneven line, as if a giant crack in the surface of the World.

Eventually, he reached another crack between the shards of the World, which was in the same state as the one he encountered before, a wall of water climbing far into the sky.

He had to use his Spear Domain to manifest his Concept of Space, passing through the Space Distortion at the weakest point, not concerned with the water at all as it spread in front of him with no resistance to the influence of the Water Rune under the pressure from the Space Distortion.

'Heh, so it indeed is a more fundamental control over water than normal Water Qi...', he made an observation, as Water Qi of a Water attribute cultivator would be obstructed from interfering with this water due to the Space Distortion.

It made sense that his control was closer to actually controlling the very existence of water itself rather than simply manipulating it with Water Qi, as Dao Runes were initially representation of the Daos that governed the world around.

But he also understood, that another difference was that Elemental Attribute powers of cultivators rose with their cultivation with no extra steps necessary, it was not necessarily true for him, as his power over elements only depended on his own understanding and control of the Dao Runes.

It meant that rising in cultivation levels did not mean that he could automatically wield more powerful lightning or wind, but he had to make progress on it separately from his cultivation.

As he passed through the crack, and advanced further, Fen Baihu materialized on his shoulder, but he could instantly tell it was not her true body, but a phantasm which drew his interest.

"You could ask me to simply transport you over the crack, you know?", she said with an ambiguous tone, as if just voicing her thoughts to no one in particular.

"Hahaha, it is true, but isn't that more work for you? Not to mention that you still are injured, even if you can sustain your powers for now, I'd rather you not stretch your consciousness that far", Wu Long chuckled in response, not sure what brought on such thoughtfulness.

As someone who existed on the edge of reality, Space storms, distortions and cracks were not something she viewed as a hurdle, since she could materialize everywhere her consciousness was stretched.

In her prime, it would not be hard to cover an entire Main World in her consciousness, existing everywhere within all at once.

Thus passing through her Mystic Realm and appearing on the other side of the crack of this Fractured World was entirely possible.

But with her Soul Bead in the condition it was currently, the area she existed in was not that wide, and stretching it further carried the risk of causing her injury to worsen.

"I'm just saying... it's good that you know already", she then turned her head away with a seemingly disinterested look as he smiled.

"Why didn't you come out in person though?", his question caused her to freeze, and then tilt her head with a nonchalant look.

"Your musician seems fond of my tails so I'm near her right now", she replied as his smile widened.

However, he didn't say anything, and she did not ask about his reaction, as both seemingly had some kind of tacit understanding.

"Did Yuanfen wake up?", he then asked and the little fox shook her head.

"No, although there's seemingly no harm to her, she is sucking in a lot of Spiritual Qi in her sleep. It seems it takes a lot for her to stay awake", Fen Baihu reported her observations, as Wu Long nodded, confirming his guesses.

"Hmm, let me know when she wakes up"

"Of course. Though she might just come out on her own before I have the chance to", the Celestial Fox's voice betrayed some suppressed indignation, as she still could not understand how Yuanfen came out without her even noticing, or knowing how she did so.

"Hahaha, don't sulk. She's a World Spirit"

"I'm not sulking"

"If you say so"

"I'm not sulking!"

"Hahaha"

"What are you laughing about?"

"Hahahaha~"

"Hey! I really~..."

"Sure~..."

"...~!"

"..."

The two voices continued to resound as a figure enveloped by a storm moved across vast distances with a speed that was hard to comprehend.

He crossed several shards in the next week, some smaller, some which were wider in area, before reaching a giant piece of land.

And upon seeing that shore, he abruptly stopped, a smile appearing on his face.

"Haha, Ling'er come and look at this", he chuckled, calling out to Ye Ling with Fen Baihu transmitting his voice into her Mystic Realm, and she appeared beside him with a curious expression. One by one, other beauties also appeared near them, looks of wonder appearing on their faces as they turned to look at the scenery.

But they soon noticed, that Ye Ling who Wu Long specifically wanted to show it to was strangely quiet, and upon looking at her, saw her frozen in place, her eyes opened wide seemingly in disbelief.

"This World is... it was the Battle God's Cradle all along?", she then finally broke her silent daze and turned to Wu Long who nodded.

"Haha, I learned from Zhao Xieren and Madam Liang, but wanted to keep this a surprise in case we came across some landmark", he chuckled, adding why he didn't tell her before.

The 'landmark' he was talking about, was a gigantic broken piece of a statue of a young man, that was buried in a giant mountain.

"Battle God's Cradle?", Cao Mei asked with curiosity.

"Mm, it is the name of this world before it became Fractured, one of the 100 000 Main Worlds of the Boundless Mortal World. And though many of them are famous, this one is quite special as it is the birthplace of the Battle God", Wu Long nodded, explaining to the beauties, and added "The reason it was a surprise for Ling'er, is because we spent most of our time together here"

Ye Ling's lips curled into a gentle smile, as memories from that time overflowed, giving her a distinct feeling of nostalgia and slight melancholy.

Wu Long smiled, taking her hand into his, and her smile became brighter from feeling his warmth.

"Whew~ whe~w~!", Wu Mengqi had a mischievous smile as she looked at how shy Ye Ling became all of a sudden, as Gong Cui began giggling near her.

Sui Luxiao and Cao Xiang shook their heads with wry smiles at the two beauties, while Luo Mingyu, Hua Ziyan and Song Lingfei were touched by the romantic scene.

They spent some time watching the scene, and then continued to travel at a slower pace for some time.

But no matter where they looked. there were no other signs of the previous world.

"Hmm, that statue was reinforced with so many formations, it would not be an exaggeration to have called it a Profound Grade Treasure... the fact only a small part of the upper torso and half of its head is left is quite telling", Ye Ling noted.

"Mm, the great city that was around it is completely gone as well, somehow it seems that the level of devastation here was far higher than on the relatively intact Three Continents...", Wu Long nodded. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

He also noticed a pattern in the way this World was broken down when he looked at it above, as it seemed that the destruction was not simultaneous, but spread in stages.

"If I were to guess, I would say that the Silver Lake Continent was actually the first to experience the Great Calamity, only splitting into the Three Continents, but otherwise not completely erasing the civilization as an event of such magnitude should have.

The wave of destruction then spread in concentric circles outward, increasing in intensity the further away it was from the epicenter, though of course it did not travel through the surface, but stemmed from deep within the World", he then added his observation.

"Well, it makes sense if you think about it, after all, the World Spirit was sleeping somewhere close to the Central Sea in the center of the Thee Continents", Fen Baihu added, looking surprisingly comfortable while cuddled in Gong Cui's hands.

"It would certainly explain why there is no civilization built around this artifact of this World's past heritage...", Nie Xiwang noted, since if there were any survivors from that catastrophe on this land, they would likely use this broken piece of the statue as a starting point of rebuilding their civilization.

"But wouldn't that mean that there are unlikely be settlements and signs of post-calamity civilizations the further we go from the Three Continents?", Luo Mingyu asked, and Wu Long nodded in acknowledgement, that if he was right about the progression of the events during the Great Calamity, her assumption was highly likely to be true as well.